Niyah winced, but she tried to pocket her emotions. Naomi was the person she was closest to in the world. She couldn’t help but react to her sadness. She sat on the bed next to her and captured her hand. “Naomi, why are you killing these men?”
Naomi raised her head and looked Niyah right in the eye. “Because they killed me,” she sobbed.
Niyah swiped a tear from her sister’s cheek. “What are you talking about?”
Naomi grabbed a tissue from her nightstand and used it to wipe her nose. She balled the tissue in her hand and took a breath as if preparing a confession.
“Naomi?” Niyah prodded, anxiously.
“Remember when I was in the hospital?” Naomi began.
Niyah nodded. “I do.”
“Remember Mama just assumed and told anybody who was listen that I was turning a trick and got beat up by a John?”
Niyah nodded. She remembered, but she didn’t want to admit that she had agreed with her mother. The truth of the matter was Naomi was a junkie. She did a lot of things for drugs. Niyah knew that she had turned tricks before. So, A Johnbeating her ass wasn’t an impossibility, especially when they discovered that her sister was a trans woman.
“That’s not what happened,” Noami revealed.
Niyah moved closer to her sister. “Okay, then, what happened?”
Naomi smiled as if remembering something beautiful. “I had a man,” she began wistfully. “He loved me and I loved him.”
Niyah smiled at the possibility of her sister being happy. “Okay?”
“We did everything together. He understood me. He kneweverythingabout me. And he loved me anyway. He made me feel like the most loved and the most beautiful woman in the world. I had never been so in love.”
Niyah’s smile fell. Naomi wasn’t making any sense, and she needed to get on with it. “Okay, so, how do you go from happy to being a serial killer?”
Naomi recoiled with a sharp breath. “Serial killer?”
Niyah tilted her head and glared at her sister like she’d lost her mind. “Yeah,serialkiller!” she confirmed with a frown. “A person who commits a series of murders, typically following specific characteristics, often with a predictable behavior pattern…serial killer.” Niyah pointed her finger at her sister. “That’s what you’re doing?”
Naomi dropped her head. “Can I finish?”
“Finish,” Niyah prompted impatiently.
“Well, even though he was street nigga, he was real sweet. I thought I was gonna marry him and be happy.” Naomi abandoned her wistfulness and turned angry. “Some of his boys started clowning him because of who I used to be.”
Tears rained from her sister’s eyes and covered her cheeks. A sob, filled with anguish and the worst kind of heartbreak, escaped her throat. “He turned on me!” she cried. “He was acting like I had tricked him!”
Niyah’s eyes welled with tears at the thought of what came next.
Naomi’s breath quickened. “They beat me!” she cried. “All of them!”
As she cried, her breathing grew uncontrollable. Niyah thew her arm around her sister and pulled her close. “It’s okay,” she whispered.
“It’s not okay!” Naomi squealed. “They took turns!”
Niyah’s mouth flew open. Through a sigh, she asked, “What?”
“They took turns raping me!”
“Oh, my God!” Niyah cried on a heavy breath.
Naomi turned and looked at her with swollen eyes filled with terror. “I’m p-positive, Niyah,” she whimpered. “One of them gave me HIV.”
TAYLOR
