Orpheus - Haunting the Dead.pdf - Dice

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DIA DE LOS MUERTOSAUNTING THE DEAD
celebration. There was nothing quaint about the man
she now faced, however. Everything he wore, and the
weapon he wielded, looked completely functional and
deadly. Indeed, judging by the black crust caked on the
side of the man’s sword, it had seen frequent use.
“Do you know who I am?” the man asked.
“I know what you look like,” Eileen replied, trying
to force bravery into her voice. “You look like
Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war. Since that’s
what that poor deluded girl called you, I’ll assume that’s
who you think you are.”
Huitzilopochtli leered at her, “And what makes you
think that I’m not?” She noted that the left half of the
ghost’s face had been painted white, with markings
around his mouth that made it look like a skull. The
other half had a line of dark green spots running down
it. It took her a moment to realize that the markings
weren’t paint.
“First, you’re speaking to me and your men in
Spanish, not Nahuatl. Second, based on those lovely
teeth you’ve got, I’d say that during life you were the
beneficiary of some very expensive and very modern
dentistry. Third, even under your stains I can recognize
the face of Francisco Arguelles.”
Francisco lost his superior smile and lashed out with
the obsidian sword. Eileen screamed in pain as the
sword tore into her upper arm. Elsewhere in Guadalajara
her flesh split open and blood splashed along the bed in
the Orpheus nursery. Cool, efficient medical technicians
hurried to bandage her wound. “You will not call
me by that name!” Francisco yelled. “That was what I
was called before She came. Before my ascension unto
godhood!”
Good Lord, he really thinks he is Huitzilopochtli, Eileen
thought. He’s cracked. She felt the hands that restrained
her tighten their grip. Unfortunately, he’s not
the only one.
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