6°32'44.6"N 6°06'00.5"W - Sassandra-Marahoué, Ivory Coast

  18.05.2024 15.00

  “There is no way we can reach Kouétinfla by night if we go through the jungle and the hills. The trip would simply be too hard, even if the path is shorter” Guarin said in French, and Rox translated in Baoulé for the few in the group that could not follow.

  “The last village we passed through, was not safe either,” I said emphatically.

  The group stayed silent. We had begun this trip as a group of six, but the route through the usual pitstops and villages had already cost us one team member, the only one with a curse besides me.

  Akissi spoke in Baoulé with a hint of irony in her voice. Rox translated “It would help if you were forthcoming about your special …skills”, but it was obvious from her tone that “skills” was Rox’s editing.

  I decided not to respond. They might have had mixed feelings about having a Cursed among them, but they knew their chances of survival would decrease dramatically without me. The group would have to decide what my silence meant, as they waited awkwardly for someone to break it.

  “Demi” Guarin said seriously towards me “I will not ask you why you suggest going through the wilderness. But if this is the route you suggest, I will change my vote. I am with Demi.”

  Kouadio stood still and said something that needed no translation – he disagreed with us.

  Rox responded and then translated “We three disagree, Guarin, we follow you if you want to lead through the forests, but if this is a vote, we cast to stay on the formed path. I am sorry Demi.”

  I was sorry, as a familiar sensation in my stomach tightened its grip through me. I was not worried about myself – but for them.

  “Ok good,” declared Guarin “We should be there in a couple of hours, and we avoid the night. Keep going!”

  These hours would be long for sure.

  “Who do you think has it?” Rox asked me, while we were walking in the middle of the procession.

  “I cannot see through enchantments Rox” I responded.

  “Crossing that off the list,” she said and laughed “but seriously, that is all that burns my mind right now. Probability-wise, it could be Kouadio”

  Kouadio was walking expressionless at the rear of the group holding both his and our lost comrade’s pouch. We each had one, enchanted especially for the mission: impossible to open until we reached Yamoussoukro. But only one of the pouches actually carried the mission’s objective.

  A provision, in case any of us decided to betray the group’s purpose and keeping us all protective of each other.

  “That is, if the assignment was random” I answered her “Me and Marin would have the biggest targets on our backs. Or now only me at least”

  I had lamented Marin’s death enough the past day, but still, I could not simply just brush it off.

  “So you say, the Cursed could be decoys,” Rox shuddered “That means it could be on me”

  “It matters not, in the end,” I said.

  “Shh,” Guarin interrupted us. We all stood still, silent.

  Akissi made a sign to all of us to hide in the overgrowth next to the path. We all obeyed and hid as trained.

  Not twenty minutes had passed, and a heavy car passed through the rough path. Some men in it were discussing loudly in a local dialect as the car was blasting some radio commands. Rifles were hanging on their backs.

  None of them was Cursed, or at least I did not sense so.

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  I touched my arm and tried to seek my pulse. I held my breath and closed my eyes. I started hearing eight more pulses, four belonging to my companions, and four disappearing into the distance. Once I could not hear them anymore, I exhaled.

  “Move along,” I said. This was our usual protocol.

  Akissi said something in her own dialect, that Rox did not translate. Then, she repeated in broken French once close to me: “At least she has some use”, just loud enough so that I could hear it. Guarin must not have heard, Rox shot an annoyed glance at her but said nothing.

  Not more than half an hour had passed when I sensed the change. Any Cursed would have.

  “We have entered someone’s domain,” I said.

  “Well, we expected that. There should be a village just across this turn before we reach Kouétinfla. They must have set up camp for us” Guarin said in a flush of positivity.

  I was not so sure, as the domain was not at all familiar to me, and I was not skilled enough to understand its nature.

  Behind us, Kouadio let a scream loose and then went silent. Rox and Akissi pulled their guns and we turned around, only to see Kouadio falling to his knees, his tongue cut and falling on the ground. He only gurgled blood falling down. No one dared make a step.

  I looked at his fall: he was exactly at the spot I was when I detected the domain.

  I signed to all of them:

  Do not speak. This is a screaming hex.

  He was attacked by a curse that caused him to yell at us, perhaps warn us or even cry out our names, and his tongue was ripped out as a consequence. If a Cursed wasn’t nearby, they were going to be here soon to find who trespassed.

  Akissi started slowly walking towards the shaking body of poor Kouadio, heading to the two pouches. I pulled her hand. She looked angrily at me and I gestured No! at her.

  Her eyes widened, as Guarin whispered “Shit”. Most possibly this hex was set up to pick up the relic’s aura and attack only the bearer. Rox was right, Kouadio had it on him and that’s why he only got ambushed by this devious hex.

  “What do we do?” Rox asked with her pistol out aiming towards the wilderness, trying to spot any movement.

  Kouadio spat blood on the ground as his last blood pumps were trying to keep him breathing, although he was utterly doomed.

  “If anyone picks this up, and cannot hold their scream, this is their fate” I said “So not an option.”

  No one volunteered to be courageous. I could feel all of us thinking the same thing: if this hex got Kouadio, our heavy bodyguard, to scream, there was no hope anyone else could keep the hex at bay, all the way to our next stop.

  “Demi, if you have any ace up your sleeve, this is the time,” Guarin said, but there was no need. I was convinced that was the right moment.

  “Akissi, you are now close to him,” I said while Rox translated to her “On my signal, you will have to stab his heart and kill him at once. Brace yourself as the hex that killed him could trigger on your contact. A clean kill is your best chance.”

  I turned next to me.

  “Rox, be on the lookout. Guarin, look at the ground. Two steps away from you there is a small spider. You have to catch it and bring it here alive. Make as few steps as possible.”

  Guarin obeyed, and you could feel his steadfastness in every step. We all knew whoever controlled this domain could have more hexes, and every move could be a potential trigger. Luckily, he managed to reach me before any further misfortune landed to us.

  The moment he came close, the spider jumped and landed on my upwards facing palm. I sensed its longing for my command and started speaking in Dida, with a deep and slow voice. The spider tittered and crawled, circling my hand and spiraling from my arm and through my back, each light step closer to its destination.

  I crouched, and continued my chant, now letting its steps guide my rhythm. I couldn’t feel it – but then it reappeared, spinning a web and floating right in front of my eyes. Miniscule and dark, its longing for my command now even stronger.

  My eyes teared up, and my focus intensified by my Curse. I gave the signal to Akissi. She lunged and quickly pierced Kouadio’s chest with her machete.

  Jump, I whispered in Dida.

  The spider flung across the scene, spinning her web from my head during its long jump. It landed on Kouadio’s forehead, only momentarily visible, before crawling inside his mouth.

  Akissi jumped away and swore disgusted, as similar small spiders spawned and crawled from Kouadio’s open wounds, and started spinning their web around his joints and arms. The webs tightened around his body, and the spiders re-entered and exited the wounds as many times necessary to complete their work.

  Spark, I commanded.

  I heard Rox praying shocked, as Kouadio’s body started springing up, thin web holding and moving his legs, activated by an invisible puppet master.

  Move.

  The body that once seemed to be hanging from an invisible web, started walking, still tied by webbing. It passed to the front of the group.

  “As long as he tests the front, we follow in its steps,” I said to the group.

  They all looked at their fallen companion and then looked at me. It was not shock or disgust exactly in their eyes – I knew this look all too well. It was pure fear. They finally understood why I had not revealed my curse so far: so that they didn't realize my role in the group. I was not here to protect them from dying. I was here to keep them functioning even if they did.

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