Spot Rushers

by Brandon McCalla

  “What…?” He uttered pretending he didn’t hear.

  “I’m pregnant. Nigga, don’t even say some shit like it ain’t yours. It is. I ain’t been with no one in a year before you and ain’t been with anyone after you.”

  “I wasn’t gonna say that. How many months are you?” He asked her.

  “Going on three, I think. I ain’t seen no doctor or nothing yet.” Rayne took a deep breath. “I’m really fucking pregnant. I thought I couldn’t have children so I ain’t gonna be cross at you or be hounding you. I just thought you should know about it.”

  Angel was silent.

  “Are you there?”

  “Yeah, yes I am…”

  “I’m gonna keep the baby because this might be the only shot I get at one. I know you got your woman and you guys are gonna get married.”

  “We got married. I’m on my honeymoon right now. I really can’t talk about this right now. Wait…”

  “What are you doing?” Rayne asked.

  “I’m going in the hallway. Gladys is in the bathroom taking a shower.”

  “What are you gonna do about me?” Rayne asked.

  “I don’t know. Rayne, I really don’t know what to say or anything right now. I’m on my fucking honeymoon for Christ sakes.”

  “Do you care about any of this?” She asked.

  Angel went silent for the longest moment. Before Rayne could hang up, he spoke.

  “Of course, I care. I didn’t contact you because I was scared, Rayne. I didn’t want you to sway my emotions away from Gladys. Now I don’t know what to say. I won’t leave you high and dry though. If that’s what you’re thinking?”

  Rayne exhaled. This could be the last time she spoke to Angel for a number of reasons.

  “I’m about to do something that might endanger my life…”

  “What…?”

  “Do you have any kids…?”

  “We were planning on ah…working on that…”

  Rayne knew exactly what he meant. They were doing it in the honeymoon suite. She wondered where they were but ended that as soon as it surfaced. “I just wanted to hear your voice. I wanted to know what you thought about me.”

  “I don’t want you doing anything that will hurt you or the child you’re carrying. Rayne I ain’t a bad dude but damn…”

  “I know you ain’t but I’m a bad bitch,” Rayne said cutting him off.

  She closed the phone. Angel called her right back.

  “I just wanted to see if you’d call me back and how soon?” Rayne spoke wearing a smile. “You don’t have to worry about me, Angel. You’re married now. Just know that you gotta mistress and a baby.”

  “Rayne don’t do anything stupid. Just as soon as I get back, damn, I guess we gotta meet up. I’m not sure if I can keep this from my wife.” Angel sounded saddened.

  “You are a good guy, Angel. I’d advise you not to say anything. Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

  Rayne completely shut her phone off this time. She heard what she wanted to hear. She had a life inside of her and didn’t want to do anything stupid. Angel was a good man. She had seduced him and it would be on her conscious, not his if anything bad happened. Rayne knew she had a conscious and a future now. She saw a couple of things in her future. Rayne smiled.

  Rayne walked back to the car and handed the .32 to Pebbles.

  “You ain’t Dora Dean’s replacement anymore. You’re mine.” Rayne laughed. “Everything is in your hands now. I ain’t gonna do nothing.”

  “You don’t wanna go after Steve Stunner?” Pebbles asked.

  “I’m here to bury Dora and Sabrina. I’m gonna bury her while she’s still alive. I’m getting closure.” Rayne looked at Bernadette. “I’m pregnant, dyke.”

  “Shit, Jenny thought you were. By who…?” Bernadette’s eyes widened. “No, don’t tell me it’s Angel’s.”

  “Did you know he was on his honeymoon today?” Rayne asked.

  “I didn’t know if Angel getting married was gonna make you angry or not.” Bernadette lowered her head. “Me and Jenny went to the wedding.”

  Rayne laughed. She wasn’t mad at all. Not at Bernadette, not at Angel, she wasn’t even angry at herself anymore. Rayne took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. They all became deathly quiet.

  The house loomed a short distance away. On its front lawn, Bernadette had been hit by four bullets. She almost died. The whole situation flashed in front of her eyes.

  “Coming here was a bad idea,” Bernadette muttered.

