Page 59 of Sinister Hearts
“What is this?” I looked at Jax, fearful, yet curious in all its splendor.
“Shhhh.” Jax put his finger to his mouth, as if to silence me. “I hear voices.” My breath quickened. I slowed my breathing into near silence as we began following the muffled voices.
“Something smells rotten down here.” I tried to cover my nose with my black sleeve.
Jax led the way, walking in careful movements and guarding me with his life. I grabbed his hand and noticed his reflection on the stone wall as the fire’s embers lit up the area, his Grim reflecting upon the stone catacomb walls.
I heard a giggle, but not just any giggle, my Birdie’s giggle. I ran towards the voice without a second thought. I could feel my chest beating in my ears and chest.
“Faye, wait!” Jax called after me, trying to break my sprint.
“Birdie, baby, is that you?” I called out, but was met with silence.
Then I noticed a visible light flickering in the distance, casting on the cave walls. I followed it down a windy stone path as the light blazed brighter with each step. It led us to a shrine. Pictures of my father, me, Birdie, and my grandmother Prue, covered the altar. Her picture was framed on the shrine and placed carefully with wax candles—one black and white photo in her brown beret hat, with a row of bullets that crossed her chest. The fierceness in her eyes gave me strength in this very moment. If my asu, my grandmother, could get through a revolution, I could get through this. Couldn’t I?
Jars and herbs filled the shrine, making it a majestic sight to behold. I placed my fingers on my father’s picture. It was all I ever had of him. I looked just like my papi, with his strong jaw and heart-shaped lips, even his smile. But mis ojos, my eyes? They were my mother’s, dark and mysterious, a replica of my Indigenous asu.
I heard a sudden shift in the nearby rubble beyond the shrine, in the pitch black darkness that swallowed the catacomb.
There laid my mother’s battered and bloody body. I ran to her as fast as I could in a dire panic. I knew the second I laid eyes on her that life had been taken from her.
I cradled my mother’s lifeless body, grief striking me like electric bolts. Every chord in my being snapped. I clung her to my chest as if it would bring her back to life. Her body was limp and frozen, her lips and limbs were a shade of purple. My wails screeched from my throat, shaking the catacomb’s foundation. My skin began buzzing with a putrid heat, my insides twisting in unbearable pain.
“Ma, I need you, please don’t leave me! Please come back to me!” I screamed in torment, begging the gods to give me my mother back. Tears streamed like a river from my tear ducts as I cradled my mother in my arms, hoping for a miracle that never came.
Jax kneeled on the floor next to us.
“Ma, please, I need you, please don’t leave me! I need you, do you hear me? I need you, please come back!” I swaddled my mother’s body, rocking her back and forth in my lap.
“Come here,” Jax said, lifting me from the stone floor and holding me to his chest.
“She’s gone. She’s gone.” It was all I could voice and repeat as pain turned into seeping anger that filled my veins with thick lava.
There was a sudden sniffle in the near distance, inside a small hidden cave.
Jax stepped away from me, cautious at the unknown sounds. But it wasn’t them who would be needing protection.
“Who’s there?” Jax shouted, gazing into the black abyss, ready to attack, his shadows surrounding his frame.
“Mama,” a voice rang out.
My breath stilled.
Birdie ran towards me in her dirty, soiled night gown, clinging to my legs as her tiny body trembled in shock.
My knees descended to the earth in relief.
“Mama!” she cried out.
I held Birdie so tight. “I’m here, I’m here,” I repeated over and over. Jax hugged us as we both wept, some sort of relief washing over me.
“Are you okay?” I asked, examining her for any wounds, fearful she was hurt.
Birdie shook her head ‘no’ subtly. “Noni saved me. She told me to hide.” I attempted to look past us to where my mother’s lifeless body lay as Jax stood in the way, so Birdie wouldn’t have to see the traumatic display.
“Look at me, Birdie, who did this, can you tell Mama what happened?” I grabbed Birdie’s little shoulders, trying to keep her from looking at Ma. Luckily, the cave was so dark, you could barely make out a figure.
“A voice, but it wasn’t you, Mama, it was a monster. I screamed and ran. The monster ran after me. Noni came and told me to hide in the house. Noni blew it away with fire, Mama. It was a big fire. The monster went away. But, Noni, she got hurt and had a bad boo-boo. So we went to hide in the caves where Noni said we would be safe. She told me to hide until you came for me,” Birdie said, sniffling.
