The Circle: Autumn

by Keisha Ervin

  It felt like she had been riding for days when the van finally came to a complete stop. The men started moving and speaking excitedly in Spanish. They were discussing her, she could tell. Autumn said a silent prayer and asked God to forgive her for all of the lives she had taken and all of the banks she had robbed over the years. Autumn knew that she was finally out of chess moves, her game was over and fate was calling checkmate on her. A feeling of dread and hopelessness crept up on her and inside her heart she accepted her impending fate. A long, brutal, and painful death.

  Autumn could hear her captors speaking in Spanish, but now it sounded like they were arguing a little bit. It was probably about the different ways that they were going to torture and murder her. For a fleeting moment, while still conscious, she started to reflect on her life.

  She’s always considered herself lucky to have all of the material things any girl could ask for and to have the love of her siblings, but she still always felt like she was carrying a big void in her life. All of the years of being forced into bank robberies and robbing drug dealers, deep down inside Autumn had longed for a normal life like she had seen some of the kids in her neighborhood have; a mother, a father, regular school, and regular friends. Although by the time she was 16, she already had her hands on millions of dollars, Autumn had secretly longed to go to high school with normal kids where she could enjoy sports events, proms, and graduation. Autumn never made friends because it had been so engrained in her brain that the only friends she needed were her siblings. She often wondered what it would be like to be friends with someone she wasn’t related to. Autumn had often played the what-if game and now was no different. What if my parents had lived? What if Nanny had never gotten us into robbing? What if our lives were just regular…no robberies, heists or nothing? What if Nanny was still alive? Were all things she’d ask herself from time to time. Rain used to always tell her not to say “what if,” Rain would say “If ,if was a fifth, we’d all be drunk.” Autumn never understood that until she was older. Rain was trying to tell her that people say what if so much that they are never satisfied with what they do have.

  Loud yelling and movement snapped Autumn back into her reality.

  “Mmmm,” she groaned against the gag when she felt rough hands clamp down on her ankles. She couldn’t even scream as her body moved against her will. She was dragged out of the vehicle and hoisted over a man’s shoulders. She could feel the heat from the sun bearing down on the cuts and bruises on her back. Autumn was in excruciating pain all over her body, but she wasn’t going out without a fight. It would be her last ditch effort to let her captors know that she was a Porter and Porters never went down that easily.

  “Mmm! Mmmm!” She tried to scream again, but to no avail. She began bucking her body, unable to move her bounded hands and feet. She used her pain filled torso to squirm and try to fight the man carrying her. The pain shooting through her torso almost sent her into shock, but she wasn’t stopping.

  “Keep still bitch! I will shoot your ass right here!” the man carrying her barked. Autumn didn’t listen. She didn’t give a fuck what he was saying because the way she felt a quick shot to the head might be welcomed at that moment. She couldn’t see herself dying without fighting.

  “This little bitch just won’t quit,” the man growled annoyed. Finally she was thrown down onto what felt like a concrete slab. Her ribs and chest exploded with pain and she could feel blood leaking like a faucet from her nose.

  “Take off the blindfold,” she heard a man say in a serene calm voice. Autumn was barely holding on now. She could feel herself ready to black out. She was roughly dragged up off the floor and made to stand. Her legs could barely hold her up as the blindfold was snatched from her eyes. One of her eyes was already swollen shut and her head lulled around, too painful to hold up on her own.

  “I’ve been waiting to meet the bad ass whose wreaked havoc on my family,” Loe said with an evil grin on his lips. Autumn struggled to see him out of her one good eye. She could see that she was standing in the middle of a monstrous, fabulous mansion with water as its backdrop.

  Loe walked calmly over to Autumn and backhand slapped her with all of the power in his body.

  “Uh,” Autumn let out a gasp as her body folded to the floor.

  “Stand her back up!” Loe growled, cracking his knuckles. His goons rushed over and held Autumn back up. Loe hit her again, then he spit in her battered face. “Bitches like you think you can act like a man and not take a beating like a man,” Loe gritted, hitting her again, this time in her stomach. Urine splashed from Autumn’s bladder and wet the beautiful white marble floors of the mansion. Loe jumped aside, but it was too late. His suede Louboutin loafers were already ruined. One of the Mexican cartel guys who’d helped Loe find Autumn said something to Loe in Spanish. Loe nodded his head.

  “We cannot kill her here. This is the home of my boss, Romero Aguadao, it cannot happen here,” Loe told his goons, reiterating what the cartel guy had just said to him. Loe didn’t even mean to beat Autumn in Romero’s home because that was a sign of disrespect to his boss, but Loe’s emotions had gotten the best of him when he laid eyes on her.

  “Take her out to the car. She will die, but it won’t happen here,” Loe instructed. Autumn was moaning and groaning as she felt like life was starting to slip from her body. She had never felt that amount of pain in her life.

