by Nicety
“Naw playboy. I wouldn’t do that just yet.” Scully said reaching his long arm over to the door from the bed and turning the lock. “You got jokes, huh? I’mma show you just how funny you really are.”
Chapter 4
Time's Up
Tara turned her head slightly with her lips gently poked out, waiting on the scrawny looking dark skinned boy in front of her to kiss her. She was not one to move in for the kill, always feeling like the boys should come to her. Clara was three steps down already busting slobs with the boy’s friend from down the street. She was not even the least bit afraid of the fact that his braces could have split her lip or cut her tongue wide open. Tara pinned her shoulder length weave to the side, using two fingers to fiddle with the split ends as the boy neared her full shiny glossed lips.
“Boy! What you out here doing? You gonna get your ass beat yet, here!” The lady screeched as she burst out the adjacent hall door, scratching in between the rollers set under her netted scarf and angry as ever.
“Dang ma. You be trippin’.”
The chocolate colored boy rose with an attitude and headed for his mother dressed in yellow leggings and a matching tank top that hugged every inch of her 280 pound body snuggly. She slapped him upside the back of his head as he passed into the house angry that she had messed up his game with Tara. Clara and her lover looked up and saw the robust woman looking down on them and immediately separated.
“Yo mommas know y’all out here trying to fuck on each other. Ooo wee y’all need a whoopin’!” The lady said answering her ringing cell phone.
Clara’s guy departed so quickly that his dust couldn’t even be seen in the darkness. She looked around pissed that he jetted without so much as a goodbye and stomped up the stairs next to Tara. The lady laughed as she rolled her eyes at the girls then walked into her house slamming the door behind her. Clara wanted to burst through her door and slap the hell out of her hating ass but she knew that just wouldn’t end well with it getting back to Quetta.
“Damn girl. You was all up in dude’s mouth and shit. I thought he was going to swallow you whole or something.” Tara laughed as she opened the apartment door.
“Girl, and he was all down my shirt too. If that hatin’ ass bitch hadn’t came out I would have been his baby momma.” Clara said bending over to twerk her ass like she was in a music video.
The twin girls laughed as they entered the living room. Tara turned on the TV then looked around at the array of toys scattered across the ugly beige living room rug. Her laughter quickly turned somber as she rose to clean up the mess yet again. She was always the one doing all of the cooking and cleaning and it was beginning to get to her. Her mother was lazy and Clara would only clean if her mother was throwing money at her. Maj was so young that his messiness was overlooked as if he were still a baby. She turned to the Lifetime channel eager to watch her favorite movie, Taken: Abducted at 17.
“Where’s that damn Maj? I’m sick of cleaning up after his bad ass.” Tara snapped as she threw his action figures down in the toy chest in front of the metal old-fashioned radiator heater.
“I dunno.” Clara shrugged as she plopped down on the couch and zoned out to the movie.
“Ugh!” Tara rolled her eyes in disgust at her lazy ass and headed back towards the kitchen to put the plastic cups in the sink.
She tossed them in the sink and headed back for the living room but as she passed her mother’s door she could hear the lewd sex acts eroding from the TV inside. She carefully and quietly placed her ear to the door trying to get a closer listen. It was more than she had ever done or heard of with a boy and found the sensual screams intriguing. She pressed her fingertips along with the side of her face to the door and then her body followed as tingles traveled throughout her veins. The sounds enriched her spirit and her vagina as she leaned in feeling the need to thrust her pelvis against the door. A faint whimpering moan could be heard from behind the door throwing Tara’s thought process off a little. It went away for a brief second and then it returned whiny yet faint.
Tara knew it from anywhere. She could have closed her eyes and been a million miles away and she still would have recognized the cries inside. She backed up from the door giving it the short look as she balled her fist engulfed in rage. Her eyebrows curled over and sweat droplets formed on her forehead taking all of her strength and forcing it into one lone part of her body. She reached up and with one shove pushed the bedroom door in completely breaking the flimsy doorknob area as variations of wood flew in many different directions. Her eyes widened standing there as Maj backed down from Scully and crawled over next to the bed covering himself.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” Tara snapped shoving Scully hard almost knocking him out of the small room’s window.
