"Shiloh and Dareion tested it and this upset the realm. You have died," his voice peaked, "at least 35 times."
"I'm alive."
"You are not! You see the Ghytto doesn't have immortality but also we can't let a woman sit her crusty ass on the seat. A woman in power is like letting a bald headed bitch fuck a nigga sideways."
Cedrica rose a brow.
"Exactly, it's strange."
"What does this have to do with me?" She really didn't understand. What she understood was, she had a dad whose name was Dareion. Her mother was Shiloh but who was Davea? "I don't know Shiloh."
"I know. Torielle was born in sin, infidelity."
"What about Jesus dying on the cross and all that bullshit. That's what my mama--"
"Grandmother…" Hatch loathed. The mannequin's head change to Davea's wrinkled brown face. "This woman is a grandmother. She shouldn't be."
"Granny…?"
"I'm your uncle…"
She gazed at him, "So?"
"I raped your mother…"
Cedrica gasped. "What?"
"Shiloh's a terrible witch. I fucked my sister and just to be mean because I can't fucking stand the pessimist." The mannequin changed to Shiloh's face. "You are not my daughter. My son is dead… been dead. But thanks to a great promising ancestry. I see him, but he needs a body. If you get what I'm saying…"
She stood still. "I'm a girl." she squinted. "You could be a real nigga. I already have the body for you."
"No."
"Yes."
"No. Fuck no." she shook her head. "Where's my mother?"
"Tryin to hide from me." he stepped towards Cedrica. He lifted up her chin, "Just think she's dead. She's a slut and every female wants a mini."
She snatched her head back. "Who the fuck are you?"
"You're uncle. So… Keywon would be a cousin. It's fine and besides, the soul is separate from the body." The mannequin was a white bust with two large human eyes. He looked up and down; left and right erratically. "Cedrica, I need you."
"So!" she stepped back further and further. "I don't know you!"
"That ritual really work." the bust smiled, a set of gruesome yellow teeth. "Remember… little girls are spoiled…"
She bolted back to the entrance but the hallways radiated and shifted. She stopped on her heels. There was a path to the front door that was replaced by a wall. She went left, then down a zigzag hallway. The path was an intersection. Cedrica's breath hitched, she rushed down the right lane.
'What the fuck is happening!' she screamed inside her head.
"Cece…" a tall beast crawled on the side of the walls. It landed on the black floor, "Cece!"
She didn't turn back and came to a room with a sofa on the ceiling and a woman pacing back and forth. Cedrica's eyes swelled with tears and a great urge to vomit took her.
She ran down a hall with pictures of a black fanged man. His lips moved. She was stuck in a loop. A black man in a chair wearing a black suit, his hair wavy and cascading down his shoulders.
A black man with his mouth open, licking his fangs. His eyes shimmered a yellow light.
A black man in a black suit then a red one and a yellow one. He reached for Cedrica's unbroken sprint went by the devil's fingers.
A black man with dreads lashing out behind him. The Obayifo crawled on the walls again snapping it's teeth. She screamed. Her vision moved side to side. A door appeared, a bright light shined and disappeared again.
"Tori!"
She heard a slamming door and a scream in the background. Her legs were burning. "Tori!" her throat hurt. The Obayifo swiped at her ankles, Cedrica's nose bled as she came down.
Her body burned.
.
.
.
When she woke up she didn't feel anything. She was back in the house. Cedrica was by the bed and the bathroom door was open. That's right, she drank a jar of blood.
She looked at her body. Everything looked normal until she saw her skin.
Her arms were cut up towards the elbow. "oops."
Cedrica got up and turned around, her mouth dropped a giant man had a gun on Torielle. "Tori!" He shot her, her body limp. She ran to Tori but she went right through her. "Tori!"
He picked her up like luggage. "Where are you taking her!" Cedrica followed after, going down the stairs and out the door. There a black 1970s Dodge Challenger was in front of the home. "Don't worry baby girl. I'll pick you back together…"
"Nigga! Give me back my sister!" She cried. Cedrica whipped round to the truck of the car. "What the fuck!" She watched the man put her sister in the truck. "I'll get back what was taken from you. Like a born again virgin."
"Noo!" Cedrica fought with the truck lock. She thought for a moment she could pry it open. "Tori!" she choked on sadness. The car drove off, leaving her to follow behind it. "Torielle!"
Cedrica bent to the floor as she glimpsed at the car disappearing.
.
.
.
Her mother slammed the pot on the stove. "You stupid motherfucker!"
Shiloh hugged herself, "Mama listen!"
"Fuck you!" Davea spat. "After all the motherfucking shit I do for you! Yo stupid retarded fucking ass is pregnant?"
"Mama!"
"You getting an abortion!"
"I want this baby, you won't let me have anything!" Shiloh uttered. "I put a fucking roof over yo head, didn't I! You grateful bitch!"
