by Brick
“Naw, man,” I interrupted. “You just relax, because mi casa es su casa.”
I walked up to him, and continued my torture on him. Injecting him with poison and doing to him exactly what he did to my brother and to Angel, except in pain. I took the time to use a scalpel and tweezers to peel the flesh back from his face on one side. From his bottom eyelid all the way down his face, I peeled. By the time I was done, Micah was back upside down hanging. His flesh lay hanging off him and I finishing cleaning off his blood from my gloves.
“Money . . . I can get you . . .” he drawled out, choking on his blood.
A smirk spread across my face and I shook my head. “You chill the fuck out. We’ll continue this shit later. One.”
I closed the door and locked it behind me as I whistled. I knew he’d scream, but it wouldn’t matter; no one would hear a thing.
It was another hour before I headed back to my condo. I cleaned up before I left the drop house. I dressed in all black again and discarded the evidence of my demented talents. I was still in a dark mood when I stepped into my crib and saw Angel on top of my brother. I was already seeing red. What replaced it was something worse, something darker. I wasn’t into putting my hands on broads, but in this moment, all I saw was her fucking my brother again.
Like the bitch was a fucking pedophile nympho? After everything, the game was just what it was? All the drugs and shit pumped in her, after what she had said, she now was accepting the bullshit and fucking my kid brother? That shit wasn’t about to go down on my watch, in my fucking home at that, so I rushed her and fucked her up. I snatched her by her fucking hair and smacked her as hard as I could without breaking her fucking jaw. She gave me a good fight back, but I wasn’t even caring about it. The more she fought back, the angrier I became. Like what the fuck in her psyche made her think it was okay to do that to a boy? A kid?
I grabbed her by her throat as she lashed out at me, hitting me with everything she had: closed fists, slaps, scratches and kicks. I could hear myself calling her every whore and bitch I thought her to be. My hands connected to her face and body over and over. Everything had been put on replay for me and all I wanted was to break that bitch’s neck.
It was like Micah’s voice was in my head and I could hear his laughter as I stood in the hallway of my condo. Bitch played me up the middle and now my kid brother was in front of me defending her sick shit.
“Get out my way, Drew!” I hissed out, nostrils flaring, chest rising up and down in fury.
He held me back as best he could, shouting at me to chill. “It ain’t even like that.”
“It ain’t like what, Drew? Angel fucking you again, touching you again, huh?” I shouted out. It felt like my soul was peeling from my flesh in agony at the thought.
“Naw, but you sure is fucking her right? I get it though; a ho for everyone right?” Drew snidely responded.
My head tilted to the side at what he said and it had me backing down. “Fuck you mean, nigga?”
“You heard me, nigga,” he said in the same tone as me.
We stood glaring at each other like twins. I was taller and well built but Drew was growing up just as strong and stocky as me.
“Oh shit, so you on some broken heart bullshit huh? You get your dick wet for the first time, when you fucking shouldn’t have, and now you in love? Why the fuck you here anyway, li’l dude?”
Drew’s anger flashed across his face and I saw his fist come my way. I ducked and body blocked him before glaring at Angel who came running out.
“Enzo! Shawn, please stop. It’s not what you’re thinking. I wasn’t doing . . .” Angel pleaded, trying to get through to me, but all I heard was air.
The pain in her eyes, the fear, and look of abandonment couldn’t even get to me in that moment. I was in blackout mode and there was no coming out of it.
“Back up off us. I ain’t got shit to do with you no more,” I growled out.
Drew struggled as I held him over my shoulder moving down the hall, until I made it down to the parking lot. Sirens were everywhere and I didn’t want to draw attention to us. I’d seen them when I came in, but didn’t need the attention so I kept it moving.
“Get the fuck in the car, Drew,” I ordered, dropping him down near my ride. He glared at me, but he knew to get in that shit just like I said.
I got in behind him then pulled off. We made our way out of the garage. I thought we would have to go through some shit, but luckily the cop they had guarding the exit was a Nightwings fan. For a picture and an autograph, he let me through with no problems. Once we were out of harm’s way, I could see Drew straining hard to see what was going on.
“Looking for something?” I asked as we drove away.
“Yeah: a fuck you.” Drew grumbled and sat back.
“You know what, fuck you too. Don’t start being a fuck up, because that only makes shit worse for you and this fam, nigga. So you killing people now?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road.
“How you fucking know what I’m doing or not?” Drew spat out then abruptly shifted up to look at me. “You fucking her!”
“Check it, one, you left a fucking body down with a sloppy kill in the area where Angel parks her ride. I was coming in when I saw that, nigga. What you did was sloppy as fuck. And I know it was you because Angel is too chicken shit to kill anybody. Nobody else knows who Kruger is around here so that only leaves you. I’m not here to clean up after you, nigga. If you going to be in your dick and start killing niggas you need to be smart with that shit. You can’t just be killing niggas for fun.”
“I ain’t kill that nigga for fun. He was trying to get Angel.”
“And you were feeling like you were invincible I guess?” Drew glared at me. I kept talking. “And me and Angel fucked, so you mad?” I said in spite.
