《Elixir's Sacrifice》


 Chapter 1

    When they were outside, they were always silent.


    Hand in hand, walking in step. Unlike a shadow that copies the object, they were both the shadow, both the night, both the darkness.


    It was April 14<sup>th</sup>, and they walked along beaches of Cape Coast. For almost 3 hours they would walk, hand in hand, silent as the night until the darkness shown upon them.


    He was Boateng Tetteh, master of the Occultic arts, Professor of Dark Magiks. He was saved by a Maame Wata, what the Westerners called Mermaids, when he fishing with his father and older brother when he was 4 years old. He was frail and weak, soon to die when the sea creature offered him it¡¯s flesh. He did not just survive the ordeal, but every other accident and incident after that. He was invincible and grew plump and strong where his family had grown weak and frail. When they threw him out of home in fear of what he had become, he did not fight it, for the weakness and fear of this family turned his stomach.


    She was Dzifa, student of the Occultic arts, Princess of Dark Magiks. She stood 6 feet tall, just 2 inches shorter than her husband. She walked with the confidence of a black panther for she was not a dainty thing. Her lean muscle showed her affinity for strength and her muscular long legs told tales of dexterity and resilience. Her skin was the color of dark chocolate, smooth and riddled with scars that marked her victories. She was fiercely loyal, learning the martial arts so that her husband may be properly protected. She was his strong right hand, his protector, his companion.


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    His love, much more than I could have ever been.


    Their life source is from the depts of the Atlantic Ocean, their work and passion too. When the night falls, all the children of the dark gathered at the mouth of the ocean. Their great warrior, Boateng would walk into the ocean, for he required no charm or amulet to breath in the water, and wrestle with the sea creatures. He would emerge mere moments later with the corpse of a Maame Wata, always old.


    No not old, ancient. One that witnessed the first ships that came from the water, one that saw the old ancient wars, one that saw the great flood that would wipe out all man.


    The rest of the children of the night would feast on its flesh and blood, imbuing within themselves enhanced abilities but they were not here for that. They were there for the age defying properties granted from their unholy feast. For they were no normal unholy sect, they walked the Path of Methuselah. Their entire aim was to defeat death and become God.


    As the sect feasted, they did nothing. They stood side by side, hand in hand until they all left. Dzidzor made a fire and while performing the ritual of marrow extraction, she would lay the darkened leather and cut 1in x 1in piece of it and wrap it within its plantain leaves. Then she would further divide it and place it into a calabash and place it on the fire. Her husband would pour the extracted bone marrow onto it and call upon the spirit of the moon to merge the two and they would eat.


    For this was the secret of their superiority. This was why no natural arrow would break Dzifa¡¯s skin, this was why Boateng¡¯s research and power superseded his peers. They did not just walk the Path of Methuselah.


    They ate his flesh and poisoned his holy legacy.

 Chapter 2

    Many occultic sects seek to gain immortality, to live as their ancestors did, in the Age of Immortals, where humans walked the earth like gods, where prophesies flowed like fine wine at a wedding party and power was strongest.


    Methuselah was a great man, the son of Enoch, who did not die but was taken up to heaven and the grandfather of Noah, the ark builder.


    It came to pass that Methuselah and his family were priests, who prophesied of the great flood that would come and the last day of all man. Methuselah died before the flood at a ripe age of 969, the longest any man had ever lived, until their god cut short the age of all man, to 120 years maximum. He was buried at his home and his body was forgotten.


    The now fallen angels of God, he who is called Yahweh, wondered why the offspring they had with the humans did not live as long as the house of Enoch. They connived with the children of the night, the occult keepers, to kidnap Enoch and demand the secrets of his existence but their god protected him and whisked him away before they could lay claim of his body. Methuselah was 300 years old.


    They decided to shift their target towards Methuselah, but he did not die and the protection around him was too strong. Many of them died, and the angels of God became restless, for they knew the time of the flood was soon to come and their plans to make Earth the 10<sup>th</sup> circle of hell was foiling. To preserve their lineage, they ordered their children to mate with whales and they bore the mere-folk, the first humanoids of the sea. The angels of gods were content thereafter, for their offspring would finally survive the flood and preserve their lineage.


