Beautiful Nightmare

by Johnna B

  * * *

  “You remember me, bitch? You left me for dead. But I’m back, bitch, and on some straight get back type of shit.” She punched Vee in the face, and all the lights went out.

  “Uh-uh, bitch, you gonna feel this ass kicking! Go get me some water and wake this ho up. Better yet, I got a better idea.” She bent over and pulled her pants down and began to piss on Vee’s face. This woke her up instantly. She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but all she saw pussy and ass in her face. She tasted the tangy piss running into her mouth.

  “What . . . are . . . you doing?”

  She could barely get the sentence out. This had to have had something to do with Raven. Just like that ole scandalous bitch to get me into some shit and run away like a fuckin’ coward, Valencia thought.

  “Ahhh, please, stop!” she begged while trying to protect herself as they rained punch after punch at her.

  They stomped every part of her body. Good thing she was drugged because she surely would have died on the spot if she felt that twelve-by-four-inch impersonation of a dildo go into her ass. While one sister fucked her in the ass, the other continued stomping her until blood was everywhere. When they were done, they just looked at her lying there, lifeless, and left her the same way Raven had left the other sister . . . for dead. Vee didn’t stand a chance. She never even had a chance to defend herself. She figured Raven must have really fucked this bitch over for her to come back hard as she did.

  Valencia finally woke up. Trying to move was like stabbing herself everywhere at the same time. It hurt like hell seeing her whole body covered in bruises, and big blood clots sticking to her skin made her want to vomit. Trying to crawl to the phone but unable to move, she just lay there crying her heart out. What could she have possibly done in her past life to deserve such treatment? Her whole life, people have been hurting her, and now it seemed as though she couldn’t stop hurting herself. She wished they would have just ended her misery.

  “Why would you do this me?” she cried, talking to Raven who, at the moment, seemed to have disappeared. Maybe she didn’t want to feel the pain, so she let Vee take it all in. Vee lay there for close to three hours just crying and crying and crying. She had cried so much she started to dry heave, and that only added more pain to her head and damn near collapsed chest. Finally, she found enough strength to reach for the phone. She dialed Sena’s number and got no answer. She figured as much because she didn’t answer unknown numbers. She remembered telling Sena that she needed to stop that stupid shit. What if it was an emergency? She dialed the next person she figured she could count on.

  “Hello.”

  Silence.

  “Yo, who the fuck is this?” It was three-thirty in the morning. He was drunk as shit, irritable, and very horny.

  “Moo . . . Moochie, I need help,” she said barely above a whisper.

  “Who is this?” he questioned, sitting up in bed. He swore it sounded like Vee.

  “It’s Vee. I need help.”

  “What’s wrong?” He looked around the living room to see if Kidd was still there, but he was gone to his room. The last thing he remembered was he and Kidd walking through the door and his face landing on the big fluffy pillow on the couch.

  “I need you to come get me and please don’t tell Kidd. I don’t want him to see me like this.” She cried some more. “Please, I didn’t have anybody else to call.” She was in so much pain. Every move she made took her breath away.

  “Where are you?” Sobriety quickly consumed him. His heart felt like it was about to beat out of his chest. He got up and walked out the door of Kidd’s house before he could try to come along.

  “I don’t know . . .”

  He stopped walking. “How am I supposed to find you if you don’t know where you at?” He was getting worried because she didn’t sound too good . . . sounded like she’s holding on to her last breath.

  If he only knew.

  “I’m at a hotel. Wait a min—” She looked at the phone. It read Airport Holiday Inn.

  “I’m at the Holiday Inn by the airport.” She was out of breath and ready to pass out again.

  “What room you in?”

  “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know.” She started crying, about to lose her mind as she looked around at the blood that was caked all over her body. “I can’t walk to the door.” Moochie’s attempt at staying calm was fruitless, since patience wasn’t his strong suit.

  “Fuuuuck!” he screamed while banging his fists against the steering wheel. He took a deep breath. “I need a room number, baby girl. I need you to try to get to the door. I’m about ten minutes away. Do you think you can crawl to the door?”

  “Hold on.”

  Placing the phone’s receiver down, willing herself to get up. She reached the door handle and turned it, but let it go when she heard people walking past. She wouldn’t dare let anybody see her like that. Opening the door, she looked up at the sign that said 166. Slowly, she made her way back to the phone.

  “Room 166. I’ll leave it open so I won’t have to get back up.” She couldn’t bear the thought of moving again.

  “Okay. I’m on my way now. I’ll be there in two minutes.” He heard something hit the floor before he got a response. “Hello! Vee! Hello!”

  She had passed out again. The pain was much too unbearable.

  He couldn’t wrap his head around the situation. Why hadn’t she called Sena or even Kidd? Where had she disappeared to?

