"You stupid bitches killed my dog!" Adonijah rants. "All to save a fucking demon. I give you all that you need! I give you somewhere to sleep! Somewhere to hide your ugly asses!"
"That's all you care about!" she argues back. "She's a little girl and you let that fucking thing chew her up!"
"Watch yo fuckin' tone with me, Zanna!"
"Fuck yo old ass bitch!"
An echo reaches me, it makes me shudder. Ferness has my leg and stitches it back to my forelimb. "You ok?" asks Ferness.
I should lie, right? "Why?"
He stares at me with big eyes. He turns to a man with red eyes. "Nobody told you?" he aims at me. I shake my head. Ferness grabs the liquor bottle and pours it over my leg. "She needs a bath." sugguest the man.
Ferness appears startled. "If I stitch it looks like a leg. Kody couldn't stand looking at his missing fingers. I hate that fuckin' thing in the backyard."
"Well, good news. Doran shot the thing."
"That aint a thing!" exclaims Ferness. "Two human--vamp heads. That's a mangled beast!"
"Well shit, it's gone now!"
"Thank Jehovah witnesses!" I chuckle. "That make you laugh? Huh? Pretty girl…"
I smile but not much. Why can't I feel pain? "What was that?"
"Huh--Oh, you mean the mutt?"
"Yea…"
The man sighs, "First, let me say this. My name is Mundo." he puts his hand over his chest. "I used to be a mechanic, go to church, until I got shot via drive by."
"I'm sorry…"
"Now, that thing!" he gestures to the backdoor. "Is a thing, we will never speak of. What's important is that you alive and the thing gone!"
"True but she deserves the truth…" adds Ferness. Mundo rolls his neck, "Ferness," he wipes the corners of his mouth. "Did you wipe the shit from the crack of yo ass today?"
"Yes." he glares at him. "Did you suck my dick this morning? NOPE!"
I look at my leg. That thing really took about three fingers off my leg below the knee. It was dull. I got dirt all over my face and I'm anesthesiac. "Cedrica? Can I call you Cece?"
"Yeah…" I lift my shoulders. "That thing used to be somebody."
"Somebody?"
"This here is a church. Bullshit church but a church, nonetheless." Ferness puts his bandana over the stitch. "Until I can get the necessary insurance. You good for now."
"Thanks…" I hate how shook I am. I should be loud. I should brag. I'm a bully at school… or I was.
"Is Ferness your real name?"
"Some call me Felix but that's stupid. How the fuck you get Felix out a burner?" I hold back a laugh with my cheeks puffed out. "How did you get here?" he brings into question.
"Blood people…"
He sulks, "Honey, the bloods and the crips don't exist no more."
"No! Not gang bangers. I mean, like, people made out of blood." Ferness quirks a brow. "I live in Canada."
"You came across the Stake Line. You know why they call it that?"
"No."
"That's where Dracula died. Not the real Dracula, I mean Old Man Silence. Military cornered him on foot and rammed sticks in his ass. He never forgot."
"Cool…"
"CHILD!"
"I mean…"
Ferness sits with himself and looks at me in disbelief. "Blood people? The church called you over?" Mundo eyes sternly. "So, you are the antichrist…"
"I guess." my words start to rush. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do as the antichrist. I woke up in the morning and my mama--grandma or something didn't pay the fuckin' bill so we had no lights and Torielle--"
"Wait!" Mundo stops me. "Torielle?" he looks at Ferness. "Ain't that yo niece?"
"Yeah… she can't know Torielle. She dead. She got shot."
"Not the same Tori then. My sister Tori fat!" I shouted. "Torielle is dead. My niece that is." Ferness's face turns grey. "She was found at the family reunion and I had been drinking. I…"
"Slow down Fern…"
His eyes cast downward. "You ever think how long it's been since we went to church?"
"To be honest I think about death more! Ain't time in it to think!" chimes in somebody. Ferness bends his neck, "Adley!"
"Yeah!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
He faces me, "It's a long story. And what you telling me is sickening." he furrows. I didn't do anything. My feelings buckle under pressure. "I saw Tori get put in the truck…"
"It's happening again…" he mutters. "Who?"
"I--I, I don't know. A big black guy…" I stutter. I hate myself. I feel feeble, but it's ok. I'm still young, it happens. But I feel sick to my stomach. I really cried.
"Monty is one sick man. How old is he?"
"Mentally seven. Shit, I don't know."
"I would just like to add. I don't support the action what so ever but if the nigga seven in the mind. He got problems of his own--"
"ADLEY!" warns Ferness. "Sweetie did he do anything to you?" I shake my head. "I was trying to get Tori out."
"What does your sister look like?" asks Mundo. "She's brown complexed. I always say she looks like a mini biggie smalls. Sometimes she put her hair into a braid and she wears overalls. Tori is weird, she wears mix-match shoes." I explain. "Is she stupid?" Mundo folds his arms. "No but she changed after we moved from the apartments. I didn't know and something, the wall? Somebody, said she got…" my words slow down. "Molested?"
"Tori got molested?" I nod. "By who?"
"Um, we was living next to this… indian."
"Indian?"
"Does he look like Chain honey? You know him?"
"No…" I look at my leg. That shit is really gone. "Now what to do?" inquires Mundo. "We got a kid in a farm and half a fuckin' leg. Luckily we can't go to jail."
"Whose her?" I point at woman still arguing with Adonijah. "That's Zanna Wright. She's…"
Mundo finishes, "A hoe."
"Munny fuck yo ass to death. I ain't a hoe!"
"Bite me you vampiric skank!"
"You wasn't complaining when you was sucking my tail!" Excuse me…