Silence of the Nine

by T. Styles

  “When you’re seducing, what you want doesn’t matter.”

  “Correct,” Fran said tucking the gun in the pocket of her uniform before dipping into the other to pull out a bottle of whiskey. She sat on the ground and Nine did also. Today was warmer than it had been over the past few days so it was relaxing. “I should’ve known the rules too.” She twisted the top off and took a gulp. “Instead, I allowed Kerrick to run my life for so long that I didn’t know what I wanted. Or what I needed.”

  “Is that why you don’t want me to fall in love?”

  “I don’t want you to hurt, Nine. I’m going to give you all of the information I have. Tell you all of my mistakes so you can be smarter and learn from them.” She took another gulp. “Otherwise, what I’ve gone through was for nothing. Always learn the rules of seduction and perform as the predator. Never the prey.” She paused. “Let’s go before someone realizes you’re missing.”

  Fran snuck Nine back into her room. And when they opened the door, Leaf was standing by her desk holding one of her books.

  CHAPTER 19

  LEAF

  “Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.”

  -William Shakespeare

  Leaf looked at the Latina maid and the girl standing in the doorway. He had been there for almost a week and he’d never seen Nine before.

  “Hello,” Fran said to him. “It’s Autumn, right?”

  He put the book on the desk and said, “Yes. But I go by Leaf.”

  “I’m sorry for the mix up,” she said wiping her sweaty palms on her uniform. “Uh…well, Leaf, are you hungry?” She smiled. “I can go make you some food if you come with me upstairs.”

  She was doing her best to lure him away from Nine. Mainly because nobody outside of those who lived in the house knew she stayed there. Fran felt there was secrecy surrounding who Leaf was. Prior to then, she’d never seen Justin and Corrine before. And when she asked Kerrick who he and his family were, he told her to stay out of his fucking business. His instructions for Fran were simple. Treat Leaf like a Prophet and that’s all she needed to know.

  Since Kerrick remained tight-lipped, Fran drew her own opinions. Like everyone else who felt the members of the Prophet family looked the same, she suspected that Justin was upset about the inbreeding and disowned his family. Not even Nine knew that many members of her family were products of being brothers and sisters, including her parents. When Avery called Kerrick father, Nine assumed it was because he was his father-in-law.

  “I’m cool,” he said politely, “but you can bring her something to eat if you want,” he said pointing to Nine.

  It was evident that he was not following Fran out of the room. “Well, this is Nine,” she said putting her hand on her shoulder. “She doesn’t talk much but she’s nice.” After making her statement, she walked out. She hoped he wouldn’t stay long but more importantly, that he wouldn’t mention to Kerrick that Nine had been out of her room.

  “Is your name really Nine?” Leaf asked when they were alone.

  Nine remained silent. She was told not to speak to outsiders if someone ever saw her. Although, if there was one person she wanted to befriend, he was it.

  “So you really don’t talk?” he continued, finding her intriguing. “I’m getting silence of the Nine?”

  She didn’t laugh.

  Although she wore a nightgown, her body was developing and Leaf noticed. Her hair was soft, wild and curly. Some might think it was untamed but he thought it gave her a unique appeal.

  Her eyes were wide and although she looked frightened, there was something attractive about her he couldn’t deny. He wanted to get to know the scraggly looking girl but who was she? She wasn’t family, he was sure of that. Her complexion was like rich chocolate and not vanilla colored like the others who lived there.

  “Since you won’t talk, I’ll call you Silent Nine.”

  Nine didn’t say a word.

  “Okay, that didn’t go over either. You a tough crowd.”

  His eyes scanned the room and suddenly his nose caught up with it. It smelled faintly of urine and the air was as stale as old bread. There wasn’t a window in sight and without the benefit of the lamp, it would be pitch black. He looked at the old twin bed and then her desk. Was she being held hostage? “Do you live down here?”

  Silence.

  He walked up to her. “Why won’t you talk to me?”

  She walked around him and sat on the bed. At first she looked into his eyes and awaited his next question but due to how her stomach fluttered when she looked at him, she quickly turned away. His presence freshened her room and she felt aroused.

  “I get it,” he smiled. “You want me gone. So just answer me this one question and I’ll leave.”

  She focused on him. Now he held her attention. “Are you a Prophet?”

  She swallowed and slowly shook her head no. She was right. Her mother told her over and over that her name was Nine. Nothing more. Nothing less.

  He smiled as if relieved. “Okay.”

  He turned to walk out until she parted her lips. Because she had been silent for most of the day, she licked her lips because they felt dry. “Please don’t tell anyone you’ve been here.”

  He stopped and spun around until he was looking at the beautiful girl again. Her voice sounded like waves crashing against rocks on a beach. “What did you just say?”

  “I said please don’t tell anyone that you were here or that you talked to me,” she said softly. “It will be bad. For me.”

  He smiled. “I’ll keep the secret on one condition.”

  “Anything,” she admitted.

  “That you talk to me when I come back.”

  “I don’t know if I should do that,” she said. “I just want to be left alone.”

