Demon Child

Blurb

A teenage girl comes to terms with her abusive childhood by seeking emancipation in order to find her first love and embrace her powers as a witch.

Table of Contents

Blurb

Demon Child

Message from the Author

Demon Child

Snakey. Odessa kissed the snake's shiny black head, totally entranced by the reptile.

It ain't nothing but a harmless black snake, one of their father's faithful helpers said.

I don't care. Take it away from her, Olivia said with as much authority as a little girl of only nine could muster.

What's she done now? Without waiting for an answer, their father reached down and grabbed the snake out of Odessa’s hand. Dang it! he hollered when the snake sank its fangs into one of his fingers. He dropped the snake onto the grass and Odessa toddled over to retrieve her favorite new toy.

Snakey! Snakey! she squealed, cuddling the little black snake in her arms.

Wouldn't you know her first word would be snake? Their father sucked at the wound and then spit in the child’s direction. I've always known that kid ain’t right.

Could be she'd anointed with the Holy Spirit, another of his holy helpers said. Ain't holding snakes a testimony of faith?

She's a demon child, I tell you, their father bellowed with his behind the pulpit voice. There ain't ever been no red headed babies come from my side of the family.

Odessa being just a tiny girl, all she cared about was the safety of her snaky. Over the years her big sister Olivia who had told her the whole snakey story so many times it got to where it seemed like she could actually remember the day she uttered her first words and fell hopelessly in love with snakes.

Her father picked Odessa up, shaking her with anger. You drop that snake or I'll tan your hide.

She's just a baby, Olivia pleaded. "Dess doesn't understand a word you're saying.

Then you take the little brat. He shoved Odessa into her big sister’s arms.

Despite being scared of the snake, Olivia took her, holding Odessa at arms distance. Dess, please drop the snake.

She's the spawn of Satan, their father bellowed. Who ever heard of a child being born a good month early on the Devil's day with a full head of red hair?

One would have thought his whooping and hollering, snake handling congregation would have been impressed by the pastor's child developing an early fondness for snakes, but that didn't seem to be the case. At least not where their father was concerned.

That kid's done drove her mama insane, Pastor Scott said. Octavia was a stout woman until that child refused to take her breast. It was that evil brewing in my wife’s belly that brought on the flood that damn near washed away this church, he spat again in the direction of the child, That one there is a demon child.

1

I wish I may. I wish I might. Find a man who'll love me right. I clutched my pentacle pendant and watched a shooting star disappear into the brilliant purple and orange hues of dawn ascending over the Atlantic Ocean.

All witches know it's not the words; it's the intentions that make a spell successful. A shooting star on the morn of Samhain had to be a sure sign my sweet sixteen would be a birthday I'd never forget.

I dug my toes into the sand, feeling something cool slither across my foot and wrap around my ankle. Marilyn, my favorite pygmy rattler, her normally small stomach engorged with babies. Yes, rattlers are one of the few snakes that have live births instead of laying eggs.

Hello, Miss Monroe, I said, taking a seat beside her on the beach. Thanks for being the very first guest to arrive at my birthday party.

Marilyn crawled into my lap and I stoked her back the way most people would snuggle with a kitten or puppy. Marilyn and I, we got each other. I understood it wasn't her lethal venom, but her diminutive size and coloring that made camouflage her preferred form of self-preservation. At a gawky five foot ten with flaming red hair, hiding had never been much of an option for me.

Odessa, come here, Tante Effie called from the porch.

I carried Marilyn up the the porch, silently thanking our blessed Goddess for my Tante's kindness in taking me in after I'd been disowned by my own blood kin.

Leave that snake outside, Tante Effie said, somehow sensing Marilyn's presence despite her blindness. She's going to have her babies tonight.

What a great gift it will be to share my birthday with baby rattlers. I kissed Marilyn's scaly flesh and gently placed her by her nest under the porch. Instead of slithering away, she stretched out on the terra cotta steps, soaking up every drop of early morning sunshine. I sat beside her, both of us basking in the safe haven of a warded home.

Tanta shook her head and a wry smile played across her face. And here I was afraid you'd think your birthday would get forgotten in the midst of our Samhain festivities.

I think it's kinda cool to have been born on the most sacred day of the year.

Indeed, it is. Tante joined us, squatting down with the agility of a woman half her age. Ne'er you forget the true significance of this day.

It sure beats sharing a birthday with the baby Jesus, I said, remembering how my big sister’s birthday celebration always got overshadowed the day after Christmas.

