[WARNING] This chapter contains a lot of info-dumping but it's important
My phone delivers a blank screen. I drop it, the screen cracks hitting the floor. I pace down the hallway of lockers. In my left view, a girl with a ponytail draping her right eye has her back against the lockers. A boy with white hair in spikes and light-medium golden skin. He held the girl against the lockers, her hands above her head, kissing her neck and chest.
I squint my eyes. "Mo?"
The hall filled with bodiless laughter. Gaping at the girl and boy, a tattoo on his neck caught my eye. An eerie mark of a head with big eyes and a frown. At the bottom, another head but eyes replaced with Xs and a crooked grin. "Hydae?" grinding my teeth. That better not be my Mo.
A vibration in my pants causes me to jerk. I broke my phone. I reach into my pocket and pull out my receiver. The screen is intact. "The fuck." It's not a call but a text message.
Counter999: I think it's easier to talk like this.
?? Above the Rest ??: What the fuck do you want with me?
Counter999: Nothing. I'm crazy.
?? Above the Rest ??: Do you want me to put you out of your misery because you've gone insane?
?? Above the Rest ??: Cause I can oblige.
I start looking for the cell button. If I can hear his phone ring, I can find--my phone vibrates again.
Counter999: Aleigha D. Omehia. Your real name is Royce. So, let me explain this bullshit.
Counter999: Also, I'm on your phone. I'm not in the school. Souls, boy.
?? Above the Rest ??: Explain!
Counter999: surely. So, I fucked around a lot. I could fuck with you and give you my real name off the back.
?? Above the Rest ??: Do it!
Counter999: No.
Counter999: First, let's talk about mom.
Counter999: Your mother is a fucking whore.
Counter999: She's really fucking old. Her name is Lordy Knocks. A witch's favorite game is Hide and Seek. She and the lytch, Godelieve Hood. It's a twisted game for freedom. It started with slaves. Women.
Counter999: See, the boat story is a cover-up. During the witch trials. A witch who was really a witch did not want to die. So when people came to drag a supposed witch out. They grabbed an unsuspected woman who had no idea what was happening.
Counter999: Lordy was born in Massachusetts. And her parents moved to Virginia to get their daughter away. She was a real witch but her mother, your grandmother, said she was full of luck. At the time of the Trials in Massachusetts. Lordy was getting tortured by Cynthia who was obsessed with the whole magic thing. A witch was a good thing however, your grandmother, Olisha married a fallen.
Counter999: Not many believe it. But a few angels dropped from heaven. Sin will come through your teeth. The devil Iblis had a wife, who spoke horribly to the lord. It started with a pointed finger. Iblis wife said, don't point at me. The lord paid no heed to this threat. Ahlean bit the lord and his angels.
Counter999: It was like a virus in heaven. Did you know that Lucifer is the name of Gabriel? The lord hated to do it but he had to. Gabriel complained about his stomach, he grew skinner, his light dimmer. His halo a different hue. In your mother's bibles, one is written by Gabriel telling of his last days of Heaven.
Counter999: But that book is a different color. All of Lordy's bible has a combo color. Black and red, blue, yellow, purple, and the unholy pink. But Gabriel's book is all black with a leather strap.
Counter999: The Pink book is important. The Eldritch Detail of Vampire Crafting. She created the first Hole. Your father was a part of that. I love how we have a movie about Queen of the Damned. To put it simply, your mother is a pimp. She found out about that bone marrow and magic. She just had a grand time.
Counter999: The years are fucked up. I can't even tell you when. This was back in Norway. The trials started in the 1690s or so. Her first husband is Iarius Morin, he started out as a little boy who was kept by a man named Growden. Your mother and uncle are about 20 years apart. And your father and mother are about 23 years apart. Or more.
Counter999: I was in the Hole with your father and many of her husbands. She taught us magic and put us through a trial. But her best friend is the nigga you saw back then. Sneaking and shit, trying find out who hurt his best friend. His real name is Bruce Warren Grant. And Collared Greens is Vinitharius. And Then there is me.
?? Above the Rest ??: Who are you.
Counter999: My real name?
?? Above the Rest ??: YES DAMN IT
Counter999: She called me Hush Puppy. I won't lie. I used to be retarded.
Counter999: I wasn't a good...
Counter999: pet
?? Above the Rest ??: So. My mama had a Hole. Why did you kill her and destroy her body?
Counter999: Because she destroyed mine.
?? Above the Rest ??: So you a starved lover or some shit?
?? Above the Rest ??: You're mad at my mama because she doesn't love you?
Counter999: She removed my brain. So, I'm looking for everything to make my new body.
Counter999: I was a tall African, a giant
?? Above the Rest ??: you sound retarded.
Counter999: It sounds like a typical vampire story.
Counter999: I said I love you, and she was silent. She married my son.
?? Above the Rest ??: My uncle Iarius is your son?
Counter999: I think
?? Above the Rest ??: What did my mother do to you?
Counter999: Come find me. I'm near the gym. You're near the principal office.
Counter999: Go down the hall where you are. Make a left, there's an intersection, continue left. Now go left again, go right, and left again.
Counter999: See you there. Don't get any scars.
My mom's name is Lordy? I have literal pink eye? My phone buzzes.
Counter999: Pynk. The term is Pynk. As we say in the hood, he's Pynk'ed out. Want some more info. I'll give it to you when you get here. I got one hell of a surprise for you.