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    However, the children of the night were not content with the decision of the angels, for they were promised safe passage during the years of the flood. The angels told them that once a year, they would offer one of the mere-folk as a reward for working with them, and they would live an additional 100 years.


    Thus, it began, the beginning of the unholy path to overturn the curse that made humans live for just 120 years.


    However, there was a couple with greatness and greed in their hearts. They were not content with the mere 100 years that was promised. They challenged the angels as to why Enoch and his lineage did not have to eat their thrice cursed children. The angels mocked them saying,


    ¡°You do not know your place, you wish to be god but you follow the path of darkness, Do you know that those who seek immortality do not find it? Enoch does not wish to live long. Methuselah, whom you all envy would be content to rejoin his father this very moment. For this reason, our father granted them immortality, so that they may do his will¡±


    The couple did not take kindly to the angels¡¯ words and although outwardly showed respect and restraint, they secretly plotted a way to gain access to immortality, without the angels.


    Just as the rains began pouring like buckets and the angels of god true to Noah had shut closed the gates, the couple exhumed Methuselah¡¯s body because the eyes of the Lord were no longer upon his servant¡¯s body.  They dried and made it into leather with a kiln and tore it apart with their teeth.


    They realized it gave them the ability to breathe under water, agility and premonition. Thus, they had it easier than the other children of night, who drowned for 150 days and 150 nights.

 Chapter 3

    She never knew what love was from the beginning, maybe that is why she is who she is. Her father died before she was born and her mother died from children. Her mother¡¯s sister offered to raised her because it was the right to do but the gesture was not out of love.


    She was put to work by the extended family the moment she was old enough to wash dishes, which was 6 years too long in her aunt¡¯s opinion. Her cries became a source great annoyance and nuisance to her aunt, so she learned from the very beginning that crying gets her sent to a locked room.


    When she was 12, she told her aunt she wanted to go to school and learn, so that she might become somebody. Her aunt laughed at her and told her to get the dishes ready for supper. Despite her knowing that her aunt was a woman with a short temper, she kept asking,


    ¡°Auntie when will I go to school?¡±


    Each time was met with a slap, a kick, a projectile being thrown at her and once a bowl of hot water. Luckily, it burned just her left hand which left scars for years to come.


    Upon realizing her auntie¡¯s plans to keep her in servitude, she decided to take life into her own hands. She begged her 9-year-old cousin to teach her everything he learned from school. By 16, she could read and speak English fluently, completely self-taught with her cousin¡¯s help of course.


    It was a particularly humid sunny day when she saw him. She sat upon nets by the sea shore where she was supposed to be skinning fish to be sold in the market but the fish lay forgotten beneath her feet as she devoured a book. Her cousin¡¯s science text book got her attention so much that she didn¡¯t notice him approach her; tall, muscular, head full of locs that reached the nap of his back. She sensed an immense power from him. Fear seized her bones but curiosity kept her from darting away.


    ¡°What are you doing?¡± He asked. His voice was deep like a well but smooth like the lake her auntie¡¯s catfish came from.


    ¡°I- I am reading¡± She finally managed to get out. She looked at his chest, water droplets clung to his skin as though for dear life and added dimension to his already majestic chest.


    ¡°At work?¡± he asked puzzled. She looked back at his face. It looked young, but full of hair. He looked like a beast, the ones that made your heart quiver.


    ¡°Yes¡± she said in a soft voice.


    ¡°Well, if you want to read at work, you might as well read something worthwhile¡± he pulled a book from thin air and handed it to her. Dazed, she took it, the weight of the book made her hands bulk and she allowed it to fall to her laps. She kept her eyes on his face and feared the worst as her heart beat a thousand times more. He nodded his greeting and walked away. She made sure not to look back as she was sure looking upon a man¡¯s nakedness was an insult.


    After the initial surprise left her, she looked at the book. The title was a strange language she did not understand and she shifted it this way and that until she gave up trying to understand it and opened it. She gasped and threw it away, disgusted by the images she saw. It was a book of witchcraft!


