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“Fuck, tell me do the bitch got a pulse. Pussy too good to be dead man.” The dude that walked in with Inferno stood over Clapback like he was pissed.

“There’s a faint pulse.” One of the workers said.

“Good, get her to our doctors, make sure you tell them she has to survive. My wife wouldn’t know what to do without this treacherous bitch. I will let her decide her fate.” He looked at me as a long stream of ashes hit the carpet.

“Killa get over here, we are in the middle of conducting business.” Inferno’s voice was flat void of any emotion.

“First body?” He raised a brow; I shook my head yes still unable to speak. He sat up in the love seat across from me and smirked, but that shit looked like he was sneering at me.

“Understandable, Queen wanted to be here. She’s in Mexico, I was getting ready to head there too. Until she called.” He never broke eye contact as he took a deep pull from his cigar and then released the smoke.

“You made a big mistake tonight, well, actually two mistakes Teddy. One mistake was not delivering two headshots to your intruders. Second mistake was calling on an unprotected phone line admitting to the crime you did.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” He pointed to the phone still sitting in my hand, I passed it to him and watched him squeeze it with one hand until the screen shattered in his hands. He tossed it on the floor and held his free hand out as the big nigga behind him handed him a clear bottle that looked like it had water inside.

“I’ll be moving your location; this spot will be burned down to the ground.” He popped the cap off and poured the clear liquid onto the already broken phone.

“No need to worry, my men moving all of the important things that your household needs.” He picked up his flamethrower and squeezed what looked like a trigger. Flames shot out and caught onto the phone as it began to burn slowly. Inferno started to talk again but he looked like he was stuck in a trance watching the small fire before us.

“Big B is the big nigga behind me, he will give you the address of where you will be staying. Queen will not return until three to four days and she will break the news to your crew on what happened and decide what explanation to give. When I caught my first body, I burned them until there was nothing, but bones left. I didn’t sleep for a whole week until I went and bought some sleeping pills. Not saying that it’s going to make it better. When you catch your first body it sticks with you more than the bodies that come afterwards. It's like the soul of the first body you take follows you around in life taunting you like you can’t or won’t kill again. I proved that first soul wrong every single time I killed a person. It’s kind of like training your conscience to believe in what you feel is right. Don’t fret the situation to hard young man, you did what you was supposed to. Only next time, you learn from this and never miss your mark.”

He stood up as I let his words sink in, something inside of me felt weird as hell. It felt like I wasn’t even breathing normally. By the time they had the suburban truck loaded up with all of our personal belongings, I walked out of the house slowly turning around to see Big B walking out the house with lighter fluid leaking from the bottle. He drenched the three steps that led to the front door as Inferno took his flamethrower and placed it down on the front doorstep. Security stood around us blocking us from the nosey ass neighbors that was most likely watching.

The cold breeze made the fire travel faster until the whole project unit was set ablaze. Inferno watched for a couple of minutes and shook his head.

“I wish I could stay and watch the fire take this place all the way down, but I have to move out. Get your family and go to the address Big B gives you.” He turned and walked off with one hand stuffed in his pocket, his free handheld on to his flamethrower. The nigga was insane, his calm nonchalant presence was evident as he waved bye from the back window.

It hit me then that my mom and Passion hadn’t made it home just yet.

“Fuck!” I shook my head in defeat, I couldn’t stay stagnant. I was going to have to go look for my mom and sister. There was no way she up and went to fucking McDonald’s it had been over an hour now and I knew that Luv and Jocelyn were now worried. I got the keys and address from Big B then jumped in my car to go find my mom and Passion first.

In the pits of my stomach, I felt something wasn’t right. Fear soared throughout my body, and I found it ironic how I was saying a silent prayer to God after I just killed a nigga. I just hope that God would listen to me because I would lose my cool if something happened to my little sister or momma.

I drove block after block stopping to ask a couple of people that I saw hanging out if they saw my mom. Each person said no, I was losing hope wondering where the fuck could she possibly be. I knew like hell that my mom wouldn’t ever possibly think to go get high while she was out with my sister. Something inside of me forced me to face the facts. The raw truth of who my mom was. Sure, she got her act together over the past couple of weeks and did the motherly thing. Antoinette still had her nights where she would stumble in reeking of alcohol and pass out on the couch mumbling, but I didn’t think she was still using due to the next morning. She would wake up and get the girls ready for school.

