Oppressed by Kira Saito Read Free Book Online

I can’t force them to do
anything they don’t want to do. I cannot force positive change upon
those who don’t want it.”
    He was making me uncomfortable, mostly
because I could see myself sitting in this miserable bar for
eternity talking to myself like a madwoman and blaming others for
my problems. I knew I wasn’t above any of it, nor was I better than
any of these people. I recognized myself in every single one of
them. I recognized my hatreds, my fears, my paranoias and
prejudices, and that realization was a big ol’ slap in the face.
But I didn’t want to end up here. I didn’t want to remain in the
land of the bitter and vile. “How can I free myself?” I
whispered.
    “ The only way anyone can truly
free themselves is by looking within themselves, acknowledging
their fears, and facing them head-on regardless of how
uncomfortable that process may be. You’re at the crossroads,
Arelia. I wasn’t going to help you, but Marie insisted that you
were mature enough to let go of your fears and understand the
bigger picture. She convinced me that you were ready to meet her. She begged me to
introduce you to her because she is the only one who knows the truth. She knows
who is responsible for the curse and the reason behind it. That is
what you want, isn’t it? You want the truth so you can free Lucus
and Louis, no matter what the cost?”
    “ I do, but…”
    “ But…”
    The truth was I was fearful of the
unknown. I was fearful of what I would discover, and mostly I was
scared that I was about to find out something really terrifying
about Lucus. That scene in the graveyard had shaken me to my very
core. What had it meant? “At what cost?” I finally asked after a
long pause.
    He grinned and pulled out a guitar
from behind the bar. “The biggest sacrifice of all…”
    I anxiously grabbed a
fistful of
candy from the bowl and shoved it into my mouth. Something told me
I needed lots of sugar before I was ready to hear his answer.
“Which is?” I asked through a mouthful of candy.
    He smiled and the corners of his kind
eyes crinkled.
    Of course he wasn’t going come out and say
it, that would make it all too easy and what fun was
easy?
    He closed his eyes and started to play
the guitar. In that low, gravelly voice of his he began to
sing
    Everybody say she got a
mojo
    now, she's been usin' that
stuff
    Mmm mmm mmm, 'verybody says
she got a mojo
     
    His eyes opened and rested on
me. “So , are
you ready or would you like to hang around here a little longer?”
He winked and gave me a large grin.
    “ You still haven’t told me
what I need to sacrifice.”
    “ You have to sacrifice
your illusions, little darlin’.”
    What the hell kind of sacrifice was
that? “I don’t know what that means…”
    He started to play his guitar again. “Of
course you do. Only the weak and mindless are incapable of thinking
for themselves, and you are neither weak nor mindless.”
    I stared at him for a few minutes and
tried to find a deeper meaning behind his ominous words, when it
hit me. “It’s going to be painful, isn’t? What she’s going to show
me is going to change everything, isn’t it?”
    “ Oh yes.”
    “ Do I have any other
options?”
    He nodded. “Of course you do, little
darlin’. Papa Legba always gives his children choices. So these are
yours: you can run away like a scared little girl and pretend that
none of this ever happened. That’s what most people do, but then
they end up right back here sooner or later. I can erase your
memory, and you can forget all about this crazy summer. In a few
years you’ll end up marrying Tony…”
    “ Tony!” I
scoffed.
    He nodded. “Yes. He’ll marry you in an
attempt to defy his parents, and you’ll accept his proposal because
you won’t know any better. You’ll never truly understand your own
worth. You’ll love him regardless of how he treats you. He’ll strip
you of all of your self-esteem and repeatedly hurt you, but you’ll
still stay.