by M. O. McLeod
“I just told you that I was at his house,” O’bellaDonna raised her voice a little bit.
“Did you get kicked out of his house?” Kurma questioned O’bellaDonna’s real intentions. “He wasn’t charmed by you.”
O’bellaDonna huffed and puffed. “If you really wanna know Kurma, then yes, that is exactly what happened.”
“Why didn’t you just say that then?”
“Why are you always trying to bust my bubble?”
“Don’t try coming back in here like you still have clout, because you don’t.”
“Thank you for letting me know that Kurma,” O’bellaDonna voice reached a high pitch and a vein in the middle of her forehead pulsated. “I did what you asked and now I’m being chewed out for it.”
“I asked you to find a heavy-weight here inside the tower and to bring him to me, not sleep with him and go to his house!” Kurma screamed back. “This isn’t helping us at all.”
O’bellaDonna was about to scream back but was interrupted by Rimselda.
“I think we might be able to do something with this Kurma,” she said. “You did say that you wanted the mayor a few weeks back. Think about it. She knows where he stays. We could show up and have a look around.”
Kurma rolled her eyes and balled her fist tight. “I can go take a look in anybody’s house. How does that help me out? I will ask that every time someone else offers another useless idea.”
Jackie spoke up finally, “Put him in your pocket.”
“What?” the group asked in unison.
“The mayor has a problem at the moment,” explained Jackie. “Does anyone know what that problem is?”
“Phantoms,” Rimselda offered her input.
“Bingo,” continued Jackie. “What do Raptors do to Phantoms?”
“Eat them,” Rimselda was getting closer.
“We go to the mayor and offer him a proposition that he can’t refuse,” Jackie said.
“We fix his Phantom problem in the city and he does something for us in return,” said Kurma who was beginning to catch on. The wheels in her head were spinning, hatching a plan.
“What can the mayor do for us?” asked O’bellaDonna.
“So why did you even bring him up in the first place,” Kurma aimed her annoyance at O’bellaDonna. “Just sit back and look pretty Donna. Let us think for now.”
O’bellaDonna wanted to reach out and slap Kurma, but instead she got up and left the room. She had had enough of the girls and couldn’t even believe how far Jackie made her way up Kurma’s butt. O’bellaDonna thought that was Rimselda’s job.
Back in the control room the three remaining girls put their heads together and thought of a plan for the mayor.
“I think that the mayor could provide better security for us when we do go out,” Rimselda offered her input.
“What about like, giving us a key to the city once we get all the Phantoms off the street,” Jackie threw in.
“There are too many Phantoms to get them off the streets,” said Kurma.
“The mayor won’t know that though,” Jackie retorted back.
“So we just act like we are trying to fight off the Phantoms with the police and the RAID and we end up looking like the heroes,” Kurma stated.
Jackie nodded her head. “Now you are thinking.”
“But guys, are we just going to out ourselves like that?” questioned Rimselda. “You don’t think that people will want us gone too?”
Kurma already had the answer. “The mayor has a bigger problem to deal with. We go to his house where he feels most comfortable and instruct him to make an announcement for everyone to see. You know, public service thing, however he wants to do it,” Kurma voice came out loud and clear. “We tell him to reassure the city that there is a way to clean up the streets and to take the city back.” She began to pace back and forth. “We will be like the little voice in his head.”
Jackie questioned Kurma. “What do we ask for in return?”
“We will have immunity in the city. No one is to harm a Raptor, no one is to question a Raptor, nor can the Raptor be charged with any kind of allegations,” Kurma clarified. “We tell the mayor we can help him out after and only after he makes the announcement to the public.”
“Maybe you should be there when he makes the announcement to make sure he is doing as we tell him to,” Rimselda said.
Jackie smiled big, “Yes, Rimy, good thinking. Kurma I’m thinking that you should even show your face and be standing by him when he talks. Like, you know how when someone important gives a speech and there are men in the back standing there looking official. You should be standing in.”
