Hell's Diva

by Anna J.

  “I don’t know. It’s hard to say now with all that you’ve shown me. Where would I begin? I have no real friends except my aunt.”

  Mecca couldn’t see Shamel’s thoughts of him having sex with Ruby when Lou showed her Ruby’s court date. He withheld showing Mecca that for a specific reason. He wanted to see how mentally prepared Mecca was before he showed her the ultimate betrayal. Mecca already saw the infidelity that Shamel engaged in with Karmen, but how would she handle betrayal from the only person she trusted?

  “Revenge doesn’t change what’s already been done, Mecca. You have to realize that. You can’t remove the past, you can only work on the future. No one loves you more than you can or do. I know you heard the saying, keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. Most of the time your friends are your enemies. Even your family,” Lou said, staring into her eyes, seeing if she could read his thoughts.

  “Why did you say ‘even your family’ like that? What are you trying to say, Lou?” Mecca yelled.

  Lou began to second-guess revealing to Mecca what he was going to reveal. It could either make or break her, but he hoped that it would make her realize that nothing good comes out of evildoers. So he decided to reveal to her what he called the “Ultimate Betrayal.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

  Proverbs 27:15

  Langston Hughes Projects, 1982

  “You like this dick, don’t you!”

  “Oh God, I love it! Don’t stop! Please don’t stop!”

  “Whose pussy is this? Say whose pussy this is!”

  “This is Darnell’s pussy!” Ruby moaned as she was positioned in doggie style while Darnell rammed his large manhood in Ruby’s vagina. After three hours of wild, sweaty sex, Ruby laid on Darnell’s chest playing with his chest hairs.

  “You got to promise me. Give me your word that you won’t hurt anybody,” Ruby said.

  “C’mon, baby, you know my word is good. All I want is the stash of boy he got. I told you we’re gonna get rich,” Darnell replied, referring to the drugs he planned to get later that day.

  Ruby turned over in the bed, and Darnell slapped her plump ass playfully as she reached on the floor and grabbed her blue Sergio Valente jeans and pulled out a set of keys. She rolled back over and handed the keys to Darnell. He kissed her on the lips and jumped out of the bed.

  “Don’t worry, ain’t nobody gonna get hurt.”

  The next day, Darnell and his little brother wore masks and entered the Langston Hughes apartment using the keys Ruby gave him. He saw a little girl asleep on a bed in the corner of the living room. Well, he thought she was asleep, but the little girl saw the masked men enter the apartment. She closed her eyes and lay still, thinking they wouldn’t see her.

  The little girl thought her tactic worked when the two men walked past her and into her parents’ bedroom, and she crawled under her bed. She heard the men talk loudly to her parents.

  “Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t make us kill you. Get up slowly!”

  Seconds later the little girl watched as her mother and father were led into the living room and made to sit next to each other on the couch. One of the men tied them up with duct tape on their mouths, wrists, and ankles. The little girl then watched one of the men walk to the refrigerator and remove a plastic bag with a gray powder in it. Then she heard one of the men say, “You got the shit, Darnell?” The look on her father’s face made the girl assume that her father knew the man called Darnell.

  Her father tried to speak through the duct tape but couldn’t. The guy Darnell appeared angry that the other man yelled his name out. Darnell yelled at him and her father was moaning loudly at Darnell. The little girl heard Darnell, when he removed his mask, tell her father that his days working for Stone were over.

  Silently praying, the little girl made no noise while roaches crawled over her face and inside of her footie pajamas. She watched the tears flow down her mother’s face and then she let out a low scream as the masked men pointed the gun at her father’s head and pulled the trigger. She let out another low scream when the gun was pointed at her mother and the trigger was pulled.

  The men left the apartment and drove in a custom van. Darnell pulled over and ran to a pay phone on the corner of Mother Gaston Boulevard and Sutter Avenue. A voice picked up on the first ring.

  “Darnell, what the fuck did you do, mu’fucka!” the voice yelled.

  “Ruby, they knew who I was. My stupid brother said my name!”

  “My niece saw that shit! How could you do this to me?”

