La Noche de la Chankla: House of the Moon
Chapter 22
Luz and Xochitl had not been idle. While Luna had to tend to Javier, they had tapped into the network of brujas online, and sought help, trying to explain the situation without coming across as spammers or mujeres locas. They had sounded the alarm, hoping that the world of magic would come to their aid, and there had been a response.
Mostly they heard back from women, brujas, who offered them prayers, prayers that were readily accepted, as prayers were power they could harness. Others offered to send rare yerbas, sahumeros, and oils, also greatly appreciated and accepted, but it was unknown if they would reach Agape in time. One bruja sent them her entire grimorio, which she had scanned, but because of Luz’s dial-up internet, the attachment might be days in loading. They would have retrieve it at Luna’s, and did the following day.
In the interim, the urgent care center had been swallowed into the the gaping mouth of Niflheim, leaving the residents of the small town without immediate medical treatment, which may become imperative. It was a serious concern, and all the townspeople felt the loss. To make matters worse, black spells had been seen around the perimeter of the town, dark ritualistic magic, attached to cacti and posts hammered into the sand. The town was being surrounded, methodically. The people were scared, and they had every reason to be. Many abandoned their homes to go stay with relatives in El Paso, Las Cruces, Alamogordo, and Juarez, hoping that the evil would not follow them.
Enrique and his friends had taken up locating the wicked symbols and burning them, only to find them replaced nearby when another sweep was undertaken. No one had any idea how many adherents the Silver Moon actually had, but, given the rapidity of the replacements, there had to be hundreds, at least, and the two legs moved unhindered during the night, when no resident dared to be out any longer. The small town descended into terror.
As a few days passed without incidents within the town, the brujas grew more and more worried. While many people would have tried to convince themselves that the threat had gone, the women knew well that what dwelt within the Silver Moon had no intention of abandoning its quest and was merely waiting … for something, likely intentionally trying to lull the brujas into a false sense of security. They would not fall for it. And they were right, as the inactivity ceased as quickly as it had come. A group of residents came to Luna’s door to inform her that the entire square, where the brujas had been taken by the enemy, was gone, fallen into the abyss, along with a number of homes … and their residents. The intentions of Surtr became clear. The fire god, having failed to destroy the brujas, planned, instead, to swallow the entire town, and there was little that could be done to stop it.
As Luna looked at the people who had come to her for help, looking into their scared eyes and not knowing what to tell them, the ground beneath her began to shake. In Javi’s room, the piedra de luna began to glow radiantly. As Luna tried to keep her balance by grabbing onto the wrought iron posts that held up her little awning, she could see the ground trying to open but being forced closed again. She knew that Surtr had come to take her home, but the moonstone was preventing him.
“Abuela!” Javi shouted from somewhere inside the house. “I can see him! He’s under us! Fire under us!” Javier could see the fire-eyed jötunn in its misty cavern, pulling at the ground itself, intent upon taking them into the underworld.
Anger and fear collided in Luna’s mind, the emotion building with the earthquake. But, just as she felt that a word might come to her, the shaking stopped, and all was quiet again. The moonstone would not allow the fire jötunn to engulf her and her grandson, as that is what it had been meant to ward off. The people, some regaining their feet, stared at her, hoping for answers, but she had none that she could give them. Just as she was about to tell them to leave the town, to go anywhere they could to find safety, she heard her nieto cry out …
“Noooo!”
A sound like thunder splitting the sky echoed throughout Agape, and all present on Luna’s property found themselves thrown from their feet, landing on the hard concrete of the sidewalk or into the pathetic excuse for grass, where goatheads dug their way into the skin, piercing nerves. The house itself left its concrete slab foundation, forced a few inches into the air, breaking pipes and shattering windows, including the window that Spider, the stolen soul, had just replaced. When the edifice landed, it broke the floor, splitting the tiling in the living room and kitchen.
Striving to climb to her feet, and aided by some residents who had found theirs, fighting their fear, Luna’s eyes seemed glossed over, as if she were staring into another world. The wave of emotion that had come over her had turned within itself, bringing with it a deadly calm. Without the power to see, she looked at the cement beneath her feet and spoke in a voice that carried its own echo. “Ego te expello!” A monstrous roar from below her feet answered her command. And then all was silent once more.
