The Darkness 7: La Llorona

March 24, 2015

March 11th 6:42 P.M.

It was a short time before we found out what was trying to abduct children in our town just as the The Slender Man once had. For this encounter I had to enlist the help of the vampires and naturally I only asked Marina, who was more than glad to help. She met me at my house several hours before we were set to depart. “I have to tell you this before anything, Marina, it’s going to be just me and you out there. None of my pack and no one from your hive can come.” I warned her. She had a faint smile, sipped her tea then answered “Okay.”  I opened the notebook Cee often kept and showed her what we were up against. “La Llorona,” I said as read his notes “she's originally from Mexico but she’s found her way up here.” I showed her a picture of the ghost like young woman with long hair and a small build. There wasn’t much to the drawing other than her long hair and sad face. “She’s a specter or spirit or whatever the hell. When she was alive, she drowned her kids in a river in a fit of rage over a man that didn’t want her. When she had realized what she had done she spent the rest of her life crying for her children. When she died, her soul became lost and was damned to walk the earth looking for her kids. Mexican legends say that she can be heard crying before she kidnaps little kids and drowns them trying to take them to the other side with her. That’s why kids have been saying they feel like someone has been trying to kidnap them.” I explained. Marina’s eyes surveyed the booklet and then rose to me, “So how do we stop her?” she asked. “Catch her when she has a child. She has to physically grab a child and drag them to the lake right? That’s when we will be able to attack her.” I answered. “Wouldn’t it be smart to bring more people?” she questioned. “No, she can appear and disappear at will, the less of us, the less likely we will be caught.” “Why did you want me to go with you?” “You’re a vampire. You’ll have an easier time getting any kids out of there quicker than I would.”  Her eyebrows rose in agreement “Welp, tonight is the night. Let’s get out there and get her.” she said with a smile.

9:42PM that night

As Marina and I started to walk through the woods, it began to sprinkle. It gave the woods a pleasant earthy scent that I enjoyed; however Marina didn’t seem to enjoy the rain too much. Through the fresh air, thirst quenched trees, softened soil we made our way to the river that ran through the woods. It was a peaceful and serene night in the woods, almost unfathomable to think of the reason why we were there. As we became closer to the river, the songs of croaking frog became louder and louder. It was a good sign, nothing had gone on yet. I turned to Marina who was slightly crippled by her cringing in the rain and pulled her closer to me. She asked me if I could sense anything and I told her no and we had to wait till we got closer to the river. When we got to the river everything was serene, still, and nothing was disturbed. The water was pushed to run faster with the torrent of the rain and the frogs seemed to love it.  We eyeballed the immediate area then walked upstream. It became clear to us that this wasn’t going to be easy as it had previously seemed and we didn’t have any clue of what to expect. We walked for 15mins up and down the stream with no avail, drenched and miserable; Marina suggested we transform to find success. I agreed and morphed into my wolf form. Feral power ran through me, my hands changed to paws; fangs, my muzzle, fur and tail grew. My bones in shifted and my knees reversed and I felt forward onto my paws, completing my change into a wolf. Marina had also changed. Her once brown eyes were now a soulless black, her nails were now long thin claws, her skin got lighter, and had the trademark vampire fangs. Almost instantly, I could hear the fear filled screams of a little girl. “I can smell a girl.” Marina told me. I growled and we took off. We ran faster and faster until we reach our destination. La Llorona was a beautiful spirit, nothing like the picture I had seen. She was a fairly young Mexican woman in a long white gown. She had long straight black hair, a thin frame, and white soulless eyes. Her whole body had a bluish grey blue glow as she dragged a tiny, terrified girl towards the river. It now began to rain harder. I looked at Marina and we both dashed in. Marina curved around in the trees and came from behind to grab the little girl and took her to safety. I rushed in and launched at the ghostly spirit but went right through her. I hit the ground turned and faced her. She had her hands on face crying and screaming wildly. I didn’t know what to do, she just sat there crying. I could sense Marina a few trees behind me with the girl. It was like La Llorona didn’t even know I was there.  A few long drenched moments went by of the specter sobbing and me watching her before I let out a low growl. La Llorona looked up and screamed. The rain fell more heavily; her scream drowned out my senses. It was paralyzing but I pushed through the shock and morphed to my werewolf form. I roared.  She took a step forward and I slashed out at her. My claws ran through what felt like cold steam that sent a feeling of sadness and despair through my body; again I was paralyzed. Suddenly she stopped screaming returned to crying. Her body slowly faded away as she walked sobbing towards the river. Not knowing what to do next I backed off and readied to what might be next. The unnaturally heavy rain began to let up as her ghostly grey body disappeared and her crying subsided. My eyes stayed on the rapid running river then I turned to Marina who was watching from safety behind a tree. I jerked my head motioning for her to leave. Her black eyes widened, she looked down at the little girl in her arms then took off towards the town.  Unwilling to stay and face the threat alone once again, I turned and ran down stream.

