The house was clean, the food and the potions were cooked. Time to sit down and relax with a smoke. Erzulie Toussaint lived in Jeremi, Haiti. She was born after the reign of terror of the Duvaliers and their Tonton Macoute, but heard plenty about it as she was growing up from her mother. She did not remember her father. He had disappeared in the night at the hands of Duvalier's goon-squad her mother told her, for daring to dissent with some law he deemed repressive. Such was how things were, then. Erzulie's mother never remarried and Erzulie was an only child. She was a well-respected and widely sought mambo. She taught her daughter all she knew. Her mother died from the swine flu in 2009 at the age of 63, leaving Erzulie this house. In 2005, Erzulie met and subsequently married Lucien Toussaint. Erzulie and Lucien saved all the money they could, for they both dreamed of escaping Haiti and migrating to New Orleans. They lived happily enough until 2010, when the earthquake hit. Jeremi had escaped the worst of the earthquake, with only varying degrees of rattling and shaking. A few things were broken but they were replaceable. However, when the relief shipments began to flow into the airport at Jeremi, a lot of bad men began to show up in the city. They were there to hijack the supplies and whatever else they could get their hands on. One of the gangs of bandits began to court Lucien, who worked at the airport as a cargo handler. They promised him money and other things, if he would help them. Erzulie begged him not to have any truck with them, but the money made him not listen. Lucien ended up dead, shot by a policeman when they closed in on the bandits. Erzulie hated these men and vowed that one day she would avenge Lucien. She still wore her wedding ring to remind her of their dreams, her once beautiful love and her oath. So far, two of the men left had died of 'mysterious causes' in their prison cells. No one paid their deaths much mind as such things happened here. The third, the leader, was a free man and hard to track down. She would though. She would find him, and she would have her revenge. When that was accomplished, she would sell the house and go to New Orleans, and begin a new life. She didn't really want to leave, but Haiti was no good place to be. ***** Too numerous to list all the various props used in this, but the base is DM's Chronicle retextured by me to give it a more Caribbean look/color. Erzulie's outfit is Woodland Fairy (DAZ). Now you know about "Scores to Settle." Hahaha @ Art: sure there's vampires out in space! I think the technical term is 'black hole' - afterall, they do feed on other stars' life force. Who knows though, maybe Alba's right and there really are some, somewhere. ***** Thanks so much for stopping by my gallery and for your lovely comments, dear friends! Have a wonderful Wednesday! Ray