Where the Vines grow

She was an odd sight to behold; a large disembodied head attached to the frail body of a twelve year old child. Two giant eyes, lidless and warped glowered at the surrounding landscape. Carrying a small burlap sack, she walked alone on the rocky shores of Poveglia Island, blithely stepping on charred bones of once plague-ridden corpses. She knew of the island's dark history. "Isle of the Insane" they once called it. But there was nothing left here now. There was no life; no birds, no fish, no sound, no movement. Other than the sparse shrubbery and dead vines that littered the abandoned wasteland, Poveglia was completely barren. But that didn't mean that the girl was alone.

Even now, she could hear the ethereal wails and whispers that only added to the macabre atmosphere of the place. Even centuries after the place was deserted, the air was still thick with the reek of death. But the stench didn't bother her behind the polycarbonate mask that kept her from inhaling the stink. Instead, she turned her attention to the dismal sounds of weeping and moaning that seemed to come from nowhere… and everywhere.

"Please don't do it!"

"Damnation… damnation upon us…"

"When you go home, there is no hope"

"Mama! Mama! Please, don't leave me!"

The voices were distorted and she had to listen hard for them. She didn't want to offend them. No. On the contrary, she wanted to help them. The girl was not as gifted as her mother. She did not possess the Sight beyond sight and thus she would not find them on her own. They had to come to her freely. But the girl was persistent. She and her mother had a purpose on this island and she would do whatever she could to help.

In her mind, she whispered that she bore them no ill will and that she only wished to aid them in their passing. When none replied, she turned to face the ocean, hoping, praying that at least one soul would be willing to listen. The waves pushed and pulled, bringing up nothing up but froth. An eternity seemed to pass and she waited with bated breath. Just as she was about to turn away, defeated, she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a small skull had been washed up on the shore. It bobbed up and down, drifting in the foam. There, it waited. Only then did she know, she had been answered.

"I don't care anymore. I'm so tired… tired of waiting…"

No one else other than the girl or her mother could have probably seen him. But he was precisely what she was looking for.

"Hello," the girl began. She took off mask in gesture of trust and was revealed to be nothing more than an ordinary girl with bright ocean blue eyes and locks of sunset hair. "My name is Angelique. May I know what is yours?"

The wind whispered in reply.

"Don't be scared. I only want to help." She took out some prayer incense from her burlap sack, placed it on the ground and lit it. "Will you walk with me?"

Again the wind answered, bringing with it the foul reek of death. But the girl didn't mind.

"Antonio, you said you were waiting for something. What were you waiting for?"

An unholy wail echoed throughout the shoreline, the voice carried forth from the great bell tower at the highest point of the island to the crashing foam of the waters below.

"Antonio, I'm sorry but…" the girl swallowed in her apprehension. She had never before tried to help with the rite of crossing over. "…but I don't think she's coming back."

"She promised…"

"I know," the girl closed her eyes and nodded in agreement. "I know and I think she tried very hard to come back for you but no one else will ever come to the island after me."

In bitterness and denial, the wind lashed at her, overwhelming her with the pungent odor. The tiny embers of the incense sticks had been thoroughly extinguished.

"Please I'm sorry," she coughed. "I didn't mean to make you angry. I only want to help."

The wind ceased its tumultuous rage.

"My mother, she has the Sight beyond sight and so she is using her gift to help the lost souls on the island to cross over. The souls are trapped here but my mother, she… she can set them free. She can bring life back to the island, if the souls will allow her."

The wind rustled and slowly plucked a dead leaf from a vine then dangled it in front of her.

"I know you think life will never come back to the island, Antonio, but that won't stop me or my mother from trying."

The wind carried the leaf I the direction of the great bell tower.

"You want me to follow you?"

The leaf fell into a delicate spiral, mimicking a "come hither" motion.

"Very well," she conceded.

As she drew ever closer to the bell tower she began to feel other presences calling out to her. Knowing the macabre history of the island, she tried to make sense of what she saw.

A plethora of souls marched on sluggishly towards a point directly below the great bell tower's high window, which was once the island's all-seeing eye. They marched on, paying the girl no heed as their nightmarish moans resonated all around her. Hysterical voices; they wailed in anguish or wept pitifully. Their faces were gaunt and sickly, their skin covered in festering boils. The stench of decay became increasingly apparent, even though the last person to die here had perished centuries ago.

Phantom hands touched the girl, seeking release. But the wind guided her on, playfully spinning the leaf to keep her attention. Turning away from the crowd, she moved on.

