The Sordid Promise

by Courtney Lane

  “I…got…it.” I said wiping my face with my fingertips. She was right…she didn’t know everything. But the fact that the best months of my life were owed to him— “I’m…an idiot.”

  She pinched her fingers together with a smile.

  “I miss her,” I whispered. “When he’s not there I—she didn’t have to die. It was like she just gave up. How can someone know that something will save their life and just not do it?”

  “I can’t answer that, Nikki. I can say that I’m here when Eric isn’t. You can talk to me. You need to let it—“

  Maisha began to snarl and bark, calling both of us to look at what was agitating her. Down the path, three girls were walking towards us. One of them was Tamala.

  “Surprise, bitches,” Tamala announced as she glared at Maisha. “Shut that dog up, before it gets mud-stomped.”

  Annoyed, I stood with my arms crossed. “What do you want Tamala?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Melonie interjected. “Don’t start any trouble that Eric could never forgive you for, Tamala. Just walk away. We’ll do the same.”

  “Awe,” Tamala sang. “What’s this? The girlfriends’ club? Why didn’t I get an invite?”

  “Because you’re psychotic,” I snarked.

  “I’ve never been in a mental ward, sweetie. Have you?”

  “Maybe you need to be,” I retorted

  Tamala stepped forward, but stopped short at Maisha. “Keep talking shit, bitch. You aren’t making it better for yourself. I promised you a beating, and you’re going to get one.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense, when I have—still have the man you want. Seems like I am, and will always be, the one in the better situation when it comes to you.”

  She pursed her lips together as she fumed. It was sudden. It was blindsiding. She swung her leg up and kicked Maisha across the flank. Maisha broke free of the leash and lunged up to attack her. The girls who were with her tried to beat Maisha off her. When I attempted to get them away from Maisha, I was thrust backwards. I felt a blow to my face that made me stumble.

  I fought back as best as I could, but one became two. I tumbled to the ground. Through the kicks, hair pulling, and punches, I could see Maisha bleeding on the ground. One of the bigger girls bear-hugged a struggling Melonie. Mel broke free and tried to stop them from hurting me. She was thrown back, hard.

  Two became three. My stomach, face and legs were hit with crushing and repeated hits. Everything ached, and eventually it was hard to see.

  “Leave her alone. I’ve just called the cops,” I heard Melonie shout.

  “Relax. We’re done,” said a woman who was a stranger to me.

  “Not so pretty now, huh, bitch?” Tamala snarled. “And your damn dog is gonna die for biting me.” She threw something hard and plastic at my face. Something I was unable to see with all the blood.

  “No!” Melonie cried out. I heard Maisha scream. It shook me to the core, never knowing that a dog could actually do that.

  I heard Tamala hawk a spit and felt it land on my face, near to my eye. “Last fucking warning. Stay away from Eric. Next time, you won’t get up from your beating. Next time, I’ll kill you, bitch.”

  I tried to stand, felt the pain, and fell to my knees. I brushed my hands across my eyes so I could see. My vision cleared just enough to see what she threw at me; a DVD case. I tried to stand again, wanting to check on Maisha. The tone of her whines fueled my strength despite the pain. I found her in Melonie’s arms, lying on her side a few feet away from me.

  I fell to my knees with a hard thump.

  Melonie let Maisha go and tried to help me stand. “Nikki?”

  When I tried to straighten my shoulders, something pinched and ebbed in my torso, calling me scream out.

  “She and her cronies might’ve cracked a rib. Can you stand?”

  “It’s a bruised rib. I’ve…had one before.” I staggered towards Maisha. “Maisha? Are you hurt, girl?” I lost my equilibrium and slipped to the concrete. Maisha struggled and tried to come to me, but her legs gave out. “No. No.” I crawled to her, forgetting my own pain, and took her into my lap. She had a large gaping wound near her hind leg. It was large enough that an organ seeped from the wound. “Hold on, sweet girl. We’ll get you help. Just hold on.”

