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The goateed man lay naked in the middle of the cabin floor. His body was covered with ancient runes drawn in white, red and yellow acrylic paints and accented with a variety of exotic bird feathers. The rest of the cabin had been converted into a kind of voodoo fun house. Following his master's detailed instructions, the goateed man had slapped coat after coat of cheap white paint over everything and then scrawled ancient boustrophedonic phrases around all the doors and windows. For the writing he'd used animal blood instead of ink. The Dark Man had then added several crude depictions of Legba and the stovepipe-hat-wearing Baron Samedithe chief of the Guédé, or death spirits. After removing the rusted kitchen stove and all of the cabinets, they had erected wooden shelves and filled them with glass jars and statues. The jars contained all manner of organic parts and pieces: bat livers, lizard skins, snake fangs, dragon's blood, High John the Conqueror powder, compelling powders, roots and potions. A large mayonnaise jar on the bottom shelf held almost a quart of human blood . . . its neighbor contained three human hearts. |
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The statues resembled the mummies of little black leprechauns that had died in agony. They had been carved from a mixture of boiled tree roots, lye soap, ashes from burned and crushed bones, human and animal blood, wax and hair from the various poor unfortunates who had crossed the Dark Man's path over the years. The statues were his version of notches on a gun. |
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"You know what you are supposed to do?" the Dark Man asked for the fourth time. |
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The goateed man looked up at his master's face and stifled an imprudent remark. "Yes." |
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"The woman and man will be in the city tomorrow. I am to wait for them and then find some way to give the woman the box." |
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"And then return to my body." |
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