The girl was wary of the circumstance she was currently in. Never before had she seen so many souls gathered in one place at the same time. The leaf from the vine drifted in front of her, trying to provide some courage.

"I'm not scared, Antonio" she told the leaf. "I know that as real as they are, they can't hurt me." The girl thought she almost sensed a hint of a smile coming Antonio's ethereal form.

They passed the plague pit. For a time, they walked on in silence. Neither one of them wanted to start up a new conversation, thinking that speaking in this unholy area could only bring nothing more than terrible memories. The malformed bones inside were more than a constant reminder. They had remained untouched for ages.

When at last they had come to the bottom of the great bell tower, they halted in astonishment. This was the very heart of the island, the source of all the corruption. It was then that the girl saw what was causing all the commotion among the restless souls. The soul of a man in a white lab coat was being mauled by hundreds of ghoulish other souls.

This must have been the infamous doctor she had heard of, the one who performed various experiments and lobotomies upon hapless, innocent individuals, whether they were plague-ridden or the picture of health. Now, it seemed that the grisly scene of his violent demise was meant to play over and over again in an eternal loop. This was his hell. This was the hell he brought upon himself.

But the tiny detail that completely caught the girl off guard was the fact that her mother was precisely in the middle of this throng, hard at work trying to dispel the negative energies that pervaded the heart of the island. It was imbalance in energy that prevented anything from growing on the island.

Orgone crystals encompassed her mother. Prayer incense and lemurian pendants were scattered all around her. They kept the souls from touching her. But they were not enough to set them all free. Her mother chanted and prayed, fervently swaying her arms to guide the souls to their resting place. One by one, those nearest to her began dispersing into dust.

The girl was not experienced as her mother. But she too began to chant in accord and very soon the souls were turning into dust by the dozen. Though, while hundreds had already crossed over to the other side, a single soul steadfastly remained by the girl's side. The leaf was quivering.

The girl had to be strong now. She and her mother were among the few gifted people capable of withstanding this event. It was their duty to the lost souls. Tears welled in her eyes as the wind blew ever stronger. It was an unearthly wind that soon became a tempest. The various energies swirled viciously within it. The souls who had already crossed over and those who refused to pass on danced in conflict. The positive energy and negative energy crashed together, distorting the gateway between the world of the living and the Hereafter.

Wishing for it to be over, the girl closed her eyes and it was then that she saw.

The boy, Antonio, was separated from his mother at the port. His mother promised she would return but she never did. Antonio was sick, very sick and could do nothing but reach out in vain and weep to his heart's content.

"Mama! Mama! Please, don't leave me!"

Antonio lay still for many days. There were hundreds, thousands of other plague victims on the island. No one would care if a solitary child remained neglected. Then, when he finally thought someone took notice of him, it was the doctor. But the doctor would not come near him. Instead, he ordered one of the workers to carry the boy to the plague pit to be incinerated. Antonio heard the doctor's commands and tried to shout with all his might.

"I'm not dead! I'm not dead!"

But his inflamed mouth did not respond. The infection had run too deep. Panicking, Antonio tried his best to move, to show that at least some of his body still contained some bare spark of life. He managed to move his trembling fingers. But no one took notice. He was cast into the plague pit atop other infested corpses. Some, he could tell, were still alive, by the way the embers refused to die in their eyes. They were alive just as he was, maybe even more so. But they were cast into the pit nonetheless. Then, the fires rose. The cadavers were roasted like pigs for a feast. The last thing the girl saw was the doctor staring silently, intently at the pit. He stared without the slightest hint of remorse as the inferno consumed everything and bones and ashes that remained were dumped unceremoniously into the ocean.

The girl opened her eyes again. Her mother was staring at her. The whole ordeal was over. Most of the souls were gone, save a few hundred who wished to remain.

"Come Angelique, we must leave this place now. Let it heal. We have fulfilled our task," her mother beckoned.

The girl started to leave but she stopped and turned around. Lo and behold, the leaf was still flickering in the wind.

"Please don't leave me." It pleaded. "I don't want to be alone anymore… not ever again."

The girl smiled and turned to her mother. "Mom, this is Antonio. He's been alone on this island for so long. Can he come with us?"

The girl's mother took her eyes off her daughter and spied the leaf trembling in trepidation of the answer. She smiled and said "Yes, of course he may come. This is no place for children."

Immediately, the leaf fell to the ground and the wind embraced the mother and daughter. They left Poveglia together. The wind found a new mother and a new friend and would never be lonely again.

*******************

Several years later, the vines began to grow again and they flourished. Life would begin anew on Poveglia Island.