After a few minutes of waiting while I held my breath and no one came, I quickly took the padlock off the door and opened it up and quietly slipped in. Once inside, I slipped down the stairs without making a noise and navigated my way through the darkness with the hammer still in my hand. I made it into the first room to the right as the dim, lamp light illuminated the dirty room and I saw what my mother was trying to hide. I quickly figured out why staying out of the basement was one of the golden rules my mother made clear the second I was in her house.
When I got a clear view of the four naked kids, tied to beds with Santa hats on, I almost threw up in my own mouth. I had to cover my mouth with my hand to hold back my screams as I glanced over in the corner to see where the low moaning sound that I heard came from. I crept closer while I held my breath as a short, white man dressed in a Santa suit came into view, as he humped up and down inside of a little boy who was about nine and tied to the bed with candy cane colored ropes. I couldn’t contain my rage as I got within arm’s reach of the fucking rapist and suddenly saw my brother’s face on the child, who had turned to look in my direction. The dead look in his eyes was a look I had felt before but I knew it went so much deeper for him, being a man violated by a man. That is why I didn’t even think twice as I swung the hammer up into the air and came down with so much force, the sharp end went straight through his temple.
Blood splattered all over me and the boy as I went crazy and continued to hit the man over and over again in the face and neck with the claw end of the hammer. I pulled and ripped pieces of his flesh with every strike. I didn’t stop my fatal assault until the sound of the little boy crying snapped me back into reality, and I realized we had to go. I instantly jumped back into plan mode and untied the little boy’s hands and wrists while I watched the door to the basement.
As soon as I had him untied, the song to jingle bells filled the air and I figured out it was the creep’s phone as I went through his pockets. I motioned for the boy to go untie his sisters and brother as I continued to search the pedophile Santa’s pockets and found the phone. After getting out his phone, I waited until it stopped ringing before I called Terricka and Jerrod and told them to come because the war was on. I hung up and stashed the phone in my bra before I walked over to help the boy finish untying his older sisters and younger brother.
From the scars, cuts, wounds, and bodily fluids on the kids and the deep sorrow and lost looks in their eyes, I knew they had been through even worse than we had. They, too, had suffered because of my mother’s sins and I was ready for that shit to end. I could see nothing but all of the lives she had destroyed, as I made sure the kids could talk and walk before I sent them out of the basement door.
“Hi, I’m Tisha. I’m here to help yawl. Are yawl okay? Can yawl talk? How long has she had yawl down here and what have they done to yawl?” I asked them all at once, anxious to get them talking and ensure they were alright.
I watched as they all turned to the tall dark-skinned one with short curly hair and big grey eyes before speaking, and made sure it was okay with her if they spoke to me. They reminded me so much of me and Sha looking to Terricka for guidance in every situation because we knew she could always think of a way out. Too bad I didn’t have her then, as I stood there shaking on the onside while being brave on the outside, as four kids expected me to help them. I had to be the mature me, even though I still needed help myself. I walked over to the tool shelves in the basement and sifted through things, looking for weapons. I found a beautiful hunting knife in one of the drawers, which I quickly tied in the pocket of my pajamas using the string.
By that time, the kids had discussed it while they watched me search the shelves, and they were ready to talk to me.
“I’m MeMe, and this is my twin sister NiNi and my little brothers, Xavier and Rodney,” the tall girl said and pointed at the little boy I had saved when she said Rodney.
I quickly found out MeMe was just a year younger than me and already had her permit from when she lived in a foster home. Just like me and my siblings, her and her sister and brothers had been taken from their crack head abusive mother many times too, but just like us, they were returned each time to suffer for their mother’s sins. So, after hearing lots of movement over our heads and thinking I could be caught down there in a vulnerable position at any time, I went back over to the freak dressed like Santa and searched his pockets for his keys.
I quickly found a key ring with an alarm on it and handed it to MeMe, as she told her sister and brothers to get ready to run. I walked them over to the basement door and unlocked the latch from the inside to find the padlock on the outside was gone. Lucky for us, the door sprung right open and no one was outside in the back to see us. I stuck my hand holding the keys out of the door and pushed the alarm and caused the lights to go off and horn to honk in a little red Volkswagen. I knew that was the car, so I motioned for the kids to go after I surveyed the yard again, and MeMe instructed them to run fast as hell. She stopped at the door in front of me, just as her sister made it into the car and quietly closed the door of the backseat.
“Why aren’t you coming with us, you should come. They’ll hurt you when they find out you helped us. We bring in a lot of money that will be missed. You better be careful,” MeMe said as I shook my head no.
She just didn’t understand that the years of hate brewing inside of me had created a malice so strong, nothing could overshadow it. I wasn’t the least bit worried about my mother or what her and her fat bitch ass boyfriend would do to me because there was nothing worse she could do. She was the one who should have been worried.
