by Nicety
The girl looked conceited and uninterested about talking to anyone. Cocoa walked right up to her and said, "Come on. Let's go."
"No I don't gotta go with you. I'm just supposed to give you my car. Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
"Look for the past few days I've been doing these things and.."
"Wait."
So these people that I've been meeting are players in the game and I'm eliminating them one by one? Cocoa thought as she looked away. She began to think someone was just using her to do their dirty work. This shit was fucked up.
"Look you just need to come with me alright. I don't know what's going on but I think we can help each other."
"But if I go with you then I suffer some consequence and if I stay here I don't know...."
"Damn it if you want to live then come with me. I don’t know what they told you but you were supposed to come with me."
The girl was terrified she could tell. She was also trembling and shaking.
“No. I’m not supposed to! I can’t. I can’t!”
The girl began crying and wailing. Swap! Cocoa slapped the girl then shook her as an attempt to calm her down.
“Shut up! Pull yourself together. Now I was told that you were supposed to come with me and everything would be okay. You have to trust me.”
Cocoa was very calm which made the girl finally calm down and listen. She agreed alas to go with Cocoa and they walked rapidly out the door.
"Where's your car?"
"Parked on lower Wacker."
They walked down the street trying to detect if they were being followed. It was hard to figure that out with 10,000 people walking around downtown. Everyone was dressed like cops with their well-tailored suits and distinguished brief cases. Again Cocoa’s paranoia kicked in. The girls ran down the street and then down the stairs of Wacker Street. Finally they made it to lower Wacker and began walking up to the parked cars.
"Which one is it?"
"There the blue one."
The girl pointed to a midnight blue newer model Camry. It wasn't a bad car at all in fact it was actually quite nice. Cocoa unlocked the door on the driver side and all the doors unlocked then the girls entered the car and started it up.
As Cocoa took off she began her inquisition.
"So when did you first get wind of this game?"
"I had just left my ex-boyfriend's house. He’s half Asian and Black and he lives with his mom and they live on the south side in a shabby ass neighborhood, but anyway and we had just broken up so I left his house and I did not have anywhere to go. I was on my way to a shelter but stopped at this little dining place on State. Then this old white guy came in the diner talkin’ bout he had a letter for me. I was skeptical but I took it anyway."
Cocoa was thinking how alike their stories were as she drove along. The girl went on and on about her boyfriend and wouldn't stop about it.
Finally she decided that the girl had talked enough and stopped her to ask another question.
"We have some kind of connection. We just need to figure out what it is."
The girls sat in the car silent for the longest. Cocoa for the life of her couldn’t put the faces together. She tried to study the girl’s face and try to remember but she just couldn’t. She began to think that the xstacy pill had to have been fucking with her memory. But that ass sex was off the chain though, a little sore, but off the chain nonetheless.
Finally the girl blurted out, “Wait. I remember you. You came in the bank one day asking about selling your house. But you couldn't sell it yet because your house was in your mom’s name. Remember? I was the only clerk that could help you."
They were almost to the Robert Taylor homes when the girl said that to Cocoa. She turned and looked at the girl in disbelief and in a bit of anger.
"Wow."
That's all she could say. What she really wanted to do was smack that bitch in her face for not helping her then. But now she wondered what connection she had with the Asian guy. Thinking back she really couldn’t pinpoint where she knew him from and then the girl went on.
“Yeah my boyfriend was in the bank that day that you was in there. He has a bad temper and he wanted to beat you up just because you were mad because I couldn’t help you.”
The girl said all of that with a fucking smile on her face, like she thought that shit was cute. But it started to make sense. Someone propositioned him to play the game so that Cocoa could kill him and he wouldn’t take revenge on her for his girlfriend. But she hadn’t done anything to his girlfriend yet so why did he die first?
Cocoa pulled up right in front of the Robert Taylor homes. This was basically the projects where very low-income people ended up and had no choice to live. The crime and gang activity was bangin real hard in this hood. No one could go in and come out in one piece and that's why not many people went there. Family members did not even go there to visit their sibling, that’s how rough it was over there. They sold drugs at night heavily and the little kids beat people up during the day.
Those little bad asses even beat up grown people. The police would barely roll through that hood for fear of being killed. The neighborhood was being riddled with bullets everyday.
"Why'd you bring me here? This is where my boyfriend lives."
"I don't know but this is where we part. Look for your clue."
Cocoa had a bad feeling about this place but did not say anything. She did not want to alert the girl that something might have been wrong if she wasn’t supposed to. It was eerily quiet.
The girl looked around. She figured it wasn’t normal for no one to be outside. Cocoa made one last request from the girl.
“Hey. Do you have any money on ya?”
The girl looked like she really did not want to give her anything with the shit face. She reached into her pocket and pulled out $50. Cocoa snatched it out of her hands and grinned.
“Thanks.”