  “A major part of our lives was one bad idea. I’m here to end this old me and start the new one, just like you.” Rayne took the first step towards the front door. “Come on bitches. This is the Fatal Four’s final spot rush. Let’s do the damn thing.”

  twenty-nine

  The front door to the house was chained and locked.

  “Sabrina isn’t in there. If she is, she walked through the fucking wall like a damn ghost.”

  “Maybe there’s a window in the back or something that ain’t boarded up,” Pebbles said.

  They walked to the back of the house and found a window that wasn’t boarded or nailed up. All the broken glass that might have been around was gone; Rayne could tell that people had been in and out of the place. Crack-heads, the homeless and possibly Sabrina, she thought.

  “I’m not gonna crawl through that window,” Bernadette said stepping back warily. It was pitch black inside the house. If Sabrina was in there she was in the dark.

  “What are we gonna do then?” Rayne asked.

  “You bitches are lame. I’ll go in.” Pebbles said moving towards the window.

  Bernadette reached out and grabbed her by the shoulder with a strong hand.

  “Lame or smart, little girl…? You decided that later. Don’t decide it after you crawl in and some dope-fiend stabs you with a dirty needle out of fear or some stray dog bites a tit off. We don’t know who or what is inside there.” She looked over at Rayne. “I got some cable cutters in the trunk. I’m gonna get those and a couple of flashlights. We gonna walk right through the front door.”

  “What sort of bitch carries cable cutters and flashlights in the trunk of her car?” Pebbles asked.

  “A bitch who is prepared,” Rayne said. “You gotta be more careful.”

  Pebbles didn’t say anything. She gave the window the once over and followed Rayne to the front of the house. Eventually Bernadette had come back with the cable cutters and three flashlights. Pebbles clicked her flashlight on. She had the bulb right up close to her eyes.

  “Dammit! I blinded myself.” She shrieked.

  “Pipe down, bitch.” Bernadette snapped thinking about something else. “Give me that gun. You are a poor replacement for anyone.”

  “Aw, come on,” Pebbles whined. “Sabrina ain’t even in here. She probably in New York and said what she did to fuck around.”

  “It’s possible,” Bernadette said holding her hand out for the gun. Pebbles reluctantly gave her the revolver.

  Rayne waited for Bernadette to break through the chain lock. She pushed the door open. All three flashlights provided enough light. Rayne knew she shouldn’t have told them she was pregnant. Bernadette and Pebbles halted her and walked inside the house first. Rayne followed behind. Bernadette fought through a few layers of cobwebs. Pebbles began coughing.

  “It smells like piss and shit in here,” she complained.

  “Old shit and stale urine,” Bernadette said.

  Rayne shook her head. Old shit and stale urine meant whoever was loitering in here was gone. Suddenly a sound like heels on old creaking wood was heard. Then the house came alive with light.

  “This place is haunted. What was that bitch’s name again?” Pebbles yelled.

  “Shut the fuck up!” Bernadette snapped.

  “What was her name?” Pebbles asked looking around for a ghost. “The girl I replaced. She wants her position back. You can have it bitch.”

  Rayne laughed and stopped as quickly as sh
e started. Rayne didn’t realize how far they’d walked inside the house. She’d never been inside but she knew from what Bernadette had told her that they were just about to walk to the hall that would lead to the kitchen. They were still in the front room. Rayne turned around before the rest of them did.

  Bernadette should have remembered where the light switch was. Someone had turned the lights on. Pebbles’ outburst had distracted her. She turned to see what Rayne was staring at.

  Sabrina was at the front door. She wasn’t even inside the house but outside somewhere waiting for them to arrive. She limped in carrying a 12 gauge shotgun aimed at them. Sabrina was injured.

  “Sabrina what happened?” Rayne asked with more concern than she expected.

  Sabrina looked like she’d been through hell and back. Her hair was a mess.

  “I got you a present,” she said. Sabrina noticed Pebbles. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “Being scared,” Pebbles told her honestly. “That’s what.”

  Sabrina directed the shotgun and pulled the trigger. Both Bernadette and Rayne saw Pebbles body jerk back from the impact. It was amazing how Sabrina shot Pebbles from such a distance. Pebbles’ body flew into a wall, fell on the dusty floor and was still.

  Sabrina aimed the smoking shotgun at her girls.

  “Both of you empty your pockets,” she ordered.