“Don’t worry about me, you just get out of here. Take that money I found in the fucker’s pocket and get yawl asses to the police station. Find Officer Black and tell her I sent you. Tell her I was right all along and you all can confirm my story. Tell her it’s too late now though and that the system failed us for the last time. Tell her, thank you. Now go!” I said to MeMe as I pushed her out of the door.
Meme broke out in full stride as she ran across the yard before she suddenly stopped and jogged back over to the door. She had a very weird look in her eyes as she stood face-to-face with me and breathed loudly out of her mouth. I tried to figure out what was so important that she came back as I waited on her to speak.
“I just had to come back to tell you some things. Since you want me to go to the police station and tell them our stories, I feel I should tell you first. My mother is an evil bitch, just like yours, who brought us to this house over six months ago. For the first few days while the social workers were in the house, she pretended to be the best mom in the world and she had me fooled like she had her shit together. All of that ended though, the second your mother and Lee came back to the house.
That night, they brought a man back home with them and my mother and your mother made me and NiNi party with them. They made us drink so much liquor and smoke so much weed, I didn’t know where I was at. That was all a part of their plan though because later that night, I woke up to Lee on top of me as the man forced himself on my sister and our mothers watched. Your mother told me that we would be joining the world’s oldest profession and that as long as we had a pussy and took care of it, we would have something that would sell, even when cotton didn’t.
I protested and fought them but it did no good because I was outnumbered. They beat me so bad that night, I couldn’t walk for eight days. Even though I couldn’t walk though, your mother still sent men to my room around the clock to violate me in every way possible. I just wanted to die, especially when I found out the same thing was happening to my brothers. At that point, I thought that things could not get much worse, but it did. Right after Thanksgiving, we were moved down here to the basement and we laid tied to those beds for over twelve hours every day until your mother set up her studio, as she called it. Her studio was actually just props and a camera that she set up right there to record kiddie porn,” MeMe said as she pointed to a big fluffy brown ted
dy bear that had a camera stashed into the stomach.
I felt sick and flustered as I realized my mother had moved her evilness up and notch and was now videoing the evil shit she did. I couldn’t believe how she was such a freak and stupid enough to leave that type of evidence. That was so not like her because it was sloppy, however, it was the perfect advantage for me.
My mind instantly started working as I stood there and tears streamed down my face, and I held MeMe’s hand and listened to the rest of her story.
“That’s not the worse though, when that camera was on, there was absolutely no rules. Lee started to make me and my siblings do nasty things to each other for the videos and that’s when I saw a change in your mother. Only then did I even think of her as human. She pleaded with Lee and my mother to stop one night, I think it was around December the first. I could hear them all arguing through the floor boards as your mother told them how enough was enough and she wanted to change to get her kids back. At that point, I think they were in too deep and the money was too good, so my mother and Lee didn’t want to hear it. For the first time that night, I heard Lee beat your mother like a dog and I knew that he was really in control.
Late that night, your mother came to me and cried her eyes out while she told me how sorry she was. She tried to get us out that night, but Lee caught her and beat her again. For days after that, I didn’t see her until one day, she came in to tell me about you and how she was getting you back. She said everything would change for the better and gave me a letter she said she wrote to you. She said the letter would help me to understand and see that she wasn’t all bad.
After that, she was the only hope we had. She would sneak down and bring us food and let us out to stretch our limbs. It was one of those times she had let us out that I wrote you a letter and sent it, along with her letter, to your address at the Robinson’s house. I sent you that letter before I knew you would actually come. I’m glad you came though because without you, I think we would have been locked up forever. Thank you, Tisha. I just had to tell you all of that because I felt you needed to know. Unlike my mother, yours has started to see where she fucked up, although it may be too little too late. Just know, Tisha, that she is sick and those niggas don’t help at all. I don’t know what you want to do with this information, but I had to tell you. I’m so sorry for all you went through, but you have to know it all was for a reason because if it didn’t happen, who would have saved us?” MeMe asked as tears streamed down my face, and I went over all she had said in my head.
My heart wanted me to dwell on what she had said about my mother. A part of me wanted to give her another chance and get that love that I always wanted. However, a stronger part of me wanted to finish the plan and at that time, that part won.
“Where are the tapes, MeMe? We need those tapes,” I said as I wiped the tears from my face with the back of my hand and went over to the camera to search.
MeMe came in and helped me as we searched the room for the tapes. After a few minutes, I found a crate stashed under the stairs with dozens of video tapes that had Fun written on them. I quickly took a couple out and stashed them in my pants before I handed MeMe the crate.
“Take this to the police too, they have to believe you. I’m so sorry all of this had to happen and I wish we could have met under better circumstances, but just like you said, everything has happened for a reason. My pain has led to you and your siblings being saved, so I’d say it was all worth it. Now, get the fuck up out of here,” I said and pushed MeMe out of the basement door as she told me thank you over and over again.
I watched as she took a step across the yard and then turned to look at me before she continued to talk.
“I’m gonna be praying for you Tisha, praying you are okay. There’s a gun in the right drawer in the kitchen, along with bullets. Get it, you will need it,” MeMe said before she ran to the car, jumped in, and pulled off, as I slammed the door closed behind her.
