There was the damp rock smell of most basements, but under that something stale, sour, sweet. That almost indescribable smell of corpses. It was faint here at the head of the stairs. I was betting it would get a lot worse the farther down I went.
What isn't wrong with that sentence?? And are your basements really damp? Because... That just doesn't sound like it would be good for the house. And how far down do your basements bloody go? I always imagined it'd only be a couple of steps, according to this description it's closer to an entire floor down or something...
Anita then goes on about how her own grandmother was a Vaudun priestess and that her Humfo... What? -wonders off to google- didn't smell of corpses.
The humfo is the space where believers, under the leadership of a hungan or female priestess (mambo) seek contact with the loa, inhabitants of Guinea, the mythical Africa of their ancestors. Each humfo is devoted to a patron deity, but other loa can also get in touch with the priest, his assistants and believers. In the middle of the space is a richly decorated post, which acts as a kind of antenna conducting supernatural powers. reference
I'm not sure how correct that is since it's on a site called Street Religion & Matrix Magic But it's the only site I could see that mentioned humfo and voodoo...
The line between good and evil wasn't as clear cut in voodoo as in Wicca or Christianity and satanism, but it was there. Dominga Salvador was on the wrong side of the line.
You know, I'm starting to suspect that LKH didn't put a lot of research into Voodoo, or she goes by how the media displays it. I admit I'm not exactly an expert either but I've seen too much conflicting evidence regarding the religion to brush it off as inherently evil.
And no, I have no idea why 'Satanism' isn't capitalized.
Blah Blah Blah, her Grandmother had informed her that she's a necromancer which means that she's more then a mere priestess but less at the same time, which makes... No sense whatsoever but lets just assume that LKH has a plan in motion here.
Either way her grandmother encouraged her father to set Anita onto the road to redemption though the only true religion that is Christianity and have nothing to do with family that dabbles in the heathen rites of Vaudun. (I'm not sure if I'm using enough sarcasm here) and that the grandmother would disapprove of her getting involved with one of the most powerful and feared priestesses.
Dominga and Manny are standing under a light, the sight of said light makes Anita feel better for some reason. False hope and all that I guess.
Anita then goes on that the smell was indeed stronger this far down and that she tries to breath through her mouth instead but it sticks in her throat and sticks to the tongue or something. Honestly if LKH is trying for a tense and scary atmosphere here she's kinda failing.
Dominga then leads them down a small corridor that is covered in painted concrete. Every couple of steps there was once doors leading off the main corridor but they had been cemented over causing Anita to wonder what had caused Dominga to do this and what she was hiding.
Right now I'm wondering how Anita knew that there were doors behind the cement, she claims that it's all even so did they cement the doors over in a different direction to the rest of the walls? Do all basements contain doors leading off elsewhere? I'd always assumed a basement was just a large room under your house, is that assumption wrong?
Basically what I'm saying is that this makes no freaking sense!
Anita touches the door and she can hear that something is indeed buried behind the walls, Dominga and Manny have turned a corner leaving Anita and Enzo standing in the corridor. Anita goes on about how the smell is stronger near the covered doors, meaning that it's dead yet still able to move around and make mewling sounds. Instead of doing a massive 'nope' and leaving like any other sane person would, she lets Enzo move her along, being the complete retard that she is eyes a door that hasn't been cemented closed and yanks the door open. It swings open revealing an empty cement covered room. Enzo slams the door shut, he leans against it advising her not to open any other doors.
Anita wonders why this empty room scares him more then the cemented one with the undead thing behind it.
Personally I think it's more likely he's just tired of your shit and is worried the next door you play with contains a hungry undead monster that will be more then happy to rip you limp from limp.
But that's just me, maybe Enzo really does have a crippling fear of empty rooms.
The hallway ends in a white washed rectanglar room that contains lots of Vaudun symbols that apparently creates a path which shouldn't be disturbed or some such.
Rule number three hundred sixty-nine when dealing with unfamiliar magic: when in doubt, leave it alone.
The end of the room is covered with lit candles, Dominga stands among them causing Anita to think that she's just a bad person. She's evil and the glaring white room and candles make it just that more obvious.