"I fucking hate you!" Her eyes glowed. "You always putting me fucking second!"
"And! You don't do anything fucking for me! Useless!"
"I'm keeping them!"
"Not in my motherfucking house you ain't!" She snatched the broomstick from the corner of the kitchen and marched to her daughter.
Davea swung the broom at Shiloh's head. "Mama!"
"BRICK!" the word printed on the broom. Shiloh turned her back to the broom.
Her mother was unreasonable. This was an everyday thing. She used to think her mother was on drugs but maybe it was her spirit.
Yes, she was pregnant but they lived in the Hood apart from Louisiana. She listened to her mother go on and on about the coven. She didn't want to give the child to the coven.
Davea literally took everything from her. This was her 5th child. She met Dareion and it felt different. He had hepatitis. He explained to her that now he had cancer in the liver.
"I don't know what death is like…" Dareion was dark-skinned with vivid brown eyes. Most of her friends said he was ugly, maybe she enjoyed ugly people. Chauncey was far too pretty. At least she got the chance to suck his dick.
That was all she could do. But Dareion, she went all the way. This was Dareion's baby and Davea once again wouldn't let her carry.
The coven, the coven.
She was a witch's daughter and if she was pregnant in the coven. Well that was a disgrace and lived in Locucts.
"Death isn't that bad. Souls in this world don't live forever unless we get a body." she told him. He leaned on his hands. "What about you?"
"Me?"
"Are you a soul?"
"Kinda… ascension works differently for witches. Some are alive, some bounce in between."
"What are you?"
"Hmm… bouncing. I killed myself when I was six."
"Why" Dareion squinted. "You shouldn't do that." he took her arm and brought it to him. "I was hurt. My brother…" Shiloh inhaled.
Dareion's lips parted. "You're pretty."
Shiloh turned to him, "Thank you."
Dareion looked at her knees and he thought, what did her panties look like. "what color underwear you wear?"
"Huh?"
"Just curious." he shrugged, he was technically dying. Shiloh looked to the side. "Uh, black."
"Do you wear white?"
"Sometimes."
"Oh… sorry." he looked away. "what a strange question to ask." she laughed it off. "I just… sorry. I'm scared of death."
"It's not that bad. When I first day, my breath stopped and my vision faded."
His eyes widen, and he listened to her. "Let's say you get shot in the head. It's total blackness."
He was enthralled. "Your body just relaxes, you might feel pain after but it quickly leaves you. You show up… somewhere."
"Scary…" he smirked. "Me personally," he placed her hand on her chest. "I like death. Like… death itself, is a mystery."
Dareion squinted. "Nobody understands but like… death is crazy. Everything just stops, it's an experience to die and I like it."
"You like dying?"
"Yeah, plus you can come back."
"But you told me immortality isn't real?"
"True but, you can come back. I know you can."
He looked at his toes then her fingers. "Have you ever killed somebody?"
"No, do you want to?"
"I hate this white bitch that goes here. Goldielocks or something?"
Shiloh gasped, "I hate her too. She's such a bitch just because her mother is head witch."
"She's the infamous bear witch right?"
"It doesn't matter." Shiloh rolled her eyes. "Godelieve?"
"That."
"ugh…" Shiloh pouted. "I don't have anything against white people."
"I hate white people. I'm adopted by white people."
"Who?"
"Uh… Heat Growden."
"The slave owners?"
"Yeah…" he sighed. "He's not racist and he has a black girlfriend."
"That doesn't matter but still. I don't have anything against white people. One of my kids was half asian and my step son was arabnese."
"Arabnese?"
"He was mixed…"
"Like Asian and Arab?"
"His mama was Polynesian. He would call himself arabnese."
"Damn…"
.
.
.
Shiloh pulled her hair and swung her into the sink. Godelieve teared up, Shiloh delivered a kick to the stomach making her cough. Dareion busted her behind the head, he kicked her to her side and uppercut her chin. Shiloh belted her face with fist, targeting her eyes.
"Stop!" yelled Godelieve. "Give me the keys to the safe house!"
"I don't have it!" she coward. "I know the highest witch of the coven has the fucking keys to the ballroom."
"You can't fucking go there!"
"Who has the keys?" Dareion pelted her with punches. He picked her up by her hair. Dareion threw her into the bathroom stall. "What the fuck are you doing!" she said in breathes.
Shiloh blocked the stall door. She crossed her arms, "I wanna be head witch."
"I not head witch!"
"What are you!"
"I'm training!"
"You could take her body. That's how the world works." said Dareion. Shiloh bore over her shoulder. "I could. She ain't got breast tho."
"Do you know the ritual?"
She rushed at Godelieve, forcing her head in the toilet and using her foot at the back of her head. "I need Aleigha…"
"Where is he?"
Shiloh stomped on her head. "Come flush…"