by Kiki Swinson
“Please,” I whispered through trembling lips. “My sister?”
“That woke you right up, huh?” said a man with a deep voice and some sort of accent. I could tell he was walking back and forth in front of me because I could hear the sound of his shoes clicking against the floor. I attempted to move my body, but all I managed to do was feel the restraints cutting into the delicate skin of my arms and ankles. The cold steel of the chair I was tied to stung my ass and thighs too.
“Wh . . . what do you want?” I gasped. My head was pounding so hard even those few words hurt coming out.
The man stopped walking, his footsteps silenced. I could tell he was directly in front of me. I could smell the strong scent of his cologne.
“What do I want?” he repeated. “Do you motherfuckers hear this? She’s asking me, what do I want?” he mocked. Then he let out a maniacal laugh that had such a depraved ring to it that it made my stomach churn. I gagged again as fear gripped me tight around my throat. Suddenly I was fighting off the vomit that threatened to come up my throat.
“You have the fucking nerve to ask me what do I want, you little bitch,” the man spat venomously. “This bitch got some nerve.... Wouldn’t you say? Show her what I want,” he demanded loudly. The thunder of more than one pair of feet came in my direction. Whoever this man was, he was definitely the one in charge.
“Agh!” I hollered in agony as a punch landed on the left side of my face. I felt like my cheekbone had shattered under my skin. Another forceful blow landed on the bridge of my nose, sending stabs of pain ricocheting through my entire face. I felt blood filling up under my eyes, which told me right away that my nose had just been broken. I coughed, wheezed, gagged, and screamed as punches rained down on my face, head, back, and stomach. With the next round of blows, I felt one of my teeth crack and jump loose from the gums. I could feel blood spilling out of my nose like a faucet.
“Stop. Please,” I begged. The pain was unbearable. “Wh . . . wha . . . what do you . . . you want?” I gasped. I didn’t understand why he didn’t just kill me and get it over with.
“Okay,” the man said. With that one word, his goons immediately backed off.
“Now. What I want is for you to tell me where my money is,” he said. “I already know you were the mastermind behind the robbery so don’t try to deny it. I just want to know where my money is.” I swallowed hard. I had no idea who this man was. It definitely wasn’t Mr. Sherra, the owner of the EZ Cash.
“I . . . I . . . don’t know what you’re . . .” I started. Before I could finish, another slap landed on the right side of my face with so much force, it rocked the chair I was in.
“Don’t fucking lie! If you lie . . .” he growled. He moved to my right side and got close to my head. Then he snatched off my blindfold. “She will suffer longer.” The man snatched my head back so that I was forced to look in front of me.
“Miley! No! Miley!” I screeched. “Let her go! Please!” Screaming hurt so badly but I didn’t care. I wanted to save my sister. I began bucking my body against the restraints so hard the thick nautical rope cut into my skin. I didn’t care about that either. Seeing my sister in the condition she was in was breaking my heart.
“Now . . . I guess you know that I am not playing,” the man hissed. They put the blindfold back on me. Not being able to see Miley was killing me.
“No! Please! I need to see her! Please!” I pleaded, the veins in my neck and arms cording against my skin. The man emitted that sinister, scary-movie, maniacal laugh again. This time, the sound of his laughter made goose bumps stand up on my skin. Only a vicious killer could look at a woman, bleeding and in pain, and laugh so raucously you would’ve thought he was watching a comedy show.
“Why did you do it? What made you think you could get away with it?” the man asked, his mood quickly changing back to serious. “Weren’t we good to you? You were the highest-paid bitch in all of the stores. But you couldn’t be satisfied, huh? Just like an ungrateful, ghetto piece of trash. Always wanting something for nothing,” he spat vituperatively.
I shook my head up and down. “I . . . I’m . . . sorry,” I rasped. Tears danced down my cheeks. The man was right. I was ungrateful. My greed had already cost so many people their lives.
“You’re sorry? That’s it? You’re sorry?” he snarled. “This bitch has got to be kidding me. Humph, she’s sorry, everyone,” he announced loudly.
