Black Magic Ritual

Sato, Zuberi and José Luis were sitting around the campfire, while the guide was already sleeping in a tent near them. A terrifying shaman appeared suddenly and started talking, but José Luis did not notice any of this. The truth is that he was feeling dizzy and exhausted. His thoughts were focused on Montserrat since he told the group why he had left Spain. He still could not understand what happened. Montserrat seemed to haunt him more and more. Since he left Spain, he could not recognize himself in his attitude and feelings. He used to be so positive and vigorous. I should have never come here.

“Hey! José!”

José came back to reality and did not know who was calling him. There was only Zuberi gazing at him.

“Where is Sato?” José Luis asked.

“He left us to follow that crazy shaman. We have to save him!” Zuberi said.

“Wait! What? What shaman are you talking about?” José Luis asked in disbelief.

“A shaman came and tried to convince us to follow him in order to heal our wounds, but I think you were not listening. Sato chose to follow him, but I fear he is in great danger. That shaman seems really bad and he does not say everything he has in mind. I feel great darkness in him.”

Zuberi stood up and moved into the path that Sato and the Shaman had taken, and turned round towards José Luis. Two white eyes stood out of darkness and were looking at José Luis.

“Come!” Zuberi said.


***


The two men were walking and they could see a village lit with fire. It looked even more rudimentary than the one they had gone first. As they were approaching it, they could hear and see that something was going on. A bald man was tied to a cut tree trunk, and people were gathered around him. A shaman wearing a mask was dancing and two people were bringing a dead alpaca. They laid it on the soil before the bald man and put a bowl beside his head. The shaman took a knife out of his tunic and cut the animal’s throat. Dark blood was flowing and the shaman filled the bowl with it. The villagers shouted louder to encourage their shaman. He walked towards the bald man and poured the blood on his head while shouting unintelligible words for Zuberi and José Luis, who were seeing this terrible scene.



“I can’t believe this. . .” José Luis said in disgust. The two men reached the edge of the village. There was no guard. Everyone was at the centre. They came closer and could see what was happening without being noticed.

The poor bald man was shaking and the people around him were repeating what the shaman had said. Then the shaman took off his mask. He was the shaman who had come to the campfire. He filled the bowl with blood another time and came back near the bald man.

“No! Please, don’t!” the bald man screamed in tears. It was Sato’s voice. The two men recognized it. They pushed many people in the crowd and reached the centre. It was complete silence and everyone was shocked. The shaman looked at them.

“If you want to join the healing ritual, it is not too late yet,” he said.

“Yeah. . . We came for that,” José Luis said. “We changed our mind.” He glanced at Zuberi, who shook his head.

“Well, come!” the shaman said.

The two men got closer to the shaman. When Zuberi was close enough, he punched the shaman to the head and José Luis took him his knife to untie Sato. The shaman was unconscious and the indigenous people were looking at them in disbelief. When Sato was free, Zuberi, José Luis and he began to run in order to flee the village. Soon after, they heard screams behind them. The indigenous people were running after them. . .

It took me over a minute to realize that the bald man tied to the tree was, our friend, Sato. There was something about the helplessness in his eyes that shocked me. And at the exact moment when our eyes met, when I felt his fear, I knew we could not leave him. There had to be a way to free him.  

Everything that happened in the next few minutes seems like a blur to me. I remember punching the shaman  and seeing from the corner of my eye, José untie Sato. We had to make a run for it. We must have ran for an hour before the indigenous people stopped chasing us. We were clearly in a disadvantageous position. It was their mountains, their natural environment, these people knew the paths of the mountains by heart. It was dark and they probably hoped the carnivorous animals would get us first and if it was not them, it would be something else. The mountains were full of dangerously deadly surprises. We did not stop running and I knew we had to stay off the tracks. There was no other way, or else they could find short cuts and catch up to us. We stumbled through the forest. I could feel the branches snap beneath my feet, the sharp edges of wood cutting the surface of my flesh. The wind was cool yet it felt like a constant slap on my face. Sato and José were running behind me, I couldn't look behind me to check on them but I could hear their heavy footsteps pounding on the ground and their heavy breathing. I heard someone fall, probably over the root of a tree but I did not look to see who had fell.
It wasn’t until we reached a high point of the mountain that we allowed ourselves to stop running. We had a good view of the cleared area below us. We could see them arrive way before they would ever notice us. We had a good panoramic view of the cleared space below us, the ground seemed rocky and slightly uneven. In the middle sat an enormous flat gray rock although it seemed rusted and stained with huge splashes of orange and red.


