“Oh, I’m not going to let you take the fall alone,” Chichi said, looking up.
“No . . . no, Chichi, if it’s just me, maybe . . .”
“You came to me for a reason, right?” Chichi said. Now she was smiling that smile she only flashed when she was up to something. “You know I know . . . ways.”
Sunny said nothing. She had never been a good liar.
“You waited until Orlu had to go see his auntie. You knew Sasha would be with Kehinde today. You wanted to speak to me alone,” she said. “You’re smart, Sunny. And when you need to use them, you have claws. Listen, I may know a way around the rules. We will get caught but not for the worst of it, if we do this right.”
“Do what?”
“Well, they think his sister is a witch, right?”
“Yeah, but not a Leopard Person, just one of those child witches,” Sunny said.
“Well, be what they say you are, then,” she said. “The Red Sharks always meet at night. So, let’s meet them in the night.”
Sunny reported back to her mother to tell her where she was and that she’d be home in a half hour while Chichi made some tea. As soon as Sunny got off the phone, Chichi said, “Come sit down.”
She’s set up two mismatched and chipped porcelain cups and filled them with tea, making Sunny’s just as she liked it, Lipton with just a hint of sugar. “Let’s relax for a second before we do this,” Chichi said, pulling up a stool and picking up a cup.
The tea was nice and Sunny allowed herself to settle down for the first time since before seeing her brother. Her tea was bitter and hot. It warmed her throat. She took a deep breath and slumped back into her seat, pushing away all the questions that tried to crowd her mind. All the while, Chichi leaned forward and watched her intensely as she, too, sipped her tea.
“You feel better now?” Chichi asked.
“Actually, yes, I do.”
“Okay, let’s call him,” Chichi said.
“What? Now?”
“Yes, now. If we don’t act soon, those crazies are going to show up at your house. We need to get fast and clear information.”
“About what?”
“The Red Sharks,” she said. “The members. Especially this Capo guy and Chukwu’s friend Adebayo.”
“Why? Why them?”
“You want to make them leave your brother alone, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then we need information.”
Sunny frowned, squeezing her cup. She brought out her cell phone and brought up Chukwu’s number and gave it to Chichi.
“What do I do?” she asked, looking at the screen.
“Just touch your finger to his picture,” Sunny said.
“Right on it?”
“Yes.”
Chichi fiddled with it and frowned. “Now there’s a picture of some guy with dada hair kicking a football. What’s Arsenal FC?”
“What’d you do? That’s my background picture,” Sunny said, taking the phone from her. She brought up her brother’s number again. Not only did Chichi not have a cell phone, but she didn’t even know how to use them. Sunny touched Chukwu’s photo in her favorites list and handed it back to Chichi. “Just talk when he . . . Wait, give it to me.”
Chichi gave it back, and Sunny listened to it ring. He picked up on the second ring. “Sunny?”
“Hello? Chukwu, how are you?”
“I’m . . . fine.”
“You’re at your friend’s?”
“Yes. I’m at Ejike’s apartment.”
“Okay . . . um, hang on, Chichi wants to talk to you,” she quickly said.
“What?” he said. “Didn’t I . . .”
She quickly handed the phone to Chichi.
“Chuks,” Chichi said. “How you body dey?”
Sunny got up and started pacing the room, bracing herself to hear Chichi say “Hello? Hello??” repeatedly because her brother had hung up the phone. But instead Chichi started laughing. Then she said, “Relax, sha. She didn’t tell anyone else. But I know everything, yes.” She paused. “About you and your cultist wahala. Look, we want to help you, but we need some information.” She motioned to Sunny to relax as she slowly ambled out of the hut. “Names, descriptions, where they live, stuff like that . . .”
Sunny sat back and sipped her tea. But she couldn’t relax.
When Chichi came back, she was smiling, the phone pressed to her ear. “I don’t have a cell phone, but you can always come to where I live and pick me up. Don’t take me to any restaurant. I like roadside food only.” She listened and then laughed hard. “That works. But give us three days. You will see. Nothing is more powerful than Mami Wata. Okay, o. Here is your sister.” She handed the phone to Sunny. “We’ve got what we need.”
