At the storage unit. Ciacco, Chickie, and I opened up the unit Jose told us. We brought the werewolves that ended up having an entire prayer circle to secure their safety.
"And as I walk through the valley of death!" the wolf rose his head to the sky. "I fear no evil!" they howled. "My god have mercy on my soul!" they bowed their heads. "And let there be bacon in heaven. Amen."
The oldest wolf smacked the beta. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I used to be a husky!" he exclaimed. "Are you man or dog?" questioned the werewolf with mange. He scratched his armpit. "I'm a dog that was turned into a man and I got kicked out the house!"
"Why?"
"I had sex with my owner and her girlfriend thought she was cheating." Silence. "What are they talking about?" Chickie nosed. "Bitch shit, now what did he say to do?" I go inside the unit. It's a pile of voodoo dolls with pins and crooked stitched smiles. "Why do you keep asking that?" she says annoyed. "Put the dogs in the puppet for safekeeping."
"Boy, everybody get a circle."
"What are y'all trying to do?" asks Ciacco. "We're doing bad things hija." Chickie put a strand of air behind her ear. "Are you black? You know a lot of Spanish."
"Partly mixed." she exhales. "So why did you eat your brother?"
"Something was wrong with him." he shrugs. "My brother loves food but he ate like three people and he turned on me."
"Do you know English?" she asks.
"No." She punches him in the chest. "Ow!"
"Silvio was supposed to handle shipment with the kennel club. And you killed your brother."
"They kicked him out. Shit hasn't been running smooth since Yawa died." Chickie's eyes get bigger. "Yawa's dead?"
"Something about eating up souls..." says Ciacco. "They have a new Bow. Leyal Karabi or some shit."
"You said you were a baby. Did you grow up in the State?"
"Yawa ain't dead, I used to be a part of his pack." boasts one of the dogs. "Hush mutt!" tames Chickie. She faces Ciacco, "what is the last thing you know about the State? Because my husband is a werewolf."
He scratches his arm, "I don't get why wolves keep fucking bats. It's weird."
"And, you a baby and homeless."
He furrows. "That's besides the point. I don't know anything, Thankful."
"My name is Chickie!" she pronounces. "I'm asking the wrong thing, "What do you know about my sister?"
"I humped her one time..."
"What?"
"Just the leg, I swear."
This is such a juicy conversation. "I love the bonding. Real emotions being... flooded out right now. I sense a lot of stress and tension..." I jest. "Can we get this shit over with!"
They turn to me. Chickie ushers the wolves over, they come into the storage unit shivering. As I look at them, I feel my body rising in heat.
My fingers flick and I just want to lay down. I shut my eyes, it's just a hallucination. Chickie's dark skin lightens, as she turns to look at me. Her face is different. I start heaving, unable to catch my breath. My legs are giving up on me.
Razor-sharp teeth attached to this yellow brown-toned face. A set of four eyes slid across her face to blink at me. Chickie is speaking I know she is, but all I hear is... Cedrica...
I have to lay down, my body won't be still...
Mokiri...
.
.
.
"What!" Mokiri yells with a confused look. "So... She isn't like us?"
"Yeah..." July sits with his arm over the chair facing Mokiri. "And be quiet." he puts a finger to his lips.
"Well... what do we do?" her voice lowers. He lifts his shoulders. "I don't know, kill her?"
"I hate her anyway. So, the thing said... she's a build baby?" she points at the computer. "Pretty much, she has the symptoms." July turns the chair around to put his legs under the table. "Faes may experience hearing voices, distorted speech, persecutory disorder, afraid of loud sounds, visual disruption, excessive worry, dilated eyes, back pain, small teeth, spinal deformity, nightmares, and hyperactivity."
"Can we just call her retarded?"
July turns around. "No." Mokiri gets off the bed and moves to July. She sits in his lap. He puts his head in her chest. "They're growing."
"I need to cover my chest." she groans. "Can't believe we're getting older..."
"Feels like years... huh?"
"Last year..." she complains. "I still think about it."
"Well," he lifts his head. "I love you and--"
"Ugh... the fuck?"
"Excuse me for saying I love you. I'm tired of being mean cause you're afraid of feelings!" he pushed her off his lap.
"Juls!" she turned to her side on the floor. She looked up seeing Cedrica in the crack of the door. Her face twisted like a cinnamon roll and her eye near her cheek. Though her lips were twisted, the side of her mouth, on the left, moved.
Mokiri heard a high voice.
"Jul..." she got up as Cedrica disappeared out the door. "She was there..." her hand trembled gesturing to the bedroom door. July got up and closed it, seconds later something hit the door followed by a hiss.
