by Aray Brown
“You’re forced to play the card’s your dealt. It’s not God. Not the devil. It’s life.” He said.
“I don’t need saving.” Price said.
“You’re not as tough as you think you are Medina. There’s still good in you.” He said.
“It’s too late for me.” Price said.
“There’s no such thing.”
34.
Price entered the bathroom soaking wet, tossed the clothes on the floor and the let the water run down her face, washing all the blood from her skin. Thinking how her life would’ve turned out if everything was how it was supposed to be. Thinking of how this all would end. Will it be my ending or Chow’s? She thought. Chow wasn’t a calculated killer. He was a con artist looking for a quick buck until he stumbled onto Henry or Henry ran into him.
Price took a breath, stared at her stomach and put one hand over it as if she could feel it kicking. A baby did not fall into her perfect plan and Price didn’t know if she wanted to be a mother. Would she learn to love it? Would she be capable of loving anyone again?
Price surfaced from the shower, refreshed with the vast amount of cold steam surrounding her and the glow she couldn’t keep secret.
As her feet hit the carpet, Chow smashed the back of her head with his pistol and rendered her unconscious. Price fell to the floor, her body exposed.
“Crazy bitch.” Chow said, standing over her, sizing her up with a mixture of disgust and desire.
“Get her dressed.” Chow walked away, barking his orders at Cyrus.
“It’s nothing personal, just business.” Cyrus said to her unconscious body.
Price came to as she heard the sound of Chow’s voice, overhearing the phone conversation. Before straining her eyes to focus, she endured another blow.
Price woke up in an abandoned warehouse; duct taped to a chair, the throbbing pain eating away at her sanity. She eyed the setting. The building was on borderline destruction.
“Good. You’re awake. Surprised?” Chow asked, approaching.
“I’m as surprised as the look on your wife’s face.” Price said.
Chow’s expression was grim while his eyes were filled with rage. He pulled back his arm, clenching his fist; he threw it forward with a force that jerked her head back when connected.
“I never hit a woman until now. Did that hurt?” Chow asked.
“Did it hurt when I gutted your son like a fish?” Medina asked, spit blood on his shoe. Chow swung another punch toward her face, the impact almost knocking her out of the chair.
“You’re getting better.” Medina said.
“Unfortunately for you, the best is yet to come. Your mother deserved to die. And now so do you.” Chow replied, walking towards her until there was a small wedge of space between them.
“You don’t want to play this game.” Medina said.
“Ah, how we soon forget.” Chow replied with a sardonic smile.
“Don’t do this.” Medina said.
“I never pegged you for the begging type.” Chow said.
“Not me. You.” Medina replied.
“Watch her.” Another order he roared at Cyrus.
Cyrus made a huge mistake trusting him and made a bigger one double crossing her,
Chow was a wealthy man who wouldn’t be alive for much longer. He wasn’t a gangster but knew enough not to carry around dead weight. He didn’t need Cyrus anymore and couldn’t trust him. Cyrus made his bed and had to rot in it. It was as simple as that and it didn’t take a genius to see that they lived by the same rules; the same code.
Chow was brought up in Youngstown. So was someone else which brought her back to the source. Henry. They didn’t just meet by chance. There was a reason for everything, cause and effect. Have we met someplace before? Price traveled back in her mind, trying desperately to remember. SLOWLY it came RUSHING back, in bits and pieces. She HAD met him. Two years prior to her mother’s murder. Henry introduced them. Zoe shook his hand, greeting him with an audacious smile. Price didn’t think much of him at the time. He was Henry’s colleague. They knew each other growing up.
Henry needed a man he could trust. But why pay him off? Chow didn’t seem like a man who had a squeaky-clean reputation. What did he have on him?
“Henry poisoned his father. Chow had proof and threatened to go public with it.” Cyrus said, eagerly confessing.
“We don’t have much time.” Cyrus blurted out, rushed to remove the tape from her legs and made his way to her arms. The butt of a gun dangled from his pants. Medina lunged for it…
BANG! The bullet merely grazed her skin as Cyrus crumbed to the ground in a dead silence.
