RedBone 2

by T. Styles

  “Listen, Chloe rode with a nigga she was feeling and paid for it with her life,” Shadow said. “That shit don’t have nothing to do with you, me, or Mia. Now, I need you to stop moping around the fucking house and wash your ass. You smell like one of them dirty bitches down the street.” He stood up in full rage mode. “I’m sick of all this weak-ass shit around here.” He pushed toward his room.

  When the door slammed, Mia took a seat next to her sister. “One minute he acts like he loves me, and the next he goes crazy,” Farah said as she wiped her tears.

  “Shadow is taking it hard too, Farah, but he does love you, and every night he walks into your room when you’re asleep just to make sure you’re still alive. We both are worrying about you, but it’s time to snap out of this shit and get your life together.” She paused. “You gotta do it for yourself and for Chloe.”

  “I’m trying,” Farah said under her breath. “I just don’t know where to start.”

  “You can start with a bath,” Mia suggested, and Farah laughed for the first time in weeks. “There go the smile I love from my sister.” She rubbed her hand softly and observed her face. “Have you looked into the mirror? You have scabs everywhere on your body.”

  “I know. That’s why I don’t want to look.” She swallowed.

  “Do you remember the nigga Jean Hershey?” Mia asked. “Who went to school with me? With the water head and big eyes?”

  Farah frowned. “Mia, I didn’t go to school with you, so how would I know him?”

  Mia rolled her eyes. “Anyway, he was on the news the other day,” Mia explained. “Apparently when the kid Amico went missing, he was on duty as a manager for the movie theater. Miraculously the surveillance tape showing what happened that day is missing.”

  Farah was relieved that the tape couldn’t be found, because even though Chloe killed him instead of her, Farah was still her sister and would most likely be linked to the crime in some way. “That’s good for us, right?” Farah asked.

  “I hope so, but I know this dude, Farah. He’s hiding something. Bet money he got that tape either because he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to at work, or he may be holding it for ransom.”

  Farah raised her eyebrows. “You think he’s going to try to blackmail us?”

  “I think if that was his plan, it would’ve been done already.”

  As long as the tape was gone, Farah couldn’t care less what happened to it. Her mind was on other things. “Has Slade been by to check on me?”

  “No.” She removed her hand. “But it seems like every country nigga from down South live in this building now. They stake out the front, and I’m not sure, but something tells me they’re looking at this door. Be careful when you leave out, Farah. Shit is serious.”

  Farah’s head tightened. In her mind she would be seeing Chloe sooner than later if the Bakers had anything to do with it. “How you know they with Slade?”

  “Because they been in and out of Markee’s apartment and got accents thicker than my thighs used to be.” Mia looked into her eyes. “Where is that picture? You got rid of it yet, Farah? Because, for all we know, they could be going through your car.”

  “Yeah, I tossed it out,” she lied.

  “Are you sure, Farah?”

  “Yes.” She looked at her hands. “Mia, I miss him so much.”

  “You don’t need to.” Mia frowned. “He been keeping time with different girls, and I’m only telling you so you can be prepared. They be young and dumb, but that’s what it’s been.”

  Farah felt lightheaded as a vision of him kissing a random bitch flashed in her mind. “Shannon been over his place too?”

  “I don’t think so,” Mia said. “But, to be honest, I think he’s just doing anything he can to keep his mind off of you. Or maybe he’s chosen his family instead of being in a relationship with you. To be honest, Farah, he can’t stay with you and stand by his family. He has to decide, and maybe he’s made his decision. To tell you the truth, Farah, I don’t know.”

  “He over me, Mia. I know it.” She wanted to cry but held it down. “Were any of them prettier than me?”

  Mia looked at her spotty face. She looked horrible, but the truth might send her back another month. “Now, who could be prettier than you, Farah Cotton?”

