— I didn’t want to, but my legs were moving without my consent — said Heitor with his mouth full. He chewed quickly and swallowed in order to continue telling the story. Durval stuffed another piece of the delicious painted fish with annatto that Melinda had prepared for lunch and listened attentively to the account of the former army captain who had illicitly been in an army laboratory where they were holding a strange man with horns.
Durval was not naive; after 76 years, one learns not to believe the first versions of stories told by other retirees. But he had seen the photograph. His friend Botelho, a biology professor, next to a man with horns. Of course, someone could have manipulated the photo, but who would do that and why? Moreover, something truly bizarre was happening in the small town of Santa Tereza. Durval had seen, with his own eyes that had witnessed nearly a century, the corpse sprawled in his kitchen. And without a doubt, Botelho was involved in all of this.
— More than 4,000 years ago — Heitor continued — they believed that the fire from the belly of the god Moloch consuming a living child would purify the soul by cleansing the sins of adults. The Bible states that God forbade the Hebrews from performing these rituals. It’s in Leviticus.
— And what does that have to do with anything? — Durval asked.
— These creatures can dominate your mind. They dominated the minds of the Phoenicians and the Canaanites who were willing to sacrifice their own children in honor of that god.
— But those are legends, myths.
— Well, tell that to the anthropologist J. G. Rapsag who found human skulls with horns buried on the island of Crete. He discovered, Durval, that there is a place in Africa, unknown until last century, where tribes of horned men lived, a sort of Bermuda Triangle in the sands of the desert. Your friend Botelho found these beings. They are the origin of the legends of demons. It was one of those creatures that tempted Jesus in the desert. They control your mind.
Durval had even forgotten about the fish. He swallowed the piece he had in his mouth and took a sip of water.
— They do this with fire eyes, my old Durval. I know it sounds like an exaggeration, the ramblings of a madman, but it’s the only way I can describe what I went through. I stood before him. And it wasn’t just the appearance of the eyes that were of fire. I felt the heat they emitted. Imagine you have a bonfire burning inside your chest. Imagine your heart is on fire, being consumed by flames. That was it. The worst feeling I have ever felt in my life. It was as if I was no longer the master of my body. He had complete possession of me. If he commanded me to jump into an abyss, I would do it without even a meager protest. The dominion was his. I had become merely a spectator. Slowly, I walked to the cage where the monster was imprisoned.
Episode XLIV continues in the next edition.
JOSÉ GASPAR
Filmmaker and writer
www.historiasdooutromundo.com