As soon as the door closed, I wiped away the tear that had slithered down my face, knowing that I had saved some kids from a lifetime of pain like we went through. I felt relieved but not fully because I knew I couldn’t rest until I had the devil’s blood on my hands. I felt invisible as I made my way back up the basement steps with the hunting knife tied inside my pants and hate in my heart, headed straight into the belly of the beast.
“Here I come bitch, now we will see who has the power,” I said out loud to the evil force I called mother and to whom I was ready to destroy.
I left that basement that day a shadow of my mother because I knew the only thing that could defeat darkness was a force darker with a heart of light. I was that force and I was about to destroy the darkness that had cursed my entire life. Or so I thought.
Chapter 12
When I got upstairs, the loud music and thick crack, weed, and heroin smoke mixture hit me hard as hell and caused my eyes to water. I pulled the rim of my shirt up over my nose to breathe through, as I made my way through the sea of junky zombies that loitered in the hall. Everywhere I looked there was a crackhead, either smoking or snorting something as they smiled like mindless idiots. I felt totally revolted as I made my way to the kitchen drawer MeMe told me about to retrieve the gun that would end my nightmare.
As I searched for the gun, I thought about how I had planned an elaborate plan where we would wait until the night and kidnap Denise and Lee, and take them to my grandma’s old house to torture them. I had some real fucked up shit planned for them but after I found those kids like that and heard that was what my mother was building up to when she pimped me and my sister out, I knew that I was not going to see that through.
With all of the hate and vivid memories of what happened to those kids, those little boys at that, played in my head, I knew that there was no way I could wait to get my revenge whenever I saw her. No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, I couldn’t because I couldn’t wait to make her feel the pain she deserved. I would kill her right there in that house, in front of dozens of witnesses and I didn’t give a fuck. I knew once I had that gun in my hand, all hope for a plan was lost and I was right.
As soon as I opened the drawer and spotted the black .380 lying next to a box of bullets, I felt a jolt of angry energy that took over me. I quickly loaded the gun and stuck a handful of shells into my left pajama pants pocket, followed by the loaded gun in the right. I walked through the living room like a zombie, consumed by my anger, with one objective and that was finding my mother. I went to the last spot I had saw her lying naked on the floor with a man and a woman, only to find the man and woman still there but my mother gone. My instincts led me from there to the front of the house and then up the steps to the second floor.
On the second floor landing, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up, like someone was watching me as I quickly took the gun out of my pocket and removed the safety. I peered around through the darkness, only to find I was alone before I even thought to advance. I put my back to the wall and made my way down the hall and watched both sides, while taking short, shallow breaths.
I quickly tried each door knob of the doors that I passed. I opened them and peeked inside the rooms with my gun held out, only to find no one. Finally, I got to the last room on the right, which had to be my mother’s, and opened it slowly to find no one inside. I glanced around at the room in disgust, reminded of my childhood just from seeing that room. The room was a mess with clothes, shoes, trash, drug wrappers, and old food sprawled everywhere, but there was no sign of my mother or her fucked up ass boyfriend.
I turned to leave the room just as a picture stuck on the mirror caught my eye. I had to double back and wade through the piles of trash on the floor of the room to get to that picture. When I got there and saw a picture of me, my mama, Terricka, and Sha smiling all happy and looking like a real family and shit when Sha was first born, I almost lost my nerve to do what had to be done. I almost let the good feeling associated with that very brief moment of happiness with my
mother overshadow all of the selfish, horrible shit she had done.
I say almost because that shit didn’t work. Within seconds, my sense had kicked back in and I was back on my gangsta shit. I tore my mother off the picture and stuck the remaining piece into my pocket as I made my way back downstairs. Everything was eerily quiet, except for the music when I got back downstairs. I stopped at the door to the living room and looked inside before going in because I wasn’t sure what or who could be waiting around the corner.
I peeked inside to find only about three people standing around, smoking out of glass pipes and drinking. It seemed something had happened to thin everyone but the real smokers out, and I wanted to find out why. I didn’t have to want long as I walked through the hall leading to the basement to find the door wide open. I knew right then that my mama and Lee knew what I had done and that the fight was on.
I prepared to light up any muthafucka who ran out of that basement as I walked back, in an attempt to put my back on the wall. As soon as I took one step back, I felt something hit me in the back of the head. It dazed me for a second before I quickly spun around and bussed. I hit Lee once in the stomach, as he fell back into the hall and the crackheads in the house screamed and ran out.
I stumbled forward, dizzy as fuck from the blow, and peered over to see Lee laid there with his eyes open and smiling as he looked straight ahead. I had no idea what he was looking at but as I suddenly turned around and faced the basement door, I found out when Denise hit me in the face hard as hell with something heavy and flat. I was able to squeeze off one round before my body and the gun hit the floor, and I was out like a light. Seconds later, Terricka screamed my name as Jerrod carried me to the car.
SINS OF THY MOTHER 3 Page 12