I excitedly ripped open the wrapping paper as my friends and family smiled and cheered. This was exactly what I wanted for my thirtieth; good food, the presence of my loved ones, and a bunch of thoughtful gifts. As I unboxed the gift, I gasped in surprise. It was a collection of the God of War series gifted to me by my sister. I hugged her tightly, deeply appreciating such a kind (and expensive) gesture. I muttered a litany of thank yous and sat back down.
“Alright, it’s my turn.”
My wife, Sabina, walked up to me with a small box in her hand. I jokingly asked her if she was going to propose. The party guests erupted in laughter as she rolled her eyes.
“Very funny, smart ass. Anyway, I decided to give you this gift because I know how hard things have been for you lately. Getting laid off and having cancer, even if it’s still stage one, would bring down even the strongest of us. In any case, someone gave this to me a long time ago while I was traveling and it has brought me so many good things. It even brought me you.”
The guests cheered.
“I want you to have it. You deserve all the good fortune life can offer.”
She placed the box in my hands. I quickly opened it and found a small pouch. The pouch itself was made out of red satin with characters that I didn’t recognize written all over it. As I moved to open the pouch, my wife stopped me.
“Keep it a surprise. It adds good luck,” she winked.
I stood up, hugged her, and thanked her for the gift. I hugged her tightly as a sob broke out. I tried to get a hold of myself but all those years of sadness and frustration burst like a dam and the tears flooded out. My family and friends rushed to give Sabina and me a group hug. I blubbered out an apology and they gave me their reassurances.
“Alright enough of the sappy stuff, time for cake! We got your back no matter what, John,” my former boss, Bob, exclaimed.
As we dug in on the homemade cake, I surveyed my surroundings. I was around people who truly loved and cared for me no matter how hard things got.
Maybe that talisman was already working.
-
“Babe! Sabina! Baby!” I yelled as I ran to the living room.
“What?”
“You won’t believe this,” I said.
I ran to my wife and shoved my phone in her face. She squinted, not sure what she was looking at. I told her to read it out loud.
“Blah blah blah we would like to schedule you for an interview next week!” she screamed.
We both screamed, jumping up and down all the while. It was a miracle the neighbors didn’t file a noise complaint against us.
“Baby, after all this time you finally scored an interview! I’m so proud of you, John. I can’t believe this. Okay, okay. I need to calm down. Okay. Tomorrow after work I’m going to run to the shops and get you something to wear. You need to look polished and handsome,” her words came out at a hundred miles a minute. She was just as excited as I was. As she talked on about all the plans she had for my outfit, I smiled and stared; falling in love just a tad bit more. I mentally thanked her for giving me the talisman. Not only did it give me a job but it also brought me closer to her.
-
“John! Something’s happened.”
“Huh?” I ungracefully retorted. It was two AM when I got the call from my sister.
“My husband. He got into a car accident! I’m in the hospital right now.”
I leaped out of bed and immediately went to the closet, pulling out random clothes.
“I’m on my way, Grace,” I stated.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Lewis is in the hospital. Car accident. I’m going to meet Grace there.”
“I’m coming too.”
Sabina and I ran down the emergency room hallways looking for Grace. When we found her, she was being spoken to by a doctor, sobbing all throughout.
“Grace, honey, what’s wrong?”
“He’s gone!”
“He was out with his friends and he had too much to drink. He drove off the interstate and crashed into a tree. Oh, it’s so horrible, John. They said his head was torn clean off and his intestines were everywhere! Oh, God. He’s dead,” Grace fought through a flurry of tears to recount the horrendous tale.
“Honey, I’m so sorry,” Sabina wrapped her arms around my sister as she sobbed uncontrollably. I stood in dumb shock, trying to process that my brother-in-law was gone in such a horrific fashion. I mutely patted Grace’s head as she wailed into Sabina’s arms, her cries echoing through the emergency room.
Grace held the funeral soon after. We tearfully mourned a life lost too soon. The speeches were gut-wrenching and profound. As they lowered his casket, Grace broke out into shrieks. I tried to be strong for her and held her as she cried for her lost husband. As I held my grieving sister, I couldn’t help but cry myself. As much as I wanted to break down, I had to be strong for Grace. So, there I stood, watching a man who I considered a brother, be lowered into the dirt.
Sabina and I drove home in morose contemplative silence.
-
“Mr. Saunders, your tumor has shrunken considerably,” The doctor said in his matter-of-fact tone.
I stared at him in silence. My eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates.
“What does this mean, Doctor,” Sabina took over.
“It means that surgery is no longer necessary. Mr. Saunders will still need to be on medication for the next three months but honestly? That’s just for extra measure. With the rate this tumor is decreasing, he might not even need them.”
Sabina beamed at me while I stared at her, mouth agape.
“This is amazing news, Baby!” she said, almost to remind me.
As we drove home, Sabina went on to talk about our future. She suggested telling my boss so I could change work arrangements, she talked about possibly having a baby soon, and she talked about telling my family.
“Eh, I don’t know if we should tell my family right now, Babe. Grace is still mourning and I feel like it’s not the right time,”
“I think she’ll be happy for you,” Sabina smiled.
