by Brick
“Bring them two to me,” he told one of the dudes standing in there.
He was talking ’bout me and Chyna. He walked over and put his face to the cage smiling like a fool at Chyna. She ain’t even look like she was scared of that nigga. When he stuck his hand in the cage to grab at her titty she grabbed a hold of his face. She was reminding me of Diamond when she clawed that nigga like a stray cat then spit in his face. He didn’t even seem to care though.
“Don’t put your hands on me, you bitch uphill gardener,” she spat out.
I ain’t even know what that meant, but that nigga Dante just laughed. I knew he was bent when he wiped the blood and her spit from his face and licked his fingers. He unlocked the cage, snatched the door open. As she kicked at him with her feet, he grabbed hold of her ankle and yanked her out. She hit the floor hard, bumping her head against the concrete floor. She moaned out loud and her eyes fluttered. I could tell the fall and hit to her head almost knocked her out. After that these big niggas snatched me out the cage I was in. They took Chyna to one room and me to another. I was trying to look around for a way out. Trigga always said if you got in, you could get out. I saw that they had a window open but I ain’t know how far down the ground was.
“Put her in line with the rest of them,” Dante said as he sat back at the head of the long rectangular table. “Niggas chirping like birds around this place. Fucking up my endz. Give me the muchies, eh?”
He laughed then kicked a dead body by his feet. There was a dead man there with a hole in his chest. It was a big hole like somebody had taken something out of him. Dante had guns, knives, and his cane lying on the table by him. I ain’t get how he was eating with all that blood lying around. I was shivering and cold. Just like the other naked kids.
“Bring another one around,” Dante said as he tore into a piece of meat.
He was eating like a dog. No shirt on. His white pants had blood all on them, too. Those fingernail scrapes down his face didn’t make him look any less of a bad man. It made him look like a monster. A little naked girl stepped forward. She looked like was from like India or something. Trigga always made me read and stuff so I could spot different kinds of people like it was nothing. She had her hands in front of her privates and was crying so bad she was shaking. I was hoping he wasn’t gonna do nothing like try to do bad things to her that grownups shouldn’t do to kids, but when he shot her right in the head and the other kids started screaming, I ain’t know what to do. I was frozen. He called another boy forward. When he pulled the sword from his cane, he cut the boy’s head off. Some of the kids started screaming louder and running around the room trying to hide. I couldn’t move. I ain’t ever seen no nigga kill no kids like me like that. Dillenger’s face flashed in my head.
“Messing up my ducats. They kill my boy. Pussiclots murder mi brudda, kill mi son.”
He was talking like a crazy man one minute and then calm the next as a couple of men brought Chyna back in the room. They had put her in a white dress and took her hair down. Her hands were taped together and they ain’t take the tape off ’til she was sitting down on the right of Dante.
“Bring me dat gyal,” Dante said looking at me.
I started to scream and tried to run but they were stronger than me. Them niggas placed me right where they had placed the other girl and little boy. Now that I was standing closer, I could see a door cracked. In the small room I saw bodies of the other kids. My whole body almost collapsed. My head jerked when a big white dude walked in and dropped a plate that had something on that looked like a roast in front of Dante.
“Want something to eat, bitch?” he asked Chyna.
“Fuck you,” was her response.
Dante only shrugged, stuck a fork down into the meat and bit into it like a rabid dog. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth then looked down at the body lying beside him.
“Your heart is better outside ya body than innit, yeah, man?”
He was talking to the dead corpse. Both mine and Chyna’s face twisted when we realized that nigga was eating a human heart. I couldn’t help it; I threw up all over the floor. That made Dante look over at me. He studied me for a long time like he was trying to see if he knew me.
“You knew my boy?” Dante asked me.
I shook my head. “Naw, I ain’t know no niggas you know, nigga.” I was scared as shit, but that bitch nigga wasn’t gone know it.
“They say they see you with my boy, gyal.”
