A barn, a witch and greed

"Two turns of de hourglass to decide you fate." The ebony skinned, extremely tall, lithe, sparsely dressed, lovely and menacing young woman said, staring at us without blinking...

The deafening silence of the grains of sand falling in slow motion signaled our death approaching with the passing seconds.

To our ears her accent sounded either African or Caribbean, we were not sure.

She wore a sheer black sarong-like free falling attire, trimmed with gold and slit all around almost to her waist, and her naked thighs and every part of her was visible. She carried herself with the air of royalty. Totally unselfconscious, regal and confident.

The reflection in her eyes mirrored the tiny rainbow grains of sand falling slowly from the object in her hand, making it appear as if prism-like beams of light were shooting from her eyes.

"How did we get here?" Danny asked, we were whispering to each other hoping she could not hear us. We were terrified.

"What happened to the barn?" gasped Dena, trying with all her might to move. We were not bound or shackled, but we could not move, whatever was happening was very unnatural.

There were five of us. A year ago we decided we were bored and planned to vacation in Hawaii. We were all semi successful, with middle income paying jobs. Dan is an accountant, Dena owns a hairdressing parlor, Sade, the story narrator is a writer and Sani is a lawyer. Rafe was the rich kid, moonlighting in his family business, we had no clue what the business entailed, we just kept guessing.

We all had been college friends and kept in touch, we were also all still unattached and planned to enjoy ourselves before responsibility took our free time away.

Hawaii was beautiful in the summer, the sunsets were breathtaking. We thoroughly enjoyed lazing under the overhanging leaves and sipping our Mai tai, Tropical Itch and Bahama among other delicious drinks.

Coconut trees and sparkling blue beaches took up a lot of our time. We swam, ate coconuts and pineapples, wore leis hung on our necks by beautiful dancing Hula girls and ate delicious Hawaiian food. The succulent roasted pig, pork and butterfish in taro leaf, tomato onion salmon salad and coconut milk pudding.

We were blissfully happy and sated.

That was; until that evening when we found the run down old barn. We decided to go exploring after dinner. We splashed a bit at the waterfall and dropped coins in the wishing well. We wished for riches of course, just for the fun of it. We had no idea that finding those riches could forfeit our lives.

THE BARN

We were chattering and exploring the wooded areas when we came upon the moss covered barn. It seemed totally out of place and seemed to have magically appeared. One minute there were no buildings, and the next, there it was.

"Does that seem strange to anyone else, I swear that was not there before." Dena said.

"It is kinda weird, I never noticed it until now." Sani replied.

"Should we go check it out." Sade asked. She was always looking for a story, and was fearless and adamant about her ideas.

Dan and Rafe were already at the door, shoving away at the vines and heavy overgrowth of leaves and twigs.

After much grunting and yelling they got the creaky old door open.

"Coming girls?," Rafe yelled.

They both disappeared inside. "Are you ok." Dena yelled back.

There was no answer.

"Hello." Sadi shouted.

"Guys, stop playing." Sani sounded a little scared.

"Let's go see." Sade said a little dubiously.

We all approached the barn and stepped in one by one.

We were no longer in a barn. The guys were staring dumbfounded all around.

There were animals everywhere, elephants, tigers, lions, giraffes, large animals and small animals, all drinking from the same stream in perfect harmony.

But what caught our eyes was the golden throne under a huge Gazebo, adorned with every type of precious stones we could imagine. Gold, emerald. diamonds, wonderous jewels.

Not far from this building was what appeared to be a burial site. It was well kept and obviously a lot of care was dedicated to it's upkeep.

As one we started towards the gazebo. The animals stopped drinking, and in harmony lifted their heads. We stopped moving. They drank again.

That was scary. Dan beckoned and we once again moved toward the gazebo.

This time the animals lifted their heads and chittered, bayed , yowled, whatever was their particular speech, they did all together. Then as if by magic all stopped, turned and walked into the undergrowth.

"I think we should leave, that was very ominous. It's as if someone or something was directing them." Sani was nervous.

"Remember the wishing well, we wished for riches, well dreams do get answered." Rafe was grinning annoyingly.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm not leaving empty-handed." Dan was scooping up jewels and stones and stuffing his pockets. Everyone joined in, Dena and Sade were reluctant at first but did not resist for long.

"Not to be the pessimist here, but how exactly are we getting back?, where is the door to go out?" It was bright daylight here, but when we left it was almost nightfall.

We had been so blinded by the strange happenings and surroundings that we never stopped to wonder where we were and how could we be where we were. Now we had to figure out how to get back to the island.

Suddenly, a woman appeared out of nowhere, the sun was shining directly on her, we were blinded and could not see her plainly in the bright light, the animals came charging at us. Without hesitation we ran towards where the woman had appeared from.

Thankfully, we were back on the island. There was no sign of the barn.

That was a year ago. Needless to say we enjoyed our riches. We upgraded our lives and lived the way we always wanted. The gems sold for a lot of money, sold where no one asked questions.

Then we got greedy.

We decided to return to Hawaii and the site of the barn. We went on the same date August 21st. Same time and same place in the evening.

There was the barn. In we went. It was dark inside, no gazebo, but we were in a large building. Animals surrounded us, the entire wall was adorned by them. We could see their eyes glittering in the semi-darkness.

The woman was standing there in the middle of the room with the hourglass. She upended it.

"Two turns of de hourglass to decide you fate, from de African realm you claimed the unclaimable. Not yours to partake, sacred tribute to my father king Nabi, and my mother queen Vashti. I princess Talia, of the Niambi tribe, will atone the wrong you perpetrated by desecrating my parent's burial site."

The animals growled and shrieked. We tried to run back in the direction we came. We could not move.

"Tell your tale before the sand runs out two times around, your heart will save you if it is true not just to you."

"SPEAK!"

Everyone started to talk at once.

"STOP. ONE shall speak. Then one more." She pointed to each one in turn.

One by one they all told what they did with the money gained from the stolen gems. Tales of greed and selfishness and living only for their needs, not sharing or caring about anybody but themselves.

The hourglass was on it's second turn. Time was running out fast.

Talia pointed to Sani, then immediately to Sade.

"Come," she ordered. We moved!. We walked towards her, she placed the hourglass on the floor and took one hand of each young woman. She closed her eyes and in a trancelike state explored our minds soundlessly. We knew this because we could feel her in our heads.

Sani and Sade respectively had bought a home for their parents and struggling siblings. They had thought of others besides themselves and were allowed to go free because of it.

Suddenly, she dropped our hands, snapped open her eyes and yelled "GO NOW." Pointing to the now visible door.

The animals growled and shrieked again.

We hesitated, looking back at our friends, They tried to move, but in vain. They could not.

"GO NOW."

A few second before disappearing out the door forever, they looked back and saw the woman wave her hand at their friends. A lion, a tiger and a gazelle were standing in their place.

Once more they were back in the woods of Hawaii. They hugged each other and started to cry.

How were they to explain their missing friends. The old run down barn was nowhere in sight. What would they tell their families. Would they not be better off meeting the same fate as their friends. Who would believe their implausible story.

Who was better off, the ones in the barn or the ones who are free but may be accused of harming their friends and may be imprisoned.

They pondered their fate and their next move.