by Nzondi
“Xo! Xo,” Lamp called.
“Jinni!” I screamed. “Yes. That’s her name. I told you. She could’ve been anything she wanted to—what, what’s that—what’s happening?”
Something draped over my shoulders, and I shuddered, opening my eyes. It was Lamp!
“You’re shivering,” she said. “Here, let me help you up.”
I looked up at her, and I swear, for a moment. I didn’t know who she was, or why she was touching me. Her hair was now wet, and part of her clothes. There was sadness in her eyes like a priest who had lost his faith, like a dog who had learned being mistreated was a daily part of life.
I recoiled and wanted to cover my nakedness, looking down, expecting to see blood. I was covered with a large white towel, not Jini’s blood.
It seemed so real.
Lamp gently guided me out of the shower. The water from the shower continued to run. I don’t even know how, but somehow, I ended up leaning against the bathroom sink, shivering. Lamp held me, her arms comforting me like a warm blanket. I was cold. So cold.
Why was it so cold?
“It’s going to be all right,” she said.
“I don’t know what got into me,” I said, my lips quivering with fear.
I don’t know why I was afraid, I just was, and I didn’t know how to make the feeling subside.
“Shh,” Lamp said. “That…was guilt leaving your body.”
“I was the one who did it. I killed—”
“Shh,” she said, and placed her fingers against my lips. “You hurt me, and I may never forgive you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t forgive yourself.”
I wanted to thank her.
Can she forgive me?
She was there when I needed her most. Knowing that brought to surface something so confused, but so sure, at the same time. I kissed her finger. And I kissed it again, this time opening my mouth, and letting a sliver of her skin into my mouth.
“Whoa,” she said, and stepped back. “What are you doing?”
There was such horror in her eyes, I froze, scared, embarrassed, humiliated. My towel fell, and there I was, standing in front of her, nude. Part of my body was still wet from the shower. The anger in her face softened. Her mouth opened slightly. I saw her eyes fight not to look, but they lost the battle. Lamp rushed me, slamming me against the side wall of the bathroom. I gasped and before I could close my mouth, she bit my bottom lip.
“This is…wrong,” I said.
The words had barely escaped my mouth before her lips were on my neck, sucking. I inhaled abruptly, and she bit hard, breaking my skin.
Lamp drank my blood. And it was good.
I cradled my face on her shoulder, and let the darkness swallow me.
18
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The lock on the door clicked, and the door opened. I opened my eyes. I’d fallen asleep. Lamp was in the other twin bed, snoring.
Someone just came into the cabin!
I jumped up and grabbed the first piece of clothing I found on the floor. My shirt, and then I slipped into my jeans, switching my hips until the damn things snuggled over my curves. I went out into the living room. Kofi was standing there, his face, emotionless.
“I knew you’d make it,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
He turned around toward the door. His face softened, and his lips curled into a slight smile. Lamp walked out, unapologetic in her jeans and a bra, yawning and traded glances with me.
“How’d you find us, Kofi?” she asked.
“Wait,” he said. “Grunt didn’t explain everything to you?”
We didn’t answer.
Kofi’s smile faded. “I saw the wrecked jeep outside. What happened?”
Dad came out of the room. “Major Grunt saved my life, son,” he said.
“Who are you?” Kofi said, and drew his gun.
“Kof, wait,” I said.
“Grunt didn’t tell me we’d be having company, Feeni. Who is this man?”
I stepped in front of his gun with my hands up. “He’s my father.”
“I don’t understand. How could that be? And where is Grunt?”
I placed my hand on his arm and lowered the gun. “He—”
“He what, Feeni? Where-Where is he?” Kofi asked.
“Son, he’s no longer with us,” Dad said.
“What?”
“He’s dead,” Lamp said.
“Damn, can you tone it down, just a little,” I said to her.
“Oh no,” Kofi said. “That can’t be! I—I looked! I didn’t see a body by that jeep.”
