The tiny town had a terribly fitting name – Kidogo. As its name suggested, everything was little – from the mood to the businesses, hell, the size of the people fell to too disproportionately small. It was the kind of town where nothing happened and when it did, it was everyone’s business.
An instance of this was that specific morning when someone had been declared possessed and as such, Pendo, Joyce and unfortunately, Jamo, banded together to follow the group of harassed looking people. Just as inside had shown her, outside was yellow with sun and warmth – completely at odds with the frenzy of the people. About the tiny crowd were motorbikes and calls to god for the vile thing he’d let roam about the people.
“Why are we doing this again?” Pendo asked after a fashion of a while, trying to walk on her tiptoes to see exactly what they were following.
“I’m interested and clearly, so are you,” Joyce answered, holding onto her hand. “Besides, the bakery is near dead, and this is probably the most interesting thing that will happen this month.”
In a groan of annoyance, Pendo moved from her tiptoes and settled right with Joyce, still following the crowd. “We can’t even see what is happening.” She then spotted Jamo not that far from them and pulled Joyce after her, keen on hiding as much and for as long as they both could.
This had led them to the east leg of the crowd where they could see at least something happening. It did not take much to realise the victim of possession had been done proper, blood about his face and one eye so swollen it was shut and blackened.
Both the women shook to their feet. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Joyce said because Pendo was not willing to say that they had been way in over their heads. “They are probably going to burn that poor man.”
“For what though?” Pendo asked no one so she was surprised when a random stranger answered her.
“Don’t know?” they’d asked and Pendo had to hold in the snarky retort that was calling for freedom. “He was found doing things with a chicken.”
“What things?”
The man looked about, scandalized. He stepped closer to them, and Pendo could not help noticing the small stuff around his eyes. “Sexual things.”
Her eyes widened, hand hiding her mouth as a laugh threatened a rather loud departure. “What?” she asked in between keeping the laugh at bay and being serious.
“Mmh,” the man went on, excited that someone was hearing the story for the first time. “Imagine! His mother found him and the demon in him spoke. Called her a whore and what and that he was going to kill her. Luckily, some people were passing about and they heard the commotion so they went on to help her.”
“They did him in, eh?” Joyce asked in concern.
“He was attacking people.” The man shrugged. “Anyways, we heard there is an exorcist in the church so we are taking him there.” The man then left them, satisfied to have given them the downlow.
Pendo turned to Joyce, taking her hand once more. “I think that’s enough of that. Let’s go.” But, before they could even take a step, an unexpected wave of people came rushing for them, startling them so much they let go of each other’s hands, separating them too quickly for either of them to fully register what had happened. “JOYCE!” Pendo called out, looking around and hitting at anyone who was in her way. “JOYCE!” She pushed about, eyes wide with fury and worry. “YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! JOYCE!”
She must have been looking rightfully terrifying as people moved out of her way, sharing their attention both with her and the demon man. She managed to get back to where they had been standing and she turned around, back and forth, calling out to her person, imagining all the bad stuff that might have happened.
The flood of relief that washed over her the moment Joyce came to view was almost magical. It was also absolutely magical how it just fucked off the moment she fully grasped where her aunt stood. Right there, next to the bloodied man whose mouth had mysteriously foamed and was looking properly hungry at a shaking Joyce.
Without any sort of hesitation, Joyce removed her right converse shoe and threw it square at the demon man who was about to pounce on Joyce then made a sprint for her aunt. Too many things might have been happening at once but neither of them bothered to notice any as they were one of the things. In the space between a second and another, Pendo was by Joyce’s side, her left hand holding her as her right clenched into a fist.
“Bite her and you’ll know an actual demon.” Pendo must have snurled because the demon possessed man lost his fierce for a moment.
It came back before they could leave. “Do you know who you are speaking to, girl?” The man asked in what Pendo assumed was his best impression of a high demon.
She laughed then dropped the laugh in a very eerie manner. She was so focused on the man she barely noticed the quite that had taken place as the people looked at them in complete rapture. “Let me guess, Asmodeus?” She narrowed her eyes and stepped closer. “I thought I’d told you not to disturb me ever again.” She was sarcastic, she knew she was being sarcastic but the cursed man saw that as a challenge and launched her way.
In any other context, she could see herself being overpowered by the man and falling to the ground, not sure how to fight back. That, however, was not any other context as she was with Joyce and she was going to be damned if anything happened to her so she swung her fist with as much might as she could and just as fast, feeling the damn thing squishing into the man’s face as he yelped in surprise and fell to the ground, rolling once then stopping, head down, clearly unconscious.
There was absolute quiet and then someone shouted, “THE DEMON HAS BEEN VANQUISHED!”
“What the fuck,” was all Pendo could say before glorious claps and ululations rented the air.
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