The woman walked through the streets of Rio Denso at night, reciting words aloud, intending to be heard:
— He's back, my baby's back. His wrath is coming, sing with me!
The moon hung high above her head, its light reflecting off her long red hair; the flickering of her vast hair resembled a crackling bonfire. Once, she had been a beautiful woman, able to captivate a man's heart, but those days were gone. Now she didn't even care about her appearance anymore. She only awaited the day she would have her revenge and laugh. She would laugh in everyone's face until her throat bled and she could no longer make a sound.
— Come sing with me, you demons. He's back! Sing! — the woman continued.
Aurora skipped along the streets, her white nightgown flying delicately, sometimes revealing the curves of her still well-kept body. Her green eyes shone bright during her chanting—if that could be called music:
— Come, come. Celebrate with me, you beasts! Soon he will return, and you will go to Hell. Rio Denso will be ours again, and you will belong to the Devil!
The houses with lights on began to turn them off, as if hiding from the woman walking the street. Some called her crazy behind her back, but no one dared say it to her face. Aurora was protected by him. Protected by the Devil. She had sold her soul to the Devil and was protected by him, or so the town said.
— You know who's back, my people? It's him, my baby! And when our family is together again, you will cry. Cry for all eternity and burn in the fires of hell!
Her feet began to bleed. That night, she had abandoned her shoes and decided to feel the ground she walked on. She was happy and celebrating. She felt alive like she hadn't in a long time—since those people destroyed her family.
But she would have her revenge.
She twirled through the streets, jumped over the benches in the square, kicked up the sand in the playground, rubbed her body against the support columns of the playground, and sprinted to the front of the church—the home of the man who destroyed her family. The home of the man she once called a demon but who was even worse. She decided to take a peek. She decided to hum at the priest's window to make him shudder and feel fear. In a few days, he would feel great pain and then die. She would laugh and spit in his face. She would trample the dead body of Julio Cani, the one who had torn her family apart. Now, she couldn't look at the man who was once her husband without remembering her own tragedy. And it was all the damned priest's fault—the black-skinned demon who brought darkness with him.
A cold wind blew in that part of town. Rio Denso was now in complete darkness, lit only by street lamps and the moon. All the houses had turned off their lights, but Aurora knew families were peeking through their windows. People trembled under their blankets, crying for their children lost every year. It was the price to stay alive, though it wouldn't last much longer. Julio never told the families that. He left out the revenge part, and Aurora was grateful for that.
She crept to the back of the church with her feet marked in fresh blood. There were many trees and bushes to hide in there. She had done this for a long time, almost every night, watching the priest in secret, promising herself that one day she would get revenge, that one day she would stomp the priest's head until nothing was left and then drink his blood.
That night, she would speak to him, reveal her hiding place, make it clear she had watched him for a long time and that his end was near. But that night was different. That night, she saw him naked. Saw him whip his own back while laughing. And she felt fear. All hope for revenge evaporated in moments. It was clear he was planning something too. He knew her baby had returned and would do something about it, of course.
She stayed in the bushes until the priest's ritual ended. Then she launched into a frantic run toward the hill, toward her old home. She ran the entire dirt road, ignoring the pain in her feet, climbed the slope facing stones that hurt her even more. She passed in front of the big house, saw three people in the front room, and watched them for a while, letting nostalgia wash over her. Finally, she slipped into the forest and headed toward the cabin where she had once begun life with Ben Mendonça. She needed to warn him about the priest. They had planned their revenge for years and could not leave any openings for the priest to win again. Aurora Mendonça would never, no matter what, let the priest cross her path again.