  Moochie approached the door cautiously, not sure of what he was walking into. His heart was beating in overdrive. He wasn’t sure what a heart attack felt like, but he thought he was close to it. Vomit instantly rushed to the back of his throat from the fumes coming from the room. The stench of feces, urine, vomit, and blood mixed is a smell he couldn’t even begin to describe. He looked around with his gun drawn in case some more shit popped off, but he didn’t see Valencia. All he saw was blood all over the floor. He thought his heart was about to burst through his chest.

  “Vee!” He called her name but didn’t get an answer. Sliding his body against the wall like a soldier at war, he was preparing himself for anything . . . except for what lay on the other side of the bed. He dropped to his knees and crawled over to where Vee was lying. Gingerly, he turned her over to assess the damage. He felt as if his heart was about to beat its way through his chest cavity. Her left eye was swollen shut, and her jaw looked like it was totally disconnected from the rest of her face. Softly, he shook her to see if she was still conscious, causing her to wince in pain.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I was just making sure you were still alive. What happened?”

  She opened her one good eye and started crying all over again. “Help me, please . . .” She barely got those words out before her lungs felt like they were on fire. It broke his heart to see her this way. This was way worse than he had imagined. Whoever did this had to have hated her because he himself would have just shot a nigga and been done with it, unless his hand called for drastic measures.

  “Can you call Sena again? I need somebody to help me into the tub,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist. He was kneeling to pull her up to his chest.

  “Yeah. What’s the number?” With a million things flowing through his head, he really hoped she answered the phone. He didn’t know if he would be able to handle this alone. He picked up the hotel phone, but she pushed it away.

  “She won’t answer a number she doesn’t know.”

  “She doesn’t know mine either.” She gave him a look as if to say, yeah, right.

  He dialed her number.

  “She didn’t answer. You don’t have anybody else?” He sounded exhausted.

  “I thought I called him.” She started crying again.

  “Yeah, you right, you did. I’ll help you. First, let’s get to another room. I’ll see if the room next door is available.” He knew that he wouldn’t be able to take that smell too much longer.

&nb
sp; He lay her on the bed before he left the room. He had managed to wrap a sheet around her. When they got to the next room, he knew he would have to be the one to help her get all that blood and shit off her. He had to. He knew his brother would have wanted someone to help her even if that person had to look at her naked. But he was going to try his best to block that part out of his mind.

  Going back into the room, he picked her up off the bed and carried her into the bathroom and gently lay her down in the tub. As he unwrapped the sheet, fury and rage rushed through his body. He tensed up, and his muscles flexed on every part of his body. He couldn’t believe somebody had violated her this way. He had done some shit to a few niggas in his day, but damn! Somebody really worked her over. There was a bruise going down her back, and, even with her dark skin, you could still see the bruise clear as day. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from all the bruises. He could feel her body shaking. He looked up to see her staring at him and crying. She knew she looked bad but didn’t know it was that bad. The way he was looking at her made her feel like the Grim Reaper was speeding her way.

  “It’s all right,” he said, trying to comfort her and himself.

  “No, it’s not. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.” She continued crying.

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I don’t know . . . can’t remember. I woke up, and there were two women in here punching and kicking me. I didn’t even know who they were.”

  “How did you get here?”

  “I don’t know,” she lied, knowing it had something to do with Raven.

  He reached and grabbed the towel and soap off the sink and started to scrub the blood off her gently. All she could do was lie there and watch as the blood ran down the drain. She couldn’t even find the words to say to him. Looking in his eyes, she could see that he was angry, disgusted, and scared as hell. She hurt so badly all over, she could barely lift any limbs.

  He would wait till she was ready to talk. She could feel him lifting her arms and washing her. She lay there, just watching as he gently rubbed the towel all over her body, cleaning like a scared parent would. Silently, tears fell from her eyes. She couldn’t believe Raven did this to her. She swore on her life she’d die before she let that bitch out to play with her life again. She didn’t even notice he was cleaning down below her waist. Her whole body was so numb. She wondered what he was thinking. Did he still look at her the same? Was he going to run and tell Kidd? Where the fuck was Sena? Everything was going a mile a minute in her head. Then, the thought of the beating flashed through her head. It was like watching a scary movie over and over again.

  “I need you stand up,” he said, snapping her out of her thoughts. She reached her hands out for him to help her stand up. Looking at her body again, he couldn’t think sexual thoughts even if he wanted to. It looked like some shit off a horror movie. If it wasn’t for him seeing her before all this and the little spots that weren’t bruised, he would have never known what color she was. Looking at her face was very hard for him. The beauty it once held was now replaced with purple and black bruises and a lot of swelling. He began to wash her back. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for her and the muthafuckas who did it, because this was not going down without revenge. That’s if she even knew who did the shit.

  “Are you going to go the hospital?”

  “I think that I need to. It feels like I have couple of broken ribs and they also did a number on my ass. I’m sure you can see and smell it,” she said with a slight chuckle of sarcasm, but he didn’t find shit funny. He sure as hell did smell it, and it smelled to high hell, but he would never tell her that.

  “As soon as we get you cleaned up.”

  “I don’t have any clothes. They took my clothes.” The tears just kept flowing.

