Page 44 of Welcome to the Table

Calliope Black

I t had been days since all that shit happened, and I hadn’t slept a wink.

My mental was fucked, and I couldn’t accept the fact that Klarity would do some shit like that.

I’d told her about all the shit I went through with Melph and how it affected me.

She was my person outside of my brother that I could talk to, and now she was fucking gone.

I couldn’t cope with the shit, and that night replayed in my head every fucking day and night.

The lucid dreams I had after that shit had me afraid to close my eyes.

When I closed my eyes, all I could see was half her face blown off from the shot to her head.

The blood stains all over her car, and the way I had to have her body disposed of, like it was trash.

Her car was probably smashed and burned to a crisp.

I had cleaned out the closet she had in my house.

I took all her fragrances and makeup from her vanity and put all that shit into big, black Hefty bags.

The racks of clothing she had in every closet in my house, I dragged that shit to the backyard.

It took me at least four trips to get everything by myself to the yard.

I was in love with Klarity, and I was angry because she took the bitch way out, and that wasn’t the vibe she gave me.

Once I got everything together on the left side of my massive backyard, I pulled my lighter out of my pocket.

It wasn’t like the fire department would come because no one lived around me.

I made sure the fire didn’t flame too high and risk the fire department coming out this way.

I went to my shed that I had built to get the gasoline.

I poured the shit all over everything that I thought wasn’t covered.

Then, I lit my blunt before throwing the lighter and watching the flame start slowly and begin to grow.

I smoked my blunt and watched everything burn until it was ash.

I jogged to get my hose pipe because everything had burned, and I didn’t want it to catch my flowerbeds.

I put the fire out and walked away to go back into the house.

The blunt wasn’t working, so I went to my bar on the first floor, grabbed my Don Julio, and took it straight to the head.

I inhaled and smelled her scent, so I went to my cleaning closet to grab black gloves, more bleach, and some ammonia.

After picking up a few towels, I grabbed a bucket to mix the bleach with water.

The ammonia would be too much for my allergies, so I decided against it.

I filled the bucket with hot water before putting my gloves on and grabbing my towel.

I made sure my arms were covered as I dipped the towel in the bleach water and started to scrub my walls.

Every wall in my house was getting scrubbed tonight.

I needed her scent out of my nose. After I finished, I grabbed my bucket, went to my bedroom, and scrubbed all the walls, including the bathroom.

I didn’t give a fuck if the black faded.

I would have my personal painter come redo that shit.

I didn’t need anything to remind me of what we shared because that shit would drive me crazy.

I had to rid myself of her because I knew she wasn’t coming back, and I was cool with that because everything in this world was temporary.

People, cars, clothes, everything was disposable. It had been shown to me.

After I scrubbed my walls, I ripped everything off my bed, and the pictures she had hung up, I took them off the wall to put in the trash.

The huge picture that hung over my bed of us was going to the trash.

My heart couldn’t take it. Maybe I should have left her ass in Georgia, where I found her, and I wouldn’t be going through this shit.

I pulled my curtain back a little and noticed that the sun was peeking out, so I knew it had to be at least 6:00 a.m. I carried all the shit downstairs, including the bucket, and opened my front door.

My hittas walked out of the shadows and took everything from me without a word, and did what they were supposed to do.

I only had four men that I kept on my property.

I trusted them, and they resided on the property with me, but one would never know that they were there.

My parents didn’t even know that. They also had a house in the woods because they were hidden.

I looked down at my watch and realized that today was the day for this fucking meeting that I didn’t want to go to, but it was needed.

Hellcat was probably shaking the fucking city up, but I would deal with his shit when I got my mental together.

I knew some shit was shaking, but I had my phone powered off because I needed the disconnection from the world.

Crazy part is, I didn’t ask for none of the shit that I had been through.

The mafia shit, love, killing. I didn’t ask for none of it, but I was thrown into it by my father.

Athena and Hellcat lived for this shit, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t have a choice, though.

I was so busy with my own shit that I hadn’t even talked to Jaci.

I missed her ass something serious, but I wished she could have come back on her own terms and not because of our bullshit.

Jaci knew how to get down, if need be, but I didn’t want her to.

If she was hanging with Hellcat, there’s no telling what the fuck they were getting into.

Jaci was the closest thing to my heart because she lived inside it.

I was sure by now that one of them had told her to leave me alone, but I needed her right now more than ever.

She had Hellcat tendencies, but she displayed more compassion with me.

My baby sister knew how to handle my crazy.

Had she been here, we would have had lawn chairs sitting in front of the fire, watching the shit burn.

The difference between her and the rest of us is that she had feelings.

Real emotional feelings. Her energy and empathy were unmatched.

She would dig until she found the answers she was looking for.

I hated the fact that she was thrown into the middle of some snake shit that she didn’t even know about.

She didn’t know the half, but I would tell her the real.

“You need another bucket, Blackk?” Risky, one of my men, asked as he walked back to me, causing me to shake my thoughts and look his way. Blackk was the nickname he and his brothers had given me once I moved them onto my property.

Risky was a nigga from the Desire projects who didn’t have shit. His mother was on crack bad, and his father was nowhere around. He was the eldest of four brothers. A few years back, I was checking on shit in the hood when I noticed him and his brothers sitting on the steps of the project.

“Why y’all out here looking like this?” I asked him. They didn’t have on any shoes, and the clothes looked as if they had worn them for weeks. They looked to be starving, and their heads hung low. “What’s y’all’s names?” I asked them, and they didn’t respond.

“Stranger danger, nigga. Why you wanna know?” his smartass said.

The way they looked, I knew they hadn’t been in school for weeks. I even smelled the odor of piss, but I didn’t say anything. They were kids.

“Where is your mother, stranger?” I asked him. He seemed to be the spokesperson for the younger brothers.

“I don’t know and don’t care. She doesn’t give a fuck about us, but what you want?” he said, looking me up and down.

I wanted to beat his ass for being disrespectful, but I realized that they were living in survival mode. Risky looked to be about seventeen, and the other a year younger. I walked closer to them.

“What school do y’all go to?” I asked.

“William Newman. I’m supposed to graduate this year, but I probably won’t because I haven’t been to school in two weeks,” he said, and I shook my head.

I hated a deadbeat fucking parent, let alone a mother. I knew the principal at William Newman, and they didn’t know that I was about to change their lives.

“Y’all come with me. I promise I won’t fuck over y’all, and I will definitely change y’all life for the better,” I told them, and they looked at me strangely.

“We don’t know you,” the second one said.

“Yes, we do. This Calliope Blackk. I heard all the stories about you and your family in the hood,” Risky said. I put one of my feet on the step and leaned down to speak to him.

“Believe half of what you see, and all of what you know. Now, you and your brothers come take a ride with me,” I told them, but they were hesitant at first.

Risky was the first to stand, and then his brothers.

“I’m the oldest. That’s Blizzy, Blicky, and Poppy. We all a year apart.” He pointed at each one, and I put it in my mind to remember their names and faces.

I knew they needed someone to look after them and raise them, and I would be that. ’Til this day, I don’t know why I stopped, but I did, and I didn’t regret it.

They got into my blacked-out Tahoe while I went to check on some shit.

After that, their lives changed forever.

I made sure they all had what they needed to continue high school.

I also told them that if they graduated with good grades, they would have their own house, but still would abide by my rules.

They all agreed and graduated at the top of their classes.

After that, they wanted to do college online, so I had my secretary from Spades get them set up, and I paid for that.

I made sure they didn’t want for anything, and that was their last day in the Desire project.

I had them trained for the life I lived because I never knew when I would need them for something.