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!"

the mysterious individual kept

Eventually, the man ended up crashing onto the floor, with him still inside the seat. But to Cloyse, just feeling pain at that point, and after so long,

"Are you alright?"

on the warm,

"Careful." Sunta said as he hoisted both Cloyse and

Cloyse felt all over his hairy face before

"Three

Soon, the other man began making a sort of snoring

chair and locked his hazy eyes upon the man who was seated across from

It was a fully bearded, black man who was sitting in his own chair and had his head down with his arms restrained with a rusty chain from the back. His torn and ragged 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 the man that felt a

did you

next to Cloyse. "Doi was returning to de world when I found him. It

ya kill, fool," Doi questioned with his head still

do know where

Doi shook his head from side to side before saying,

breathing at that very second. His heart was beating so furiously,

Cloyse ever so diligently studied the old man's entire body before sitting back and breathlessly uttering, "They're

saying dat, but he is an old

and Damerae are gone, mon. They're gone far from

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

dey are." Cloyse said.

Sunta's voice shook. "Wherever dey are

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

continued to sit and stare at Doi for endless minutes before he glanced

"But where, mon?"

"Far north of here,"

"Kingston, mon?"

said. "I want

big sister, mon." Doi shook his head. "No...I

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

strength, all Cloyse could do was try and scoot

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 his feet all the

of the blazing hut and onto the sandy beach before both men limped as fast as they

"Look back no more, boy." Sunta helped a staggering Cloyse

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