by Nikki Brown
“Wh—where we going?”
“Shut the fuck up and let’s go.” He placed the gun at his back and walked behind him. Vinny always parked in the garage; Cami didn’t want her brother to know that they were messing around so she always had him hide his car. He wasn’t feeling that either but they weren’t together and he didn’t have a say so.
Pushing the gun into Trouble’s back, he nudged him out the door and into the garage. When they got to the garage, Trouble tried his hand at getting away. He pushed Vinny back and headed for the side door that was on the side of the garage, before he could get the door open a bullet whizzed past his head and went right into his hand.
“Fuck!” Trouble yelled out. He went to grab the knob with his other hand and Vinny fired another shot in his leg. “Ahhhh!” he screamed.
“Look at all that blood on my door and now these bullet holes. You better be glad my neighbors aren’t close, or the police would be here in seconds.”
“Man, I’ll call clean up and they’ll come fix all that shit.” He waved the gun around as he drug Trouble back by the collar of his shirt. Vinny got close to his truck and he raised the gun and hit Trouble in the center of the back of his head knocking him out instantly. Tossing him in the back of the truck, he looked around Cami’s garage.
“What you looking for?”
“Something to tie his ass up with incase he wakes up before I get to the farm.” His tone was emotionless and harsh, Cami could feel the distance that he was trying to put between them and she didn’t understand why.
“So, we gone fall out over this?”
“Ion got time to be talking about this bullshit, I gotta handle business.”
Cami handed him a hand full of zip ties. He did what he had to do and pulled out heading to the farm house where all the action took place.
***
“Welcome to my home Trouble,” Kahleno said as he threw the pail of water on him. Trouble shook as he came to, the last thing he remembered was walking in Cami’s house to be with her. He looked around and then his eyes laid on Vinny and then Cami. He shook his head as tears welled up in his eyes.
The events of what happened in Cami’s place came rushing back to his mind and he knew that it was over for him.
“Please, it wasn’t me.” He attempted to save his life; he jerked his hand up but didn’t get far. His hands were tied to the chair.
“Don’t cry now, you should be thankful that this man wants to take care of you himself, otherwise you would get to see my wrath for how you treated my daughter,” Hudson came into view. Trouble had always feared him but knew that he was safe because of Sutton, now he was at the mercy of his legacy.
“Oh, I beat his ass, he didn’t shoot me. He’s a bitch, plus the nigga that shot me had a tattoo on his thumb. It wasn’t him, so I’m good if you want to have some fun Ol’ School,” Vinny said cleaning off his favorite gun that was dressed with Trouble’s blood.
Maniac unbuttoned the sleeves on his white shirt and rolled them up to his elbows. The smile on his face was priceless. It had been a while since he put in work. The last time he got his hands dirty, he killed the man that murdered his wife.
“Damn pop you didn’t waste no time, did you?” Kahleno chuckled and Maniac returned a smile. “I know it’s been a minute; you need me to give you some pointers?” he asked and everyone in the room laughed, including Maniac.
“They don’t call me Maniac for nothing son.” He walked around the barn that they used for times like this and looked at the extensive knife collection.
Hudson got the name Maniac because he liked to kill up close and personal and when he was doing it, he got this crazed look in his eyes. It was said that he was the happiest when he had someone else’s blood on his hands.
The barn doors opened and Spiff and Bear walked in with Menz and Senior. Mega’s anger rose as he headed in the direction of the door and grabbed Senior by his throat.
“My fucking sister!” He lifted him off of his feet and then slammed him to the floor. He took the timberland boots that he had on and brought his right foot down on his head. “Do me like that!” he yelled and kicked him in the head again.
Mega was at least two hundred and fifty pounds so the impact of his foot driving down on his head was heavy. Senior withered around in pain, he tried to slide away but the second he felt like he was out of Mega’s reach he felt his boot come down on his back.
“Ahhhhhh!” Senior arched his back, the pain that shot through his body was something that he couldn’t explain.
