Page 109 of Rah

I was hoping to catch Aaliyah up here, which would have been even better for me, but her mother was the only person in the room. Ethel was looking at me as if she was wondering who I was. She actually did look like an older version of Aaliyah. I had never seen the broad before because I wasn’t all into getting to know her family and shit.

“Who are you?” she asked, looking at me and squinting her eyes.

I rushed towards her. “Don’t worry about who I am, bitch,” I growled.

She gasped, watching me rush towards her bed with bucked eyes. Before she could yell for help or scream, I had my hand tightly wrapped around her neck. “Where is Aaliyah?! Has she been here?!”

“Who...” She forced out as she clawed at my hands. “Who is Aaliyah?”

“Don’t play with me!” I growled into her ear. With my free hand, I went into my pocket and pulled out my gun. Putting it to her head, I pressed it hard against her temple. She squirmed and squealed, and then suddenly, I smelled the scent of urine. “Iwillkill you. Where is she?”

Her eyes darted around nervously. Her frail fingers clawed at my hands as I squeezed it so tight that I could feel her esophagus. Tears started to run down her eyes, but she said nothing. Her eyes looked empty and confused.

“You stupid bitch. You don’t know shit.” I let her neck go with a jerk.

She started to fall to the side but caught herself with her hand. Resting on it, she started to take in heavy breaths as she was catching her breath. She glared at me as I kept my gun on her. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t have any money.”

I scoffed. This lady was looney. “You better not say a fucking word about this.”

I didn’t wait for her to respond. I made my way towards the door and out of the room, closing the door behind myself. Luckily, the ugly broad was standing with her back turned talking to some nurses, so I got the fuck up outta there quick.

I wasn’t worried about Ethel saying anything. Her crazy ass probably couldn’t wrap her head around what I had said or done. Since she had dementia, I figured she would forget what had happened before I even got in my car.

But if she didn’t, I hoped that she relayed the message to Aaliyah so that she could understand that shit had gotten real and I was not to be fucked with.

24

FABE

As I pulled onto my block and saw my house, I sighed and fussed, “Finally.”

I had been sitting in traffic for a hour. After that and a long day at the trap, I was ready to get in the crib and chill.

As I pulled into the driveway of my crib, my cellphone rang. Looking at the display on the dash, I saw that it was Moses and answered while killing the engine.

“What up, Moses? How you feelin’?” I didn’t want Moses to hear Aaliyah’s voice when I walked in the house, so I sat there and talked to him.

“Back to normal,” he told me.

“Good shit.”

“I saw you had been calling and trying to get up with me.”

“Yeah, man. I was just trying to check on you and the family.”

“We doin’ okay. You heard about Caine?”

I didn’t want to ask, but I went ahead, “Nah, what happened?”

“He’s missing.”

“Damn.”

Caine was Rah’s cousin on his mother’s side. I only kicked it with him when I was with Rah, so we weren’t close. He was a grimy street nigga that I didn’t trust. I knew that if I didn’t trust him, others didn’t. So, there was no telling what had happened to him. But knowing the street life, it was safe to assume that he was dead, and his body would turn up soon.

“I’m definitely praying for his family. I know Rah’s mama tired of the bullshit.”

“Right.”