As Cece said it, Tori tried to blink away the tv screen in front of her. The same ugly green face revealed.
'It's a quick death; be sure to take your last breath'
"What is that?" Tori's teeth chattered. "I have no idea what is with you. Mom's dead and its a jar of blood on the porch." voiced Cedrica. "Do we call the police?" she put her palms together. "Do we bury her in the backyard?"
"Goddamn!" Tori shook her sister's shoulders. "Go in the house and the rest of her shit."
"Then what?"
"Well I'm not dying"
And another screen came in front of her eyes. She saw herself, or what looked like herself. There was a police car with title Memphis Police across the door. A man had Torielle up against the car. Her eyes were green. She was older and a girl with long red hair behind her standing bewildered. 'Go to jail! Go to jail!'
'I fucking hate you!' Tori attempted to desperately lift off the car door. 'Fuck you!'
'She did it! She broke into the house!' the vision skipped and she was in the car. Torielle looked back through the window. A man stood next to the red haired woman. His arm over her shoulder. He kissed her head.
Tori came back to the present. She gritted her teeth and swung at Cedrica. "Do you have something against me?"
"What the fuck was that for?" Cedrica slapped her fat cheeks. Tori punched her in the lip. Cedrica held her mouth as Tori swung at her left cheek. Cedrica stepped back and grabbed the side of Tori head. She slammed her against the edge of the door frame. "The fuck is wrong with you!"
"Why am I going to jail!" shouted Torielle. "McDonald's robbery!" retorted Cedrica.
"I'm tired of you making fat jokes!" Cedrica ran upstairs and Tori ran after her. She quickly closed the door. "I told you! I can you see you dying!" Torielle yelled through the wood. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Torielle wasn't violent. But also Cedrica had to redefine what that meant. The girls had never been to school. The closest thing to the first boyfriend she ever had was Vijay. Torielle was all talk. She threaten Vijay once saying she was going to cut off his balls.
She was disgusted and after he had helped that one time. "Open the fucking door you skinny bitch!"
"You ain't gon do shit to me."
Torielle blinked, she asked herself. 'Why am I so angry?' "Cece, open the door."
"Fuck no!" she stomped, "Yo fat ass is trying to rob me of the last meats I have!"
"I can't eat bone bitch!" she snarled. A screen came to her. Poke, Westminster, a set of words appeared before. 13134455, "I don't understand…" Torielle shook her head. 13134455 flashed again. "Tori I don't know what's wrong with you but maybe seeing dead people means you're cursed." yelled Cedrica. Torielle grimaced, "No!"
Torielle felt up her arm. The skin at her elbow was tight and dry. She tried to look at her right elbow and saw a glimpse of green shrinking before her.
"Ok, so. We have a dead mother and confusion." Cedrica's voice was comical but she didn't feel like laughing. "There's a jar of blood on the porch."
She looked at her feet and at first she thought it was a screen but something told her it was real. A pair of large green feet like that of an ogre.
"Get the luggage and bring it upstairs." said Cedrica. "Bitch who is you ordering?"
"Two shakes and a chicken leg. Go get the suitcase!"
Torielle rolled her eyes. She went back downstairs to retrieve the suitcase. She made it to the door and dropped to her ass. She saw a man in a white suit with no head but a black cube above his head.
'oh my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on your shoes and stockings for you now. Or perhaps they won't walk the way I want to go'
Poverty-stricken, penniless
They came from a gang
In readiness
Envious, with a lack of love
For anyone but needed it.
Evil. When heated,
Who they mad at
Tired of being treated like Jesus.
The atmosphere waved in her eyes. She heard a voice call out to her and her knees shook. The man stepped out the doorway and pointed at the suitcase. Torielle stepped out the door, still keeping her eyes on the man.
She grabbed the suitcase and stared at him. He put both his hands up, crossed them in a downward motion. He pointed at her and circled where his head should be. "What…?" she gawked at him. He left the porch, he moved slowly. The more she stared at him there was a dim white light around him.
Was that Hatch?
He appeared into a white smoke.
"What the hell…"
A man with no head showed up. She registered that. That wasn't normal.
Torielle went back inside the house and shut the door. To the left of her was the living room. The living room was full of black balloons. A whole new world around her, she heard Davea in the mix of the dark happiness. "Mama?" she called out.
Torielle heard a pop, Davea yelped. "What the fuck?" she yelled. "I bet them damn niggas is in my house." her voice got louder. "If I found a nigga in my shit, imma grab a gun. You already took my goddamn dog with y'all triflin' asses."
She heard another pop. "Where in the fuck did this shit come from--Why the fuck is my house full of fucking balloons!"
Another pop sounded. As the room was decreasing in foolishness. A balloon bopped Torielle in the face. "what the fuck is happening." They all floated just above the floor and some went the ceiling. The ones towards the ceiling were bigger. Tori moved the balloons aside so she could get to the stairs.
Once she could see the stairs, giant black hoppity balls blocked the stairs. All she had to do was move them. She went to the stairs and grabbed one of them. She pulled but the ball was wedged tightly between the rail and wall. "Cece!" she called. "Did you put the balls down here."