  Maisha let out a low squeaking howl.

  She was in pain, and it tore me a part. She didn’t deserve to suffer like this. She didn’t deserve this at all. “What can I do? What do you want me to do, girl?”

  “One of the women had a knife, Nikki. She was going to use it on you, had I not stopped her, but they…got to Maisha.”

  “No. No. No! She’s going to be okay.” I stood, trying to lift her, but fell to my knees. My body wouldn’t cooperate. Maisha continued to groan and whine, breaking my heart. “No. Not again. I can’t lose her. I’ve lost my mother and father. I can’t lose anyone else. Help me.”

  “We need to get you to the doctor first.”

  “Help me!” I screamed.

  “Okay,” she relented. “Okay.”

  The wait inside the waiting room of the veterinarian’s office was the longest and most painful wait I’d ever had to endure. The throbbing ache in my face and stomach made me wonder; what’s so great about physical pain anyway?

  “Miss Givens?” One of the veterinary technicians came over. “If you won’t get medical attention, are you sure you won’t let us at least tend to you? The cut on your head…your lip. You’ll need stitches.”

  “I’m fine,” I muffled through my third blood stained tissue. “How’s Maisha?”

  “We’re still working to stop the internal bleeding. Unfortunately, the stab wound cut into a vital organ. She also has quite a few broken bones. We’re doing all we can to save her, but…it’s not looking too well. I’m sorry.”

  I covered my face and wailed.

  “We need to get you to the doctor, so we can tend to your wounds,” Melonie’s voice trembled as she held me.

  I shook my head vehemently. “I want to see her. I want to see my dog.”

  “She’s still in surgery, Miss Givens. If she pulls through, you’ll be able to see her tomorrow. We have your number. Why don’t you…visit a hospital, where someone can tend to you?”

  “I’ll wait here. I’ll wait until she comes around. I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

  “The hell you are.” Melonie and I both looked at entrance doors. It seemed Eric rushed over from the hospital, because he was in his blue scrubs and still had the Strong Hospital ID clipped to the bottom of his shirt. His anger softened when he looked at my face.

  “You called him here?” I cut at Melonie through my teeth.

  “He…didn’t exactly give me a choice.”

  I quickly tried to wipe my face. “I’m okay.”

  He shook his head as he lifted my chin and gently moved it from side to side. “We’re going to the hospital, then we’re going home. You have open wounds that need to be closed before they become infected. No negotiations, Nik.”

  Melonie moved to help me to stand, but he gave her a look that made her shrink away.

  In the parking lot, Eric got me settled into the front passenger seat of his car.

  “Sit tight, I’ll be back.” He gently kissed the side of my head. Reaching over, he turned on the ignition, ensuring I would receive the warmth from the heated seats and the vents.

  He walked Melonie to her car. And from the movement of his mouth and body, I could tell he was yelling at her. I slid down the window to hear what was said.

  “I asked you to do one thing, one simple fucking thing. I asked you to do it for a reason, so tell me why the fuck you failed at doing something someone with less than half a brain could’ve done?”

  “I didn’t know this would happen. How would I know Tamala would come after her? How would I know Tamala would finally break and attack her? But you…? You say watch her for a reason. Did you know this would happen? Did you know Tamala would try
to hurt her?”

  “Don’t you dare fucking blame me for this! I would never let anyone hurt her. So, tell me, Mel, how did Tamala know when and where she would be?”

  “No!” she shrilled. “I would never. I never—I would never do that Eric.”

  “I don’t fucking know that, do I? Because…you don’t have a damn scratch on you. And one of those whores had a knife? They could’ve seriously hurt her. They could’ve killed her.”

  “This is your fault,” Melonie shrilled. “You led a fragile girl on, and this is your payback. What happened to Nikki is on you.”

  “Excuse me?” Eric pressed forward, tormenting her with his intimidating glare. He grabbed her by the neck, nearly choking her. “Say that one more goddamned time,” he spat. “I dare you to blame me for what Tamala did to her one more time. I fucking dare you.”