“Ow!” I howled as another bevy of punches and slaps came down on me like a hailstorm. I could barely keep my head up. I felt my ribs buckle more than once under the force of several punches. I couldn’t breathe now. It felt like a seven-hundred-pound man was sitting on my chest. I knew that one of my lungs had probably been punctured by one of my fractured ribs. I was going to die. I accepted it, but I didn’t accept that Miley was going to die.
“Show her what we do to people who steal from us and then lie and say they’re sorry,” the man instructed his goons. Again, they snatched the blindfold off of my eyes. I squinted in an attempt to get my eyes to focus, but the light in front of me was so bright I couldn’t see anyone’s faces. My head lolled. It was a chore trying to keep it up. Finally, after a few seconds, Miley came into focus in front of me. I could see that she was badly injured, but it was hard to see anything else. Then I heard the crackling of what sounded like an electric current. A man walked over and put something up against my sister’s naked body. The next thing I knew, her body was bucking and jerking and she was screaming.
“Oh God! Agh!” I shrieked. I snapped my eyes shut. I couldn’t stand to watch Miley in so much pain. They hit her with the little machine again.
“No! Please!” I begged, gagging from the mixture of snot and blood running over my lips and into my mouth. The salt from my tears stung the open wounds on my bottom lip. But, that was the least of my pain. Another slap across the face almost snapped my neck from my shoulders. The hit landed with so much force, blood and spit shot from between my lips and splattered on my assailant’s crisp white shirt. I wasn’t going to escape this assault. That much was clear.
“Just let her go. It’s my fault,” I groaned through my swollen lips. “Please. She didn’t do anything wrong. It was all me. I swear,” I rasped, barely able to get enough air into my lungs to get the words out.
“Oh yeah? It was your fault? Well, look at what you’ve done,” he growled evilly. “Just look!” He grabbed my face and forced me to watch again.
“Agggh!”
Miley let out another pain-filled scream. I could hear another crackling round of electric shocks rocking through her body. It sounded like the sizzle, crackle, and pop of the mosquito light in my uncle’s backyard cooking the little nuisance bugs when we were kids. I couldn’t even stand to look over at my baby sister’s naked body, dangling like a captured animal. They had Miley’s arms extended over her head and her wrists bound to a thick silver pipe that ran across the warehouse ceiling. Her face was covered in a mix of tears, snot, and blood. Her hair was soaked with sweat and matted to her head. I could see tracks of electricity burn marks running up and down her stomach and extending down her thighs. I knew then that even if by some miracle we made it out of this shit, Miley would never be the same again. I sobbed at the sight and at the thought. It was my greed that had landed us here. It was my need to prove a point to the world. A world that didn’t give two fucks about me or what I had anyway. More skin-searing sizzles interrupted my thoughts. More screams from my sister sent my emotions over the top.
“Miley!” I screeched until my throat burned. I strained against the restraints that held me to the cold metal chair. “Miley! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Agh!” She let out another scream. This time, urine spilled from between her legs and splashed all over the floor. I was so close I could feel the warm fluid hitting my feet. The smell of my sister’s piss, mixed with my own blood, threatened to make me throw up.
“I . . . I . . . I’m sorry,” I rasped. “I wish I could jus
t take it all back,” I murmured, barely able to formulate the words. The loud laughter that followed told me all I needed to know. There was nothing else I could say or do to make up for what had already happened. Shit had officially gone down the tubes. I had only been trying to find a way for us to survive, but it turned out to be our destruction. I had singlehandedly killed us.
“Ow!” I yelped, as my downturned head was yanked up by my hair. Pain shot through my scalp as the large gorilla hand clamped down on my long hair.
“Open your fucking eyes,” the deep, scratchy voice demanded. I could feel his hot breath on my face. The stench of old cigarettes and alcohol shot up my nose and to the back of my throat. I forced my battered eyelids open and squinted. The blurry image of his face came into focus but quickly went fuzzy again. I was finally made to meet the person responsible for all of this pain.
