TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Part 4

Kudi opened the door to the inner chamber of the closet, and there was Voodoo, tied up and unconscious. He had a tear in his stomach. Keto turned to Kudi
“Alright, genius, how do we wake Voodoo up?”
“This one is easy – just smack him on the head real hard.”
That sounded like the most ridiculous idea Keto had ever heard, but he shrugged and gave Voodoo a couple of hard smacks on the head. As that was going on, they were interrupted by Alena who walked in just then. She was horrified to see what they were doing.
“No! What are you doing?”
Suddenly, Voodoo jerked into consciousness; he was dizzy at first, as he looked around in an attempt to figure out where he was. When his eyes rested on Alena, he was immediately filled with rage.
“You! You drugged me, kidnapped me, and forcefully used my powers for your selfish desires.”
Keto jumped between Voodoo and Alena.
“Now calm down dude, you’re getting it all wrong. She didn’t do this to you, that old geezer Horace did.”
“No, she did this and made it seem like it was Horace, in case anyone ever found out. Look closer into the closet.”
Kudi looked into the closet and found something else.
“Keto, there’s another doll with Horace’s face pinned to it and covered in wax just like the ones we saw in Horace’s tent.”

VOODOO

Keto backed out when he heard that. Voodoo steadily advanced towards Alena, revealing what happened.
“She knew it would not be easy for her to directly take control of Paradise Circus – Hera would find out eventually and she would definitely not stand it if anyone was controlling Horrace because of the relationship between the two of them. Alena, therefore, resorted to rule behind the curtain, by controlling Horace.”
The rest of them nodded in comprehension.
“I knew it! Horace would not put his two loyal followers, Mathew and Molly, under enchantment.”
Keto always hated it whenever his brother was right and he was wrong, as he believed he was the smarter one.
“Oh shut up, Kudi.”
But Voodoo was having none of that, he was extremely mad at Alena. Voodoo was used to getting whatever he wants with his powers, and knowing that someone else made him a tool, and his powers were used for the benefit of someone other than himself greatly infuriated him. He moved even closer to her.
“You have incurred my wrath. Great pain and torment await anyone who incurs my wrath.”

Out of nowhere, Voodoo brought out pins and prepares to prick himself, despite Alena’s desperate pleas for mercy and forgiveness.
“With each prick, your agony will grow, till the heart is pierced and you’re left in darkness.”
“Please! Have mercy, I’ll do anything to make it up to you.”
Voodoo ignored her and continued.

“A pin to the joint, to immobilize you”
Purple Queen screamed in pain and fell to the floor, unable to move.
“A pin to the eye, to blind you.”
She gave out another scream – she had become blind.
“Please Stop! I’ll do all your tasks for a whole month.”
The others, who were previously enjoying the show, were now afraid. Keto summoned the courage to try to stop Voodoo.
“I think you’ve made your point man; she’s learned her lesson. Have some pity on her.”
Voodoo paid no attention to Keto.
“And a pin to the heart, to end all.”
As he slowly brought the pin close to his heart to prick it, Alena screamed out the last thing she could think of.
“I’ll provide all the joints you can smoke for the next six months! Just please…”
That seemed to do the trick as Voodoo dropped the pins in his hand and changed his countenance immediately; he smiled.
“Deal.”
Voodoo removed the pins in his eye and joint and Queen could see and move again. The others were astonished. Lucas sat down, relieved that the tension was over.
“Dude! What just happened?”
Voodoo smiled.
“Come on, Lucas, you didn’t think I would actually kill her, did you? I just wanted to scare her a little so she wouldn’t dare mess with me again. I also wanted to see what I could benefit from the situation since she used me first.”
“There’s something I’m curious about though. Why didn’t you put Kudi and I under enchantment like the rest?”
Purple Queen rolled her eyes at Keto with disdain. It was Voodoo who answered the question instead.
“You see, buddy, she doesn’t know how to perfectly control my powers, which is why the enchantment she did made everyone her puppets - they no longer possessed their free mind nor the ability to act normal and do any of the things they used to. The only way they could do that was if she told them to, and that’s impossible because she would have to be specific about every order she gave - notice how all everyone seemed to care about was the tasks? Now, because you guys are clowns; if you were under enchantment, then you would be zombies just like the rest – your behavior and utterances will no longer be that of clowns, and that will raise suspicion more quickly.”
“That makes sense. So, how do we free the others?”
“I freed them the moment I woke up. Now, I need to stitch up the tear in my belly, and I need lots of joints to get me through that.”
He stared at Alena who understood what he meant immediately and brought out a stash of weed from her purse and handed it to him. Keto’s eyes lit up when he saw the weed. 
“Holy smoke! Is that the maui wowie?
“Don’t even go there, this is all for me. See you later fellas.”
Lucas laughed hard as he watched Keto make a mock expression of sadness as Voodoo walked away with all the weed Alena had given him.
“Don’t worry dude. Now that all this is over, I’ll get you that weed sooner than you expect.”
Keto grinned from ear to ear.
“Well, I’m just glad everything is back to normal in this freak show.”