Lust, gluttony, pride, sloth, wrath, greed, envy: What one is said to gain the power of if they make a deal with the devil. Back in the day this meant winning wars and being blessed by jewels and 16 wives. Nowadays it means fame, jewelry, and non-committal romance.

2010-2012, shriveled up corpses with loose flesh have been found scattered across the Chihuahuan Desert. They appear like massive prunes, but there is no delight in their taste, not even for wildlife it seems as they all seemed untouched. The cause of death was summed up to mass dehydration, but to rookie FBI officer Jean Perkins, there was more to it.

Since their start Jean has gone around visiting desert villages in search of clues. From seniors she has been told of rumors of black magic at play and vengeance by unfulfilled contracts with the devil. At first Jean believed it to be nonsense, people just trying to explain events like times old, but when you hear so much of the same from completely disconnected and even antagonistic groups, you might become unsure. 

Carizozo is the next village Jean is to visit. The place is like half ghost town, half rural bustle. Kids running across streets chasing each other a few blocks away from dusty shops, probably the most unnerving village yet. Jean approaches a bright orange house with a purple gate and knocks. As the door opens a short woman in a dandelion yellow dress comes out. Jean peaks behind her and sees a boy peeking from a doorway and waves happily, making them run away.

“Hi, I’m an officer here investigating a case in the desert, maybe you heard about it in the news,” 

“The shriveled bodies? Yeah  I have, but I thought it was all just a case of the people having no water.”

“Well that’s what seems most rational, but there’s rummaging of other causes, black magic even. At the very least we want to hear them out for documentation. Have you heard anything?” 

“Unfortunately not sorry, nothing really goes on around here.”

“Very well, thanks for your time.”

The door shuts and Jean begins walking away.

“Wait!” yells someone from the orange house’s gangway. It’s the boy who was peeking, much taller than he seemed, he must’ve been very heavily slouched over.

June 20, 2011

Carrizozo Municipal High School 

The halls were crowded, girls dressed in leopard print tops, boys in bright red or blue rugby polos and baggy jeans, the only darkness that alluded the school was the sweat-stained pits from the desert’s heat. Geo was more of a simple airy khakis and baggy monocolor tops-kinda guy. He wandered the halls and kept to himself, simply getting by in classes while he pondered the view of the desert from all of them. His locker was stationed next to high school hotshot Dina Gonzales and he’d always hear a bit of what was up with her and her friend, Mavi Vagos.

“So guess what Mavi?”

“What?”

“You remember that really cute guy I mentioned, the one who comes in the store and acts all flirty around me while he buys his packs of cigs?”

“Uh huh,”

“He came back and finally asked me out! We drove his Chevy to the golden eye diner and he’s so just uhhh.”  

Geo hid his cringing face behind his locker door.

“Hey you!” Dina yells at Geo’s direction.

Geo looks around his locker.

“I can see your ears perking, keep out of our business,”

“Yeah!” Mavi adds. 

Geo blushes red and runs off.

A few days later, another empty day comes and goes, but a rather peculiar after school bit of eavesdropping occurs as well.

“Mavi, he’s taking me to that festival,” Dina whispers.

“There’s no way.”

“Yeah I know, you gotta cover for me though, if my mom ever calls you gotta say I’m there for the sleepover,”

“Of course girl, anything for you, but don’t forget to tell me all about it.” 

As the two girls walked away Geo looked, feeling like there was something bad about to happen.

  Have you heard of the festival in the desert?” Geo asks Jean

“No, never.”

“At school. The popular kids always talk about a secret music festival where people are more alive than ever, doing ecstasy, drinking, feasting and the only way you can go is if you get invited by someone who already knows the location.”

“Have you gone?”

“No but there was a girl, Dina. Dina Gonzales Last year she said she went and it was the best day of her life. But then after a few weeks of raving about it she got depressed or something I’m not sure. She got paler, she was too bummy to be in the popular group anymore, and then she never came back this year.”
“Did she live around here, or did anyone around here know her family?”

“I don’t really know to be honest. I wasn’t part of that group,” he says laughing and scratching his head. 

“I know Mavi lives on C & 11th and when Dina ran with the popular kids those 2 were inseparable.”

“Alright, thank you so much.”

