Voodoo Queens of New Orleans - Vol. II | In Progress

Chapter Thirteen: There Were Systems To This World...

I knew nothing about tarot. I didn't know how it worked, what the cards meant. I knew nothing. To be honest, I always thought tarot was a crock-of-shit-money-grab. But after everything I had seen those few months, I learned to believe that anything was possible. Anything and everything. So, Sajida's spirit guides or whatever forms were present with her were telling her a message through these tarot cards—a message about me. The first card was The High Priestess, but it was reversed.

"If you have something to say, can you just tell me?" I asked her, forcing myself to keep my face from turning sour at just the mere presence of her.

"Patience." Sajida smirked as she finished shuffling the cards. "What messages does spirit have for my niece, Alisande? What does she need to hear, spirit?"

I could feel the malevolent energy surrounding the spirits that guided Sajida. I was a fool to think that everyone had a spirit guide capable of only love and light and peace. In the vast cosmos, good and evil had to coexist in order to create balance. So, when there was good of some sort, there was also evil. Every time. These spirits with Sajida were evil—entities that no one sane would want to communicate with. 

I sat there in anticipation, sweat dotting my brow as I watched my aunt behind that desk. I looked around for the Damiyas briefly—the sentient dolls that roamed around the treehouse, with symbols on their cloth stomachs. Usually, some of them would be in here with Sajida in her study. But they weren't this time. My mind went to the worst possible scenario—that Sajida subjected them to a horrible fate for guiding me to the place where I found those kidnapped women. Ironically, if that was the case, these Damiyas trying to help me ultimately lead to my demise.

Suddenly, a card jumped out of Sajida's tarot deck. She flipped it over, looking at what these spirits had to say.

"The Tower," she said, smiling widely. "Damn, niecey. It looks like you're in for it."

"What does that mean?" I growled out; I was tired of Sajida's slyness.

"The tower means a sudden change—destruction in everything you knew. Everything that made you who you were."

I felt my hands ball into fists. "And you think this is funny?"

I should have kept my mouth shut—I was Sajida's property; she owned me, and therefor, could do anything that she wanted to me. But I couldn't give Sajida the luxury of being cordial; I trusted her, and she betrayed me. The daughter of her sister. Her flesh and blood. All for the Council's benefit?

She betrayed me.

Sajida didn't grow angry at my insolent tone. Instead, she found more humor in it. She held up the two cards together—the reversed High Priestess and The Tower. Then, she closed her eyes, began mumbling to herself, or rather, to the invisible conscious beings that gave her guidance. I envied her in that moment. How simple Sajida found it to communicate with the ancestors and with the loa, like they were a constant voice in her ear telling her all of the knowledge she wanted to know. I was left on silent, bitter at the thought of there being these spirits that have watched me suffer and did nothing. Said nothing. It extended beyond just their silence, but more into feeling the deepest form of isolation—like being stuck in the cold of outer space alone.

This made me angry at them. This made me resent them.

Sajida opened her eyes; I was blinded by the brightness of them, even though they were familiar to me. "You gone be the one that will lead to your own demise."

My nails began to puncture my palm from this seething hatred imploding inside me. "Your spirit guides told you that?"

"My spirit guides tell me lots of things—"