Once Joshua and Nuru Bendera arrived downstairs, Suzie took us to the living room before leaving. Two open windows let the light in, highlighting the two black couches in front of them and a flat-screen TV on the wall beside it.
A wide bookshelf with glass doors displaying religious books stood beside the flat-screen TV. It had three rows and columns, and after every fifth book, the sixth one's cover related to the occult. It didn't take a genius to connect the dots of the alignment: 666.
Now, why would the preachers have books on the occult?
I smiled.
The biggest lesson I learned after becoming an occult detective: humans were worse than demons.
Demons never pretended to be one thing or another. They were what they were. But humans? Oof. You'd be lucky to find one person who was honest with you as they were with themselves. We all hid the bad parts of ourselves for fear of judgement.
"Thank you for seeing us," Joshua said, his left arm interlocked with Nuru's right. He was a chubby, dark-skinned man with a horse-shoe hairline, a stubble, and a potbelly that showed even when wearing a large grey suit.
"Your file said you believe a demon has possessed your daughter's corpse, and you want me to exorcise it. Is that correct?" I asked, then glanced at Esther, who sat opposite the preachers, leaning on the backrest with her hands behind her head and her legs spread apart. She really made herself at home.
"Yes," Joshua replied. Nuru rubbed off the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief. "But it's not that simple."
I hated hesitant clients. It was obvious there was more to the story. A lot more. It was why I was here. As a last resort, it meant you couldn't keep secrets from me. Otherwise, we'd both lose. "Explain."
Joshua looked at me with his bloodshot eyes. It seemed he had been crying all night. His wife had only spared me a single glance since I arrived in the living room, focusing on her husband by rubbing the sweat from his face and patting his back before he said anything.
Nuru seemed like a traditional Tanzanian wife—or looked the part really well. Apart from her oily brown skin, she had full lips and a pointy nose. A scarf covered her updo, while the thick cotton clothes she wore tightened around her beefy arms. She was a working woman, for sure.
Having done this job for so long, her patting Joshua's back and nodding after he spoke, were signals for when he should and shouldn't talk. She was the one in charge here.
"I don't have all day," I said, frustration hiding the desperation in my voice, eager to know what the fuck was going on.
Joshua looked at Nuru, and she nodded. He turned to me. "Have you heard of the Followers of Judas, also known as The Fellowship?"
"No." I glanced at Esther, who shrugged, then back at the preachers. "Should I?"
"No." Mr. Bendera pinched the bridge of his nose while his wife massaged his shoulders. They exchanged a quick glance—Nuru nodded—before he continued. "They're a secret society that believes good only exists if evil does, justifying their actions by saying someone has to be evil so the world can be good again."
"So The Fellowship is the evil?" Esther asked.
Nuru looked at her and said, "Yes."
That bitch! She had been ignoring me this whole time, but Esther asked one question and she got her full attention? Wow. Talk about favoritism. And to think I came all this way to help her dumbass daughter while the only thing the necromancer wanted to do was watch. Mxiu!
Joshua continued. "If Judas hadn't betrayed Jesus, then Jesus wouldn't have become... Jesus. Judas' evil act made Jesus a messiah. That's how progress is made. The Fellowship has orchestrated every major bad thing that has happened in the world. They want someone as good as Jesus was to rise and save humanity from itself."
"They want a messiah?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Isn't the rise of false messiahs predicted in religious teachings?"
"It is. But false messiahs won't save the world—they'll destroy it. And The Fellowship will continue to do bad things until the real one appears."
"How will they know who's the real one?"
Joshua remained quiet.
"They have their ways," Nuru replied instead.
"And what do the Followers of Judas do exactly?" Esther asked, her green eyes lit with interest.
"Apart from controlling the world? They seek the weapons used against Jesus: the whip, crown of thorns, the large wooden cross, the metal rods used to pin him against the cross, his blood-stained clothes, and so much more. Those items carry Jesus' power, and they want it."