2:30P.M. of the following day

I went to C.D.’s friend for help on what to do about La Llorona. Between the time I had first met the young boy and then, I found out that his special connection with the supernatural was that he was the last in a bloodline of Spirit Rulers. Spirit Rulers were people who were able to summon spirits and had a guardian spirit that clung to them. “How do I get rid of her?” I asked. “The Wailing Woman. She’s a lost spirit walking the earth trying to go to the other side.” He said. “I know that but how can I destroy her if I can’t touch her?” I complained. “She has to pass over to the other side or you have to banish her from this area but banishing her would take a lot of spiritual energy.” He informed me. “And without Black Eagle, there’s not much we can do about spirit energy,” I thought out loud “when she screamed, it started to rain and I almost couldn’t move. Could that be anything we could use?” The little boy looked at me and shook his head “No, it’s just her affinity to water. Because the drowned her kids in a river, water has become a manifest for her.” I thought for a moment about what he told me then said “So, she won’t leave unless she finds her kids?”  He nodded. “Her kids are dead and we can’t let her take any of her relative descendants. That would just be murder. Aren’t you a Spirit Ruler? Can’t you just summon her kids’ spirits?” I asked. “It’s been tried already, her kids’ souls crossed over long before her death.” He answered. I gave him a cold look, it seemed helpless. Out of frustration I protracted my claws and began scratching my palm, closed my eyes, and opened then as my werewolf eyes. It was then that I saw a wispy grey and white humanoid entity floating over the boy’s head. “That’s your Guardian Spirit, huh?” I question. He looked at me then at the spirit. “Yeah Aero, he is a Wind spirit.” He answered. “That’s perfect, I have an idea. Aero can help us find her family and we will take it from there.” I told him. The boy stared at me with a blank look then smiled.

4:00P.M.

Manish waited outside the house while I took the spirit with me into the house. “Hello Mrs. Vargas.” I said shyly. “Hello, Marina.” She greeted. I watched as the spirit flew in over Mrs. Vargas’ head and somewhere into the back of the house. The nice little old lady invited me to sit down and have coffee with her so I did. As the old woman sat and sipped her coffee, I could sense she was going ask the reason for me wanting to meet with her. “So you’re here for your journalism class?” she asked me with a light Mexican accent. I nodded and smiled but didn’t answer her question. “Why do you want to interview me?” she asked politely. “Well because you’re the descendant of mythical La Llorona and I thought-“ I heard the old woman’s heart start to race “it would be a good topic to talk about.” Her heart was beating even harder now and her hands slightly trembled as she took another sip from her coffee. “Yes, I am but I don’t think I can provide you with much information,” she lied as I lifted my cup for a sip “everything told to me has changed through the years and it’s been mixed up with time.” She mumbled something in Spanish and looked at her coffee. My eyes were on her as I finished my sip; I slowly put my coffee down on the table hard enough to startle her. She looked up and our eyes met; I caught her in my trance. Now that she was under my trance I waited for heart to slow down then started “Why are you so nervous about the Wailing Woman?” I felt bad putting a sickly old woman in a trace but if I didn’t she may have had a heart attack. “Maria wants my grandson Roberto, she comes for him to take him away but I do not let her.” she said. The spirit flew in and hovered above Mrs. Vargas “She’s given her grandson a blessed bracelet to keep evil spirits away from him. La Llorona can’t go near him.” Aero explained. “Mrs. Vargas, why is she after Roberto?” I asked. “She’s looking for a child to take to the other side. She can only take family member but all the rest of our family in Mexico is blessed to keep her away. I was blessed as a child but they never told me why. When I come to America, she tried to take my kids but I had them blessed. She try to take Roberto and I blessed his rosary.” She said sadly. “The boy has a shirt here in the room. It too has blessed properties. I’ll remove the blessing and put the boy’s spiritual energy from the house in it. You’ll have to get it yourself.” Onyx said before disappearing into the back again. I got up, sat closer to Mrs. Vargas, and held her hand “It’s okay, Mrs. Vargas, I will fix all your problems. Have faith and love your family.” I stared deeper in her pain filled eyes, pulling her from her trace, and put her to sleep. Using my powers to put her to sleep almost completely drained me. I called for Aero “Get Manish, let’s get the shirt and get out of here.”

