“I said get in the house!” She starts to push me away, but I’ve
already seen it. The car is dented. A black substance, like moss,
covers the damage.
“What is that?” I ask.
Something lands on top of the car. In the dark, I can’t see its
face, but I can hear the scratch of metal and snap of teeth. The smell
of a thousand corpses lives in its mouth. It breathes me in, like a
hound on a scent.
The outdoor lights turn on. Lula and Rose are banging on the
windows, screaming for us to run inside. The creature hisses at the
flash of light and jumps back into the shadow before I can see the
rest of it. My mom grabs my wrist and pulls me all the way into the
house. We slam the door and bolt it shut.
“What’s happening?” Lula shouts, pacing circles in the kitchen.
Rose presses her head against the wall beside the sink, rubbing
her temples over and over. “We have to go.”
I turn to my mom. “What is that thing?”
She doesn’t answer me. Her dark eyes are fixed on the door lock as
she mumbles a prayer to La Mama.
“Mom!” I’ve never shouted at my mother. Not ever. But I have to so
she’ll snap out of it.
“I think it’s a maloscuro. They’re shadow demons.” She squeezes
the bridge of her nose, like she’s trying to remember more details but
fails. “I need the Book.”
“It’s right here,” Lula says, flipping through the Book of Cantos.
“Maloscuro. Once they were brujos who broke the Mortal Laws of the
Deos. El Papa broke them until they were nothing but charred skin and
bone. Yet he didn’t let them die. They lived, dragging themselves on
hunched backs and broken limbs, holding on to shadows. A circle of
brujas banished them to Los Lagos, where they could no longer harm the
mortal realm. They’re attracted to great power. Light can ward them
off but…”
“But?”
Lula look up at me from the page. “It cuts off.”
“These were the things Uncle Julio warned were under our beds?” I
ask. “How sweet.”
“That’s not funny,” Lula snaps. She slams the Book shut and points
at the door. “That thing is still out there. We have to do something!
We can’t just sit around.”
I’ve never seen Lula so afraid.
“My Circle blessed this house,” my mom says, wiping her brow with
the back of her trembling hand. “It can’t enter here. We can wait it
out till sunrise.”
“Alex, use your power,” Lula tells me.
“I don’t know how!” There’s a tight pain in my belly and a greater
pain in my chest.
The house rattles as a force slams into the structure. Picture
frames and dishes shatter as they fall to the floor.
“Lula!” my mom shouts. “Get the candles and Papa Philomeno’s
finger bone. Alex, bring me the sage. Rose-Rose?”
Rose slides down to the ground. She shuts her eyes and throws her
glasses across the floor. A bloody tear runs down her cheek. My mom
bends down to brush Rose’s matted hair back. Rose’s hands are spread
out at her sides. Her eyes widen and dilate, until there is only
black. A strangled cry comes from my little sister.
“Alex, the sage!”
I run into the storage closet and grab a sage stick. Then I
remember. I rip open the box with my father’s things. I dig through
old clothes and papers until I find it. A mace. The handle is made of
wood and steel. The spikes are consecrated silver metal.
When I run back to the kitchen, Rose begins to speak.
“Rosie?” I edge closer to her.
Her eyes settle on me. She trembles with the spirit that’s taken
over her body. The lights blow out all around us, and my little sister
points to me and says in a stranger’s voice, “It’s you. I’ve found
you.”
“What does that mean?” Lula asks my mom.
I start to reach for Rose, but the kitchen window shatters as the
maloscuro breaks through, the force of it knocking me on my back. Its
sinewy body separates the three of us from Rose. The creature turns
its head to me. Tar-black skin that looks hard to the touch covers
long limbs that end in claws. It slinks forward on all fours, leaving
black marks on the tiles. The face is the worst. Even with its wide
mouth distorted by curved teeth and a crooked nose that sniffs for my
scent, I can still see where it was human once.
When we were children, they would scare us to sleep with stories
of the maloscuros under the bed. But we aren’t like normal families.
Our monsters are real. Sometimes we are the monsters.
The creature hisses, a long, curling tongue licks the fear in the
air. Lula grabs a plantain mallet from the sink and hurls it. The
maloscuro growls as the mallet hits it square in the face.
“Stop! You two, get your sister and get out of here,” Mom says,
taking the mace from me. She stands in front of us like a human
shield. She whistles, long and slowly. The maloscuro twists its long
neck toward my mother. Its gleaming, black eyes are rimmed with
diseased-yellow rings. With every sharp whistle, the beast follows my
mother’s movement toward the back door.
“Mom,” Lula cries. Fat tears run down her face.
At the sound of Lula’s voice, the creature snaps out of the
trance. It snarls at Lula, raking long, black claws across her face.
We all scream as Lula falls to the ground. She presses her hand to her
bloody face and shuts her eyes against the pain. The maloscuro raises
its claws for a second strike, and I know I have to do something. My
heart feels like it’s in my throat, beating a scream from my mouth. I
jump in front my sister, my crazy, rude, wonderful, beautiful sister.
The air in the kitchen thickens like fog. Fear takes ahold of me.
I fear this is my fault. I fear this power will only bring terrible
things. I fear this is only the beginning.
I take everything I’m afraid of and shove it aside. It’s like my
body isn’t even mine, a bright burning light surrounds me, flows
through me and hits the maloscuro. I fall on my knees, shaking as I
hold the barrier between the creature and us.
The kitchen rumbles with thunder. The charge pulls from my
stomach. It both tickles and hurts, an invisible chord that links me
to the magic and the maloscuro. I feel its essence and my skin crawls.
It’s malign, unwanted, death.
I cry out as my control on the shield weakens. The creature needs
only a little bit of weakness to get in. A burning pain slashes across
my chest and then instantly goes cold. The maloscuro freezes in place.
Its wicked, wide mouth is open, like a bear trap ready to snap around
my head. The rotting smell makes me gag.
“You froze it!” my mom marvels.
“I can’t hold it!” Sweat drips down my face. Blood drips from the
bleeding cuts on my chest.
“Get back,” my mother says. She raises the mace over her head and
screams to the Deos. She swings down hard. The spikes crunch against
the maloscuro’s skull. A wet splatter hits my face. She hits it again
and again. When she brings down the mace for a final blow, our whole
house trembles.
8
Shell of sea and cinder flame,
show us the enemy to blame.
Dirt of earth and wing of skies,
stop his heart and blind his eyes.
- Protection Canto, Book of Cantos
When I wake up, I’m on the living room floor. Rose is laid out
beside me, a pillow tucked under her head. Lula’s on the couch next to
me.
“You both passed out,” Lula says. Her knees are drawn up to her
chest. Her eyes are red and puffy. I don’t think I’ve seen Lula cry
this hard since Tristan Hart, the swim team captain, broke up with her