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The morning following his initiation, Edo felt like a new person. For the first time in his life, he belonged to a community and was glad, even though the community in question was made of witches. He did not sleep the previous night, as he was attending his induction into the world of dark arts, but he was not tired. In fact, he had energy to spare. He decided to go to the market to buy breakfast. He almost laughed when he saw it, buzzing with activity. “If you knew what takes place here at night, he ironically thought to himself. He entered the market and made a beeline for the beignets stand, held by a lady he had seen last night, whom he now knew was a witch. Congolese vendors of these delicious snacks made it on the scene, with customers seeing the whole process from the dough making to the frying in hot oil. When Edo arrived at the Beignets stand, he stopped in his tracks, shocked. As was custom, the enormous lady had lit a fire in a brazier on top of which she had placed a huge pot used for frying the beignets. But instead of oil, she had filled the pot with blood. Edo repressed the scream that tried to escape from his mouth. The lady angrily glared at him, before icily asking what he wanted. But Edo was a clever boy who did not need a lot of explaining, he understood that he was now a member of another world. Besides, he quickly got used to the sight of beignets frying away in bright red blood, and he bought himself a dozen which he devoured with appetite.

As he was exiting the market, he was treated to another morbid scene. A lady that usually sold goat meat had that day a display of human limbs and organs spread on her stand. Edo even spotted a man’s head surrounded by a cloud of flies. Edo smiled. He was now sure that he could see what few people only could see. When the lowly, stupid populace thought they bought goat meat, all they received was human flesh. When the same crowd thought they bought nice beignets fried in peanut oil, they were in fact fried in human blood. Why though, Edo asked himself. A clear voice quickly whispered in his left ear: you need a blood sacrifice to achieve great success. Edo wondered for a split second if selling beignets or goat meat in a dusty market was great success, but that thought was quickly drowned by what Edo saw next. He had not noticed it at first, but now he was seeing it. Most of the people in the market were either half naked, or fully naked. He suddenly heard Cedric’s characteristic laughter. He looked behind him and spotted the kid. So, you’re now part of us, the lad said. Yes, Cedric continued, that’s why I am so disrespectful, for how can you respect a man or a woman who walks naked in the street? Edo dismissed him and exited the market, but he noticed that Cedric followed him, occasionally breaking out into his usual songs and dancing on the street.

Even on the streets, Edo noticed that many people, men and women, were stark naked, while others only had tops (no one had bottoms only), and others were clad in bright shining garments, so bright that Edo could not look at them for more than a few seconds. He wondered who those people were. It also seemed like the streets were more crowded than usual, not just by humans or animals. He had the eerie feeling that some beings walking next to him and around him were not humans, even though they had the same shape. Was this due to their empty vacant and soulless eyes, or the strange aura that exuded from them? He could not tell. He just had the impression of sharing the streets with … more people than before.

He did not know where he was going, and before long he saw himself walking along the Assosa street, a nicer suburb of Lubumbashi. Here, less people walked in the street, and Edo assumed that this was due to kids being at school and less parents being unemployed. As he walked, Edo noted another troubling detail: two houses appeared to be on fire without burning, and had huge sentinels guarding their gates. Edo had walked down this street before, but had never noticed those two houses before. He had seen them, he even vaguely knew some of its inhabitants, but he had not noticed the fire, nor the sentinels. This was a new day, he was discovering a lot (no doubt due to the previous night’s experience, or initiation), and thanks to his intelligence he thought he was able to comprehend most things. But this mystery, he did not get. Just forget it, the voice urgently whispered again in his left ear. He did not know where the voice came from, but he did not mind it. Like we said, Edo was intelligent and deduced that this new voice in his life must be some kind of guide granted to him by the ancestors through the witches. He stood in front of one of the houses on fire, pondering on the phenomena.

Edo knew that a boy named Odon lived here. A nice enough kid of about 10 years old, who did not mind playing in the streets of Kigoma despite coming from this side of town. Edo knew why Odon preferred coming to play in Kigoma than here, in Carrefour. It was because Odon himself originally came from a similar area called Katuba and had been adopted by his aunt a couple of years earlier when his father was killed for theft. Odon was nice enough, unlike his conceited little cousin named Christian, who thought himself too clean to venture into Kigoma. But why was Odon’s house on fire? Edo wondered again. He decided to check this out and tried to walk past the sentinels in order to see for himself if the flames were real, but one of them scooped him up and threw him back onto the street. Hey! He protested, and then he saw Odon coming out, looking miserable.

