"Being mayor is fucking hard so I had to make arrangements." Growden sprinkled salt on the ground. He drew a circle in the middle of the room. "Stupid fucking nigger—wait. I am one."
His fingers combed through his white hair dismisses the magic. He rustled his afro.
Chauncey dug in his pockets. He dialed a number and put the phone to his ear. "Quién diablos es éste."
"Bitch, don't you have caller ID?"
"Don't be fucking smart with me, Chance."
He rolled his eyes. "Look, I got the mayor's house. How many dogs do you need?"
"All of them, at least 80."
"Eighty?" he exclaimed. "The fuck you doing with 80 fucking werewolves?"
"Mind your business..." she said.
"Fuck you..." he looked at the werewolf pelts, he could use one. "You gave me the magic to do what I do. And I do it for you."
"What happened to your little girlfriend?" she teased over the phone. "You know! Damn well, she stuck underground."
"It's amazing what you can do with people's emotions. What's your daughter in law's name?"
"Fuck that... what are you doing with these bodies?"
"Imma use them." she twirled a set of silver balls in her hands. "I need to make payment. The white parade came to the door last night."
"I already got my payment. My mother's body was enough."
"I'm glutenous. Also, you didn't mean to kill your mom."
"Yeah..." he didn't, what happened, happened. "I still gave her grave up."
"To be a vampire...?"
"I just wanna see what, it's like. My daddy a vamp." he lamented. "Shit he stuffed niggas in the basement all the time. Mama couldn't stand it. Then, I found out... we had a House with the Coven."
She chuckled over the phone, "So you think you rich?"
"I am. I'm a king's son."
"Don't get in the trap unless you know everything."
"Bet I can get the house of angels."
"Ooo... hotspot.
"I mean it." Chauncey picked up one of the pelts. He looked up feeling a presence. His son looked at him from the stairs. "Portez votre cul au lit!" he bellowed. "You ain't doing shit but looking at me."
His son narrowed his eyes. He thought to himself, wasn't the point of family to stick together and break cycles? "Va récupérer ma maman. You ain't doing shit." he told in a small voice. He wasn't scared, he knew he didn't have to yell.
Chauncey pulled the phone away from his ear. "I bet if I whoop yo' ass it's gon' be something done."
"No." he smiled. "Tried that shit last week. Grandpa want his shoe back." He went upstairs with a smiled permitted on his face. His father's brow crinkled, "Dela!"
.
.
.
Dela hopped up on the couch with his Uncle Seign. Seign was rolled a stick of weed, he sniffed and looked at his nephew. "Arrête d'être irrespectueux." he put the weed beween his lips. "You'll make him mad."
"Where my mama at."
"I don't know." the weed flopped in his mouth. He reached over and grabbed his lighter. He lit the marijuana, "Yo, father is crazy. Dieu n'aime pas trois choses. Quatre en fait," he took a drag from the stick and blew it in the air.
"What's that?"
"Il n'aime pas les moches, les stupides ou les conneries." he took another drag. "Did you your wife to be, smokes at the age of two?" Seign chuckled. "I thought that was crazy but Gabriel is an angel."
"She's cute." said Dela.
"Do you like her?"
"Yeah... we a year apart. And she hangs around this little nigga," he sneered. "Oh. So, we got competition? Ou êtes-vous jaloux?"
Dela narrowed his eyes, "Hell no. I'm the one who found her in that hole."
"I'm pound of you for that." he rustled his hair. "Nobody taught you that type of shit, you just did it." he went back to focusing on his weed. "This is some good shit."
"You smoke poison."
"I smoke coochie, bitches, and grass." he held up the marijuana. "This is grass."
Dela reached for the marijuana. Seign snatched away from him, "Pas sur mon âme!" he put it between his lips. "Get yo' own little nigga."
He sucked his teeth. "Are we going to church tomorrow?"
"I wouldn't. We really need to get yo' mama back."
"He really sold her?"
"Hush now little bat. Imma fix it."
He lowered his gaze a for a moment, "Where grandpa?"
"Don't wake him up." he smoked the weed and blew it. "The last thing I need is a seven feet two vampire lord biting my neck for salvation. Go to yo room."
.
.
.
The next day, Dela woke up and decided to lay in bed. His brothers were in the room and his uncle's son was fussing over the PlayStation.
Castle slapped the top of the PlayStation puffing out his cheeks in frustration. "Take out the fucking disc, stupid!" yelled Iarius. "If you break it, we ain't getting another."
