I don't know what floor I'm on. I decide to check a random compact. I shut the door behind me.
Looking at the room. It's a normal apartment. This one is empty, the floor is brown wood and the walls white. I go to the window and look at the apartment stairs.
Lifting the window, I go out and travel down the stairs. If I break this nigga's house. I could care less. What did Coochie say, I think I heard basement on the phone.
I make it pass three sets of stairs before the next steps I take, they start moving. This apartment is bulky, magic, and scary. The buildings orbit the apartment from the top. How does anyone get around this bitch? What if you have to go to the bathroom.
Well, logic would say, you use the apartment bathroom within your designated compact. But also you would be stuck here forever, that's evil.
I don't have anywhere to go, I head back to the apartment and a person with bloody clothes is standing there. He turns his head to me. "GET OUT!" he wails and reappears.
How do I?
I go to the bedroom, there's a bed in it and it's bloody. Something dings inside me. I blink once and people are in the room. A man is chained to the bed with his chest cut into a cruifix.
There's a little girl in the room with her legs bandaged and missing an arm. She next to a man of great height equal to the man next to the bed.
"Godbless you…"
"Please let me go!" he jiggles the cuffs. "I'm so sorry--please! I have nothing to do--"
"Silence!" the word imprints on the white man's mouth. "What you finna do to him? Food or vamp?"
"You fucking if you think I'm not about to sacrifice white folk." says the bigger vamp. Is that Aleigha?
"Don't you have a record?"
"I don't give a shit! Give me my baby so she can eat…" he walks over to the little girl and lifts her up. "My baby out here with one fucking leg missing. Looking a damn mess." Aleigha puts the little girl in bed. "I won't lie, You kinda sick to use magic to make her a kid again…"
"LET ME FUCKING HEAL!" the walls break with the volume of his voice. The vision dissipates, leaving the room, right in the doorway. The ghostly man blocks me, "GET OUT!"
"Nigga! I cannot!" I wave my hand causing his figure to disappear. I run to the door and exit, which way did I come from?
Left means leave, I head left.
I turn, the same curve hall. No electric sounds, maybe I'm supposed to be down here? I go pass the picture and head straight, the path splits into three different ways.
I head down the second split ahead of me.
W R O N G W A Y
No! No! No! I will not obey the voices in my head. Left turn--WALL. Turn right, pass the sofa in the hall near the wall. Turn right--ignore the elegant picture of a woman covered in roses.
Head towards the white light--WHITE LIGHT! Turn around, it's wall. I don't have a choice. I go through the door of light and come out to a hall.
E L A V A T O R
"Suga, don't listen!" speaks a statue on the floor. "Stay still, move to the wall on your right. Press your back against it." I do as told, and slide along the wall. I press my back against the barrier and fall backwards. This is not an apartment. It's a black hall with a backlight in the corner. I see a spider crawl across the floor.
This is the dumb moment where I would ask for help. I get up and I can't through the door anymore. The sound of electricity bleeds through. It's still out there.
"Who… are… you?"
"Huh?" Who said that?
"Somebody."
"Well I don't know who the fuck that is!"
"I don't know who the fuck you is."
"What!"
"What fuck."
"Excuse me?"
"Excuse fuck."
"Stop it!"
"Stop it fuck."
"WHO THE FUCK IS IT!"
"FUCK!"
"AAAAHHHHHHH!"
"You're funny," replies the voice. Something appears out of the darkness. "Hi…"
"WHAT THE FUCK!"
"Enough fuck."
"WHAT ARE YOU!"
A small green, rat tailed, long eared, two legged goblins shows itself. "Rat."
"You a rat?"
"No."
"Are you a rat?"
"No." he says.
"What are you?"
"Rat."
"Your name is Rat?"
"Could be."
"STOP IT!" I slap the ground. "WHAT ARE YOU?"
"Rat." it says. I smack it to the floor. "MAKE SENSE!"
"Toy!" he struggles to stand. "Aleigha ate Toy."
"Toy what or who?"
"You?" it puts it's finger in its mouth. "Maybe you, forty four?"
"I'm like 19 years old!"
"New body." it puts thumb and pinky to the side of its head. "Who dis?"
"I'll smack you with my shoe. I step on roaches everyday!"
"Not roach, rat."
I pick the goblin up by it's neck and shake it. "WHY ARE YOU SO OBESSESSED WITH RATS!"
"FAIRY!"
"WHAT ABOUT FAIRIES!"
"Fairy hungry."
"VERY!?"
"No, fairy! You. They turned you into a fairy. Too many copies."
"What copies?"
"Heart's day, mom, cousin, sister, brother, and auntie too."
"Copies…"
"Call that shit a bloodline." it snickers.
.
.
.
"What the fuck are y'all mutant niggas doing!" I yell. "Shut up!" Klara bores. "I'm putting you in the cells with the others."
"CELL! BITCH I HOPE THE FUCK YOU DO--" one of the guards holding me, strikes me in the stomach. "Shut up you heavy bitch."
I groan, "Hallelujah…"
"Put her with the rest of the children."
It gets worst and worst. They took me down to the basement. A guard opens a locked cell that links to a set of wooden double doors.
"Mokiri, be on your best behavior!" she wags her finger at me. "I don't want any trouble out of you. You're one of the best kids."
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I heave. "Nothing. I took care of puppies my whole life. So I know how to take care of a big puppy like you." she taps my nose. "Make sure you put the cuffs on her, I'm already missing a child. Do you know what that means? You keep giving me miscarriages!"
