Page 10 of Search My Soul
Pure walked up to Uncle Brent, and I’d never seen my brother look so cold in my life. It was like something had takenover him, and he snapped. Using the bottom of the gun, Pure crashed it into his nose, causing blood to squirt out everywhere. Pure didn’t stop there. Blow after blow, he unleashed his anger. No words or even sounds were made, but the intentions were clear. One of the men stepped forward to intervene, but Poppa held his hand up for him to stop.
“Let him have his moment,” he commanded. The palms of my hands grew sweaty as I watched the scene unfold before me. Pure’s chest heaved up and down, yet he still remained silent. I thought he would leave things as they were and hand Poppa back the gun, but he surprised me when he placed it in the center of Uncle Brent’s forehead and pulled the trigger with no hesitation.
My body jerked from the sound of the blast,and I watched in astonishment as brain matter splattered all over the place. Pure stood there frozen, but there was no fear in his eyes. It was something else that I couldn’t put my finger on. Pure handed the gun back to Poppa and got right back into his stance.
Poppa’s attention focused on Uncle Fletch, who tried his best to break free to no avail.
“I won’t waste my breath on you because you aren’t worth it. Madea took out two life insurance policies on each of her children, and they are worth a million dollars each. It won’t bring my son back, but I’ll sleep better at night knowing that your worthless life will pay for his children to live the life they deserve once they are of age. It’s really a shame that you had to go out this way, but I’ll make sure they send you off in style,little brother. A service fit for a bitch. Soul, come.” I gulped when Poppa called my name. I won’t lie and say I hadn’t snuck and played around with my father’s guns, but this was a completely different scenario. I’ve never taken another person’s life, and I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. On one hand, I was hurt that my parents lost their lives at the hands of people theyloved and trusted… But could I be a killer? I guess I had no other choice.
My feet shuffled as I made my way over to my grandfather. When he placed the gun in my hands, the weight of it caught me off guard. The cool metal rested against the palms of my hands as I stood there waiting for further instruction.
“In life we are often put in a position to choose between what we have been taught is right and what we know is right. The man in that chair is not your family. He is the monster who took your parents away from you and your siblings. When you look that mothafucka in his eyes, you should feel nothing but hatred. A life for a life. Always remember that.” Poppa patted me on my shoulders as he nudged me forward.
“Make me proud, Grandson.” My hands shook as I walked over to the man I once loved. Uncle Fletch was the middle child, like me, so we connected on many levels. He would always make me laugh and hand me money whenever we were at my grandparents’ house. I used to look up to him and Poppa for the way they carried themselves. We were hood royalty because of them, and I thought the shit was cool. As I stood in front of him, my stomach twisted in a knot.
His eyes were pleading, and that only upset me more. Two weeks ago, he hugged Pure and me at our parents’ burial site and told us we were going to be the next generation of the Taylor Gang. He promised that he would come and get us so that we could see his new ranch house. The fact that he smiled in our faces as if he hadn’t stripped us of everything we had ever known made me sick to my stomach. My hands shook as rage took over. My body grew hot as I held the gun toward his heart. It was obvious that he had no love in his heart for his family, so that was where I chose to shoot. I held the gun to the side like I’d seen a million times in the movies I watched growing up and squeezed the trigger with all of my might.
I ended up shooting him until the only thing that could be heard was clicking sounds. Tears rushed down my face once I had emptied the clip. My momma and daddy were really gone, and I would be forever changed.
Those years after my parents were killed transitioned me from a boy to a man. I learned early on that you couldn’t trust anyone, because for the right price, a loved one could quickly turn into an enemy. After I dropped Poppa Meech off, I headed straight to my house. I wasn’t one of those people who liked to party all night and be seen. The perfect night for me was chilling at home with some good food, a bottle of dark liquor, and my begging ass dogs by my side. Peace was a rarity for me, so I took advantage whenever I could. My nana used to tell us there was no rest for the wicked. The older I became, the more I believed her words to be true.
“What the hellis your fat ass doing here?” My mother, Rochelle, grumbled as she stood in front of the screen door. If it weren’t for my siblings, I would never set foot in this hellhole. This house brought nothing but bad memories.
“I’m here for West and Riya.” I pushed my way into the house without waiting for her to let me in. We went through this every couple of weekends, so I had grown to expect her crass behavior.
