Tallulah Skye
You have arrived at your destination.
I cut my GPS off and looked around the seedy neighborhood with interest. It was well into the night when I adjusted my baseball cap, smoothing on a slimy layer of lip gloss while spitting out my gum to start a new strip. Delilah… Gotta call Delilah…. Where is her number….
“Don’t stop get it, get it… Pop that pussy, shake them titties,” I muttered with a bounce of my shoulders as I dug into the glove compartment to grab the small sandwich baggy. There was a chunk of black gunk that looked more like black syrup, just not as sticky sitting in the corner of the bag when I dipped my fingers inside to pinch.
“Hello?” Delilah answered dryly.
“Hey boo,” I greeted with a smile while smashing the gum into teethy squishy bits. I took the black substance and began to rub it on me like lotion as my thighs balanced the Facetime call.
“Have you met him yet?”
“No I haven’t. They’re at his friend’s house waiting. I just pulled up to his place though,” rubbing my hands along the back of my neck, “putting on my lotion now before I walk in.”
“You’re at his place?” she questioned.
I looked down at the screen with a nod, unable to see anything but teeth. She must be laying down in her bedroom but I know she was able to see up my nostrils and the street lights reflecting in my car.
“I left Jasmine and Percy to recover because Lord knows, them chiren need it. Indigo sent me the new address so I’ll probably make up some excuse saying I won’t go if I don’t find anything in his house,” opening the car door to step out, “but like I said, with her? You can’t be too careful. I’m shocked Homer isn’t on top of this like he usually is.”
“He’s mating and in love. He won’t see anything outside of Pia right now. Maybe that’s a good thing. We can handle this ourselves but you and I know the type of men Indigo attracts. Dangerous, violent, psychotic men. Had we known about Francesca, Piru would be no different. She was bred and brainwashed specifically for him by him and it's sick. Siren hates their relationship.”
“I bet,” I laughed as I finished rubbing myself down before tossing the bag in the car and closing the door. The small double homes with the exception of a single unit of townhouses looking more like project blocks stacked on top of each other, stood quiet in the middle of the night. Nobody was out. Not even a murmur or a twitch of the blinds moved. Micah’s brick home was unit F with F1 and F2 side by side. One had clothing hanging from the line in the back, and kiddie toys sprawled in the front yard. The other just had plastic white chairs and without even looking at my phone for reference, I could tell this was Micah’s place.
“Boo, this is the projects and ain’t nobody out here,” I whispered. “The energy here though is ripe. It’s a lot of magic built up in this area, like this place was specifically made for them. I don’t even see the moon out here. Like they’ve just been abandoned by all spirits and Gods. Oh bitch this is the projects for real.”
“Well try not to stay too long because you’re probably being watched.”
“I know it,” I muttered as I walked up to the dark brown door. I rubbed my arm to get some of that black lotion on my hands to touch the door knob. Keeping my head ducked with the hat, I jerked the knob for a moment before yanking it and shoving it back out of place with strength only an alpha could muster up.
As soon as the door opened, I felt the blast of cold harsh air hit me like a blizzard wind when I stepped inside, and closed the door shut. The house was dark, almost blinding but I knew exactly how to step and move.
“You’re in?” Delilah asked.
“Mmmm hmm,” I replied as I took my hat off, letting all the smells and scents hit my nose at once. From old pizza boxes to sneakers lined up against the floor, I could smell everything. I could even smell Indigo as I walked through the living room, careful not to touch anything. Almost running into the coffee table before sliding in between the couches to get to a backroom. The energy going further into the house felt dark. Emotionless. Almost like I was walking into the abyss or a bottomless dungeon as I stepped into the first room, the bathroom. I flicked the light on and eyed the place.
“At least he’s clean,” I muttered, staring at the tub with a pout. Not a single brown ring in sight. Toilet had a few pee stains but niggas were childish at aiming anyway. Few hairs littered the sink and the medicine cabinet barely had any medicine in it. Nothing immediately stood out.
“What do you see?” Delilah asked as I swiped the dark blue boxers off the floor to smell. Bringing the material up to my nose before moving it around to get a better whiff, “you really are sick in the head Tallulah.”
“I just want to make sure he’s only fucking with Indigo,” I said, tossing them back on the floor as I walked out, “and I can’t smell nobody but him so far but I know she’s been in here.”
“I don’t believe he’s cheating on her. That’s never been an issue. Stop projecting and stay focused.”
