Page 36 of Gator

“Find your grandson, and…”

“I’m here. What do you need?” asked Trak. She whispered to the man, and he ran off toward the gardens.

“What the hell is going on, Grandma?” asked Luke.

“She’s had a spell placed on her, a powerful one,” said the older woman. She removed her shirt, Sadie now lying on the sofa in just her bra. There were three red lines trailing from her neck to her torso. One led to her heart, one to her stomach, and one to her liver. Ham removed his own jacket and tried to place it over her. “No, baby. This is not a time for modesty, not right now.”

As more men and women came into the offices, they crowded the room and outside the doors. Christopher and Patrick pushed their way through, kneeling beside their triplet.

“Hold her hands, boys. She needs to know you’re here.”

“Grandma…”

“Luke! I will not tell you again. Let me handle this. Sadie is sufferin’, and I have got to remove this spell. If we don’t, she may harm herself. She’s half mad now from whatever was done to her.”

Luke went silent, just staring at his grandmother, then at the other men and women in the room. Wes and Virginia held onto one another, just watching as their daughter writhed in pain. Despite the frigid temperatures outside, she was sweating profusely, her face an unnatural shade of red.

“What happened?” asked Angel, staring at Ham.

“We were just talking in the living room, everything seemed fine, and she excused herself and went upstairs. She came back down in shorts and nothing else,” said Ham, swallowing.

“What the fuck do you mean?” growled Patrick.

“Patrick! Let him finish,” said Wes.

“I asked her what she was doing, and she just shook her head and said she didn’t know, but she was hot. I asked her to put a shirt on, and she looked at me like I was crazy, then looked down and started to cry. She ran back upstairs and changed her clothes but then came down again. She was mumbling to herself, nothing intelligible. Just babbling, and she was sweating.

“Suddenly, she grabbed her phone and acted like she was going to call someone. I asked her if she needed help, and she started crying again. She begged me to help her, begged me to take her phone from her,” he said, shaking his head. “I didn’t know what to do, so I wrapped her up and brought her here. I don’t know what to do.”

“You did good, Ham,” said Gator. “You did the right thing.”

“You ain’t no match for me,” said Irene, standing above the girl, seemingly not speaking to anyone. Nathan, Yori, and Franklin watched from the edge of the room, all three men whispering their own words of wisdom and prayer.

Trak came into the room with a handful of herbs and flowers. From the kettle in the kitchen, he poured hot water into the bowl, soaking the plants. All the while, Mama Irene whispered over the bowl, then stared at Sadie.

“Sit her up,” she said to Patrick. But Sadie lashed out at him, striking him in the face, clawing at him, and then Christopher. “Not you. Ham. Sit her up.”

He looked at the two brothers with a helpless expression and then sat behind Sadie, pushing her to an upright position.

“It’s okay, Sadie. It’s okay,” he whispered. “It’s just me. It’s Ham. Remember, we said we’d make popcorn tonight and watch the Halloween movie marathon. You gotta watch with me, or I’ll get scared.” Patrick and Christopher wanted to cry at the tender way the man spoke to their sister.

“She has to drink this. All of it,” said Mama Irene. She handed the bowl to Ham, his confusion causing everyone to feel for him.

“I can’t do this,” he said. “I can’t force her to do something.”

“It’s for her own good, baby. You gotta help me do this. Patrick? Christopher? You boys hold her arms. Ham, do it now, baby. Now!”

Ham held the bowl to her lips while the other boys held her arms. He continued to whisper to her, begging her to drink everything in the bowl. Only a few drops spilled, and when she was done, she simply collapsed against his chest. Silence sliced through the room, and Gator looked at Luke, then back at Mama Irene.

“Who is Matilda?” she asked. Eric frowned, staring at the others. She couldn’t have known that name.

“We believe she is someone that wants to harm Dylan and all of us,” said Eric.

“Well, she nearly did. Somehow, she was close enough to Sadie to put that spell on her. What she was gonna do was call that woman and tell her where she was. Fortunately, Sadie had enough of herself left to know she couldn’t do that. We were lucky.”

“Wait, are you telling us that Matilda is a witch?” asked Luke.

“She’s a Bruha. It’s a witch in Mexico. There are white witches, the good ones, and there are black witches, the bad ones. She’s about as black as you can get, but she ain’t as powerful as she thinks.” Irene wiped Sadie’s brow, then kissed her forehead, touching her own to hers.

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