Odon! Edo called out, who are these people? And why is your house on fire?! Are you not burning?

Odon’s thick black lips parted to form the most irritating smile, and Edo understood why: Odon was also a witch, and understood that if Edo could see the sentinels and the fire, he must be a witch too. Edo instinctively hated him. But then, Edo felt an unexplainable hatred grow in his heart towards all human beings. But right now, all his ire was directed at Odon. He walked up to him and aggressively asked:

Why are you not burning?!

Of course I am burning, Odo finally replied. Every single day in this house is torture, but I have no choice but live here since this is my house. Why do you think I spend as much time as possible away from here? But I guess I don’t burn as much as … you (here Odon gave him a sneaky, insinuating look) because my aunt has allowed me to live here.

He was lying, he did not know why he could tolerate the fire to the extent of living in the house, but Odon was one of those people that always had an answer and did not care whether it was true or false. Edo pointed an accusing finger at the two burly sentinels and asked:

And who are these people?!

It’s the thugs my aunt’s wickedness brought here. Odon spat these words more than he said them, and Edo sensed that he hated them.

Without realizing it they had started walking, and Odon found himself talking about his family.

His father had been killed two or three years ago while stealing a car in a neighboring country. His mother was a prostitute who relinquished her responsibility towards her only child and had literally thrown him at her in-laws during her husband’s funeral, while saying these iconic words: take your child. One of her husband’s older sisters, Sony, a big and belligerent woman, had gotten up to beat her up. But Odon’s mother had scampered off, while hurling abusive words to her deceased husband’s family. Another older sister of her husband, Yvette, had taken Odon in and was raising him as her own child. At six years old, Odon joined a family headed by a single woman who was raising, other than her own child, a few sisters and nephews. But to Odon’s dismay, Yvette was a born-again woman who gathered her household together every evening for a short prayer meeting before going to bed. Odon’s mother was a prostitute, his father was a thief, and he had never been taught how to pray. Worse yet, he had never been told of the effects of true prayer on his life. The first night he spent in Yvette’s house was so uncomfortable that he had lost control of his bowels. Yvette and her kid’s prayers prickled his spirit, soul and body, and whenever they sang gospel songs, he saw their voices shoot to the heavens like bright, blinding rays which brought about a very unpleasant light in the living room. He knew, right away, that he had to spend as little time as possible in that house. The second and following nights, he had astral projected out of the house, a practice he had learned since the age of three. It was easy, since he was already attracted to dark arts. He shared a bedroom with Christian, Yvette’s only biological son, whom he absolutely hated and was jealous of. Christian had the one thing he himself lacked and bitterly craved, the love and undivided attention of a mother. His own mother had quickly moved on with another man and never visited him. Odon was miserable, depressed, and found solace and acceptance in the secret, underground witch community that united all the witches from the Industrial area to the Kigoma shanty town.

Odon side-glanced at Edo as they walked side by side, wondering how it was like to be the newest celebrity in town. Edo had scandalized everybody by his boldness, his enterprising spirit, the fearless steps he had taken in trying to remove himself from abject poverty. He had been praised for how he had transformed his best friend into a serving spirit, bringing him money every night to satisfy his greed. But he was about to learn how deceiving this world is, Odon thought as the left corner of his fat, greasy lips formed an ironic smile. The dark master, the master they both served, never gave. He only took, and whatever he gave he promptly took back, hundredfold. What was the purpose of following him anyway? Odon wondered. Fear, he answered himself. Ignorance, greed, but mostly fear when one was already in. Because it was impossible to get out. Odon had seen men, women, and children being slaughtered in the secret underground room for having rebelled against the witch community, and against the dark master. If Edo thought he was special, then he was about to find out the hard way that he wasn’t.

As they walked, Edo asked Odon what exactly they did in their witchy meetings, and Odon replied that it depended, he wasn’t responsible for Edo, therefore he wasn’t sure. But you’ll find out soon enough, Odon added with a mysterious smile. Edo absolutely hated Odon and his smile, which he found conspicuous, unnecessary and arrogant. Edo’s opinion was that Odon knew next to nothing, and always smiled in order to present himself as a mysterious character.

The two spent the day together, telling each other their respective lives, without meeting any sympathy from either one of them. But the outcome of their time spent together was that they would kill their respective families in order to rise in the ranks of witchcraft.