Drew swung forward catching my jaw, it had me swerving the car and pulling over to connect my fist in his face. We went at each other, in the car, just like that before stopping and glaring at each other, breathing hard in anger.
I licked my lips and shook my head. “Why are you coming at me like you stupid?”
“Why you leave us hanging?” Drew countered.
My eyes closed before I pulled off again. “I had to do some shit I ain’t want to do for this family and now it looks like you doing sloppy stupid shit; why?”
“Because,” was all Drew said.
“You need to get Angel out of you because she ain’t yours to keep, or have. She’s her own, and what y’all did wasn’t lovemaking, or fucking. It was straight-up rape. You need to understand that,” I said looking at Drew.
“Why you fuck her then?” he countered again, and I almost punched him in his throat.
“Look, this is me and you. Ain’t nothing separating us because we got love and we got blood, period. Loyalty is to you and my fam. Me and her fucked because we just did. I know you feeling her, but she ain’t going to get with a thirteen-year-old. That shit just ain’t going to happen.”
“Yeah, but you don’t know—”
I interrupted him. “She’s not going to get down like that period and it ain’t just ’cause I said so; it’s factual. You shoulda had your dick wet by some girl your age, a shorty who was feeling you and you was feeling her and it was agreed on between you two, period. Ain’t nothing you did cool. Nothing. But check it: her heart is, io’no. But look, she’ll be your friend but don’t expect shit else but that, it just can’t and won’t work.”
“How do you know?”
“You see how she avoids you like the plague now? That means she ain’t seeing you the way you see her. You can’t be with her. You can’t fuck her.”
“But you two can?” he asked.
Staring at my baby brother, I was trying to get to his mental and help him understand the situation. What he’d done was really fucking with me on many levels. It had me going over many things in my mind with my link to Angel. She and I had a history, one where we survived fucking around with that nigga D
ame. Both of us survived that shit with cuts, bruises, and battle wounds to count. Trying to leave that life behind hadn’t been as easy as we thought it would be. The fact that my brother just went balls in the paint for Angel had me thinking hard. It had me realizing just how similar he and I were.
Shit, it wasn’t that far back when Angel was dropped back into my life that I’d promised I would look after her, and I’d kept my word. It wasn’t easy for me to sit there while watching my brother change through the seeds of pain and fucking insanity that now were placed into his spirit. Damn, I knew what that was like. I had tried to protect him from it, but here we were. Wasn’t nothing I could do about it but try to help him through it.
Which was why I sat there working up the words to get my brother back on an even plane. I wanted to help him see that what went down between him and Angel was some fucked-up sick and twisted shit used as a means of manipulation.
After coming down from my anger, that pain that lived in my mind and soul like a second person, I realized what was really going on. Angel fought hard with me to make me see it, going so deep to remind me about how Dame was, and how he groomed females. Now my baby brother was a result of the game this nigga was playing, and we all were being forced to do shit that none of us ever wanted. It hurt to the core of who I was, and only added to the levels of insanity that was eating at me.
My baby brother was me, and I was him. Two devils growing into monsters. I had to save some of his light as much as I could. I had to and I would do whatever to make sure he never turned into me, or worse.
I could see hurt in his eyes but I could see an understanding. “Man, I don’t even know what we’re doing. We ain’t doing shit. We fucked. I needed pussy, she needed dick, and we both agreed to that together. You’ll understand that one day.”
Drew sat quietly in thought. I shook my head and took the car to where I had Micah. I didn’t say nothing but told him to get out.
“What’s this place? Why the hell you got me here, big bro?” Drew asked.
His questions were pissing me the fuck off, but I keep it pushing. “If you want to be a fucking man, you need to act like it. If you gonna be a fucking killa you need to be smart about it. I can’t stop you from doing what you gonna do, nigga, but you will listen and you will do things smart, like a man and not like a kid whose heart broke. Micah fucked us all up. He took from you, so I’m taking from him.”
Drew watched me in confusion, following me through the house. I led him downstairs then opened the door.
“Micah! Wassup, nigga, or down I should say. You looking mad pale, my man, and a little thirsty. Let me help you with that.”
I had Drew stand back and I walked in, adjusted the chains around Micah so he could shift from his downward hanging position, to standing up and facing us. I could tell he wanted to say something but couldn’t, which had me smiling. Walking forward, I took a large glass, filled it with warm water from the tap, and held it up so he could drink. I watched him struggle to get to the rim and I felt my brother’s eyes on us.
In that moment I was the devil, and I whipped out a towel, dropped it over Micah’s face, watched him kick and struggle to breathe. The worse of it came when I turned that big glass of water over and let it stream down over his face. Micah’s screams became louder as he began to drown in my waterboarding tactic. I let that go on for about a couple of minutes before stepping back and tilting my head for Drew to step all the way in.
A stillness came over my little brother before he walked in. I moved to close the door behind us. This began his first lesson in my way of war.
