An Ancient Curse

Draic finally tells Sekani the story of their past. As he gives Sekani time to take it all in, he wanders about the house making a list of things theywill need to make their broken down shack livable.

 

            “Your parents weren’t killed by a gang,” he began. He prepared himself for the worst possible reaction, hoping that would make it hurt a little less when it came.

            “They weren’t? But then who…”

            “Demons, Sekani. Your parents were killed by demons, just like my parents and my siblings, and just about everyone else in our family.”

            Sekani frowned. “I know I always told you that you should lighten up some, but this is a really bad subject to start joking about.”

            “I’m not joking!” He snapped. “Your visions…the things you see in them are real. They aren’t just weird daydreams.” Draic looked at him to see his reaction. He seemed to be considering it.

            “So, that’s why you always ask about them all the time, right? And why you always leave when I have them. But what do you do, go fight them or something?” He knew his cousin was tough, but he couldn’t imagine anyone fighting those monsters.

            “Yes.” He responded. “I fight them. I have been fighting them for almost as long as I can remember. And the only memories I have where I wasn’t fighting them, I was training to fight them. That’s my sole purpose in life; to fight demons.”

            “But why?” He didn’t understand. It made him angry that his cousin, the only family he had left, the person who had put up with him no matter what, should have to fight the monsters from his nightmarish visions. “Why do you have to fight them? Can’t you let someone else do it?”

            “Sekani, calm down. I am the only one left that can fight them. And if that were not true, I would still do it, because it keeps me sane. Aside from this, there is nothing to hold me to this world but you. And don’t expect to hear that kind of confession again anytime soon. It’s just because I’m responsible for you.”

            Sekani smiled despite the rising panic that was about to overwhelm him. “When are you gonna just admit that you love me?”

            Draic smiled. “Maybe when I don’t have to worry about losing you,” he thought. But he didn’t tell the kid that. Instead he finished with his explanation.

            “It all started long ago, during the time of the Roman conquests, in a very small village in Ireland. Because it was so small and secluded, not much happened there, but we were a proud people and we wanted to defend our country if we could. We weren’t content to sit back and watch our beloved homeland be taken over by the Roman scum, so we fought back. The villagers wanted to join in the war, but one of our ancestors, Gearóid Cadogan, felt that that wouldn’t be enough. He said that we would need help from the supernatural.

            “He called upon several witches, many of whom turned him down, claiming that what he wanted to do was far to powerful a magic to meddle with. They all told him that there was to great a risk of something going terribly wrong. But Gearóid refused to heed their warnings. Desperate, he visited Ciara, the dark witch, who agreed to help him only if he would take her to bed with him. Although he already had a wife, Gearóid agreed, grateful to have finally found someone willing to help him.

            “But Ciara betrayed him. She didn’t summon the gods to help them, as she had agreed, but opened a door to the underworld, releasing all of the demons onto earth. They destroyed the village, killing all but a few, and then spread out across the world. Among the survivors was his beautiful wife, Anora. She knew about Gearóid’s infidelity, but she stayed with him just the same, though it pained her constantly, for she loved him dearly, and would happily have given her soul for him, no matter what wrongs he had done her.

            “Later that night, Gearóid was visited by Cenn Cruaich. The god was furious, because the balance of good and evil had been destroyed. Gearóid begged to be forgiven. He had not known that she would unleash the demons; he had thought that she would summon Morrigan to help them. He begged Cenn Cruaich to spare his life, promising to do anything in his power to correct his wrong. He swore that he would kill Ciara for what she had done. The god considered his words.

            “Cenn Cruaich agreed spare Gearóid’s life, but it would from then on be a cursed one. He would be given unnatural powers, many of them equal to those that the demons possessed; incredible strength, extraordinary hearing, animal-like speed and reflexes, all of these things would be award to him. However, he must spend the rest of his existence fighting the monsters that he had released into the world. If he refused to do so, he would be forever locked out of paradise after death. 

