A BROKEN GIRL’S JOURNEY 3 (A BROKEN GIRL'S JOURNEY)

by Niki Jilvontae

  “Hell no!” Lakea yelled as she wiggled out of his grasp and tried to run out of the kitchen, but her furry socks made her slip and he grabbed her by her hair yanking her back and throwing her on the floor.

  “See bitch Ima have to treat you like a kid.” Keyshun yelled as he pulled his belt out of his pants that were down at his ankles and began to beat Lakea across her face and chest with it.

  That beating sent Lakea into a flashback. She was back in Wolverine and Klemmings was beating her with that riding whip. Lakea went crazy. She was crying hysterically and punching Keyshun wildly. Lakea kicked him in the knee and began to crawl out of the kitchen as he moaned in pain.

  “Bitch Ima kill you!” He yelled as he jumped on her back, punching her in the face, head, and back repeatedly.

  Then he put his arm around her neck again pressing his forearm so hard into her throat that she couldn't breathe.

  “Stop Keyshun I can't breathe.” Lakea cried as he entered her anus and she felt it rip.

  She screamed as blood ran down her leg. She screamed louder while gagging as Keyshun laughed and blew his cigarette breath in her face.

  “Yeah tough bitch where all that training at now? Bitch you can't move. Ima fuck the shit out of you and yo maggot ass still ain't going nowhere. You hear me?” He yelled into her ear, then licked her face.

  Lakea jerked her body trying to rock him off of her but it was no use, he was too strong. She couldn't break free. Her efforts to get away did make him so mad he began to choke her harder. Lakea felt the room began to spin and she started to see stars as Keyshun choked her harder. She tried to yell again but she couldn't. She couldn't even breathe. All she could think was, Lord don't let me die like this. Please God..Please! Then suddenly everything went black.

  When Lakea woke up still naked and bleeding on the kitchen floor it was midnight and completely quiet in her house. She was afraid to even raise her head up off the floor, but she had to go check on the boys. She had to get away. Lakea slowly lifted her head to look into the living room. The ringing in her ears suddenly stopped and she could hear Keyshun snoring from 8 feet away on the couch. He was out. Lakea knew he slept hard and wouldn't move even if she touched him so she gathered her strength and began to crawl to the closed hall door. Lakea looked down to see that blood was still pouring down her legs. She shook her head and cried as she opened the hall door and pulled her body through it. Once on the other side Lakea locked the door and rest her head against it crying. She touched her face and could feel that her right eye was badly swollen, but she could still see out of it. She could feel knots and cuts all over her face and a gash at the top of her head was bleeding so badly her hair was soaked on that side. Lakea knew she had to get up and out of that house. Suddenly she got a boost of energy. Someone was nudging her to get up. Despite the pain she felt all over, Lakea pulled herself up on to her feet and made it to her bedroom. She limped to her dresser as fast as she could and grabbed her pink sweat pants and a t-shirt and put them on. Then she went to her closet to put on her Jordans and grabbed her purse.

  By this time all types of thoughts were going through her head. She had to get out of there, but she wanted to hurt him too. Lakea wanted to hurt Keyshun like he had hurt her. She wanted him dead, but she didn't want to go to jail nor did she want anyone in her family to. However, that bastard had to pay. After getting her medication she had stashed, Lakea tip-toed out of her room into the boys room. When she opened the door Ray-Jay and J-J now 4 and 2 were sitting on the floor between their beds, wide awake and fully dressed.

  “Ray-Jay, what are y'all doing?” Lakea whispered as she approached them while picking up the baby bag and throwing clothes and diapers into it.

  “I heard you cry Te-Te,” Ray-Jay whispered getting up off the floor and helping J-J up.

  J-J said nothing, he just looked at his mama with tears rolling down his chubby cheeks.

  “Te-Te I call Jacob cause I hear you cry and you say use phone. Push 1 if it a emergency with Keyshun so I push 1. Jacob say he come. I tell him Keyshun hurt you. Then we get up, put on clothes, and hide,” Ray-Jay said with fear and pride plastered all over his face.

