by M. O. McLeod
“Alright,” the mayor yelled back. “Take it easy.”
“Don’t tell me to take it easy. I’ve been waiting up all night for you.”
“I was at the Olivares Tower party, the party that you said you didn’t want to go to.”
“That party didn’t last all night, motherfucker.”
“Language, aren’t you supposed to be the mayor’s wife. I know they have more class than that where you’re from.”
“Who is she?” his wife screamed like a banshee.
“I woke up this morning to gas in my face, in my nose; all in my lungs…I almost died!”
“You must have died and gone to heaven if you think I’m going to let you keep some trash from off the street in my house.”
“This is my house!”
“It’s our house. I am your wife and you go out and do something as messy as this,” the wife went on. “What you need to be focusing on is how in the hell you are going to get these Phantoms off our streets.”
“They’re not on the north side streets so you should be good.”
“What happened at the tower?” she asked her husband.
O’bellaDonna listened as their voices became calmer.
“I never should have gone to that party. Somebody was kicking all the residents of the tower out, including me.”
“No way. So who is living in the towers now?”
“Who knows,” said the mayor. “They gassed everybody out, the police couldn’t get in. I saw this girl had passed out; I didn’t want to just leave her on the streets. Somebody would have seen me and made a story out of nothing. I would have been on the news all over again,” the mayor lied. “I had to think fast.”
O’bellaDonna thought the mayor was a charming little snake, but if he wanted to play games then so could she. Found her on the streets, who was the mayor kidding? She would rather be someone’s sex object before she was someone’s pity party. She could hear them kissing below. The same lips she had kissed, now his wife were kissing and it sounded pretty intense. He was off the hook that quickly.
“I want that girl out of here and I mean right now. Breakfast is still on the table.”
O’bellaDonna ran back to the bed as she heard Mayor Wilks footsteps approaching. He let himself into the room and sat on the bed with her.
“You okay? You were pretty out of it,” said the mayor.
O’bellaDonna got straight to the point. “Have you told your wife about us?” she questioned the mayor. She already knew the answer; she just wanted to make him feel guilty.
The mayor became uncomfortable and fidgety. “Look, what we had last night.”
“Was the best,” cooed O’bellaDonna.
“Was a one-time thing,” the mayor corrected her.
O’bellaDonna crossed her arms in front of her and pouted. She knew what the mayor was going to say but she played the hurt girl role. The mayor wasn’t going to get rid of her that easy.
“Maybe I didn’t kiss you hard enough last night,” O’bellaDonna went in for the kill. “Let me try again.”
The mayor swerved out of the way and held her back. “You can’t stay here, do you understand?”
“You have another secret house for me somewhere hidden?” O’bellaDonna acted oblivious. The mayor shook her hard and she only acted more like a damsel in the distress.
“I’m serious girl. Whoever you are, I don’t care. I find them a dime a dozen. Do you get that? None of them get a house, none of them get an allowance, and none of them gets another taste of the stallion,” Mayor Wilks made his intentions clear.
“Well I’m not them; I am O’bellaDonna and I always get what I want,” she hissed in his face and broke free of his grasps. She exited the room quickly. She had had enough of the mayor. He had the nerve to call himself a stallion. She laughed in her head; he didn’t have the stamina of a stallion and sure wasn’t hung like one. O’bellaDonna stomped her feet the entire way down the stairs. She could hear Mayor Wilks running after her. She wanted the wife to come out and then it would have really been a spectacle. But, the mayor’s wife didn’t come to the front. She missed O’bellaDonna’s fabulous exit.
O’bellaDonna swiped the fireplace mantle clean of all the mayor’s awards and certificates. Glass shattered the floor as she knocked over the book case which didn’t hold a single book. She ducked and dodged the mayor as he tried to capture her, throwing picture frames and vases at his head. Still the mayor’s wife did not come to the front. O’bellaDonna kneed the mayor in the groin area for good measure. Then she left. But what she had done to the mayor’s house was just a warm up.