After a lot of convincing, I agreed to let Sabina hold another party for me. Friends and family were there and they were incredibly happy to receive the news. Grace still wasn’t herself. She didn’t socialize with people as much as she used to. She just sat in a corner and sipped on her cocktail. When it was time for gift-giving, she was the last to volunteer. She gave me a nice cream-colored shirt and quietly muttered “I’m happy for you,” She left shortly after.
That night, I got another call.
“John, it’s your mother. Can you check up on Grace? She won’t pick up any of my calls.”
Sabina woke up to me getting dressed and volunteered to come with me. We arrived at her house to find all the lights off. It made sense. It was late. I tried to call her but no answer. I knocked on her door and still nothing. Then, I remembered she kept a spare key under a flower pot next to her front door. I looked for the key and sure enough, it was there. I opened the door and called out, but still no reply. I walked up the stairs and entered the master’s bedroom. She wasn’t here.
The door to the bathroom was ajar.
I opened it and what I saw made my blood run cold. It was Grace, floating in a bathtub full of red water, both arms slit from the wrist to the inner elbow. I screamed. Sabina raced to the bathroom and I quickly shut the door.
“DON’T GO IN THERE,” I yelled.
I then fell into a heap on the floor and sobbed. I cried harder than I ever had in my entire life. Sabina understood and held her hands to her face.
“Oh god,” she whispered.
She quickly called the ambulance and held me as I vacillated between whimpering and screaming. I continued my lamentation as the paramedics tried performing CPR and even after they took away her body. I couldn’t be consoled. After a long interview with the police, we were sent home. I struggled to stand up so they called in Sabina to come get me. She held me up as I struggled to walk to the car. She even took off my shoes and tucked me into bed.
The funeral was the same as Lewis’; a lot of crying and heart-wrenching speeches. Except this time, my dad and I had to hold my mom as she wailed and bawled as her casket was being lowered to the ground. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I was openly sobbing. My body was strong but my heart was torn into a million pieces.
When I went home, I locked myself in my room. I went to my bedside table and gripped the talisman tightly in my hands.
“It was you, wasn’t it? Ever since you came into my life you have done nothing but bring misery and death. I don’t know what Sabina saw in you. For every good thing that’s happened, you’ve taken something away. You piece of shit. I know it’s you. Fuck you. Fuck everything that you stand for. You-”
Sabina came into the room. I expected her to yell at me but she just sighed and put a hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Sabina. It’s just easier when there’s something to blame.”
“I know. Come downstairs. Dinner’s ready,” she said somberly.
-
As I was cooking breakfast the following day, I could hear wailing from upstairs. I turned the heat off and raced to the second floor. On the floor of our bedroom, I found Sabina thrashing in pain. She was clutching her stomach as blood started pouring from her eyes. I ran to her phone to try and call the ambulance but it ran out of battery. I ran down the stairs to get my phone but the door suddenly shut right in front of me. Then, the window shutters started opening and closing on their own. The bed started shaking and the closet doors opened and shut of their own volition. I screamed for it all to stop but when I did, some invisible force was throwing Sabina all around the room. I tried to catch her and hold onto her but her poor body was being thrown around like a ragdoll. The room’s door then opened and Sabina was tossed out. The door immediately slammed shut after.
Then, the chanting.
In my mind, I could hear a loud chant in another language. I covered my ears but the sound only got louder. My head pounded and my mind raced. The sensory overload was making me nauseous. I knew what was causing this now. I crawled to my bedside table but something kept sliding it away from me. I could hear Sabina outside, pounding on the door in between bouts of vomiting. I managed to hang onto the bedside table but it slid towards the wall, slamming my back in the process. I fought off the pain and opened the drawer.
I finally got the talisman.
I crawled to the door. Trying to open it was a fruitless venture. I told Sabina to stand back. With my remaining strength, I stood up and slammed myself onto the door. Seeing as this didn’t work, I painstakingly walked to the other side of the bedroom, ran, and smashed the door open. The door did nothing to cushion my impact. I overshot and fell down the stairs, hitting my head on the banister in the process. Sabina screamed and heaved. I could see now she was vomiting blood. I ran clumsily to the kitchen, grabbed a book of matches, and set the talisman on fire; throwing it immediately into the sink.
As the talisman burned, the chaos started getting weaker and weaker, and eventually everything stopped. Sabina stumbled down the stairs and ran toward me. I held her, carefully making sure she was okay. We drove recklessly to the hospital and the doctors confirmed she was okay. Once we got back home, I took the talisman’s ashes, put them in a plastic bag, and dumped them into the city landfill.
I will be forever bitter that that talisman took my sister and my brother-in-law, but destroying it will prevent anyone else from being cursed by it. Years passed and slowly but surely things got better. I moved on to a better job and the cancer was still gone. Eventually, Sabina got pregnant with twins; a boy and a girl. We couldn’t be happier. Sabina excitedly started ordering baby clothes and maternity wear. She told me to expect a deluge of things in the mail. That’s why when the doorbell rang, I expected another batch of maternity outfits.
Instead, I found a red satin pouch.