Anansi sat on the edge of the bed while Thankful and I stood in the room. "Mind fucking explaining how an African God caused racism?" Or Whatever the equal is to hating vampires entirely. There are stories speaking of vampires creeping in the night. We can't do that anymore.
Anansi shrugs, "A nigga that plays too much." That's what it sounds like. I don't know how to feel--correction, I'm beyond pissed. My family is religious, The She Clan loves the Gods but we don't pray to a single God. "You got my mother lynched?"
"Yeah..." he sulked, his shoulders dropping. "I wasn't trying to get her specifically hung."
"That's bullshit." Thankful crosses her arms. "Childhood didn't want to hide. We didn't want to hide. How in the hell does a God come from heaven--"
"Hell. I'm a Devil." he corrects. "Did you get dropped?" I asked. "Can Gods even get dropped out of heaven--," I turned to Thankful but Anansi's voice pulled me back. "I'm not, nor ever was, in heaven. See, that's what's wrong with niggas. We always having fucking theories about how shit should be! Don't nobody actually, DO."
"I disagree..." I'm mixed but I love my black-ass heritage. Sometimes I'm the person that jumps in arguments, be it black lives matter or all. I'm especially an advocate for the Red Line March. Mama always said you know you on the right path when you get the jitters. I would say this situation I'm in is giving me that feeling. "What did you do to get my mother lynched?"
"Shapeshifting..." he groans. "I impersonated a few white people, nonvamps. But the Gods don't call it magic,"
"What do they call it?"
"Cannibalism. Look, tribes are fucking strange. I cannot emphasize that enough!" I beam, I know they strange. "Africa, Hawaii, fucking--whatever island you can think of. I think it's strange that niggas of color group into these... survival camps. Meanwhile, you have royalty which states I'm going to sit my ass down and let other people do it."
Agreed. History does lead that way, but... "What does that have to do with my mother? How did she get caught in your shit."
"Shapeshifting... I bit her." he looks back at me, ogling his eyes. I pace towards him, "Never seen a God lower his head to a mortal."
"I don't bow. My knees don't bend."
Thankful huffs. "What did you do! Your just buying time--in fact, wasting it. A woman was lynched! Do you understand America hasn't done that since Oyoo Jomo-Gbomo? That was during the first Uprising!"
"I know..." Anansi replies nonchalantly. "I'm surprised no one asked where my real body is."
"Well, since you brought it up. Where?" I'm sick of him looking like a white kid down on his luck. "Dead. If your mother is smart, she isn't dead."
"We know." Anansi swishes around, baring his teeth. "If you she isn't dead. Then what the fuck is all this for?" My mother died but her soul was kept and put in a puppet. Her body cannot be occupied. Under the vampiric laws given to us, vampires are not immortal. We rely heavily on magic to act as a defense and bone marrow and blood to keep us alive. My mother was the one who found bone marrow was so powerful it brought back the dead. Uncle Iarius dropped to his knees seeing my mother torn apart.
"She can't remember," Thankful murmurs. "Her memories are scattered. They took it during the raid."
"Raid?" Anansi rubs his nose. "What raid?"
"Do you know anything about the four families of Virginia Beach?" I question. "The fucking DOHRCC--"
"Heard of it." he says.
"The Department of Human Resources and Creature Comforts was established solely to ship niggas to Africa. A vampire cannot have more than two kids. Anymore than that, bitches come in and take your child and put you on child support. We have to pay fifty dollars per child. And guess how many kids my mother has..."
The DOHRCC is a side business for kidnapping and torture. I ran away from home, my brother chased after me. But that isn't the whole story. At one point, we saw our mom get hung and we followed the spirit back to the Ghytto. And she walked... that's terrifying. There's a difference between Ghytto and Purgatory. In purgatory, bitches just stroll in a circle pointing at the accuser. The Ghytto is a city, a safe place slaves used.
My mother walked 675 days in the Ghytto staring at the ground. We dragged our mother out and gave her a puppet body just to hold her in place. My goddamn mother looks like a Marionette. They didn't tie her hands behind her back, they took them off.
What did we do? "Where are you from? You've been hiding in Maine, why?" Maine is a quiet state, meaning you don't hear a lot from it. It's not in the news but I know my brother has made it known. That used to be Vampire Haven. Counting all the slave states vs now. Maine remained a free state. However, the vamps in Maine are... shy.
"Virginia... ish"
"Ish?" This God is hiding something I just know it. All these half-ass answers. "I used to be a resident of hell. What do you want me to say?"
I sigh, I could make him tell me. But my upbringing tells me this godly trouble is in trouble. "What's wrong with you?" He even sits strangely, why does he sit with his arms between his legs? "Stop sitting like that."
"Slave mentality..." Vampires can be bought. You can be a Guard, but that's only if the Queen of England sees you, a maid which 88% of the vampire population is. A vampire could be for entertainment. Why the fuck is the circus still going? Oh, how I remember the days. They took my fucking ankles. "My..." his teeth dig into his bottom lip. "The bitch's name is Louis Cuvillier. That used to be a clan."
"Cuvillier?" chimes Thankful. Her eyes dart to me, "Deidre, that's an old vampire clan." Why do we refer to families as clans? Then again, Mama O'Liga would say otherwise. "What's so special about the Cuvillier?" Sounds like a regular clan to me. Anansi shakes his head, holds up his two fingers, and crosses them. "Switch."
"Switch?"
"So, get this... it's fucked up. You have the Growden Clan, The Aime clan; and all that is connected. The Aime clan is the Growden family. But, your question is why a clan?" My skin is starting to crawl, how far does this shit go. "I'm trying my best here. The Cuvillier family is actually a family from Mexico."
"No..." Thankful utters. "That's right, Spanish vampires and African vamps have a disconnect. Sadly, Black people don't like Mexicans. When they found out a nigga could get money. They started hunting vampires and La Dama Falsa got her name for being the most crooked bitch in Mexico." explains Anansi.
I look at Thankful, her hand touches her bottom lip then she looks at me. Her breath hitches, "I would never!"
"I hope you never..." I love Thankful. I trust her with everything. We had--have a kid. The DOHRCC gave us an option... we didn't take it. And from what it sounds like... La Dama Falsa sold Vampires in America or Mexico.
"That church is still standing in Mexico, too." Anansi gets up and grabs the keys off the table. "I don't know where Aleigha is but..." he jiggles the keys. "La Dama Falsa likes making up stories."