The stairs I took made it to the middle of the next floor. I paced to my own statue. I picked myself up and looked at the bottom.
Mokiri Shaila Gains.
My middle name is Pretty. Mokiri Pretty Gains. I was a chubby kid. Why am I up here? Then maybe… that means… Daddy up here?
"Mokiri!"
Daisy and Lola caught up to me. "I bet you saw yo self." said Daisy.
"I did." I wiped my nose with my sleeve. "Why am I up here?"
"They blew up the hideout." said Lola.
"I said we hate Hadi."
Who is my mama? Like I know her first name. I don't anything else. She was on drugs, daddy hit her, I have a brother and a sister. My daddy is dead and I'm lost.
"Was Mama strange?" I faced the statue of Too Short. These don't have a death date. Are they dead? Or dead dead? "Hadi knew us in church. She wanted to leave behind islam because her parents put so much strain on it. If it wasm't for her being a rebel. You wouldn't be born."
"What about Simisola?" I keep looking at Too Short. "Blood." they both say. "Ubayd?"
"Half." I turn. "Are you serious?" I gawk. "I saw him all hugged up with a bitch! He's my half brother?"
"Vampires…" Lola speaks slowly. "Leave a baby on the doorstep."
"What that mean?" I feel some type of way. "It means, Hadi is tied with Growden. They left a baby on Yawa'a door and the baby ain't his. That little nigga is groomed and Aleigha knew." Daisy marches to me. She pulls my shoulder. "You are not adopted!"
"Ubayd is or may be Saint John son." says Lola but Daisy corrects her. "we don't who the daddy is!"
"Was my daddy a rapper?"
Daisy freezes. "He was…" she takes in a deep breath.
"Who?"
"Let's go!"
"Tell me!" she pulls my arm. "Let's fucking go!"
"You won't even fucking tell me!"
Daisy snaps baring her teeth into a sneer. "You'll see if we climb!" She looks back at her daughter. "And you better not say shit!"
.
.
.
The next floor didn't have anything. On the walls and stands on this level were groups, duos, and the unaccomplished. The cave split into two and the right and the left were different. The left side had a fish tank and some of the fish were dead. There was a koi and a shark swimming with seahorse, guppies, and goldfish. "Aw!" Lola frowned, "Mama!" she called. "Leonard is gone!"
"Who is Leonard?"
"There used to be a fat star fish stuck to the glass and he would fight with the clams."
"Why?"
"He doesn't like Kevin."
"Who?"
Daisy approaches from behind. "There's a picture of 2Pac all scratched up on the other side." she puts her hand on the glass and I look at the shark stop swimming. The Koi pokes its side and swims against him.
The Koi beats the shark to move but he doesn't. Daisy goes behind the tank and pulls out a gun. "Mama what are you doing?"
"The floor is wet as hell I think I know what broke Nas!"
"What?" Daisy looks around the room, shouting a few words. She goes back to the other side. "It's a fucking mermaid in the mountain!"
I go behind the tank at the wet path created. I even follow it to find the hand prints, wet. "There was a mermaid in the tank?" I look around. "But it's too small."
"I don't sense anything." Lola looks at the ceiling, spinning. "I don't see anything."
"We gotta check the next floor!" As they head to the stairs, I don't see a statue. It's just pictures on this floor. On the right side of the cave. It's a crooked frame that's empty. A whole picture is missing.
My body jolts hearing a gun. I run upstairs and Sister Sin is thrown to the back wall as I come up. "Daisy!" I yell.
I hear Lola scream and my head swishes to this deformed mermaid with four arms, four eyes; two where they should be and the two on her cheeks. "Wachawi hawafai!"
The mermaid's body is long. She licks Lola and throws her to the side. "Nafsi yako ni mbili kama siri zako!"
"You leave my baby alone!" Daisy shouts reloading and fires off a shot that hit but does nothing to her large frame. The tail dissolves into legs.
This bitch can walk. She holds up the ceiling and sticks her right hand down her own throat. "MAMA!"
"CUT!" Daisy screams and the word slices across the mermaid's face. "Umenitoa damu! Naweza kunionja!"
I'm supposed to be a witch! I'm a dog! I can't do anything!
"Nitakuzamisha!" the mermaid does the action again but it's not just watering the pours out. Bones float in the mass of fluid. It quickly covers my knees. The mermaid snatches Lola and shifts into a mermaid again. "Utakuwa mzima." the mermaid's eyes expand and buries itself into the flood it created. "LOLA!" Daisy cries.
I can do something. I have to do something. I know what to do!
As the water lifts and takes its own. This is a different liquid. I hold the rocks on the wall. I didn't study!
"LOLA!"
I suck in my breath and dive under. I catch a bubble moving under the flood. I have to swim to get there. I put my back against the wall, bring my feet up, and bounce off it.
I know to swim!
The water itself strikes me in the cheek, pushing me back. I see the bubble move and go up the stairs.
I can't make it! I'm pushed back. The water has a mind of it's own.
I'm against the rocks again. I'm getting belted by fluid. My stomach, my face, It tries to pry my lips open to drown me.
I don't let the water take me, but a golden pot does.