After rinsing the soap off her body, Halleigh exited the shower, not wanting to escape from the steady massage of the running water. Next, she sprayed on some of her mother’s Incidence perfume that she had lifted from the Genesee Valley Shopping Center. Then she stood in front of the mirror and carefully shaved her na-na. She’d read about this in magazines and wanted to tame the hairs running wild between her young legs. She sprayed the scent on her neatly trimmed vagina and applied a sweet-scented body lotion from head to foot.
The sound of the door slamming made her jump. Damn! Now I got to lie about where I’m going, Halleigh thought. I’ll just tell her that I’m staying the night at Nikki’s crib. She exited the bathroom and proceeded to get dressed. “Hey, Ma!” she yelled as she dressed, but she got no response.
“Ma!” she yelled again. I know she heard me. She finished putting on her clothes and then made her way to her mother’s room down the hallway from hers. When she opened the bedroom door, her mother was holding a soiled brown paper bag and frantically looking for a place to hide it.
“What are you doing, Ma?”
“Nothin’, baby. Just go in your room.” Her mother’s eyes darted around the room. “Go back to your room.” She quickly pushed Halleigh out of her bedroom and closed the door in her face.
Sharina seemed nervous, but Halleigh was too preoccupied to worry about her. Nowadays her mother always acted skittish, so she was used to her strange behavior of either being in a trying-to-get-high mode, or in an already high nod. There was no in-between. Tonight, though, she was glad that her mother had other things on her mind. It shouldn’t be too hard to get out of the house. She ain’t paying me no mind, anyway. Halleigh made her way back to her room.
A few minutes after Halleigh went into her room, closing the door behind her, a loud crash echoed throughout the house. It sounded as if it had come from the living room. She heard a male voice shout, “Bitch, you gon’ try to steal from me?”
“No, Riq, it wasn’t me,” her mother pleaded. “You know I wouldn’t take nothing from you, Riq.”
The sound of her mother’s screams alarmed Halleigh. She opened her bedroom door and followed the ruckus into the living room. “Ma!” she yelled, seeing two men beating on her mother. “Stop it!” Halleigh cried. “Ma!”
Startled, the two men paused from their beatdown on Sharina and looked in Halleigh’s direction. They didn’t even seem to consider that someone else could have been in the house. A twisted smile formed on one guy’s face. He left his accomplice, who had Sharina pinned up against the wall by the throat, and approached Halleigh herself.
Sharina called out to the guy who was approaching her daughter. “Tariq,” she said, calling the man by his full name, “leave her alone. That’s my baby. She’s only seventeen!”
“That’s old enough to pay back your debt.” Riq then turned to his partner. “Mad Dog, can you help?”
Sharina, palms held up in appeal, turned to look at Mad Dog, who was busy eyeballing the fresh meat that stood before them. Lust already shining in his eyes, he held his hand up in the “talk-to-the-hand” sign and shook his head, letting Riq know that he was down for it.
Riq began backing Halleigh up in a corner, his hands roaming all over her young body. He pressed his hardening manhood against her.
“Ma!” Halleigh cried.
Riq turned and looked over his shoulder at Sharina, while he continued to fondle her daughter’s body. “What’s it gon’ be, Sharina? You can either give me back my package with interest, or you can let me fuck your daughter here and we’ll call it even.” Riq put his hands up Halleigh’s short skirt.
Sharina thought about the monkey that was on her back. She had an entire package that would take her into ecstasy. There would be no way she would be able to feed her habit if she gave it back to him. Halleigh is about to be a woman anyway. It’s not like he gon’ hurt her, Sharina thought selfishly. Besides, even if I do give the package back, their dicks are already hard. They probably gonna do her anyway.
“Mama, please, make him stop!” Halleigh screamed, snapping Sharina out of her thoughts. “Maaaaaa!” she wailed, as the tears glistened and fell from her eyes.
“What’s it gon’ be, Rina?” Riq asked, rubbing himself.