  “Here the baby.” J-J finally said through his sniffles pointing under the bed where they were sitting.

  Ray-Jay had wrapped a sleeping Rahiem, now 13 months in his spider-man blanket and put him under the bed. Lakea wept knowing that her nephew and son had heard the whole ordeal. She grabbed Rahiem up after filling up the baby bag, then she bent down to kiss and hug both of the big boys.

  “I'm okay guys so don't worry. You both did good but I'm so sorry for all of this. Right now I need both of y’all to be quiet as you can and move as fast as you can so we can get pass Keyshun and out of the house. Okay?” She asked the boys with tears running down her face.

  She couldn't believe she was putting her babies through this. She vowed never again. Both boys shook their heads indicating they understood and Lakea walked them to the door.

  “Okay follow me, when we get to the door quietly tip-toe down the steps as fast as you can when you get out the door run straight to the car. I will be right behind you,” Lakea whispered as Ray-Jay grabbed J-J's hand.

  “We ready Te-Te!” Ray-Jay said and put his head to J-J's head like they always did.

  They were so close, just like Lakea and Ray-Ray.

  “You can do this, I got you.” Ray-Jay told J-J then looked back at his aunt and nodded his head.

  Lakea opened the door and stepped into the hall. She could still hear Keyshun snoring through the closed hall door so she motioned the boys to move forward, then unlocked and opened the door. Keyshun was still flat on his back on the couch with no pants on, snoring when Lakea unlocked and opened the front door and let the boys out. She took one last look at Keyshun before turning to run down the steps behind the boys.

  “I'll be back bitch!” She whispered before running down the steps and out of the door.

  Lakea was shaking by the time she made it to the car and secured the boys. Lakea knew she should have just drove away, but she wasn't sure she could drive because she was getting weaker and her vision was beginning to get blurry. She knew she should have called for help or just waited for Jacob, but her anger was building as she stared at her face in the rear view mirror.

  “Okay, I will be right back I left something in the house. Don't open the door for no one unless Jacob pulls up. Okay Ray-Jay?” Lakea asked.

  He shook his head yes. Lakea got back out of her car and re-entered her building, slowly. Her whole body ached and it was difficult for her to breathe, but she was determined to get Keyshun back for all he had put her through. When Lakea walked back through the door Keyshun was laying there snoring like he didn't have a care in the world, but oh he soon would. Lakea went into the kitchen and turned on a huge silver pot she used for spaghetti to high. Then she grabbed the gallon of vegetable oil sitting on the counter and poured it all into the pot. She was going to scald his ass.

  Lakea paced back and forth in front of the stove waiting for the oil to get hot. She hated Keyshun for what he had done to her.

  “I can't let him get away with this,” she though to herself.

  Just then Lakea thought of how he had beat her with the belt. She wanted her revenge so she went to the hall closet and got the extension cord.

  “I'ma beat his ass then scald his ass,” she said to herself.

  Lakea knew once she hit him he would jump up so she used the straps hanging from under the couch pillows to tie him down to the couch. He wouldn't be able to move. Lakea sobbed all while she tied Keyshun up and he didn't move. He was so drunk he probably wouldn't feel her beat him. Lakea was ready to test that theory.

  She stood over Keyshun for about a minute just looking at him. Looking at the man who said he would never hurt her, the man who used to make her smile and feel good about herself. Now he was the man who had hurt her so much. The man who had stolen her light and changed her into someone she was not-- a w
eak person. That first lick Lakea gave Keyshun across his groin with the extension cord jolted him out of his sleep as it cut through his naked skin like a hot knife through butter. Keyshun let out a loud, “AWWWWWWW,” as Lakea continued to beat him on his dick up his stomach to his face.

  Every where she hit with the extension cord instantly became a huge welt or burst open bleeding. Keyshun cried in agony as Lakea beat him like a mad woman.

  “I'ma kill you funky bitch, I promise!” Keyshun cried as Lakea continued to beat him and he tried to unhook himself.

