Chapter 139: Churchgoer

"OPEN!" the gorilla sounds. His mouth moves incoherent to what is spoken. "OPEN!"

Leslie looks at the window. The head on the chimp breaks the window. His neck stretches inside the window along with the human head. "OPEN!"

My throat gets hot. "DON'T RAP!" I don't give a shit what he says. Leslie shoots a pistol at the gorilla but bullet jumps off the chest. "Fine..." he inhales. "PUSH!" the ape is hurled into the wall and the word itself keeps it there. We race out the room. I hit the bottom step and Jocelyn hits the vase in the corner.

Willa is yelling, a long neck giraffe with the body of a bear and tail of a viper. He lifts Willa by her collar. She, too, shook to make a noise. The giraffe licks her face, it digs into her eyes then Willa hollers as her eye is eaten. The Viper wraps Jocelyn's leg, he grabs the table with the vase. "FLY!" the vase and the table strike the viper and the giraffe in the back of head. The Viper hisses and spits acid at the wall, melting it.

I head to the door and run outside with Jocelyn behind me. A lion with two heads flies in the ear with the wings of a swan and limbs of a monkey. It breathes fire. Another flying beast is an elephant with a goat's tail and turtle shell on its back.

The elephant turtle dives into a building with it's shell first. A group of people come out the saloon with a large gattling gun. It fires rapidly at the mangles. A truck bolts into town with a lion's head on a human's body. A rabbit with the body of an ox drives. The lion jumps off the car hood and races at the saloon. My car is on the other side of the building. "Fuck it! Sam--" before Jocelyn can finish his sentence. He is whisked away by elephant turtle. I stop hearing the gun and the people are taken inside the saloon screaming. "RIDE!" I yell out and the word is smacked away by a squirrel and a lemur. "DISMISS!" they howl and puff their chest at me. "Look at this nigga fam." says the lemur with sharp teeth. "He think he finna get loose." snickers the squirrel.

I don't know what to do.

.

.

.

I zip my pants up, I haven't done anything like that since the time I went to jail.

I had fun.

"So..." I turn around. "You telling me my son outed my ass?"

This man is shivering, I was gentle too. My mama raised a gentleman. "All... I know..." I smack the wall, he jumps, "You said..." I close my eyes. "The Growden's cut off heads..."

"Henri!"

"Henri?" I raise a brow. "Henri J Wright!"

"I'm not familiar." I cock my head to the side. "The Growdens were experimenting with lobotomy."

"Why!"

"They believed in some Frankenstein shit because Mahlon took a medal from Congrass!"

"Granddaddy?" I furrow. "My granddaddy dead..."

"Oh fuck you Lucious..." Puzzle Man rolls his eyes. "Nigga..." I grimace and clutch a tuff of his hair. "Try me..." I bare my fangs. "LISTEN, LISTEN, LOOK, LISTEN!" his hands flop against his chest. "They thought they could do a revival. The growdens are christians. Your family a different religion, so..."

"So..." I squeeze his head. "AAHHH, DAMN!"

"Ima bite you..."

"They wanna bring Mahlon back! Henri is a kid!"

"Really?"

"But he ain't nobody special..." he cries. "Mahlon can't stand the fact he had a black son. The lies is getting weak, the snake turning away!"

"Meaning?" I shake him. "They gave the muthafucka offers! And the snake gave them a garden to GROW"

"What..." I let him go. "They have a piece of Eden. That land is dead..."

"Explain."

"The Growden family is the freakist family and yes, a bunch of niggas don't like you." I'm not worried about that. I half ass know the answer. "They wanted an exlixir. Like Ambrosia or some shit and the whole vampire thing is immortality. Vamps can die."

"Mahlon is a vampire?"

"Mahlon is a fucking skeleton. Draugr."

"He's just bones?"

"He thinks an Elixir can fix his spirit. Your family found it first so now he fucks with you people."

I huff, "You didn't do anything did you?"

There is silence for a moment. "You raped me..."

"What else is connected?"

He looks off to the side and back to me. "The lies can't go on forever. They don't have enough and the bitch is asking to much. Everything is a mess. You need to find the Ice Cream Man."

"What's his name...?"

"Dario Zaid... you remember the old gang?"

"My shit?"

"You shot him...

This is the moment in my life, I say I hate it. But it's like, I'm already dead. Mahlon used to be a slave owner and Congress is my granddaddy. I wouldn't doubt so stupid fucking revenge plot.

My daddy and grandfather go back to slavery and the civil rights movements. I have a theory in my head. It just sounds stupid. I can't figure out why a white man would beat slave. Scratch that, yes I can.

A thought I don't want to tread is my granddaddy being a slave. Though the thought is great, a nigga going against the masters. Still begs the fucking question what the fuck Mahlon wants.

I'd hate for this whole thing to be about race.

He couldn't possibly want a coven but the answer is obvious.

They're running out of lies... I'm done being stupid on purpose.

I have to go down into trenches, I don't know how to get back home.