  After receiving the call from the little girl named Mecca, Ruby rushed over to her sister’s house to get her niece. She didn’t want her niece talking to the cops. On the way over to pick up her niece, Ruby banged on the steering wheel of her Camaro. She cursed herself for letting Darnell talk her into setting her brother-in-law up.

  Ruby just wanted to take Stone’s dope from Blast so she and Darnell could start their own spot. Darnell fucked Ruby so good she couldn’t resist telling him no. She wanted to do anything he asked so he could give her dick when she wanted it.

  Ruby didn’t consider herself a nympho; she just had a weakness for a man who made her have multiple orgasms. She blamed Ron for her weakness. He was her first lover and her first sexual experience, which was unforgettable. She didn’t realize the power of an orgasm. It wasn’t just the orgasm that did it. The feeling of a man’s hard penis touching her g-spot drove her nuts. Not too many men knew how to find her spot. The ones who did had Ruby at their mercy.

  Ruby swore to herself that she would make Darnell pay for what he did. She didn’t know who Darnell’s little brother was but to this day, she wished she did know who he was. If she had killed him back then also, he would have never been able to kill Monique. The police got to him before Ruby could get her revenge. He was now serving twenty years to life for it.

  Ruby also swore to herself that she would make sure Mecca had the best of everything. Mecca wouldn’t want for anything ever. She was to never find out what Ruby did. So she made it her duty to hunt Darnell down and kill him so he could never tell anyone.

  After that, the killing continued. Ruby killed her way to the top. She wanted to rid herself of all potential threats to what she was building for Mecca. She knew she wouldn’t last long and eventually she would be killed or in jail, but before that could happen, she would make sure Mecca had all she needed.

  “Nooo!” Mecca screamed at Lou. Lou held his head down and shook it back and forth.

  Epilogue

  For jealousy is the rage of a mans, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

  Proverbs 6:34

  Tah and Mo Blood crept around the villa that Ruby left to Mecca in the Hamptons. He knew the code to disarm the alarm system, and the two pit bulls Mecca had didn’t bark when they recognized Tah’s smell. He gave Mecca the pit bulls as a birthday gift when they were together.

  Mecca was asleep naked while Shamel walked to the kitchen naked to eat some leftover baked macaroni and cheese and some cold chicken wings. He put the macaroni and cheese in the microwave and set the time for a minute and a half.

  Shamel watched the macaroni heat up on a plate that spun around inside. There was a hissing sound a split second before his head exploded against the glass door. His body slumped to the floor after Mo Blood put the bullet in the back of his head from his black 9 mm Berretta with a silencer on it.

  Tah crept into Mecca’s room with Mo Blood behind him. When Mo Blood saw Mecca’s naked body, he whispered, “Damn, she is thick, son!”

  Tah tapped Mo Blood on his shoulder and put his finger to his mouth signaling for him to keep quiet. Tah pulled some rope out of a black Jansport book bag he had in his hand. He knew Mecca was a heavy sleeper, so tying rope to her headboard wouldn’t wake her; it was tying her up that would be a problem.

  Tah tied the rope to the oak wood headboard. He whis
pered to Mo Blood after he tied to rope to the board.

  “Son, I’ma lay on top of her to hold her down; tie her hands to the headboard,” Tah instructed. Lying on top of Mecca awakened her.

  “Yo, what the fuck is you doing!” Mecca yelled, unable to see who was lying on top of her. Tah positioned his body horizontally across Mecca’s stomach and chest. She recognized Mo Blood and figured it was Tah on top of her.

  “Tah, get the fuck off of me!”

  Mo already had one of her wrists tied to the headboard. She wouldn’t let him get the other wrist. She was kicking and moving wildly. Tah had no choice, so he got off of her.

  “Son, hold her feet!” With one hand tied, Mecca kicked and punched with her free hand.

  “Tah, you bitch-ass nigga! Get the fuck outta my crib!”

  Tah caught Mecca’s free hand and held it. She couldn’t fight against the strength of Tah. His time in prison lifting weights and taking supplements and eating protein bars had him strong and muscular. He put his arm around her throat and squeezed, putting her to sleep.

