Magna Carta laid face down. His fingers twitched but his eyes remained close. Thankful sat in a cage with three other people inside. She picked up gravel on the basement floor and chucked the pieces at Magna's motionless body. "Get up puta!" she shook the cage. "Are you fucking stupid?" questioned a female voice with a bag over her head. "You must be new."
"And she's Spanish. There are vampires in Mexico?"
"I didn't know either…"
Thankful sat on the steel floor of the cage. "Who are you?"
"Me?" asked the girl with a bag. "Skaarecrow."
"She's missing her head." Said the other girl next to her. " Call me Pachi."
Thankful rose in question. "Where am I?"
"Traphouse." Said Skaare.
"For vampires." Said Pachi. "But I'm not human.
"Neither am I."
"I'm a vampire…ish." She pondered if she should have added the ish. "How are you a vampire-ish?" asked Skaare. "Vampireish… you feel like a vampire. Your mixed, your something, your—"
"I am mixed…" Thankful looked through the bars at Magna's body. "Magna!" she uttered. "What happened to him?"
"That boy? He looks good as shit. I'm not one for light skin niggas. But he looks good."
"Can you shut the fuck up!" she yelled; she couldn't see much with the darkness covering most of it. "Did you see what happened to him?"
"The boy?" asked Pachi. "The goblins came and fucked him up. Kicked him in the stomach, beat him with a sledgehammer. They got the hellhounds to come bite him."
"What—" Thankful had to reset her mind. What was she doing while that was going on? "You have a huge bruise on the side of your head." Pointed out Pachi. "I can tell you, maybe."
"Are you psychic or something?"
"I got witch blood in me." She hugged her knees. "This is my seventh time getting kidnapped."
The main question seemed rude to ask. "How did you get kidnapped so much?"
"Guess they put a tracking device on me. You get them from DOHRCC, costs about six hundred and thirty something dollars."
"Where am I?" her skin crawled. Bumps along her arm, her breathing shallow. "I just—I want magna to wake up."
"They beat him! It's that big ass green booger. Pachi, what's his name?"
"Locke?" she assumed, "I think it's Locke, the one that looks kind of good in the face?"
"I'm talking about the one that ate my fucking eyes."
"Ripper?"
"Ripper?" asked Thankful. Pachi stretched her legs out, she counted on her fingers. "Locke, Ripper, Snail and Tox. It might be Tox, he looks good for a green slob. It might be more but I know Snot and Juke."
"Who?" All Thankful could do was watch Magna and listen to bullshit. "They kidnap people for rituals. Like I said I escaped a bunch of times."
"Get me out!"
"I don't know you." She said. "I might as well tell you. I'm Katelynn."
"You just said—"
"I'm not a fucking pet. HE likes naming shit as if they're his pets."
"Who?"
"Headcount…" uttered Skaarecrow. "Pachi, take this bag off my head."
Katelynn turned to Skaarecrow. She untied the bag and took it off. Skaarecrow shook her head, "It's dusty. Her name is Odile! It's some fuck nigga above mixing names."
"For what?"
"It's just a soul. Some bullshit started from the White Parade during the first uprising." Skaarecrow fumed. "Isn't it amazing?" chimed Katelynn. "We go way back. As a culture. It's crazy, humans drinking vampire blood. I had my period yesterday, it ended today. They took my panties and shit and squeezed the blood out. But little do they know, that doesn't work."
"It does work," Skaarecrow corrected. "Vampires bite witches like how sea turtles get high on jellyfish."
"I'm not weed…" Katelynn frowned. "I have basic needs and rights. My pussy is not bleeding for the sake of vampire gravy."
"Ugh," Skaarecrow stuck out her tongue. "You so gross."
"Did you hear back from Cedrica?"
"Lost her mind."
"Oh, what happened?"
"I don't know, that's what Torielle wrote back on a bird."
"Oh, that's so cool. I should have stayed in Saint Rosa."
"Yeah," Skaarecrow nodded. "Good school. Better than Thrall Master."
"What about Hogwarts?" asked Katelynn. "I got denied because I shot a student."
"Fucking mugs or whatever they call em."
"Muggles"
Katelynn sighed. "They stupid. I was trying to help like I saw an imp and then I saw this tall ass fairy—see this is the shit I'm talking about. This fairy—he must have been a king—he was tall like seven feet and big teeth."
"You right, they not teaching them anything. It's crazy out here…"
"WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU BITCHES BABBLING ABOUT?" Thankful screamed. Katelynn pounced forward putting her hand over her mouth. "Look, they're trying to fulfill a ritual."
Skaarecrow turned her head in the direction where Thankful sat. Katelynn removed her hand, "What's your name?"
"Thankful… Agradecida."
Skaare quirked her brow, "Thank sounds… familiar."
"Ooo," Katelynn sat back on her legs. "Are you Toda's daughter? The Puppet Baby?"
Her heart sunk in her stomach. Her body seemed to vibrate as her blood rose upon hearing the name. "I'm not eight anymore…" She slid off the bars. "I'm not eight."
"Hey, shit--I'm sorry."
"Good going Katelynn… fucking Odile. Your bad breath finally ended a life."