“That’s my baby, Riq.” Sharina figured she’d give one last-ditch effort to save her daughter from the pending sexual attack.
“Okay. Then where’s my shit?”
“Like I said, I don’t—”
Before Sharina could even finish her sentence, Riq’s partner punched her in her lying mouth, spilling blood and loosening teeth.
Sharina held up her hands to block the oncoming blows, but it was useless. She began to see stars, and her head began to pound and throb. She knew if she didn’t do something quick, one of those blows would be fatal. One of her eyes had already swollen shut and was filled with blood. With her other eye, when she didn’t see a fist coming toward it, she saw her daughter standing in complete fear of a rampaging Riq. At that moment, she knew what she had to do.
“Okay, okay! Wait!” Sharina held up her hand. “I don’t have your money, but”—she saw the same fist that had been beating her mercifully making its way toward her again—“but you can have her instead,” she quickly shouted, halting the fist before it landed on her flesh.
Riq looked from Sharina to her daughter, who was standing there all dressed up as if she knew tonight she would have a debt to pay for her mother. Halleigh looked at her mother in shock. She couldn’t believe the words that had just come out of her mouth. No! She had to be hearing things. No!
But when Sharina took one last look at her daughter with apologetic eyes, and then put her head down as not to witness the rape of her own child, Halleigh knew she’d heard right. Her instincts told her to do one thing—run like hell!
She took off for the door, but Riq caught her and tackled her to the hard floor. “Uh-uh, sweetness. Where you think you going?” He forced his hands up her skirt.
Halleigh could feel his fingers invading her space. Her jaws tightened as she cringed in pain. “Ma!” Halleigh cried out in anguish as she fought back by beating Riq on his back. That was all she could do, with the weight of his body pinning her to the ground.
“Shut up!” Riq ordered as he brought his open hand down across her face. She clawed and kicked, but when his accomplice came and helped him hold her down, she was overpowered and didn’t have a chance in the world to escape their clutches.
They were about to take, in an instant, what she’d made Malek wait for for years. Her virginity was what had made her different from the other girls to him. It was what made her special. Moreover, it was what had made their relationship valuable to both of them. She just couldn’t let them take what wasn’t theirs. She just couldn’t.
Halleigh took a deep breath and tried with all of her might to loose herself from the grip of her attacker. The next thing she knew, Mad Dog spread and held her legs apart, while Riq pinned her hands behind her head. With one hard shove, Riq penetrated her, plowing into her young body as though she were a seasoned hooker. Once inside her narrow canal, the drug dealer took long, hard strokes.
Halleigh must have blacked out because, when she came to, suddenly she saw herself drifting near the top of the ceiling, looking down on the two men going at her body like two rapacious vultures picking over a dead carcass. Halleigh could have sworn she was having an out-of-body experience, but she was in such pain. Although she knew it was herself lying there, she hurt so badly, she became this disembodied figure, floating above the men’s sexual assault, to be able to endure it.
Dispassionately, she looked down from the ceiling and watched Riq, pants wiggled down below his hips, hump up and down, up and down, like a disjointed caterpillar.
“Oooh, buddy,” he gasped between moans, “this shit is tight. I mean, damn, it’s good. This young girl know she got some good-ass pussy.”
Still holding Halleigh’s legs apart, Mad Dog licked his lip
s salaciously. “Oooh, hurry up, man, so I can get some of that sweet young stuff.”
Finally, Riq shuddered and let out a loud groan of pleasure. “Owwww!” He collapsed on top of Halleigh and heaved deep breaths.
Mad Dawg pulled out his erected manhood. “Dawg, get the fuck up so I can get mines.”
Pushing his penis back into his pants, Tariq stood up. “Eee-ooo-wee! That cherry was in there so tight. I’m already sore. But, man, that was the best cherry I ever busted.” He looked down at the blood between Halleigh’s legs. Her eyes were glazed. She appeared to be semi-conscious at this point. He scratched his head in disbelief. “I didn’t think they made no virgins over ten around here no more.”