The girl looked at her and huffed as she slowly got out and closed the door. She kneeled down to look back at her. Cocoa quickly locked the doors back as the girl stood there looking around. She did not know what the hell was going to happen but whatever it was she did not want it to happen to her too.
Cocoa noticed there was a stop sign just on the corner from where she was. She pulled off to hit the stop sign on the corner for her clue. As she got out of the car she looked back. The girl was getting her ass beat by a group full of girls. These girls were big and hefty looking and weren’t letting up on her ass for a minute. They were beating and stomping her ass and the girl was crying out for help. Cocoa heard one of the girl’s yell,
“You stupid bitch!! You killed my brother hoe!!”
Cocoa was shocked and started feeling bad but what could she do? Shit. At least now she could put the connection together now. She reached up and grabbed her clue off of the stop sign and jumped back in the car and locked the doors. She looked in the rear view mirror and they were still drilling in her ass. As she shook her head in disbelief, Cocoa put the car in gear and pulled off. It was a shame that the girl was getting her shit pushed in but karma is a bitch.
Cocoa thought about going back to help the girl but thought about how mean she was to her at first. People like her shouldn’t throw stones, judge, or belittle other people. All she had to do was be nicer and figure out a way that she could’ve helped her at the bank. Normally, if one of her people needed her to ride for them she was right on the front lines ready to beat a hoe’s ass. But in this case she really did not know that bitch anyway and she had it coming.
She decided to pull into a small diner on King Drive. It was a little unheard of place but it looked good and cheap and she was starving so she figured what the hell. Cocoa walked in the door and sat down at one of the tables in the back so she could see everyone that came in the door. A waitress came up and handed her a menu.
"How's it going this morning? Would you like to start off with some coff
ee?"
The waitress was an old black lady who looked as if she had been working there too damn long. She did not make eye contact with Cocoa the whole time and continuously wrote on her pad even though Cocoa hadn't ordered anything yet.
"No, can you give me a few minutes?"
"Sure, Hun.”
As the waitress walked away Cocoa proceeded to open and read the clue and it read:
5.) You are closer than ever to the end of this journey and getting your reward. This task will test your will and strength. Your mission is to murder the mayor’s son Jacob. This will not be easy as there will be guards around him all the time. Since this will prove to be a difficult task you will have two days to complete this. He must be dead in 2 days by midnight. He has a familiar popular hangout, which is the Danger Tail strip joint. If and when you complete this mission you will meet a man the next night at 9pm in a midnight blue Lexus on the corner of 71st and St. Louis by the train tracks. Remember if you are caught in this task you will be killed.
Yeah, yeah she knew the drill. This shit was unbelievable. Ok whomever this asshole was he was going too far now. Cocoa couldn’t even begin to think of how the hell she would pull this off without ever getting caught. She figured she might as well kill her damn self for all of this shit.
“You ready Hun?” The waitress returned smacking her gum in Cocoa’s face.
“Sure let me get my last meal please.”
“What?”
“Um, never mind. Let me get 2 eggs with toast and hash browns.”
The waitress wrote down Cocoa’s order and shuffled along to the kitchen. As she waited for her food she looked around at all of the people who were eating happily and conversing. The people looked like families who were enjoying a nice breakfast outing. She longed for a nice decent family life and always wondered why she never had that. Cocoa wanted to resent her mother for becoming a crack head but as a seller of the product she knew that it was impossible because it was in fact one hell of a drug.
The waitress returned to Cocoa with her steaming hot plate of food. It smelled so good that she did not even want to blow it she just wanted to devour it seeing as though she hadn’t ate properly in days.
“Would you like a nice glass of orange juice to go with that, suga?”
“Yes please.”
Cocoa said knowing that the waitress was just trying to up sell her. As the waitress walked away she looked up at her face. She recognized that lady from somewhere. That lady’s face was so familiar like a childhood memory.
“Here Honey. This one’s on the house.”
The waitress said as she placed a glass of orange juice on the table in front of Cocoa’s plate.
“Mrs. Armoir?” Cocoa said.
The lady looked down at Cocoa with a frown on her face trying to examine her face.
“No one has called me that in years. That was my teaching name. I used to teach 5th grade."
"I know. I was in your class. How have you been?"
"Child you see it. You did not want me prying in your life so honey don’t pry into mine. Besides, I don't like to talk about my life. You be good honey."
Mrs. Armoir said as she sighed and walked away from the table and headed to the back of the restaurant.
It was odd that Mrs. Armoir used to be so talkative trying to get her to open up and express her problems and now she was like a shell that was hard to crack. She wondered if she had have opened up to her would her life be totally different. She probably would’ve gotten shipped off to some rich white family who would have loved and cared for her and spent quality time with her. Oh well, no since dreaming now. But how did a respected teacher like her end up working here, she thought. Last she had heard the school closed down due to funding 3 years ago.
