Page 50 of Priest

“Stop! You don’t have to do that. She said you could have whatever you wanted. We’re not trying to stop you, and we’re not calling the police. Just take all our valuables and leave,” I plead.

“Ya little ass ain’t no shot caller. Shut the fuck up,” the second man mumbled to me.

The first man dragged my mother across the kitchen floor as she kicked and fought him. “Please don’t do this to me. Let me go.” She cried.

For a brief moment, my mother escaped his grasp and ran to the other side of the kitchen. Her hand had just landed on the knife before I saw her body jerk awkwardly in an almost comical but horrific manner. Then she fell with a thud onto the floor. Her mouth was open, and so were her eyes as if she were in shock.

I was in shock because although I had seen the bullets riddle her body, I could not utter a sound. There was no way that my beautiful mother was gone. There was no way that she ceased to exist. My mother was my best friend, and I would have gladly given my life for hers.

Finally, my voice returned raspy and gutted. “Mama. Mama!”

She didn’t move or utter a sound, and then it hit me. She truly was gone.

“Nooooo!”

“The fuck you do that shit for?” the first man turned to the third man and demanded.

“You gotta kill that little bitch, too, now that she’s seen it,” the second man declared.

“Nah, y’all ain’t doing that shit,” the first man replied.

“This fucked up. We came here to kill this bitch, and that’s all we were supposed to do,” the second man retorted.

I cried throughout the conversation.

“And I did that shit,” the third man commented.

“I was trying to get something to sweeten the deal,” the first man replied.

“We gotta get out of here before someone calls the cops,” the second man responded.

“What about her?” the third man asked and pointed his gun at me. “We should take her with us.”

“No!” I screamed and turned to swing at them.

“Hold your little ass still,” the second man yelled.

“I say we take her little ass and hold her for ransom,” the third man suggested.

“No. Leave her. She can’t identify us anyway with these masks. Besides, he’ll kill all of us if we touch her,” the first man commented.

A pain exploded behind my ears, and everything went dark.

“Get the fuck away from her,” I heard a voice growl as everything came back into focus. The past receded, and the three men backed away from me. They were replaced by Priest’s beautiful face that had its ever-present mug in place, but it looked harsher and crueler than before.

“My bad, Priest. She fell. Thought her little ass was trying to run,” one of the men lied.

“I ever see one of y’all put your hands on her again, that’s a bullet in your ass. You hear me?” Priest asked. He kneeled as they apologized, and he lifted me into his arms.

“I can walk,” I mumbled as I tried to get down.

He gently let me down and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes. Can we please just leave?” I asked. I was on the verge of tears from fear and embarrassment.

I was confused by his gentle nature with me, his harsh one with the men, and the flashback that I had of the day of my mother’s murder. It was overwhelming and more than I could handle. I needed to escape, or I would surely break.

“Come on,” Priest replied in answer to my question.

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