“That’s because when we crashed, he jumped out of the car and ran up the hills, making the dholes follow him up there, and diverting their attention away from us,” Lamp said.
Distressed, Kofi sat down a chair by the front door. “Now what? I was supposed to meet him here. He gave me a key and told me he’d explain what to do when I got here. This is all a big mess.”
“What exactly does that mean?” Lamp said.
Kofi shot a confused look at her. “You smell different.”
Dad’s eyes sparkled with pleasant surprise. “Your deductions are very good, young man,” he said, and stepped toward Lamp. He sniffed in the air. “You’re—you’re no longer, human.”
“How’s that possible?” Kofi asked.
Dad ignored his question, placing his hands on Lamp’s shoulders. “How are you?”
“I feel like shit,” she said. “I was trying to get some sleep, but Xo was snoring like the Battle of Adwa was going on in her throat.”
“You think I’m the one who snores?” I asked.
“Like a Pekingese with sleep apnea,” she said, making my father erupt into laughter.
“Seriously though,” she said. “Everything looks clearer, sounds are excruciatingly intensified, and basically all of my senses are on overload. So yeah, I have a migraine that would make Shango call in sick.”
“Only temporary,” Dad said. “You’ll soon not only get used to it, but you and Feeni will learn how to use your senses like specialized weapons.”
Lamp cocked her head to the side. “Damn, really?”
“Yes. First, you will go through a sort of gestation period during which you will consume a tremendous amount of blood.”
“Won’t I get sick from doing that?” Lamp asked.
“No you won’t get sick from over drinking,” Dad said. “When my daughter turned you, your red blood cells went from circular to oval in shape. Therefore the molar concentration of the blood will allow your stomach to have the osmotic pressure to absorb more fluid without rupture?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Lamp said. “I’m the detective remember. Not the scientist.”
“I get what he’s saying,” I said. “In a nutshell, we’re like camels. We can drink a helluva lot of blood if we want to, and the oval blood cells make it so that we don’t bloat like a whale.”
Dad nodded. “As I was saying, yes, you can go long periods of time between feedings if you stock up every once in a while.”
“How do you even know about any of this?” I said. “As far as I know, Lamp is the first person to ever turn. We’re born enhanced humans like queens in a beehive, we’re not made.”
“Wait,” Kofi said. “You don’t believe that load of hyena crap that we were born like this, do you?”
I stuttered. “Well—well, we were…were we?”
Kofi and my father traded glances.
“We’ve both had an emotional day, so far,” Dad said. “Let’s not spoil it with things that no longer matter. Just know that on occasion, there may be times when you have to feed off of a human. When you do feed, make sure you don’t literally drain a human. That would be murder.”
Kofi said, “We don’t kill in hunger. Only psychopaths murder humans for blood. That’s why certain enhanced human laws were put into effect to prevent our kind from developing Blood Lust Syndrome,
or BLS, and becoming blood addicts. Once that happens, kidnapping humans always come next because donors never volunteer for long no matter how much they’re paid.”
“Except for endorphin junkies,” Dad said.
“Well, yes, of course,” Kofi said.
“It’s a bit much to swallow,” Lamp said.
Kofi said, “School time’s over. Now, will someone please clue me in as to what is going on, here?”
Lamp moved past my father and asked Kofi, “Did you and Grunt kill my sister?”
“That’s a pretty hefty accusation,” Dad said. “What grounds do you have to ask such a question?”
Kofi stood. “Because, sir. Grunt and I messed up.”
“What are you saying?” I asked. “You killed Jinni?”
“No, God no! But when you—” He looked at me and stopped mid-sentence. “When Grunt accidentally hit her while he was driving. We didn’t know that she was already dead.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Dad said. “What? She was a zombie and limped across the street and you hit her?”