“You think he will go for it?” Kurma asked. She was beginning to feel excited.
“It’s the best plan I’ve heard in a while,” Jackie spoke up.
“We just got to get to him before a Phantom decides to get smart and gets him on their side,” Rimselda said.
“This could absolutely work.”
“O’bellaDonna might have come through after all,” said Kurma.
“Told you to let her back in,” mocked Rimselda. “Just think if you had kept her outside.
“I’m going to have the mayor of the city in my pocket,” Kurma said quietly to herself.
“Enough dreaming,” yelled Jackie as she walked by Kurma, smacking her butt as she exited the door.
“Tell O’bellaDonna to come on and find Chelsea too,” Rimselda shouted to Jackie. “I would hate to be a Phantom after this,” stated Rimselda. She moved closer to Kurma and the two girls leaned against the desk, shoulder to shoulder.
“Rimy, I’m glad you are here with me.”
“Me too,” said Rimselda.
Kurma said, “It’s about to get even crazier in the city of Alexandria.”
***
The Raptors walked in a group, turning down corridors and walking up the tower’s stairwells.
“You are sure that Michale is cool with us?” Kurma asked Chelsea.
“He is definitely on our side now,” Chelsea answered. “I took care of that for you Kurma.”
Kurma peered out the side of her eye at the short blonde girl. Chelsea was beginning to change since Nina was gone. When Kurma had changed Chelsea into a Raptor back in Snowhill she had wanted her to be more assertive. Before, Chelsea was Nina’s lapdog, and now it seemed that Chelsea was starting to change into her own woman.
“I just hope that he doesn’t do something stupid, like lock us out of our own tower,” Jackie barged into the conversation.
“Do you think someone should stay with Michale?” Rimselda asked.
“Any volunteers?”
“There is no way that I am missing this,” Jackie spit.
“I got to show y’all where the mayor lives, so I’m out,” said O’bellaDonna.
“Rimselda?” asked Kurma.
Rimselda screwed her face up. “I was just asking, that doesn’t mean I was offering up myself!”
“Fine, I will stay with him,” said Chelsea.
Jackie gasped, “What a shocker that was.”
The group laughed and everything seemed back normal between the girls since O’bellaDonna returned.
“You’re just mad because Michale was way downer than your ole’ boy,” Rimselda teased.
“I don’t know who you are talking about,” Jackie played dumb.
Chelsea stopped walking and said, “Well, I will see you guys when you get back. Don’t get into too much trouble. And remember, it’s night out and that means the Phantoms are up.” Chelsea waved the girls off and turned to head back.
The four remaining girls stood on the roof of the tower preparing for takeoff.
“She is for sure crushing hard on Michale,” Jackie said.
“So what?” asked O’bellaDonna. “Everybody needs a little bit of love from time to time.”
“Well, we all know that you have had your share,” Jackie teased.
“Like you haven’t!”
Jackie ignored O’bellaDonna and concentrated on Raptoring her body. Her dark purple hair came first; the brown and bronze scales formed on her face second, Jackie’s light brown eyes turned a high yellow and her light-green wings popped out last. She jumped high in the air and the wings sprang forth.
“Unlike you Donna, I am way more discreet about my lovers,” Jackie shouted down to the girls.
The sound of wings were heard next as the girls transformed on the ground and flew high up into the night’s sky. The night was frosty but the girls didn’t feel it. They flew in a pack with Kurma up front and O’bellaDonna pointing the way. There were lights gleaming as the girls flew from downtown Alexandria into the north side. The buildings were still intact here on this side, no fires and smoke, no turned over cars and trucks. There were no abandoned streets where the pitch black became even darker when the Phantoms walked through. The sounds of chaos quieted down in the north were police barricaded the streets off. The girls flew with the stream of traffic down below, high in the clouds.
“Take the lead Donna,” Kurma yelled over to her friend.