  Who the fuck is they? he thought.

  “I’ll go run and grab you something to wear. You think you can finish cleaning yourself?” He asked with a worried look on his face. He didn’t really want to leave her alone again.

  “Yeah, I’ll just stand here and let the water run on me until you come back. But you’re covered in blood. I don’t suggest you go out like that.” Taking heed, he looked down but didn’t care.

  “Man, I’ll be right back.” He ran to the Walmart about ten minutes away and grabbed her and him a pair of sweatpants, a pack of tank tops, her some ugly-ass granny panties, and some flip-flops. He had flipped his clothes inside out as if that even helped any. He still looked like he worked in a slaughterhouse. He was gone twenty minutes flat. He got back thinking she would be ready to push out, but she was still standing in the same spot in a daze. Looking but not really looking, thinking but not really thinking. Just there. It seemed as if her body was there, but her mind was somewhere else. She hadn’t heard him come in.

  “Why would you do this to me? What did I ever do to deserve this? First, you practically take my life. Then, you take the one man I love, and now this. Why didn’t you just kill me?” She was talking to herself, and Moochie could hear it all.

  “Who you talking to?” He looked around, but there was nobody there. He was hoping she didn’t start that crazy shit again.

  “God,” she said point-blank.

  He helped her slowly get out of the tub. Walking over to the bed, she looked at the clothes.

  “I just grabbed the first things I saw. I thought you might want to be more comfortable than fashionable.”

  “It’s okay. Thank you. You don’t know how much I thank you for all this. You didn’t have to answer the phone, but you did. You didn’t have to come, but you did. You didn’t even have to help clean me, but you did. Why would you do all this for me when I left your brother without so much as a good-bye?” She turned to him. He was sitting in a chair across the room with his head bowed.

  “This had nothing to do with my brother. My sister needed my help, and I’m here, plain and simple.” He looked at her. She just stood there looking at him looking at her. He wasn’t lusting over her body like she was used to men doing. He was doing everything in his power to hold back the horror in his eyes. He walked over to her and began helping her put on her clothes. He had misjudged on the panties measurement. They were a bit snug, but they would have to do.

  When they got to the hospital, as usual, a million questions were being asked, and no medical care was being administered. Moochie had to step out of the room while they examined her, like he hadn’t seen it all already. By this time, it was about nine o’ clock in the morning, so he decided to try Sena again, and he needed to tell his brother about this. He knew his brother would want to be there with her.

  “Hello!” she answered very irritated

  “Uh, Sena. This Moochie.”

  “I know who it is. What do you want?” He had to look at the phone, but he checked himself because he was getting ready let her ass have it, but there were bigger problems.

  “I’m at the hospital with Vee. Can you come down here with her? I have to get going.”

  “Vee? Hospital? What happened? How did you end up with her? What hospital you at? Can I speak to her?” Her body was moving without her knowledge. She was going through a full Code Blue while she put on her clothes, and didn’t she even know the half of it. Grabbing her keys, she was out the door before he could finish the sentence.

  “St. Johns.”

  “I should have known that. That girl would rather go to her grave than go to any other hospital.”

  “Can you come?” He was almost pleading.

  “Yeah, I’m in my car.” She threw on a Juicy Couture sweat suit and was on the road in two minutes.

  “A’ight. She in room 929.”

  “Wait a minute! Isn’t that like ICU?”

  “Yeah. We been calling you since four this morning. It’s bad. Man, just come on.” He hung the phone up not feeling her attitude. She had the right to be mad at him, but today wasn’t the day for that shit.

  “Sir?”

  Moochie turned around to find a fin
e little nurse was calling him.

  “Is everything all right?”

  She couldn’t help looking him up and down. “Your sister is looking for you. You may go in now.”

  “Thank you.” He walked past her not giving her a second look. His mind was on Vee and helping her get through this.

  “Hey! How you feeling?” He stood above her. He could tell her spirit had been broken, but was it before all this happened? He still had tons of questions running through his mind.

  “I’ve been better,” she answered still not able to look him in the eyes.

  “I finally got in touch with Sena. She’s on her way.”

  “That’s good. You can go if you’re in a rush. I understand. I’ve taken up a lot your time.” She was feeling very weak and honestly didn’t know how much longer she could fake being all right. Her head was spinning, and she was beginning to feel disoriented and nauseated. The morphine had taken a lot of the pain away, but not all of it.

  “It’s not a problem at all. I’ll wait till she gets here. I don’t want to leave you alone in this cold-ass hospital. I know I wouldn’t want to be alone in a situation like this,” he said, looking around. “My mother was in the hospital off and on for years, dying of cancer, and we stayed with her. Every day, either me or Kidd was with her. She once told me being in the hospital alone breaks your spirit. With no one around to tell you everything will be all right, you start thinking all kinds of crazy stuff. Listening to doctors twenty-four hours a day telling you what’s wrong with you, and no one there to counter with what’s right with you, all you think is negative. I think that’s part of the reason she died.”