"I don't care!" his eyes glowed red. He swiped his hand in the air and PlayStation went through the window.
"Oh my god." gasped L'Creed. He ran to the window to see the PlayStation in the grass. The family dog came and sniffed it. L'Creed beat the window, "Don't piss on it!"
"It's gone..." his brother Ahio sighed. "Like the money, granddad, our hopes," he turned on his back, "and dreams."
"Shut yo' ass up. Mr. Depression." shouted Iarius.
"And this nigga ain't washed his ass and stank like dookie..."
Iarius got up from the floor and punched him in the jaw. Ahio swung his legs onto the carpet. "I regret nothing. But you will."
"Do it!" Iarius stood over him. The two started boxing in the room. Castle looked over his shoulder, "Y'all stupid."
L'Creed cried at the window, "I didn't finish that game..." he looked at brothers. "I hate y'all. We can't have nothing and fucking Delagati eats everything."
He wasn't even doing anything. "If I get up... Imma eat you."
L'Creed lifted his shoulders but he want that. "I'm going downstairs." he went quickly to the door. He gasped at the sight of his father with a large blunt in his mouth.
"Y'all should be getting ready." he said. L'Creed lowered his head. His father was getting bold around the house. At least his uncle didn't walk around naked. He moved from the door and father went in, he knocked on the wall. "We going to church."
"My daddy said I ain't going nowhere." Castle twisted his neck. "Yo' daddy ain't here." he mocked. "Now get ya little cajun ass out the damn room. Get in the shower."
"I'm creole..." he mumbled under his breath. Delagati focused on his father with his arm hanging over the bed and the other against the wall. "What kind of man takes his kids and kidnaps his brother's child?"
"Shut up!"
Dela rubbed his two fingers together. His father's eyes expanded, "I wish the fuck you would throw magic at me. If it wasn't for me. You wouldn't have half the shit in this room."
"You stole it." he said.
Chauncey viewed the whole in the window. "You can raise the window up with yo' stupid asses." he took the blunt out his mouth. "Which one of you retarded babies made a hole in the window?"
"I ain't retarded..." muttered Iarius. "You know what, you get yo ass up!" he threatened.
"Make me." Iarius challenged. "Alright, the sun goes down and the moon comes up."
"What that mean?"
"I got time." he went out and slammed the door shut.
Delagati sat up. "I hate him."
"Call Child." advised his brother. "She smart."
Delagati sucked his teeth and stood on the carpet. "I'm not calling her for anything."
"She's royal." said Ahio. "She got some say in that Coven."
"What am I supposed to be asking."
"Everybody's high on magic. Power. If it ain't hoes and money then everybody following a God under concrete."
"I'm tired of this..." Iarius held both sides of his head. "I killed somebody."
"You didn't!"
"I did." he looked at his brother. "This shit makes you feel like you can't survive."
Dela went to the window and healed the glass. "Did you ask for something?"
"I asked..."
"For a clean booty hole." snickered Ahio. "I wash my ass!" Iarius yelled. "Damn. I asked for a ritual."
"A ritual?" Dela leaned against the wall. Iarius went to the bed in the middle of the room. He bent down drew out a brown paper. "It's a map of the ghytto."
"Does it want you to kill it?" Ahio raised a brow. "I don't know."
"Unroll that shit..."
Iarius unrolled the map. It glowed and the words seemed to come off the map. Delagati waved his hand in the pool of words in the air. "What is this?"
"Ɉɒǝ oɈ ϱniʜɈǝmoƨ bǝǝn I" told a gurgling voice. "nǝvoɔ ǝʜɈ γd bǝɈivni ǝɿɒ υoY."
"Can you hear anything?" Castle looked at the map. There was a key for water on it. The water itself moved and soaked the carpet. "What is this?"
"ʞlɒw oɈ Ɉnɒw I"
Delagati squatted down, "What do you want," he made air quotations. "Street God."
"ǝnoɿʜɈ ǝʜɈ ʇo γʜɈɿow ǝɿɒ υoY." the brothers heard but could only understand so much. "ɿǝϱϱid mobϱniʞ γm Ɉnɒw I"
"Ok, ok, it said... something bigger."
"⸮Ɉi ob υoγ bib who?"
Delagati watched the map change. It showed him inside a home. Childhood was in a cage. "ɈɒʜɈ bǝɈnɒw I." Dela back away from the map. "What is this..."
"mɒ I..."
"niƨ ɿυoγ."
"ɿoob ǝʜɈ wɒƨ υoγ."
"Ɉi nǝqo..."