“Yo ass talking about me.” Maniac chuckled at Mega not wasting anytime showing Senior exactly how he felt.
“My sister is in the hospital fighting for her life because he wasn’t man enough to accept the shit that was handed to him. I should have killed your bitch ass a long time ago. You and your no good son!” Mega tucked his bottom lip into his mouth. The anger that he felt surpassed anything that he had ever felt before.
“It was an accident unc.” Mega stopped stomping Senior and turned towards Menz.
“My blood don’t run through your bitch ass.” Mega back handed him, blood spewed from his mouth. Just the thought that he was in the presence of his sons, that their lives were once in his hands sickened him. “Meka ain’t here to save you this time, we’re about to have some fun.”
Spiff and Bear helped Mega get Senior on the table and strap him down. Maniac was still picking out the knife he wanted to use. Mega shook his head and went straight to the machete.
“Y’all please don’t do this! We’ll leave and you will never have to see us again!” Menz cried.
“You shot at me, why?” Kahleno asked calmly.
“It wasn’t me; it was Trouble. He was mad because you took Sutton away!” Menz cried. Kahleno shook his head and laughed.
“You’ve never been a good criminal nigga.” Kahleno leaned against the table that was closest to him and crossed his arms across his chest. “You have to roll the window down to get your shot off, but you never roll the window down enough for anyone to see your face.”
“They wanted to kidnap Sutton so they could draw you out, their whole plan was to try and take over the Maler farms. The only reason that I was involved was because I could get close to Sutton!” Trouble shouted out and Maniac lifted his foot and kicked his chair back. He placed his foot on his neck and pressed down.
“I’ve always hated a snitch.” He grabbed the double-edged sporting knife and drug it across Troubles face instantly opening the wound.
“Please don’t do this!” Menz cried. “AD help me man, you know how close we are man! We went through all that shit together when we were little and-”
Before Menz could say anything else, AD swung and hit him in the mouth and then he swung and hit him again. Blood spewed from his mouth as he spit out a few teeth that AD had knocked loose.
Just the sight of him enraged AD, he didn’t know if it was because Menz was a constant reminder of what he went through or what, but before he knew it, he had blacked out. He was swinging so fast and so hard that he wore himself out and it wasn’t until he felt like he couldn’t breathe that he snapped out of it and collapsed to the floor.
“Shit, bruh you okay?” Kahleno ran over to where AD was. He tried to help him off the ground, but AD jerked away and threw his hands up.
“I’m good, I just gotta get the fuck out of here.” He couldn’t take holding all of this in anymore. He felt like he was going to go crazy and he couldn’t take it, he knew where he needed to be.
Looking at his brother, he nodded indicating that he was indeed okay. Kahleno was satisfied with that and he moved out of the way so that he could get by. He would cuss him out later for taking that kill away from him, but he felt like his brother needed to get that off of his chest. He didn’t know what Menz was talking about but whatever it was triggered something in AD.
“Just for precautionary measures.” Kahleno pulled out his gun and sent two bullets through Menz’s head. Standi
ng over him he felt vindicated, he knew that he would sleep better knowing that he was going to be hog food.
“Yo ass be itching to shoot somebody.” Cassidy stood back and let them do their thing. He loved to cut things, so he waited for his turn to butcher the remains and feed them to the new hogs he had just got in.
“Fuck all that cutting shit, just shoot the muthafucka and make sure they good.” Kahleno shrugged his shoulders. “Now let’s handle these other two bitches so I can get home to my girl.” He smiled and then grabbed his side, he hated that he couldn’t be more involved but he was physically incapable.
After Maniac and Mega had their fun with the other two, everyone left and went their separate ways. Cassidy stayed behind to prepare dinner for his new hogs.
Bear My Demons
A strong gust of wind caused Icelynn to shiver in her sleep, she had taken a couple of Tylenol p.m.’s to ease the head ache that she had been fighting for the last few days. Her mom was out of town for her job and Isis always went to bed before nine. So, she took that time to get some much-needed rest.