The alter behind Dominga is covered with dead animals, so many animals in fact that there is a massive pile of chickens, dogs, pigs and a goat.
Anita goes on about how the sacrifices are fresh since there is no smell of decay and that she hates killing goats because they seem much more intelligent then chickens. Honestly, the dead dogs would distress me more, but I'm a dog person and you can always eat goats, chickens and pigs. Dog isn't something most Westerners enjoy... From what I'm aware of.
There's a tall dark skinned women standing on one side of the alter, on the other stands a heavily decayed zombie (insert gory description to drive home how awful this is) turning back to the first person Anita realizes that she's also a zombie just incredibly preserved (what makes her think she wasn't just raised?)
It suddenly hits Anita that both zombies seem to have their own memories still and are utterly terrified. Dominga motions Enzo to bring Anita into the circle which naturally doesn't make Anita very comfortable.
She demands to know what's going on, Dominga laughs slightly saying that she's not accustomed to such rudeness (Why would this make her laugh?) Anita bites back that she should get used to it then (Why? Is Anita planning to hang around just to be rude?)
My hand was casually near my gun, without looking like I was reaching for my gun. It wasn't easy. Reaching for a gun will usually looks like reaching or a gun. No one seemed to notice though. Goody for our side.
And that's all I'm going to say about that sentence.
Anita asks what's wrong with the zombies, Dominga tells her to inspect them because if she's as powerful as the stories claim then it shouldn't be a problem for her to realize what's happening. Anita demands to know what happens if she can't identify the problem which causes Dominga's eyes to go flat before stating that it merely means that she's not as powerful as the stories claim.
Two pages of descriptions and Anita's internal bitching later we find out that most Animators have to wait three days before being able to raise a corpse which apparently Dominga doesn't have to do and that the souls of the zombies are still trapped within them.
That's... Actually a pretty terrifying thought, pity it's not done by a better writer.
Anita ask's how she managed it, Dominga explains that the soul was captured as soon as it left the body. Which apparently doesn't explain anything, I think it explained it but hey I'm not an all powerful Necromancer, what do I know??
Dominga seem's surprised that Anita doesn't know how to capture a soul in a bottle, and goes onto explain that she could teach her so much.
Either way it turns out that if the zombie retains it's soul then it slows the rotting process which makes no sense really. So the only reason I'm not walking around in an rotten corpse right now is because I still have a 'soul'? Ugh, lets not turn this update into a religious debate. (knock yourself out in the comments section though, I'm always up for a debate)
Right... So apparently Dominga can take the soul out and replace it whenever she so wishes, hence why one zombie is seriously decayed and the other isn't since as soon as she takes the soul out the zombie starts rotten as per usual.
This... This is kinda messed up, and not in a 'this is a well thought out and scary' way, more like 'I need to be shocking and edgy, lets have people aware that they are trapped in a decaying corpse!'
Wait... We're only 'alive' because we have a soul, once that leaves then we're dead right? So when she places the soul back into the zombies, why are they still zombies? Shouldn't they be able to retain their freewill since they're you know... NOT FREAKING ZOMBIES ANYMORE?!
-Rubs forehead- So the unrotten zombie Dominga plans to sell off as a sex slave, because who doesn't want a dead person to sleep with??
OH! And the families paid her to do this too them because apparently they are evil women and deserve this fate. Fuck me, what the hell did they do to their own families??
Dominga argues that they could do this to people on deathrow since they failed so much in life they can make up for it in death.. Only, death is permanent, a mercy of sorts. This is just living torture and I'm sorry I don't think anyone deserves this sort of hell. At least not on our terms, if there really is a afterlife let the Gods sort them out.
Dominga is disappointed that Anita wants nothing to do with this crazy scheme since if they were working together they could make living zombies faster and be rolling in the dough, only I'm not entirely sure who would want anything to do with this, you just know that this sort of plan will come back and bite you on the arse sooner or later.
Anita points out that this is cruel beyond all belief, Dominga turns to Manny and asks for his opinion, when he agrees with Anita. Dominga looks shocked, before pointing out that a few years ago he wouldn't have been so fast too judge since he slew a white goat for her more then once.