  “Just let me go, Eric,” she gasped.

  “I’ll do that and a whole lot more. You’re done in my book.”

  “Eric, it wasn’t my fault,” Melonie cried after his back. “Don’t cut me out for something I had nothing to do with. My heart is breaking, too. Eric? I’m sorry!”

  He got in the car with a slam of the door, smoothing his hair with his palm. “And you, who can’t fucking listen, will you listen to me now?”

  His shout made me cry. I wanted to be with Maisha. I wanted to know what was going on with her. His anger, wrongly pointed at me, didn’t help matters.

  He took a counted breath and looked out of the windshield. “She’ll be all right, Nik. I know she’ll be.” He slipped his hand across my lap and grabbed my hand. “I will fix this mess. I promise.”

  My phone laid next to my side as I stared at it, hoping it would ring. Hoping someone on the other end would call and tell me that Maisha was feeling better. Tell me that it was okay to pick her up. I just wanted to wrap my arms around her neck and never let her go — give her the best meal she’d ever had for protecting me.

  I sucked in a sob as I stared at the DVD case slightly hidden away in the TV cabinet of my bedroom, the case that Tamala threw at me. It haunted me just as much as my guilt over Maisha’s pain did.

  I needed something to get my mind off the pain—something to keep me from fiddling with the stitches in my face. I looked so horrible, I didn’t know how Eric could look at me. I couldn’t look at me. My black-eye, busted lip, and split forehead made me look like I felt on the inside. My body was covered in bruises here and there. He made me get x-rays at the hospital, but as I assumed, it was just another bruised rib. The first one was given to me by Cherish Clark.

  I glanced down to the cracked open door to my bathroom. He was in the shower and mentioned something about having to shave. It bought me a good thirty minutes to see what was on the DVD. Something to distract me from my worry about Maisha. I was going to do something…something to make my pain worse if I couldn’t focus on something else.

  I dropped the ice from my eye and moved to the armoire. I slid the DVD into the player, keeping the volume low. I waited as it began to play.

  Tamala was on her knees to Eric with her head bowed. There were two other men in the room, leering at her. One of them was Preston.

  “Please don’t make me do this, Eric,” she pleaded.

  “But you want to claim you love me. You can’t do the things that make me happy, can you?”

  “Yes. Yes, I can. I would do anything for you.”

  “Reaffirm me, Tam.”

  “I love you. I would do anything for you. I need you Eric.”

  “I will always care for you. I will always take care of you as long as you make me happy. You know that, don’t you?”

  “Yes,” she said through a quivering snort. “I-I know.”

  He pulled her up by her hair and pressed into her ear. “Be a good little whore for me.”

  What I saw next…was hard to watch. I recalled the way Preston treated Estelle on the deck, but compared to the way Eric and his friends treated Tamala….it seemed Preston treated Estelle with care. They hit her, choked her, and demeaned her. Made her cry. Said awful things to her that even the most uncouth person wouldn’t say to their enemy. Made her do disgusting things with their bodily fluids and her own. All the while Eric was a part of the activities; he carried an insidious smile on his face.

  There was someone else in the room serving as a voyeur—another woman. I moved closer to the screen in order to make out her face. It was unmistakable. It was Estelle. She watched for a time before she joined Eric’s side. Eventually, she slid down to her knees and began to—I pressed pause, unable to watch it further. The date on the bottom of the screen indicated it was recorded five years ago.

  I knew where it was all going. I didn’t need to see more. For a pointed reason, I continuously rewound to the part where Eric professed his feelings for Tamala. I rewound it over and over again, taking in the look in his eyes, trying to gauge the sincerity—to recall if he’d looked at me the same way when he said he loved me. I needed to see if he could recall the expression he had in my favorite photograph of him.

  “A gift from Tamala?”

  I startled at Eric’s voice.

  In just a towel around his waist, his body and hair still damp from his shower, his eyes cut at me.