Chapter 13:
The Tower Of K
She was back at the tower. The place was a ghost town. There were people out walking the streets but they stayed clear of the tower. There were clothes, shoes, and debris scattered all over the sidewalk. Bags of stuff lay torn open as if scavengers had ripped everything apart. Personal items, electronics, even jewelry glittered in pieces in the streets. The people of the tower couldn’t take it all with them so they had left so much of their stuff behind. This is what she had slept through. O’bellaDonna couldn’t believe it.
“Hello!” she screamed at an overhead camera. “Open the freaking doors!” O’bellaDonna banged on the front gates to the tower. There were no gates last night, only wide double doors, but she suspected that Kurma was behind this. The girls must have succeeded in taking the building.
There was a noise. She listened as she heard a sound coming from up high. Then a voice came out loud and clear.
“O’bellaDonna, I see that you have returned,” the voice belonged to Kurma.
“Kurma listen. Some things went off planned and you know, I know what it looks like but trust me when I say that I had no idea that it would have turned out this way,” said O’bellaDonna.
“How could someone who was inside end up outside?” questioned Kurma.
“I don’t know!”
“They ended up outside because they were not a part of the plan,” Kurma’s voice intensified overhead. “We had a plan and you seemed to have had your own agenda; so, you said screw my plan, forget Kurma, and forget that I am a Raptor like my other friends.”
“It wasn’t like that,” O’bellaDonna interrupted Kurma. “No one told me about the stupid gas and I passed out.”
“Well if you had been accounted for then you would have known. Instead, you were somewhere busy sleeping around I guess,” Kurma accused. “Am I correct?”
“Can I come in?” asked O’bellaDonna. “You got me looking like an addict needing a fix or something. Let’s just have a sit down so I can explain myself to you and the girls.”
There was a long pause and the voice came out loud and clear again, “No, I think it’s time that I make more Raptors; Raptors who listen and who want to be a part of the team and who can actually follow direction!”
O’bellaDonna beat on the doors again and remembered where she had just come from. “I did as you told me to do. I got somebody for you, somebody who is important.”
“I’m listening,” came Kurma’s voice.
“But I want inside first then you can have him.”
“So it’s a him, is it?” Kurma questioned. “Okay, fine, meet me on top of the roof.”
O’bellaDonna had a way in. There was no way Kurma would stay mad at her when she gave over Mayor Chauncey Wilks. It hadn’t worked out as she hoped with the mayor but she always had a backup plan.
She Raptored her entire body and her clothes gave way. O’bellaDonna spread her wings and lifted her body into the air, heading for the top of the tower. She had never seen the crystal tip of the building up close, it was huge. The light from the sun made the crystal sparkle. She liked how the light reflected off the yellow hair that coated her body. Her wings were the color of tangerines with flecks of gold. The scales on her face were beige and black and her eyes were a florescent shade of pink. She loved all the wild things that made up her Raptored state.
On the roof, in the middle of the helicopter pads she waited for Kurma. She would plead her case to Kurma and get back on good terms. There was plenty of time to go solo, but now wasn’t it.
***
Kurma turned around in her chair and turned off the intercom. She looked to her Raptors for their thoughts.
“I know you are not going to let her back in so quickly,” Jackie was the first to speak.
“You don’t want your friend back?” asked Kurma.
“We still friends, she is just out there and I am in here,” Jackie answered.
“What about you Rimselda?”
“She deserves to be in here. We all put in work to get this place,” said Rimselda.
Jackie interrupted her, “While we were putting our neck on the line she was laid up somewhere playing princess. She always does that crap.”
Kurma asked Jackie, “What crap are you talking about?”
“She thinks she can hitch a ride on the back of someone’s coat-tail and just hold on while everyone else does the work,” Jackie explained.
“Regardless!” Chelsea yelled, “We don’t know what happened. There is no way that I am going to allow one of my friends remaining without shelter when we have an entire fully functioning complex.”
