“It’s coming down,” one of the men yelled.
“TIMBER” he yelled, as the tin roof came tumbling down. It crashed onto theground with an earth-shattering thud. The remains of the wood shack were now underattack by the flames. It was slowly beginning to melt away, turning into a black pile ofsweltering ash. All the men cheered as they waved their machetes, rifles and rusted axesin the air.
“The piece of shit motherfucka is finally gone,” sang a solo voice from the chorus, ashe swung a sack filled with jewelry and Hawaiian shirts over his shoulder.
“Yeah, we are not going to see his black ass in this town again.” pitched another,while he walked away, balancing two squawking hens in the headlock.
They patted each other on the back and walked to their homes, happy that they hadmanaged to rid their town of a wicked brujo, who could cast spells and perform magicthat was darker than anyone else on the island.
There was a hand, with palms as hard as sandpaper. It was slapping my face. I waslying on a hard wood floor, my cloak had been removed, and I was hog-tied. My eyesstrained from the light as they focused in on a dismal figure that was standing over me. Itreached behind me and untied my hands and then unclasped my feet. The blood in mybody began to flow again.
“Maria, are you okay” the voice said as it tenderly stroked my hair.
I strained my neck, trying to look up. It was Nico! I gasped from both exasperationand relief. I was very happy to see a familiar face, any familiar face. He helped me to asitting position.
I shook my head, I felt woozy, almost as if I had been drugged. “Nico, whathappened? Where are we?
“Sssh,” he said, as he placed his dirty forefinger on my lips. “Just take it easier,” hesaid gently. He sat down in front of me, and began to rub my arms and shoulders.
Another man walked in with disheveled hair and grimy boots. “Oh, she’s awake,” hesaid as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Nico did not take his eyes off of me. I started to shiver. He removed his jacket andcovered me with it.
“Hey Cabron.” Nico said looking over his shoulder.
“Why don’t you go and get my woman something to drink.” “What!” the man spat.
“Nico, what am I gonna find around here? At this time of night?”
he said.
Nico stood up; he was a man of about five foot eight, with scrawny arms and aplucked bird chest.
He walked over to the man who was as big as an Arctic bear. He grimaced as hiswords shot out like pellets.
“I don’t give a shit what you find, just get out of here so I can talk to my woman”
He blinked a few times and shook his head to indicate that he was sorry for notpicking up on the hint before. He backed away, while keeping Nico’s bony frame in fullsight. He turned and ran out the door, whimpering like a frightened hound. Nico walkedback over to me. He kneeled down and gently palmed my face.
“Mi Amor, he whispered as he leaned over and kissed my forehead.
My body was trembling. My head was throbbing. I seemed to be weighted downwith some kind of guilt, like I had done something that was terribly wrong. Tears beganto stream from my eyes, but I could not understand why.
“Baby, don’t cry,” he said as he dabbled at my tears with his dirty hands.
I slapped his hand away; I did not want him touching me. I did not want him aroundme. I could not shake this feeling of shame that was burning deep inside me. I wanted tobe home again, with your great abuela, with your momma. I needed them for warmth andcomfort. Nico backed away. He looked offended. I thought that he was going to get upand leave, when he reached forward and grabbed my hair. I shrieked as I tried to untie theknot of fingers that gripped large strands of my hair. My neck felt like it was being rippedfrom my shoulders. He released me and my head went smashing into the wall. There wasa loud thud and then an explosion of pain that traveled through my body.
I was dizzy and I tried to shake it off, when Nico grabbed hold of my hair like thereins on a horse. He violently shoved my head back and forced me to look into his colddark eyes. My nerves were frazzled, my head was throbbing and my body was limp. Hekneeled down and his face was so close to me that I could smell his sour breath. Hemoved his lips and in a few short words, he captured the truth that was buried inside ofme.
“You belong to me now!” he sneered.
I stared back at him. His words had hit me hard. He released his grip and I collapsed.I lay on the floor, wondering how this happened. How did I let someone like Nico intomy life? I was afraid to look up. I was motionless, waiting for the pain to subside. Iwatched Nico leave the room. Within minutes, he came back in. I focused in on his dirtyboots as they walked closer to me. He kneeled down and placed a black longneck bottlein front of me. He inched it closer to my face with his foot. He then kneeled down andwhispered.
“Are you ready to finish this shit?”
I slowly sat up and pleaded. “Nico, don’t make me do this, please Nico don’t makeme do this.” I shook my head as tears began to stream down my face. I couldn’t believethis was happening.
“Maria.” He leaned over and cupped my face.
“No! I can’t do this.”
“Maria, we got to use the only shit that we’ve got left,” he said.
I didn’t answer
