El encantador

It was hard to believe that a dream could have so much influence in the life of a person, and yet here she was, on the other side of the world in the middle of the hondurian jungle, forcing herself to withstand the suffocating heat, the terrible insect bites, and the mounting calluses forming at the soles of her feet.

She looked back on the events which had led up to such an unsavory setting, deciding upon the day in which her beloved had returned from a lecture at the British museum as the fateful day that began both of their downfalls. 

From what she could recall, there had been a particular exhibition from ancient civilizations all across the world that promised to reveal new discoveries from excavations throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, the southern Atlantic coastline of Mexico. Under whose name such a groundbreaking discovery it would be adjudicated to she did not know, for it had not been done so by any of the usual patrons of the prestiged institute. All she had on the author of her beloved’s descent into madness were nothing more than wild portraits conjured up by her mind, all molded from the weird tales that would fill her afternoons after her husband’s frequent visits to the accursed exhibition. 

Many curious objects and idols, and even carvings upon the surface of heavy stone slabs, had been brought to the museum for a select few to lay witness to, all of which held a terrible and dark nature to them that still haunted them to this day, yet it had been a particular sculpture of jade and obsidian that brought about Victor’s terrible fate. She recalled how his studio began to be filled with yellowing pages portraying the same bloody sculpture, its form greatly altered with each new conception of the same piece until becoming something completely alien, where the only tie loosely binding it to human origins being that of the preserved snake-like anatomy of the figure.

Something about the relic oozed with malice and dread that its own creator failed to hide with the usage of their more revered and valued stones, and it bound itself to her lover, sickening his body and mind. It had broken him so fully, yet the most horrifying of events would have not befallen them until much later. 

'Ya casi llegamos señorita.' A mellow, yet still rough voice called out to her, pulling her away momentarily from the distracting thoughts of her husband's disappearance. She looked at Agustin, who smiled softly at her, his brown skin glistening softly with sweat under the few rays of sunlight filtering through the canopy. 

His wrinkled finger pointed vigorously at an opening in the treeline where a tower of white smoke rose upon a violet horizon after a few moments of awkward silence, and immediately understood the meaning of the foreing sounding words. 

She had met the kind old man after falling victim to fraudulent individuals at the dock soon after arriving to the new world, where she had been pillaged from what little fortune remained in their name. Despair had done nothing but mount itself upon her shoulders for several months now, having suffered from tragedy after tragedy which further spiraled her life into madness, that losing the only ties to the now distant feeling of a stable life would have been her breaking point had it not been by Agustin. 

He had quickly kneeled beside her, offering assistance unbeknownst of the communications barrier between them, and even after realizing the hardships that would come from understanding one another it mattered not to him.

It had been his genuine care and kindness which shone like a scorching beacon to her that managed to dispel the darkness that clouded her soul long enough to keep the ever fleeting hope of unearthing har beloved’s fate alive but for a moment. 

Thus, upon meeting the man’s eyes, she reached into her coat, now dirtied and torn, and pulled a small picture of her Victor, a last remnant of his figure and his sanity.

Taking the small portrait into his hand, his eyes drank every detail of her lover’s face, mouth forming into a thin line as he did. He spoke something from under his breath, strange sounding words unlike those of the language of the region, before handing the picture back. And it had been this curious reaction which had led her to believe that Victor and this man had met before. Hopefully, recently.

So she had begged the man to lead her to Victor, so this nightmare could finally be put to an end. She didn’t care if the man did not understand her at all, nor the tarnishing of her image by desperately asking a mere stranger for aid, all she cared for was for closure. 

Perhaps it had been a miracle, or maybe a loose understanding of the English tongue by the influx of Europeans through their port, whichever the case, the man heard her pleas regardless, offering his wrinkled hand and name.

“Is Victor there?” She asked, hand pointing at the puffy tower of smoke once more. It was a curious thing really, even if neither one of them could understand the other well enough, the mere mention of names and usage of exaggerated gestures seemed to serve them perfectly fine to communicate their thoughts with each other. To which Agustin nodded surely, pointing in the same direction as her and responding with a confident “Si Victor.”

That was answer enough to dig deep into her soul and muster enough courage to continue their trek deep into the heart of the jungle, where Victor would lay waiting for her. 

The longer they walked in the direction of the source of the smoke, the more vicious and treacherous the terrain became. She couldn't help but watch the frail body of Agustin moving across each obstacle with youthful agility with a mixture of awe and envy as she struggled to keep up with the elderly gentleman. Yet it couldn't really be helped, since a lifetime upbringing within the comforts of the great London would never compare to the hardships of rural life. 

