The Family Curse

Banu thought that the nightmares would stop after she and Adrik were married and moved to America.

Banu insisted to Adrik that she would calm down afterwards, but she couldn’t seem to help it. The couple moved from Russia to Massechussetts just to try to escape the guilt that Banu had felt over falling in love with Adrik when her sister felt the same about him.

“Adrik,” Banu said one day to her love while they were still in Russia. “I am afraid for Raisa’s soul.”

Adrik smiled fondly at his Banu and gently touched her cheek with his hand. “Why? What has happened?”

“I have feelings that Raisa has meddled with the dark. There are dreams and distant voices that I can hear. I am afraid my sister has met with darkness.” Banu’s eye became wet and she bit her lip.

“Raisa is grown, Banu. I know you feel fear for her, but I will be your husband soon and we will go to America and be away from her. You will not fear her much longer.” Adrik promised, holding her hand. Banu agreed, despite her unease.

A few nights later, a moon hung in the sky, full. Raisa went in the darkness to a wooded cottage and was ushered inside by a beautiful woman.

“Hello, have you brought me what I needed?” asked the woman. Raisa nodded and handed a sachet of herbs to the woman and sat at the table.

“So, dear,” started the woman. “You know I cannot change fate, if the two are meant to be, they will be.”

“Please, don’t let them be,” pleaded Raisa. “I love Adrik more than Banu ever could. Adrik could love me, too if he tried.”

“We will see if fate will be kind to those who love.” The women walked outside and started a fire for a ritual. The woman seemed to have done this plenty of other times. Raisa took in all of the sights as it happened. The woman danced in the moonlight and fed the herbs to the fire.

“Raisa, you will slaughter game for the Gods, to honor them.” Commanded the woman. Raisa nodded and walked over to the pen of rabbits and pulled a pure white one out and held it in her arms. “You must have the blood on your hands should you try to change fate. You must be the one to take action.”

Raisa found herself gripping the neck of a stunned rabbit. She did not feel discomfort or discontent and she snapped its neck and screamed to the Gods to hear her. She threw the body into the fire and yelled upwards at the sky.

“Gods of the earth and fire, I command you to hear me tonight!” Raisa bellowed. “My sister shall not marry Adrik and he shall love me!”

“No,” the woman said, feeling herself take in a trance. The smoke rose around Raisa’s feet, thick and ridden with scents of sulfer. It was as though the scorching fire would not take the rabbit’s body. “It is written by the Gods that Banu will marry Adrik. They will bear children together. Their family line will be strong. The two were cosmically meant to be with each other. I cannot meddle here. It is done.” The woman broke out of the ritual and dumped water on the flames.

“Adrik will be mine or he will belong to no one!” Raisa raised her fist at the sky and spat on the dead body of the rabbit. Its fur was black, but intact. Raisa had never seen anything like this and took it as a sign. She would drive her sister mad if it were the last thing she’d ever do.

Adrik and Banu felt heavy on their wedding day but wanted to have no thoughts of it. Banu wore her mother’s dress and Adrik admired her. When the pair said their vows, they expected Raisa to storm in and shriek objections. There was no struggle, and the two became one, but they felt unease in the pits of their stomachs, like they shouldn’t have made the promise.

Raisa had become so inconsolable that she could not fathom living past their wedding. It was as though the earth denied her, but the sea heard her cry.

Raisa’s scream was heard as she was pulled farther and farther down into the sea, cursing the names of Banu and Adrik and praying that she could follow them and cause their line strife. She didn’t know how she could, but Adrik would never rest easy with his new wife, not for too long.

Banu and Adrik left Russia on a boat, unknowing that Raisa had perished. Banu couldn’t sleep until the boat met the shore and the two were away from the sea.

Adrik worked on the railroads and Banu collected herbs and made salves to sell at the local market whenever the two could go together. They saved up enough money for a beautiful house that matched their beautiful lives near the shore. The two seemed to fall more and more in love with the other each day. Banu eventually found herself with child after child until they had three lovely girls.

When the girls were young, still in school, Banu went to the shore without Adrik to walk with her daughters and she heard a voice that reminded her of the past.

“Mama, we should find Papa and get back. He must be worried.” Banu’s eldest daughter pleaded.

“She’s right, you know.” The voice said, as it rose from the lake. Banu felt her blood run frosty. “Did you miss me, sister?” The voice chuckled. Banu frantically looked everywhere trying to find where the voice came from. Dread filled Banu's lungs, but she could not scream, only water came pouring from her mouth.

