I couldn't alleviate the sound of flowing water, and now the fuzziness in my head was making me nauseous. Above all, the voice was loud.
I laid on the back seat, he'd left the accident scene and pulled into a parking lot, the orange hue indicated it was almost sundown. I tried to focus on the sign above my head through the window but Troy appeared in my view, he was opening the back door.
The exposure to the hell like fireball in the sky was torment, I laid upside down still fighting for air trying to figure my location, the sign read Auction House Market. He began to speak and the gold teeth were more blinding than the sun, I read his lips, "---a fucking syringe? What the fuck are u in to? U gonna have to sit the---" The water was so putrid and there were so many living organisms floating in it, I imagined my boots being filled with crawfish. Water from the driver's door had rushed out of the car and onto his clothes, he was just as wet, we both smelled like mildew. Troy examined me, I had effortlessly attempted to move my arm, I felt I had lost it there was no feeling at all.
"---Hospital, now---!"
Perhaps he saw my objection, I'd frowned to protest his intention, he'd raised the dress I wore while leaning in and was inspecting my belly, placing his clammy hand flat against my skin, worry had covered his face.
Chill out---trust me he's fine, just hungry as fuck.
He insisted on taking me to the hospital, but said ---"Jennifer"---?
Who? Why did that ring a bell?
I was glad to be alive, but dead. It was cliche'. The mysterious ass nigga that had pulled me from the water needed to explain what had happened back at Martin's home since he knew so much. I could sense Martin's anger, I would have to kill him---and take him to his grave, myself.
I just wanted my children, Mommy was so sorry! I was prepared to fight whoever I had to for my seeds, but was happy to know Ryella and Twalla were getting to know their grandmother. However I hadn't wanted them exposed to anything detrimental to their innocence.
The back door finally closed and shielded the sun, he climbed inside while yet looking back at me, putting the truck in reverse. His words still inaudible. The stench was churning my insides and my breathing had become shallow, I was surprised to even be alive. I prayed to God. Somehow I remembered dreaming, or ---coming to consciousness while inside of the car, surely it had been a dream.
Trenton had checked me into the hospital under the name Jennifer Myers, I had yet to know who she was and how the fuck did Troy know about it! Couldn't have been a coincidence! I tried to speak but sounded deaf and dumb even to myself. Who was she, she wasn't Trenton's mother...? Ladonna was!
As I looked at him over my head, he covered my eyes like a newborn, and was muddied in the same green substance I laid in. Trenton's face had been rested on the steering wheel before the car was pulled from the water, I was almost sure the impact hadn't killed him if he was dead. I needed my phone, and was almost happy I hadn't brought it along, I'd stored some vital information but it wasn't locked. It was safer at Martin's, inside of the car it would have been totally destroyed.
The truck accelerated into traffic, I all but rolled to the floor, I yet envisioned the Market sign, the words rematch and horseman kept surfacing, how many were there? Horsemen, Revelations had mentioned them.
I was numb on my whole left side, insomuch I could not feel the large bruise on my arm. Lord, how had I survived and who sent them?!Days had gone by and I still felt a presence on my shoulders, but as we were leaving New Orleans I could tell! The weight was lifting and my hearing was becoming more distinct!
"Did u go behind the bookcase?" Troy was asking as we got further away, I could hear him but the water was still in my ears, rushing as swiftly as they had initially.
"---need to rest, I'll stay with u."
Where was he taking me? All I'd known was we were leaving the city, and I seemed to be escaping a nightmare!
"Why did they come for me?" I'd asked, my own voice echoed in my skull.
"U just need to rest, at least u are safe now."
He made a phone call and spake indirectly but it was pertaining to the situation I was currently in. I didn't want to go to a hospital! I could recover at home! I wanted my children and he could not stop me, I would leave to find them. I had no possessions but would soon have plenty more, I was entitled.
I wondered what was behind the bookcase, I couldn't fathom what I may have found. We rode, I tried to sat up, my body ached and the smell of the swamp water would soon make me regurgitate the spoiled contents in my stomach.
"LAY DOWN!" he yelled.
How would he explain the scenario in the ER?
I hadn't really even remembered much what happened short term, the past few days events were vague but childhood memories had begun to surface nostalgically. I felt invaded, some I hadn't wanted to recollect, the medication had suppressed them and I had been able to cope. I pictured Martin, and yet wondered about his mother.
The McNamara's were equally odd, the Mrs. had carefully observed me on two occasions and McNamara had been Issa's last name.
Why?
I had endured a lot of pain throughout my life and they would soon feel it too. The voice was becoming more dominant.
My feet were swelling by the second, I had to remove the water damaged boots, I reached for the one that contained the syringe, I saw Troy's reaction, he lost his cool as if I would break something. I mumbled, but recalled the Charger speeding up and veering onto the left side of the highway, we'd seemed to be air borne before impacting the tree in the water. Troy was stressing about contamination, and said my eyes were red. The tightness of them confirmed his statement, they felt infected. I plotted to kill Trenton again, "What day is it," I mumbled before he motioned his inability to hear me while saying it.
I repeated my question, he replied by saying the 27th. I knew Trenton was alive I became so afraid, Martin hadn't even instilled that kind of fear in me, it seemed he had just as much power. I wondered, was that the swamp they used to dispose the bodies? If so, Troy had been there before also. Had Trenton been heading to that location? What about Christy?
