Facilier Untold - Celia spin off (English Version)

1. Hell inside

New Orleans. A day like any other. Celia would come home from work as usual, trying to ignore the gossip from her neighbors about her origins. Since she was little she was mocked or turned away in a bad way, being accused of being the daughter of the Shadow Man or even his reincarnation. She was really fed up, and as if that were not enough she also had to put up with her stepfather who always came home drunk and in a bad mood and did nothing but insult and beat her mother, and often went to beat her too. How could her mother endure all this? Why did she suffer without doing anything? Often Celia just wanted to be able to run away from there, get away and leave everything behind, but she couldn't abandon her mother, she loved her very much and would do anything to help her.

Janell had told her daughter about her real father when she was little, sooner or later she would, but above all Celia kept asking her the same question: 'Mom, why do people when they see me tell me not to come near? And who is the Shadow Man?', then she told her everything. She told her they had been together for a while and when they were together she really loved him and he seemed so good and kind, but then one fine day he decided to give up doing the right thing just to chase a dream, devote himself to black magic and to abandoning all those who loved him, including her. She told him they were going to become parents, but he didn't want to change his mind even for that. She then told her that she absolutely had to stay away from us, because now he no longer felt feelings for anyone and she didn't want him to do anything to her, for example to make her become like him, leading her on the bad road. As Janell talked about it, she had dropped a tear. Despite what he had done to her, a part of her still loved him, she had always tried to remember him as he was before he became the Shadow Man and there wasn't a day that she didn't hope to find him at the door of her house, repentant and willing to give up his dream in order to be with her and her daughter, but unfortunately that day never came. Also, Janell hoped so much that Celia would never become like him, she tried to make her understand what the really important things in life are and she avoided topics of magic in general, but life at home, since she got married, had become a real hell and she couldn't always be quiet with Celia. Often her husband made her regret not staying with Kiros (now nicknamed Doctor Facilier) every time he beat her. Facilier had begun to think only of himself, but perhaps he would never allow himself to beat her. Or maybe yes? In any case, her life was now ruined. She only went on for the sake of her daughter.

A year had now passed since Celia had summoned her father from the Other Side, she had really taken off a huge burden by talking to him, she also wanted his version of the facts between what had happened between him and her mother, but still it wasn't enough for her. Were her father's words really sincere? Who knows. She had promised herself never to use magic again after talking to him, but after another year of hell in her sad life, inside and outside the house, she decided to go back to the cemetery and recall him.

Celia had accidentally discovered her father's old emporium the previous year, a few days after Facilier's death. No one had ever come close to that place again, everyone thought it was cursed. Celia knew her father was a Voodoo sorcerer and had read some books about it. One day, finding his emporium, she started studying some of the magic books that were there and inquiring about the meaning of the various Voodoo objects in the room. She found it all very fascinating, but also disturbing at the same time. Every day she went into that emporium and every day she learned new things and got better and better. She then found by chance, in one of the books, the spell that she then used to summon her father for a few minutes from the Other Side. If her mother knew what she was going to do, she who knows how she might have reacted. Celia paid no attention to it that time, she took courage and decided to try the spell. Her mother hadn't told her what happened to him, she hadn't mentioned him for many years. Celia, however, knew he was dead, everyone in town said that the Shadow Man had finally run out his time and that he had got what he deserved. One night she searched the cemetery and, after a long search, found his tombstone with his name and face and she cast the spell.