“Hello?” Sunny said.
“What are you two going to do?” he asked.
“I don’t really know yet. But . . . don’t worry.”
“Sunny,” he said. “Can I ask you a question and will you answer it?”
“If I can.” She glanced at Chichi, who was busy scribbling things down in a notebook.
“So you’ve joined Owumiri?”
“Huh?”
“Those Mami Wata women,” he said. “Don’t lie. Chichi told me so. I’ve heard a lot about them, and now I know why you’ve been sneaking around and acting funny.”
Sunny frowned, utterly thrown off. She knew of Owumiri, too. They gathered at the river and the seaside and sang and danced and scared men. “I . . .”
“Look, I get it, Sunny,” he said. “You need protection because . . . of your albino-ness.”
“What?!” Sunny screeched.
“I understand,” he said, ignoring her. “I haven’t been the best brother. Should have protected you more from all the bullshit.”
“Chukwu . . . it’s not . . .”
“Listen, Sunny, okay? Don’t get close to these Red Shark guys. Work whatever it is you want to work from far away. The Red Sharks will kill you. They’ve killed before. You saw what they did to me, and that was just to become part of them! And don’t expect me to go back to see if whatever you’ve done worked. Put it behind you.”
“Just . . . sit tight,” Sunny said.
“I plan to. And why’d you have to tell Chichi?! You want her to think I’m some sort of weakling? Look, call me in a few days, all right? By then I’ll know more about my plans.”
When he hung up, Sunny looked for Chichi and realized she was no longer in the hut. She went out the back door and found Chichi sitting on a mat reading outside. “I think I know what we should do.” She laughed. “If we do it right, the worst punishment we’ll get is a warning.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“We’ll set Murks on them,” Chichi said. “Sasha and I have had to read up on these as second levelers. Anatov didn’t spend much time on them, but it doesn’t take much for Sasha and me.” She grinned. Chichi’s and Sasha’s photographic memories were exactly what got them into so much trouble.
“What are Murks? Are they dangerous?”
“Of course they are. What do you think we need for these guys? Fluffy pink talking bunnies? Murks look like tiny bats and dwell in pools of darkness—under a fallen tree in a lake, beneath houses, under beds, whatever. They are physical world–dwelling spirits so they can’t be crushed and suffocated. Normally if you leave them alone, they will leave you alone, but what makes Leopard People interested in Murks is that they can be weaponized.”
“What, you pack them in a gun or something?”
Chichi giggled. “No, no. You get them in the right mood, and they will do whatever mischief you ask them to do, especially when it comes to harming others. Murks have ‘murky souls,’ that’s how they got their name. Give me a day or so to read up a bit more on them. Just follow my lead. I know exactly w
hat to do.”
12
MURKED
Sunny and Chichi lay on their bellies peeking through a bush beside a palm tree. They wore black pants and black sweatshirts with hoods they’d bought from Leopard Knocks.
It had taken one day to find them. Chichi had merely used Adebayo’s full name in a dowsing charm she’d read about in a German book of juju. It took fifteen minutes for the funky train to get them to campus one night later, when the Red Sharks were set to meet and discuss what to do about Chukwu. Then Sunny and Chichi simply followed them into the bush. Once in, it had been easy enough to creep up on them, for they were singing and clapping. Sunny couldn’t understand the words to the song, but Chichi could.
“What the hell?” Chichi whispered, looking disgusted.
“What?”
“They’re calling to the devil in Yoruba,” Chichi said.
Sunny shivered.
Two of the guys started building a fire, another two set down a cooler and one other set down a chair. A light-brown-skinned guy with keloids on his chin sat in the chair. This had to be Capo, the leader. The one who after having her brother beaten by ten guys had pulled out Chukwu’s tooth, cut him with a shark tooth, enjoyed all of it, and then left him to live or die. In the firelight, Sunny memorized his silhouette. Looking straight at the firelight made it hard for Sunny to see his face. She wasn’t wearing her glasses and in the night; they would not have helped anyway. But she could make him out well enough. Sunny felt her own fire, which had been burning in her chest since seeing her brother’s battered face.