However, the instinctual fear that had ensured their continued survival as a species remained the same for her and him, and the closer they grew to their destination, the more that fear became nearly palpable.

"What is up there?" She suddenly asked, taking a moment to catch her breath after barely managing to scale a rough section of land. 

"¿Mande?" 

"Up there." She repeated herself, pointing upwards to the canopy again where the tower of smoke had grown closer to them in a matter of minutes. Agustin made a curious sound, denoting his confusion as to what exactly she was referring to.

Picking up on this, she produced another object from her ruined coat, one she held with disgust between her fingers as she revealed the drawing within. 

The yellow paper was quickly unfolding for Agustin's soft eyes to witness in all its horror, each damaging fold on the page unable to even disrupt the wild lines of the twisted idol.

“Is this what’s up there?” She asked again, a mad glint in her eyes as she continued probing the man for answers.

“El Diablo” Agustin answered quietly, his words barely audible were it not for the sudden ethereal silence that befell the world around them, as if the name alone instilled such paralyzing fear unto every living being that could hear its uttering.

‘Diablo.’ She repeated to herself, mouth stinging with each letter spoken. After months of suffering at the hands of that damned idol she finally knew its name.

“Ese monstruo ha matado nuestro ganado, y devorado a todo aquel que cruce por el rio.” Agustin said, hands quick to draw a cross over himself. “Dicen que es el mismisimo Demonio el que ha tomado la forma de la serpiente el que derrama la sangre.”

Something in the way he spoke chilled her to the bone, for there was little difference in the sound of words monster, demon and Devil, and to hear them uttered from a man who had lived in this world longer than her impacted her greatly. However she wasn’t allowed much time to ponder upon this revelation as they became drowned in light, the wild and untamable jungle reaching a limit to its grasp as they entered a clearing.

Briefly blinded by the unobstructed sunlight bathing them with the last of its warmth for the day, yet after the hardships of their journey it was nothing more than an inconvenience. One she quickly adjusted to. 

Before them stood a hill, its uneven terrain setting the stage for temples and structures of hefty stone digging into the earth. The source of the beaconing white smoke laying at the entrance of the larger temples, flames contained within a golden bowl as the air continued to be filled with an intoxicating sweet aroma. 

For a moment she had forgotten the reason for her arrival to this new land, so captivated by the beauty of the scene before her. The genuine marvel that filled her could not be denied for the perfect architecture and craftsmanship of the buildings, having only been exposed to their existence through word of mouth and paintings that filled the galleries of the London museum, now gazing at them with her own eyes, she knew that nothing back home did these marvels of the world any justice.

Yet all that awe and admiration for the civilizations of the old world quickly faded away as figures emerged from the shadows, slithering into the light, their faces covered by white bone masks of reptilian faces of every type known to man, their crowns and sides decorated with feathers and precious stones which glowed in the fading light.

Upon seeing them rise, wearing nothing but those masks, their intimacy covered barely by ceremonial paint and animal skins, that instinctive fear was brought back, worse than before.

Still reeling from fear, Agustin took a hold of her hand and led the two of them across the ever watchful eyes of the natives until standing at the base of the main temple. It was here that he left her as he made his way up the broken stairway, were another figure emerged from from the doorway and met him halfway.

There wasn’t much she could have done than to wait for some type of development as Agustin and the new figure spoke just out of hearing distance, yet all it accomplished was to further cement her fears and anxieties as possible threats watched her intently. If something were to truly happen to them now, not one soul would ever know what became of them.

"Señorita." Agustin's voice reassured for a few moments longer, and as she focused on the man who had aided her she made up her mind once more to see everything through.

As she came towards both men, her eyes quickly became fixed upon the priest-like figure at the entrance, their body completely covered by a robe decorated with fine prints and gems, yet their mask was by far the most unique feature of their person. It almost looked freshly ripped off the body of a large reptile, its scales glistening in the light in curious colors she would have never believed could be reflected upon them. In a certain way, it almost felt alive. 

Her companion seemed to have been in the middle of some explanation about themselves or what they were looking for before the priest shouted a single word, forcing the poor man into silence.

Quickly the air grew cold, and the simple act of breathing became laborious. The priest's gaze focused on her, searching for something past flesh and blood and into her soul.