  “Fuck you pussy, you ain’t gone do shit. I'm about to make you wish you were dead!” Lakea yelled still slicing Keyshun across the chest with the extension cord.

  “Okay, okay baby please. I'm sorry!” Keyshun cried but it was too late.

  Lakea had snapped. Suddenly she dropped the extension cord and began staggering into the kitchen. She was getting weaker and weaker due to the blood she had lost and was still losing, but she wanted to finish him.

  “Bitch what you doing?” Keyshun yelled between cries as he grunted trying to release himself.

  “I got yo bitch nigga and I'm about to bring ha right now,” Lakea said as she used all her strength to lift the pot off the stove containing the gallon of boiling vegetable oil.

  “Here come yo bitch!” Lakea yelled as she entered the living room.

  Just then she heard the outside door to the building open and Jacob call her name. When Jacob walked into the front door, which was still open he gasped at the scene. There Lakea stood with blood all over her and a swollen eye holding a pot as she cried. And there was Keyshun still naked on the couch, crying with open wounds and blood all over him.

  “Baby!” Jacob said as he slowly approached Lakea.

  “It's okay baby. Daddy here. I know I let you down in the past. I wasn't there for you and didn't protect you from muthafuckas like this!” Jacob yelled looking at Keyshun. “But baby let me help you now. Please!”

  Tears ran down Lakea's face as she looked into her dad's eyes.

  “He not worth it baby,” Jacob said grabbing the pot. “I'ma handle him.”

  Lakea released the pot and fell to the floor. She was so tired. Suddenly she could hear sirens.

  “I called my homie, he MPD. He gone handle this,” Jacob said taking the pot into the kitchen.

  Lakea laid on the floor sobbing as Keyshun began to curse her and try to break free again.

  “Bitch just wait I'ma fuck you up hoe,” Keyshun yelled as Jacob rushed over to him and gave him a power punch to the face that put him to sleep.

  “Naw lil bitch just wait you about to be fucked up. You fucked with the wrong nigga's daughter,cuzz!” Jacob whispered into Keyshun's ear as his friend and other officers rushed into the apartment.

  Jacob held Lakea and stroked her hair as she cried until the paramedics arrived.

  “Where my babies daddy?” Lakea yelled as the EMT’s put her on the stretcher.

  “I took them over your auntie house baby, they're fine. Don't you worry,” Jacob reassured her.

  “Don't leave me daddy!” Lakea cried grabbing his hand and Jacob smiled.

  That was the first time he heard Lakea call him daddy, in 21 years.

  “I will never leave you again.” Jacob said with tears running down his face.

  When the paramedics got Lakea down the stairs and out of the building she could still hear Keyshun yelling and fighting the officers and paramedics trying to treat his wounds. Then she heard his yells of anger turn into cries of pain as the police beat his ass.

  “Its over baby. Daddy will take care of you.” Jacob said as they loaded Lakea in the back of the ambulance and she passed out from stress.

  When Lakea woke up in the hospital late the next evening she found out she had suffered a concussion and some cuts and bruises. She also found out that the brutal rape she had just endured messed up her reproductive organs, and the doctors informed her that she may never be able to have another child.

  Lakea cried to herself and over the next few days she began to slowly slip back into depression. She was losing herself again. Saturday Lakea was happy to get out of the hospital and go home, but the problem was she didn't know where she would go because she couldn't return to that apartment.

  “Don't worry.” Jacobs said as he wheeled her to his car.

  It was like he could read her mind.

  “Daddy took care of everything. You know I do real-estate and I just bought a three-bedroom house in Bartlett that's totally renovated. We already moved all yo stuff in, but I had to buy you new furniture. Mesha and the boys at the new house waiting on us now,” Jacob said as he helped Lakea out of the wheelchair and into the car.

  “Thank you daddy and I'm sorry for being so cold to you for so long,” Lakea said as a tear rolled down her face.

  “Don't you be sorry baby. I'm the one fucked up, but now I'm going to make it right.” Jacobs promised Lakea as he wiped away her tears and kissed her on the forehead.