  Farah trudged into the bathroom, walked up to the mirror, and placed her hands on the sink. For weeks she avoided mirrors on purpose, and now it was time to face her truth. Slowly her head rose, and when she saw the woman looking back at her, she crashed her fist into it. It had to be a mistake. This was the worst she ever looked. The mirror shattered under the weight of her blow as shards of glass sounded like bells falling into the porcelain sink. Not able to accept her new face, Farah plummeted to the floor and thrust herself into a crying fit.

  With her knees against her chest, she rocked back and forth in a ball. “This can’t be my life. This can’t be my life.” Porphyria, the blood disease she had been cursed with all her life, was causing her nothing but extreme stress, and she wanted it done with.

  Hearing the noise, Mia and Shadow bogarted into the bathroom to check on her. “What the fuck happened?” he asked, observing the condition of her bloody, broken mirror. “Why did you do that shit?”

  “Look at my fucking face!” She was rocking so hard that they thought she would roll out the door. “Look at my nose! I’m . . . I’m a monster. He’ll never want me like this. He won’t have anything to do with me.”

  “Farah, if you talking about Slade, things will be fine,” Mia responded, wishing she’d never told her about the bitches. “You just gotta—”

  “I need blood,” she interrupted as she looked up at them with her red, swollen eyes. She looked so loony that they backed up for fear that she’d try to take blood. “I need blood so I can be pretty and stuff. It works so good for me.”

  “Farah, you just got out of bed,” Shadow said, sitting on the toilet. “You don’t need to be killing nobody just because you think you need blood.”

  “I don’t think I need it, I do,” she screamed so loud it echoed long after she closed her mouth. “Look at me. Look at my face! Y’all don’t have this disease the same way I do. You never did!”

  “That’s ’cause we take the medicine,” Shadow said. “You don’t want to take yours because you think it doesn’t work.”

  “I took it for years and nothing I did worked for me but blood,” Farah said, trying to get them to understand.

  She had her first taste of blood almost six months ago, when her cousin Cosmo hooked her up with Grand Mike, a man who claimed he could cure her porphyria. With the hope of regaining her beauty, since her skin was badly damaged, she paid Grand Mike $1,600. In return for her money, he gave her vials of blood in a cooler. Farah drank the blood as prescribed and immediately felt better. She was no longer ill, and her skin cleared up miraculously.

  Although Shadow, Mia, and Chloe felt she was feeling better because the blood had a placebo effect, Farah believed in its powers to heal.

  “The medicine didn’t work because you overreact, Farah,” Shadow told her. “You have high anxiety. That’s what Dr. Martin was trying to tell you, but you never listened! Let’s call him to see what he can do for you.”

  Farah wanted to kill him for that comment. “That man will never touch me again. And if you call him, I’ll run away and you’ll never see me again. Do you understand?”

  “Farah, stop being so—”

  “Do you understand?”

  “Whatever the fuck,” he responded.

  “I need blood,” Farah continued. “And I need it now.”

  Silence.

  Mia looked over to Shadow and saw he was beyond frustration. She said, “Farah, you have to contain your evil,” Mia said. “Niggas is swarming the building looking for Knox, who we all know is dead. Let us not forget that Shadow had to help Chloe kill Amico in her room. We are hot right now. You are hot right now! Slow down.”

  When Chloe discovered that Fara
h drank blood and hid the vials in her closet, she destroyed them by the orders of her grandmother Elise. Farah was devastated when she learned her blood was gone, and hit Chloe for violating her privacy. Chloe was so overcome by grief for betraying her sister that she went out to get another victim, to take his blood. It didn’t take her long when she met Amico Glasser at a movie theater.

  With the promise of sex, Chloe lured Amico to her house. When she had Amico in her bed, she flipped the light switch off to conceal what she was trying to do. In the darkness, she pricked him with a needle to draw his blood. Instead of lying down and taking it, Amico fought for his life. Had Shadow not come home early from prison and walked into the room to save her, Chloe would’ve died that night.

  “What about the nigga who dropped the pictures?” Shadow added. “We still don’t know who that is.”