“Wessie, Ry! Get your asses down here!” I hated the way she treated them, but I wasn’t the least bit surprised because she treated me much worse. It was one of the main reasons I made it a point to come and get them every other weekend. My parents’ relationship was complicated, to put it mildly. My father bounced between his stable of bitches, only coming back herewhenever things weren’t working with the other ones. I loved my father even though he was far from perfect. Out of the two of them, he was the only one who showed us some type of affection.
“Sista! You’re late!” Riya fussed as she attacked me, throwing her arms around my neck. I almost went down because I hadn’t expected her to be so heavy. As I stepped back to observe them both, I realized they both seemed to have grown overnight. Weston, aka West, used to be a short little pipsqueak, but now we were about the same height. He stood off to the side with his face buried in his phone. At twelve years old, he was starting to become more reclusive. I blamed it on puberty because I recalled going through the same thing.
“Are you ready to go? I went to the grocery store earlier, but now I’m starving.”
“Hmmpf. I doubt that.” Rochelle huffed under her breath. I chose to ignore her because I refused to allow her to get under my skin. I’d given her way too much power over me in the past. Instead, I watched her walk out of the room, knowing she was probably about to go out for the night.
“I’m ready! I’ve got my bags packed and my charger in my pocket. We can grab some wings or Chinese food on the way to your place. I don’t care what we eat. I’m sure it’ll be better than—” West made this weird noise that interrupted Riya’s words. I squinted my eyes, glancing between the two of them. They seemed to be communicating with each other in silence. As much as I wanted to drill them about it, I chose to keep quiet for the moment. They were keeping secrets from me, but I would get to the bottom of things.
After they placed their things in my trunk, we were on the road. Truthfully, I couldn’t get away from my mother’s house fast enough.
“So, how has school been?” I asked, peeking at the two of them from the rearview mirror. West never lifted his eyes from his phone, but Riya and I were close, and she loved to talk.
“These girls at my school have been getting on my nerves. Shayna has an attitude with me because Aiden asked me to be his girlfriend. I told him no at first because I didn’t want to deal with the drama, but he kept asking.”
“Is he ugly or something?” I inquired while trying to focus my attention on the road. People loved to drive like they had no damn sense after four in the afternoon.
“No, he is gorgeous. Probably one of the finest boys at our school,” Riya replied.
“Okay, so what’s the issue? And what does your friend have to do with this?” Shayna and Riya had been friends for years. People often thought the two of them were sisters because they rarely saw one without the other.
“Aiden is a transfer student, so he’s only been there for a few months. He and I have three classes together, so we see each other all the time. We’re both in AP classes. Anyways, Shayna and I both saw him at the same time, but I never knew she liked him. When he started to flirt with me, I told her all about it. That’s when she started making these shady comments about how he was probably just being nice to me or whatever.” I could feel myself getting angry because one thing I hated more than anything was a shady ass friend. I listened intently so I could hear the whole story before I voiced my opinion.
“When I asked her what she meant, she kind of laughed it off. Then, when he asked me out, her whole demeanor changed. We normally met up with one another for lunch and fifth period, but she started hanging out with this other group of girls. I tried to ask her what was wrong, but she brushed me off. Then, later that week, there was a rumor that I was a man stealer. I was confused about it because I wasn’t even talking to anyone, but then hername was mentioned. Turns out she liked Aiden too, but he wanted to go out with me instead. I thought we were better than that, but she completely iced me out. Now she and those other girls keep picking on me.” My ears were hot as I listened to her because all I could think about was beating one of those bitches’ asses.
“Have you told your teachers or your guidance counselor about what is going on?” I would try the politically correct way first before I took things into my own hands.
“The guidance counselor was on her side. She basically said it was messy for me to go after someone my friend liked. That’s why I told Aiden I couldn’t be his girlfriend. I didn’t want to lose my friend over a man. Now, I don’t know what to do because I don’t think I could ever be friends with her again.”
“Hell no. You never give a bitch more than one chance to play in your face. If all it took was one incident to make her act funny toward you, then that should tell you all you need to know about her. She isn’t a real friend, and you don’t need those kinds of people around you. If Aiden hasn’t made a pass at her, then she has no right to be upset with you. Especially if she never told you she liked him.
“You haven’t done anything wrong, and I’mma go up there and slap the taste out of that guidance counselor’s mouth when I see her. She had no business choosing sides in the situation, and she sounds just as delusional as Shayna. I might go have a talk with her bald-headed momma too. You know I don’t care for bullies.” I kept getting into fights at school because the girls used to make my life a living hell. I’d be damned if I allowed the same thing to happen to my sister.
