The priest was shouting something from the Bible over the sound of laughter, the laughter of the goddess. I peered into the adjoining room, not making a sound. I had seen what she was capable of. Fernanda sat on a chair with her hands on her lap. Father Moreno stood before her with a camera propped on a tripod behind him. Bible in one hand and gun in the other.
“Why do you mock me? You are a vile temptation, you have no place here or inside this young woman, making her do things she doesn’t want to do. Show yourself! Show everyone what you are. Evil exists!” He tossed water from a plastic flask over her in the shape of a cross.
She laughed harder, louder. “Stop! It burns!”
He moved closer, flustered by her show of defiance. She continued laughing in his face as the water splashed across her body.
“Tell me your name, demon!”
The laughter stopped. A deep voice issued from her lips. “I am not a demon! Stop calling me that.” Her eyes flickered with animosity.
“Enough games!” the priest shouted.
“I agree, enough games. Now priest, you will confess your sin.”
His confidence turned to terror. It knew.
“I am not the sinner! Everything I have done is for the glory of God. You will see, all will see!”
Fernanda crept closer to him one step at a time causing the priest to back into the freezer, the gun outstretched in his trembling hand. I stepped out from the office.
“The police know it is you. It’s over.”
Against the freezer he waved the gun from Fernanda to me. His demeanor changed. “You won’t leave this place. I will kill you both.”
The freezer snapped open, bouncing off the wall with a loud thud. The sudden noise caused him to drop the gun. He looked back, then scrambled to the floor to pick up the gun again.
“Let’s go, Fernanda! Now’s our chance!”
She stared at the freezer with caiman eyes and a wicked smile, her body frozen. Father Moreno rose slowly pointing the gun towards us again.
Crunching. Shifting. Something moved in the freezer. A bluish-white hand with chipped red nail polish and a spider web tattoo between her thumb and index finger lifted the lid. I blinked, not wanting to believe what I was seeing. However, after meeting the goddess, anything was possible. After the hand, a torso lifted up from inside the cold coffin, followed by the head of a woman. Her features were icy white tinged with purple-blue like a Lladró figure. Her wide eyes, polar ice caps, cracked and shifted as they adjusted to the light. They radiated enmity and heartache. My brain registered the sight in slow motion. I still wasn’t sure it was real until I glanced at Fernanda. Her lips were pulled back tightly against her face, showing all of her teeth. Flames in her eyes concentrated on the frozen woman with blowtorch intensity. This was Tlazoltéotl at work.
As Father Moreno reared his head to the sounds behind him, the woman in the freezer ripped the mantilla off her head and the robe off her body, revealing a red lace bra. The frozen woman reached for Father Moreno, and with both her hands gripped the sides of his skull. The longer Fernanda stared at the freezer, the more animated the woman became. She opened her mouth, sliding her tongue back and forth across her teeth. Water drained from her body. The priest was paralyzed in her death grip, and the gun slid from his hand. She placed a wet cheek against his rigid face.
“You have robbed me. You have robbed my children. And all you can speak of is God. You want to know of God? Let me show you!” she growled.
The priest’s body jerked and spasmed in her grasp. He wailed in such torment I almost couldn’t bear the sound. Father Moreno was no longer on this plane; he was somewhere else. In his agony, he screamed “Martha!”
Full blue lips opened, releasing frozen breath that shook in laughter. Black fingertips pressed hard into his skull before releasing him.
Her gaze moved to us. For a moment I thought she would climb out to attack. Instead she raised a hand, reaching out, water dripping from her fingertips.
“Tell them I love them.”
The life behind her eyes fled and her body went limp, falling back into the freezer. My brain still struggled to understand. I looked dumbly at Fernanda who was no longer grinning. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I shook her, knowing it wasn’t Fernanda.
“Tlazoltéotl, I know you can hear me, and I know it is you. We have been together long enough now I can sense when you are near. I can feel you. You have to let her go. There are rules here, maybe not where you come from, but we have to live by the fucking rules, or we get nowhere. You hear me?” I squeezed the sides of her arms tighter to get a reaction. It was a dummy smile with eyes you would see on a stuffed animal.
“You want this world to accept you and listen to you? You want to own this world? Then play the damn game that humans have to play if you plan on being in one of our bodies. We can’t go around doing shit like this. The world has changed. Surely you see this. Think of your mission!” I breathed heavily, not knowing if the priest would wake up any minute, but I didn’t break eye contact. I needed to get through to her.
The light that