"I'khti"

The word echoed through the silence, only to be quickly followed by the shuffling of feet coming from behind them, forcing her towards the entrance of the temple. She screamed in horror the deeper they forced her into the earth, trying miserably to escape the hold of her captors to no avail. Agustin also shouted over the chaos, trying desperately to help her but there was only so much someone of his age could do.

The further they went into the hill, the more the structure became impossible to traverse, spiraling and twisting in paths and corridors heading downwards deeper and deeper into the dark. Suddenly, the hands of her unseen assailants released her, letting her fall to the cold stone floor with a wet thump. 

She groaned loudly, bones straining to even lift a finger after the drop, and just like that, it was like being in that dream once more. 

She tried to scream for help, surrounded only by darkness and the sound of falling water from somewhere inside, but all air had been knocked out of her, leaving her only capable of producing miserables moans and gasps for none but her to hear. 

Trying her best to crawl away, no clear destination in mind, she merely wanted to hide from what would come next if the accosting nightmare continued to gain life. Soon, the silence of the chamber was broken bit by bit, the sound of water dripping down the stones coming from everywhere all around her, at times falling on her back. It started softly, following a calm rhythm like a heartbeat then quickly breaking into a heavy downpour which fell upon her until returning to silence when another wet, squelching thump filled the cave.

She dared not see what it was that caused such noise, eyes covered by her soiled hands, and in the dark, she could barely make out the color of the warm liquid that bathed her, one which she quickly realized was blood.

Instincts overtook her in an instant, suppressing the pain coursing through her body, a lesser evil compared to an imminent threat to her life.Yet this surge of adrenaline quickly betrayed her, falling victim to the to the twisted formations of rock, falling deeper into the mouth of the earth once more. 

Stone tore her clothes and cut her skin, and when she finally stopped, much of her skin had already become mangled. However, it seemed like the spilling of her blood had brought her a sliver of luck, as a sickly green light entered her gaze.

Broken and tethering at the brink of unconsciousness, whatever remaining fight she held onto was used solely to reach this light, regardless if it led her deeper. 

As she reached the edge, the sound of water began once more, only this time remaining rhythmic and benign. She shifted her body to gaze down to the light at the bottom of the underground cenote, and as her eyes descended the cracked stone walls of the cenote so did the temperature of her blood. Instead of water resting below, all she found was a pit of snakes crawling over each other, attempting to climb the wall that contained them. However what truly horrified her was not the thousands of snakes crawling in unison creating the illusion of flowing water, nor the impossible size that some of them presented, but the presence of human bodies wriggling amongst that made her sick to her stomach.

“Lisa…”

For a brief moment, she had believed herself to lose just about the right amount of blood for her to start hallucinating, unsure if what she was hearing truly was the voice of her beloved Victor or perhaps the most joyful of her life’s memories facilitating the slow dream of death. Seeking the source of the voice, her eyes were drawn to the edge of the pit, where various naked bodies of men, women and even children hanged by peculiar slimy green roots, and there, right there, laid her husband.

“Victor… Victor, is that you?”

The body of his beloved didn’t move, nor did it seem to produce any signs of life, yet she could hear his voice still. “Lisa. Lisa, how I’d like for you to see what I have seen. It's more beautiful than I could ever imagine.”

She was unsure as to what Victor referred to, possibly a result from the delirium caused by hunger or injuries endured for weeks, maybe months. Yet suddenly, the bodies began to jerk violently, and for an instant she believed her presence in the chamber was enough to stir awake the victims of the cult on the surface, but all those hopes were quickly shattered upon noting how their skin cracked and deformed horribly. Each body soon gave way for gigantic snakes from their torn flesh, each one different in the form of their heads, the length of their bodies, or the color of their scales, where they would soon fall into the pit below with the thousands more which were undoubtedly brought similarly into this world.

Afraid , she tried reaching Victor before the same fate befell him, but as she touched his cheek the mutation began. His flesh never broke, but it suffered greatly from the metamorphosis. His neck elongated painfully, his mouth dislocating until it opened inhumanly wide, and one by one, each extremity webbed itself against his body, leaving only their silhouette behind. In a matter of moments, he had become much like the idol which cursed them both to this moment, but that didn’t matter any more.

“Come and see what I have seen.” Were the words spoken by the thing that Victor had become, voice echoing within her skull. And as the sweet embrace of death began to take her, all she could do was smile after finally reuniting with her beloved, his coiling body holding her close to him, a single word in her mind as it all faded into darkness. Beautiful.