  When Mecca’s body went limp, he tied her feet with rope and tied the rope to the bedpost. He tied her other hand to the headboard. Mo Blood grinned and attempted to touch Mecca’s private parts, but Tah swung his fist hard, landing a right hook on Mo Blood’s jaw, knocking him unconscious.

  After he tied Mecca to the bed, he slapped her on the face to wake her up. At first her vision was blurry, and then it became clear after a few seconds. Still a little disoriented, she stared at Tah dressed in a black Sean John velour suit with black on black Air Force Ones on his feet. He wore a white headband on his shiny bald head. Slowly her eyes drifted to the chrome .50-caliber Desert Eagle he pointed at her.

  “Tah, why are you doing this? What did I do to you?” Mecca pleaded trying to loosen the ropes by tugging on them.

  “Why you think, Mecca?”

  “Just because we ain’t work out together, that don’t mean we couldn’t be friends,” Mecca lied.

  She knew she couldn’t be friends with Tah because she couldn’t trust him. He violated her by messing with Tamika behind her back. They could never be friends. Mecca remembered what Ruby told her about letting people mess up one time and no more. She fell in love with Shamel. He was the man Tah could never be and Shamel treated Mecca the way Tah didn’t know how.

  Tah laughed hysterically. “That’s what you think this is about? I could’nt care less if you were sucking my dick. This ain’t about me being mad because you stop dealing with me.”

  “Then what do you want from me? Money? You robbing me, Tah?” Mecca asked.

  Tah shook his head. “You got in way over your head, Mecca.”

  “Tah, what are you talking about?” Mecca cried. She looked into his eyes and she knew he was getting high off of ecstasy pills and Xanex mixed with codeine. She recognized the look from seeing him this way before.

  “You’re not your aunt, Mecca. She’s gone.”

  “Put the gun away, Tah, and untie me, nigga. You high off them pills!”

  Mecca yelled, trying to sound authoritative, thinking it would make Tah listen. She remembered Tah would leave her alone when she got angry just like Shamel did. Most of her life people feared when she got angry, the same way her aunt made people fear her.

  Those days were over and Tah couldn’t care less about that look Mecca had on her face. The look that Mecca got when she was about to hurt someone. Tah thought, This bitch still think a nigga her flunky or something. She outta her rabbit-ass mind.

  “Bitch, I ain’t your damn flunky!” Tah yelled his thoughts out loud.

  “Tah, who the fuck said you was a flunky?” Mecca asked. “You my man, nigga, not no flunky. You listening to them lame-ass niggas you be with and they put shit in your head. Be your own man mu’fucka!”

  Tah knew when Mecca said he was her man she meant it as a friend. She was saying it like another nigga would say, “that’s my man,” but Tah knew that was bullshit. She didn’t give a fuck about him. He wrote her from jail plenty of times and never got a reply. She sent him money one time and no letters. He poured his heart out in some of the letters, knowing she was lying up with Shamel. He vowed to himself that she would pay for his broken heart. No one treated Tah Gunz like a scrub. No one.

  “Fuck you, Mecca!” Tah pulled the trigger.

  When the bullet hit Mecca on her forehead, everything went black.

  Lou and Mecca stared at each other for a few minutes. Mecca saw two silhouettes walking toward Lou from behind him. When the two silhouettes reached Lou they separated, and one stood on one side of Lou and the other on the opposite side. Their faces lit up and Mecca saw a male and female in long white robes, and then she recognized the faces of her parents.

  The image of Lou and her parents disappeared and Mecca’s vision was blurred. She saw a shadow behind a bright light. Her eyes were blinking rapidly. When her vision cleared, Mecca was looking up at Shamel’s grandmother.

  “Nurse! Nurse she’s up!” Grandma yelled. A short, middle-aged, Spanish nurse rushed into the hospital room and smiled at Mecca.

  “Hay Dios mio, she’s alive!” the nurse said excitedly.

  Shamel’s grandmother held her hands and head up in prayer. “Thank you, Jesus.”