  Over the next nine months, Jacob did work hard to make things up to Lakea. He was there for her and they boys in every way possible. Lakea didn't have to worry about food, bills, or anything else, and Mesha and Felicia were there to help with the boys and anything needing to be done around the house. Lakea tried desperately to get back to normal over this period of time, but she was so broken that she didn't know how. Her depression was beginng to consumer her again, so much so her sessions with Dr. Roth weren't even working. Lakea felt a little better when she found out that Keyshun was sentenced to eight years for the rape and assault on her and was sent to the same prison as Ray-Ray. She wasn't surprised the next week when her brother called her to tell her that Keyshun was dead. Someone sodomized and stabbed him repeatedly in the shower. Lakea thought that she would be back to normal once she got that news, but she still felt little relief. Keyshun still had won. He had broken her into even more pieces, shattering her soul. Lakea had lost hope of ever living a normal life and truly being loved by a man they way she loved him. She knew that Jeremy loved her like that, but he was gone forever and everyday Lakea felt that loss.

  One day while cleaning her room in her new house, Lakea found the teddy bear Jeremy had placed in the baby bed at the house he got for her. She picked up the teddy and hugged him tight. Then she noticed that the letter Jeremy had written her and she was afraid to read, was still stuck in the bear's overalls. Lakea sat down on her bed and slowly opened the envelope and held the letter to her nose, inhaling the scent. She swear that she could smell Jeremy's cologne. With shaking hands, she slowly opened the three pages as tears rolled down her cheeks. In her hands she held the last letter her one true love had written. Lakea's eyes were blurry from tears as she read Jeremy's words of love, telling her how much he loved her and how much her happiness meant to him. The last paragraph of his letter made Lakea weep harder, but it also gave her the strength she needed to pull herself together.

  “Baby I don't know why, but I have an eerie feeling that I won't see you after you read this letter, but if something does happened to me know that I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else. Know that you have showed me a type of love that no one else has ever s and that I have cherished every moment that I spent with you. Always remember that. And know that when things get hard and you feel there is no hope, I'm there. I will never leave you no matter what. Always know that! So if I don't come home, I want you to pick yoself up and be strong. Keep writing and singing, and make your dreams come true. Live the life that we always dreamed about baby. Become a famous song writer, marry a good man, and be happy! I want you to be happy and to be loved by the right man. Okay? Don't you mourn me, but celebrate my life, our life together by living you life to the fullest, with or without me. Promise me baby.”

  Jeremy's words made Lakea cry out and her tears wet the pages.

  “I promise baby.” Lakea whispered as she folded the letter, kissed it, and held it to her heart.

  “I promise that I will l
ive the life that we always wanted and that you will live on through our son.” Lakea said as she cried herself to sleep, still holding Jeremy's letter.

  After that day Lakea was better. She knew that Jeremy wanted her to be happy and live well even though he was gone. His unconditional love and faith in her abilities, gave Lakea the inspiration she needed to reach her destiny too. Lakea began to write more and more, pouring all her emotions into her songs. All of the hate, hurt, passion, love, sorrow, pain, and hope she felt came out in her music. Her light was finally shinning again.

  In April of the next year, following Lakea's 22nd birthday, Ray-Ray was released from prison and Lakea felt a sense of relief. She now had one of her missing pieces back. Lakea spent all of her time with Mesha, Ray-Ray, and the boys, enjoying her life stress free. She was not only writing again, but laughing and smiling too. Jacob was more a part of her life and so was her mama Felicia. She finally had that family she always wanted. Jacob had even helped her to sell some of her songs to local artists to her get exposure. Ray-Ray used the insurance money from when Rahiem's mother died to start his own lawn service and construction company, and he hired Mesha, Anterrius, Anthony, and MJ, and they all were doing well. Quan came home on each break and revealed that he was on the Dean's List, and had found a girlfriend. He was finally happy too. Even Felicia had found love with the deacon at her church. Everything that Lakea never thought was possible, was finally coming true. She was finally happy again and had hope that everything would work out.