Page 137 of Quasim III: King Inferno

It wasn’t good for my back, and I missed my specially made mattress imported from Italy. Thinking about Sam sleeping on itwhile her confused ass couldn’t visit me infuriated me. Just as I rolled my mattress out, they shut the lights out.

“So much for allowing me to finish making my bed,” I grumbled and felt around, while trying to maximize the most comfort for this bed.

“You said you like little boys?”

The voice caused me to freeze before I heard a swishing sound, and the lights came back on. Menace Caselli stood in front of me with a plastic poncho top and pants over his clothes, and the devil dancing in his eyes. Behind him, the door opened, and another man came in.

He was familiar.

“Me…Menace, what…what are you doing here?” I had a membership with Case House to keep appearances up. All of my peers frequented the Case House women, and it was the best kept secret. When you didn’t partake in their poison, they often looked at you differently, and I wanted to earn these people’s trust.

He had the best of the best when it came to women. Kennedy was one of my regulars before she kind of fell back from accepting clients. We were invited every year to a huge party on his private island.

Menace never looked like he liked anyone, so I wouldn’t say we were even friends. He kept his distance from becoming close with any of his clients. All he wanted was those payments to come through. Sam was looking forward to this year’s event. I always sent her off the island at the end of the night and told her the guys played poker.

“Fucking place makes me itch.”

“You wanted to sit up on the top bunk,” the other man replied, leaning against the door. “Corleon got a hole in security for at least twenty minutes during shift changes.”

“Sue me for wanting to be fucking dramatic for once…”

Me and the other man looked at him. “For once?”

He looked at us, and then back at me. “Are you breaking me out?”

“Now Marvin, why the fuck would I do that shit?”

The other man remained at the doorway and was cracking his knuckles. A nervous feeling swirled around in the pit of my stomach. Why were they in this cell, and why had I been moved over here.

“I’ll scream.”

“And get your throat knocked out,” Menace replied.

“Why?” the other man asked. “Spare me the fucking details… why the fuck would you do that to him?”

“I’m being framed. Elijah is a good b?—”

The minute the words started to leave my mouth, he rushed me and held me against the wall, delivering punch after punch. There was anger and pain in his eyes as he continued to deliver punch after punch.

Backing up, I slumped between the toilet and the bunkbed, and he grabbed my head and slammed it onto the toilet. Everything was dizzy as he continued to stomp me out while I was on the floor.

I tried to yell, but I couldn’t find my voice. My body felt limp as I tried to fight back, and nothing happened. My body stopped trying to fight as he beat me bloody. While I dazed in and out of consciousness, I watched as he wrapped the rope supplied around my neck.

The tighter the rope became, the harder it was to breathe. I choked out some words before I felt my life slowly leaving my body as I heard the man’s last word.

“You fuck with the future King Inferno, you fuck with ….” I couldn’t make anything else out because everything faded to black.

Blair

Recommendation: Listen to Hero by Mariah Carey.

My body felt soweak as I held onto the side of the toilet. Everything, a bunch of nothing, was coming up. I had settled into my bed and the urge to throw up overcame me. The soup on the night table was cold and untouched, surrounded by scattered pill bottles.

I picked my head up as a gush of liquid rushed out my mouth into the toilet bowl and I choked, wiping the spit with the back of my sleeve. Chemo was always tough on my body and my doctors warned me. They told me that this was a fight that I would need support for.

As much as I wanted the support, I had no one. I had pushed Augusta Mae away, and Tookie wasn’t going to be there. I had no other family or friends; it was just me and cancer. This was on me, and I had to face this alone. It wasn’t like I was a stranger to doing things alone.

Since my mom passed, I had to do a lot alone and teach myself so much. I felt like God wouldn’t give me a break. Losingmy son and finally finding the strength to choose me and open my studio, and now this.

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