Seeing the damage done to her home by the blow of the fire god, her heart was hurt. She could smell gas coming from inside and could hear water hitting the floor. But, in lieu of retrieving Javier and Hueso, running from the danger, and just as Luz and Xochitl screeched to halt in Luz’s car, having heard the thunderclap, Luna spoke again, “Recuperate!”
Before everyone’s eyes, the pieces of shattered glass rose from the ground and reassembled themselves back into their frames. The broken tiles became level once more and the places where the structure of the house had buckled reasserted themselves in humble pride. The cracks in the pavement vanished, healing themselves. And the smell of gas ceased to flow from inside, along with the sound of water.
Bewildered by it all, the townsfolk stood still, gaping-mouthed at the bruja’s magic. The haze upon Luna’s eyes receded, and she waited for the people to run from her, run from the bruja who could undo destruction with a word. But they did not run. Though they had never witnessed such miracles and had believed that brujería was only cards and incense, had believed that Luna was merely a wise woman who possessed essential knowledge, they, overcome by awe, knelt before her with their heads down, as Luz and Xochitl looked on in amazement.
“No! No mis amigos! Do not kneel to me. Get up, por favor,” Luna protested. “I am just a vessel. I am just Luna, an abuelita. I am the same as you’ve always known me. Get up, my friends.” She smiled at them and assured them that it was okay, helping an old man to his feet.
“But you have the power of God,” he said, looking into her eyes, believing her to be an angel on earth. “You can stop it. You can stop all of it. You defeated it aqui! Yo creo!” The man was Senor Alvarez, the neighbor who had helped Luz and Xochitl with Robertson, the man who had never spoken to her in decades, although he was right across the street. And now he saw her as the salvation of Agape.
Luna wanted to weep. She did not want to give the people false hope. “No, Senor. I only have what comes to me from the other side. I am just like you … and you can all do it. But you must listen to the nature, listen to the other world and let it flow into you. Go … ahora! Go back to your homes and pray … and listen quietly, listen to the breezes and the birds, for your relatives on the other side. Listen. Nothing is over, and I am only one person. Those of us who stay will have to fight el malvado … all of us.”
The townspeople heeded the bruja, but, before departing, they each, in their turn, reached out and touched her, her hands and shoulders, hoping to connect with her power. They were afraid, and she was now a ray of hope, one who had sent the evil away … at least for now. Then they were gone, drifting back to their homes and occupations … but listening as they had never before listened.
Luna smiled a weak smile at Luz and Xochitl. She was tired, the speaking of the words having taken much from her. They returned her smile and Luz pointed to the doorway to the little white house. When Luna turned, she found Javier there, and she hugged him tightly. Luz and Xochitl joined the embrace.
“You sent the fire god away, Abuela. I saw him get pulled away from under the house by something invisible. He was very angry!”
“Sí, mijo, and he will not stay away. So you must be on watch for us.”
“Yes, Abuela,” Javier answered dutifully.
After entering the house, Javi turned on the television with no intention of actually paying attention to it but seemingly undisturbed by what had happened, while the brujas sat in the kitchen, where Luna related the entire incident to Luz and Xochitl, up until their arrival, when they had witnessed events for themselves.
“Maybe the people are right, Luna. Maybe it is you. Maybe you can defeat Surtr,” Xochitl said seriously.
“Ay, Xochitl, we have known each other for years and you know that no one is that powerful,” Luna answered. “Luz, tell her.”
Luz looked at her cockeyed. “Pos, I would … but I can’t, Luna. I don’t know anymore. Your power seems like it’s grown beyond ours.”
Xochitl nodded, happy to have Luz on her side for once.
Luna was not having it. “Enough crazy talk. We need to figure out what we are going to do. We can’t keep sitting and waiting for them to attack us.”
“Sí. You’re right,” Luz admitted.
Just then there was a knock at the door, not an urgent knock but a confident one, and the brujas could feel that whoever was on the other side of the door was important to them.