We mustn't mock the faith of others. Easy for her to say when she hadn't lived with those horrible Pentecostal snake abusers.

I shivered despite the unseasonably warm Carolina morning. Marilyn slithered across my foot, reminding me I no longer had any need to dwell on the past. Not as long as I had my snakes and a place in the Merci coven.

What's that? I asked, noticing the silk wrapped package Tanta pulled from beneath her apron. Is it the potions book I've been wanting? I want to brew up some attraction oil to draw in my dream guy.

You don't need to be casting love spells. Not with that hair and those long legs. She ran a calloused hand through my unruly curls, embracing the very thing that caused my father to hack me bald in one of his many failed attempts to cast away my demons. There's none so powerful as a red haired witch.

I think you're a right powerful witch. I looked at her scarred face and tried to imagine her as the pretty young pale blond in the arms of the tall dark and handsome man from the portrait that hung in a gilded frame over the fireplace mantle. It's all so romantic the way you just said to hell with convention and followed your heart.

Don't you go getting any silly ideas on account of me. I don't regret one minute I got to spend with Jerome, but we were asking for trouble with me running away with him at only fifteen. If we'd have waited and done things proper, maybe… She paused for a moment, shaking her head. Well, there’s no need to cry over spilt milk.

To me, having her house burned down in a fire that killed her husband and left her blind, that was a whole lot of horrible. I don't see how you keep from lighting black candles on those mean people. If it was me, I'd be cursing them with my very last breath.

There’s no fixing stupid, child, and you've got to remember that everything you put into your magick comes back to you times three.

I suppose I don't have much to worry about since there aren't any boys beating down our door to see me and I can only do the very basics of candle magick.

Your powers will emerge as the Goddess sees fit, she said, still stroking my hair. Now stop it with the boy talk and go on and open your gift.

I untied a white lace bow and pulled away the silk wrapping to reveal a journal. Tante Effie had embroidered Odessa in intricate script across the lush purple velvet cover. Thank you. It's beautiful.

This book is to be used to purge all the darkness that still haunts your soul. She pulled me into a comforting embrace. The past can't hurt you no more. Not after the words are spilled out and bled onto the page.

I hoped she was right, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I had my doubts.

Chapter 2

By the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, my woman has been healed of her sins, Pastor Scott bellowed from the pulpit. Octavia is back in the pew where she belongs. She’s renounced those loose Baptist views of her kinfolk and returned home to raise our children as any God abiding woman is put here on this earth to do.

Even at six years old, Odessa knew it was wrong for a man to think of a woman as his property. Unfortunately, that's exactly what her mother was. If she’d ever had a thought of her own, she’d never shared it with Odessa or Olivia.

Seeing as how she gave birth to the Demon Child I beg you all to lift us up in prayer, he continued. It ain't no easy task raising a child sprung from the Devil's very loins.

If Odessa had known then what she knew now, her bony butt would have probably bounced right off that hard wooden bench with a fit of laughter. The man speaking those words was the devil all right.

When her mother had gone off to her sister’s house, no one other than Olivia paid any attention to the little red haired baby. By the time Odessa turned four she was pretty much on her own when Olivia went off to school. While her father was doing what he called conversing with God, Odessa wound pull every one of the rattlesnakes out of their box at the side of her father’s pulpit and carry the serpents out to play in the sunshine.

Oh, how Odessa loved their pretty colors, their beady little eyes, those flickering tongues and especially how their tails would start to rattling when those crazy church people ticked them off. None of those sweet snakes ever rattled their tales at Odessa. They would crawl onto her lap and she could in the grass and pet them for hours.

During the week she never got in trouble as long as she put them back in the box by the time Olivia got home from school. After Olivia got home from school Odessa would sit in the kitchen and watch her fix supper. Olivia was really smart and knew how to pour a can of beans into a pot and fry up some burgers or scramble the eggs that the church ladies left for them.

Sunday's were a whole other deal. Other than going to see her snakes, Odessa hated setting foot in that church. All that screaming and carrying on scared her into tears. When Odessa cried her father would drag her to the front of the church, pull down her panties, and swat her bottom.

Spare the rod, and spoil the child, he'd holler as he paced across the front of the church screaming out his sermons.

None of those people saw anything wrong with him spanking Odessa like that. In fact, some of the other parents would drag their kids kicking and screaming to the altar for Pastor Scott to blister their bare bottoms in the name of God.

Father ordered all of them to brow their heads to pray for Odessa’s and her mother’s souls. Every eye shut, every heart open to receive the word of God.