July looked back at Mokiri, her face petrified. "Don't give me that look..." he moved to her and gently took her hand; guiding her to his chest. "It's not like last time..." As he hugged, her muscles shifted side to side. "It's not like last time." he rested his chin on her head and switched to laying is cheek on her. "We're not at the church anymore."
Her eyes enlarged, she pushed out of his hold. Mokiri snatched July's arm. She turned it over, viewing the multiple bite marks. "Are you ok?" she slapped his forehead with her palm. "Mokiri..." he lowered her hand. He thought he took that memory, so she wouldn't be like this. "I'm fine." he smiled.
"I hope the fuck you are with that thing in the house!"
Gurgling and whimpers sounded beyond the door. "Shut the fuck up!" she threw the pillow from the bed in irritation. "I hate her!"
She didn't say it directly but he made him think. They went to church and the saw the backyard. The House of Angels also had a backyard.
He closed his eyes recalling the smell of mint leaves. The garden wasn't complete. There was a pond that tilted to the left. Flowers grew on the uplifted dirt. Broken statues of angels and he always remembered the head of Adam with his teeth showing.
'Mama... why is Adam torn apart.' he asked his mother. 'Oh, a story for another day.' which meant he would never hear shit ever again. Everything had to be a fucking mystery. He tried joking with his mother, 'well, you don't make the toilet paper a fucking mystery...'
He earned a hysterical laugh from her. His mother held her stomach, 'Where--where on earth made you say that!' she stammered. 'Mama, I'm saying it could be important! So why not tell me now!'
'Ok... the garden is a heavenly thing for it to fall. That's God's business all over the place.' she eyed him. 'How about that?'
He still didn't get it.
July slide back in the chair and went to typing in the search engine. "What are you doing now?" he groaned. "I need to look for something."
'Garden of Eden, fall'
The engine directed to Fall of Man. 'Obvious enough' he noted mentally. "Ok, I'm pretty much Godless but..." she sucked on her teeth. Mokiri posted on the back of Aleigha's chair. "The fall of man started because Adam and Eve ate from the garden."
"True," he speculated, pressing his back against the chair. "However, people literally say Eve ate from the garden not Adam. Some say she did. A wild claim is that she became Lilith."
"Again, I'm basically an atheist."
"That's the thing, you're actually Chirstian." he claimed boldly. "Don't look at me like you're disgusted with my face."
"You just a pretty face anyway..." she jabbed his temples. "Atheist are the first to even talk about God strongly. One would think they would be the ones to deny God when the opposite would happen."
Mokiri sneered as she blew a raspberry.
"Who do I look like running to God?"
"Ok..."
"You know who needs jesus?" she blinked. Her voice was low, "Alexis..."
"What?"
"She calls herself Alexis, and Tori said that's her middle name."
That's the first sign of craziness.
.
.
.
Cedrica stared at the boy from the basement. A diamond face and yellow-brown skin. He had a scar on his left eye as if he had been cut. "Who are you people?"
"Can I eat you!" Cedrica proclaimed as if no one else was talking. "what?"
Torielle pulled his arm for attention. "Don't mind her--"
"Mind me. You look good... like toast or something..."
"Cece! Go sit down!" ordered Torielle. "I could bit him, like," she smacked her lips. "That face—and July—I'd bit the fuck outta y'all."
The boy stared at the child with many questions he would never reiceive an answer to. "What's my name?"
"Chicken fried steak--"
"WE DON'T KNOW!" Torielle screamed to cut her off. "This is my sister and my brother upstairs with my other sister."
"So... is this your house?"
"Pancake house--"
"YES!" Torielle grimaced, "This is our mom... Goldilieve..." she gestured to her 'mother' standing in the lower corner of the room. The boy eyed her and lifted his lip, "Why is she standing there?"
"Hide and seek?" chimed Cedrica. "Mama we stopped playing!"
Goldilieve groaned, her arm twitched. "She's so determined to win." Cedrica shook her head. "Oh... how did... how did I get here?"
"You were trying to rub us and we..." Torielle clicked her tongue. "Put you in the basement and waited for the police."
"Did they come?" he asked. "This is a bad area." Torielle told waving her hands in a circle. "So... they thought it was a prank."
Golden lie.
July and Mokiri came down stairs. "What the hell is all this noise—oh my god." July's jaw slacked. "What are you doing out the basement Deidre."
"Deidre?"
"Go back to the basement!" July's eyes shimmered pink. Deidre's eyes turned; his body moves by July's will. "BE STILL" the words printed on his back. Deidre's breathe escaped him, spilling from his mouth like a waterfall.
"Did you talk to him?"
"Yes..." the girl told. "The house is lonely..."
"Lonely," July eyes went round. "Get a blanket, bundle up."