After a few minutes, they stopped singing and all the members sat on the ground before Capo. One big beefy guy, whose muscles looked ready to burst out of his red shirt, stood behind Capo with his meaty arms across his chest. Then Capo was speaking, but he spoke in a low tone, and neither Sunny nor Chichi could hear. Sunny and Chichi weren’t concerned about what was being said; they were just waiting for the right time. It came about a half hour later, when it must have been well past three A.M. They’d opened the cooler and had been drinking and drinking. Then Capo grabbed a bottle of Guinness beer, drank it all at once, and started singing the devil song. Soon everyone joined him. As the minutes passed, their singing grew more drunken and frenzied.
“Okay,” Chichi said. “I didn’t plan for this, but it’s perfect. We call the Murks on them, and they’ll think it’s the devil attacking them, not two Leopard girls hiding in the bushes. No council people can arrest us for that because we won’t have broken the rules of exposure. I don’t even think they’ll have reason to give us a warning!”
Sunny grinned. “That’s brilliant!” Her smile decreased a bit. “But what will the Murks do? Will it be enough? If we don’t show ourselves, how will they know to leave us alone?”
“Just watch,” Chichi said, bringing out her juju knife and a sack. “There’s juju powder in here. Do not sneeze, no matter what.”
The guys were singing crazily now. Sunny didn’t think they’d notice if she sneezed her brains out.
“Bring your cell phone,” Chichi whispered. “Remember, don’t turn it on. The screen has to be dark.”
Sunny brought it out and handed it to her. “I turned the contrast and brightness all the way down.”
“Okay. And you set the timer, right?”
“Yes,” she said. “It’s ticking down now. Should have about thirty minutes before it stops.”
“It won’t ring or vibrate?”
“Right. It’ll just stop timing.”
“Okay. Here, touch the surface,” Chichi said. “Run your fingertips over it.”
After Sunny did this, Chichi took some powder between her fingertips. It looked like soot in the dim firelight. She blew it toward the men, and it traveled easily in a dark mist for several yards, mingling with and dimming the firelight. Chichi brought up her juju knife and spoke some rapid words in Efik, then she stabbed her knife into the soil and twisted it.
“Is that it?” Sunny asked, when nothing happened.
“Shhh,” she said.
Sip! Something black flitted in front of them. Then it was gone. Then it came again and hovered before them. Even there in the dark, mere feet from the men who’d nearly killed her brother, Sunny found herself smiling. It was just so . . . cute! The small batlike creature was covered in downy black fur, its wings batting like those of a hummingbird. It hovered perfectly still so she could see its big black eyes, tiny snout, and pointy fox-like ears. It smelled strongly of perfumed oil.
“Who are you?” Chichi asked it.
It rapidly cheeped three times, and then said in a low voice that sounded like that of a very tall big man, “Od’aro.”
Every hair went up on Sunny’s body as she went from delighted to terrified.
“It calls itself ‘goodnight’ in Yoruba,” Chichi said. “Typical.” Then she spoke to it in either Yoruba or Efik. It did a quick turn and then zipped off. Sunny heard it cheep, and there were more responses from the treetops, which had started to shed leaves and shudder. The Red Shark members stopped singing, listening. One of them pointed at the fire, wobbling on his feet. But the fire was quickly dying, and soon they were all in darkness. Silence.
“Stupid boys think they are above reproach because they hurt and kill,” Chichi whispered. “Let them learn.”
“What are they going to do?”
“Watch.”
The darkness that had fallen suddenly grew heavy and thick. The cheeping in the trees stopped, and the silence was as pure and weighted as the darkness. Sunny grabbed Chichi. She opened her mouth wide, to make sure there was still air and she could breathe it. She could. Then the screaming began.