I didn’t ask her questions because she was grown as hell. I was already blaming myself for everything. I got so caught up in hustling and trying to provide that I didn’t pay closer attention. I felt overwhelmed and out of control of what was probably going on. After praying again, a thought popped up in my head. When my mom would disappear for days and I would get worried for her, I would go searching for her at a particular park.

Senseta Park had nothing but junkies and homeless people. It was located on the outside of the projects. Up-and-coming dope boys would hang out there and make the most money because junkies kept coming up to them to get high. Their crack was stepped on a million times making the junkies want more and more product. Junkies would run out of money and perform sinful acts like stealing from their loved ones and even pimping out their fucking kids to the perverted dope boys just to get high for ten minutes. I didn’t want to go to Senseta because I knew if I went there and saw my sister in such a fucked-up environment, I would never be able to forgive my mom.

I pulled right into the park's parking lot and grabbed my gun from the glove compartment. Trash littered the grass and the air smelled like drugs, piss, and shit. I started from the front of the park and worked my way through. Checking the park restrooms, I came up empty handed. Feeling hopeless I turned to walk back to my car until I heard a loud scream. That scream belonged to Passion. It was the same scream she had when she saw a rat during wintertime in our apartment.

It was so dark that the only light that helped my vision was the streetlights. Pulling up my jeans, I picked my pace up until I reached the park’s gym. I could hear a bunch of talking and laughing followed by my sister crying. My adrenaline was on a hundred as I pulled my gun from my waist. Making my way to the back of the gym, I ran to my sister that was being held down by two fiends and snatched her up while pointing my gun.

“Their hurting her Soulful! She’s dead! Mommy is dead!” She held onto my neck so tightly it felt like she was choking me. I stood tall with her and pushed a couple of fiends out my way so I could see what their attention was on.

My eyes had to be deceiving me, my heart instantly broke for the second time out of my life as I watched my mother’s limp body get pounded from the back. The dope boy held the top of her forehead as he thrusted in and out of her, the grunting noises had me nauseated. I couldn’t think straight as I picked my gun up and blew his fucking brains out. Passion screamed again, bringing me back to reality as all the fiends scattered away like roaches. My mom laid on the concrete looking lifeless as Passion cried her little heart out in my arms. Just within two hours, I caught another body. Only this time, I didn’t give a fuck about the body I just dropped. I placed Passion to her feet and checked my moms for a pulse. Once I felt one, I picked her up and carried her to my car. After tonight, I didn’t want shit to do with her. I planned on taking my sisters far the fuck away and providing for them the best way I knew how.

I couldn’t focus on school or Jocelyn; I was here to grind hard and provide for my sisters. I couldn’t be wishing on a fucking star trying to pray for my momma to get clean, when she constantly made stupid ass decisions like the choice she made tonight. Once I got Passion and my mom in the car, I stopped by a pay phone to call Jocelyn. I needed her to bring Luv on the next block so I could take her to the address that Big B provided. I didn’t want to take the chance of hitting the projects and running into the police when I still didn’t have a driver’s license.

“You, okay?” Jocelyn asked me as she tried to search my eyes. I struggled with looking into her beautiful eyes because I knew that I was about to hurt her. It was never my intention to do so though.

“Yea, I’m straight. Thanks for looking out for Luv.” I looked back at the car and could still see my mom knocked out. Passion had a haunted look in her eyes that pained my soul.

“I still can come with you; my mom is gone with her boo for the weekend.” She smiled and placed her hand on my arm. It amazed me how calm she was after she heard and saw what went on back at my house. Then again if you lived in the projects, you became immune to certain shit. Like niggas robbing you and watching a few bodies drop around you. Jocelyn’s brother was a hitta so she knew how shit went.

“Nah, but listen Jah, you free to move on. I got some heavy shit I’m dealing with and you probably ain’t gon’ see a nigga for a while.” She shook her head no, and I let out a breath that I had been holding. Licking my dry lips, all I could see was the bodies I dropped tonight. Just like that, I forgot all about the good time I had with Jocelyn. I forgot about how she calmed me and felt good to my soul.

“Let me be there for you Soulful, please?” I wanted to say yes but I couldn’t put that type of burden on her. I stepped back, preparing to turn away from her. I had been standing here too long and my mom needed medical attention. I didn’t know what tomorrow would be like or how things would be with Queen and I since Clapback was now on her deathbed. Although I had every right to shoot her sister, that was still her flesh and blood. I knew the great measures that I would take for my little sisters right or wrong. I could only hope that I still had a chance to be on Queen’s team.