Price stared at the cold steel taking over his hand.
“Leaving so soon? I got you a surprise.” Chow said.
The door creaked open and Henry waltzed in.
“Hi honey. You still have your mother’s eyes.” Henry said, holding a gun.
“And my father’s cunning.” Price said.
“I’m sorry to hear about Issy. She should’ve offed herself years ago.” Henry said.
“Let’s finish this.” Chow growled, cocking his gun.
“Gladly.” Henry uttered then shot him in the temple.
35.
Price detached the duct tape as Henry faced her, aiming the gun in his direction.
“Trust me, you won’t feel a thing.” Henry said.
He placed his finger on the trigger. Price got the gun of off Cyrus’s body. This was how things were settled out in the west. Price knew it would come to this.
Shots were fired. Henry staggered back, disclosing the bullet holes in his shirt. The slug punctured his chest and his heart would soon be next.
He died instantly, like a rabid dog in the street.
Price knew he had something to do with it. Henry didn’t have a motive. He did it because he could get away with it. He was a monster but she still believed he had an ounce of morality left in him. Instead of being like her mother, she ended up as the beast he created.
Price looked at the last man standing. Chow was still alive.
She had to put an end to this and knew just how to do it. She raised the gun but someone forced it out of her hands. It was Jordyss. She came through the back entrance. What stake does she have in this? She thought as Jordyss popped two bullets in her. The pellets penetrated Price’s insides as she stumbled to the floor.
“You think I don’t have other reinforcements? Foolish girl.” Chow chuckled, crawling on the floor.
“I warned you.” Jordyss said with a sardonic smile.
“Finish her!” Chow ordered.
Before she fired, Price kicked her and the gun spewed out of her hand. Price pummeled her to the ground and scrambled to get the pistol. Jordyss tackled her from behind and wrestled her to the ground.
“I thought you were my friend.” Price said.
“Haven’t you figured it out? They’re my family. My last name is Hung. I could never be your friend. No one could ever love someone like you.” Jordyss said.
“Say hello to your brother.”
“You’re pathetic Medina.”
“The name’s Isabel.”
Price picked up the pistol and popped three bullets in her, two in the heart and in the head. Price had one bullet left and knew just who to use it on. His name was on it. His blood was calling out to her. She could almost smell it. He was screaming before she was done.
Price retrieved her trusty knife and imprinted a K in him, made damn sure they wouldn’t forget. It was the first letter of her real name. This wouldn’t bring them back but she was hoping it would give her peace, some kind of relief. There were a few things she relied on and revenge just happened to be one of them. It was at the top of her list. It was her religion, her sanity. It became her sacred realm, her special place.
36.
A pregnant Medina walked along the cemetery plots, the leaves whistling in the breeze until she came across a tombstone. She glanced at it and laid a long st
emmed black rose on the grave. She observed the dates at the bottom.
March 20, 1993-Oct 10, 2016
She read the writing in the middle. It read: Soul Possessed.
Several leaves covered up the top half of the tombstone. Just before she left, a gush of wind whipped them up and disclosed the top of the headstone. She saw herself in the lustrous surface. There was no expression of remorse left on her face. It was all over. Her reign of terror had come to an end, but she lost herself in the fold. She looked the same but she wasn’t Medina anymore. She was her sister. Her body was hers but her spirit belonged to Isabel, sending Medina’s soul to purgatory.
Isabel’s eyes flickered as it altered to a pale green color. She looked at the names on the headstone.
It read: Here lies Medina. Born Koley Vada.
Daddy said she was always the strongest. She put up a good fight...but I was determined to take what was rightfully mine. What the world owed me. Enjoy the afterlife sis; I hear it’s a real bitch. Some say no one can survive in a tumultuous world, such as this. But there’s a first time for everything.
The End
Next Of Kin:
Blood of Secrets
Coming soon