 

Christian, Yvette’s child, shared a bedroom with his cousin Odon. A spoilt brat, he expected to be the center of attention in everything. He was the only child of Yvette, Odon’s aunt and guardian, and he was fully aware that he was the only heir in the house. He was rather bored every evening during prayer time and always slept throughout. Then he and his cousin Odon were asked to go sleep in their bedroom, where they shared a tiny bed.

Christian disliked Odon, because he sensed that his cousin was liked by the remaining of the household. Odon was obedient, gracious, and was more in tune with the family culture, whereas Christian felt like a total stranger, a foreign element in the unit. He was far from being obedient, in fact he had learned very early in his years to say “no” when he was asked to perform a task, or a chore. Christian rebellious nature had earned him the hatred of everybody, inside the family and outside.

After Odon’s meeting with Edo, strange occurrences started taking place in Yvette’s house. Christian was the first to notice and complain. Because of his known bad attitude, no one paid him any mind at first. As we said, he shared a bed with his cousin. When their bedroom lights were turned off, the room was flooded by the light coming from the streetlamp through their window. The curtain was covered with motifs, and every night before falling asleep Christian would see all kind of arabesques drawn on said curtains, and imagined it was monsters. As time went by, as Christian stared harder and longer at the curtains, the shapes came together and looked more realistic, more monster-like. One night, as he was looking at the curtains with a feeling that resembled fear, he was startled to see a figure leap from the fabric of the curtain into his bedroom. He in turn leapt from his bed to the switch and turned on the light. There was nothing unusual in the bedroom. He looked at Odon, who was peacefully sleeping, a vague smile crossing his face. Christian wished he had that kind of serenity. He went back to sleep, and the following morning he forgot all about the previous night’s experience. He took a quick shower and went to school. When he came back, he went to his bedroom and found Odon sitting on the bed. He envied and hated his cousin at the same time. He had always wanted to have a brother, but he felt no affection towards Odon. The was a sense of rivalry that had developed between the two of them, causing them to constantly clash and fight. Odon was a year older than Christian, and won all their physical altercations, which pleased the other aunts and cousins living in the house. That day, Christian picked a fight with Odon again. Christian’s older cousins Germaine and Mathy, as well as his aunts Toto and Nono sat down and instructed the two boys to fight out their conflict. Those days the TV program stopped broadcasting between 3PM and 6PM, and the two little boys’ bickering and wrestling match constituted a delightful source of entertainment for the adults. Yvette, their matriarch, would not approve, but she was at work, and no one would tell her. The two boys traded a few punches, then they sat down, tired, and went their separate ways, Odon to play with his friends (of which he had many) and Christian to daydream on their tiny bed, frustrated that once again he had lost a fight against his cousin. He was starting to have the unpleasant impression that the world was divided between cool and uncool people, and he was part of the latter group. Later that night they had supper around the dining table, prayed and went to bed. As soon as the lights were turned off the figures on Christian’s curtains started dancing grotesquely in the semi-light. At first he could not make out what those were, but when the creatures jumped from the fabric of the curtain onto the bedroom floor Christian identified a line of tortoises, five or six of them, twisting their backside and laughing at him. The paraded in his bedroom while singing words he did not understand, and stood there mockingly expecting an applause. A large wasp flew next to his face and slapped him as if punishing him for not appreciating the spectacle, and Christian scream. His bedroom door flew open and Yvette came in and turned on the light, wearing an evening gown and slippers. What is it? She sternly inquired. Christian pointed a trembling index towards where the tortoises were dancing just seconds ago, and explained that things were dancing in his room. Yvette sternly told her child to stop looking for attention and go to sleep immediately, then she left the room, a frown of concern crossing her forehead. Christian went to sleep shortly after with his light on.

Christian did not like school, where everybody spoke of fathers, subject he had not opinion or experience in. But one thing he enjoyed was the school breaks, where he could spend some time with his newly made friend, LL. They had just joined school, but somehow his friend LL seemed to know most pupils already and moved in and out of friends circles with cool ease. Christian envied him. But that day LL got into a violent fight with a group of boys; Christian had never seen such in his short life, and he stood there, horrified and fascinated, as his friend was being beaten to a pulp by three or four older boys. After the fight LL’s white shirt was covered with blood, and his blue shorts with mud. The scene was so traumatic that it created a demonic gateway into Christian’s spirit, and a malignant entity entered into him. When he went home that afternoon, he had acquired boldness and confidence in his own physical ability. In their living room, he picked up a fight with his cousin Odon and easily overpowered and beat him. Odon, defeated, trampled to the ground like a wet mop, looked up at Christian and wondered why he had suddenly become so strong.