Sa Ki Mal

Living in the swamp has its magic and spooks. The magic is when the frogs gently croak at night while fireflies mimic the starry night sky, lighting your way to wherever you want to go. The spooks was when the swamp moss on the trees got so thick sometimes, that at night you’d swear a witches hand was grabbing at you from the earth.

Then there was evil.

There’d been recent talk in town about a cabin in the Atchafalaya Basin. The cabin set right on the edge of the Atchafalaya River surrounded by a thick marsh. People referred to it as different things. “Forgotten Cabin” or “The Portal to Hell”, just to name a few. But its real name was Sa Ki Mal. If you’re not from deep Louisiana, then you probably don’t know what that means.

Sa Ki Mal means evil in creole.

Now, the cabin isn’t anything new. It’s been around since my 93-year-old grandpa was just a kid. What’s new is that there has been several activity and sightings reported in the past few weeks. Some say they’ve seen bodies hanging from the trees around the cabin. Others report hearing screams that echo through the swamps and even cross over from the river sometimes. We’ve had so many calls and tips sent in, that as Sheriff, I can’t go on ignoring them anymore.

“What’d he say?” my partner, Kurt, asked.

He was referring to my Grandpa Isaiah who I’d just got done talking to. My grandpa was the biggest storyteller in Krotz Springs and I’d figured I’d start with him first to get in the mindset of everyone’s fears and to refresh my memory; I hadn’t heard any stories since I was a kid. Grandpa Isaiah knew everything there was to know about Sa Ki Mal.

I rolled my eyes and said, “A lot. Says the cabin was built sometime in the 1820s by the McConnell family who came from Ireland. Says the family were all found hangin’ from a 100-foot tree behind their house and no one knew how they got all the way up there… and he said that these hauntings only take place every 40 years, so that’s why we’ve never heard of anything until now,” I chuckled at how ridiculous it all sounded.

“Probably the Pa offed the family then himself,” Kurt said.

I shrugged, “More-so what I think happened, is the family just abandoned the cabin during some sort of recession, got outta dodge. Over time, the cabin started decaying and people made up ghost stories to scare kids and make this town seem more interesting than it actually is.”

Kurt laughed, “Yeah, probably.”

Just as we were getting in the cruiser, I could see my Grandpa step out of his house waving us down. I rolled Kurt’s window down.

“What do you want, old man?” I shouted at him.

He rushed up to the car and rested his hands on the window ledge and bent down, “Pa gen tan kote lanmo kouche,” he said.

I smiled at Grandpa, waved my hand and said, “Thanks, old man,” and drove off.

“What did that mean back there?” Kurt asked.

I shrugged. “Beats me. Some shit in Creole I suppose.”

I lied. I’m not sure why I kept that from Kurt. But I knew what it meant.

There’s no time where death lies.

____________________________________________________

Sa Ki Mal was a real small cabin that damn-near looked like most people’s sheds. It was on stilts lifted above a pond and it had a huge wrap-around porch that was awkward as hell on such a tiny home. To the left was a set of stairs that looked as if they were ready to tip over at any moment due to rot. The cabin was falling into the swamp just from time, lack of up-keep, and it was covered in moss. Me and Officer Kurt got out of the cruiser and walked closer to the cabin. A rush of wind came through and the cabin made a loud creaking noise that could possibly explain the screams people were reporting.

Kurt broke the eerie silence, “I can’t believe we’re here, man. This is a waste of our time." Kurt had tried to convince me to continue to dismiss people’s claims.

“I told you that if we check it out, it might just put people at ease. I’m sick of getting phone calls about it,” I said. Kurt didn’t respond.

The wind came rushing in again and the cabin creaked even louder this time, “Now see, hear that? We already got an explanation for those screams people keep reporting.”

Kurt rolled his eyes, “Yeah, yeah, yeah”.

We turned our flashlights on to get a better look at everything. It wasn’t too dark out, but eve was near. I pressed the side of my watch. Time is 18:32.

“Let’s just walk around the grounds and say we didn’t see shit, and move on from this,” I told Kurt.

Kurt nodded. We approached the cabin and I could see why stories were made about it. I can’t deny that there was a certain feeling about this place. The air seemed cold and harsh and I swear the night got darker the closer we approached the cabin. I immediately shrugged the spooky feeling off and dismissed it as the tricks the swamp plays on you sometimes.

“Look here!” Kurt shouted.

“Jesus, Kurt! You scared the shit outta me,” I said.

Kurt pointed at the ground. I leaned in closer, flashed my light, and laying there was a dead hog, decaying with its rib cage exposed. Probably been dead for a couple weeks.

