"Give me back my son in law, Unwin!" demanded Curioso. Unwin? "My name is Deidre. Listen I don't understand what's happening—"
"Shut up white boy!" orders Curioso. "Like we said Deidre ran away from home because his brother tried to eat him. You've been casting an illusion using the amulet. Deidre always carried Affluence."
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" We started talking about memories and slavery. "Agradecida! Switch them now."
"Come here!" Thankful has a red glow swirl her body, my arms lock to my side as she twiddles her fingers. "Usinicas!"
I blink my eyes; my chest is tight. "What in the hell..." Seamus peeps. "You didn't drag my grandmother's husband. You dragged mine and hung him, you son of a bitch!"
I scream, it feels like a hand in my chest grabbing my heart. "Dude! The thing I told you about is happening"
"Seamus... help me..."
"I'm a phone—I can call 911." The phone starts ringing. "911, what's your emergency?"
"My friend is getting his soul sucked out his ass!" I hate Seamus. I just hate him. The sinking feeling drops to my stomach, my back arches. Thankful gets off the bed and stands in front of me. She has an open hand above her and an open hand in front of her. "Deidre!"
/GET ME OUT OF THIS BODY/
New York City
I'm looking for Dareion Bass, but he's dead. So, I'm looking for a doppelganger. It's like Deidre again, he isn't here because I know all he can do is stand around. He keeps talking about it isn't time.
He's trying to switch but he can't fully. He's fighting him, I can't believe Unwin put a lock on him. He can make the body walk and write but he can't talk.
I can't recall if Unwin was a Growden or Aime. The Aimes weren't even harsh. Now that I think about it, I should have looked for Modesty and I still must go see Vinitharius. In fact,
"Ileoh, text Vinitharius for me."
"I can not." She says.
"Why?"
"You don't have his number." I called the nigga yesterday! "Did he change his number?"
"I would say so, he's hiding again. Good thing your overloaded with work. I've been trying to find him. He might have changed his name."
Vinitharius is the Ghytto's top Maul. He's the only Maul that continues to live in the Ghytto.
He used to fuck around with The Green Belt but... he got free. Vinitharius changes his name to keep out of sight from the Growden clan. If they haven't found him, that's a good sign but if they did, I free the worst. Vampires are treated like game.
I know Vinitharius comes from a poor background. He struggled to get my mother down from the rope.
He's also my uncle, nonbiological.
Knox 88 Street. I haven't been to New York, Cassius used to talk about how him. Penelope, Sabita-Ann, Akika, and mama kidnapped one time. That wasn't stressful at all. Totally didn't happen 3 days before the fucking school visit and then they decided to kill our mother.
It wasn't a fucking setup.
Bitches. The more I even think about it. I'm just asking for a heart attack with this high blood pressure. Where the fuck is this doppelganger?
Knox 88 street isn't a busy area, so I'm in the slums of New York which means I'm somewhere near or otherwise, in fucking Brooklyn. Home aligned on a street, some boarded up. "Ileoh, tell me where to go."
"You're in the right place, Aleigha. I'd say head to the beach. Your mother's old advice, follow the water."
"And then what?"
"Brighton, he's a homeless nuisance. I can't give you a description at this time."
Good enough. Ileoh gives me a map of the New York borough, Brighton Beach is a little way south. Brighton is to the east.
The phone creeps the directions to me, "Head down Knox 88 street, in 3 miles turn left onto Langdale Way."
Ok. I follow the directions given on the way; I decide to ask Ileoh questions. "So, E. What's it like working at the department?"
"GC is a supernatural business pertaining to assisting the living."
"I didn't ask you google..."
Ileoh chuckles, "Did I get you?"
"You could have said you didn't want to talk."
I don't know what it is about beaches. I have a half-brother who is just drawn to them. A half-sister that loves picking seashells. Living in Virginia, our mom took us to the beach a lot because we asked. We had family in Texas and grandma said they died.
The sun is setting, how long have I been doing this? Listening to the waves crash against each other, a sea of emotion. I'm getting poetic which means I'm falling into depression. "Ileoh, play my mother's lullaby."
She does and I make my way to West Brighton. I'm doing a lot for my mother. /You don't have to/. God, I fucking hate her. She has 114 kids, a lot adopted and 16 born. She always said if you don't head me, at least honor my word. And then goes around and contradicts herself like she doesn't want us to carry out the will. /I know you're mad, but I don't want you poisoned/. How the fuck can I not be!
They lynched my mother in front of me.
I asked my mom when I was little what was it like to give birth to me. She told me I was born on the streets of Virginia. She didn't want to have me on the streets. It wasn't her choice. They kidnapped her, tortured her for years, she got pregnant young due to the fucking DOHRCC medicine. She was fucking six. And she tells her sons and daughter, to not hate?
I don't trust shit. I'm angry. Beyond angry.
I want blood, bodies, the souls of the living. I want their fucking lives.
Fuck it, the more I say it to myself, I'll drag my feet just to bring my mama back.
She was just fourteen.
"Ileoh. Tell me were."
"Do you believe in homeless Police Officers?"
I raise a brow. "No"
"Get this. He might be the one. Elijah Wallace, former chief of The Brighton Police force. I see why now he's hard to found." She speaks. "Why?"