            “This condition would be passed onto his children, and follow down the line of his descendents. He was told to keep the witch Ciara alive, for she would bear his child. This child would be the first victim of the curse, but he would be more powerful than any other, for he would share the blood of a witch as well. Once the child was born, he must take him from the Ciara and then kill her, so that the child would be free from her evil influence.

            “Gearóid did this, and he and Anora raised the child and named him Alsandair. They had many other children together, and all of them were trained to fight the monsters from a young age. None of their children however, were skilled or powerful as the boy, Alsandair. The same trait followed for the grandchildren, those born of Alsandair were stronger than the others. Another trait of Alsandair and his children, that had previously gone unnoticed, was that they could not die unless slain. Nor would they age as normal humans.

            “As time went on, the abilities of the Cadogans began to fade, save for any descendant of Alsandair. Perhaps the gods had begun to forgive Gearóid, and are slowly lifting the curse. But the witch was evil, and therefore, unforgivable. 

            “You, Sekani, are a descendant of Gearóid Cadogan, and that is why you have visions. They allow you to see where some demons are going to go and what they are going to do, as soon as they decide upon it. I however, am the very last descendent of Alsandair Cadogan. So you see, fighting demons is literally what I was born to do.”

            As he finished his story, he looked at Sekani to see how he was taking it all in. He could tell that the young man was deep in thought, but he wondered what it was about. Did he believe him? Did he think that Draic was insane? Or worse, did he believe him and hate him for dragging this into his life? If his cousin didn’t speak up soon, he would go insane from worrying about it. But he knew that his cousin would need a bit of time to think about it.

            “I’m gonna go start dinner while you take it in, all right?” He said gently.

            Sekani nodded, but didn’t say anything.

            Draic sighed, and then got up and went into the kitchen to search for food. He pulled open several cabinets and found the same thing in all of them: nothing. So much for that idea. He sat down at the rickety table and looked around the room to distract himself. It was a pretty sad sight. He decided that tomorrow he would go on a giant shopping spree. He grabbed a paper and pencil from the drawer under the table and began making a list. 

                        Stuff We Gotta Buy

1.    A scraper for this nasty a*s wallpaper

2.   Goopy stuff to fill in the holes in the wall

2.Lots of goopy stuff

3.   Paint (don’t know what color yet)

4.   Mattresses

5.   Pillows

6.    Blankets

7.   Another chair

8. A mop

9.   Something to hold stuff (maybe a bookshelf)

10. Nails (little ones)

11.Hinges (for the cabinets)

 

      “There,” he said, proudly holding up his shopping list. “That ought to do it.”

            As he said this, Sekani came out of the room to sit next to him. “What’s that?” he asked. Draic showed him the list. 

            “Stuff we need to buy?” Suddenly he started laughing hysterically.

            “What?” Draic asked, offended. “What’s wrong with that? That’s exactly what it is, isn’t it? It’s a list of stuff that we need to buy. There’s not a thing wrong with that title.” He frowned at his cousin, who was still laughing.

            “Hey you know what? I’m pretty darn proud of that list. That’s the start of a new life for us, right there. We’re going to clean this place up; make it livable.” What do you say, you and me? Yeah?” He held his hand out to Sekani, who had by now almost stopped laughing, though he still let out an occasional snicker.

            Sekani took the hand. “Yeah.”

            Draic stomach growled then, and they both started laughing. When they had calmed down, Draic got up to see if there was any food in the refrigerator. He saw sour milk, moldy cheese, and a plate of unidentifiable substance that Sekani had been picking from some time ago, though Draic couldn’t remember what it was.

            “Hey, Sekani?” he asked hesitantly. 

            “Yeah?”

            “How long has this weird stuff you were eating been in here?”

            He thought about it for a while. “Umm, I don’t know, maybe a week. Why?”

            “Cause I’m pretty sure it just winked at me.”

            Sekani laughed, but Draic was unsure. After he had scraped it into the garbage, he added one last item to his list:

12. Food that doesn’t wink