“Nothing. Eh, we were just having a nice manly chat.” Scully responded with a wicked smile as he struggled to pull his pants up.
“It didn’t look like talking to me, you son of a bitch.” Tara looked as if she was about to blow a gasket.
Clara had joined the scene just in time to catch a glimpse of Scully finishing up his pants. The bewildered look on her face was nothing compared to the scared tormented on Maj's. She pushed a frozen in place Tara out of the way and ran to his side. She touched the side of his face gently trying to soothe his tears.
"It's alright now, lil' bro. No one's gonna hurt you ever again. Do you understand?" Clara whispered into his ear as she hugged him tightly. "Now what happened?"
Maj didn't respond. He felt Scully's stank breath breathing down his back threatening him not to say anything even though he was standing far behind him. Clara felt his frail body begin to tremble from the very thought of it and squeezed him tighter for reassurance.
"Tell me what happened, Maj." She said in a calm soothing voice.
"He...he made me put his wee man in my mouth. I didn't want to but he beat me until I did." Maj replied fighting back tears and pointing to his right eye, which was swollen and about close.
"Ay yo, that little motherfucka is lying. Shit he asked me could he watch these movies then he started unbuttoning my pants. Hell what was I gonna do? Stop him?" Scully laughed.
Something inside of Tara boiled over as she lunged for him jumping up and locking her body around his torso. She bit down unto his shoulder hard causing him to release an ungodly bellow while Clara snatched Maj up and carried him out of the room. She placed him down on the couch then ran back to the room to help her sister jump on the pedophilic asshole. Tara hung from his neck as Clara kicked him in his junk trying to bring him down to her size from his tall stature.
“Get the fuck off of me!” Scully yelled prying through Tara’s grip and tossing her onto the bed like an old sack of potatoes.
“You piece of shit! You’ll never touch my baby brother again! I’ll fucking kill you!” Clara retorted swinging her arms wildly at his face.
Scully reached up and with one swipe of his hand knocked Clara clean on her ass and to the room door. It was silent for a moment as the three of them sat there staring at each other. Scully didn’t know if he should leave or strangle them both for being witnesses to his heinous crime. He looked at the house phone knocked over on the floor then back up at the girls.
“You get the fuck on the bed with your sister. Now!” He pointed to Clara.
Even after a hefty blow to the face, Clara couldn’t listen to him. If she didn’t hate him with a passion before she did now and couldn’t relish the thought of her ever submitting to his demands. She stood up headed towards the bed with her head down slowly then rushed him knocking him down hitting his head on the floor. Once Tara saw that she had him she rushed to aid her in kicking and stomping him in his face. Scully, done playing Mr. Nice Guy, brought his legs up as high as they would go kicking both of the girls in their stomachs. They curled over clutching their bodies and coughing hysterically.
“Y’all wanna be bad, huh?” Scully hawked up something ugly
in his mouth, delivering it to the back of both of their heads as they cried. “I’mma teach you about bread and butter.”
Scully began undoing his pants again preparing himself for another round of stolen pleasure. He reached down grabbing Clara by her weave yanking it up not realizing that she was wearing a wig. It came right off into his hand but it didn’t distract him as he tossed it to the side reaching for the short hair sticking up from the tussle. She grabbed his arm scratching for dear life hoping to injure him enough to make him release her but it was no use.
“Now suck this dick bitch!” He demanded pushing her head up to his piece as he stroked it.
“NO!” Clara screamed punching at his waist.