  “Exactly!” Mia jumped in. “So the last thing you need to be doing is killing folks and drinking blood.”

  “Not to mention you still haven’t found this dopehead bitch. There are plenty other things to be done, Farah. Killing unnecessary people for blood should not even be on the agenda.”

  “Can you help me find her?” she asked, looking from him to her. “Eleanor.”

  “Farah, we been looking for this bitch for the past three weeks,” Shadow admitted. “Now, either she disappeared, left town, or is already dead.”

  She wasn’t relieved.

  “No matter what, we won’t stop looking for her, and when we do, we gonna put something in her head.”

  Farah grinned. “Okay, so now that I have your help, I can go out and take care of myself. I promise not to get caught.” She looked up at them with wide eyes. “I’ve killed many and I’ve never gotten caught.”

  Mia and Shadow looked at each other in shock.

  “Trust me. I’ll be fine.”

  “I’m so tired of this Elizabeth Báthory shit.” Shadow stood up.

  “Who’s that?” Farah inquired.

  “Look it up,” he said angrily as he exited.

  “He’ll get over it,” she said, trying not to cry. She didn’t want her brother to be angry with her and hoped eventually he would change. “He just needs some time.”

  Mia sighed. “Farah, it looks like you have your mind made up, so what you gonna do?” She sat on the toilet lid.

  “I want to go see Slade. I need to see if he still loves me.”

  Mia shook her head. “That’s a bad idea. But do what you have to do.”

  The only thing Farah wanted was to plead her love to Slade, in the hopes that he would take her back. So she took a bath, put on her prettiest red sweater dress, and drank half a bottle of vodka. Once dressed, she slathered makeup on her face. It was a half-assed job and she could still see splotches on her skin, but for now it would have to do. When she was as presentable as possible, she walked down the hallway toward Markee’s.

  On the way to his apartment, she saw a beautiful Asian girl and a black guy carrying a brown box. They smiled and waved at her, but she ignored them. Although she didn’t give them the time of day, they continued to stare at her, until she walked up to Markee’s apartment and knocked on the door. Something was off about them.

  When the door finally opened, Audio examined her with a brown bottle of liquor in his hand. He could barely stand up, and the Hennessy orchestrated every move he made. “If you here, you must got information on my brother.” His words slurred despite being slightly coherent. “If you don’t, turn around and get the fuck outta here before I break your face.”

  Farah stepped back because Audio’s eyes told her he meant business. “I don’t know about you putting your hands on me, but since we talking about family, let’s talk about the fact that you killed my sister, all because you couldn’t drive a car. What about that, Audio? Huh?”

  “Bitch, I will kill you if you ever come at me like that again!” He stepped out into the hallway. “I loved Chloe!” He pointed at himself with the hand gripping the bottle and liquor splashed everywhere. “And I never got a chance to tell her that shit before she was taken from me.”

  Farah’s voice softened seeing the pain in his eyes. “And nobody ever questioned it before now, but you better give the same respect when it comes to Slade. I would never, ever, do anything that would hurt him or his brother.” She lied so much that she really forgot she killed Knox and sucked his blood. “I can’t even grieve for my sister because he’s on my mind. I just want to talk to him.”

  Audio splashed the liquor into his mouth and walked backward into the apartment. The door remained open and five minutes later, Slade swaggered to the door. He wore the same blank expression he always did. Still he looked different. The black Chopard watch on his arm with the leather band made a statement . . . he was a dope boy.

  I see you doing good from the robbery I helped set up, she thought. She remembered when he first dropped into DC and was broke. Now he made a come up, and it was partially because she helped them rob Randy by keeping him busy.

  He looked her over, and she immediately felt self-conscious. “What do you want, Farah?”

  “Can we talk?” She peered into the house and saw that everyone inside was staring in her direction. “In private?”

  Della walked out of the kitchen, wearing a red apron and holding a knife in her hand. The way she held on to it made Farah shiver.

