The Chosen Chapter Thirty-Eight The Breaking

“Maria, here is your birthday gift.”

“Another box?”

“Yes, again. Like the other two, when you open it, you can ask me for one gift, for anything you’d like, so use it only for important things.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Go now. Happy birthday, Maria. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow? Yes, I’ll come see you every day.”

Maria was happy. She took Zita’s hand as they walked towards the house.

“Zita, the Master said I’ll become his time. What does it mean that I’ll become his time?”

“It means he wants to marry you.”

“Really? I’ll marry the Master? That means he loves me, right?”

“Yes, he does, Maria,” Zita answered as they entered the house.

Lúcia was standing in the hall, waiting for them.

“What is wrong, Lúcia?” Zita asked.

“Who do you think you are, Maria, talking to the Master like that?”

“Lúcia, be careful!” Zita said.

“No, I won’t be careful! Do you think you are special?”

“No, I don’t think I’m special. I just don’t know him,” Maria answered, surprised.

“You think you are special because your magick comes easy with no rituals, and the Master and all the other demons are kind to you and witches bow!?”

“No, I don’t think…”

“You think he loves you?”

“No, I…”

“Lúcia, stop, please, Lúcia, stop,” Zita repeated, looking at Lúcia.

“You think that you are the only one? You think you are special. You think he is in love with you. Well, he…”

“Lúcia, stop before you regret this,” Zita said, raising her voice.

“What will I regret? Saying how it is? Maria, stop thinking he is in love with you. Stop thinking you are special. You are nothing!”

“Lúcia, stop!” Zita shouted.

“You are nobody, you are nothing. The Master is…”

“Stop, Lúcia!” Zita shouted louder.

“What is the Master? And yes, he told me he loves me,” Maria said, trembling.

“Foolish, stupid girl! What do you think, that he is in love and he’ll do what, marry you? You are nothing and nobody. The Master has many concubines and you will be one of them, one of us. You are not better than us. You are nothing!”

“What do you mean, many concubines?” Maria asked, tears gathering in her eyes.

“Oh, you didn’t know?”

“Stop, Lúcia!” Zita shouted.

“The Master has many women, girlfriends, fiancées, whatever you want to call us, and you don’t come in front of me thinking that you are special, because you are not! You are nothing. Don’t you ever dare think you are more or better than us all!” Lúcia screamed, crying.

“Lúcia, enough!”

Zita raised her hand, and Lúcia froze. She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe. She stood like a statue.

“Zita, is it true what Lúcia said?”

Zita didn’t speak. She just looked at Maria.

“Zita, answer me and tell me the truth.”

Maria’s breathing had changed. Each breath came faster than the last, shallow and uneven, as though the air could no longer reach her lungs. Her hands began to tremble. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she made no sound. A low vibration passed through the house. The windows rattled in their frames. The doors began to shake, gently at first, then violently enough for the handles to strike against the wood. The candle flames bent towards Maria. Somewhere upstairs, glass shattered.

Zita looked towards the ceiling. She could feel the energy gathering around Maria, growing stronger with every breath she took. The walls began to tremble.

Maria opened her mouth.

Zita raised her hand. She spoke in a language nobody in that house had ever heard her use.

“Izhara mei. Vaelor ethra. Neth sael.”

The final word left her lips almost without sound.

Then the world stopped.

The flames of the candles became motionless. The last fragments of shattered glass remained suspended in the air. The curtains stopped moving, caught halfway through their fall. Even the dust floating in the candlelight had ceased to descend. Outside, the leaves hung motionless on the trees. The sea had stopped between one wave and the next.

Maria stood where she had been, her mouth slightly open, the tears suspended upon her cheeks.

Nothing breathed.

Nothing moved.

Nothing made a sound.

Except Zita.

She lowered her hand slowly and looked at Lúcia, whose body remained frozen in front of her. Zita approached her and placed two fingers against her forehead.

Lúcia gasped. Her eyes opened wide. She tried to move, but Zita caught her face between her hands.

“Lúcia, look at me. We don’t have much time. Stay quiet.”

Lúcia agreed.

“I’m sorry, Zita. I don’t know why I reacted like this. He is going to kill me. Zita, help me.”

“He won’t! Close your eyes. You’ll have eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, a mouth that doesn’t speak. You’ll be an old lady living in Greece, on the island of Alonissos, until I come for you.”

Zita placed her hands on either side of Lúcia’s face. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then Lúcia’s skin began to change beneath Zita’s fingers. Fine lines appeared around her eyes, growing deeper with each passing second. Her cheeks lost their fullness. Her hair turned grey, then white. Her shoulders bent beneath the weight of years she had never lived.

Lúcia tried to speak. No sound came from her mouth. Her eyes remained open, but the room had disappeared from her sight. She could no longer hear Zita’s voice, the silence of the frozen house, or even her own breathing.

She reached forward blindly. Zita took her hands.

“Be still, Lúcia. You’re alive. Remember that.”

Zita called the witches Mei and Nara. The two witches appeared before her.

“Mei, Nara, you’ll take Lúcia. Her name now is Rebekah. You’ll take her body, which is now the body of an old lady. You’ll take care of her, being her ears and eyes. Nara, you’ll also speak for her.”

Zita looked from one witch to the other. She began speaking in her ancient language.

“Izhara mei. Sareth navir. Osha velen.”

The air around the three women darkened. Their shadows stretched across the floor, although the candle flames had not moved. Zita continued speaking.