Her eyes fluttered open when she felt the cold air run up her back. Sighing, she thought back to before she went to sleep. She could have sworn that she shut the window back. When she heard a voice, she thought she was dreaming, she snuggled back into her pillow attempting to drift back off. She was almost back asleep until her bed shifted, causing her eyes to pop open.
The minute her eyes adjusted to the dark they came in contact with a masculine set of shoulders, that were hunched in a defeated way. Icelynn froze, she was afraid to move in fear that it was her ex that had found her. The last thing that she wanted to do was to alert him that she was awake and have to endure his wrath. She laid as still as she possibly could.
The more she stared at the man sitting on the floor beside her the more she noticed the definition of his muscles, the length of his neck and the slight waves in his jet black hair and the scent of the Tom Ford cologne that she knew all too well, her fear slowly subsided but anger quickly took over. She wanted to know why in the hell he was here after the way that he spoke to her the last time the two saw each other.
She thought that they were really trying to build something, but he had proven her wrong. The last time she looked into his eyes he reminded her of the bastard that she left back in Chicago. Icelynn leaned up a little ready to tear him a new one until he started to speak and the words that left his mouth broke her heart.
“I’m so fucked up right now,” AD said to himself. He was sure that Icelynn was still sleep but he felt the need to be in her presence. She was the only person in life that could bring him peace right now and despite how things went between the two the last time they saw each other, he wanted to be near her.
He couldn’t explain why he was here or how he even got here, but he needed Icelynn. After he left the warehouse handling business with his brothers, he drove around aimlessly trying to clear his mind and then when that didn’t work he found himself in his lab smoking and drinking by himself, praying that would give him the relief that he needed to no avail.
After realizing that was a failed attempt, he knew exactly where he needed to go. Icelynn was his safe haven and his place of amity. It was like when they were around each other nothing else mattered, but she also made him want to be better for her, and to be better he had to fix the black hole that used to house his heart. Even though she was sleep, it wasn’t until this moment that he felt strong enough to release his demons and he needed her to bear them with him.
“I was eleven years old, staying at my auntie house.” Icelynn watched as he placed his hands on his head. She could hear the light tremble in his voice as he spoke softly.
She wanted to reach out and grab him, but she felt like if she did, he wouldn’t get out what he needed to say. He needed to heal from whatever he went through and this was the first step. “I ain’t never even said this shit out loud, and I don’t even know why I’m saying it now, but this shit feels right. Hell, I don’t even know what the fuck that means… it feels right.” He mocked himself and shook his head, releasing a nervous chuckle. “Nothing’s ever been right for me until I met you.” Icelynn grabbed her chest and listened intently. “I need you so bad right now, my life is all fucked up.”
“I can still see that nigga’s face, that shit is forever etched in my head.” AD tapped his head for emphasis. The memories of that day came flashing back to him.
“Alright boys,” Aunt Meka said as she walked in the living room where AD and Menzell was playing the PlayStation. They’d had a good day. They went and shot ball, Meka cooked their favorite meal of spaghetti, and AD was beating Menz in 2k.
“Auntie where you going all dressed up?” AD smiled at his aunt. She was his father’s sister and she loved him just like he was her own. When she first married Senior, AD hated it because he felt like Menz was taking his aunt away but Meka made sure to show AD even more love than before and him and Menz became close.
“Auntie going to shake a leg or two nephew,” she said causing AD to laugh. She said her goodbyes and walked out with Senior in tow. Senior never really talked to AD or any of the Maler boys for that matter, they didn’t know why but he didn’t.
Once they were gone, Maino came out of his room and sat on the couch and grabbed AD’s shoulders, AD mugged him and shrugged him off. He hated to be touched like that by someone other than his father.
“Aight y’all little niggas, it’s time to go to bed.”
