So the Uber guy driving me to the dentist has a giant black Baphomet head affixed to the front hood of his car. He’s got Neil Gaiman books on the passenger seat. And there’s a giant Monarch butterfly, and a root mojo in a jar hanging from his rearview window. Can’t make this shit up.
‘Good morning, Infernal Soulmate.’
Drivers are considered an embodiment of Legba by the Voodoo people, because of their liminal nature, always in between places.
I have seen the physical Satan’s Carriage like this before. In late 2021 in Oregon, my husband drove us through the burger place, and we got stuck in a line of cars waiting for the drive-through. ‘Turn back and look at the car behind us. Do it slowly, I don’t want you to scream,’ he said. So I did. There was a full-blown horror movie montage of Horned God affixed to the car behind us. This incident marked an ominous moment foretelling the demise of our marriage. I had asked Satan for somebody else earlier that year, and even though I have forgotten about that Pact and moved on, Satan has not.
The second time I saw the Devil’s Carriage was when a Black Magician friend drove me to the airport in LA last summer. We were chatting about our shared past, and I said to him, ‘I am almost certain that story is not over yet. He’s going to resurface.’ A bright red cabriolet passed us, with the driver waving at me like I was an old acquaintance. My heartbeat stopped for a minute. Not only did the car have a 666 on the license plate, but I swear I saw the exact same thing in 2019 in Las Vegas.
The third time I saw the Devil’s Carriage was a few weeks later on the highway, back in Las Vegas where I was living last summer. It was an ordinary day, I was getting home from a photo shoot in the desert. Life felt pretty good at the moment, and I was again under this delusion that ‘things will be just fine, life is what you make it’.
A bright red car, fully tuned out with horns and claws and 666 on the license plate appeared out of nowhere. It was rather unmistakable, but I disregarded it as one of the city’s many eccentricities.
The apparition this morning marks another chapter of the story. Satan has not forgotten about the Pact, and neither have I.
