Page 99 of Quasim: King Inferno

She would be forever five and the reality always hit me like a punch to the gut when I thought about it for too long. No matter how long she had been gone, it would always feel like I just lost her yesterday.

Since my mother was in the hospital closer to the city, I had been staying at my house to go back and forth. They were running a bunch of tests, and later, the doctor wanted to talk to me, Blaze, and our father. When I woke up this morning, I showered and decided to get another tattoo. The pain reminded me that I wasn’t all numb and could actually feel. Tattoos helped with the internal pain that I felt.

“How the fuck you eating this shit like it don’t hurt.” Havoc’s low voice pulled me from my thoughts while he tattooed my rib.

“Pussy.”I signed to him, and he laughed while he continued to shade in the tattoo, and I kept my eyes closed.

“Blair on the block,” Ellis, one of the little niggas that wanted to be IG, came into the shop. He sat in the waiting area, kicking his feet up on the table.

The shop door opened again. “Bet, you told him his baby out there, huh?” Ezra, his brother, came in with the third brother, Evan behind him.

Ellis, Ezra, and Evan were triplets, and as crazy as they came. At twenty-one, niggas had bodies under their belt. I knew their pops before he was murdered, and I told their grandmother I would take them under my wing.

Apparently, I was a fucking guidance counselor like Capp. The triplets were getting into shit way before their grandmother asked me to step in. I wasn’t in the business of changing their lives, so they were my little hittas. When I needed someone handled, I sent they asses to handle it, and they always completed the assignment.

They had been putting in work, waiting to become Inferno Gods, and soon as I made the time, I was going to give them that honor to wear those flames on their body.

“Fuck up, thought he should know…. She got a new hair style, too. It look real nice, no disrespect, King Inferno.”

I shook my head. “Tell her to come here… don’t tell her I’m in here.”

We owned one tattoo shop in New Jersey, and this second one we opened with Havoc. He wanted something to invest his money into other than the strip lounge that he co-owned with his brother in Staten Island.

Since he tattooed, it only made sense to open a second one in Brooklyn on the same block as the barbershop and hair salon that Brandon owned. Since putting this shop here, we were making money out the ass because everybody was stopping in here to get tatted after a haircut.

From the chair, I could see Ellis talking to her, and she pointed to her car. She put her hand on her hip and sighed before following behind him. “I want to see this school basketball team I’m donating to because you look like you are in your twenties, and judging from the tattoos and piercings… I can’t be too sure you gonna give my mo…” her voice trailed off when she finally looked up and saw me.

I leaned up the minute that I fully took in her new hair. She had dyed it blonde, and kept her pixie, adding some curls into it. The sun from Bali along with the blonde, brought out her freckles more. She usually hid them under her makeup, but today she didn’t have any makeup on her face. I noticed she had a small scar where her nose and left eye met, and she was quick to cover it with makeup.

She was dressed down in a pair of baggy sweatpants and a tight crop top on with Airmaxes on. “Shit, Anjo.” I bit down on my lip, ignoring everybody in this bitch except her.

Blair smiled. “Do you like it?”

I motioned for her to come closer, as Havoc continued shading the tattoo in. “You look fucking beautiful, my love… damn.”

She stood there and messed with her hair. “Kiki did her thing… she told me to trust her, and she went above and beyond. I needed something new, you know?”

“Why you been over here for five minutes, and you haven’t kissed me… fuck up with that?” I stared at her.

Blushing, she leaned over and kissed my lips, and then looked at what I was getting done. “This is really good, Havoc… maybe you can use this to strike up a conversation with Synthia.”

The tattoo was of praying hands with a name plate necklace laced within the hands, and it had Harley’s name. “He can’t hear you… he don’t tattoo with his shits in.”

“Thank you.” He replied.

“Then how did he reply to me?”

“Read your lips,” Havoc answered for her.

She covered her mouth and then proceeded to speak. “He has a crush on the girl that works with me at the studio.”

“Petty ass.” He replied, knowing he didn’t know what she said, and he was too focused on finishing my tattoo.

“What you going to get into now?”

“I was about to call a tow truck because my car isn’t workingagain.”

As much as she needed to get rid of that damn junk car, there was a reason she was holding onto it. I couldn’t judge because things meant a lot to people, and it was clear the car was valuable to her.

---