by T. Styles
“You’re right,” Leaf nodded. “But you didn’t take me out. Instead, you waited and sneakily tried to steal my wife. Then you raped her in front of my face.” He brought the butt of the gun down on the side of his head, splitting it in the process. “Say what you want, I would’ve never done no shit like that! You made me a monster.” He paused. “And after all this, I’m still going to show you mercy.” He exhaled, looked up at the ceiling and placed the gun to the top of his head.
Pow!
****
Leaf walked up the stairs leading to the living room and flopped down on the recliner across from the sofa were Nine was sitting. Waiting. His clothing and hand were sprinkled with blood. “Where is everyone else?”
“They went to get liquor,” she shrugged. “Only one week in this house and look what happened. I guess they needed a drink so Antonius took them to the store.”
Leaf chuckled softly although he didn’t find a lot funny. Seeing Nine being raped, having another man’s cum on his face and committing murder in one day did something deplorable to his psyche.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“He dead.”
“But I heard two shots.”
“I let his daughter go with him.”
She nodded, although that was not her plan. She wanted to play with Banker a bit longer. “Well at least this was done quietly, without the winery getting involved.”
Leaf gazed over at her. “What is up with you and that wine shit?”
“I—”
“You what?” he yelled, causing his temples to throb. “Don’t give a fuck about nothing but that shit!”
“It is not that I—”
“I’m sick of you and that wine,” he continued, cutting her off. “You make me want to—”
“IT WAS MY FAULT SHE WAS KILLED!” Nine yelled, her body trembling.
The bass of her voice caused Leaf to pause.
In a low whisper, she said, “It was my fault.” Her head hung low. “Had she not been trying to teach me to be strong, to be safe, grandfather would have never killed her and I have never been able to forgive myself for it.” She wept. “So I…so I wanted to do this so that her name would live on. So that she would always know how much I love her.” Nine wiped the tears from her face and sighed. “I just want her to know that I love her.”
He leaned back in the chair, the warm gun still in his grasp. “What about me? Do you love me?”
“Must you ask?”
“Then why were you going to let him kill me upstairs?”
She averted her gaze toward the floor. “Is that what you believe?” She looked at him. “Or is that what you want to believe?”
“I want the truth.”
“I was not going to allow him to kill you.” She paused. “I would have stopped it way before that happened.”
“And when were you going to do that? When he pulled the trigger the second time?”
She smiled. “When he was on top of me, forcing himself into my body, I saw the chamber of his gun. The first one did not have a bullet inside of it, Leaf. So he could not have killed you.”
He exhaled, relieved to hear that at least she had a plan. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“How could I? It would have ruined everything!”
Leaf laid back, his face bludgeoned. “What I don’t know, what I can’t understand is why he sent the old lady first. Why did Gates have her and her henchman tie me to the chair?”
Nine’s eyebrows squished together. “What old lady?”
“I was downstairs, by the backdoor when you took Isabel to the institution. I guess somebody left the door open and this big white man hit me over the back of the head with a blunt object. I still don’t know what it was.” He paused. “But when I came to, I was tied to the chair.”
Nine’s mind swirled. That’s what Gates meant about him already being tied up. “What were they saying?”
“Nothing really. Just kept asking me about you and telling me I would be rewarded.” Leaf searched his mind but considering the events of the day, everything seemed cloudy. “She used the word Goddess too.” He touched his head. “I don’t know, bae. It’s foggy.”
“Dr. Banning is on her way,” she said. “Do not worry about it. It is obvious that they were with Gates and must have left before I came back. I just hate that they got away before we could do something about it.”
He closed his eyes and his mind wandered to another thought. “We’ll see them again. I’m sure. She’s an old lady. How bad can she be? Baby, is Antonius in love with you?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Why do you ask?”
“Because he seems to know when you need him. He seems to always be there. How do you know that he wasn’t involved in all of this? To get you to depend on him?”
“How do we know anything, husband? How do we know who is capable of what at any given time? For now, all I know is that he saved me. He saved us. I also know that he was loyal when I needed him most. That is all I can ask.”
“You finally called me husband.”
“Because you are.”
Silence.
“But there is something else,” Nine said.
Frustrated, Leaf placed the gun in his lap and looked into the ceiling. Wiping his hands down his face, he sighed and said, “What now, bae?”
“Gene had a son who is staying with Antonius for the moment. I am worried for the child, Leaf. He is such a sweet little boy and if he is put into the system, we will lose him for good. He may turn out like his father or worse. Let me help him. It is not like we do not have the money. He needs to be around a man like you. Will you raise him? And love him like you do Julius?”
“What are you saying really?”
“I am asking if it is okay that we take him into our home.”
He smiled and shook his head. He never realized he married a woman with such a strong need to help others until then. “And if I say no?”
Deflated, she said, “Then he would have to go somewhere else. And I would have to love him from afar.”