  “It ain’t much we need to talk about. I don’t even know why you came around here.”

  He doesn’t want to have anything else to do with me because of how I look.

  “Slade, dinner is almost done,” Della told him. “How about you say good-bye to your friend and have dinner with your family.”

  “Give me a second, Ma,” he said, slightly annoyed by his mother’s intrusion. He turned back to Farah. “I gotta go.” He went to close the door and she blocked him.

  “Please, Slade.” She held the door. “I sucked your dick, fucked you raw, and you told me you loved me to my face.” His eyes popped open and he looked back to see if his mother was still there. She was. “The least you can do is give me five minutes of your time. I deserve that much.”

  Not wanting the audience to hear their raunchy adventures, he rushed into the hallway and closed the door behind him. “Why would you come at me like that?” he whispered heavily. “With my mother inside the house?”

  “Because I knew that was the only way you would close the door and talk to me. I’m sorry,” she apologized. “How come you didn’t see about me when I lost my sister?”

  “I knew you were okay,” he said in a low voice.

  “How?”

  “I asked your grandmother when she came by one day.”

  Although it wasn’t the answer she wanted, it felt good that he at least cared.

  “Is that all you wanted to know?”

  “Who are them bitches who be at your house all the time?” she asked as if she still had the right. “The last thing I know was we were together.”

  “I’m not about to argue with you about what I do in my spare time, Farah.”

  “I want to be with you, Slade, and if we not together, the least you can do is tell me you are seeing other people.”

  “I’m seeing plenty of people.” His words were cold, but his voice told her his heart felt something different. “You need to move on without me, Farah. I’m not good for you anymore.”

  “That’s a lie!” She hit him in the chest. “And you know it!”

  He walked into the hallway and leaned up against the wall. “Why are you doing this shit? Right now?” He paused. “Go home and be with your family.”

  “I spent three weeks with my family, but they’re not the ones leaving me,” Farah cried. “I’m worried about our relationship! What can I do but beg you, Slade? If there’s any other way to let you know how much I love you, I’m willing to go there. Just say the word.”

  Silence.

  Slade pushed off of the wall, stood over her, and looked into her eyes. “Farah, we over. I kno
w it’s fucked up, but it’s best we split. It’s for your safety.”

  There was nothing more in the world he wanted to do than be with her, but their relationship seemed to exacerbate the situation that Knox was still missing. He knew the things Judge and Grant were capable of. He could recount many stories where people who had beef with the Bakers went missing. At one point they were even considering putting them on Sheriff Kramer, but knew they needed him to stand trial for what he’d done. At the end of the day, Slade figured if they weren’t together, she’d be out of harm’s way and protected.

  “It’s over, Farah.”

  “I can’t accept anything you’re saying to me right now.” She shook her head.

  “You don’t have a choice. Now, get the fuck out of here, because the next time I see you, all I’m trying to hear is that you found Eleanor.”

  “If you leave me, a lot of people will die.”

  His eyebrows rose. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

  “Just what I said.” She looked up at him with a tearful stare. “Are you sure you want to be responsible for that?”

  “Do whatever you need to do. Just stay from around here.”

  Thinking she was saying anything out of her mouth to convince him to stay, he responded by slamming the door in her face.

  Whatever she did after that moment, whoever she killed, was all on him.

  She wiped the last tears away and decided to be the best monster she could be. She was awful at love, but there was one thing in the world she was good at, and she decided to do it.

  When Farah got into her car, she could tell right away that Mia and Shadow put some work into it when she turned the engine on, because it wasn’t making the noise. Before pulling off, she remembered what Shadow said earlier in the bathroom about being tired of the Elizabeth Báthory shit. She decided to check the Internet from her cell to see who she was.

  She remained in her car for thirty minutes, captivated by her story. She immediately felt a kinship with the former real-life countess from Hungary who reigned in the 1,500s. The only difference between them was that Báthory chose to bathe in the blood of her victims to maintain her beauty, while Farah chose to drink it.