It only took a little hoodoo and a lot of drugs smuggling to build my empire and its “citizens”. I had been right. Using these piss-poor fools’ addictive personalities to get hooked on everything I could supply was the key to my kingdom. After only six months, I had them at my every whim, doing my biddings without ever second-guessing or asking why. If they wanted their next high, they did as they were told - well, at least for the simplest of minds. There were quite a few more “trustworthy” subjects under my reign that were gob-smacked with my abilities and enamored with every single spoken word that left my mouth. I was inching my way closer to becoming a mambo… one like no other that had ever come to light (or dark) before. For now, I am their leader.
After finishing dressing, I left my room only to find the somewhat annoying but strictly loyal Henri waiting for me outside the door frame. He had an eagerness to his eyes that I knew meant he had something juicy to spill onto me.
“Adya, Adya… come closer. I have some distressing news that you need to deal with.”
If there was one thing I didn’t care for, it was being told what I “needed” to do. Eyes rolling and a deep throaty sigh leaving my chest, I waited impatiently for the spirit of a man to continue.
“Or perhaps you don’t deserve such a warning,” Henri said, obviously perturbed by the apparent bored frustration in my reaction. “I will give it to you anyway - you need me. You know that... You need me.” He only paused for a millisecond to give me time to shake my head before continuing. “Mark, the bundle-headed one that squats in the basement has been talking poorly of your character. In fact, he’s telling the others that he has been in touch with several lwa who have warned him against you. He’s telling them all that if they don't heed his warning, we will use them as bait on a battlefield for their souls.”
It wasn’t untrue by any means, but I could see where the concern fell naturally into place. I would use these people as my henchmen - in fact, I had already been doing it. But would I put their lives and afterlives at risk? For my own gain? Of course, I would. That’s the plan folks.
But what happens when you lead the pigs out of the pen to slaughter? They may be foul animals, but their instincts after watching their pen mates follow the same path previously, never to return, served as a warning of what was to come. I need my doers blind and my soldiers armed. No one should be shooting blindly… my doers will continue to kill those of which I ask them to, but that is a much more selective sport with the research and the stalking before... So many more details and addicts are naturalists in fixating on the small things.
“I’ll handle it this afternoon. I will need you to create some kind of distraction until I can make the final play. No more twisting of arms or pushing pins into his poppet… I can manipulate or disfigure him no more than I already have. Starving him from the meth rushing through his veins would be deliciously fulfilling if I had that kind of time. So can you or can you not distract the others after lunch so I can finish him off? “
Henri smirked and nodded silently. He was pleased that he still held her trust, even though that Goddamn Phineas was taking up more of the picture these days. Whether Adya would admit it or not, she had fallen for the disgusting weasel of a human, seeing only what she wanted in the man and nothing else.
As Adya turned, she felt a pang of dizziness inside her skull - she’d been feeling these more frequently but turned to the gris-gris in her pocket for answers. Summoning whoever she could for answers, but none had sent her a clear vision -a strange phenomenon but not unheard of. Adya brushed it off as another weakness of her human form and pressed on to larger matters… prepping her clan of housemates, followers, believers, her doers, to hear the news she would share with them in the coming days. The news they would need to prepare for war because their queen was ready to expand her reign. A small gain of influence at first, but sooner than later, the world. She was the Mambo they’d all been waiting for - a new twist of light and dark. An enchanting mix of what had always been and what was to become.
And then, after lunch, take another life, storing his soul in her pouch for later.