“I am, I am,” I muttered as I walked down the hallway, using the light from the bathroom to guide me into the next room. His bedroom. I picked up another pair of boxers laying in a pile to smell when I shook my head and tossed them back. That was definitely my boo. All of his clothes reeked of her. The simple full size bed sat up against the wall with the matching dresser and mirror when a smell that was once faint was suddenly too strong to ignore hit my nose, “shit,” I muttered as I winced. Looking around, I tried to find the source until I came up on the small closet door, already noticing bloody fingerprints along the wooden frame of the door and knob.
“Bitch it smells like something died in here,” I said as I flipped the lamp light on. “What the fuck is that smell?”
“You need to hurry up and get out of there while you still can Tallulah,” Delilah warned but I opened the door with one of his shirts from the pile and almost dropped the phone at the sight of black feathers nearly splattered everywhere.
“What? What do you see?” Delilah rushed.
I flipped the camera so she could see what I was seeing as I looked around the blood stained walls. Like someone or something was fighting for their life. I smelled panic, and fear, death, and violence just from the blood oozing fresh into the carpet when I noticed the black shoebox and a worn notebook.
“Don’t touch anything with your hands Tallulah,” Delilah said with a stern voice, “do not touch anything with your hands. I’m recording with my other phone now to send to Indigo.”
“I’m just going to open this box,” I strained, using that same shirt to lift open the shoe box by the corner. My nerves were shot when a small gap of a space peeked and a million little tiny black spiders spilled out like a black river causing me to scream. I popped the shoebox open all the way before backing up and nearly jumping on the bed with my own skin crawling.
“I need to see what’s in that box!” Delilah yelled. “Go back to the closet----!”
“Bitch, you go back to the closet!” I snapped as I smacked my arm and thighs like the bugs were on me. I tried my hardest to get back down to the carpet, praying it was just my imagination because the spiders I thought were infesting his room were suddenly no longer there. “I must be going crazy,” I whispered. “I don’t even see the spiders---”
“That is somebody watching his work. He has somebody guarding whatever is in that box if you just point the camera to it so we know what we’re dealing with.”
I stepped back towards the closet, wanting to burn the nose off my face when I leaned forward and studied the blood stained shoebox. It was a brown makeshift down facing down on its stomach. Something made out of a burlap sack that was stuffed with black and white feathers on the inside and blood staining the fabric on the outside. There was a wad of curly kinky piercing white hair that I knew only came from one scalp.
Indigo.
The doll laid faced down in dirt but it wasn’t until I got a closer look to see something was tied around its neck, the feet were bound together and each arm was bound tight together, holding everything in place by white bloody strings.
“What is it?” I gagged.
“Turn it over but don’t touch it Tallulah. Do you hear me? Do not touch it, but I need you to turn it over. I want to see who this doll is addressed to. If it's Indigo, we have a problem. If it's who I think it is, we have an even bigger problem.”
“Bitch, the spiders should be more than enough for Indigo to leave this sick nigga,” I spat angrily as I looked around for something long, and hard to poke at the demon doll. When I came back to the closet, I paused. Looking at the walls and noticing something I hadn’t noticed before. The blood spatters and stains were writings and markings.
“Look at this,” I whispered, holding the phone up for Delilah to look. I grabbed the small light off my keychain to flash against the wall for her to see better as we became stunned in silence as I let the light travel over the walls.
“You need to get the fuck out of there,” Delilah whispered, hearing the fear in her voice. The blood stains were slashes and meaningless markings but in between there were three letters that kept recurring. P.I.A. I looked back at the shoe box, taking the used chopsticks to poke at the doll in the dirt before slowly turning it over.
“Oh my God,” I gasped as the doll slowly turned over on its back. Burn marks like the doll had been set on fire at one point covered the entire front with pins sticking into the stomach, the neck, mouth, and head of the doll. No face, no eyes, nothing.
“Grab the notebook Tallulah---”
“I’m not touching shit in here----AHHH MY GAH!” I shrieked at something crawling in the dirt before a pair of black hairy legs poked through the surface. A black spider with beady little black soulless eyes appeared like I was disturbing it's nest and tried to crawl for the doll with the web already spinning. I dropped those chopsticks so fast and rushed out of the room with the thought of those baby spiders everywhere in my hair, my body, chasing behind me on eight legs.
“Tallulah wait a minute! Just wait!” Delilah screamed but I was already halfway out the door when I rushed towards the car and jumped inside.
“Talking about, wait a minute! No bitch, you bring yo ass over here! I don’t do spiders! I’m calling Indigo right now---”
“Tallulah, you need to untuck the tail between your legs, go back inside and grab that box so we can dispose of it properly. I’m going to call Monae and see if she or her mother knows what to do. Just don’t touch it with your hands.”