“You’re going to watch your little bitch sister die now,” he growled in my face. “All you had to do was be loyal. Be smart. But a bitch like you ain’t neither, and now you gotta pay.”
I felt my heart sink, but I realized I was powerless. My legs trembled fiercely. Sweat danced down my spine until it tickled my ass crack. I couldn’t stop obsessing over the what-ifs. What if I had just accepted my position in life? What if I had refused the plan? What if I had just stopped?
My actions had put us in this predicament and now nothing could save us.
“Miley. Baby girl, I’m sorry,” I cried so hard my entire body rocked. I heard my sister scream one more time. It was a deep, guttural scream that I would imagine coming from an animal at slaughter. She gurgled a few times. And then, there was silence. The silence seemed louder to me than her screams. I just knew right then and there my baby sister was gone.
“Didn’t any-fucking-body ever teach you not to bite the hand that feeds you?” he said. Then he let out the most evil, maniacal laugh that I’ve ever heard come from a human being. He let my hair go with so much force the chair I was in toppled over violently and my body crashed to the floor. My jaw cracked against the concrete and shattered under the skin. The mixture of grief for my sister and the pain of the fall sent me into a deep darkness, reeling back in time.
What did you do, Karlie? What did you do? I asked myself. How could you let this happen?
“Who are you?” I managed through my swollen lips.
“Who am I? You have the fucking nerve to ask me now?” he gritted, crushing my throat with his huge hand. My esophagus felt like it was going to crumble in his clutch.
“I’m the real owner of all of the EZ Cash stores in Virginia Beach, you thieving little bitch. I’m also the kingpin of the city. I own this fucking city. I am the motherfucker that fed all those bastards that helped you rob me,” he growled as he squeezed until I could no longer breathe. Then, just like that, he let go. I began coughing violently as my body instinctively gasped for air.
“I am the boss.... That’s who I am. El Jefe . . . don’t you ever forget it,” he said. Then he used his pointy-toed shoe to kick me in the ribs. I coughed up a mouthful of blood. I could feel myself fading. Either death or shock was setting in quickly. Then I heard it—a name I was familiar with.
“Trina, baby, get over here so she can see you,” the man who’d identified himself as El Jefe called out. My heart immediately sank into the pit of my stomach. Even with all the pain wracking my body, nothing hurt like my heart. I could hear the click of her high heels getting closer to me. Then I felt the pain of another kick in my stomach. That one came from her. Trina . . . the one person I’d thought I could trust had betrayed me. I knew I was as good as dead now. There was no turning back.
“You sorry-ass bitch. Look at you now. Not the bully EZ Cash store manager anymore, huh? No more miss high-and-mighty manager who looks down on her employees and treats them like shit, huh? Funny how the tables can turn real quick, isn’t it?” Trina spat cruelly. I could barely catch my breath.
“Did you really think you could steal from my man and get away with it? I know you thought I was just a dirty hood rat with a bunch of kids and fucked-up baby daddies, right? You treated me like shit all the time I worked for you too, but all along I was the one that was really the boss’s girl, so really you worked for me,” Trina said, kicking me again. More blood spilled from my lips. I was shaking now. My insides felt like they were going through a meat grinder.
“Why?” I rasped, my throat feeling like it had a three blaze fire lit in it.
“Why what? Why did I set you up?” Trina asked, laughing evilly after her questions. “Oh, Karlie. How stupid are you? You didn’t expect me to be the inside woman, huh? You didn’t think anybody with a little bit of money would want me, huh? You really believed Mr. Sherra was our boss? Even one of my kids could see that was a front.”
I was too shocked to even respond. I couldn’t believe that Trina was the devil in sheep’s clothing. I had to hand it to her; she had played her hand very well. She had probably listened to my conversations when I thought no one was around while I was in the office and probably told her man who was involved with the robberies. She had played me close after the robberies, acting like she was concerned about me after the hit I took to the head. She had gained my trust. She had rushed to my aid because all along she’d known what she had planned.
