I have teeth in my legs and hands in my hair. She's fat and clenching my clothes. My nose is bleeding. Claws scratch my back. Somebody jumps on me naked. His teeth piece my neck sloppily.
My back hurts.
I'm put on my back and dragged across the dirt. "LET ME GO!" This vampire is lengthy with fangs coming out of his top lip. There is so much yelling in gibberish.
"Fei cha messa ge!" they howl in response. Kelli-til!"
"Kelli-til!" they rejoice. "Kelli-til! Kelli-til!"
What are they saying?
"Wa-wa al!" I drag a can with me. Why is there so much fucking trash underground? Where is this fucking african, jiggaboo taking me!
It get's darker, then, there is light, again darkness. In the glimpse of light, the roof is metal and a blast of orange takes the roof. Is there a fire? Goddamn it where am I? The obayifo stops dragging me and a woman with a wrinkled face looks down at me. "Herdi-Herdi" she looks at them. "Lig!" a male yells.
"Lig?" she seems upset. "Ki-Kii se die. Hol wada wetanlu."
"Wetanlu?"
What the fuck is that! Her gaze drops, "Heaven."
.
.
.
I'm tied up again. Just kill me. I'm covered in dirt and sitting in a metal house with mattresses on the floor and on the wall. "My name is Bo-Me Shi-Donna. Chava knows me."
"Ok…" I'm so fucking done. "I'm not her child. I just want my body back…" her voice is low. "I don't want you…"
"Why?" I'm insulted. "I'm sexy."
The walls shake at her voice level. "YOU MAKE ME SICK!" the very words slap me in the face. "I am Temti-Xi-Sson's wife."
I just sit there. "I want a pretty body." she touches herself. She stands up and walks to me sitting on the floor. Bo-Me kicks me. "You are stupid."
"Bitch! Ok…" it doesn't matter anymore. "Ok…"
"You are the antichrist, no?"
"I guess." she kicks me again. I sneer, "Yes…" I grit my teeth. "You are…" her eyes widen. "I want…" she looks to the ceiling. "I want to be… blacker."
Get paint? "I hear you."
"Then my ask me?"
"I will breed you…"
"No you won't." my lip jerks. "It is easy to deny me. But fight me?" she wags her finger. "Eat ass." I retort.
Bo-Me smiles. "I already do…"
"What are y'all doing down here!"
"She is a queen. She said if we did it, we would be immortal."
"Drugs?"
"Yes!"
"NO!"
"You have to fight it!" she states. "You have to fight it and when you fight it. You can build a resistance to it. Your immune system gets stronger and stronger."
"She told you that!"
"Yes…"
"That's a damn lie." I drink vampire blood. I have a low immunity. "To complete the immortality, you must eat!" she mimic holding a fork and scooping up food.
Bo-Me holds her stomach. "You give birth, you eat, and do it again."
"YOU NEED SUNLIGHT!"
"I was hit by a car… twice. I'm tired of dying!"
"You alive!" I shout. "You are alive!"
"I AM DEAD!" the words blast me in the face. "I AM DYING RIGHT NOW!"
How? "I WOKE UP DEAD!" she starts crying. She's hyperventilating, thumping her chest. "I can't breathe…"
"Calm down!"
"I CAN'T!" words slap my face again. "I AM DYING! I HAVE NOBODY!"
LORD!
"But you…" she walks backwards from me. "You can be somebody."
"I am me. I am me and only me; that is who I want to be. WHAT THE FUCK!"
"I will give your body up."
"You ain't right!"
"Be mine or his."
"His?"
"A vessal."
"A vessal?"
"We want to go to school…" she smiles. "That's where life begins."
"Kindergarten…"
"School is where you learn."
"Therapy is where you get help--" she slaps spit out my mouth. "Therapy doesn't want to help. Therapy wants…" she stares into space. "Therapy doesn't let you get high. I wanna be high…"
LORD!
"I wanna be up there with her." she point's at the roof and lifts her head. "Wubo-bono O-Gi-Ga"
"What are you saying?"
