by Kenya Wright
Really, 305?
I wasn’t too excited about him exposing us to whatever lingered in the trees. “Put the window back up, before a monster comes in here and eats you.”
“Monsters?”
The window slid up fast and I cracked up with nervous laughter. Things had certainly changed. If Crusher had been driving, the whole forest would’ve been filled with the sounds of Disney music.
Crusher.
I didn’t get why every time I thought about him, an ache hit my chest. Shit was weird. Dead people gave me nightmares, not heart pain. Crusher was only injured and anytime I heard his name, anxiety rushed through me.
Has Mary Jane altered something inside of me, made me feel more or something?
305 jumped at silence. “Boss, this place is fucking scary.”
I knew he was smart.
Again, I played it off to keep us on the path. “It’s due to all the ghosts flying around here.”
“Ghosts?”
The woods always crept me out when we buried bodies. As soon as the sun went down, fog thickened and rose four feet everywhere you looked. The burnt cinnamon fragrance soaked the bark, leaves, and grass. There was no escape from the smell. Birds didn’t squawk or even fly near the place. Animals made no noise in the woods. I didn’t think I’d ever seen a squirrel or fox around either. It was like nothing lived in Ebony Forest, but death.
Well, death and the gypsies.
Let’s hope I’m doing the right thing this time and finally finding a solution to Butterfly and this stupid ass war.
The trees continued to take on interesting shapes. The closer we got to the gypsies’ camp, the more the trees formed into curvy women who seemed to reach out with their branches trying touch you. Again, it was all in the mind and moon lighting. I’d never been here during the day. Perhaps, Ebony Forest appeared like a regular wooded area in the sun.
After several minutes, a wooden sign appeared with a skull drawn in blood and an arrow pointing right.
“So, we’re going left?” 305 asked.
“No way. Follow the sign with the blood drawn on it.”
“Fucking white people,” 305 muttered.
“Really?”
“I’m just saying, boss. You would never catch a brother ever saying some shit like that. ‘Hey, man. Follow the sign that has blood drawn all over it.’”
I left 305 alone, before he pissed his pants. If he was freaking out now, he’d be racing out of here once we met the gypsies.
And here we go. No turning back now.
More signs came. The rest were made from human bones. Skulls had been nailed to the top as a last effort warning for any trespassers. The gypsies didn’t mind people wandering onto their property. They loved it. Nothing like dinner coming straight to them. However, they believed in karma, too. They didn’t feel right eating you if you’d accidentally stumbled to their camp.
Red glowed in front of us as the camp came into sight. Twenty cabins gathered in a circle and were surrounded by fire torches that I’d never seen go out, not even when it rained. Lights illuminated from the cabins’ windows, but again, not a sound. There was this sense that no one really even lived out here, as if the lights and cabins were only for show.
But one didn’t make the mistake of thinking nothing was out here. The evidence was clear by looking at the clothesline–instead of drying clothes, five bodies dangled. Blood didn’t drip from the cut open limbs. No heads sat on the bodies and someone had cut a large incision down the chests, cleaned out the insides, and left each one hollow.
“Yo.” 305 stopped the car there. “Noah, what the fuck?”
His calling me Noah was a huge sign that he was scared as hell.
“Relax, man.” Did my voice come out shaky too? I adjusted my tie and breathed. “Have I ever put you in danger?”
“Yes, all the damn time.”
“Well, this isn’t as dangerous as most times.”
“Are those props up there to scare people or really dead bodies?”
“You know what a corpse looks like. What do you think?”
“I think that the answer is a big ass yes. Now, why are they up there?”
“Are you sure you want the answer?” I asked.
“Hell to the yes!”
“They’re drying them.”
305 glared at me from the rear view mirror.
I shrugged. “They like to eat a bit differently than we do.”
“Oh, fuck!” He rubbed his face with both hands. “Cannibals?”
“They prefer the term gypsies.”