Her daughters pulled Banu away from the shore, crouched over and teary-eyed. Banu got to the edge of the shore where her property line began. Banu stopped expelling water from her mouth. Adrik found Banu and their daughters and asked them what happened. Adrik tended to his wife as best he could, but she could not be consoled.

“I heard her voice, Adrik. Raisa’s voice came from the water. She is under there!” Banu yelled. Adrik had never fought with his bride and didn’t know what to think. His daughters were petrified and unsure what happened. Adrik did not know what to think, either.

“Banu, I believe you’re upset. Raisa couldn’t be in the sea. You and I know that. We are happy and in love. We have three beautiful daughters, please Banu. We need to be strong for them. Raisa is probably still in Russia with your family, falling in love right now. We should have a drink to honor her. ”

“Adrik, I thought you’d believe me. I know you feel things too. You feel this pounding in my soul because we share one. You know as well as I that there has been something wrong since we wed.”

“Nothing can be wrong if we do not stay aware of it, my light. I only wish to be aware of you and our daughters and my love for all of you.” Adrik kissed his wife’s cheek and stroked her hair.

“I feel as though something is amiss.” Banu said to her husband. They went to bed night after night.

Banu’s middle daughter, Marina, started feeling a call to the sea around the tenth year of her life. Banu and Adrik chose not to stop her as she spent night after night looking out at the seaside and wishing to hear the mysterious voice from the water that frightened her mother.

One night Marina noticed her mother had left the house and walked to the edge of the property and had not walked too much farther before running back in. Marina tried to pretend that she was asleep and eventually snuck out and into the part of the property where it started to merge with the lake.

“Marina, my light,” the voice that scared Banu said, entrancing Marina. “Walk near the water. I know you feel me.” The voice said, the scent of salt eventually became a taste as Marina started to get farther and farther into the water.

With a jolt, Adrik felt a pit in his stomach and ran to the water to find Marina walking into the water. He pulled on Marina and it seemed like she had gone stiff.

“Papa,” Marina looked back at her father. “Aunt Raisa is of the water.”

“No,” Adrik yelled, yanking his daughter out of the water with a force only a god could have, carrying her to the home with speed that he never felt. He looked back and noticed an apparition of a woman in the lake made of steam charging at the two of them, but being was trapped when the water’s edge ended.

“Banu,” Adrik called for his wife who had gone upstairs for the night. “Marina needs help!”

Banu rushed down the stairs and shoved everything off the table to make room for Marina’s body, who was becoming blue and cold. Adrik placed her gently down on the table and tried to warm her up by stoking the fire to warm her. Banu tried to pound on her daughter’s back to displace the water that had seeped in, and eventually it seemed to dry up, but Marina stayed cold.

“Adrik, we need to leave. There is no way around this. Marina talks of Raisa and says she visits her in dreams. Marina should know nothing of Raisa.”

“No, Banu. We cannot be afraid of Raisa.”

“I have not said her name once to the girls. Marina should know nothing of her. She told me that Raisa offered herself as a sacrifice when we married to the ocean and it heard her pleas. I’ll offer myself as penance instead of our daughters if that will quell Raisa’s hold on Marina.”

“Don’t be mad, Banu. My light, you cannot. We are going to have a long and happy life together, as will our girls. Raisa will not take claim of any of our children.” Adrik said, comforting his wife. “Besides, my light, how can I go on without you? If you die, that will leave only darkness behind.”

“Adrik, I do not know when the dreams will stop for Marina, or myself. Raisa visits me, too.”

“As she does me. But you and I will not give in to her, my light. We will live and our daughters will too.”

Years passed and Marina started to age, never forgetting the thrill of being with her aunt Raisa. Raisa’s spirit never dissipated from the sea. Marina watched as her parents raised her and her sisters with fear, forbidding them from visiting the water, especially at night. They would often speak in Russian to hide conversations about her aunt Raisa from them.

As she grew older, Marina became lovely and fell in love with a sailor. The two wed. On the night Marina married, Banu walked along the shoreline with her youngest daughter, Alyona and told her to be weary for her sister.

“Mama, should we fear Aunt Raisa? I fear that Marina will die at her hands.” Alyona stated, quietly.

“Your father does not like it when I speak Raisa’s name. But I should warn you, Marina was called to the ocean before and I feel Raisa has staked a claim on Marina, but not until after she had finished something that was started. I will grow old one day with your father and we will be one with the sea, but I want you to know that it will never satiate Raisa’s desperation for Adrik.”

“I fear that, too, Mama.”

“It will be our family’s curse, my light. Raisa will always pull our family towards her until our line dies out.”

“I hope it does, swiftly, Mama. Raisa is a force.”