“I think that she needs to be taught a lesson,” Kurma added on.
“She helped you when you were fighting Santino,” said Chelsea. “You remember that don’t you?”
Kurma did remember. It seemed like a long time ago that her ex-boyfriend had let her brother be turned into a Phantom and had tried to eat Kurma. O’bellaDonna was there and had helped her by holding off some of Santino’s crew.
“She was there then and not because of her own agenda. No one is perfect Kurma, not even you,” Chelsea finished.
Kurma had heard enough. She left Rimselda in control before she left out of the room. “Don’t open the doors unless I tell you, even if it’s an emergency,” she instructed as she closed the door. Kurma walked to the elevator and pressed for service. There were no elevators anymore; the girls used the elevator shaft to get from floor to floor, Raptoring their bodies each time. It kept them nimble and quick since they rarely flew outside anymore.
The elevator doors opened and Kurma Raptored her body and flew up into the dark elevator shaft. It was a long way to the top but Kurma’s wings never grew tired. She came out onto the roof and saw O’bellaDonna some ways off. She saw that O’bellaDonna was in her Raptor state as well and decided not to change back into her human self. Kurma expanded her powder blue wings and jumped into the air, covering the distance across the helicopter pad.
“You know I always loved your olive face scales, they always did match your skin better than mine,” started O’bellaDonna.
Kurma paid the compliment back. “The gold flecks in your wings compliment your eyes though.”
“My eyes look red, kind of like a demon, don’t you think?”
“You look different, that’s more than enough,” Kurma paused. “But getting to the point Donna. You know what you did was wrong. Regardless if you’re a Raptor or not, you cannot think that going off and doing your own thing would make the group happy. Especially when we needed you.”
O’bellaDonna had wanted to ease into the reprimand but Kurma was gung-ho. “I got caught up in the night,” she tried to explain. “It will never happen again. There was this guy who I knew you would have loved, next thing I know he is getting me drunk and I pass out.”
“You need to apologize to the girls. They are just as disappointed in you as I am.”
“I’m so sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“And if it does?” Kurma asked.
O’bellaDonna didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to say anything rash, or punish her own self too severely but just enough for Kurma to get off her back. “The group can take a vote of what to do with me.”
“Fine.” Kurma backed away and opened the door for O’bellaDonna. “Welcome to the tower formerly known as the Olivares.”
O’bellaDonna walked slowly up to Kurma. “What is it called now?”
“I was thinking something simple but symbolic,” Kurma smiled and said, “The Tower of K, of course.”
Chapter 14:
Food Source
Chelsea went looking for Michale in the gardens. He wasn’t speaking to her or any of them really. Kurma let him go about his day and he could be heard off in a penthouse sometimes at night. But Chelsea wanted to resolve their issues. She wouldn’t just ignore him, and hoped he would stop ignoring her.
She found him in the back of the gardens next to a shed throwing rocks.
“Stay away from me,” he said.
Chelsea stopped where she stood.
“I don’t care whatever it is that you are, just don’t come near me.”
“Michale, I am not a bad person,” Chelsea insisted.
“You stole my keys away from me. You locked Tommy out and can turn into a creature just like those Phantoms,” he finally looked Chelsea’s way. “You are probably just like those things outside!”
“We haven’t even thought of eating you!” she voiced.
“Yet!”
Chelsea calmed her voice. “Your friend hasn’t showed up. When he shows up then we will let him back in just as we said we would.”
“Don’t you get it?” he asked her. “He isn’t coming back and it’s my fault,” Michale said as he held back his tears.
Chelsea hated to see a grown man cry. “Can I tell you something?”
Michale stopped throwing rocks and nodded his head.
“I can’t see colors,” she confessed.
Michale looked to her and asked, “What is this thing that you are?”
“We are Raptors...winged creatures.”
“You all are colorblind?”
Chelsea finally admitted her secret out loud. “No, just me.”
“That’s gotta suck,” Michale said as he inched a little closer. “What do Raptors eat?”