Before long, O’bellaDonna had glided lower to the ground, landing on a quiet street nestled on top of a steep hill. There were houses on the street, but set far apart and they all seemed to be immense. “That one,” said O’bellaDonna. She pointed to a house with a single porch light on far up on the left side of the hill.
The girls set off. Kurma noticed the streets were paved smooth, no potholes or rubble on the streets of north Alexandria. Even high up on the hill Kurma still couldn’t see the rest of Alexandria, the other part of the city that was shut down and dying.
“Knock on the door,” Kurma instructed O’bellaDonna.
“Nope, you do it,” she retorted back.
Kurma snapped, “You the one that’s supposed to know him.”
“I don’t know him like that. I wouldn’t even have used the front door. Let’s go to the back.”
Kurma asked, “The back? Are we gonna rob them now?”
“Will y’all both shut up,” hissed Jackie in a low voice. She pushed both the girls out the way and knocked hard twice on the door and rang the doorbell for good measure.
The girls’ listened as footsteps came towards the door. Light came from the house as the door was opened by a thick woman dressed in a maid’s attire. The maid’s eyes zeroed in on the girls and glazed over. The lady’s mouth opened in a round circle and a small sound escaped from her mouth as she fell hard backwards.
Kurma lunged her Raptor leg up and stepped over the lady into the house of Mayor Chauncey Wilks, ducking her huge head as she went in and the rest of the Raptors followed.
***
Mayor Wilks heard a crash of a noise come from the front. “What the devil was that?” His wife threw down her napkin and started to get up but was stopped by his piercing glare. “Stay here and I will go see what happened.” His wife sat back down and looked towards the hallway leading out the dining room. “Luanne, is everything all right?” He asked out loud in a fright. Ever since that girl had left his house he was on edge. He should have never slept with her. His old ways were starting to catch up to him.
“Go check it out Chauncey!” his wife screamed.
“Margie, I got this,” the mayor put some bass in his voice. He stepped from the table and left the room, sneaking quietly down the hallway. He peeked his head around the corner and caught shadows on the wall. Huge shadows that looked deformed and shadows that looked to be something that wasn’t human. The mayor almost pissed himself. He stalked back into the dining room. “Baby, go upstairs and bring me my gun, then call the police.”
“Shouldn’t I call the police first though?” she asked with fear in her voice. “Who is it? Are there Phantoms in the house?” Margie loudly pushed her chair away from the table in a rush and ran from the table.
“Ssshhhh! Not so damn loud woman,” the mayor said to the back of his wife’s head. “Remember to bring the gun,” he whispered. The swinging door was the only thing moving as he stood still waiting for his wife to return. But the mayor heard them coming and knew that he couldn’t stay in the room for long. Were they all over the house? Maybe he could hold them off for a while.
He was met with a strange sight as soon as he made his way into the kitchen. A naked girl walked into his line of vision and paralyzed him where he stood. She slipped oven mitts onto her hands and smoothed her long wavy hair over the front of her chest. The girl had plump, wide set lips and thick eyebrows with almond shaped eyes. She was tall with olive-colored skin and young, too young for him, but he still stared.
“Don’t just stand there Mayor Wilks,” the girl said. “Go wake that maid up and tell her to get me and my friends some clothes to put on.”
The mayor sputtered when he said his next words, “Who are you and what are you doing in my house?”
The pretty girl walked to him as if about to introduce herself. She extended her hand to the mayor who went to shake it. The girl yanked her hand away and yelled in his face.
“I’m not going to ask you again!” she screamed and pushed him backwards into the wall. “Go get your damn maid and don’t make me tell you again!”
Chapter 16:
Trick of Nature
Rimselda was the last to receive clothes. The maid gave her a nice plaid dress, a dress that she had seen older women wear; older women with money who wore big hats and carried little pocketbooks. She felt sophisticated when she put it on and felt bad because she knew it would only rip away once she Raptored.
The mayor sat in a chestnut colored arm chair across from the girls. “I remember you,” he said as he pointed at O’bellaDonna. “You just couldn’t get enough. But I was serious when I said that I was done with you.”