  I grabbed the remote, but my wounds made me clumsy. I dropped it. Eric quickly swooped in, grabbed the remote, and stood in front of me with his back to me. He let it play for a moment, watching the video in stillness before he pressed the eject button. Grabbing the DVD, he fingered it in his hands. He flung it against the wall, causing it to break. He stepped forward with his hands engaged like he wanted to grab me. He tempered whatever he was feeling, letting his hands drop to his sides and took a long, slow breath in then out. “You know what she’s doing, right?”

  “Have you…have you been sleeping with her since—”

  “No!” he shouted. “Absolutely fucking not.”

  “Then…why haven’t you dealt with her? When I came to you about how she’s been harassing me, why didn’t you take care of it? Why did you do nothing? You could’ve prevented—” I glanced down at the floor, knowing that if Maisha were here, she would be at my feet right now.

  He jerked my chin up, his eyes falling coldly on me. “You’re right. What happened to you is my fault. To redeem myself, I’m going to deal with her. You’re going to watch as she gets what’s coming to her. Just…sit tight, Nik.” He eyed the bed for me to sit.

  Stuck in a chaotic emotion, I sat on the edge of the bed. My phone rang.

  “H-Hello?” I answered hoarsely.

  “Miss Givens? This is Rebecca from Northgate Animal Hospital. Do you think you can come back?”

  My heart wretched. I knew what she was going to tell me. I just…knew it. “No,” I sobbed. “Tell me whatever it is now.”

  “I would rather not—”

  “Tell me right fucking now!” I screamed.

  “I-I’m so sorry, Miss Givens. Maisha died early this morning. I’m so—”

  I threw the phone across the room. The gut-wrenching ache was too much to take. My legs gave out, and I slid to the floor. Wailing, I clutched the rug. “H-how much am I supposed to take? How much am I…” I couldn’t…breathe. I didn’t understand why this had to happen to me. Why did she come into my life just for someone else to take her away when she was defending me? She protected me. She died for me. “I’m….toxic to everything I touch.”

  A loud bang startled me. I slowly looked up to Eric punching the wall, and he didn’t stop until he punched a hole through the drywall.

  I lazily stood. Torn out of my nightmare; I fell into a hazy dream. “E-Eric?”

  Without turning to me he held up his bloody hand in defeat. “I…have to make a phone call,” he stated in a low, broken husky tone. He turned and grabbed his phone from the night table. “Don’t move. Don’t do anything. Just…sit.” He pointed to the bed without looking at me.

  I weakly slumped over and sat on the edge, waiting.
/>   He went inside the bathroom and closed the door.

  We behaved like zombies for two days after Tamala’s attack. Barely saying a word to each other, and barely leaving my bedroom. Not sure how much more I could take. My exclusive prescription had a black box warning I tried to ignore before. The gorgeous packaging and promising benefits made it so easy to develop a blindside. Warning: Side effects may be worse than what it’s supposed to cure.

  We were in a seedy hotel in the worst part of downtown; the one where the hookers and crack addicts hang out. The comforter looked too repulsive to sit on. I pealed it back, thankful to see pure white sheets. I sat on the edge of the bed and contemplated the odd set up.

  Just off to the side of the television, an open laptop was situated on the side of the TV table. The hotel room is adjoined to another suite. A camera was set up in the other room and displayed through the laptop, allowing a view of everything that occurred in the adjoining suite. Eric was on the other side, chatting with a guy I wouldn’t want to see in a dark alley. There were seven other men with him, who looked equally threatening. I couldn’t figure out how he would know characters like this. He made it very clear that he didn’t want me to meet them, either. He didn’t tell me of his purpose behind why we were at the hotel. I didn’t want to be here. I wanted to crawl into my bed and never get out.

  Eric came back to our room and closed the adjoining door. He stood in the far corner of the room, put a finger to his lips, and pointed to the laptop. “Watch,” he ordered coldly.

  Tamala entered the room. She immediately attempted to turn around to leave. A guy from the crew of eight guarded the door, slamming it shut.