"It doesn't matter. Language is made up; all language is made up. This is the tongue, Besujia taught us."
"Besujia?" a zap goes through my head. "Larryn Tash."
A vision. I remember that… but it didn't happen. The woman that came through the backdoor of the church. "Rei-fel O'ku Aato!" she puts her arms out. "Ijeno."
"Lord, shut the fuck up…" she kicks me. She hits me with her fist. She grabs my hair and keeps punching my cheek until I bleed.
.
.
.
"I know nobody wants to hear me but I'm finna talk."
"Speak, Chain."
"I wanna leave!" Changany shouted on the bridge. "Where is my fucking giant ass son?"
"I can't sense Aleigha anywhere." Hannielle hovered towards Changany. "He's always running off ."
"His daughter is cuffed somewhere. Of course the nigga is gon turn into a dragon."
"Well I didn't raise him to do that."
"Goddamn it Honey. Who the fuck taught a dragon?" exasperated Changany. "That's what I mean. Aleigha can hold his anger."
"Ugh, woman."
"I honestly forgot about a lot of shit…" said Chere. "I hate to be that old ass nigga. But I think I have a son."
"You do…" Changany said matter a factly. "Like you really do."
"Another one… I can't believe I forgot about my other son." said Chere. "That's Iarius's father… my first child. I had with… uh…" he floated away. "I hate grass…"
"Daddy!" Seign called. "Why do I hate grass? My mind is gone like paper bills. Let me think," he mumbled to himself. "Two plus two is four. I know that without fingers. Two plus one is three and three--cheese. I do like cheese." he told himself. He lost track of wher ehe was going. "Ham, cheese, bacon, scallions--scallions. I love scallions. My name is Chaos--no…"
"Pop!" Seign followed. "Is yo soul acting up again? Memory?"
"Scallions! My boy--Goddamn!" Chere grew red. "Goddamn! Goddamn!"
"Pop, I'm your son!"
"Scallions! Fuck!" he moved away from Seign. "Fuck! Scallions!"
"Why do you keep saying scallions--"
"My head hurt!"
"We are souls, daddy!"
"Scallions!"
"Pop!"
"Purple scallions!"
"scallions are green--"
"Shut the fuck up, I gotta go to the dentist and get that prescription for scallions--FUCK! I can't get away from it!"
"Pop please, calm down."
"I got the pills from the pharmacy and I took a pill. I took the pill--YOU HAVE A BROTHER!"
Seign sighed. If he had a body, he would cry. "Chauncey--"
"NO GODDAMN IT, I HAVE ANOTHER SON! GOT!"
"You got another son?" his tone quiet. "so you don't want me?"
"WHAT!" his soul shaped into a lion. He laid on his stomach. "What's wrong with you?"
"Nothing…"
"Gotti…Gotti… you said it…"
"Said what?"
"Got… something about a case."
"A case…?" Seign's soul shaped into a tiger. "What case?"
.
.
.
I'm tired of being on this stupid bridge.
I should summon a guard and get out. If I find Anubis, I'm finna make a bet with death. Or which ever fucking reaper.
This should be The Tombs of Tunt Circle. It's just another section from Shulik Point. The ground here is different, it's red flowers gnarled into balls sprouting from the sand.
The flowers are pushed by the invisible wind some changing to blue. A dead ball passes me. It's tangled veins gray.
I want something here, and I can't find the path. Where is Siskin Gitto? My soul is limited while on the bridge, I hate that. Whatever magic I can use isn't a lot.
"Blow…" I mutter. The sand slides but no road.
I float pass Kenham Residence. It's just dead, torn down four story home. It's in complete shambles with the skeletons still in it. The left side of the house is out the ground while the right side is buried. I think about it for a minute, I think about it, and I decide against it.
If another memory comes to me I'll split in two. When I went to that house and spoke to that woman. I didn't know she was using O'Liga's face. I have no idea where she.
Who the hell was in the basement with me?