“I knew right away that you had something to do with that robbery. Yeah, I played along as the victim, but I recognized your little boyfriend’s voice when he was in the store with his cheap ski mask on. You didn’t think I would recognize his hazel eyes. Ha! Shit, that’s what it was about him that had all the bitches in Virginia Beach after him.
“I saw how you acted when they busted up in the store with guns waving in our face. You weren’t scared at all. It took a few minutes for me to figure it out, but after you led them to the big safe instead of the small safe, I knew you were down. Only a dummy wouldn’t be able to figure that out,” she relayed. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I would’ve never guessed it.
“Oh, and those tapes. You told them exactly where the machines were so they could get the surveillance tapes. There was no other way for them to know it would be hidden behind the wall of the woman’s bathroom,” she continued. I just closed my eyes. How could I have been so stupid in thinking she was just a stupid girl from the hood? I had definitely underestimated her.
“Now, where the fuck is the money?” Trina growled. “We want every dime of it back.”
I kept my mouth shut. I had given up on life. Fuck it. If I was going to die anyway, I wasn’t giving them shit; especially this traitorous bitch. If I couldn’t have the money, this bitch and her man couldn’t have it back either.
“She asked you a fucking question!” El Jefe spat. “Answer the question.”
“Fu . . . fuck . . . you,” I managed through my battered lips. This time, he kicked me in the head. Sparks of pain exploded through my skull like fireworks on the Fourth of July. I didn’t scream as he kicked me again. I couldn’t even feel any more pain. I began to pray silently that God would just take my life and Miley’s too.
God, please forgive me. Don’t let us suffer any longer. Just take us. Take us to wherever you took our mother. Take away the pain. Take away the struggle. Just take us.
“Pass me the gun,” I heard Trina say. “If she’s not going to tell us where the money is, she’s not going to live either. I’ve been wanting to kill this bitch for a long time.”
“Kill me. Please,” I whispered. “Just kill me.” I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing me beg and plead for my life. I wasn’t going to scream anymore. I wasn’t going to give them anything that they wanted. With the way I felt now, I was welcoming death anyway. No Sidney. No Miley. I was sure that my face had been obliterated, and I didn’t want to live like that. I wanted to be put out of my misery once and for all.
“You ain’t gotta tell me twice, bitch. I’m going to kill your grimy ass,” Trina barked. I closed my eyes waiting for it all to end. I didn’t want t
o look over at my sister because the pain was too much to endure. I tried to clear my mind, but all sorts of images from my childhood suddenly flooded to the forefront. I thought about my mother and all of the messed-up things she’d done to us as kids.
“I forgive you,” I murmured.
“What? What’s that?” Trina snarled.
I repeated myself, but I was not speaking to her. I was forgiving my mother . . . myself... Sidney . . . and anyone who’d ever done me and Miley wrong in our lives. I was letting go of all of my misery.
Finally, I felt the cold kiss of the gun’s metal against my temple. I squeezed my eyes shut.
BANG! BOOM!
I heard an explosion of sound. I expected to be dead, but I quickly realized that the loud crashing noise I’d heard wasn’t from the gun. Trina stumbled from the sound too.
“Police! Drop the weapon! Drop the fucking weapon now!”
I opened my eyes in time to see Trina drop her gun. It fell right in front of my face.
I heard more loud commands. “Police! Don’t move! Put your fucking hands up! Clear the building!” The next thing I heard was the stampede of combat boots pounding around me. It sounded like the SWAT team and all of the police in Virginia Beach were flooding into the place.
Tears of joy drained from my eyes. I didn’t think I would ever be happy to hear the police in the same room with me. I knew then that there was a god. I closed my eyes and finally let go.
* * *
“Ms. Houston! Ms. Houston!” I heard my name being called. The voice saying it was familiar to me. “Ms. Houston, can you hear me?” I knew that voice anywhere. I fought to open my eyes so that I could see his face again. A face I didn’t think I’d ever be glad to see.