“One less of them bastards. You know Richie? The one who owns that farm off of Blanche Road? Says he’s had to re-lay so many crops ‘cause of these guys,” I said.

“Yeah, but look,” Kurt said in horror as he raised his flashlight.

I looked up and all over the grounds of the cabin were dead hogs. Probably 30 or 40 of them if I had to guess. Suddenly the putrid smell of death hit me. I quickly grabbed my handkerchief out of my back pocket and covered my nose. Even weirder, was they were all in the same phase of decay, like they had all died at the same time. I’d made up my mind that perhaps they were travelling in a pack and they all had a disease amongst them.

“What the hell?” I asked out loud.

Kurt started walking back to the cruiser. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” I shouted.

“Hell no. Hell no. Hell no,” said Kurt with every step. “There’s no way in hell I’m staying here. This is proof enough for me that some weird shit is happening here."

“Why the sudden change? You kept telling me not to humor everybody, but now you’re runnin’ off scared!” I said.

Kurt turned back to me, “Shit, Audrey. That’s ‘cause I didn’t want to come here in the first place! Everybody knows this place is haunted.” Then he turned around and started marching towards the cruiser again.

“What are you just gonna leave me?” I shouted at him.

“No, I’ll just be in the car,” he yelled back.

For a second, I considered going with him, leaving, and just let the townspeople know that we hadn’t seen a damn thing. Which was true. We hadn’t. Just a bunch of dead pigs. But I know that wouldn’t stop the constant phone calls and the hysteria that was taking over Krotz Springs. Everyone in this town was suspicious with or without a ghost story. In all honesty, I really didn’t know what I was going to say regardless. There’s no ghosts. The cabin’s what’s screamin’. I think everyone’s just delusional. Even if I did see something, what the hell could I do about it? I’m no priest.

I rolled my eyes and reluctantly headed towards the cabin with the flashlight leading the way.

“I’m just going to walk around the cabin real quick, then get out of here,” I said aloud to myself.

I started for the cabin slowly, walking around all the pigs. The smell was god awful. It penetrated my handkerchief no matter how close I held it to my mouth and nose. I made a mental note to contact sanitation as soon we got back to the station so they could come pick this mess up. I clicked my watch again to look at the time.

It was 01:00.

How the hell did 7 hours pass? We’d only been here all of 40 minutes, there’s no way. I looked back at the cruiser and Kurt was waving at me from inside of it to come back. Perhaps my watch was broken. I threw Kurt the bird for leaving me out here all alone. In any other town, he’d get fired for neglecting his duties.

I turned towards Sa Ki Mal and suddenly there was a young girl standing directly in front of me. I let out an audible scream and fell back, falling in the mud. To describe what nothingness looks like, would be impossible. But if you’d looked in her eyes, as I was at that moment, nothing would stare right back at you.

I noticed that the sides of her jaw were… decomposed? Her rotting teeth were shown through her cheeks. Tendons and muscle were hanging out of her jaw. Her eyes looked like two big black marbles against her grey and worn skin and she had a red ring that went around her whole neck. She was holding some sort of doll in her hand – its face completely shattered. I backed away and grabbed for my handgun. My finger gripped the trigger and without hesitation, I shot at her and she immediately vanished. I was frozen to the spot. Who was that? What was that? My mind was in a loop trying to make sense of what happened.

I heard honking over and over which snapped me out of my daze. My ears began to ring, and I had the most intense headache I’d ever had. I managed to pull myself up off the ground and turned around to see Kurt in the cruiser. He was honking and the horror in his face was unforgettable. I tried to walk towards the car, but my feet failed me. My legs failed me. My body failed me. I was paralyzed to the spot as if I was just another tree or rock in the swamp. I looked down at my feet and realized I was slowly falling into the mud. It was like quicksand. Then I heard laughter that echoed through the trees of the swamp.

I reached out and screamed, “Kurt, help me!”

Kurt honked a couple more times. I know he was too frightened to get out of the car, but this can’t be how it ends for me. I tried my hardest to keep moving through it but no matter what I did, I just kept sinking. My thighs were almost completely enveloped in mud and at this point, I’d lost my wits. Screaming, crying, and grabbing at the earth.

“Here grab this!” Kurt yelled.

I was so relieved to see him. Kurt handed me a safety rope and I held onto it. I looked up at him as my only hope, “You got me right?” He nodded; his eyes completely bewildered.

I pulled. He pulled. I pulled. He pulled. Until finally, I was out of the mud and laying face down in the swamp. My heart was pounding through my chest and I rolled over on my back to catch my breath. I turned my head and was face to face with a dead hog. Propping my body up, I puked. I don’t know if it was from shock or the smell of death that invaded my nose. I realized then that my whole body was in excruciating pain.