“You both can be seen by every human. You are now Lúcia’s daughters. Until I come for the three of you, you three won’t remember me.”

Mei reached for Lúcia’s hand. Nara took her other arm. For a moment, both witches looked at Zita.

Their expressions changed. Recognition disappeared from their faces. Their memories of Zita fell away, taking with them everything that might lead the Master to the woman standing before them.

They looked down at the elderly woman between them. Their mother.

Rebekah.

Darkness.

Then light.

Zita was alone.

She looked towards Maria, still frozen where she stood. Nothing had changed, except the pressure building inside the house. The world remained perfectly still beneath Zita’s command. She hurried upstairs.

Amada was in her room. Zita youched her forehead Amada gasped.

“Amada, quickly take a car. Quickly go to Sacred Grounds and don’t get out of there until I tell you it’s safe.”

Amada looked at Zita.

“But Zita, where’s Maria and my mother?”

“No questions now, my child. Do what I say! Don’t walk, run, take the car you know how to use it”

Amada got up and ran. Zita watched her disappear down the stairs. She looked towards the windows.

Outside, nothing moved. The world was exactly as she had commanded it to be, but she needed Amada to reach Sacred Grounds before the Master noticed what was happening.

Amada’s car moved through streets where everything else had stopped. People stood motionless on the pavements. Birds remained suspended above the rooftops. The sea had become a dark wall of water, frozen before the waves could break. There was no traffic, no shouting, no wind.

Only Amada’s car moving through a world that no longer moved with her.

Zita returned downstairs. She needed Amada as close as possible to Sacred Grounds before allowing time to continue. Nara and Mei, disguised, had already escaped with Lúcia.

Zita stood in the hall. The candle flames remained motionless. Not a single second had passed for the rest of the world.

She looked at Maria. The girl remained frozen in the moment before her scream. Zita knew that moment was coming.

“Zita!”

“Yes, Exu.”

“Is it starting?”

“Yes! Make sure Amada is in Sacred Grounds.”

“Yes, Zita, I’m going, I’m ready.”

“Thank you, my friend.”

Exu ran. He reached Amada as she arrived at the beginning of the walk to Sacred Grounds and picked her up.

Amada screamed. Exu showed himself to her.

“Don’t be afraid, child. I need to take you to safety before it’s too late.”

Amada hugged Exu.

“I’m afraid, Exu!”

“I’m here. Nothing will happen to you, but we must run.”

Exu ran, holding Amada in his arms.

Then the silence began to break.

A deep sound rolled through the ground beneath their feet. The air became heavy, almost impossible to breathe. Above them, the clouds gathered with unnatural speed, swallowing the last light of the sky. The first drops of rain struck the earth. The sea began to rise. Far beyond the coast, an enormous wave lifted itself from the water. The wind returned with such violence that the trees bent beneath it.

A thunderclap split the sky. The ground trembled. Exu held Amada tighter.

“It’s starting, Amada. You need to hide inside my house. We can’t make it to temple grounds.”

Back at Lúcia’s house, Zita knew that if she kept time frozen any longer, the Master would begin to notice. She looked at Maria one last time. The candle flames remained suspended. The shattered glass still hung in the air. The clock had not moved.

Zita lowered her hand.

She let time go.

The candle flames flickered. The fragments of glass that had been suspended in the air fell to the floor. The clock began to move.

Maria screamed.

“I hate him!!!”

Her voice shook the house.

“Do you hear me??? I hate you, Helel Ben Shachar! I hate you, Phosphoros!!! You fooled me! You said you loved me! You lied! I don’t share!”

The storm broke over the world. Rain struck the roofs and streets with terrifying force. Thunder rolled across the sky without pause, and lightning tore through the darkness. The wind howled through the trees as the sea rose against the shore. The walls of the house shook beneath Maria’s voice.

She fell to her knees, sobbing.

Maria was crying.

The world was crying.

“Zita, I thought he loves me.”

“He loves you, Maria, he told me.”

“You are also lying to me.”

“Maria, I would never lie to you.”

“How can he love me and have concubines?”

“Maria, he told me he loves you. That’s why he came to have dinner with you. He has never done this before.”

“I won’t share love.”

“No, Maria, you won’t.”

“Lúcia said I’m not special. He doesn’t love me.”

“Trust me, Maria. He wants to marry you, he told me.”

“But he has concubines. I hate you. I hate you, Helel Ben Shachar!”

“Maria!”

A voice as strong as Maria’s thunder called her name. Zita fell to her knees.

“Master,” Zita whispered.

“Maria, yes, I have many concubines, but you will be my wife.”

“I won’t! You fooled me! You said you loved me. I believed you. I was happy for the first time in my entire life. You lied to me and now I hate you.”

Maria ran away to her room, leaving Zita and the Master.

“Zita, bring Lúcia to me?”

“I don’t know where Lúcia is, Master. I was trying to calm Maria.”

“Where’s Amada? If the mother can’t pay for this, the daughter will.”

“I think she went to Sacred Grounds, Master. She belongs to the Orixás.”

“I want her power, Zita. You must solve this NOW!”

“I will, Master.”

“Zita, she must want to marry me. She must love me. I won’t have her power if she hates me. I can’t force her power to come to me.”

“Yes, Master. I will speak with Maria. I will explain.”

“You have VERY limited time! You don’t want to fail me.”

“I won’t fail you, Master.”

The Master disappeared.

Zita got up from her knees and smiled.

“Are you all here?” Zita said to the darkness.

The darkness was present.

“Good. Be ready.”