Rimselda didn’t think it was in the mayor’s best interest to antagonize O’bellaDonna or any of the girls. She just hoped he would smarten up.
“Mayor Wilks,” Kurma butted in. “My name is Kurma. Have you ever heard of me before?”
The mayor turned to Kurma and gave her a strange look. Rimselda watched as the mayor tried to rack his brain and come up with nothing.
“That is because I have not wanted you to hear about me,” Kurma said.
“Are you somebody special?”
“Why do you think that you are not tied up and gagged?” Kurma answered his question with another question.
“Because this is my damn house!” he yelled out loud. “I will have you know that the police are on their way.”
“I have not tied you up because you are in no harm,” she explained. “I mean no harm, seriously.”
“Yet, you are in my house without permission. You are trespassing and I will press charges.”
“I’m here tonight, my friends and I, because I have a proposition.”
The mayor said, “As I told your little friend over there, I am not putting her or you, any of you, up in a house somewhere. I’m not going to foot the bill and I’m definitely not a fool, you can best believe that young lady!”
“You will be a fool to not hear me out,” Kurma countered. “We don’t need you to give us shelter, feed us, none of that. But you do need us.”
“You are just as delusional as that girl,” the mayor spat. “You think I need you? Who are you? I have millions of dead bodies on my streets; thousands more are turning into my worst enemies who are trying to get into my side of the town. I have real problems little girl.”
Kurma nodded her head at his words. “I understand all of that.”
“No!” shouted the mayor. “You listen to me,” he said as he leaned forward in his chair, getting riled up. “You break into my home and bring me some nonsense about me needing you. You need me more than I will ever need you. You need me to make this city safe, the city that we once knew. You need me to save your mothers and fathers and stop the violence that has risen up against the innocent. You need me to get the Phantoms off the streets and out of Alexandria. You know what I nee
d? I need all you misinformed little girls to get the hell out of my house so I can get a good night’s sleep. So that I can go back out there and make the city safe for you.”
Rimselda sat back against the couch and looked to Kurma. The mayor had said a lot and a whole bunch of nothing. It was time that Kurma put the mayor in his place.
“Are you done mayor?” asked Kurma.
“Are you?” He asked loudly as he sat heavily back in his chair.
“On the contrary, mayor, I have just begun,” Kurma stated. “I know that you don’t really believe that I broke into your house just to demand a place to stay and to beg you to get the Phantoms off the street.”
“So why are you here?”
“Finally, I have your undivided attention,” she said. “I believe you have a little problem with the Phantoms.”
“More like a big problem if you haven’t noticed.”
“Oh I noticed, but what if I told you that I could make that big problem into a small problem and that small problem into no problem at all.” Kurma enticed him.
The mayor scowled at the girls. Rimselda scowled back. She didn’t like this man and wouldn’t hide how she felt. But if Kurma wanted to have more clout in the city then making powerful friends would be a must and Rimselda would not intervene.
“How so?” he questioned Kurma.
“Here is what you will have to do first for us.”
“I’m trying to figure out how is it that you think you can help me and on top of that I have to do something for you first.”
“Correct.”
“Either you must know one of the Phantoms,” said the mayor, then he clamped his hands to his mouth, “You,” he gasped. “You are that girl from the news, the girl that maniac was talking about.”
Kurma stood up and bowed to the mayor, “In the flesh. That is why I am here, to help you win back the city. In return, I want full protection from the Phantoms. No one is to question my methods of ridding the city of them. I will not have to answer to the police, the RAID, no one, me and my friends. The police and the RAID will have to work with me, not against me. You will tell the citizens, all of them–that anyone like my friends and I, are to have immunity in the city of Alexandria. You will take me along whenever you have an important announcement, meeting, conference call, whatever, I will be there. I will become your advisor when dealing with the Phantoms.”
“And you will do this for me how?” asked the mayor.