“Fuck you and fuck yo’ snitches, nigga. Where I’m from snitches get ditches. Fuck the stitches.”
Dante wasn’t amused. “You have an American accent, yeah. I know who you are and who you with, yeah? They kill my boy, so I kill you, right, innit? Put her on the table,” he told the dudes.
Chyna was looking from me to him in a panic as the dudes stretched me out on the table. Dante stood and kicked his chair back, picking up his sword. My eyes widened when he aimed it at my privates and I cried out loud from the fear of being cut. I didn’t know a lot, but I knew if he cut me there, I would be hurt something serious. To show just how serious he was, he took the blade and sliced the crease on the left side of my inner thigh then he did the same to the right side. I’d never known pain like what I was experiencing. It hurt so bad that I started slobbering from the mouth as I yelled out.
I screamed and cried like the baby I was. “Owwww! Please stop, please, don’t cut me no more.”
Chyna jumped up and grabbed his wrist. “Stop it, Dante. You’re mad, man. I’ll do it,” she screamed at him.
He stopped just inches away from pushing the sword inside of me and grinned at her. “You’ll do what?”
She swallowed and looked like she was about to be sick. “I’ll do what you want. I’ll give you what you want. Just don’t hurt her no more, yeah? Don’t hurt no more kids, Dante. I’ll do what you want,” she yelled.
He didn’t say nothing but I was glad when he move the sword. I ain’t never had nothing in me and it hurt. Dante picked up the heart he had been eating and bit down into it again.
“Good,” he said as he chewed. “Because I’m not one to make a woman do what she doesn’t want, yeah?”
I didn’t know what he was talking about, but was glad when he told the men to let go. Chyna grabbed me up in her arms. She sat back down at the table with me in her lap whispering to me that it was going to be all right. It was then I kinda figured that she was older than she looked. She looked like she was about twelve or thirteen. She just had a body that said otherwise.
“One other thing,” Dante said as he looked outside of his window like he was deep in thought.
“What?” she spat out at him.
I couldn’t see what he was about to do because I turned my head and started to hide my face in her chest. I was really still just a baby and for the first time, I missed having a mama. But when her body jerked and when Chyna’s screams rented the air, my head popped up and looked at her then over to Dante. That nigga had stuck a fork clear through her hand.
“You ever put your hands in my face again, yeah, I’ma cut yours off. That’s fair, innit?” he asked her as he twisted the fork then pushed it deeper before snatching it out.
Blood spilled from her hand. There was slobber hanging from Chyna’s mouth and tears running down her face as she cried. I ain’t know what to do, but watch as that nigga strolled from the room like he was a king.
I didn’t know how much time had passed as me and Chyna sat there, but I just knew I had to get out of there. Dante had left the room and hadn’t come back yet.
“We have to get out of here,” I whispered to her.
“I know and we will.”
After she had wrapped her hand the best way she could, Dante put me and Chyna in his room. I woulda been put back in the cage but Chyna told him that she wasn’t gonna go to his room with him unless he let her clean me up. After he smacked her down to the floor for being defiant, he let her bring me in the room with them, but he threw me in his
closet. I tried not to make too much noise as I looked around for anything to use as a weapon. I wasn’t naked it anymore, but my thigh still hurt like hell from being cut there.
I cracked the door when I heard Chyna crying again. Dante was on top of her on the bed. I wasn’t a big kid but I knew what he was doing to do to her, especially when she screamed out again. She ain’t have to do that for me. I felt like I shoulda jumped from that window and killed myself or something. I couldn’t take hearing that nigga’s grunts or hearing her cry so I covered my ears and backed as far into the back of the closet as I could. No matter how hard I tried to cover my ears the squeaky noise of the bed came through so did Chyna’s cries. It was like Dame and Diamond all over again. I thought our nightmare was over but, really, it was just beginning.
I didn’t know how long I had been in that closet before I heard a loud boom like something had crashed into the house.