Tara gained enough composure and headed toward him biting his exposed ass cheek as hard as she could. It didn’t phase him one bit, in fact it turned him on more. With one hand, he pressed her head against his ass almost suffocating her. Clara broke free and pulled her sister’s arm, scooting back towards the door to get away. They were done fighting. Clara had to get them away and find the police fast before he got away. The smile on Scully’s face was so sinister as he charged at the girls loving the thrill of the chase between them.
“Stop right there, motherfucka!” Goddess said pushing the door open as she dug in her purse then reached up pointing her trusty old stunner right for his head.
“What’s going on here, Scully?” Quetta asked kneeling down to her whimpering girls.
“Awe, nothing baby. We just were playing a friendly game. That’s all.” Scully laughed quickly pulling up his pants.
Goddess and Quetta didn’t even get their coats off before finding the horrific scene in Quetta’s bedroom. The war noises coming from the apartment were impossible to miss as they crept up the stairwell before they found out it was coming from her apartment. Now standing in the heart of the scene, Quetta’s heart raced a mile a minute.
“Ma, he made Maj suck his dick and he tried to rape us too!” Tara spat angrily.
Quetta covered her mouth in disbelief. It was hurtful to hear that he had gone beyond hurting her and was now hurting the people she loved the most. She never imagined it would go that far, feeling her blood pressure rise with every waiting minute.
“How could you do this to me... to my kids?” Quetta stood walking towards him.
“Girl, I know you don’t believe that shit! Your kids are fucking liars, man. Fuck this I’m out!” Scully snapped.
"You son of a bitch!" Quetta charged at Scully but met with his fist instead, dropping her down to her knees.
Goddess tightened her grip on the trigger and pulled it slowly. Before she knew it the prongs were digging into Scully’s neck sending fifty thousand volts of electricity through his Adam’s Apple and right on through to the rest of his body. His body hit the floor harder than a MACK truck against a wall. He began convulsing as his body went into shock and shook uncontrollably. He foamed a bit at the mouth and then…he stopped. The room was quiet and everyone was still. Goddess released the gun letting it fall to the floor making a hallow sound as it fell.
“Oh my God, G. Is he dead?” Quetta crawled over to get a cautious but closer look at the bag of bones in front of her.
Goddess ran her hands across her mouth and let out a long sigh. She looked down at the girls who were pulling themselves together trying not to freak out. They helped one another get up still clutching each other's arms.
"He looks dead, G." Quetta's diagnosis was apparent.
"Oh shit, dead? What the fuck we gon' do?" Tara panicked, picking up the stun gun curious as to how it worked.
“Girl what the fuck you doing? Put that shit down!” Clara yelled slapping it out of her hands.
“I just wanted to see it, damn.” Tara sucked her lips and rolled her eyes, shaking her head at her.
“Hey both of you stop it! Now what we gon’ do, Goddess? We gon’ bury the body or some shit?” Quetta asked biting her nails.
"No. Nothing. We ain't gon' do nothing. Look just call the police and send them to my apartment. I'm gonna go smoke some loud before they get here." Goddess waved them off dreary eyed and dragged her tired feet to the door.
"Naw, girl I can't let you go down like that. He was my fucked up problem and I pulled you into this shit.” Quetta cried.
“Quetta, I don’t give a fuck about that. My life is over anyway. My husband was my life and now I have nothing. So what’s the point? I killed him, I will pay the price.” Goddess responded.
She walked away from the scene just as calm as could be headed for her apartment. Apart of her knew that if this went to court she might get off with self defense since the kids could be her witness but another part of her wanted to think more realistically. It was the deep down dirty south and there was little reason for the police to listen to her story. She knew before she would be vindicated from anything she would have to sit in jail for a while. Jail wasn’t the scary part; it was the thought of the cold dark echoic cell that ate away at her more than anything.