“No, she was already in the street,” Kofi said. “I mean, on the ground, and we didn’t—”
“Stop!” I said. “Just stop, Kofi. You’re making it worse. No more lying, okay. That stops now.” I turned to my father. “I know this isn’t something you want to hear from your daughter on the day you finally reunite back with her, but I was drinking, and driving.”
Dad threw his hands up. “Oh dear ancestors! Don’t tell me you killed the girl!”
I went to Dad. “No, no. Kofi’s right. We found evidence to suggest that she had already died when I found her—”
“When you ran over her,” Lamp said.
I threw my hand up as a gesture of defeat. “Yes—yes, when I…did that. She had already been killed.”
“And how do you know this?” Dad asked. “Had you done an autopsy?”
“No, Dad. I didn’t. I’m not allowed to do that, yet. But “There were signs of compression and nail scratch abrasions on the front and side of her neck that are consistent with asphyxiation.”
Dad lifted his chin and cocked his head. “She was strangled.”
“Wait,” Kofi said. “How would you have access to that knowledge? We haven’t released those findings, yet.” He turned to Lamp. “You told her! You just met her today, and you’re compromising our case by jabbering off at the mouth to a civilian?”
“That’s cold, Kofi,” I said.
“No, it’s not, sis. It’s the facts. I’m a GAF officer. Lamp is a GAF officer. We have rules, regulations, and one of them is to not jeopardize catching a psychopathic killer because your new girlfriend is cute!”
“Actually, I told her, jerk off!” I said. “Not the other way around.”
He laughed, but it wasn’t because he was amused. “I thought you just said that the lying has to stop!”
“It does, Kofi!”
“Then tell me how you could know in-house information like that?”
Lamp and I looked at each other, and then I turned to Dad.
“Just what I thought,” Kofi said. “You don’t have an answer.”
“We do,” Dad said. “It’s just complicated.”
“I can’t do this,” I said, and walked toward the bedroom.
“Where are you going?” Lamp asked. “We’re in the middle of a murder investigation.”
I stopped and came back to her. “Right! Right,” I said, and gestured to Kofi and her. “You all are in the middle of a murder investigation! Not me. I’m out of it. I’m done caring about any of this!”
I went into the bedroom, closed the door, and broke down crying on the floor. As crazy as it sounds, the whole thing felt like my fault.
If I hadn’t gone out drinking, that night. None of that night would have gone the way it did. Lamp would have no reason to hate me. I would not have pulled Grunt and my brother into a snowball of career-ending choices, and Grunt would still be alive. I broke enhuman law! I’m a sexual deviant, a criminal that deserves to be punished!
Kofi and Lamp started arguing, and then the door slammed. After that, there was silence. Auntie Yajna got it wrong. We were more dysfunctional than any African family I’d known. The funny thing about it all was that normally, I’d want to just escape, to jump right into the game, and pretend nothing happened.
That doesn’t feel right, anymore.
I took that moment to review the digital feed showing Kofi and Grunt interviewing Charlie, earlier that day. Getting back to the case got my focus off of me and back on to gathering evidence on the case. I was glad that there was audio to go along with the video clip.
From one angle of the GAF security camera, Grunt, the parents and their child sat in the waiting area, right outside the interrogation room at the police station. The mother was hugging her tomboyish daughter, and the father sat lazily in the chair, holding a cup of coffee in his hand. They were both white, but their daughter was black. Her skin was as pale as theirs, though, because of her condition.
Thomas was wearing an over-sized pale brown suit and his wife was dressed in a soft blue dress with floral patterns, both leaning to a rather conservative style of dress. On the other hand, Frankie wore a lime green Morocco football club jersey and baggy green shorts. Her hair was cut short, and from that vantage point looked like a cute teenage boy.
Kofi went over to the vending machine that sat just beyond the men’s room, bought a chocolate bar, and slipped it into his pocket.
Lamp hopped up when he saw my brother and rushed toward him and whispered something. After a small exchange of words, Kofi put on a smile for the parents and the boy.