Both he and Mad Dog shared a laugh.
“Well, I guess I’ll just help break her in some more.” Mad Dog rushed in and climbed on top of Halleigh, and she passed out again.
When she came to, he had turned her over and was sodomizing her. When he got through, Riq took another turn, all of this while Sharina had snuck off to the bedroom to get high.
Sharina had never thought her habit would push her to do something so horrible as to trade her very own flesh and blood for a fix. It was so awful, she couldn’t bear to watch them take her daughter’s innocence. That’s when she went into her room, removed the package from her closet, and wrapped a leather belt around her arm, ignoring Halleigh’s screams. She hurriedly put the heroin into a tablespoon and lit a flame to it, causing the contents to melt down. She filled the syringe and located a large vein.
When she felt the drug go into her system, she knew that her decision was well worth it. Shit, Halleigh will be all right. Truth be told, she was probably already fucking anyway.
Sharina didn’t even realize how much damage she had just caused. The last thing she heard before drifting into a nod was the sound of Halleigh calling her name over and over again as the two men brutally raped her.
Chapter Four
A barefoot Halleigh, crying her young eyes out, stumbled aimlessly down the street. In throbbing pain, she gripped her hand over her stomach. She felt like her coochie and her ass were both going to fall out and hit the ground. The streets were deserted, and she’d never felt more alone in her life. Feeling discombobulated, she could hardly see because she was so blinded by her own tears.
“I can’t believe this just happened to me,” she muttered to herself. This has to be a nightmare, she tried to convince herself, but the pain that she clearly felt proved otherwise. This couldn’t be happening to Halleigh. This wasn’t the night’s plan. She was supposed to be wrapped up in Malek’s arms, but then the sound of her feet scraping the glass-splattered, needle-scattered sidewalk of the empty street would bring her back to reality. This was really happening, and it was happening to her.
Her innocence had been viciously stripped from her at the expense of her mother’s drug habit. Her womanhood ached and bled under her skirt as she headed towards Malek’s house. She didn’t know where else to go. He was the only one that she could ever confide in; the only one who ever made her feel loved and protected. She had to get to him.
Once upon a time it was her mother who she felt she could confide in, who could protect her, but that was a thing of the past. She couldn’t believe that her mother had just tricked her out, and as badly as that betrayal cut her to the bone and had her body wracked with pain, her heart ached the most. Who could a girl trust if she couldn’t trust her own mother?
She’d never felt more desolate in her life, walking through the only city she’d known as home. Flint’s streets were so cold, in more ways than one, and the streets were pitch-black, because the city’s hoodlums had busted out the streetlights.
As the thoughts of those two grown men taking turns with her body would revisit Halleigh’s mind, she would mumble, “No, no, no,” over and over as she shook her head. She felt so defiled. So humiliated. So cheated. She kept thinking about what she and Malek could have had tonight, if only the rape hadn’t happened. Those men could have taken anything in the house, the TV, the DVD, the CD player, which were the only things of value they had left that her mother hadn’t already hocked. Those were material items that could have easily been replaced. But instead they chose to take something that was irreplaceable. Something Halleigh could never get back.
What she and Malek would have had would have been so innocent. So pure. So unlike from what she’d experienced with those two animals whom she felt had pissed in and on her. They not only robbed her of her innocence, but in so doing, they had stolen her right to choose. The two men had taken turns, both turning deaf ears to her pleas and ignoring her tears of outrage over being violated.
They didn’t care that she had saved herself all these years for the man she loved. All they wanted was to fulfill their own lustful desires. To think she’d waited seventeen years for it to all wind up like this. Now she was just another ghetto statistic.
Suddenly a fine drizzle began to fall and quickly turned into large raindrops, which blended into Halleigh’s tears. Oblivious to the rain swirling around her, Halleigh pushed forward with one destination in mind.