  Loe’s goons turned to drag her limp body to their waiting cars. Autumn asked God to forgive her with the hopes that she would have a quick death.

  As they were about to exit the mansion, the first of Loe’s goons was halted by the sight of a tech nine in his face.

  “Let her go or else everybody gets it,” Quinton said, moving forward and backing Loe’s goons down.

  “Where the fuck did you come from!” Loe boomed, his face drawn into a tight scowl. “You fucking traitor! You followed me?!”

  “Just let her go and we ain’t got no problems Loe. I’m easy to negotiate with, I didn’t come here to kill nobody, I came to get my girl,” Quinton said forcefully.

  Loe spit in Quinton’s direction. “Fuck you! She dies and you can die with her if you want, but I’m not letting her go!” Loe barked and within a second he drew his gun and pointed it at Quinton.

  Quinton’s entire body was shaking. He really didn’t want to shoot everybody in the room, but to save the woman he’s loved for so long he would do it.

  “Yo Loe, don’t do it man. Save yourself…your family needs you. You’re outgunned my dude,” Quinton warned through is teeth. Loe continued to train his gun on Quinton.

  Suddenly they were both distracted as Romero Aguadao walked in, flanked by his security. He wasn’t happy about what was going down in his house after he’d been gracious enough to open it up to Loe.

  “It appears that we have a good old fashion Mexican standoff going on, eh?” Romero said in a smooth voice. Romero was a handsome, suave young man who always wore tailored suits and the finest watches and jewels. Both Quinton and Loe felt kind of stupid having this young boss looking at them like they were stupid for what they were doing.

  “Loe…put the gun down. Let the girl go. You can’t kill her here and it’s not worth the bloodshed,” Romero instructed in a firm yet eerily calm tone.

  “Fuck that! She hurt my family! I am not letting her go!” Loe barked in response. Quinton could tell that Loe was coming completely undone. He was so hell bent on revenge that he didn’t even care that he was disrespecting the most feared man in Mexico.

  “Loe, I’ll only say it one more time. Let her go,” Romero said, a little more force in his voice. Romero’s men began moving in and readying themselves. They didn’t take too kindly to people who didn’t listen to their boss. With his chest heaving up and down, Loe nods at his goons to release Autumn. The goon holding her dropped her to the floor at Quinton’s feet.

  “Everybody put their guns down,” Romero demanded. “Collect them,” Romero told his men. Quinton, Loe, and hi
s men turned their guns over to the cartel men.

  “Why the fuck are you saving this murdering bitch? I can’t understand you,” Loe grumbled at Romero.

  Romero contemplated Loe’s words. He was growing tired of Loe’s slick mouth, but on the other hand, Loe was a big connection in the United States for Romero.

  “First, I don’t have to explain anything to you. If I wanted to save the girl just because I liked the way she looked, then I would’ve done it,” Romero snapped.

  “But she murdered my family!” Loe screamed like a bitch. Romero shook his head in disgust.

  “She is also the sister of someone very special to me and very close to me,” Romero said. With that he turned slightly and everyone in the room turned to see what he was looking at. Loe was holding his breath and so was Quinton. Autumn couldn’t see out of her eyes, but she could hear the sound of heels clicking against the marble floors. Autumn knew the cadence of that walk anywhere.

  “F…Fa…Fallon,” Autumn croaked through her battered lips. Fallon sauntered into the room wearing a long, black, body hugging maxi dress. Her hair was pulled up into a high bun and her make-up was snatched and flawless.

  “She murdered your family?” Fallon asked Loe.

  “Who the fu…”Loe started. BANG! BANG! Two shots to the head and his body folded to the floor like a deflated balloon.

  “Sorry about the mess baby,” Fallon said to Romero. He just smiled at her and shook his head. He was so enamored with her.

  Fallon rushed over to where her sister lay. She shot Quinton an evil look.

  “He was here trying to save her,” Romero told Fallon. He knew Fallon was about to give Quinton the business.

  “Baby sis…oh my god what did they do to you,” Fallon cried. “Get her some help now! Now!” Fallon barked. There was so much chaos in the house between getting Autumn immediate medical attention and cleaning up the dead body. Romero told his people after it was all done they would be abandoning the house and buying a new one.

  Fallon was following the doctors to take Autumn away, but first she turned to Quinton.

  “If you really came to help her, then I want to say thank you,” Fallon told him.

  “No need to thank me. I love her,” Quinton said. Then his face registered in Fallon’s head. She furrowed her brows and looked at him carefully.

  “Wait…you’re Q…used to get money in B’more?” Fallon asked.