“Thank you for coming in,” Grunt said, and extended his hand to the Thomas.
“Frankie has had a hard day,” Thomas said. “I hope this doesn’t take much longer. We’re missing the match on the telly. Tonight, we’re going to finally beat Mazembe, right, Frankie?”
Meredith grunted.
Frankie kept her eyes to the floor. “Yeah. I guess.”
“I don’t think so, Francis,” the mother said, making him look at her. “If you think after all the trouble you’ve been in today, skipping school and hanging around those trouble makers you never let me meet—”
“I already told you,” Frankie said., interrupting. “I was there by myself!”
Meredith spoke over her daughter. “Hanging with those female street thugs against my adamant wishes. No, you’re not going to go home and watch soccer with your father! Think again.”
She extended her pale wrinkled hands to Grunt. “I’m Meredith, and this is my husband, Thomas.”
My brother shook her hand. “I’m Officer Kofi.”
“Let’s get this over with, shall we?” Meredith said. “We’re exhausted, and I just want to go home and tend to this throbbing migraine.”
Lamp gestured to the interrogation room. “Sure, this way please.”
“You have some really cool artwork in this place,” Thomas said. “Isn’t it, Frankie?”
His daughter didn’t answer.
Thomas continued. “I’m a collector of Surrealist art, myself.”
“You’re a junk collector and a hoarder,” his wife said.
Thomas scoffed. “Junk that paid for the house you live in, and all your excessive indulgences, too, huh?”
“So, Frankie, what games are you good at?” My brother asked, trying to get her to open up more.
She looked up at him but kept walking. Her behavior was shy, a far cry different from the loud indignant voice I’d experienced from her on her hacked broadcasts.
Kofi chuckled and said. “Shoot, I used to stream games on Twitch Prime, I’d play RPG’s like Diablo VII and Monster Hunter.”
Frankie mumbled. “Monster Hunter has glitches with research points.”
“What’s that?” Kofi asked.
“That game sucks balls,” she said.
“Francis!” Meredith said.
“Yet, you still pla
y it,” Kofi said.
Frankie looked up at my brother and smirked. “Only because the graphics are good.”
They entered the interrogation room. A sign above the door read INTERVIEWS.
“Just the graphics are good or do you like the storyline, too?” Kofi asked.
Frankie smiled for an instant but then it faded. “Don’t try to butter me up. You don’t care about me! You just want to dig info out of me.”
Kofi shook his head. “That’s not true, Frankie. I’m a people person, it’s in my nature to care. Especially for someone who has seen such horrible things like you have, today. That’s got to be hard on you.”
My brother shoved his hand in his pocket and pulled out the chocolate bar.
“See?” I got this for you.
Frankie didn’t hesitate to take it. The wrapper was halfway open, the second it was in her hands.
“God, you’re giving her sugar,” Meredith said. “You know Francis has ADD and will be all over the place in a matter of minutes.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, Frankie’s in eighth grade, now, hon,” Thomas said. “And every kid loves chocolate.”
There was a rectangular table in the center of the room. It was big enough to seat three adults on either of the long sides. Three beat-up chairs sat on one side and one opposite it. The girl and her parents grabbed a seat with their daughter, sitting in the middle. Kofi chose not to sit.
Grunt cleared his throat and sat, saying, “So, Frankie. Why don’t we start from the beginning? Tell us about everything you saw at the water plant.”
Someone knocked on the door, but I didn’t say anything, wanting to review the rest of the video. After a few seconds, the door opened, and I stopped the neural video.
“Otsoo,” Dad said. “Can I come in?”
I was still sitting on the floor. I threw my hand up, and said, “Just leave me alone.”
He went over to the bed. “Now you know I can’t do that.”
Dad groaned when he sat down, and it concerned me. He was just in a car accident. There could be some internal injuries.
“Aw, don’t look at me like that,” he said. “I was the captain of the Accra Rugby Club in my heyday. I can take a little tumble.”