"He's a traveler. A dead man walking. About eight years ago, he got shot due to gang violence. Never marriage but kidnapped a baby."
"Excuse me?" They used to say the same thing about my mother. She has a lot of kids and a few are adopted. But they are hers and she stood defiant in that. "He kidnapped a baby. And got shot by the same police force. He hangs around the abandoned building."
"The Brighton Police doesn't exist around here?"
"They exist but not the same area. It's relocated so he's haunting the place."
"Any idea why?"
"He used to do cocaine. The apartment was filled with it. He hid it in the walls, under the floor.
How the fuck does one put cocaine in the floorboards if the floor is connected to another apartment. "How so?"
"Hole in the bag and the apartment rats died from getting into powder." She chortles. "Crackhead rats."
"Shut up." I will not laugh. I'm a serious man on a mission.
She gives me the direction. "Take the board walk by the beach, head north pass the Aquarium. The police department is in front of you. At the moment, there is no activity."
"Thank you."
I'm realizing she didn't have to send me to the beach. I could have gone straight across and gone down looking at the map. "I thought you would like a little break. It was fun going to the beach with your mom."
It was.
At the police department, the windows are covered with wooden broads, graffiti on the side, and grass littered with nonsense. "Ghost activity in the area. The nigga is inside." States Ileoh. The sign is torn apart, missing letters, or rearranged. "Any clue why this place?"
"Not really, as asserted before. It might be a familiar."
"Familiar?"
"A ghost will hang around a place that it is familiar to. Witches have familiars, usually a pet. Elijah might be haunting the police station because that's what he knows."
"But no one's here?" I get it. A sorry soul that doesn't know how to live. They're in a state of regret. "Elijah was a trouble person. He raped his wife; his wife got an abort—"
"Don't say that." I can't stand that word. "Sorry." Her voice becomes a mere whisper. "The baby was... kidnapped. After that Elijah killed his wife, went on to kidnap a child... actually kidnap."
"By any chance is that boy still alive?"
"Yes, he's eight now."
It's not important but if my mom knew, she would ask. "Ileoh, by any chance—"
"Your mother's spirit is not in the Ghytto. We still can't find her... she really might be—"
"DON'T EVEN—fuck it, be silent for the rest of the day."
"Aleigha..."
"No, enough. Stay quiet." I shove my phone into my pockets and march to the building. The wooden barrier disappears, allowing me to walk in. "Are you Dareion Bass?"
Nothing but the whispers coming from the realm. This is connected to the Ghytto? Of course, it takes the pain left. Mama used to say, the city is not punishing you but recording it all. It shows in the people, someone angry is just holding that pain. The ghytto is holding a piece of Elijah's hurt but it begs the question as to why? Because it doesn't hold on to sinners.
"No..." replies a disembodied tone. "Who is Dareion Bass?"
"Somebody," he says.
"Is he a person or was?"
"No." says Elijah, his body becomes visible. "You can't just walk into a police station."
"This isn't a station anymore. It's just a building."
Elijah a man of average height, eyes dark brown. An oversized jacket with holes and ripped apart in places. "Who is Dareion Bass?"
"Me? I think..." he looks at his toes. "I... don't know?"
Well... "Dareion Bass killed a woman's brother. Do you know Yahoska?" His eyes get bright, "ski?"
He knows her, I know cocaine is also the white devil. It brings shit out of you. Granddad also called it a Confessor. "Ileoh, got anything?"
"You told me to shut up." Keep your heart still and your mind straight. I groan, "I'm sorry. I'm just—"
"It's ok, From what I can hear. Elijah might be possessed."
"Am I?" he lifts his head in question. "I..."
"Do you know Ski? Yes or no." I'm not about to do this shit. "I do."
"Did you kill her brother?"
His spirit starts to sway, "I am..."
"Who are you? Dareion or Elijah?" I haven't gripped Shimmy in a while. Putting my hands on my gun, I draw it out. Lifting my hands to aim at his head. "This bullet shoots ghost."
"NO!" he shouts and puts his hands up to guard himself. "Don't kill me. I want t-to—"
"Tell me your purpose, what to do you want?"
"I—" This is foolishness, I'm not a fucking exorcist... anymore. "I—want... Dareion..."
"Who are you?" It makes me think back to those days. A rope around my neck like a damn dog, they fed me the scapes. Guts from a pig, backs off a sheep, even the damn dick of a horse.
My brothers and sister had to live like animals. But we broke out that shit... but I don't get any thanks. "Ski..." he echoes the name repeatedly. "Nigga, I will shoot you!"
"I'm trying to find Elijah in the network. I can't find Dareion Bass, but can I find Yahoska and Elijah. He's a brother..."
"Clarify,"
"Dareion Bass is an alias; he did however rape his sister Yahoska. He raped a white woman whom he dated for a week."
"Why?"
"Drugs. He's addicted to cocaine even when dead. The confessor is acting out his last conscious."
Yahoska wanted her brother dead? No, she wants him to find peace. She's in the Ghytto but her soul is fucked up.
"He has so many aliases, he claimed to be a cousin from the Growden family! Lemuel!"
"Dig deeper Ileoh."
"He's been enslaved!" she shouts. "The soul is not the original, I'm looking through his memories. The Slave owners are using his body. Elijah through himself in front of a train but he woke up!"
Like Deidre? The soul is just making movements, is his making murder?