“I think I’m going to take both of my guns with me, and shoot anybody that comes near me with a fork.”
“Guns?” I laughed and climbed out. “You would be better off running away as fast as you can and praying that you don’t taste good.”
If they want us dead, we’ll have to do more than use guns.
I waited for him to get out. It took five damned minutes, and when he came out, he was armed from head to toe. Rambo had nothing on him. He had a double holster on his waist, like he was preparing to fight in the Wild Wild West. A knife hilt stuck out of both pockets. A rifle was slung around him. He even had a large mace canister clipped to the top of his shirt. I had no idea he had all of that stuff in the front of the limo.
I smirked. “Do you have an atomic bomb, too?”
305 frowned as if I’d betrayed him. “I’m putting in my resignation as your driver when we get back.”
“I won’t accept it.”
I can get us both out of here. Everything will be fine and I’ll have Mary Jane in my arms by this evening.
We walked toward the cabins. Our voices were the only noises out here. Our footsteps didn’t even make a sound, even as we stepped on leaves and sticks. The closer we got, the more 305 shook his head. “How the hell did you find this place?”
“Rasheed and I buried some bodies when we were kids near this land. Our dumb asses smoked a fat blunt. So young, we were high as fuck. Thought we were imagining the signs.”
“And then you met cannibals?”
“Yeah, but they didn’t eat us because we were kids. Rasheed gave them our sack. They smoked with us and sent our dumb asses on our way. Next time we buried a body, they asked if they could get it. Later, we just brought a couple more corpses with us and another bag of weed.”
305 scrunched his face in horror. “Why?”
“I figured they were good friends to have. Besides, they never ate us.”
“So they have limits?”
“Yeah. They don’t eat kids, innocent people who are just lost, friends, and. . .”
305 stopped. “What?”
I chuckled. “They don’t eat black people.”
“Boss, with all due respect, this shit isn’t funny.”
“Seriously, they don’t eat black people.” I waved him forward.
“Well, why not?” He hurried up and caught my pace. Still, no noise echoed as we traveled to the first cabin and climbed up the steps. “I mean. I don’t mind or anything. It’s not like I’m going to call the NAACP, but I want as much information as possible.”
“You’ll see.” I knocked, although I never heard it as my fist hit the wood.
The door opened and a black woman with red braids looked back at us. Her eyes weren’t black, but more of an odd blue. People said my eyes were cold, but those individuals had never met Vinese. She wore a long, brown dress that fell to the floor, but hugged her slim body. Her usual cape remained slung over her shoulders. It was royal blue with silver symbols embroidered around the edges. A red leather belt hung around her waist with gold hooks where tiny bottles and pouches hung.
She looked twenty, but it wouldn’t be wise to assume anything about her. Her eyes spoke wisdom and wickedness. Her voice resembled a hyena’s growl, instead of a feminine tone and tonight, it came out rougher than usual.
“What you want, Noah?” She kept the door half-closed. “I could smell you coming from miles away, s
melling like love, fear, and flowers.”
“I want my fortune told.”
“Lots of fear coming from you tonight. You ain’t never been this scared before. What got you scared? And this one scared, too.” Vinese sniffed at 305. He reached for his gun and she flashed her razor sharp teeth at him. “Why you don’t ever bring me someone nice to eat? Always skin with color, too pretty to cut.”
“I keep forgetting to put that on my to-do list.” I stirred uncomfortably. “Can you read my future for me?”
“Plenty people in Din City that read cards.”
“Not your cards.”
Vinese’s eyes shimmered in the fire’s light. “What else you want?”
I looked down at the ground. “Maybe, I also want to talk to Night Shade.”
“Who you trying to kill, boy?”
“Someone that’s probably pretty tasty to eat. She’s got color in her skin, but her soul is so dark, it would fill your belly for days.”
