YES.
I fought it. I got back. I'm still in this fucking tub! What did they name? I shake the lean off my head. I'm rushing to get out of this drug. As soon as my feet hit the tiles I'm slipping. Where the fuck is Jon-Jon?
I'm taking baby steps. The room is clear, just a few bodies in the tubs. I lean on a tub as I pass it. I can't breathe, I'm shaking, my vision is blurry. Magna Carta. Say it again. Magna Carta.
I need to get out. The door is right there. They come open, I'm still using the tub as support. "Oh good, I was just about to come get you."
Son of a bitch!
"Come on, let's get ready for the Eucharist. Then we sit down for church."
"Fu--Fuck you." I stammer. I hate this, I hate everything. My throat is burning. I hutch over and bile from my core spills out of me. "AHHH!"
"Come on, Deidre--"
"MAGNA CARTA! YOU WORTHLESS BITCH!"
"Amen… let's go."
.
.
.
Good news, I have fangs. Bad news, I can't move. What the fuck happened to me. Why am I so fucking pale? "You died." answers Jon-Jon. "You came back. July just went in."
"What?" I scorn. "Relax. Fake everything."
"What are you doing? Aren't you a vampire?"
"I'm a lytch. They don't know."
"Who are you?"
She look directly at my eyes, "Goldie…"
"Lynn?" It takes my breath away. "I'm learning but I'm tired." she says. "What the hell is going on?" I mutter. "They want a church. Rule the realm, rule the east." Goldielieve explains. "I'll tell you right now we have to pluck the fields."
"Bullshit."
"You have to work. This about obedience. Your giving thanks for your revival."
"I was born a vamp!"
"Not in this church…" We go through a doorless room. It's people in gowns and hospital robes sitting on the floor watching the TV. There's a black man in the corner of the room clapping his hands.
"Dexter!" Goldielieve calls. "Sit down now."
Dexter keeps clapping. He pauses and counts to five. He claps louder, louder. He's clapping, drowning out the sound of the tv.
There's a man sitting in a green chair annoyed. "Stop acting crazy!" he reprimand. "Dexter, stop all that damn clapping, nigga goddamn."
Another across from the first chuckles. "He forgot how to grab it."
"They want us to be crazy so I'm crazy."
"Bitch you can sit down!" laughs the nigga in blue. "What is acting crazy gon do?
"I'ma keep clapping." Dexter holds the wall laughing. "Yo," he turns, "Jon-Jon, what's 42 minus eleven?"
"I don't know Dexter." she sighs. Is he joking? "88 plus one."
"Is that the answer?"
"Thirty two plus ten. Take away seven equals eleven o'clock." he snorts. He falls back against the wall, "Twelve minus three is eight pm, but it's hot outside." he's crying with laughter. I start tearing up.
"What are you doing?" the niggas beside him laugh. They can't talk. "That's what--" Dexter sniffs hard. "That's what niggas in cults be doing." He brings his hands together. He takes a moment to catch his breath, he claps again. "Praise!" he claps again. "One plus two, up comes the sun." he claps twice. "Praise!"
"Nigga shut up, that shit ain't funny!" the nigga in blue retorts. "Are you retarded? And mean asylums!"
"What the fuck ever--" he takes a deep breath. "That shit always gets me in movies. There's always a naked white bitch and shit going crazy. Jumping around like she losing her mind."
"Dexter! It's not funny, stop being simple!" Goldielieve looks at me. "Sit on floor and look at tv."
"Where the food at?"
"I'll be back. Don't hang with them," she warns. Dexter motioned me over. I can't lose anything going over there and I do. "Say bruh, where yo family at?"
"The bridge." I say. The man in blue talks to me, "You remember me?" He has an ugly scar down his right eye and half his life gone. I shake my head, "Sorry."
"You don't remember Uncle Rank?" he frowns. "Damn."
"Sorry."
"I know he don't know me. I went to school." the nigga in a green chair states. "You don't tell people you went to school. You show it." says Dexter.
"Nigga, what the fuck do I do? Pull out my school ID?"
"Yeah," Dexter states matter a factly. "That's how people know you went."
"Dexter shut the fuck up!" the other demands. "Y'all annoying as shit…" says Uncle Rank grabbing his doorag off his head. "When is breakfast?"
"At the nursing home…"
"Glean shut up. This a vampire, he knows the power of word which means he rap." says Dexter.
"So, that's like beware of the plumber cause he can shove yo head in toilet." Glean stares at Rank. "If you know the Ghetto Bible. Say something about it."
"You fucking with me?" Rank bears his teeth. I can see that they've been pulled out. That's a shame. "Nigga look! This old ass vamp ain't got grips!" He doesn't have teeth but like any old vamp he has his nail. Vamps keep their pinky nails long. Which means, Glean can lose an eye.
Just like I thought, Rank rest his pinky nail under his chin. "I can pull out your tongue and I'll never hear from you again." Rank's eyes are bright pink. He may seem old but those eyes say he's been eatin' good.
"Chill! Chill, nigga!"
"What kind of fucking name is Glean?"
