"This evening a burnt man was found in the car. It isn't unusual to find vampires in Houston a little cracked. However, residents are saying that things are sinister in the streets."
.
.
.
I'm not letting him go yet. I put July over my shoulder. "What the hell are you--"
"DON'T ASK ME WHAT!" this newfound surge of energy. My eyes are pink, I can feel the heat behind them.
At this time, I don't care about Dexter. What is my family going through? My brother's face is so pale, lifeless. He couldn't possibly want this body back. They put the vampires in tubs of lean. That takes a lot of cough medicine--the department.
I don't like how I missed the most obvious answer.
I take July to the garden with Glean's two faced ass following with Dexter. I don't have a ritual on me but maybe…
"Magna!" Glean yells. "I promise you it's not--"
"Shut up!" I demand. "No! I'm not finna shut up!" he retorts. I'm already on my way to the hill, there's no convincing me now. Truth be told, maybe it's because of my height or other. I don't really have the energy. I haven't eaten much and my eyes aren't well. It's such a fucked up scenario.
Across the hill is that building. The Pumps... did they do that to him first? Maybe the soul ended up over here.
I take my brother up the hill and into the garden. Those things are souls right? "Magna!" I go in the middle of the garden and lay him down. One of these have to be it.
I snatch one off the flower, I hear the sounds of bells. I'm doing wrong aren't I?
"Will you fucking--" Glean hits me in my back of my head. He takes the soul away. "You can't just go putting random fucking people inside somebody!"
"He's my brother!"
"For the looks of it, that's yo boyfriend. Think before you act nigga!"
"I'm a zombie and I totally understand the struggle. Let me introduce myself, I'm Fredrick Jordan."
"What the fuck is that!" Glean turned around and pointed at Fredrick. "Nigga is you a zombie!"
"I prefer, alive!"
"Nigga you is dead!"
"On the contrary nigga. I am alive!" argued Fredrick. I'm trying so hard not to laugh.
"Ok, Freddy. What does your soul know?"
He crosses his arms over his chest. "Well, I keep getting raped by a white lady. Years ago, Aleigha raped me. I'm not into it and I'm not sure what God has stored in my life but I sure as hell don't like any of it."
Glean puts his hands on his hips. "What?"
"Anyway. Your brother is still on the bridge. He won't be able to come back." he said.
"Why the hell not?" I grit my teeth. I'm going through so much.
Unwin
Unwin
Unwin
The motel! I went to the motel with Thankful--but that wasn't Thankful. "I'll tell you it was Thankies half sister. I swear these niggas got the whole afterlife fucked up. It's presidents running for election." says Fredrick. "Cortez. You saw Cortez. Graceful."
"What does Grace have to do with it?"
"Practically nothing. Her mother is the damn angel. The bitch is evil to be evil. All this shit started out real ugly and full of nonsense."
"You have no clue what she's doing?"
"Agraciada and Agradecida are sisters but only half. Plus Cortez, as she goes by is super light skin."
She is. "But what does she want?"
"Hell, I couldn't tell you if I had the idea. Cortez and her sister were born separate but she likes imposing. Have you heard of the Holy Sisters?" Fredrick looks at my brother. "He's pretty."
"And?"
"I'm just saying. Cortez loves sex and pretty boys. Being a holy sister she has to come from Gabriel." he says.
"Gabriel? The angel?"
"That's fucking stupid…" chimes Glean. "The holy sisters were made from a feather using a ritual. On top of that, do you know just how many damn angels lose wing? Gabriel fell but to get a feather off him is suicide."
"If its suicide then why did Aleigha use his name?"
"Because of his damn daughter!"
"Let me just warn y'all niggas, you talking about my mama!"
"We are!" exclaims Glean. "we definitely are. See, the fucked up thing is, Shikki died at the age of nine. She wrote this fucking book and her little ass dubbed it the bible of the Ghetto."
"My mother was a writer but I never heard of the bible of the Ghetto."
"It's actually pretty fucking interesting. She wrote that Vampires were made from angry souls. The Obayifo was a vampire and assumed to be fucking angry all the time." said Glean.
"Shikki had a fucking book on the damn thing. She was obsessed with it. Delagati was her babysitter. He went looking for her along with Psi-Mut. Delagati's father did drugs. WAIT FOR IT---"
I raise my brow. Fredrick continues, "It was Mable that set Shikki on fire."
My attention snaps on the zombie. "Excuse me?"
"Mable was high as fuck. Chauncey got made because he got kicked out. Delagati and Psi got shot by Mable. Mable is saint's mother--oh the Chauncey thing, Chauncey never died from an overdose."
"What the fuck are you saying?" Glean growls. "Chauncey is dead."