Vinese’s grin widened and exposed a few extra teeth that I didn’t think any human I knew had. “Come on in, Noah and Mr. Albert Haynes. I’ll get Night Shade after I do your reading.”
I eyed 305 while I entered the cabin.
“How the hell does she know my real name?” he asked.
“Like I said, keep an open mind and don’t pull out your gun.”
I checked my phone one last time to see if Mary Jane had called.
Nothing.
You better be sleeping, baby. And I better get my ass out of here alive.
Chapter 22
Noah
While out of town, a smart guy developed a hernia.
Upon his return, someone asked what he’d brought with him.
“Nothing for you,” he responded, “but I got a little pillow for my thighs.”
–Philogelos (The Laughter Lover)
We entered a dark room filled with hundreds of candles dripping wax all over the floor and shelves. Shadows moved on their own and none of them represented 305, Vinese, or me. A chill ran through me like always, but I shook it away and stepped forward.
A large white table sat in the center. Her throne of stark white bones stood behind the table. Two regular chairs were on the other side, as if expecting me.
“I could smell you coming from miles away,” Vinese had said, “smelling like love, fear, and flowers.”
A curtain of green and violet beads hung in the entrance to a hallway that supposedly led to a bathroom and two bedrooms. Rasheed and I never went to the back. Anytime I had to piss, I went outside. Something about the back didn’t seem inviting at all.
I can’t believe I’m back here and without Rasheed. Is this a good idea?
It had to be. Butterfly’s time had expired. She was too smart and not dying fast enough. I had to get a secret weapon. Something that she wasn’t expecting.
Let’s hope we don’t get eaten up before I get Vinese’s and Night Shade’s help.
They called themselves the Gypsies of the Dark Light. Vinese had explained this too me one night as we smoked and sipped some rum. It was during easier times, right before I’d canceled out the east and west gangs and changed Rasheed’s, Domingo’s, and my life forever.
She’d read my cards that evening, like I hoped she’d do tonight. I often wondered if she’d altered my path in some way. Would I have been so confident that night and killed those men were it not for her cards? Or was I already on the road and would have seized opportunity regardless?
It didn’t matter. The whole camp was made up of Vinese’s family, although I never met the others. No one ever left the cabin, but Vinese and her daughter, Night Shade.
Vinese claimed to be able to read the future, but these weren’t tarot cards that she shuffled and placed on her black wooden table. The huge deck sat in the center. The cards were bigger than her hands, about a half an inch thick, and hand painted into the most exquisite images. On my first reading, Vinese told me that she’d made them herself, mixing the paint with her blood and taking years to create each image.
“This is the way of my people,” she’d said one night as she rolled a joint for herself, Rasheed, and me. “Before humans walked this earth, my people did, and others like us. Once a creature appeared in my camp—cloaked in crows and ravens. His eyes like two moons. His body tall like a tree and skin hard and jagged like bark. He told my ancestors that he would give them his tongue and eyes to give them the sight. All they had to do was give him their stomachs. They did and forever, our people can see far into the future. But this creature had also tricked us. Ever since my ancestors gave away their stomachs, my people’s appetites can no longer be satisfied by water and food. It is the blood and flesh of man that keeps us alive now.”
As a kid, I’d found her mystical and fascinating. Now that I was an adult, I only came around when absolutely necessary. Clearly they were psychotic monsters of a different nature. It helped that we saw each other as friends, but if Mary Jane and I married, I damned sure wouldn’t be inviting them to the wedding.
Wait a minute. Marriage? What the fuck. Focus. I have to get rid of Butterfly. Mary Jane must remain safe. Fuck anybody else.
305 followed me as I sat in one of the chairs. He did too with all his weapons clinging and weighing him down.
Vinese sat on her bone throne. “You know what you’re supposed to do, Noah. Let’s not waste my time.”
I turned to 305. “Give me one of those knives.”
305 obeyed with shaking fingers.
With no hesitation, I sliced a nice line in my palm and handed him back the knife. Red blood beaded up from the wound.