I sat him down, schooled him on what I learned E.N.G.A. meant, and then began to let him get whatever anger, pain, and madness that was growing into him out on Micah. I could see he liked a lot of what he did, but I took him to the side and gave him real talk on what we were. We were killers, but we weren’t murderers. Our kills will be nothing like those who come for us, but the pain, the insanity, they definitely were going to get. He listened to me for hours before I was finished. I didn’t know what he was thinking after all we had done. I couldn’t read my little brother in the moment. He was like me for sure. We were both deep in thought, getting high off the tortuous acts we had committed. Neither of us would ever admit it though. It made me wonder just what Micah had awakened in me. My tía was on my mind heavy, so after I locked the drop house down, I told Drew we were out.
“Let’s go see Tía,” I quietly said watching the darkness of the sky.
Chapter 19
Shy
My coughs ripped through my body, causing my chest to burn from the roughness of the release. I never in my life felt as weak as I was feeling right now. Life was coming full circle, and crashing into us like waves at a beach. There was nothing I could do anymore to stop what was happening and it only put a fear in me that I was trained not to have. I glanced around my bed at the two young men in my life who had given me a joy like no other. It brought tears to my eyes at how much love they had for me, how much support they were giving me. That’s why it made it harder for me to do what I knew had to be done.
“Tía, you need to rest. I know you’re doing better and I’m happy about that but you need to rest,” came from Enzo. His hazel eyes were dark in concern. There was only one time in my life where they turned a dark coal that put a fear in my soul that had me quickly trying to soothe that demon out of him. It hurt that I was about to bring it back out of him.
There was something going on between him and Drew, and it wasn’t just because I had heard them talking in hushed tones outside of my room, but it was because I could read their body language clearly. I could always see when they were fighting, because they were so close, and right now, the tension was thick. I had blown up Shawn’s cell phone asking him if he knew where Drew was. Drew had been on some emotional brooding shit, to the point that him and me had got into it and he stormed out.
Micah had hurt my boy, broke and changed his soul. I could see it was tainting his mental. Proof of that was in the change in his eyes. My hand moved to my remote control and I turned off the news reporting of a shooting at Shawn’s condo complex. Reporters were saying they had no leads, but I already knew in my heart one or both of the young men before me were involved.
Coughing, I shook my head and sat up. “Come here. I want to hold both of your hands.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Both of my boys complied.
I studied Drew’s face. His experience had aged him some. His carefree eyes held that of a quiet wisdom, too, which also made my heart sad. I reached up to run my hand over his curls, watching a smile flash on his face as he sat to the left of me.
“Okay. I’ll make this brief. We all know I’m dying and it hurts my heart to say that but it is what it is. This family is breaking and I refuse to let it be destroyed when I pass. You two need to keep your bond of loyalty and trust between each other strong, no matter what may come your way or what you two may beef about; and I know your twenty-first birthday is coming up Shawn, but I want all anger and negative between us all to have settled by then because we have things to handle with the enemy.”
Shawn bowed his head and squeezed my hand tight. “Ain’t no negativity happening between us, Tía, and naw, your death? That’s not what’s happening okay? You got new doctors, new medicine. Better help than before. You’re not dying; and me and Drew, we’re good. We’re just dealing with some shit you don’t need to worry about right now.”
“Yeah, Tía, we’ll be a’ight. No worries, and no stress between us, on our word. I’m just worried about you. I’m not feeling what you said, because you are getting better,” Drew said trying to reassure me with added hope.
They were lying and they could tell I knew it, but I wasn’t going to even press it right now. I was going to let them both have that right now. From what I had seen on the news, this life of chaos was going to get worse. It was time things came to the light from the right person. I didn’t want to leave my boys. I wanted to stay a
nd protect them for however long that I could and it warmed my heart that they both had that faith in my recovery and me.
“I’m sorry my heart . . . Let me say that better. I’ve been sick for so long that I learned that with this life you have to live as best as you can. I hope I put that in you, because I just want to say thank you for giving me your love and letting me love you this long. I have a story I have to tell you both and if it makes you both not love me, I understand. If you two hate me for it all, I get it and won’t take nothing from you because of it. I . . . I just want you two to know I did the best that I could and I’ll take with me this love you two have given me now and be content with that.”
Drew slid a little closer to me, handing me a cup of water as I tried to get my thoughts together. “Tía, man, whatever it is, we always love you. You don’t have to say nothing, we good.”
I shook my head and handed him my cup back. “No, but I love you for that support. You two need to know this because after what happened to you both, I see that I can’t keep my story quiet anymore. You both need it to not only protect yourselves but to understand the real meaning behind E.N.G.A. and go after those who come between you two.”
Shawn’s watching eyes began to darken. I could see he was trying to figure out what I was saying and it made me nervous.
“I need you two to promise to listen to my story and not leave before I can finish it please,” I pleaded.
Both Shawn and Drew glanced at each other and I reached out to cup their faces and gaze into their eyes. They both took after me, but I also saw an equal balance of the man I hated for so very long in them at the same time. It made some interesting hybrid of the two of us. Two boys with the looks of angels but the roughness of a warrior all in the mix. Women were going to curse at their creation and find pleasure in it all at the same time. I could only pray that the rest of my DNA overrode their father’s, and that any demons in them they would be able to control and use for their own means in good ways.