He smiled having heard the right words. “Okay, let’s do it.”
She stood up, rushed over to him and plopped on his lap. “There is something else.”
He placed the gun on the table beside him. “Nine, please!” he yelled. “What is it now?”
“I am pregnant.”
He didn’t know whether to laugh or be mad at how she manipulated the situation. She was real smart about getting him to say yes to letting Denarius stay with them first, because had he known, he would’ve said they should focus on their own child. “Are you serious, bae?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “Can you believe after all of this, the Phenethylamine poison and the madness, that I am going to have our baby?”
He rubbed her back, and felt an immense sense of pride. “It’s the only good that has happened in all of this.”
“I love you, husband.”
“You just talking shit,” he chuckled.
She reached into the back pocket of her jeans and pulled out a white sheet of paper. It was a legal document she had the lawyer draw up during all the madness with her banking accounts. “What is this?”
“Read it.”
He opened the document and what he saw made him love her all over again. It was a name change. She was now Nine Lincoln.
“You know you don’t have to do this, right?” He paused trying not to appear too excited, only to lose his cool, although his light skin was flushed red from blushing. “Through all this shit, I realized I am what I am and you are what you are.”
“What do you mean?”
“The beef with the Prophets was my father’s thing. Not mine. So I’m going to adopt the name I should’ve had all along. From here on out, I will be known as Leaf Prophet.”
She laughed. “So I got this done for nothing?”
“No, not for nothing,” he said moving her chin so that she was looking into his eyes. “I’ll know that you did this for
me, despite what the world calls you. What the world calls us. And that means more to me than anything.”
“We are Prophets,” she said proudly.
“I guess we are.”
EPILOGUE
CHRISTMAS EVE
A huge spectacular white Christmas tree sat in the corner of the Prophet mansion in the living room as Nine, Leaf, Bridget, Lisa, Wagner, Jeremy and Porter decorated it with bulbs and tinsel.
Everyone except Nine, who was pregnant, sipped Francesca wine, while Denarius and little Kerrick II kept Julius company by making funny faces at him, as he sat in the playpen.
The Bose speakers embedded in the wall played The Whispers’ version of “This Christmas” and for the first time in a long time, Nine felt as if she were a part of something real. Her home was filled with family members who at one point or another had been forgotten. And she felt proud that she was able to bring them together.
As Nine decorated the fireplace, Leaf walked up behind her while she was hanging a stocking. He placed his warm lips against her ear and said, “You sure you have to go? We could always go upstairs and do our thing.”
His voice vibrated through her body, causing her to tingle all over. Smiling, she said, “Unfortunately, I do, husband.” She sighed. “I have not seen her since she left some months back. I want her to know that she still has family. And I need to make sure she is okay.”
He didn’t like the idea of her leaving at night but he knew how she felt about Isabel and would not stand in the way. Just as long as she didn’t bring her into their home. That was one promise Nine made to him that he would never allow her to take back. “Who’s going with you?”
She turned around and placed her arms around his waist. Looking up into his eyes, she said, “I am going inside alone.”
He rubbed her shoulders. “Is that right? You’re not even taking your most prized possession? The great Antonius?”
“I need protection,” she said touching her belly. “Especially since I am pregnant with your child.” She paused. “I would have taken you but you hate her. Do not worry, though, he will remain in the car.”
“It’s not that I hate Isabel,” he said. “I just wonder about her, that’s all. Don’t forget she put a knife to my neck, Nine. I have a right not to be in her fan club.” He kissed her nose.
“But she is still your cousin.”
“And I don’t know her like that.” He paused. “Speaking of cousins, what about the one downstairs?” he whispered not wanting to alert the others.
“Why are you so concerned with what I do in my leisure time?”
He gripped her arms and pulled her to him. His warm breath fell upon her face. “What you are doing is wrong, Nine. What have you turned in to? You don’t hold people against their will just because you can.”
“Have you forgotten how she tried to steal my money? And ruin me? What if you had not found them? I would be broke!” She paused. “Besides, confinement is not that bad. It was done to me.”
Silence.
He released her and said, “Are you feeding her today? Since it is Christmas Eve?”
Angry he was so concerned with her, she clenched her jaw and pushed away from him. Moving toward a plate with turkey, stuffing and cranberry sauce, she said, “I am already on it.”
Although she assumed nobody was interested in what went down in the basement, she underestimated Lisa, who was always looking, listening and watching. Despite the rules, she was going to enter that basement and learn its secrets, if it was the last thing she did.
Once downstairs, Nine walked to a private room, across from the prison. Opening the door, she looked ahead, at the painting on the wall that once belonged to Gates. She always coveted the painting that was done by a young artist named Antoinette Bateau. It resembled a bleeding vagina and Nine wondered what Antoinette’s mind frame was when she created it.