(If you don't remember from the beginning of this book a white goat means human sacrifice.)
Anita is naturally shocked and horrified by this news, Dominga taunts her about it since Manny was her most treasured helper. She demands that Manny answer her on if he performed human sacrifice, he replies yes and she looks away unable to look at him anymore.
He goes on explain that it was 20yrs ago, a necromancer and drunk on power and love for Dominga.
Huh, not sure if a typo or another code name but Anita calls a human sacrifice a 'hornless goat' which would a) have been less racist (I'm hardly what I'd call PC, but having it under a different name did make me realize how elitist it sounds) and b) been a better code name since I'm pretty sure you can buy white goats.
Yadda yadda, Anita still wants the information Dominga claims she can get. Dominga states that she's willingly to still get the information she requires as long as it means that Anita owes her a favor,
For some reason she then agrees to give her the info as long as Anita keeps her updated on what the new zombie laws contain. Dominga, you suck at negotiating.
More useless words shoved into this already blotted chapter, and Dominga gets all smug because Anita can't stop her from her endeavors because she's currently breaking no laws so the only way she can be stopped is if she's killed.
Anita gets all macho stating that Dominga shouldn't tempt her, Manny steps up telling Anita not challenge since she could easily mop the floor with her.
Dominga warns her that if she calls up death magic it will do nothing but kill Anita instead, since Anita doesn't know what she's talking about she replies that she was thinking of using something more practical like a bullet. Enzo pushes forward but Dominga waves him off saying that Anita is angry and shocked but doesn't know deeper magic and is too moral to kill her in cold blood.
We're then back to the zombies, Anita asks Dominga to let the rotted zombie rest, but apparently someone has already brought her for a ton of money. 'Cause you know, necrophilia. See what I mean by shock for shock value writing in this book?
Dominga states that Anita needs to respect her elders, Anita fires back that respect is earned so Dominga says to keep an eye out at night as she can easily sent something to her room to scare respect into her if that's how she'd prefer it to go down. Anita replies that you can force people to be scared of you but not into respecting you. Dominga brushes this off telling her to give her a call once her gift has been delivered and that it'd more likely be sooner then later.
Anita and Manny are then allowed to go, they get to door before Anita cannot keep her trap shut any longer as she turns around to face Dominga, telling her that while she may not kill her in cold blood all she has to do is give her enough reason to claim self defense and she'll rain bullets all over her operation.
Dominga shoots back that threats won't save her, Anita returns with a 'you either, bitch' Dominga gets all angry and Manny steps in stating that Anita won't kill her. When Dominga turns to ask Anita the truth of this sentence she glares at Manny annoyed at having a good threat wasted before admitting that she said she'd shoot her, not necessarily kill her.
Manny grabs her left arm and hauls her away before she can make this situation worse. After awhile she pulls free of him and they stand staring at each other quietly for a couple of heartbeats.
Anita demands to know what's behind the doors, Manny replies that he doesn't have a clue as it looked nothing like this 20years ago. Anita looks doubtful so he swears on God that he has no idea what's going on.
Suddenly the light flickers off leaving them standing in complete darkness, they grab hands so not too lose each other, cue sounds behind them and they're off running convinced that if they don't leave now they never will.
They get blinded by sunlight as they stumble outside, a scream of agony comes behind them as I assume it gets touched by the sun. Before Anita can fully turn around to grab a glimpse of what was chasing them Manny slams the door shut claiming that she doesn't need to see it and he doesn't want to.
They calm themselves for a moment or two before making to leave, Anthony was standing guard outside. Anita debates on if she should warn him of the possibility of a monster charging through here at any moment but quickly changes her mind when he asks if they fucked the zombie downstairs.
It's nice to see that Dominga keeps such classy people around her, I'd be glad to do business with them!
Anita stares at the little girl on the tricycle as she climbs into the passenger seat, thinking that she couldn't be more then 5 Manny gets into the drivers seat and puts the car into reverse.
[...] The girl and I stared at each other. Just before we turned the corner she started peddling up and down the sidewalk again.
Why was this chapter so long?! Most of it was just 'horrifying' descriptions and pointless information that will more then likely add nothing to the overall story!!!!!!!!!
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