Authors: T Styles
Tags: #Fiction, #Literary, #Urban, #African American, #General
SHAGGY
WHORE
Shaggy drove in silence. There was nothing left to be said because there was nothing that could be undone. Still, Passion’s heart broke for Madjesty despite her dishonesty. To watch her be brutally raped and shot was too much for even the greatest sinner. So what she’d lied and manipulated her, she still cared about Madjesty. And then to learn that she was Jayden’s sister was an even tougher blow. She couldn’t imagine how this would go over once she spoke to Jayden. Passion was judgmental, and as the night grew old, she was starting to believe that her attitude inspired Shaggy to push the envelope and go even further.
Besides, who was she to point fingers? She was dishonest when she’d given her birth name to Madjesty instead of Passion, the name she was known by. Simply because she was running from her past. Then there was her growing heroin addiction, which caused her to lie to Madjesty about the use of her money. She was wrong in all senses of the word. She was just as guilty.
Shaggy saw the spit in her eyes so he snatched the tape off her lips. “Speak on it.”
“You didn’t have to kill him.” Passion said looking at him, before looking back out the window. “You raped him and then you killed him. Why?”
“After all that shit, you still think that bitch was a dude?” He asked maneuvering down the street. “Is that what you gonna tell people? That I raped another nigga?”
“I meant her.”
Shaggy growing angry at her disposition, stole her in the face. Her head crashed against the window and blood poured from her mouth.
“What are you?” He asked, wild eyes alternating from the road back to her face. When she didn’t respond he got louder. “What the fuck are you?”
Holding her face she said, “What do you mean?”
He stole her again. “I said what the fuck are you?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say?” She sobbed.
“A whore. You’re a fucking whore.” He paused. “Now say it!” “I’m a whore.” She cried. “I’m sorry.”
“I know you sorry. And because you a whore, sometimes you need to be put in your place. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes.” She cried.
“And all whores whether they know it or not need to be told what to do. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Now strip off all of your clothes.”
Already knowing he hated to repeat himself, she removed her clothes as quickly as possible. When she was done he pulled up to a convenience store that was full of people and ordered her out.
“Get out.” He paused. “You need to air out a little.”
“No! Please don’t do this!”
“You really gonna make me say it twice?”
He looked at her and she opened the car door. He should not have needed to say that much. She witnessed Madjesty’s rape and murder and knew what kind of man she was dealing with...an uncompromising one.
When she got out of the car and everyone saw her naked body people were shocked. Some thought she was high but most thought she was crazy. Camera phones flashed as they watched the sexy naked girl expose her nude body to the world.
“Walk down the street.” He yelled from a rolled down window.
Barefoot and naked, she walked slowly down the street as he drove next to her. It was impossible for her to be more humiliated and she suddenly had a taste, albeit small, of how Madjesty must’ve felt moments earlier. To have your self-respect stripped from you and not be able to defend yourself was the lowest offense known to man. Now she felt even worse for how she reacted back at the room. Who was she to point the finger when she herself was not perfect?
After laughing hysterically Shaggy said, “Get in the car.” She did quickly and covered her breasts with her hands.
Once inside he said, “Now…what are you?”
“A whore?”
“Good and this is what I’m telling you to do.” He paused. “When we tell the story, about what happened back in the room, it will go like this. I came to the hotel to get you, that bitch fought me and I killed her. We will not mention a rape, or anything else am I understood? Especially to Jayden.”
She wiped some tears off of her face and said, “Yes. You’re understood.”
“Good, because if you don’t do what I say, what I will do to you will be far worse than anything you’ve ever experienced. I guarantee it.” She nodded.
“Now look in the glove compartment,” he paused. “I put something in there for your troubles.”
Passion opened the compartment and removed a small bag of heroin. “Thank you!” She smiled, wiping the snot and tears from her face. She didn’t even put on her clothes first before she started cooking it.
He laughed and said to himself, “What a difference a little dope makes.”
JACE
DRUNKEN HOT GIRLS
Jace sat in Harmony’s room and watched her consume glass after glass of vodka. They were on the bed and music played softly in the background. She was so happy that he agreed to spend more time with her, that it never dawned on her that he could have ulterior motives. At first he was hiding the gun under his shirt, but after a certain point in the evening he knew the barrel could be at her head and she wouldn’t notice. She was washed up. Spent…mentally and spiritually dead.
“Why you not drinking?” Harmony asked, approaching her limit at the speed of light.
“I want you to drink. And I want to talk.”
When she swallowed what was left in her cup he poured her another. “Harmony, what happened the night of my party? The night you ran out of my life.”
She swallowed the cup of liquor. “I…I…don’t know…”
Suddenly she’d fallen asleep and he slapped her in the face. This drunk fest wasn’t about drinking until you dropped. This was about an old debt that he wanted to settle. It pissed him off that Kali had Antoinette and that his daughter, Kali’s spawn, assisted somehow. He wanted revenge and he wanted somebody to pay before he could get his hands on him.
With wide eyes she asked, “Why’d you do that?”
“Because I want to talk to you.” He smiled. “Now tell me, what happened the night of my party? The day you walked out of my life. Did you tell Massive where I was? Is that how he found me? And did you steal my money?”