  “For some reason, I can’t promise you that,” he admitted. “Being in this house every day is fucking with my head and you’re the most interesting thing I’ve seen in a long time.” He walked toward the door and turned the knob. “I won’t tell anyone I was here or that I talked to you, but I will be back whether you speak to me or not.” He walked out.

  Nine dropped to her knees and exhaled. The entire time he’d been there, he had taken her breath away.

  CHAPTER 20

  NINE

  “The time of life is short.”

  -William Shakespeare

  The next few days, Nine had something to look forward to and his name was Leaf Lincoln. He stood by his word and came into her room every night. So that she wouldn’t get into trouble, it was always after midnight when everyone else was asleep. Leaf did most of the talking but Nine would laugh or say a word or two so that he would know she was interested.

  She was waiting on him to visit again when she heard screaming and bumping around upstairs. The house was solid and sound very rarely traveled unless the noise upstairs was extremely loud.

  When she heard someone yell, “The CIA is coming! The CIA is coming to get me,” she was startled.

  The voice was faint before but now it was clear. The person was her mother. Afraid she would come into her room, Nine pushed her desk and chair in front of the door. She was not allowed to block access but she was willing to get in trouble to avoid Kelly. She walked backwards slowly and waited. Just as she expected, the doorknob jiggled and her mother banged against the door heavily.

  “The CIA is coming! The CIA is coming!”

  Nine was smart enough to know who the CIA was but wasn’t sure what they wanted from her mother if anything.

  Shortly after Kelly’s first knock and the attempt she made to get into Nine’s room, she heard extra footsteps. Then it was her grandfather’s angry voice that rocked her spirit. “What is all of this madness, Kelly?” Kerrick yelled. “What are you talking about now?”

  “The CIA,” Kelly repeated. “They are coming to get me!”

  “Honey, come back to bed,” Avery said softly. “Everything will be fine.”

  “But they’re coming to get m
e! I don’t want them to get me,” she sobbed. “Will you help me?”

  “She’s doing it again,” Kerrick said harshly. His voice was heavy with irritation. “I thought you said it had stopped, Avery. You promised me that you would keep her mental issues under control.”

  “It did stop, father,” Avery responded. “But something happened tonight and she snapped. I was in the bathroom and when I came out she was down here.”

  “I told you what I would do if this happened again. I was very clear. Unfortunately, we’ll have to keep her down here. We have company in the house and I don’t want Justin and Corrine to see this.”

  Nine watched the door as if she were watching a movie. Although she couldn’t see their actions, she could hear their voices. Before long, Nine heard a dragging noise across the floor. It was her mother’s body.

  “Get off of me,” Kelly screamed. “Leave me be!” Her mind alternated between thoughts. “And where is Paige? Where is my daughter? Who has my babies?”

  “She left a long time ago,” Avery said. His voice was heavy with sympathy and love. He did all he could to stop himself from crying.

  A few seconds later, Nine heard a door open and slam quickly thereafter. Kelly had been placed in a room across from Nine’s. Now she was an inmate too. Kerrick had many rooms in his house, and many more in the basement. If he wanted to keep his entire family imprisoned, he could and the world would never know.

  “Let me out,” Kelly screamed banging heavily on the door. “Please, father. Let me out.”

  Kerrick and Avery walked upstairs and Nine could hear their footsteps along with her father’s soft crying. It was the first time Nine heard Avery weep and she wondered why he never cried for her. He was obsessed when it came to his wife and had little love left for his daughters.

  When the melodrama ceased, Nine pulled the desk from the door and sat down on the bed. The sounds of her mother crying that the CIA was approaching covered the night. At first being alone in the basement bothered Nine. Mainly because she was forced to stay with her own thoughts. But what she wouldn’t give to have noiselessness now.

  The next day, the same thing occurred with Kelly except she was louder. She ranted on and on about the CIA. She yelled so long that her voice was hoarse and barely recognizable.

  Each day Avery would beg Kerrick to let her out and each time he would say no. Avery even offered to move out of the home if Kerrick would provide the first few months’ rent. Still Kerrick refused because he knew it would be a few weeks, if not days, before they returned for help. Besides, with Kelly’s mental condition deteriorating, he couldn’t risk someone finding out about the incest that plagued the Prophet family.

  As if Nine didn’t resent her mother enough, because she was downstairs too, it had been weeks since she’d seen Leaf. There were too many people going in the basement for him to visit. She was wrong to look forward to seeing him, knowing nothing in her life was promised, but it didn’t stop how she felt.

  The next morning when Nine woke up, she was enveloped in silence. Although her wish to not hear her mother’s voice had been granted, now she was frightened. It was too quiet. So she popped the lock, crept to the engine room and into the ducts. She crawled into almost every vent and it appeared everyone was gone.

  Emboldened, she crawled out of the vent and walked toward the living room. Her bare feet sank into the plush cream carpet as she approached the ceiling-to-floor window. She pushed open the curtains just in time to see her mother being taken out of the house kicking and screaming. There in the driveway stood Avery, Kerrick, Victoria, Fran and a few people standing by a black van she didn’t recognize. For some reason her heart rocked in her chest.

  She picked up the edge of her pajamas so she wouldn’t trip and rushed back to her bedroom. Something odd was going on.