“Man, it ain’t even eleven o’clock, we ain’t even got school tomorrow.” AD delivered the meanest mug that he could possibly deliver, and Maino took that as disrespect. He didn’t like Mega or his sons, he felt like they thought they were better than him. The chance to get to hurt one of them excited Maino.
“You do what the fuck I say, you ain’t at the magic farm lil muthafucka.”
AD threw the stick down and headed to the room where he slept when he stayed the night. Menz was an only child, so there was two extra rooms in the big five bedroom house they lived in courtesy of Mega Maler.
Making himself comfortable in his room, he flipped the TV channels to Nickelodeon, he loved to watch the nasty cartoons that came on after dark. Flipping over on his stomach, he turned his head to the TV and right when his eyes were about to close, he heard the door come open. He didn’t bother turning around because he thought that it was Menz but when he didn’t hear anything, he turned around to see Maino looking at him funny.
“Yo nigga you can get out,” AD said causing Maino to chuckle. “For real, you gay or some shit?”
Again, Maino just chuckled and shook his head. AD sucked his teeth and turned to the TV. Maino jumped on the bed and put AD in a choke hold. AD squirmed and screamed trying to get out of his hold. All of a sudden, he felt like he was starting to get sleepy when everything went black.
AD was jolted out of his sleep by excruciating pain shooting through his backside. The pain was so unbearable that he couldn’t even yell out. Maino pumped in and out of him roughly. AD fought and fought until Maino hit him in the back of the head knocking him out again.
This time when AD woke up, he was in the bed on his stomach, he looked at the clock and it read five am. Jumping out of the bed, it felt like five men had jumped him. His bottom hurt like hell but there was no way that he was staying here.
He gathered all of his things in this bag and headed home on foot. When he got there, he went straight to his room and locked himself in there for days. He wouldn’t talk to anyone and when Menz came over to see him he refused the visit.
Siya knew something had happened but she didn’t know what. She called her sister in law who told her that she didn’t know, said that Maino brought AD home that morning when he woke up and that was the last she had heard from him. Meka even went as far as to asking Menz what happened.
AD knew that Maino liked to go back in the woods between the farm house and their house and get high. A few days after the attack, he went to t
he spot that he had watched him go plenty of times.
He waited for hours until Maino finally showed up. When he sat down on the large tree stump, AD appeared from the other side of the woods. Maino was in mid pull when he realized that he wasn’t alone.
“I knew yo little faggot ass liked it.”
Hearing that come out of his mouth had every bone in AD’s body shaking, he couldn’t contain the anger that was flowing through him. He quickly pulled the gun from his waist band and fired a shot hitting Maino in his right thigh.
“Say that shit again bitch!”
“Fuck nigga, you shot me!” Maino cried out and AD shot him in the other leg. “Fuck!”
“The fuck is wrong with you? I’ma fucking kid!” The gun shook in AD’s hands as he pointed it in the direction of his head. “I’ma a fucking kid!” Tears flew down his face as he tried his best to remain calm.
His father had taught them to shoot when they were young, so he knew how to handle a gun and he was good at it, they all were. Maino was curled over on his side and AD walked up closer to him. He pointed the gun in between his eyes and fired three shots.
He stood there and just watched as blood and brain matter rolled down the tree that was behind him. It gave his mind a bit of peace as he thought about how he was violated. He knew that he would never be the same.
Sighing heavily, he took in the flowery scent of Icelynn and it brought him a sense of peace, peace that folded around the ice that covered his heart and dissipated it.
AD felt like he was about to explode at any minute, he didn’t know how he was able to hold all of this in for so long. The only people that were able to get remotely close to him was his family and he didn’t even let them all the way in. Icelynn was the first person to invade his heart, to touch his soul.
He couldn’t explain it; he had only known her for a little while but he felt more connected to her than anyone. It was like she was sent to him when he needed her the most. Even when he tried to push her away, she didn’t leave his heart so here he was trying to make some sense out of the shit that was going on in his life.