Everything made sense. When I was a child, my father led a group of sorcerers around the globe, searching for things during Jesus' era. When I asked what they were, he had said powerful objects that would let the owner control the world. I didn't understand what he meant back then, but now... yeah.
So, this was what got my father killed, huh?
I swallowed the lump in my throat, but the aching in my heart persisted. The surrounding air thinned, making me want to run out of the room and get some fresh air outside.
"Binti Nasra, are you alright?" Esther asked.
I blinked away the tears in my eyes and cleared my throat. "Of course." I wouldn't let them see me collapse. As an occult detective and current user of moon magic, the three wanted me dead. "Where can we find The Fellowship?"
"You can't," Joshua said. "They live in Mirror Dimensions. The only way to reach them is if they want you to."
Mirror Dimensions? I thought only archangels could access them. "What if there are people—beings—who could open mirror dimensions? Will that help me get to them?"
The preachers exchanged glances. Then Joshua looked at me. "I guess so."
That was all I needed to hear. A lot of mystery surrounded my father's death. Mama didn't want to talk about it. My older brothers left home because of it. And my youngest siblings still asked me questions. The people I thought would help me piece it together refused to do so or claimed they knew nothing. Now I knew why. Everyone feared this secret society. It was a good thing I wasn't everyone.
"I have one more question," Esther said. The preachers and I stared at her. "Are you part of The Fellowship?"
"No. We knew someone who was. They had promised us wealth beyond our wildest dreams, and all we had to do was give our daughter to The Fellowship," Nuru said, tears streaming down her face. She didn't rub them off. "That's why her return was a surprise. How is it possible? The only way it makes sense is if a demon is possessing her dead body. But why now, after fifteen years?"
And there it was, the reason they hadn't called the clergy for help. If they found out the truth, then the preachers' lives would be over. Their religious community would shun them before sending them to jail.
"What do you mean by sacrifice? Did you kill her?" Esther asked.
"No. We gave her away. And two weeks later, we received five million dollars in donation," Nuru replied.
"So you were never sure if she was actually dead?" I said.
"Even if she wasn't, how does she look the same after all these years?" Joshua asked. It was a great point. I could see why they thought there was a demon involved.
"What do you know about adrenochrome?" Esther asked.
Oh, no! "Esther." I leered at her.
"What? It's a valid question."
"No, it's not."
According to conspiracy theorists, the "global elites" tortured children to harvest the chemical adrenochrome from their blood, which they then injected themselves with in order to stay healthy and young. Pathetic.
"There's truth to every rumor," Esther added.
"She's right," Nuru chimed in, making us turn to her. Even now, she still only looked at Esther. "The Fellowship takes children and adults, harvests their blood and organs, and sells them to elites around the world. It's a trillion-dollar black market that governments take part in. The only reason you didn't know about it is that most of the victims were either given away by their loved ones for money or were homeless. Haven't you noticed the increase in missing homeless people?"
A light switched on in my mind, and I recalled what James The Crow had said: "While running for the presidency, I tried to expose the current regime's corruption and involvement in human trafficking. There's an underground network that kidnaps and sells homeless men, women, and children into slavery around the world. But because they are homeless, nobody cares about them."
"I have," I replied.
What had Baba got himself into? Were these weapons really that important for him to die for? I used to think The Supreme Leaders were powerful, but boy was I wrong. If I wanted to help the homeless people, could I even defeat The Fellowship? How would that work, exactly? Kill one of them? All of them? I didn't even know its members and how powerful they were. Before digging my own grave by going after them, I needed to know everything about the group before asking for help. This wasn't a mission for one sorcerer.
"It's getting late. Take us to your daughter," I added.
"Right," Joshua said. Then he and his wife stood and led the way out of the living room.
"What do you make of what they said?" Esther asked me. "Do you believe it?"
"I fight demons every day. As much as I want to deny it, you were right, there's some truth to every rumor. In this instant, I fear it might all be true."