  An hour later there was a soft knock at the door. She wanted it more than anything to be Leaf. Nine hopped out of bed and stood in front of the door as she waited for her visitor. When it opened, her father stood on the other side. She was majorly disappointed. What did he want?

  “Your mother isn’t coming back,” he said as gigantic tears rolled down his face. “But I’m not sad anymore. He killed her and I’m happy for her. She doesn’t have to hurt any longer.”

  Nine stood in place, not knowing what he wanted her to say. She didn’t know either of them and she despised him for involving her in their business.

  “I can tell as I stand in front of you that you hate me. And you have that right. I loved your mother so hard that I didn’t have enough love for my girls.” He wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve and Nine noticed he had a gun. “I did a horrible job in this life, Nine.”

  Nine backed against the wall thinking he would shoot her.

  “I don’t have anything to give you. So I offer my life instead.” He raised the gun that dangled in his hand, placed it to his temple and pulled the trigger.

  Bone matter slapped against the rim of the door and splattered against her face. She observed the colorful, gruesome scene in awe. She examined the brain tissue that was slapped against the wall and the white part of his eye that sat at her foot.

  A rush that Nine never experienced coursed through her body as she studied the scene. And she would replay it in her mind for the rest of her life.

  CHAPTER 21

  NINE

  “Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.”

  -William Shakespeare

  Nine’s heart hardened ever since her father murdered himself. She was left with thoughts of Kerrick and how everything was his entire fault. Who was the man she called grandfather really? What had he gone through that made him mentally abuse his family? It didn’t matter. She made up in her mind that she would spend her life getting revenge against him. And she didn’t care how long it would take.

  And then there was the problem with Alice. No matter what she did, this monster refused to leave her alone.

  Nine was bent over on her desk with her rear in the air like she had been many times before. Her cousin and Hector were lying on the floor beneath her, eying her body while they made love. When Alice observed Hector no longer performing because he was enamored with Nine’s body, she grew insanely jealous.

  “Get the fuck off me,” she said pushing him by the shoulders. “You are so worthless. I can’t believe I’m going to marry you.”

  He rolled off of her and they both stood up and pulled up their clothes.

  “But what did I do this time?” he asked.

  “You choose to eye this bitch when you have the benefit of me!” She paused. “Your belt, Hector,” she said holding her hand out, palm up. “Give it to me now!”

  “What are you going to do?” he asked hoping she wasn’t going to hit him.

  “Punish this bitch for looking at you too hard. It’s obvious if you disconnected from me it was all her fault.”

  “Alice, please,” he smiled hoping she’d calm down. “Let’s just go upstairs and eat.”

  “Give…me…your…belt,” she demanded, wiggling her fingers. “Now!”

  Not trying to anger the woman who could take her money away and ruin his life in the process, he slowly pulled the buckle until the belt was hanging at his side. He took a look at Nine, whose hands were still on the table, as she was faced in the opposite direction. She hadn’t done a thing wrong. As weird as it was, considering he was a part of Alice’s antics too, he still felt sorry for her.

  Alice snatched the belt and hit Nine so hard on the rear with the buckle that her flesh ripped open. The metal attachment dug into her skin and caused her to bleed immediately. Alice was so delusional that she felt she was in the right. Furthermore, she had no intentions on stopping until Nine begged for mercy.

  But after the fourth whack, Nine had refused to budge. So Alice doubled the lashes, hoping she’d relent. Still, Nine did not flinch. The flesh of her right cheek bled even more but what Nine lacked was reaction.

  When Alice walked around to l
ook at Nine’s expression, she was smiling. Frightened, Alice dropped the belt and said, “Fuck this bitch. Let’s get out of here. I’m getting tired of smelling this whore anyway.”

  When Alice closed the door, Nine stood in the middle of the floor and laughed crazily.

  ****

  A few days later, Fran sat on Nine’s chair and observed her while she was sitting on the edge of the bed. Nine was different but Fran couldn’t figure out how. “Are you sad about your father?”

  “No.”

  “Are you going to talk to me?” She took a large gulp of the whiskey in the small paper bag she was clutching. “Or are you going to remain silent forever?”

  Nine focused on the floor. Slowly, her head rolled up until she was looking into Fran’s eyes. “What would make my father kill himself? In all of my books, including the Bible you speak about, it says that suicide is the worst sin.”

  “You have your opinion and that’s great. But unless you’ve lived everyone else’s life, you should never judge.”

  Nine swallowed. “What happened to my grandfather? To make him so evil and abuse his family?”

  Fran sighed. “I don’t know a lot but I’ll tell you what he told me during happier times. Your grandfather was born in Zimbabwe. He was in love with a woman very much, a woman who neither I nor your grandmother could ever hold a candle to. Her name was Thandi. She was murdered for something he did to make money that he never spoke of. But,” she paused, “prior to that, he was forced to kill his parents for a militia group in Africa. He didn’t tell me much about what went on during his time with them, but I think it changed the course of how he viewed people. Of how he viewed himself.” She paused. “I will never forget something he did say about that group. He said that he wanted to fight for them when he lost his parents but they told him no. Because he wasn’t hard enough. So he became a monster.”