  “I ain’t got shit on me,” Bernadette lied.

  Sabrina leaned the shotgun on the wall closest to her and pulled out a 9mm pistol.

  “Let’s see how good my aim is.”

  She took aim and shot Bernadette in the left arm.

  “Sabrina no…!” Rayne yelled. “Don’t do this.” Rayne went inside one of Bernadette’s pockets not caring if Sabrina was gonna shoot. Rayne tossed the gun she’d taken from Bernadette to the floor. “We ain’t come here for this Sabrina. We came to help you.”

  “Help me for what, bitch?” Sabrina laughed. “How you gonna help me? You’re the crazy one. I used to be the pretty one then you did this.” Sabrina pointed to the scar on her face.

  “You did that to yourself you demented…arrrghhh!”

  Sabrina shot Bernadette in the left thigh. Bernadette went down kneeling with her good leg. “You fucking bitch!”

  “Keep that mouth shut, Bernadette. Don’t make my next shot be a head shot. Trevor used to take me out at night, out on the roof of the building and we used to shoot guns off. I always loved the sound a gun makes, shooting in the air used to get me off. Now, I like shooting people.”

  Rayne was perplexed and didn’t know what to say. Sabrina had completely lost it. The scarred one grabbed the shotgun and started walking closer. She nudged her jaw towards the direction of the kitchen.

  “This way Rayne, I have a present for you. You’re all that matters now. You’re the only one left.”

  Rayne immediately knew exactly what that meant. She made an attempt to stop it.

  “Please no. Sabrina, please don’t…”

  Sabrina walked over to Bernadette knelt down and put the gun to her head. In a last ditch effort, Rayne rushed, dived down for the gun she’d tossed to the floor. Sabrina kicked it further away.

  “Please, Sabrina. On everything we once shared…” Rayne pleaded with tears, looking up at her from the floor.

  “Fuck this bitch, Rayne. What did Trevor used to call you…?” Bernadette’s laughter came in pain. “Scar Face…” Sabrina pulled the trigger. It was point blank. Half of Bernadette’s head tore from her body and burst in the air. The sound was clear to Rayne. She didn’t hear nothing but the sound Bernadette’s brains and blood made when they rained to the floor.

  Bernadette’s body fell completely to both knees and then to the ground head first. Sabrina slowly backed away from the pool of crimson liquid forming around what was left of Bernadette.

  “She doesn’t look like a man no more.” Sabrina laughed. “She looks just like a headless bitch now.”

  “Why Sabrina…?” Rayne asked crawling over to Bernadette. She touched Bernadette. Her blood was still hot and it was thick and dripped all over Rayne’s hands. She didn’t care about nothing anymore. Bernadette was dead.

  “You fucking Scar Face, bitch!” She yelled. “Kill me, bitch! Get it over with.”

  “Nah,” Sabrina uttered with indifference. “In the kitchen,” she urged.

  Rayne didn’t budge.

  “I heard your phone conversation. You got a child in you. Are you that dumb Rayne? You wanna be so stubborn as to allow me to kill you while you got a child in you?”

  Rayne broke down, pitifully crying. Sabrina was right. Rayne wasn’t the same. Back then, she lived for nothing but her girls. None were left. Rayne had a life in her that was growing. It was the only future she had. How dumb was she to defy a person with a gun pointed at her head. This was a person who could end the life in her that had just started.

  “That’s right, bitch. Get up and start walking towards that kitchen. Me, you and Dora Dean gotta lot of catching up to do.”

  thirty

  Rayne walked into the kitchen and realized there was someone inside. She heard moaning, almost thought it was a ghost, but it wasn’t. Not Dora Dean’s ghost. The moan was that of a man.

  Sabrina turned on the kitchen lights. Rayne could see. There was still a kitchen table and a couple of chairs. Two legs of the kitchen table were missing so it tilted to the side. Leaning against the circular part of the table was Steve Stunner.

  “Oh my God…!” Rayne exclaimed.

  Sabrina was nuts. Stunner’s arms were outstretched around the perimeter of the tilted table like he had been crucified. Each hand was being held up by a knife that Sabrina had driven through his palms, nailing him to the table. There was so much blood. Sabrina made a crown of thorns with a bandanna and a few syringes she’d found around the abandoned crack house. Rayne threw up her lunch.

