Page 123 of I Heard It All Before

Asha rolled her eyes and wrapped up her conversation.

“Don’t be rushing me, nigga. I’m giving you a ride,” Asha snapped when she got into the car.

“I thought you had to go sell hair or some shit. Out there talking to that lame ass nigga,” Quincy argued.

“Shit! Let me message this bitch and tell her that I’m on my way,” Asha said while grabbing her phone.

She sent a quick message to her customer, telling her that she would be there soon. Quincy started up his conversation about hitting a lick, and Asha was all in. They would have to start out small, since their team was only half of what it was before. Their other two brothers were facing some serious time and getting a lawyer wasn’t cheap. They also had to keep money on their books, which Asha did faithfully.

“Where the fuck does this bitch live? It looks abandoned out here,” Quincy noted as he looked around.

As soon as the words left his mouth, gunshots rang out that seemed to be meant for Asha’s car.

“Shit! Somebody’s shooting around here!” Asha yelled as she swerved and almost lost control of the car.

“Fuck! I think somebody’s shooting at us,” Quincy said as he tried to look back to see if they were being followed.

A black motorcycle with two passengers were following close behind, but the occupants were moving too fast to be seen. Quincy knew for a fact that the bullets were meant for them, but he didn’t know why. Asha wasn’t built for that kind of driving and she kept losing control of the wheel. Quincy was yelling at her to drive faster, but she was scared that she was going to crash. The gunshots were ringing out from all angles and Asha was scared to death. She was turning corners too fast and she just knew that she was going to crash. Quincy was pissed that he didn’t have a gun on him, but he didn’t foresee anything going wrong.

“Which way should I go?” Asha yelled to her brother as the gunplay continued.

She was in an unfamiliar area with mostly abandoned houses. When Quincy didn’t answer, she looked over to see his lifeless body slumped over the seat with a bullet hole in the back of his head. Blood was leaking from the tiny hole, making Asha scream out in hurt and fear. Asha looked in her rearview mirror when she saw a thick cloud of smoke and realized that the back of her car was on fire. One of the bullets must have hit the gas can that was in her trunk and caused it to ignite. Asha wanted to stop, but she was dead if she did. The flames from her trunk grew taller and she didn’t want her car to explode. She heard sirens in the distance and she prayed that they got to her before her killers did. Someone must have called the police and she was thankful for whoever it was.

“God please. Please don’t let me die,” Asha prayed and cried at the same time

She was turning corners and jumping curbs like crazy. Thankfully, no one was outside, but a few houses had lights on inside. Asha started honking her horn, hoping that someone would come outside to help rescue her. It probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway because people usually didn’t get involved in stuff like that. Asha was scared and all the fight in her was slowly leaving. She was ready to take her chances on getting out and running, but she never got the opportunity. As soon as she turned the next corner, she noticed that it was a dead end. She almost collided with an abandoned car, but she swerved and ended up hitting a brick wall instead. The airbag popped out and smacked Asha in the face, making her feel like something had broken. She felt blood dripping down her face as she pulled on her door, trying to get out. The shooting had stopped, but she still heard the motorcycle’s engine. They were probably trying to see if someone was alive, so they could finish the job. Asha was dead either way. She would be shot to death if she got out or she would burn to death if she didn’t. The flames had now covered her back seat and they were spreading rapidly. Asha’s door was stuck, so she had to climb over her brother’s dead body if she wanted to get out. As soon as she decided to do it, the gunshots rang out again, one striking her in the arm.

“Ahh!” Asha yelled as she grabbed her aching arm.

The smoke was burning her eyes and she was starting to choke. Asha said a silent prayer and decided to get it over with. She didn’t want to look at her brother, but she had no choice. She had to climb over him to get out. She hated that his body would get burned up in the car, but she had no control over that. Just when Asha made up her mind to go for it, one of the flames from the back seat spread to her side of the car and onto her shirt.

“Ahhh!” Asha screamed again as she tried to put out the fire.

She tried to pull the shirt over her head to take it off, but that only made things worse. Her hair got caught in the flames and soon it started to spread. Asha didn’t care about crossing over her dead brother, as she rushed out of the car that was now engulfed in flames. Her skin felt like it was melting and she smelled her burning flesh. She tried rolling around in the grass, but that didn’t help very much. The roaring of the motorcycle’s engine could be heard over her screams, as Lawrence and his accomplice pulled off and drove off into the night.

“That bitch ain’t dead!” Chase yelled, as Lawrence drove away.

“She’ll wish she was after today,” Lawrence replied as he sped in the opposite direction of where he’d left Asha’s burning body.

After seeing Asha’s picture pop up on his girlfriend’s Instagram page, Lawrence started plotting. He saw that Asha sold hair and that was how he was able to lure her to the area that he wanted her in. Lawrence created a fake page and got a burner phone so that he couldn’t be traced. He started following some of Asha’s friends to make it seem legit when he started to follow her too. Chase was one of the dudes that he and Kamari met years ago, when they were all homeless and trying to find their next meal. He was always down for whatever and he happily agreed to help. Kamari and Lawrence helped him out with a place to stay when their money got right and he was forever grateful. Chase was a better shooter, so Lawrence drove while he fired all the shots.

“The fuck you stopping on the bridge for?” Chase asked as he looked around nervously.

“Calm down bruh,” Lawrence said as he pulled out the burner phone and tossed it in the water, right before pulling off again.

***

Two whole months had passed and Asha was still in the hospital. Over sixty percent of her body was burned and she had yet to see how she looked. She couldn’t even attend her brother’s funeral, not that she could see him anyway. Quincy’s body was burned up with her car and she would have been too, had she not made the decision to get out. Asha wished she would have stayed in the car and died, rather than endure the pain that she was feeling. The last month of her life had been hell with all the treatments, surgeries, and rehabilitation that she had to go through. People looked at her like she was a monster and she was sure that she looked like one. The bandages were off so that her skin could heal, but she didn’t want to see herself.

Her mother was stressing so much that she’d had a mild heart attack after Quincy was laid to rest. Thankfully, she was fully recovered, but she would probably never be the same. Besides her mother, Asha didn’t want to see anyone else. Her mother had just left, so she was surprised when her door opened and someone walked into her room. Asha had her back turned, but Kelly walked around the bed and looked down at her.

“Damn bitch. Them niggas fried you like chicken,” Kelly said as she fell out laughing.

“Get out of my room. I don’t want to see anybody,” Asha mumbled as she tried to pull the covers up over her head.

“I wouldn’t wanna see nobody either if I looked like Fire Marshall Bill,” Kelly laughed as she snatched the covers away.

“Just leave me alone, please,” Asha begged pitifully.

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