The deforested place contrasted with its heavily forested surroundings. As though it had been cleared for a reason.

As the night fell completely dark, the moon set high in the sky. It was a full moon, the night where a huge amount of magic can be drawn. Miracles happened during these nights. As my comrades were slowly falling asleep, I heard a rumble through the forest below us. The rumble then grew loud and aggressive and I could hear piercing shouts of excitement as though a festivity was about to happen. I saw them come in from every side of the forest, all of them gathering around the huge stained rock. Some were starting a fire, an enormous one. There must have been at least two hundred of them. Their faces were covered in black symbols and they wore what seemed like animal teeth around their heads, necks and wrists.



I couldn't see very well from afar but their teeth seemed sharp-edged like the ones of a shark. I woke Sato and José up, terrified that these men would see us, terrified by what they were about to do. We all hid behind a fallen tree trunk, our heads raised just enough to see the spectacle that was arising below us. It was at this moment that a man, clearly the chief, arrived in the clearing. Behind him, were a line of five prisoners, hands tied. They were brought up to the rock. At this point the excitement of the tribe was at its peak. They seemed so uncivilized and aggressive, I could feel goosebumps rising on my arms. The men were jumping around and pushing the prisoners, practically tossing them around, flashing their teeth and terrifying smiles. They kept chattering their teeth, it was disturbing to watch.

José was the first one to speak up, whispering: “What is happening?” he asked.

“I don’t understand but we’re about to find out” I replied.

One of the prisoners was brought on the rock and forced to lie down. It was at this moment that I understood why the rock was tainted with red: it had been stained with blood, human blood. I stared at the chief while he approached the prisoner and looked at his prey's fearful eyes. He smelled the flesh of the terrified prisoner and without hesitation plunged his shark-like teeth deep into his prisoner's skin. The crowd grew wild and the feast began. I closed my eyes but my ears could still hear the piercing screams of the prisoner.

One word raised to my mouth, the only one I could pronounce:

“Cannibals” I muttered.

Sato had lost track of time. Everything was foggy around him and he could not feel anything.

-Am I dead?

He was seeing lights across the sky dancing like wild horses in shades unknown to man. The colors were melting like candle wax and then swirled in misty smokes in the night. He felt the forest closing upon him and his blood started to pound to his ears.


Suddenly, a shadowy creature with a deer head appeared in front of Sato. He had a strange necklace around his neck with a serpent-shaped pendant. He pronounced strange sounds with no meaning and the young man felt he was being restrained. Locks of his hair started falling in front of his eyes before he had time to realize what was going on.  Panic settled in.



A dead alpaca was brought before him and in a firm blow, the shaman cut the animal’s throat. Blood was poured in a bucket and brought upon Sato’s head. He started screaming when the blood ran down his face and a lot entered his mouth. The young man pucked trying to spit out the thick liquid.
Suddenly, the demonic deer redirected his attention somewhere in the wood and everything went blurry. Sato felt his bonds cut loose and he would have fallen to the ground if it was not for the friendly arm of José. Without thinking, Sato began to run towards the woods. They ran for what seemed an eternity and the young Japanese thought more than once that he would fall dead to the ground for so he was exhausted beyond his limits. His legs were of cotton and he felt dizzy. The taste of blood in his mouth made him threw up a few time and symptoms of dehydration began to appear. They did not stop until the moon was high up in the sky and Sato dropped on the ground, half dead. The world seemed to spin around him and he thought that he could no longer move. He was reattached to reality when the word Cannibals was uttered.
Screams followed shortly after and Sato could not help himself but to join his own voice to their despair. He felt a large hand trying to cover up his mouth, but he could not be silenced. He was at his wits' end. He heard men yelling in a strange language and footsteps aproaching. Sato looked at his companions and they all understodd they had not the courage nor the energy to run away anymore. The cannibals surrunded them in no time and the three young men were dragged in the center of the ritual.There was blood everywhere gleaming under the moonlight, but it is not what caught Sato's eyes. The cannibal leader, the one with the knife, had a very familiar snake pendant.