“What the fuck?” I heard Dante yell then he laughed. “About time you came to play, Phenom!”
The hard sound of running feet sounded against the floor as the room door opened and Dante exited. Nothing but gunshots and niggas groans could be heard but when Chyna slowly pulled the door open and held her finger to her lips for me to be quiet, I was grateful.
“It’s my daddy. I knew he was going to find me. But we still have to get out of here,” she said. “You afraid of heights?”
I shook my head. “I ain’t afraid of nothing if it’s gonna get us out of here.”
“Good, because we have to jump from here into the pool to get out of here, yeah?”
She was about to say something else when Dante snatched the door open and yanked her by her hair as he dragged her from the closet.
“You want me, Phenom,” he yelled while she kicked and screamed. “Got to get through ya seed to get me, bruv,” he kept yelling then laughed.
That nigga was naked as a jay bird I saw when I crawled from the closet. He stood on the massive banister on the window outside his room. I looked around in a hurry for anything I could grab.
“All I want is my daughter and the little girl and I’ll let you live, nigga.”
That was Phenom. He kinda sounded like Trigga sometimes. I was in my own world as I crawled underneath the bed then out on the other side. I saw a shank lying on that nigga’s nightstand. I quickly grabbed it and crawled back under the bed.
“I don’t give a fuck about living, blood. All mi care about is how good and fine Chyna’s pussihole felt against my dick.”
I could see that nigga had a gun in one hand with his arm wrapped around her neck and a shank in the other that she held to her. When he dug it into her back and she screamed out, I army crawled like Trigga had showed from under the bed. Before he could stick her anymore, I stuck him right on his back on the side where Trigga had told me the kidneys be at. That made that nigga backhand me as he yelled out and turned around. It hurt like shit and I flew back into the bedpost, but that got Chyna outta his hands.
“Come on, Ghost,” she screamed.
She was frantic as she ran with her uninjured hand outstretched to me. She took my hand and we rushed from the room and headed for the stairs.
“Trigga,” I screamed out when I saw him.
He was in the middle of a fight with a dude who looked to be ten times bigger than Jake. I watched as he took an elbow to the face then a punch to the gut. That didn’t slow him down. He ate those punches and delivered a few of his own. Only on his fist were gloves that had barbwire wrapped around them. When he threw a straight jab to the big man’s face, blood started leaking.
“Run, Ghost,” was all he yelled out as a big nigga tackled him to the ground.
“You know him?” Chyna asked.
I was proud so I smiled. “Yeah, that’s my daddy.”
Me and Chyna kept running until we got to the bottom of the stairs. Once we did we saw Anika hacking up a nigga who had Diamond pinned to the ground. When her machete came down she took out a big hunk of flesh. Looked like she had cut a slice out a piece of watermelon. I knew that nigga was dead. Diamond pushed the body off of her, but she was bleeding bad from her stomach.
“Mommy,” Chyna squealed and ran into her mama’s arms.
I didn’t have no mama, but I had Diamond so that’s who I ran to. “You hurt, Diamond,” I said.
“I know. I’ll be good. We gotta get outta here. Did he hurt you, Ghost? Did that nigga touch you?” She was on her knees as she hugged me then pulled back to look at my face, examining me.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said low.
We was standing in what felt like a warzone because bodies was flying and bullets. When Big Jake stood at the top of the balcony and tossed a nigga over, the body almost hit us.
“My bad,” he yelled down but didn’t have time to say much else as another nigga was rushing him. “Motherfucker! Where these niggas keep coming from?” he groaned out as he fought.
“You have to get out of here now,” I heard Anika tell Chyna. “You know where to go. Take them there. Speedy and a girl named Gina will be waiting on you. You can trust her. Take your cousin, Diamond, and the little girl with you.”
Chyna nodded. “You found me. I knew you would. I love you, Mama.”
“I know. I love you too. And of course we would. Took us awhile, but always remember, we’ll always come for you. No matter what.”