  “Yeah that’s me. I been keeping company here and there with your sister for a couple of years. She was hiding it from ya’ll because she said your brother was kind of nuts. I really love her…always did. She called me for help when this all happened and shit just got out of hand. I didn’t give up on finding her and helping her though. I really want to be with her…I love her,” Quinton poured his heart out. Fallon was almost bought to tears. She had always wanted a man to love her like that. Linx had done her dirty over the years and never had that unconditional love like that for her.

  “I respect that. C’mon, you can stay by her side,” Fallon said, urging Quinton to follow her.

  “I appreciate it,” he said.

  “But I’m going to need some alone time with her. Your ass can’t be hogging up all my baby sister’s time,” Fallon joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

  “Nah, never that. I know ya’ll need that girl time,” Quinton smiled.

  ***

  Fallon hired a doctor and a full time nurse to get her sister back to health. Autumn had been medicated for a couple of days before she was finally healed enough to be awake without being in so much pain. Her eyes fluttered open as the sound of waves crashing in the ocean danced in her ears.

  Autumn squinted, thinking her eyes were deceiving her when she saw Quinton sleeping in the chair right next to her bed.

  “Quinton?” she gasped, trying to find her voice after days of not using it. Quinton jumped up at the sound of her voice. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and blinked against the bright sun shining through the large bay window.

  “Yeah…Baby Girl…it’s me,” Quinton moved to the bed and grabbed her hand.

  “What…what are you doing here? What’s going on?” Autumn asked like she didn’t remember her ordeal.

  “Maaaan, that ain’t even important. The important thing is you being awake, feeling better and alive,” Quinton said cheerfully. Then he bent down and kissed her lips. Autumn felt her heart flutter in her chest. This was what true love felt like.

  “Let me go call your sister or else she’ll kick my ass,” Quinton told her.

  Fallon returned within minutes. Autumn smiled at the sight of her beautiful sister. As usual, Fallon was radiant with her flawless makeup on and wearing a beautiful yellow sundress. Fallon looked like she was living well.

  “Baby sis! I’m so happy to see you!” Fallon screamed, reaching down and hugging her sister as tight as she could.

  “I’m happy to see you too! I had to go to hell…literally…to see you again,” Autumn said.

  “I know and I am so proud of you. You’ll never have to go through anything like that again!” Fallon said with sincerity.

  “We are here for good with no more worries,” Fallon assured.

  “How? Who?” Autumn asked.

  “I am getting married to Romero. He was Dayvid’s connection down here in Mexico and while I waited for you all to arrive, he and I fell in love. It’s the kind of love I’d always wanted Autumn. He is so good to me. And I am good to him too,” Fallon shared. Autumn smiled. She immediately thought about Quinton, who was standing outside waiting for his time with her.

  “And that dude out there…he loves you too. As soon as you’re better, you should make a life with him. A real life with him,” Fallon told her. Autumn closed her eyes and a few little tears drained out of the sides. She could see herself making a life with Quinton so long as whatever life she made always included Fallon, Rain, and Dayvid.

  “What about Rain? What about Dayvid? What’s going on with them? Are they here yet? Have you heard from them?” Autumn shot questions at Fallon with rapid fire. She wanted to know the answers. There was no use in pretending that she and Fallon were going to be able to have a good life and that they would complete with all four of them being together. In her eyes, there would be no life without Rain and Dayvid being there to share it. She could not even imagine trying to live without them.

  Fallon’s facial expression changed and she lowered her eyes in response to her sister’s questions. She knew that the questions would be coming because Fallon knew how much she thought about Rain and Dayvid each day herself.

  “Right now it’s about you getting better,” Fallon answered, smiling weakly.

  “No! I want to know what’s going on with them!” Autumn yelled, trying to sit up with her tightly bandaged ribs.

  Fallon put her hand over her mouth and shook her head. Seeing that, Autumn’s heart beat sped up, which caused her heart monitors to start ringing off. The nurse was in the room within seconds.

  “What’s going on in here? She can’t be upset. I don’t want anything in here upsetting her or else?” the nurse said firmly with her Mexican accent. Fallon looked down at Autumn with sorrow in her eyes. She didn’t really know how else to respond to her.

  “What Fallon? Tell me! Tell me now!” Autumn was screaming and bucking her body. The nurse whirled around flailing her hands wildly.

  “Everyone out! Out! She can’t be upset like this! Out!” the nurse demanded as the doctor and Quinton came rushing into the room too.

  “Is she alright? What’s going on?” Quinton huffed. Fallon was just shaking her head rapidly. She didn’t know what else to say or do to calm her sister down.

  “No…it’s not really ok, but it is something we have to deal with at a later time. When she is all better,” Fallon lamented.

  “Out!” the doctor screamed as he tried to calm Autumn down. She was going crazy in the bed. “Sedative! We need a sedative!”

  Quinton and Fallon were shuffled
out of the door before she could tell Autumn anything about Rain and Dayvid.