7:23PM That Night

It was the same as the first time we had met La Llorona. The woods seemed peaceful with a heavy mist rolling through. Marina and I stood on the edge of the woods, she cradled the boy’s shirt, stuffed with a stuffed animal and a ball. We nodded at each other knowing that what we had planned next wasn’t going to be easy. Together we took off into the woods. We both transformed, into vampire and wolf forms respectively. Almost immediately after we turned, the mist turned into rain. I ran on the ground while Marina traveled through the trees. There was a feeling of rage and sadness surging up behind us and we both knew it was the Wailing Woman. We ran as fast as we could south west along the river in the cover of the trees. As the ghostly specter closed in behind us, screaming and sobbing just barely missing our heels, it began to rain harder. Her power was stronger the closer she got to us. I managed to glimpse behind me and see she wasn't directly behind me, she was up in the trees chasing after Marina. That meant our plan was working. “Manish!” Marina called out to me. The young vampire dropped from the trees and La Llorona followed. I changed to my werewolf form, took the shirt from Marina and jumped up into the trees. As expected the enraged spirit followed me. From tree to tree, I traveled further westward. The air started to become colder, refreshed, and salty. We had to hurry and make it to our destination. I snarled and started to throw the shirt to Marina but La Llorona screamed. I was hit with the same paralyzing shock from before and fell from the tree, hitting the ground hard. Marina turned and caught the stuffed shirt as it fell but turned and froze. There was a worried look on her face, she was hesitant to leave me. As the Weeping Woman walked past me, she was sobbing and moaning with her hands over her face. I snarled at Marina to keep running but she was stuck. The rain now pounded down on us. The spirit got within a few meters of Marina, flung her ghastly arms open and screamed “Mi hijo!” There was a wave of despair that ran over me and I needed to get to Marina. I struggled to my feet, changed back into my wolf form, ran past La Llorona, tripped Marina onto my back and took off. “Oh my god, I’m sorry!” Marina said as she broke from her shock and stumbled to her feet to run alongside me. We finally reached our destination when the sound of waves crashing reached my ears. We ran out the woods onto the beach. Marina ran toward ocean and I turned to face La Llorona. I had to buy Marina time to get to the water. I stood on my hind legs, standing tall over the spirit and roared. She let out a demonic “Mi hijo!” her scream ran straight through my soul and knocked me unconscious.

 A violent shake awoke me. “Manish! Wake up!” Marina demanded; I barely was able to bring myself together. “Yuck, you smell like wet dog.” She laughed. “Did you get the shirt to the ocean?” I asked. “Yeah, and she followed right in.” she answered.  “Well now, we ain’t gotta worry about her anymore, she’ll be lost at sea forever.” I coughed before standing up. Marina just stared at me with her black vampire eyes. “What?” I asked. “You really REALLY reek like a wet dog.” she teased.