- We have not moved, muttered Sato.

Once this thought had sunk in, the world put on a new color. Sato recognized the tree to which he was attached and the dead alpaca’s corpse next to it. He felt the foggy cloud covering his mind lifting up and took a closer look at the cannibals. Each and every one of them was obviously under the influence of hard drugs. He did not know how but the young man concluded that he and his comrades had also been under such influence.   It would also explain how the cannibals had not followed them in the forest and how they had not achieved that much of distance is such a large amount of time.

Even if the cannibals were tying him up to a tree (again), Sato felt in full possession of his senses and it delighted him. His happiness wore off quickly when they took José and brought him to the sacrificial rock.
Sato felt helpless.

“Hey! Wake up!” said Zuberi.

José Luis felt terribly tired and dizzy. He felt as if he were losing control of his senses since they started running in the woods. Now he was beside Zuberi and Sato. Zuberi was waking Sato up, who seemed even more in madness than José Luis. Suddenly, the trees began swirling more and more.

“Stand up, we have to go or they will catch us!” said Zuberi. “We have to flee those cannibals.”

José Luis had not noticed the cannibal ritual and the screams, but now that he was hearing them, his fear grew incredibly in him. Zuberi tried to get up, but he too seemed to be dizzy. The noise from the cannibals grew louder and his head hurt him. He wanted to leave this place, feel safe again. . .

José Luis put his hands on a tree trunk. A man shrieked. The scream threw José Luis into a fright. He pushed with his legs to stand up while supporting himself on the tree. While doing so, Sato screamed. The world swirled even more and more, José Luis lost balance and fell on the soil. His head hit a rock. He was now lying on his back and looking to the sky. The tree branches and the stars were unifying and making spirals. José Luis lost consciousness. . .


***


José Luis opened his eyes. Where was he? He felt something cold on his back. His feet and his hands were tied. The indigenous cannibals brought him there. He then realized he was on a rock, a rock where he would be sacrificed. . . He turned his head to his right. Zuberi and Sato were also tied to a tree. Behind them, the cannibals were making a lot of noise. There were some suction noises between the screams. The three men were terrorized.

Suddenly, a silhouette in the shadows approached them. Sato, on his guards, took a large branch, ready to hit, until the stranger’s face was lit by the moonlight. It was their guide, the wise pilgrim that had brought them here. Once again, he seemed in perfect control of the situation and he put a finger to his lips to tell the three miserable to stay quiet. He then instantly disappeared again in the shadows.

Not so far, the ritual was still taking place. From his point of view, José Luis could not see if the victim was still alive or even if the cannibals were eating him. The screams had stopped and had let place to strange disrupted music.

Shortly after, a few noises could be heard from all around them like small steps took on soft grass. Then everything went silent for a few minutes and the most unbelievable sound was heard. There was a rumble growing louder and louder. All of a sudden, a bright light dazzled José Luis. The Spanish man thought it was a helicopter. He heard people speaking in Spanish. However, he could hear the cannibals’ screams fading away. There were also gunshots. Were those men from the helicopter soldiers? He believed they were and at the same time, José Luis could feel that someone was undoing the ties. . .




THE CONCLUSION, HERE:https://lashuaringas.rpg-board.net/t8-the-final-conclusion