  “Surprise, Rayne,” Sabrina said extending her arms out wide in gesture. “Surprise, Dora Dean.” Sabrina put the shotgun right to Rayne’s head and urged her to rise with it. “Here’s the man of the hour, our sacrificial lamb Steve Stunner.”

  “Please,” Steve begged. “Just let me go. I’ll pay you.”

  “No!” Sabrina yelled. “Not until Rayne makes the sacrifice.” Sabrina looked over at the kitchen sink. “Take a knife and plunge it into his heart. Get your revenge on him and let’s go back to the way things were.”

  Rayne was dizzy and having difficulty standing. She felt like throwing up again. She was feeling nauseous and the smell of death engulfed the kitchen. Rayne felt the barrel of the shotgun at the back of her head. She was close to death, close enough to see the dead.

  Her mind was playing tricks, confusing her. Dora Dean was where Steve Stunner was. She was nailed with knives right up on the circle of the table. She looked pale, was a corpse. Her eyes popped open and focused on Rayne.

  “Hey bitch,” Dora Dean uttered.

  The words sounded as if she was alive. Her blood smeared, dry and caked up lips parted, opened wide. A black rat crawled right out of her mouth and scampered down her body unto the floor. Rayne knocked the shotgun away from the back of her head and moved further away from Steve Stunner.

  She should’ve taken her medication. Rayne was confused. She wasn’t sure if she was hallucinating. Had she seen Dora Dean? Was that Steve Stunner knifed up to the broken table looking like he was crucified.

  “That was close Rayne,” Sabrina said. “I almost shot you right then. You better not move again. You do, you and your baby die.”

  “What do you want from me?” Rayne yelled. “You’ve done enough. You’ve killed everyone.”

  “Everyone, except you,” Sabrina said. “I got Steve Stunner here for you. Get a knife from the sink and plunge it in his heart.”

  “What then, huh? What do I do after that? What do you do, kill me?” Rayne asked.

  “Things go back to the way they were, Rayne. Me and you can go somewhere, anywhere and start a new l
ife together. We can get two more girls and do the damn thing. Start spot rushing again. We’ll lead the crew together. Ain’t no one gonna fuck with our heads anymore. Any nigga we fuck with, he gonna know the rules.”

  “Sabrina there ain’t no us anymore. No spot rushing. No Fatal Four, nothing. You killed everyone. I don’t even know why I came here. I’m just as crazy as you. I thought I needed closure but there ain’t gonna be none. You’re the closure. You’re killing anything that had any meaning to the both of us.” Rayne forced her body to stop shaking.

  “Where are you going, Rayne?” Sabrina asked with a very disturbed voice. “Don’t take another step.”

  Rayne stopped moving towards the hall that lead out of the kitchen and turned around.

  “I’m leaving, Sabrina. If you are gonna shoot me, shoot me in the back of my head.”

  “I told you to kill Steve Stunner, bitch. Go get a knife and do it. Didn’t you tell me that was all you wanted?” Sabrina sounded demented. “You said that’s what you wanted.”

  “I want Trevor, Dora Dean and Bernadette alive. I want to be with Angel. I wanna deliver this baby and name him or her. I wanna get my GED and go to college.” Rayne was yelling at the top of her lungs. “I’m finished Sabrina! I ain’t got no feelings for Steve Stunner. As soon as I got here, I buried those feelings. Stunner killed Dora Dean and could have killed any of us. We deserved to die because of the shit we did. We ain’t deserved to get killed by you though.”

  Rayne began walking back towards Sabrina and Steve. Sabrina watched her confused. She saw what Rayne was readying to do.

  “Stop…! I’m gonna have to hurt you Rayne.”

  Rayne started to yank the first knife out of Stunner’s palms. It was so deeply embedded in the wood of the table she had trouble removing the blade.

  “Don’t do it, Rayne.” Sabrina warned. “I don’t wanna hurt you but I’ll kill you. We’ll all be dead in this house.”

  “Maybe that’s the way it was meant to be,” Rayne yelled. She finally yanked one of the knives out. Steve screamed out a wail of anguish. His arm went limp and dangled loosely. Rayne started on his next hand.