Harmony’s head rolled around like a bobble head toy and it angered him. He’d given her too much to drink and now she couldn’t talk. At the present moment she couldn’t speak the truth or lie for that matter. Alcohol called her to the place of, ‘I Could Care Fucking Less’, and she loved every minute of it. It was her all time favorite place to go.
“I…Jace…I…love you.”
“I know you do.” He said no longer smiling. Why fake anymore? The bitch was drunk out of her mind and he would mean mug her until she answered his question. “But you gotta tell me about that night.”
“I…I got Grand.” She said feeling heavy. “Remember Grand?” She smiled, her eyes rolling to the back of her head.
“Yeah. He was my peoples.” He paused. “A good man.”
“He…got that man. In prison. The one…Jace…you got some more liquor?”
“Not until you tell me what I need to know.” He looked at her with piercing eyes. “Did you have something to do with Massive poisoning all those people at my party?”
“Yes.” She said, head rolling around again. “I…I was mad at you.”
“Did you take my money?”
“I took some.”
Jace stared at her. Watching her eyes close again, he slapped her harder in the face and put his hand around her throat. The gun was on her forehead and he was about to pull the trigger. The only thing was he had such a grip on her neck, that one couldn’t be sure which would kill her first. The choke or the bullet. However at the moment, both would do him just fine. He wanted her dead.
Gone.
Vanished.
Fuck this bitch for stealing his heart after all these years, and even at her worse, never letting go. The world would be better off without her and he knew it.
When the life was leaving her body, she slowly opened her eyes, and put her hand gently over his. A hand that at the moment was taking her life.
“It’s okay.” She smiled. “You can do it. I love you.”
A vein popped in the middle of his forehead as he watched her shut her eyes again. He hated her. No he loved her. No he hated her! No he loved her! He was confused and because of it, he let go.
He couldn’t do it.
He couldn’t do it!
He stood up, wiped the sweat off of his head and walked out of her bedroom. Harmony would never remember the night she walked away with her life. And Jace would never say a word.
MADJESTY
SLICE
When I woke up, the first thing I saw was an open door with people walking past it and I didn’t know where I was. That is until I heard, ‘
Paging doctor Vandal
,
Paging Doctor Vandal
’ on the intercom. Maybe I went into the
drunk zone
and was brought to a hospital to recover. Maybe everything that happened over the past few days, including losing my friend Wokie and getting raped was all a bad dream.
And then scenes flashed in my mind. Of him on top of me. Of him touching me. Did I actually get raped? Did someone actually remind me of the thing I hated most in the world, that I was a boy, stuck in a girl’s body?
“I killed his father. And I’m still looking for the boy.” I heard someone say.
When I turned my head to the right I saw my father sitting in a chair. He looked angry and I didn’t know if he was mad at me or somebody else.
“Huh?” I said in a low voice. My throat felt dry.
“I killed the boy’s father. Paco.” He stood up and approached the bed. Then he placed my hat on my head. I smiled. “And I put the word out so they’ll bring his son to me next.”
Did he know what happened? If so, how? “You know? About the…”
“Yes.” He said touching my leg. He loved me. In his own way he loved me and I could feel it. I never felt love from someone with my bloodline that strong until now. “I know what happened, Mad and you don’t have to say it.”
“But how?”
“The woman, who called the police, when she heard the gun go off, said she heard the name Shaggy being called several times. That’s Paco’s son, so I took care of Paco. He’s dead. And I’m taking care of Shaggy when I find him.”
Good! I wanted him gone! Tears rolled down my face and with his callous hand he wiped them away. “What I tell you about that? You stronger than that shit.” His voice got lower. “I remember crying when I was a kid, and nobody came. Tears are useless. Just reminders that you better watch your back because you’re on your own out here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Apologies are unnecessary evils too.”
Saying nothing more he put a scalpel in my hand and walked toward the door. “What’s this for?”
With his back faced me he said, “When you were in and out of consciousness, you said you hated your breasts. If you really want ‘em gone, cut ‘em off here. They can save your life, and take them away at the same time. But you’re going to have to do it yourself. It’s up to you.” He walked out the door and out of sight.
I tried to hold back my tears but I couldn’t. I don’t know if I was crying because finally somebody offered me the solution to something that was plaguing me all my life, my breasts, or if it was the fact that he cared so much to defend me. I knew then that I didn’t care how crazy people thought my father was, he was my father and I was going to stay in his life no matter what. That is, if I lived.
Looking at the scalpel in my hand, I moved it from side to side. The ceiling light hit it and it blinged. I could see my reflection. A reflection that I hated and a reflection that must’ve been pretty enough to make a man want me in that way. To make a man kiss me. There was no way in this world I could keep my breasts after what he did to me. I just couldn’t. So in my bed I sliced deeply into the left breast first.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” I screamed out in pain before cutting the right. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!” Blood poured onto the white floor making it the color red.
The pain was excruciating. Worse than I imagined and I immediately felt I made a mistake. That is until I thought about never having breast again. That thought was the last thing I remembered before hospital officials rushed into my room, only to find my breasts hanging loosely from my body.
After that…shit faded to black.