As the door slammed behind her, she tossed her keys and bag on the floor then plopped down right in front of the window waiting on the sound of sirens to ring in front of the building. She lay back on the floor staring up at the ceiling figuring she had about an hour since they very rarely liked to respond quickly to the project’s calls. Her cell phone began ringing but she had no strength to answer it. She felt it was only Quetta trying to talk her out of surrendering, so she ignored it. The phone rang again and again back to back relentlessly. Frustrated, she finally looked at the number on the screen and was completely shocked by what it read.
“Hello?”
“Goddess Young. Why should I have to call your phone like crazy for you to answer? Who you screening for?”
“Ugh, hi Grams.”
“Don’t ugh me. I called for a reason.”
“Listen Grams, now is not a good time to be arguing with you. Oh and I’ll be going away for a while so—"
“Goddess, your mother is dead!”
She paused for a moment trying to collect her thoughts. It had been more than seven years since she had spoken to her mother so learning of her death was a bit unnerving but nothing she wanted to cry over. Besides it was her mother who chose to disown her after marrying Spliff. The only way she knew how she was doing was through the monthly phone calls she received from Venus. But this was a call she could have done without.
“I’m sorry to hear that Grams.” Goddess paused in recognition of a moment of silence. “Alright then, talk to you soon.”
“Goddess! If you hang up this phone, I swear I will—“
“Well what do you want me to say Venus? How did she die? Do you want me to cry? What the fuck do you want from me?”
“I want you to take the thumb out of your ass and act like you give a damn.” Venus retorted seemingly out of breath.
Venus very rarely jumped outside of her high squeaky voice and her sophisticated poise. It took a lot for her to be brought outside of her body like that but Goddess’ carefree attitude about the situation put her over the top. She calmed her breathing before she said something she really would not have meant.
“Goddess, your mother’s funeral is this Sunday. Now I’ve paid for your plane ticket and it’s at the gate waiting for you. It’s an open ticket so you’ve got plenty of time to pack and get your behind here but you’ve only got 4 days to do so.”
“But Grams—“
“If you’re not here by Sunday, you can forget ever calling me again.”
And with that Venus hung up the phone. She was not about to let Goddess ruin her mood anymore than it already was. Goddess looked at the phone then launched it across the room pissed at her grandmother’s arrogance. She was always overbearing that way, forcing people to do what she wanted them to do. Still, it was her choice and if she were locked up that would be more than enough of an excuse not to attend. Her eyes fastened in on the visible speckles in the ceiling dayd
reaming of what she should do. If she left without telling anyone she would for sure be a fugitive, a fugitive on the run.
****
The banging on the door riddled a sonic boom through the apartment. The rain had subsided, more than an hour after Scully's rotting corpse lay cold on Quetta's shabby bedroom floor. He was still there virtually untouched as the room filled with detectives and medical examiners. Everyone had given his or her statements. Everyone had given his or her own accounts of what happened, everyone accept for Goddess.
"Alright ma'am. We know you're in there. Now we can do this the hard way or the easy way." The tall dark and mysterious cop yelled through the front door.
He looked back at Quetta and her kids huddled up on the stoop of their apartment building wondering if they were lying about their story. He put his hand on his cop issued Smith and Wesson as a precaution just in case someone or thing jumped out at him when he tried the door. The doorknob turned easily with little effort as he peeked his head in slightly to get a look inside. It was dark but the lights of the TV illuminated the room enough to get a visual of its surroundings.
“Police! Is anyone here? I’m coming in.” The officer made his presence known speaking loud enough to be heard but not to cause a commotion.
Slowly creeping inside, he walked into the empty living room watching the news on the TV screen. He turned it off, then headed towards the back rooms in search of life. But once the coast was clear he let his guard down then moved about the house wondering how long the inhabitants had been gone. It looked as if no one had lived there in months with the kitchen only holding a few dishes, enough for one, which was collecting dust. The refrigerator held minimal food as well and most of what was in there were a few lives past their prime.
“There’s no one in there ma’am.” He said returning back to Quetta.
“What do you mean she’s not in there?” Quetta snapped.