"This is going to sound fucking stupid but he has a twin… Seign is dead. He's been dead for a while. Then Aleigha knew them and he started thinking Chauncey did something. We never talk about his brother. Like, Mable was his baby mama."
"What the fuck are y'all saying?" I intervene. "You hear that?" Fredrick eyes me.
"The spell is wearing off." says Glean.
Fredrick gestures to Glean. "This is the only son of Saint John. Curtis's fucking mother is--"
"Be fucking silent!" he roars. "That shit ain't important why bring it up!"
"So we can finally end this fucking curse! Everybody is pissed and it all started with the church!"
"well now that shit is buried, a whole damn section of Virginia is cut out the bitch." Curtis, Glean, ugh… fumes. "Mable did this, Saint John did this--"
"It's yo damn daddy!"
"Who the fuck are you!?"
"The goddamn pastor!"
I'm exhausted.
"You said--"
"Aleigha raped me! Because he thought I had something to do with Shikki's death!"
"Well did you hurt my mama?" I should stay out of this. "Fuck no! I went to jail just to get caught with my pants down--"
"You can say you dropped the soap…" says Curtis. "I will fucking not!"
"Why are you like this?" I ask.
"I went to jail under a fucking murder theory. Got raped in my ass, and you just asked me, why am I upset!"
"sorry…"
"Everybody gets a little dick inside they ass. You can't go crying over every nigga that's a rape victim."
"Didn't you touch her?"
Curtis looks stoned in the face. "That wasn't me--"
My body just moved. Too much is going on, I can't stop beating him in the face. "Lord, help this young nigga achieve but not too soon…" Curtis's back pops out and his wings cover him. "STOP!"
"Fuck you!" my nails rip at his wings. "Did you rape my mother?"
"You a mama's boy, huh, nigga?" Curtis opens his mouth. A word pushes me back. Curtis shots up from the ground. Levitating off the garden. "Some dramatic shit, huh?" he settles on his feet. "Back to the main point." he flaps his torn wings. "I want the house. You want your brother. You cannot under any circumstances use these flowers. We got a zombie priest--"
"I want to die."
"--we got a zombie priest which means--"
"Nothing! I don't follow the church. The church I built is gone! IF it ain't one thing it's another!"
"What happened to you?" I ask, this man has a past.
"My son stole my car one day. He previously already went to jail and I'm at home like the child learns from the parent and not the goddamn reverse." the pastor rants. "He gets into a car accident in my car. He already went to jail and shot up his girlfriend's house. Then he got sick catching a STD. Lord help me!" he throws his boney arms in the air. "who's your son?"
"Dareion."
"Dareion Bass?" questions Curtis. "We went to school together."
"So I guess you know about my son's death?"
"Dareion did die. From an overdose." says Curtis.
"No." Fredrick explains. "From liver cancer. I thought I was sending my son to heaven. Fuck that."
"Ok, liver cancer."
"Then I heard about the resurrection service. I thought, I could have my son back. And I did…" I'm sure if he had lips he would smile. "I did… I got a sorry ass, lazy motherfuckin', useless, disrespectful; no-good, nigger clapping ass kid at home!"
"Jesus…" Curtis's jaw is slacked. "Well, he could play basketball."
"The nigga stopped believing in God and then fucked Mable! Next thing I know, I'm at church and Davea who sat with the Choir tells me in a confessional she has feelings for me and I thought I was finna shit myself. I was so scared."
"Well damn…"
"I hate that woman." the zombie sighs. "I hate her so much."
"Well what did she do?"
"My brother is dead!"
"Niggas die everyday. So, anyway, I hate Davea. She's always trying to get a man to have sex with her. The woman is sick. Her two grandkids live with her, she used to work part time at a daycare. She lost her job with multiple kids said Davea beat them."
"I don't like where this headed…" I close my eyes. "Good. Cedrica was baptized because Shiloh said she didn't know who the father was." Fredrick states. "The woman believed confused children didn't go to heaven."
I lift my brow, "Confused children?"
"Children who don't know their fathers don't go to heaven. They walk around looking for them."
"That's dark." says Curtis. "To be honest, I didn't see my dad until I was three."
"Liar."
"My mother is white with weak jeans. My daddy dark as hell. So I don't even look mixed. She loved my daddy but ignored me. I'm just an offering."
"Darlene didn't have good sense. The Growdens donated to the church and said they would continue to if I made a tree on the premises." said Fredrick.
"Did you?"
"No. He sued me and when I think about it, that's probably why I'm in this mess."
"I really don't understand this Growden fiasco…" I don't. I'm hearing about him but I don't know anything.
"Growden's 18th son is Black and White. The Growden family is the only people still alive that can say, we wanna beat nigga's again. He was mistreated by the family and disowned by his father."
"Ok."
"Then her crazy African ass drowned her son so he could escape."