Odessa peeked over at her mother's pallid face. Her lips were moving, but nothing she said made any sense. Later she learned that while her mother might have come back to them in body, her mind was off on another planet, and her soul... Odessa didn't think she ever had one, at least not one that wasn't manipulated by father.

In the sweet name of our Lord Christ and Savior. Amen. Amen. Amen. Father used his handkerchief to wipe the sweat pouring down his face. During the summer months it got hot as an oven in that church, but he still wouldn't allow one window to be opened.

The church crowd came back to life with a series of boisterous, amen, hallelujah and glory to God.

Hallelujah, praise Jesus! A crazy old woman spun around in circles waving her arms in the air, shrieking in some kind of gibberish.

Amen, sister, one of the elders joined her in dancing some type of crazy jig. God is good.

The next thing Odessa knew just about everyone in that church was on their feet screaming and hollering and speaking in tongues, flailing around in some kind of wild Jesus dance of love. It scared her silly when they started passing her rattlers around to show their faith. She wasn't afraid of the snakes. Odessa was scared that one of those crazy people was going to hurt one of her beautiful sweet rattlers. That crazy lady in the orange polyester dress was waving one of the most fragile of the female snakes around to where she just couldn't watch.

Olivia pulled her little sister into her arms as soon as she saw the tears sliding down her cheek. If father saw her crying he was liable to whip her. Their mother never once reached for her hand or offered a word of comfort. It was Olivia that Odessa always turned to as she squeezed her eyes closed and prayed for the safety of her snakes.

That woman's gonna go into orbit, Odessa said, sneaking another worried glance at a snakey coiled on the floor ready to strike at Polyester Lady's pudgy ankle. That snake obviously didn't appreciate the way that stupid woman was mistreating his mate.

What did you say? Her father grabbed her arm, pulling Odessa off the bench. I dare you to mock my congregation's love of God.

I... I... There wasn't anything Odessa could say to keep him from ripping her panties down around her ankles and lashing her bottom with the palm of his hand.

He kept pounding her butt until Leroy, Odessa’s very favorite of all the rattlers, shook his tail in her defense. Father dropped Odessa to the ground and Leroy protectively crawled into her lap. She sat bare bottomed hugging on that snake. Olivia didn’t dare to grab her up to get her panties back in place and smooth down the back of her dress.

After all the crazy people left Olivia stood on a pew while Odessa gathered up all the snakes. Odessa knew her big sister cringed as she gently patted their backs and dealt out soothing kisses while returning all the snakeys back to their crate, ending just another Sunday in their father's lair of so-called Godly love.

Chapter 3

Tears of joy welled in my eyes as I blinked away the horrible memories and looked around my favorite room at my makeshift family serenading me with birthday wishes. The only person missing was my big sister Olivia. I couldn't help but think how she'd love this sunroom so close to the beach that you could almost hear the waves crashing. She always mentioned how much she missed the ocean in just about every letter she wrote me from Raleigh. The one hundred and seventy-seven miles between Sunset Beach and Raleigh seemed a lifetime away when Olivia didn't have a car and I didn't even know how to drive.

Happy Birthday to you! Carmella closed out the last stanza, and I clapped in appreciation, aware that I needed to be grateful for all I did have.

My best friend beamed, her teeth so very white in contrast to the elaborate swirl of cornrows that framed her face. I'd be lying if I didn't admit how much I envied her dark flawless complexion. Carmella never had to worry about turning the blistering shade of my hair when we lost track of time, as we often, did romping around on the beach.

Blow out the candles and make your wish, Carmella said as she cut into a pan of her scrumptious brownies made from scratch with her extra special secret recipe.

Candle magick in its purest form, Mama Jubilee said, already loading our bowls with heaping scoops of homemade strawberry ice cream.

Mama had only given birth to Carmella, but that had never stopped her from treating me like a daughter. I'd been the one to claim her gift of working magick with a needle and thread when Carmella had gotten frustrated with learning all those neat little stitches. Mama had probably learned to sew out of necessity since she was about as round as she was tall. A problem I feared in reverse. With every inch I grew, the harder it got to find store bought clothes to fit my tall slender frame.

Now you remember, Tante Effie warned. Don't go wishing for a boyfriend. You've got all the time in the world to fall in love.

Tante, Carmella gasped, before exchanging a knowing look with me, her eyes darting to her beau, Jamal, and ever so handsome cousin, Derek. Not in front of the boys.