After looking at the painting, she opened the door to the prison and approached Alice’s cell. Her cousin’s once confident mien disappeared a long time ago and was replaced with something Nine could not recognize. Although confined, there was something right beneath the surface of her soul that refused to be shattered and Nine hated her for it.
Nine strolled casually up to the cell, slid the plate under the bars and sat down in a chair in front of it. Alice crawled over to the plate and snatched the food off of it as if she were a dog.
When she was done, she stood up and with a mouthful of food and said, “I don’t know why you’re looking at me like I’m a science project, Nine.”
“You are a disgrace,” Nine laughed. “It is funny how no one, not even your mother, bothered to ask about you. All they want to do is get me to change my mind about cutting them off. To show me how much they care. It is all about the money.”
Alice’s eyes began to water. “I don’t care about them. I don’t care about no one and I will never be who you want me to be.”
Nine smiled. “Yes you will. Everyone can be broken.”
“Why do you say that? Because you shattered so easily under my pressure?” she asked slyly.
Nine’s foot fidgeted. “You do not know what you are talking about, inmate. It would be wise if you learned your place instead of biting the hand that feeds you.”
“I know exactly what I’m saying,” she giggled. “At one time, you were virtuous and even though I hated you, I respected you for being the same. For knowing who you were. But now, well now you’re just like me. A person who was born to hate and who loves it.”
There was visible tension in Nine’s shoulders and arms. “I am nothing like you, Alice Prophet!” she yelled standing up.
“Oh?” she said sarcastically. “Is that why you get pleasure off of seeing me behind this wall?”
“I gave you a chance to do what was right!” She pointed at her. “I warned you of what would happen if you went against me and you did it anyway.”
Alice laughed heartedly. “You didn’t give me a chance to do anything but what you knew I would! You knew I wouldn’t accept your meaningless offer. You expected me to do exactly what I did, go against you with all my might. That way you would feel validated in keeping me here.”
“I brought you here to teach you a lesson!”
“You aren’t keeping me here to teach me a lesson. Or even to punish me. You’re keeping me here because you enjoy having a prisoner. Tell the truth and be free, Nine! You were angry when Leaf killed Banker, weren’t you? Because you would’ve had two playthings.” She laughed. “You enjoy having a toy so that you can go upstairs and fuck your own cousin. My presence gives you orgasms at night.” She laughed. “Doesn’t it, Nine Prophet?” Alice’s thin face spewed words of fire and Nine trembled upon hearing what she recognized as truth.
“You have made me angry beyond reset, Alice. On Christmas day, I am going to snatch out your eyes.” Alice’s smile dematerialized. “Let us find out if you see the world the same way then.”
She moved for the exit.
Alice placed her hands on the bars and stuffed her thin face between them. “You’re just like me, Nine Prophet!” she yelled as Nine moved through the door. “Do you hear me? Just like me!”
****
Nine followed a pretty white nurse down the hallway to visit her cousin in Stormy Woods Mental Facility. Although it was not her intent, Alice had placed her in a bad mood and she was hoping to release the negative energy.
Before she approached Isabel’s room, her phone rang. It was Leaf. “Bae, you gotta come home right away!”
“I just got to the center. I cannot leave right now.” She paused. “What is wrong?”
“There’s a religious protest out in front of our house! It’s on the news and everything!”
“A protest, for what?”
“For who we are,” he said in a deep voice. “But guess who’s leading the charge.”
“Who?”
“The woman who was in our house. The one I thought was with Gates. I recognized her face!”
“I am confused.” She rubbed her temples.
“Me too. But her name is Sister Anna Marie Cartwright. They’re calling us abominations and everything.”
Nine stumbled a little.
“Are you alright?” the nurse asked placing a hand on her shoulder.
“I am fine,” she lied.
The nurse removed her hand and stepped a few feet back to give her some privacy.
All this time, Nine had no idea that the woman, who had been in her home on the night Gates was killed, was Anna. Leaf had lost so much blood that some of his memory went with it. For a week, she questioned him endlessly about the woman’s description but he kept saying it was dark and that he could not see or remember much.
Anna was determined to extort money from Nine. When her original plan to use Joshua did not work, since he resigned his position at the shelter and went into hiding after speaking to his niece Isabel, she tried to get at Nine through Leaf. But Gates had his own plans that night. So Anna and her goons left the Prophet mansion with haste, leaving Leaf beaten and tied up in their wake.
With no other recourse, Anna decided to expose the Prophets, like she had done in the past with the senator and Pope, secretly hoping to be paid off by Nine finally.
“Leaf, I will be home when I can,” she said.
“Call me when you get on the property. I’m going to have some of the men try to clear the road up so you’ll be safe. Baby, you should see the people’s faces. They fucking hate us! I have a feeling shit is not going to be the same for our family after this.”
“Me too.”
After ending the call with Leaf, she was shaken up but had to go on with the visit so that she could get home quickly. “She’s in that room right over here.” The nurse pointed at a large metal door with a window.