She leaves which gives one of the guards the chance to call her bitch behind her back. They take me to the door and hit the numbers on the lock pad. It beeps, a light shines through and I immediately see a puzzled design, colorful floor. They shove me inside the room; I think to get up and rush at the door again.
"Another one…" somebody behind me says.
I see a tail, some ears, and a large white dog with two tails. It comes over and sniffs me. "Mokiri?"
"I'm sorry…" I put my pants up defensively. "Mokiri…"
It's a werewolf, I understand that. "Mama… it's little Care."
What?
.
.
.
A woman sat to the far left side of the room. She wore a large Burqa and had her ears in the air. Her teeth poked her bottom lip. The burqa was long but thin, I could see her hind legs but the rest of her was human.
"Mokiri?" she squints and tries to stand up. She wobbles. "Mama! A brown wolf presses her against the wall. "Let me walk!" she has a light Arabic accent. "We don't know if that's her or not. Mama sit down!" the male wolf barks.
The woman shoves him but she's too walk. She reaches her hand out towards me, "Come."
"Who are you?" I feel sick, I don't know her. "Mokiri… your alive."
The woman moves her fingers calling me over. "Kanuu Li tifli mat."
"I hate white folk…" says the white wolf. "Mo. I'm your sister! Simisola! They probably changed my name and shit, come, sit down!"
I finally touch her fingers. The dog finally moves as she collapses to her side. "Ma'am!" She beautiful female wolf. She whimpers, squeezing her eyes shut. "They cut off our mother's legs. We was in a cave for months before the fucking military started searching the hood!" exclaims the male.
"Mokiri, this is our oldest brother. I don't know what they told you but this is our oldest brother, Ubayd Idowu Gains. You remember you last name right? Please say yes!" her nose pokes my cheek. "I'm sorry, what's going on?"
The room is full of dog whining. Ubayd shifts, he's a dark skinned man with a hairy chest and a necklace made from teeth. He has a triangle shape face. His eyes are bright golden. "Let me see you turn."
"I--"
"So you ain't?" his eyes shimmer. Simisola guards me, "Don't you maul her!"
"How the fuck we know she it!"
"I can smell it!" she shouts. "This is our sister! They put that fucking powder in your nose and you can't smell shit! Your paranoid!"
"And I have every fucking right to be! The room got magic in it!" he counts oh his fingers starting with his index, "Adisa missing, Akinyi missing, daddy missing, Kaffir missing, Lina, Uma--Goddamn it, bitch, ain't you concerned!"
"Enough!" demands the female wolf. "Mokiri…" she whimpers and shifts back to her human form. "You are not a vampire…" she glares at me. She's on her hands and knees. "You are mine!"
"I…" I cannot speak a word. "Hadi Lulwa Gains… I married your father, Yawa Gains. Yawa Heydar Gains."
"Are you serious?" my voice can't go above a whisper. "You're my mama?"
"I'm your sister! I remember grabbing the back of your neck because you kept trying to get in the kiddie pool and mama said no, that ain't for pups!" Simisola yells at me. "We need to clear up the confusion, mama!"
"We can't do anything, nor do we need to." She looks up at me, she has a face like Ubayd. "I can't walk…"
"let me help you…"
"It's just my spirit…" she shallows. "They put a curse on me…"
"Mama's in constant pain, little sister!" tells Simisola. "It was a long time ago! Growden's family wants to expand! It's like they want a whole state to themselves--"
Ubayd hits the wall, "I cannot stand white people…"
"Ok." says Simisola. She turns back to me. "The Growden Clan and Mable are connected."
"She fucked him…" speaks my mother, I'm just going to accept it without question. She looks so weak, hungry even. I can't take my eyes away.
"The Growden Clan is probably the worst piece of history America doesn't know. And then they try to kidnap Aleigha's daughter for there secret porno. But wait," she raises a finger. "The little girl is gifted so they want her brains and connection to God. But she runs away."
"He got so scared of her being a walking snitch!" Simisola growls. "They tortured her and blamed a prostitute and THEN! Overdosed her on every drug they could!"
"But luckily, Mable was already crazy."
"What?" I say. "Mable was a female child molester, she's been on drugs since was like 16. So when Growden started doing shit, they made a deal and Mable got what she asked for. Painkillers, heroine, crack, lean, mollies--"
"Air fresher!" blurts Simisola. "Mable loves getting high! And Shikki made lean so she could get away from her!"
"That's not all. Growden kicked everyone out the hood. I remember when we shit was normal. We had a little dusty apartment and Growden came into homes, buildings with every visible, able, disable, black, ethic person and killed them. He shot your uncle over the counter. Mass fucking murder…"
"How the fuck does a man do all that?"
"He said that there was a virus in the hood so nobody could leave to decrease the spread."
"Growden is mega son of a bitch!" Simisola howls. "He's white!"
"He's Biracial… ironically." says mama.
"That's a lie." I doubt.
"Little sister just like me. I don't believe that's a nigga either." Ubayd smirks. "Noboedy Growden broke into Aleigha's house. He was framed with selling cocaine." mom furrows. "Aleigha was in the hospital time and time again."
"Because Shikki had asthma! He made that shit look like he went room to room killing--"
"forty five people…" adds Ubayd.
"With cocaine."
Mama sighs heavily, "The white boy is kind of smart…"