“Insects, but mainly Phantoms though.”
Michale had heard it all. “So the Phantoms feed on humans and you Raptors feed on the Phantoms?”
Chelsea shook her head yes. “There are way more of them than us though, so it really doesn’t matter that we eat them.”
“Well maybe one of you Raptors will kill that bastard who started this all.”
Chelsea knew exactly who Michale was referring to. “Want to see what I can do?”
Michale smiled at Chelsea. He hadn’t smiled in days since Tommy left and his face took a bit of a second to adjust. “So you won’t hurt me? Raptors don’t eat humans?”
“I have never eaten a human in my life and don’t plan on ever doing that,” she said as she stepped to the nearest window. She motioned for him to come closer. “Look at me.”
Michale watched from behind as Chelsea Raptored before his eyes. Her body grew tall and thin, tearing her clothes away. The girl’s legs became hard and knocked-kneed and her feet turned to claws. Chelsea’s back became more defined before moss green hair sprouted over her body. Wings popped from the arms next, huge baby pink wings with magenta stripes and rimmed in black. Chelsea turned to him against the sun. Her face was covered in gray scales and her eyes were a pitch black with a white dot for the iris. Michale had never seen anything like it. She definitely didn’t look like a Phantom to him.
Chelsea pushed her blonde hair back away from her forehead. “Neat, huh?”
Michale finally let out a laugh, long and loud, he laughed and ran to her with his hand out. He felt her fur-like hair and her thin legs. She was huge, her body size had tripled and he had to look up to her to see her face clearly. He touched her wings last; they felt soft in his hands as he held them up to the light and watched the thin veins in her wing membrane. “Who else knows about this?”
“No one knows except my friends and now you.”
“And you eat Phantoms? You kill them?” he asked.
> Chelsea clarified things for him. The word kill was such a strong word. “For our food source we do hunt down Phantoms and when we eat them they do die.”
“Then you guys are all right with me,” Michale dropped the wing from his grasp. “I’m sure the people of Alexandria won’t mind you either.”
Chapter 15:
To The North
“Where is Chelsea?” O’bellaDonna asked the group. She was back in the tower in the control room.
“Look on the cameras.”
“It doesn’t matter,” O’bellaDonna started. “Look, I just want to tell you guys that I am sorry.”
Rimselda said, “You don’t have to apologize.”
“The hell she does,” Jackie intervened.
“I’m sorry that you guys did all the work. We were supposed to be a team and I kind of messed that up and for that I am sorry,” O’bellaDonna went on.
“You happy, Jackie? A nice little apology,” Rimselda teased.
Jackie unfolded her arms and smiled a little bit. “Don’t do that shit again Donna.”
O’bellaDonna raced to Jackie and embraced her with a big bear hug. Jackie tried to squirm away but the girl didn’t let up.
“So where have you been this whole time?” questioned Kurma.
O’bellaDonna stopped playing around and faced Kurma. “Well as I said earlier, I met somebody that I think you will like very much.”
“I’m listening.”
O’bellaDonna said, “I met a man named Chauncey Wilks last night. This morning I woke up in his house.”
“Did he do anything to you?” Rimselda asked with worry in her voice.
O’bellaDonna sucked her teeth at Rimselda. Who was going to mess with her? “No, Rimy, I’m all good. But, guess what I found out?”
“Wait, so is that why you went missing last night?” questioned Kurma. “You thought he was going to let you live with him or something?”
O’bellaDonna didn’t like how Kurma was reading her. She would have to be more careful around her because it seemed that Kurma caught on to things much quicker than the other girls.
“Absolutely not, Kurma,” lied O’bellaDonna. “Chauncey Wilks is the Mayor Chauncey Wilks. As in, the mayor of the city!”
“Get the hell out of here!” screamed Jackie. “You did not get the mayor.”
“No, she had the mayor and now she is back here,” Kurma said with a smirk on her face. “How does this help me?”