“What is happening?” Sunny asked.
“Murks like to slap,” Chichi said. “Their wings feel like hot steel.”
Sunny and Chichi stood behind the bushes listening to the screams, yelps, and moans. Let them hurt and remember my brother’s face and his pain with every slap and scratch, she thought. The sound of them running in all directions made Sunny freeze. For the amount of time Sunny had set the timer on her phone, the Murks would follow them to their homes, bringing their darkness and remaining quiet as air. And then when the members went to sleep, the Murks would bring the nightmares. Nightmares that would call up her brother’s face and name and warn the members to leave him alone forever or suffer more consequences. Chichi’s plan was flawless. But it wasn’t enough. Not for Sunny.
The darkness was lifting as the Murks broke away from one another and chose which member to harass. The fire exploded with light and for a moment, Sunny had a clear view. She saw the backs of several members’ red shirts as they fled into the bush, some toward the way they’d come, others in opposite or adjacent directions. One member ran right into a tree, falling onto his back, a Murk scratching and slapping at his head. And there was Capo on the ground. He’d fallen over his own chair and was too drunk to get up with any speed. Beside Sunny, Chichi was quietly laughing her head off.
Sunny jumped up.
Chichi hiccupped as she fought to speak. “What the hell are . . .”
Stop, Sunny thought. At the same time, she dug within and touched but did not bring forth her spirit face. She didn’t touch her juju knife. This was hers. Natural. Her temples ached and her skin cooled, just as Sugar Cream had said it would be. She didn’t hesitate. She held out her hands and pushed as one would push water. She’d stopped the rush of time. Silence. Complete and total silence. And stillness. She didn’t look at Chichi. Nor the suspended Murk that was flying after one of the suspended members. There was Adebayo, looking over his shoulder, a Murk right above his head. Sunny didn’t bother with him, either. She walked to where Adebayo was looking. Toward Capo.
As soon as she saw him up close, she didn’t doubt what she’d done. The ground beneath him glowed a dull red, in the shape of curled and sprawled skeletons. She co
uld see them all over, just beneath the ground. And Capo himself glowed with the same dull light, especially his hands and mouth. This guy was a Lamb version of Black Hat in the making. He’d killed with his hands and mouth. Cannibal. Ritual killer. Sunny felt her belly roll with nausea. How did her brother manage to fall in with these guys? This man? Chukwu was lucky to manage to fall out alive.
Capo was the only thing that was moving. He rolled onto his back, clasping his throat. He wheezed loudly, his watering eyes bulging. Sunny felt light-headed but otherwise perfectly fine. She looked down on him with disgust and pushed back her black hood. Capo’s eyes grew wider.
“Do you know who I am?” she asked.
Still wheezing for air, slowly he nodded.
“You will die in less than a minute,” she said. “You aren’t albino, so you can’t move outside of time.” She paused, utterly enjoying the look of pure terror and approaching death on his face. And she enjoyed the fact that she was lying to him. This was far more than a mere medical condition; it was her being a Leopard Person born with a specific talent that she was practicing every day and . . . night. And it was her being her. “I’m Chukwu’s child witch of a sister,” she said. “You see me clearly. My name is Sunny Nwazue.” His eyes were starting to close. “My brother will return to university. If any of you people lay a finger on him, I will bring a painful death to every one of your relatives and then you, especially you—I know what you’ve done. Do you understand?”
Capo nodded weakly as his eyes closed. Sunny quickly moved back to Chichi. Then she let go. Letting go was easier than getting ahold of time. She sank to her knees beside Chichi. She’d been standing on the other side of Chichi, and Chichi was still looking where she’d been. Now she turned to Sunny and did a double take. She looked where Sunny had been and then back to where Sunny now stood. “Sunny, what did you do?”
Sunny only shook her head, watching Capo yards away. All the others were gone. Capo wasn’t moving.
“Did . . . did you kill him?” Chichi whispered. “Why didn’t you just leave him?”