I keep using magic on the sand, still no street. Still flowers rolling to nowhere.
I pass a street sign, it's buried. "Maybe I'm too old for this now?" I speak and sand sways. My soul get's bigger. It glows and the street sign comes up from the earth. "But which direction?" I twirl it and it's graffiti on the back. 'SLOTH'
"Sloth…" that's a sin. Sloth is laziness. I don't get it. I'm old as dirt… that's what my baby would say. At least don't look my daddy which cracks down my damn face.
Sun whore…
It was faced down and an arrow pointed right. What if-- Go down then right.
SLOTH… something slow.
It takes me hours. Feels like days. There's a part of Tunt Circle that levels down and the red flowers stop showing up and turns to grass.
Dead grass but grass nonetheless.
In the distance is a gravestone protruding out the ground. I go near it for a hand to slap the air. My soul shapes, my dreads are down to my heels and over my face.
"My fucking God, I've been waiting for a nigga like you to show up." the corpes lifts from the dirt.n "You wouldn't be Carl would you?" he asks half stuck in the dirt. "Fuck no."
"Wait a minute, let me get my soul right real quick." His boney ass escapes and stands up. He has one pink eye in the right eye socket. He jabs his finger my way, "Ok." he bends his back. "Is you that nigga that raped me?"
"What?"
"Did you rape me?"
"what's your name?"
"You know a nigga with the last name Starks? I followed your daughter?"
My eyes get heated. "Oh… that nigga."
"You raped me."
"Don't care. I'm happy."
"You sick!" he fumes. "I didn't go to heaven, hell, or shit--"
"Aw, you left the good part about me raping your ass in the toilet, WHERE YOU FOLLOWED MY CHILD!"
He waves his hand in front of his face, "Forget, I needed dick in my ass."
"Does your useless ass know where Siskin Gitto is?"
"The Street?" he thinks. "You betta not lie either…"
"I'm dead…" he says. "I got necrophilia." I said.
"Ok, Ok. You trying to find the Puzzle Man?" his soul switches to the other eye. "Puzzle Man right down the woods." he gestures behind him. "So down those big tall grasses there… that's Petaline Thicket. You go through the thicket and it smell like death. You gon come to a fork in the road and that's the trick. Don't go down either road."
"Don't take neither road?"
"Don't! Head straight and you gon find Anburora."
"An-bora?"
"Some shit like that. When you in Bora, you need to look for a hut in the swamp area, it ain't got no name."
.
.
.
I followed the directions given to me and go through the thicket. It does smell like death. He didn't mention the dead bodies hanging from tree up high. Some have fallen in the mucky waters.
In Anburora, I stepped on a gator. I jolt at large jaws ready to maul men. I create distance and grab it's tall from behind. It begins to thrash, hissing it's annoyance.
I drag it between my legs, grab the foot, and hoist it sliding my hand across it's side. I throw him away from me and continue on.
When I see the hut, I see it from the back and round it to see beads in front of the opening where the door should be.
I knock on the side of the house. There is a man on a large bed of hay sleeping. "Hey!"
He sits up startled, "The fuck…" he sniffs. "Goddamn y'all niggas is bothersome."
"You the Puzzle Man?"
"Yeah…" he faces the door. He lifts off the bed with his kneesn, he's bow legged. "You a vamp?"
"My mama Jamaican."
"So you psychotic?"
I growl. "I'm respectful about it."
"What you want?" he comes to the door. "I want off the bridge."
"Oh?" This man has four big eyes. "My mother was a spider."
"Can you or not?"
"I a trade from you." he pokes my chest. "Give me something golden." he marks a cross on my skin.
"My soul is mine."
"I'm open to rent." he smirks showing off his spider teeth. "What's good to you?"
"Nothing."
"Shikki's here…"
My eyes grow hot again. "Calm down. Do me something and I'll tell you fact and fiction."
"Give me facts."
"Give me something gold…"
I heave. "What the fuck do you want?"
"A home."