Kurt got off the ground quickly and said, “We have to get out of here, Audrey. Let’s go!”

I got myself up and nodded. He grabbed my hand and we quickly walked to the cruiser and got inside.

Kurt was in the driver seat and said, “Keys, keys, keys!”

I panicked trying to search for them. Fumbling, I was relieved that they were still on my belt. Clipping them off, I handed them to Kurt and in one swift movement he grabbed them, shoved them into the ignition and backed out. Before we knew it, we were back on the main road.

Silence was loud. We were both in shock. Did Kurt see everything that I did? Did he see her? I don’t think I was ready to discuss it, but I also wanted to know what was going through his mind. I tried to preoccupy myself by wiping some of the mud off of me, even though it was a helpless effort. My mind kept going back to everything. No distraction was enough to pull me from her face. All I know, is we did see something, and I wasn't sure what I was going to tell everyone.

____________________________________________________

The tension in the car started to loosen as we approached town. Kurt’s arms relaxed on the steering wheel. I laid my head on the headrest and our breathing wasn’t so erratic as it had been. Surprisingly, Kurt passed the station.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“To your Grandpa’s,” he said with his eyes on the road.

“What for?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“We’re gonna tell him what we saw. See if anything can be done about it. I don’t know, I feel like he might know something,” Kurt said in a panic. His words confirming that he did see her.

He was right, though. If anyone in this town knew what to do, Grandpa Isaiah was the one to know. I looked down at the clock on the radio. It was 06:37. I’m sure he was up by now.

When we pulled up to Grandpa’s he was sitting on the front porch in his rocking chair, having his usual morning coffee. I got out of the car and could tell that he already knew.

He stood up and asked, “Ya' two want coffee… wit' some whiskey inn'it?”

We both looked at each other, chuckled, then nodded.

Kurt and I took a seat on the bench on my Grandpa’s porch. Minutes later he came back with some hot coffee that smelled of strong whiskey. I took a big chug of it, not caring how hot it was. The warmth of the whiskey reminded me how happy I was to be alive. That I could feel warmth. Although, I don’t know how my mind would ever recover from something like this. What would sleep be like from here? Could I still be the Sherriff after running away scared? My mind had so many questions but was left with uncertainty.

As we began to explain the events that transpired, Grandpa interrupted us, “Ain’t a damn thing you can do.”

I looked at Kurt whose eyes were still fixed on Grandpa.

Grandpa then said, “Gots’a be honest wit’ the folks here. Gots’a tell ‘em what y’all saw. This here ain’t no ordin’ry town so no ordin’ry way to handle this. All ya’ can do is warn people away. McConnell’s gots’a do what they gots’a do,” then he took a big sip of his coffee.

Kurt chimed in, “There’s nothing that can be done? Maybe we ought’a call in a priest or something. I don’t know.”

Grandpa shook his head, “Ain’t no priest gonna do a damn thing. Priests can only do somethin’ if the hauntin’ is on somebody else. McConnell’s ain’t hauntin’ nothin’ but they own land. Best to leave ‘em alone.”

I took another chug of my coffee, thankful that the whiskey was starting to do what whiskey does best. Kurt looked back at me, the horror resetting in his face. He squeezed my knee and nodded. We both knew what needed to be done.

We were going to tell everyone that Sa Ki Mal was real.

____________________________________________________

I was standing at the bridge that crossed the Atchafalaya River. I looked down at the post sign I had just installed that read: Turn back now. Sa Ki Mal ahead. There’s no time where death lies.

It had been a week since we came here. A week since I saw her. We held a press conference for the town only hours ago and had told the people of Krotz Springs everything we had witnessed. The dead hogs. Her. Which turned out to be Maggie McConnell, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. McConnell, and how the swamp almost took me in for good. We warned people to stay away and to let any relatives or friends know that may be visiting, to steer clear. Sa Ki Mal was McConnell land and no one was to trespass it.

It was weird. I was expecting everyone to ask questions or demand we do more about it. But it was apparent to everyone that we must co-exist with evil as our neighbor. I think everyone felt validated and relieved to know that they weren’t delusional or crazy. Part of me felt the same comfort.

I looked back at Sa Ki Mal one last time. The swamp nearly covered it up. It was after all, a good 1000 feet away from where I was standing. As I started to turn back, I caught glimpse of 3 figures standing on the porch of Sa Ki Mal. The McConnells. I know they were looking back at me. I took one last glance and got in my cruiser then started towards town.

Living in the swamp has it’s magic and spooks. The magic is when the moon gently caresses the ponds and puddles, making you feel closer to the night sky. The spooks is when everything looks the same for miles and getting lost in it, is inevitable.

Then there was evil.