My gut feeling would not allow me to believe neither had crossed over, if the car hadn't sank it was possible Trenton could free himself if he had awakened, I felt the trauma had only alerted him and I had been right. His body was gone, but supposedly found in the water afloat and identified by his Fraternity brand. He had been strapped inside.
I would not grieve for his sake. Martin was quintessential to his order and political advantage, and Trenton had fit in as well, his atrocities and corruption made him feel superior, I'd known when he'd taken me to church there was an underlying rationale. Also, I thought back to the baby shower, why had he even wanted them to believe I carried his child?
The name Jennifer, he'd mentioned it and I was now curious. I reached for my boot, the ache was becoming unbearable. Under no circumstances could I even wiggle my toes.
The dress was ruined as well as the boots.
Troy's phone was constantly vibrating, briefly anger consumed me, I'd known he had to have satisfied Terrica in some way, she had been too angry and why the fuck had he called her? Hadn't she reported the crimes he'd committed? I saw the bright lights, we neared the unrecognizable hospital, we both were soaking wet, what explanation would he give---seriously?
"She's pregnant and was in an accident," he said before pulling me from the backseat and carrying me to the wheelchair. I had never even received prenatal care and the weed smoke had greeted the RN coming through the sliding doors that led to the ER. They probably thought we were some high powered drugs---gone wrong. I had been bitten all over my belly and back, and my eyes were in pain. "Looks like Acanthamoeba Keratitis, this is very difficult to treat u may lose your eye," the nurse had said while examining them with a tiny light. "We need culture samples to make sure the bacteria has not spread to the brain."
It would spread to my ass if they didn't let me shower, finally Troy convinced them he would help me and he had.
WHAT? I was just fine and there was nothing wrong with my brain, "Any history of mental illness," one nurse had inquired. Hell no.
Troy had disappeared, he had been told to get treated likewise, but he hadn't been exposed like I had for days. I'd known he hadn't gone to see the doctor and only found out later where he had really gone, after he was arrested again.
In a place of deep confusion I wondered about the next episode, I couldn't even tell the doctors when I had conceived because I didn't know, I'd figured in June, it was nearing December. The pregnancy was odd, and so were my cravings.
The police would come and take my unborn child and I to prison, I was willing to bet Martin had known about our disappearances and when the nurse offered to remove my boots I declined saying I needed to be rolled to the bathroom. My bladder had instantly given out when I opened my eyes in the car and I had to pee again, also remove the illegal substance in the syringe from my boot.
Gretna police had entered into the ER, I'd instantly made the decision to quickly stand before falling to the floor, my left side was completely numb, after a while I began to worry about paralysis for me and the child. I'd also taken a hard lick on the vinyl composition tile that covered the floor. I was helped to my feet but had also caused a scene, however I managed to make it back to the bed after peeing and getting rid of the needle before I passed out.
Troy was asleep when I woke up demanding an explanation for what had just happened, had they monitored my brain activity? Did I have it---the eye disease, was it eating at my brain? Why had I been put on oxygen?
They confirmed it hadn't spread but found some alarming brain activity. "We'd like to run more tests to ensure the safety of the baby," they had immediately given me a cup for urinalysis and thought I was on drugs of some sort that had not slowed the brain activity down but sped it up, it had been enhanced while I was unconscious. They had marveled the cognition that had become heightened but theorized it was feeding from my limbic system, "How can she even show emotion?"
My cognition fed off of my emotion? I couldn't be smart and loving at the same time? What had they meant?
I asked about the sounds of water that had ceased, but would soon return. The nurse who was a New Orleans native had for some reason said, "Do not allow them to conduct anymore tests, u and your son are not guinea pigs, they can't answer your inquiries."
I hadn't even asked shit, out loud---I'd told Troy I was ready to get the fuck out of the hospital, it was the 29th, I had some shit to take care of.
Had the albino been the guest of honor? Who was he, I'd asked and Troy said, "He is what he looks like, a snake."
He'd sat two seats down and hadn't said a word, his reflection had frighteningly stood out in the large glass window, Kie had watched me watch him. Her son was possessed with something caliginous, his eyes had no windows---I couldn't see shit in him. The word Asmodeus was tattooed on his chest. I'd researched inside of the room. He had not touched me sexually but I'd felt pleasurably violated.
The loud pondering voices replaced the flood, and they were collaborated into one, all of them agreed that Trenton Myers was not dead. I hammered out the thoughts of leaving and decided to do so against the wishes of hospital staff, as the nurse had suggested they could not help, I'd refused to be one of their studies. Even though my eye was worsening I decided they could not keep me there against my will, I was not in a mental ward. They'd answered Martin's question---how could one have a desire to kill---naturally? A calculating serial killer, brilliant but emotionless. I remembered the doctors who were in oblivion about my condition, they wondered why I was not one. Maybe their assumptions were correct, I'd killed quite a few. Perhaps I was the assassin they suggested. I would prove them right.
Trenton's Charger was dragged from the water on November 29, 2018---the day he was born was the day they'd pronounced him dead. I refused to believe he lacked breath in his body, especially after the funeral had been closed casket.
Everyone attended, except me---even Troy had.