"Like smile, nigga--Shine! Glistening!" Glean defends himself, he slides from away from Rank and stands up. "It was just a joke." he rubs his chin.
"Don't fuck with me!"
"Are you drunk?" I ask.
"A bit. These niggas don't feed me." he eyes Glean. "I might go for a thigh."
"Nigga fuck you."
"Chitlins don't sound bad either…" Rank smirks. "What's yo real name?"
"Fucking Arthur." he spats. "Arthur what?"
He sighs, balling up his hands. "Arthur Clementine."
"What's yo middle name?"
"Man, why you asking me so many questions?"
"You questioned my position. What's yo middle name?"
Arthur, I cannot say that with a straight face, Glean--nevermind. "Zackary." he looks away.
"Arthur Zackary Clementine?" Rank chuckles. "Ima call you Busy."
"Why?"
"That." he points.
"What?"
"Still doing it." Rank's attention is on me. "So how are you, nephew?"
I don't know how to address this man. Probably because I can't remember shit. I remember being in the maze, back in mexico. "Um--good."
"You remember the house?"
"No."
"Remember your mother?" he raise a brow. "Yeah…" I look at the corner of the ceiling where Dexter is.
"You sure?"
I do not. "nah… I woke up here."
"You must remember that. They took some of y'all and killed the ones they could control." he inhales. "They took Shikki to the backyard."
.
.
.
Shikki kicked out her legs. She squeezed her fingers under the rope. Shikki slid her hand between the rope and Adam's apple to give herself air. On the other side she plucked out the strands woven together. "You have come in the form of a beast. And therefore I deny you a second life. Thou cannot live again; without repaid sins of the last."
"Monty!" She reached her right hand above her head and tried to pull herself up, she continued to pull the strands out the rope and sneered at Monty's fake biblical recital. "I lynch you!" Monty bellows. "I lynch the demon before me. I silent him. I punish the nigger inside and damn him to hell." The rope was getting lose. Shikki fit her hand under the rope and stretched it out. More air. "You have denied the church of God--"
"Fuck you Montgomery!"
He glared at her, "You dare use the power of word to toss hate at me."
"You have lost yo fucking mind--nigga what's nine plus ten?" Shikki bounced on the rope. He thought, "nineteen." he said. "Amazing you rat back nigga!" she climbed the rope. "Poor as hell. Can't think and smells his own ass!"
"Take a bath."
"Never!" she shouted. Shikki tossed her legs up and clenched the rope with her feet. She hit the tree branch and caught in her sight while upside down, her son. "Juls…"
"Why don't you die?" he gazed at her success. You even mock the word of God by making your own." He paced back and forward. "You call it the Ghetto Bible. What are you?"
Shikki didn't answer, she climbed the tree. "The antichrist..."
"Monty, shut the fuck up!"
"You have to be. You're trying to mock my lady. But no, and I tell you no one... CAN BE BESUJIA!"
Good fucking God, you ain't been right since you got molested. Like you real hurt out here, summoning demons, throwing shit at the neighbors, and biting people cause you think you can eat people."
"YOU DID IT!"
"Cause your mother pulled my ass with a bag over my head…" she grunted. "Fuck you and the bitch you came out of!"
"I was left orphaned." he walked to the tree. "I hate you."
"Join the goddamn parade. Everybody got a goddamn, booty ass scratching disease and it has to do with my black ass. Here's a fucking plan, walk away from it!"
"You talk a lot of shit…" he rummaged through his pockets. "And now we set the tree on fire because… we can do that but it takes forever for a tree to actually burn. Cause fire has to touch."
"Exactly." He bore a toothy grin. Montgomery threw the lighter after lighting it. He kept people behind him, "Friends of Darkness, help me end this evil!" And the Devil Thing known as Mock and Desist. It was one foul monster, it didn't look all that bad. He sat on the ground. He was fat and hairy with small wings. Mock and Desist had a total of six arms. HE ripped one of them and threw it at the ground. That arm, became another. A black man stood up, he tossed his arm to the side as well and that became another black man.
One negro pulled out his fang and threw to the grass. The other ripped his hair out and threw on top of the tooth. The two items joined together and created woman. That woman stood up.
"NAME THEM." The Devil Thing said in a harsh whisper. "I will…" Montgomery put his arms behind him. "We are a family. We'll be the Smiley Family. That," he pointed to the man with one arm. It was slowly coming back. "That's Uncle Medina and you, you are his brother, Uncle Fox."
He gazed at the woman's naked body. "You are the niece."
"What is my name?" there were two voices in her. "Merry Weather. And you need a mother."
"My father?"
"It'll be Mock and Desist."
And so the Devil Thing became a black man with a suit and Tie. "I'll participate." He wore a fine suit. A 3 piece formal with a jacket. A red rose sat on the left side of his chest. Merry Weather looked at her father, "Father?" she cocked her head to the side. "We are a family."
He put his hand out to her and she jogged to him. "We'll find you a mother and put you in a good body."
"What in Collar Greens!" Shikki exclaimed. "We'll live down the lane." Mock and Desist hoist Merry Weather into his arms. "Monty." called the Thing. "You can be Santa Claus, if you know what I mean."