"Davea…" she heard a melodic tone speak. "Remember me?"
"What the fuck!" Davea shouted. "Get out. I don't care!"
"You should." said the female voice. "It's Chava."
"Aw fuck. Fuck me and fuck you."
"Where are the girls?" Chava questioned.
"I don't fucking know!" Davea fumed.
"You do."
"No, the fuck I don't. And I don't fucking care."
"Stop being so FUCKING retard."
"Fuck you and fuck the bitches you hang with!"
"You lost his fucking daughter?" Chava voice raised. She calmed down, "We should have sold you but Chauncey spoke for you."
"Fuck that nigga!" Tori kept close to the stairs. She heard a set of footsteps she assumed to be Davea's. "Cedrica is Shiloh's."
"Y'all muthafuckas is crazy any fucking way. That nigga killed that girl and raped her and you expect me to take care of the kids y'all nasty ass bred. That's crazy."
"You sounded intelligent for second." tittered Chava. "Do you like these balloons?"
"What the fuck is this shit?"
"I got them for your funeral."
"I can't die."
"What is happening?" The gunshot was the answer. "Bitch ass nigga!" Davea seethed. "Fuck you. Fuck you!"
"Stop moving. This house is already dingy."
"Fuck you. Fuck this world. Fuck God. Fuck everything." She went on as her neck bled. "Fuck them kids. If I die. Fuck it."
"Shut the fuck up!" Torielle heard gagging and a thud. "We need the fucking girls. Where are they?"
For a moment, it seemed something was telling her to be thankful about the ties she was kicked out of the house. Although she fucking hated it and gained a new sense of suicide and self harm. Who was this woman?
"I don't know!" she gurgled. "I can't die!"
"You can feel pain. Laugh Track." A dark line slithered around her left shoulder. It shaped into a square and many squares started to hover over her. Then came circles, triangles, and diamonds. They were a variety of colors. A square slapped Davea in the face, it took off her left cheek.
"We can't trust you anymore. Plus, you're turning green."
"Fuck!"
"Yes."
A hand slid around to Chava's chest. It was flat like paper and black. A head showed behind her shoulder with colorful gumdrop eyes and a smile made from raisins. Worse of all she heard it giggle.
She held her neck and the same black pair of paper arms touched her legs, stomach, and neck. "Laugh…" Chava rose her gun.
The paper fingers worked their way into Davea's mouth. A head showed and bit her shoulder. She couldn't scream but she did kick as the paper puppet wrapped her body.
"What happened in court? Dareion wants to know."
She inhaled and exhaled. "How did you get caught?" Chava squinted.
"Fuck--"
"Don't say that. How did you get caught?"
"I--Fuck y'all. You know the fucking indian ass nigga."
"Indian? That's a fucking lie." She walked to her side. "Dareion, shot the king."
"Bitch! Goddamn it. The fucking Indian in Brampton! I did what you said. I drowned her."
"And Torielle?"
"I hit the baby with a bat. I don't know what happened after that. That's why I fucking moved!"
Torielle gasped. She felt her forehead. She called it a birthmark and covered it with bangs sometimes. She looked at the stairs and her eyes spread with lack of a door on the wall.
She ran towards the kitchen. "Mama!"
"We got eyes on us now." Chava bent down. "What was the judge's name."
Davea blinked. Chava pulled out a stake from her back pocket. She laid it on Davea chin. "A body for a body."
"Can't take my soul…"
"That's why I have the puppet…" she smiled. The paper puppet slid down Davea's stomach. She felt the puppet's hands cut her throat and she felt something extend inside her. "This is laugh track. He's made out of paper and one of devil things I created. Because I like Origami."
All she could do was look.
"Judge's name."
If only she knew. "I will say this. The Devil Thing is made to absorb. So, If I slide this knife in yo ass. That's it." she looked at her. "This is a stake and as the group second in command…" Davea furrowed. "I performed the ritual. You're a vampire." she pointed the knife. "I also recorded that sex tape. Your kid is in custody. You will not be receiving your child back. But if you must know. That brat was a good one thousand and nine husband dollars."
"What did you do?"
"same thing we've been doing. Collecting bodies for payment and blood. You have maintain a life in order to keep it."
"What is wrong with you people? I mean, what the fuck?" Davea exasperate. "Take over the Ghytto. Pull some zombie shit." she lifted off her feet. "My knees hurt."
"And do what?"
"I don't know, ask Dareion. But the name"
"I don't have a fucking name goddamn"
"Then I'll call you fuckery…"
"Mama!" Torielle cried. In all honesty, she thought if she did a good thing, the good would come back to her. Or… maybe her mother would change her attitude. That was a lot of hope behind that thought. But now it made a little bit of sense.
Torielle looked at the paper puppet. Its head twisted, in a cartoonish voice. It had candy for eyes and its head moved around as if it was looking at her.
It spoke in a broken tone. "Get.Fuck.Out."