As soon as she approached Malek’s small, Cape Cod-style house, she began to cry even harder. When she made it to his doorstep, she stood still for a moment before knocking. What should she say? What would she do? Would he even believe her? She weighed her options. Should she just go back home and pretend this whole thing never happened and try to just move on, or should she stay? But what if Malek tried to make her call the police and tell them what happened? What would happen to her mother? Would they take her to jail too for allowing it to happen? Then where would that leave Halleigh? Where would she go? To a foster home for someone to turn around and abuse her again? But what if she went back home and Riq and Mad Dog were still waiting to repeat the entire act all over again?
Absently, Halleigh shook her head. She was too afraid Tariq and Mad Dog might come back, and she never wanted to experience that again. She felt both embarrassed and abandoned as she contemplated knocking on her boyfriend’s door. Will he look down on me for this? she thought as she stood there, drenched and shivering from the cold rain that fell from the black sky.
Finally, she made up her mind. Malek was all she had. She knew deep in her heart that he would be there for her. He had never looked down on her, so why would he start now? She knocked on the door and crossed her arms tightly around her stomach, her head down.
Seconds later, Malek opened the door, and the sounds of Usher lightly played in the background. Halleigh’s knees buckled, and she fell into his arms.
Right away, he knew there was something wrong. Halleigh was crying, her hair was soaking wet, and her shirt was torn. He gently grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her inside, closing the door behind them. “What’s wrong, baby?” He held her against his chest. “Talk to me, Hal.”
But she couldn’t speak. She only cried.
Malek pulled her away from him, and his heart nearly dropped when she looked him in the eyes. They were filled with humiliation, anguish, and pain. Her tears were flowing, and he could feel her body trembling. “Hal, what’s wrong?” he asked again.
“They raped me, Malek,” she said in a low voice in-between her cries, a tremor rippling through her body.
“Whaaaat?” Malek stuttered. He wasn’t sure he’d heard her right.
“They raped me.” She embraced him and buried her head in his chest.
“Who? What? I mean . . .” Malek’s words trailed off. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What happened, Halleigh? Who did this to you?”
Halleigh’s mouth opened, but no words came out.
For a minute, Malek didn’t realize that he was shaking his girlfriend. He was angry and seemed like he was going to lose his temper. Then he pulled himself into check and just shook his head. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, never wanting to let her go. He was confused and angry at the same time. He was at a loss for words and didn’t know w
hat to say to her. His fist clenched tightly as he thought about someone hurting her. Her heartbeat began to pick up as he rocked her back and forth in his arms.
Finally he released her. “Who touched you, Hal?” he questioned again, but all Halleigh did was cry. “Who?” he shouted, frustrated with not knowing who had done this to his girl. He grabbed her by the shoulders and peered into her eyes.
Halleigh was so distraught, she just couldn’t answer him. Her hysterical cries muffled her speech.
“Come on.” Malek guided her over to the couch and sat her down to console her.
After finally getting her calmed down, Halleigh was able to tell Malek everything that had gone down back at her house. It brought tears to his eyes. He continued to hug her for the longest.
After a while, he broke his embrace then went to the bathroom and ran a tub of hot water. He helped his girlfriend into the bathroom and aided her in easing off her bloody skirt and underwear. Slowly, he helped her ease down into the tub. Fresh tears filled his eyes when he saw the water between Halleigh’s legs and behind her turn red with her blood. He could see the bruises on her back and around her neck, but they weren’t open wounds. He knew, without Halleigh saying a word, that she was bleeding vaginally and from her anus. He knew this wasn’t menstrual blood. Once again, Malek just shook his head as tears fell. Tears of anger. He wanted to take somebody’s head off, but first he knew he had to tend to a broken and bruised Halleigh.
Although they had planned to use a condom, they had also planned to have sex at the safest time in her cycle. She’d just had her period the weekend before. Plus, he’d never doubted that Halleigh had been a virgin before these animals took what rightfully should have been hers to give to whoever she chose.
Choosing Sides Page 3