Maybe finding another teaching job was too hard for her. It was funny seeing her in a diner like that. Cocoa hoped she did not make her feel bad by making her relive her past. She finished her food and took another look around and left two twenty dollar bills on the table knowing that was more than enough for the meal but hoping that the tip put a little pep in Mrs. Armoir's step. Since she knew first hand how hard it was in the hood she hoped she'd helped her out a little. She was always nice to her. ****
Chapter 19 – You don’t want none
Cocoa got up and walked out headed back for the car. Once she was in the car she felt the piece in her back and decided to store it and the silencer in the glove compartment. She had 2 days to befriend the mayor's son Jacob and kill him. She knew she had to go to work. The one thing she dreaded going back to but it had to be done. Driving down the road, she began to contemplate how she would be able to wash her ass and get ready for work later that night.
She remembered the nigga Dirty who seemed to like her ass so much that he would do anything just to taste it again, literally. So she thought she would play that number again. As she pulled up in front of his house she noticed there was loud music playing from it. Now it was a little past midday and Cocoa really just wanted to relax but knew that was going to be difficult with that music. Cocoa got out of the car and walked up to ring the doorbell.
"Who is it?" A chick answered with a snotty attitude.
"Its C. Is Dirty around?" She replied trying to sound respectful just in case that was his main bitch.
She was careful about the sound of her voice because she did not want to fuck up that man's home if that was his bitch answering the door.
Dirty came up to the door and greeted her like shit did not change. "Hey girl come on in. What brings you here? You need another stinger?"
"No actually, I just was looking for a place to crash and wondering if I can maintain here for a sec."
Cocoa was trying to remain humble and sincere. Dirty nodded his head yes and put his arm around her then led her into the living room and introduced her to everybody there.
"Er'body this is Ms. K, Ms. K this is er'body. Gone and mingle."
He slapped her on the ass then left and went to talk to some chick over by the bar in his dining room.
Cocoa walked down the hall to the bathroom. There was a girl in there checking out her make up as if she needed it. This girl was flawless. She was tall like a model but she was also conceited. The girl looked at her and walked right passed her out of the door with a snotty look on her face. Cocoa thought to herself some people needed to get a grip. It was amazing that Dirty hung out with people like that. All of the people in the house looked upscale and high fashion. She went in and closed the door then walked over to the tub and cut on the shower.
Even though Dirty was having some sort of gathering she had hoped he would come in the shower with her and fuck the shit out of her like he did before. But she kind of got the feeling that this nigga really wasn't into her and just thought she was a good lay. Perhaps it was just that he more so into the party then wanted to pay attention to her. Cocoa wasn’t used to not being the center of attention. Even at her job, as the new bitch on the scene everybody adored her, or maybe just her body.
Cocoa hadn't scrubbed her ass really good in days. She figured if she scrubbed hard enough maybe all of the fucked up shit she did all her life would go away. Maybe it would wash off and she could return to a sweet innocent kid again. Nothing would take her scars away. They were embedded deep in her soul and lost behind her invisible tears. She wanted to right her wrongs, get the hate out of her heart, and release her emotions like regular people did. At least like what she thought regular people did.
She blamed her mother for all of the hatred she had inside. She reached down and found the root of her evil. Her mother. If she had been any kind of mother maybe the paths in life that she had chosen would’ve been different. That bitch ass mom of hers and her fucking coke habit. It felt so good to say that. To release a little of an inner demon that had been locked inside for many years.
She realized that there wouldn't be much of a future for her anymore. Not after this. Her dreams and asp
irations would be lost forever in a myth that she would one day tell her children. She hated the thought of even bringing children into her fucked up lifestyle. She feared destroying their lives just as her mother did her.
The bullshit that she was going through just to stay alive and make a quick buck was beginning to take a toll on her and her sanity. What if all of this bullshit was a lie and it was done for nothing? Naw fuck that, fuck that. Somebody knows something. So either way, something was gonna pop, she thought. She cut the shower off. Cocoa's best venting time was in the shower. She could rant and rave her thoughts away without hearing opinions that she really did not want from other people. As she stepped out the tub and dried off with one of Dirty's huge beach towels she noticed she did not have any extra clothes to put on.
She took her panties and threw them in the garbage. Luckily he had some lotion and deodorant in the cabinet for her to use. After getting dressed she attempted to brush her teeth but soon realized how hard that would be since she had no toothbrush. She saw that there was some mouthwash sitting near the sink and decide to gargle her bad breath away.
Then she walked out the bathroom and back into the living room only to discover surprisingly everybody was gone. Everyone except Cassie and James that is. Apparently these muthafuckas found a way out of jail and made their way to Dirty's crib. Son of a bitch! Cocoa knew they would be heated about her not being able to get them out. Shit she knew they had to also be mad from her hanging up on their asses because she did not want to hear that shit. As she turned into the living room it was all eyes on her.
"You stupid bitch! I should fucking kill you bitch!" Cassie said as she got up and tried to charge at Cocoa but James and Dirty grabbed her and pulled her back.
"Bitch I told you that I did not have no money to bail y'all out. So what you mad bitch I'll kick your ass."