Orun and Aye

Keeper of the SoulsMeridian, MississippiThe mystical separation between good and evil was at its thinnest on August 2, 1964, exactly one month after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. That summer, change was in the air, and the inherent danger that frequently comes along with it-a danger that would lurk inside the shadows where preternatural entities abide.Thirty-one days after the ink dried on the historic document, Edgar DeLonge, Sheriff of Lauderdale County and a staunch White Knight of the Ku Klux Klan, was eating a Swanson TV dinner while watching a reenactment of the signing on the evening news. The outspoken lawman was fuming over the images on the screen, when a drunken Neusome Krutchner-a liar, predator, and shameless coward-arrived at his door with a tale of vengeance. Fueled by bigotry, a twisted sense of justice, and determined to ensure the Colored residents of his district didn't get any bright ideas about equality, DeLonge enlisted his deputy to exact violence on the François family, proud Black farmers who dared to hold their heads high in a land that sought to crush them. He reasoned that every Colored resident in the district would fall in line once he brought down the proudest among them.But the sheriff and his deputy underestimated Elizabeth Anne François.Elizabeth was no ordinary woman. Everyone in the close-knit community of Colored farmers knew she did spiritual work. Rumors that Elzabeth served the Loa with both hands, practicing good and evil medicine, were circulating on the wings of fear-filled whispers since she was a small child. àse, the eerie-looking one-eyed cat that always followed her around and never seemed to age, served as fodder for the gossips.But only Oludumare, her ancestors, spirit guides, allies, and divinity knew about the soul snatching.On that fateful night, Sheriff DeLonge, his deputy, and the Krutchners intended to unleash Mississippi's special brand of terror on the inhabitants of the François farm. What awaited them was not submission, but a reckoning that would leave them embroiled in the spiritual maelstrom swirling around Elizabeth Anne François, one that would leave all and sundry with blood on their hands that no amount of soap and water could wash off.Because when you come for the Keeper of the Souls, you may find your soul lost within the shadows.