As Jean drove to Mavi’s she saw the town church standing tall with an unwelcoming shadow, it appeared as though an old woman with a pink quilted dress and wine red headscarf had just pulled the doors open. Jean was curious, but she wouldn’t let it kill the cat and drove on. 

When she arrived at Mavi’s, the place seemed desolate. Carizozo is quite a small town, with less than 1,000 residents, many of the houses abandoned after a failed real estate project. As she knocked on the screen door a white Maltese dog walked up to the screen door to bark. With a robe and a facemask Mavi followed.

“Hi, are you Mavi?”

“Depends who’s asking.”

“I’m from the FBI, my name’s Jean. I’m here investigating the shriveled desert corpses that I’m sure you’ve heard about. I got a tip from a schoolmate of yours about a festival, the same one your friend Dina went to.”

“Me and Dina haven’t been friends for a year at this point,” she snarkily responds, trying to shut the door, but Jean puts her foot in the way.

“I know, but I was hoping you might have visited her once or twice when you were friends.”

“She lives in the house up the hill last time I checked, but that place seems abandoned as it can be 

nowadays.”

“Thanks”

“Wait!” Mavi yells as Jean walks away.

“Here,” Mavi says, handing Jean a small wallet sized-photo of two girls, one being Mavi.

“The one on the left is Dina.”

"Thank you.”

Jean goes on driving through the city, passing the foreboding church once more. As she drives up the hill when the house first comes to view it seems as though some pink silhouette had dashed inside. Jean walks up cautiously and knocks on the door. 

She stands awkwardly for a few minutes before it just creeks open. She’s apprehensive, but walks in anyway. Immediately she hears a cough from a doorway ahead. As the birch floorboards creak, she makes her way to the doorway and peeks around the corner. She finds the pink figure rocking in a chair looking out towards the window. 

“Hello,” Jean says hesitantly.

“Who is it!?” the figure screams.

“I’m Jean, I’m an officer for the FBI, I’m just investigating the case of the shriveled up desert corpses and-,”

“Desert corpses?” the woman interrupts, going silent for a moment.

“It’s been going on for a while now, but nobody knows what’s going on. I got a clue from a student and it led me here, to look for the Gonzales family. I don’t suppose they’re around here?”

“What do you want with the Gonzales’?”

“Their daughter, Dina, allegedly went to an event and afterwards she was different, she got super unemotional and distant from everyone apparently.”

“That energy didn’t just disappear, it was stolen.”

“Stolen?”

The woman in the pink dress grabbed her cane and stood from the rocking chair and stared Jean in the eye.

“My youth was robbed at the festival.”

“Dina?” Jean replies. She pulls the photo out of her pocket and holds it up next to the woman. Everything matched. The amber yellow eyes, the seemingly symmetrical birthmarks below each of her eyes.There was no mistake, it was her. 

“Where are your parents?”

“They’re gone, mom said I must’ve dealt with the devil to end up a witch, dad wasn’t much different.”

“What happened? I don’t understand, aren’t you still a teen.” 

“I’m supposed to be a teen. But I guess we don’t all get what we want right? It was that festival, back in junior year.”

“Tell me how you get there.”

“I’m sure you know that you can only get invited to the festival by someone who knows the location. My inviter was this older guy, maybe 20, who would drop by my job at the local grocery store. His name was Victor Redvine. We dated for a bit before he invited me.”

“How did he bring that up to you?”

“He just said there was a festival coming around in the summer and that he wanted to take me. I agreed and then maybe around June of last year we went. He picked me up at night, and I told my parents I was going to a sleepover with some friends and it was a whole elaborate thing.”

She pauses to reach into her pocket to pull out a necklace.

“As soon as we got out there, they put this necklace on me. The night went on, we had so much fun jumping in this mosh of people here for some random rock band. I got back home and thought nothing of it. My mom was the first to note a few later that something was wrong ‘you’re looking quite pale,’ she snarled. As the days went on I didn’t just lose my color I lost my clear skin, breakout and skin loosening that I spent hours covering up daily until one day my parents couldn’t recognize me anymore. The whole witch thing happened and I was left alone here.”

“I'm so, so, sorry. Dina I don’t want this for anyone else and I don’t think you do either. Please give me all you know about Victor so I can find him.”

“All I have is that name and a vague description. Orange hair, mustache, maybe five feet and eleven inches. Flannel, always a flannel on him. Now go please.”

“I’ll do my best.”