“Interesting.” Vinese inhaled and licked her lips. “You used to smell so nasty, when you bled. Like a rotten animal, some road kill carcass that sat out in the sun for too many days.”
I placed my hand on the west side of the table and smeared a long line of blood to the east end of it. “And now, what do I smell like?”
She closed her eyes and sniffed again. “You smell sweet like sugar.”
What’s changed me?
My heart boomed fast in my chest.
She opened her eyes. “This will be the last time you come to me, Noah. Whatever you’re doing, it is making you tastier to me. I’m not sure if I will abide by our rule of friendship, next time.”
“I understand.” First time in a long time, sweat dripped from the sides of my face.
“If you continue, the aroma will be too taunting.”
“I understand.”
I have to get us the fuck out of here.
“Delicious.” She shuffled the cards a few times, spread them over my line of blood, and gathered them back up. My blood disappeared. The table was clean as if I’d never smeared it on the white surface. Again, she returned to shuffling, but this time she whispered incomprehensible things with her eyes closed.
I turned to 305. He didn’t say anything to me, just shook his head as if I was the craziest person alive. With all the people he’d watched me kill and torture, it was funny that this was the thing that finally made it clear that I had problems.
Vinese stopped shuffling, placed the first card down, and flipped it over. On the card, a black heart floated over a bloody sea of dead people. A sword had been lodged in the center. “The forbidden love. Not taboo. Just unheard of. Something warm that’s bred from cold pain. Something filled with hope in a lost existence.”
Vinese flashed her sharp teeth at me. “No wonder you smell so good, Noah. You’re in love. Poor girl. Does she know who you are?”
She flipped another card over. This one had a queen with no eyes and covered in thorny roses. A skull sat in one hand, the other gripped a sword. “Your enemy sits in the shadows plotting your demise. You’ve allowed this for some time, ignoring the problem for too long. If only you can take off the blindfold from your own eyes, look in the past, and see the solution.”
305 wiped the beads of sweat from his own forehead and muttered, “This shit is crazy.”
The next card showed two lovers embracing each other. At first they looked normal, but as one peered closer, the flesh seemed to rot right before the eyes. I didn’t like this card at all.
“Everything you thought you loved may crumble, if you do not focus. But what is it that you truly love, Noah? What or who are you truly trying to save? Is it your empire or the woman that’s taken your heart?”
“Must there be a choice?” I asked. “Why can’t I have it all?”
A cackle came from. “So old, Noah, but still so young.”
She set another card down and paused at the image, her hand hovering over it as her long fingers shook. I didn’t think I’d ever seen her look scared. That shit had me fucked up.
“What?” I studied it.
A large man draped in a cloak that breed shadows around him. A crown made from bones sat on his head. I couldn’t see his face, but his eyes glowed red from under the darkness. In his one hand, he held a rose that bled and dripped to the foggy ground in front of him.
“Death,” she whispered. “Noah, you must focus.”
“Okay, but whose death? Mine or. . .” I couldn’t even say Mary Jane’s name.
Ignoring me, she flipped another card over and set it down. A hiss left her lips. On the table was the same death card right next to the other.
“No.” Her eyes lost their blue glow. She turned another and another card over, but each time she set them down, it revealed the same death image. “No.”
Again, she flipped and again, the death card came. “Go, Noah. I do not like this reading.”
The cabin door opened behind us. A silent wind blew in. Shivers ran through me. 305 had already stood up and headed out the door. I had no idea when he’d made the move, but he was out of there.
No way, I’m going without knowing if Mary Jane is safe.
I got up, placed my hands on the table, and glared at her. “What does this mean?”
“Go, Noah.”
“But what does all of this mean, Vinese?”
She parted her lips and said nothing.
My voice became low and filled with pain. “Vinese, please?”
“Noah. . .these cards are just your path for now, but. . .perhaps you can change them.”