  November 6, 2001

  Ruby received her mail from the corrections officer sitting at a desk on the cellblock. She rushed to her cell, anxious to open the envelope from the courts. She knew it was the decision for the appeal. When she got to her cell she ripped open the envelope and her knees almost buckled as she read:

  AND NOW, on this 6th day of November in the year 2001 it is decided that the petitioner Ruby Davidson’s motion to vacate a sentence of Life imprisonment is granted. The warden of said prison where petitioner is currently confined is ordered to release prisoner C024688 upon receipt of this order.

  Ruby’s heart leapt out of her chest as she read the order vacating her sentence. She was free. She handed the paper to her cellmate.

  “I did it, baby! I’m out!” Ruby yelled enthusiastically.

  “That’s great, baby!” Kima said excitedly, but was secretly happy to be getting rid of her bully of a cellmate.

  “Did you hear anything about your niece?” Kima asked, changing the mood. With the smile and enthusiasm gone from Ruby’s face, a grim expression took over. Ruby took the paper from Kima’s hand.

  “They said she’s out of a coma, but she might be a vegetable for the rest of her life.”

  Shamel’s grandmother smiled at Mecca and rubbed her hand. Mecca’s head was wrapped in bandages, but being in a coma for a month all the swelling went down in her face. Tah shot Mecca three times: once in her chest, one in the side of her face, and once in the forehead. When she turned her face simultaneously with the first shot that hit her forehead, it just grazed the front of her brain.

  “Baby, your aunt’s appeal went through. She’s coming home tomorrow,” Shamel’s grandmother said, thinking the news would bring a smile to Mecca’s face.

  Mecca heard the news but couldn’t speak. She wanted to yell at Shamel’s grandmother about everything she knew about her grandson, her aunt, and everybody who betrayed her. Instead, she stared at Shamel’s grandmother’s eyes blinking, and a tear rolled down her cheek.

  Coming Fall of 2011

  Hell’s Diva II: Mecca’s Return

  Chapter One

  The most eloquent expression of the unconscious is the dream, which is intricately connected to myth.

  The Art of Seduction

  Joseph of the Bible was known for the ability to interpret dreams. It was the ability that caught the curiosity of the Pharaoh of Egypt whose own interpreters were useless. Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh’s dreams and became a powerful man in ancient Egypt. As Mecca attentively gazed into the eyes of Lou, she wondered who she could wake up and ask to interpret her dreams and tell her exactly who Lou was.

  “You do not know what vengeance is because it is not yours to give,�
�� Lou said, holding a stethoscope to Mecca’s chest, dressed in a white overcoat. Mecca lay still on a stark white linen hospital bed with a preoccupied expression on her face.

  “You act as if I’m dumb or something. Keep in mind, Lou, that I’m a grown woman, and not the child you visit in my dreams,” Mecca replied gruffly.

  Ever since Lou snapped Mecca out of her coma, appearing in her dreams, she realized that she had become intrigued by his speeches of her doing the right thing with her life and letting go of the feeling of getting payback on all of those who betrayed her. Especially, her aunt Ruby. Initially, she found him annoying and somewhat cruel by putting her through all the grueling tasks of viewing her friends and loved ones being betrayed and herself a victim of the double-cross.

  Mecca no longer had anyone in her life she could trust or talk to about any issues that she had. She used to talk to Ruby or Ruby’s lesbian lover, Monique, who Mecca confided in more than anyone else. She would rely on Monique to give her motherly advice about men, sex, and feminine issues. Now Monique was dead, and Mecca came to find out that Ruby was a low-down, dirty snake. With Lou, he not only told her that the life she lived was one big lie filled with betrayal, lust, and greed, but he showed her how and why.

  What could be more interesting than seeing your life played out in full view from your childhood to your adult life, and glimpsing at things you didn’t see at first? Like your so-called friends’ and families’ secret lives of treachery…

  “Grown?” Lou questioned, removing the stethoscope from Mecca’s chest and laughed. “Is that what you all call fully matured adults now?”

  “What makes you think I want revenge?” Mecca asked, rolling her eyes at his sarcasm.

  “If only humans could make machines that could listen to what’s in the heart instead of just its beats, would someone be able to answer that,” Lou answered, looking at the stethoscope in his hands. “But, unfortunately they can’t and I can. Your heart tells me revenge is what you seek,” he continued as he set the stethoscope down on the bedside table and rubbed his hands together.