"Fuck you…"
An invisible hand gripped Thankful's chest, her heart pounded in her torso. She couldn't move, her arms locked in front of her. Her mind was like a radio, loud and full of static. Those dolls against the curtains, the Mexican doll that moved to her door every night. She envisioned herself, opening the window to her room. The carpet was stained with blood, Curioso being dragged away by hellhounds.
Not again. Was she in the same situation again?
Katelynn shook her arm. "Hey! Move a little. I don't like dead people."
Magna Carta's eyes spread apart. He took air into his lungs and blinked rapidly, the left side of his head scarred, and blood dried against his temple. "Thank?" he mumbled.
"The dead nigga has awoken!" Skaare announced, looking to the west wall. "I don't have a trumpet."
"Why are you such a bitch?" turned Katelynn. "Maybe because a bunch of green niggas ATE MY EYES!" her words hurried.
Katelynn shook Thankful's shoulders and legs. "Hey! Your boyfriend is awake!"
"Thank!" Magna got to his feet. He held his stomach and head. His vision wobbling. "Thankful…"
"Hey, negro!" yelled Skaare. "Your girlfriend's not dead!"
Magna Carta took a step forward, his guts seemed to swim. "What the fuck…" He dropped to the floor. "My stomach hurts…"
"You just got up to fast. Try crawling," She suggested. He swallowed saliva and fixed himself on his hands and knees. He crawled to the cage in the dark, "Where's the lightswitch?"
"Do you not care about this girl or…"
"I care but… I can't see."
"Baby… this is hell. We probably in a traphouse." Breathed Skaare. "What's wrong with you?" Magna sneered, he couldn't see a thing except for a pair of brown arms and a white shirt. "I'm blind…"
"Blind? Where you born like that...?"
"Nah."
"What happened?"
"They ate my fucking eyes!"
"Who?"
"Goddamn it!" Skaarecrow shouted, clenching her fist. Katelynn waved her hands to sign them to stop talking. "What's your name? I'm Katelynn."
"Magna Carta."
"Remember that. Don't forget it." She gestured to Thankful's limp body. "I'll tell her when she wakes up. You can look for a light switch, but you really got to find a key to this cage."
"Who put y'all in here?"
"IMPS, NIGGA!" voiced Skaarecrow. "Green niggas!"
"What's wrong with her?" Magna contorted. "She's just mad about getting her eyes ate."
"Fuck y'all!" Skaare scrambled to get to her feet. "You know what imps are don't you? Humans that overdose on blood."
"They want to milk us?" he gagged. Thank God for his mother, she informed all her children about the known and unknown. 'I will never leave you in the dark.'
"It's a ritual. Look, me and Kate—Odile—"
"MY NAME IS FUCKING KATELYNN." She roared. "Damn, be quiet—"
"No, I'm sick of you calling me Odile! I told you before, I'm done with that life, that's why I did the fucking outline. Now I'm stuck in another goddamn HOLE!" she had to chew her lip to not say a thing. But three was too many.
Magna and the girls jolted at the basement door thumping. "Magna hide!" rushed Katelynn. "To the left is some boxes. You can get behind them."
He crawled to the left of the room and instantly dumped into a box head first. Whatever it was, a crack sounded followed by a voice, "What the fuck is happening in there?" Magna's fingers swept the floor, feeling the blanket draping from the item. He went around the cloth and hid behind it. His palm felt something wet underneath.
The basement door broke open, a set of feet making their way down a small step. "Where's the fucking light." A deep voice growled. He felt alongside the right wall until he found a switch. The lights exploded in the basement. Magna got to see what was so wet under him. His heart nearly escaped him. A mangled boy soaked in blood.
Magna bit his bottom lip, his fangs poking the skin enough to bleed. "What the fuck was all that noise?"
This man was pale with a set of dark brown eyes. He wore no shirt, his body stitched from his neck to his belly button. "Aw shit, the zombie is back."
"I swear you can't tell imps a damn thing. They'll come down here and make a fucking mess, leave it for somebody to come clean it up. I'm so sick of this shit."
"He's talking to himself again…" Skaare glowered. "What is that noise?" the man searched the room, turning his head in the direction of the sound. "Whose down here?" He sniffed the air and shook violently. "GIVE ME MY BODY."
He stomped the floor with his boots. "Calm the fuck down young blood. Hopefully, I won't keep you for too long."
Magna pulled the head of the mangled body from behind him. He held it up to his eyes, "Charles…?" a tear went down his cheek. "Charcoal?" he whispered.
"This whole-body snatching thing is a lot of work just to bring a demon back. He says he wants a good body. Something white but then we used that amulet, and he was like… let's get that one. To be honest, I think it's a stupid idea. The She clan ain't shit. Regal's still grumbling about his damn daughter—" the man went on and on. "LET ME GO."
"Shut up already. You're making me trip and fall."
"FUCK—YOU." His body expanded as the soul within lit his chest up. "Hey! I'll give it to you, that fucking spell is powerful. And…" he dug in his pocket and pulled out an amulet with a skull on it. "Mi-YAN" he pressed his palm against his heart, the soul inside howled. "I told you already. Now, you betta snitch."
"There's a boy… in boxes…"
"Where?"
The soul sighed, it evaded through the man, "To the left…"