    She had gone to enough church services to know that to be a witch is to be condemned in hell. She decided that after all her suffering in this accursed world she would not go to hell. When she died, she would go to heaven so she lived a holy life. She did everything her aunt asked her to, took punishment gracefully, never spoke back and she did not know a man. Her only sin was the crime of knowledge and for that she asked for forgiveness of sins and fasted regularly. She buried the book in the sand, praying silently that the touch of the book would not drive her to sin and hurried with her task.


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    Since then, the horrors began. She began to see that same script everywhere. Young people and foreigners had them on T-shirts, it was lettered in television, once she swore she saw it on a signboard but it quickly disappeared into English. She was going crazy, she knew it. She just did not know how to articulate her thoughts. The worst part were her dreams. Nightmares rendered her nights sleepless and restless. She couldn¡¯t help seeing the images, entrails falling out of the mouths of men, bodies being mutilated and humans hanging from trees. She prayed to god to deliver her from the hands of evil but it seemed God was dead.


    Her turning point came when her cousin came home from boarding school and she rummaged his book bag for interesting reads.


    Her body shoke with fear as she saw a book completely filled with that same lettering.


    ¡°Kwasi what is this?¡± She asked shaking. Her cousin sat up from the bed, anxious to her sudden emotional reaction. She thrust the book to his face.


    ¡°Oh, this?¡± he laughed, thinking her fear to be confusion ¡°It¡¯s the bible in Greek¡±


    ¡°But why would they write the bible in Greek? Isn¡¯t English enough?¡±


    ¡°Oh hoh! Greek is one of the original languages the bible was written in¡±


    ¡°Why do you have it?¡±


    ¡°I want to study theology in the university. It seems very interesting¡±


    Her mind immediately went back to the book the strange beautiful man had given her. Why would he give her a profane book written in the language God used to write the bible? Had she been visited by the devil himself? Was she supposed to be a sort of an unholy Messiah to preach about evil deeds?


    Her chest seized up and she contemplated the implications and decided that no, she would not let that happen. She is a child of God and is meant for great thing. She fled from her cousin¡¯s confused room and went back to her chores, hoping to be absolved by hard work.


    Years later, she did not remember what she did, but she recalled her aunt¡¯s husband beating her mercilessly. Her cousin stood at the side screaming for his father to stop but not daring to come closer. Her aunt finally came back from church and rushed to the scene. The first question her aunt asked was what her offense was. The husband told her to shut up and mind her business.


    ¡°Agya* if you kill her I will not cook for you o¡±


    That seemed to get him to calm down, he spat in her hair and walked away. Her aunt ordered her cousin to get inside.


    This is not the first time she had been beaten this way. She would cry and lament, calling for God the entire time. Then she would go to the outside bathroom to clean her wounds and cry until someone came to fetch her.


    This time, something shifted. She started calling to god but she heard a voice saying,


    Are you a stupid girl? When have you called that he came?


    That made her stop and an emotion she had never had toward her aunt¡¯s family welled up in her chest.


    Anger.


    She was angry and for the first time was going to do something about it. She got up and staggered to the beach. Every step was full of pain but her will was stronger than her physical ailments. It was exactly where she left it, the book of horrors.


    She felt a strong urge to remove her clothes and entered the water, the still hugged across her chest. When the water touched her, her body relaxed, immediately letting go of the pain. She laughed in ecstasy and went deeper. Soon the water was at her chest but she was not afraid. She looked up and the moon and giggled more, it was big and round and bright, it felt as if the whole world had come to see her die.


    Then she heard the voice again,


    You are indeed a stupid girl! Get out and learn! Get out and become powerful.


    She looked across the water and saw a fish jumping out and inside the water again in an arc. Quickly she backtracked towards the shore, the book still across her chest. That was definitely not a fish. Her body was still singing when she ran all the way home.


    She hid the book in her room, that was also the storeroom for all the things her aunt sold in the provision container. As she was getting ready to leave do her evening chores, her cousin moved aside the cloth that was the sole barrier between the room and outside and entered.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you go anywhere?¡± her cousin asked sadly ¡°They will kill you¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. God will protect me¡± She said, for once hope in her voice.


    ¡°Here¡± he offered her a book. She gazed at it and before her eyes could look up so he could see the tears in her eyes, he was gone.


    It was a Greek dictionary.


    *Father, normally used by Ghanaians to indicate the man of the house.