Negril, Jamaica

"What can you hear, my boy?" Old man Sunta said into Cloyse's ear in a raspy, Jamaican dialect.

Cloyse, feeling completely restrained and helpless, heard everything, from the roaring waves of the sea that sounded as if he were right next to them, to his old friend, all the way to a wheezing grunt that seemingly surrounded him.

Cloyse struggled to move, but it felt as if his entire body was shut down. Just trying to wiggle one finger was like trying to sprout wings, it was virtually impossible.

"I...I cannot—

"Do not try and speak yet, just focus on trying to see." Sunta spoke softly into the young man's ears.

Cloyse did as he was told and bore down in the hopes of trying to revive his vision all over again. In fact, his eyes were wide open; it was just the blackness that appeared more like fog that kept him from seeing clearly.

"Dey gone...dey gone far away," the wheezing individual from somewhere within the area groaned.

"Be silent, devil!" Sunta scolded the man. "Now, continue to focus on what you want to see, my boy."

Cloyse squeezed and stretched until the blackness in front of him gradually formed into splotches.

"I can...I can see it." Cloyse fought to utter in his own broken English.

"Good, good, now keep on!" Sunta gleefully urged.

Cloyse kept stretching before even more forms began coming into sight. Before long, globs and splotches eventually turned into brightness. It was so bright in fact that Cloyse had to shut his eyes momentarily just to shield from the rays.

"Can you see now?" Sunta asked.

Cloyse ever so slightly nodded yes before going back to trying to twist his finger all over again. Much like before, attempting such a task was arduous, but the man kept at it until one moving finger turned into three, and after three, an entire right hand.

"You can move now?" Sunta sounded surprised.

"No good, boy, you be dead by sundown." The nearby groaning man uttered.

"Please, keep on! You are almost free!"

Cloyse persisted until he was able to fully operate his right hand. All of the sudden, the young man began to cry like a child. He wept so hard that his entire body began shaking inside the chair in which he was seated.

"God be praised, he is coming back!"

here, God not here," the mysterious individual kept gasping in and out

and forth. Eventually, the man ended up crashing onto the

"Are you

on the

"Careful." Sunta said as he

all over his hairy face before

"Three

Soon, the other man began making a sort of snoring racket

locked his hazy eyes upon the man who was seated across from him inside a

pants looked as if he had worn the same clothing for years without ever changing. His emaciated, grey-haired, bare chest looked like he hadn't been nourished in ages. He appeared such a pathetic sight, but inside Cloyse's heart, only disdain seized him. There wasn't a single fiber inside

did you capture him?" Cloyse

Sunta walked around and stood next to Cloyse. "Doi was returning to de

fool," Doi questioned with his head still hung low. "I

you do know where my sister...is." Cloyse

Doi shook his head from side to side before saying, "Big sister not here. She gone,

second. His heart was beating so furiously, but the words

so diligently studied the old man's entire

dat, but he is

"No, no, Arthur, Akoni and Damerae are gone, mon. They're gone

sudden silence gripped the entire hut. The thundering waves from outside were the only things that anyone was able

know where dey are."

not matter now." Sunta's voice shook. "Wherever dey are gone to, not even God in

"You know not about God." Doi grunted. "God not here no more, mon. Who won test de devil now dat he loose? Who

and stare at Doi for endless minutes before he glanced back at

"But where, mon?"

"Far north of here," Cloyse

"Kingston, mon?"

"No...even further," Cloyse said. "I want my sister, old man!" he

no, no big sister, mon." Doi

words, Doi lifted his aged head to reveal a pair of white eyes and fangs before both Cloyse and Sunta. Before long, a sinister growl ran up and out of Doi's throat as his face began to stretch outwards forming what looked to be

do was try and scoot backwards, away from the

however, Sunta, with a pointy stick in his right hand, approached Doi. He took the stick and struck it against the gravely floor before igniting Doi from

hold of Cloyse and dragged him out of the blazing hut and onto the sandy beach before both men limped as fast as they could away from the burning structure that went up in flames a lot quicker than

helped a staggering Cloyse down the empty

The Novel will be updated daily. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

Comments ()

0/255