“Daddy is—”
Anika nodded and cut her off. “I know. Just go. Go now.”
Those weird police sirens were in the distance. I looked around to see if I could see Trigga again, but he was gone.
“Come on, guys,” Chyna said to me in Diamond. “Bloody hell, you’re bleeding bad,” she said when saw Diamond. “Come on, cousin. We gotta get out of here.”
Chapter 13
Ray-Ray
I didn’t remember going to sleep. The last thing I remembered was lying in the back of a car. From there I blacked out because of the blood loss and the pain. One of Dante’s goons had cut me good. I never saw that nigga coming. If my aunt hadn’t been there, I probably would be dead. We were no longer in my flat because Anika said it wouldn’t be safe. After me and Trigga had made those two cops talk, we were going to go back and tell Anika and Phenom, but Trigga said fuck it and we headed out to Dante’s mansion on our own. That was when we saw Anika and Phenom had already beat us there.
Nothing but bedlam ensued afterward. All I remembered was me, Trigga, and Big Jake went in swinging.
“Diamond, watch your fucking six,” Trigga had yelled at me after he’d put a bullet in a nigga’s skull who was trying to sneak me when we first got there.
“Sorry,” I had yelled.
I remembered jumping on the back of a big white nigga and shanking him in the throat. All I could think about was getting Ghost. My mental was eating a whole through me with images and thoughts of some grown man violating baby girl. So every nigga I came in contact with, I treated them like they had done something to Ghost. As I slid through a nigga’s legs then stuck my shank in his dick, I imagined he had violated my Ghost. I was hyped on adrenaline, taking nigga’s lives left and right until that one had caught me.
If you thought anything you had seen in the US was bloody and gruesome, nothing was like what we seen in London. Them niggas believed in shanks, baseball bats with barbed wires, and hand-to-hand annihilation. They used guns too, but unlike the stories you heard of in Chicago, New York, New Orleans, Atlanta, and Detroit with the gun violence, in London, niggas liked to get up close and personal when they killed you.
“How’re you feeling, cousin?” Chyna asked me when she saw my eyes were open.
“Hungry. Where’s Ghost?”
“She’s still sleeping.”
I nodded as I tried to sit up. Chyna stood to help me.
“Did she tell you what he did to her?” she asked me.
My heart almost fell out on the floor. My worst fear was that she had her little body violated sexually by a grown man.
“He was going to stick his sword all the way up her you know what. Was going to gut her from the inside out, but I stopped him, yeah. He still cut her bad on her thighs though. I couldn’t stop him before he did it, yeah? But I tried. We’re supposed to protect the lit’ul ones, innit?”
I nodded. “Thank you. That’s all he did to her right? Nothing else?”
“Well he cut her pretty badly but I fixed her as best I could. She still needs to see needs to see the medics.”
My eyes watered, heart was heavy. I didn’t know whether to be glad she still had her innocence or sad that he had still hurt her anyway. “How did you stop him?” That had me curious because from stories I’d heard, nothing could stop Dante when he was set to kill or fuck you up. Chyna stood from the bed. I could tell by the way she looked off what she had done.
“I did whatever,” she mumbled then quickly turned to look at me again. “But don’t tell my dad because he wouldn’t be able to handle it, yeah? Don’t tell him.”
She looked young in the face, but she was built just like I was. Genetics gave us breasts, hips, and ass. Even on her petite frame they stood out. Gina walked in and I smiled up at her.
“You okay now, Ray-Ray. You were cut bad, but that doctor they had fixed you up.”
She said down and hugged me, then kissed me like she always did. It was always a passionate kiss with Gina, tongue and all. When she pulled away Chyna looked on with wide eyes, but didn’t say anything. I knew she was probably trying to figure out what was going on but the front door opening alerted us to the rest of the family coming back in. Chyna was the first one to dash from the room. I could hear her screaming for her daddy as she raced down the hall. I couldn’t move that fast because my wound wouldn’t let me.