NIGHTMARES COME TRUE

I

slept off and somehow found myself inside a beautiful garden filled with lovely green vegetations and beautiful flowers as the sun kept shining radiantly.

Somehow, the vision of light and the beautiful garden in front of me started moving further away as the gloom of darkness kept crawling closer from behind.

The darkness covered everywhere; the beautiful garden began vanishing as darkness covered me. I found myself in what looks like a broad way and it led me to an old epic British castle.  I walked through its massive iron gates, as it lifted itself up, I found myself heading straight to its thick and large wooden doors. I could perceive the smell of fresh timber from the doors, which, to my surprise, also mysteriously opened itself, as if leading me to a particular place. I stepped in through the large doors and found myself inside a small round hall; it was a well-decorated royal ball, but had no attendance or any other invited guest but me. I looked at my clothing and found out that it had already changed into a lovely beautiful white dress, befitting a princess. I wondered why all of this was happening to me but all I noticed was that I kept on walking until I found myself at the center of a circle shaped room, and then the mirrors started appearing again. This time it circulated itself around me in twelve egg-like shaped and well-designed mirrors all surrounding me like a wall clock and I became its middle point.

Just like what happened the last time with the mirrors, I stretched my left hand forward at the mirror right in front of me, and felt an object on my hand; it was a gun and this time I could see what kind of a gun it was. A  Beretta pistol, Although, I was left handed but still found myself holding on to the pistol with my right hand and still doing the right hand thing.

The mirrors started making those wary and this time more scary noises again. I could feel it wanting to call out to me, so I quickly pulled the trigger of the pistol and fired a shot,  the bullet flew straight through the air hitting the mirror in front of me. Instead of it shattering as it did in the previous nightmare, it cracked and maintained a cracked screen, which also mysteriously occured on the faces of the other eleven mirrors, as if the one in front of me was a master copy, while the other eleven served as an imagery copy, but they all looked so real to me.

I became drenched with terror, but definitely not as scared as what was about to happen next, it was one of the most frightening scenes I had ever seen. All the twelve mirrors, at the same time, began gushing out blood from their cracked faces.   I could hear painful cries from the multiple voices of what sounded like that of a man’s voice, only for the fact that it kept echoing so loudly. I felt a liquid substance on my hand, I raised both hands towards me and found out that the gun had somehow vanished from my hand and leaving blood stains on my hands, the blood of the mirrors. Scared to death, I screamed as loud as I could, and the next thing i noticed was that I found myself awake. I rose up from the bed and for the first time in many months, I prayed to God even using his name, ‘Jehovah’ as I sometime ago learnt from the Witnesses who knocked on our door every weekend to preach about a gospel government, but mama kicked them out and warned them never to return to her house. ‘It was just a dream’ I said to myself, ‘just one of those terrible nightmares. Besides, we kept no guns at home. What could I possibly be doing with a Beretta pistol I said to myself?’ I repeated the same word again to myself widely awake on my bed, all alone in the middle of the night. Though it is difficult growing up on the streets of Brooklyn and not know how to use a gun. But I lived a straight life and not the straight edge life-style

I took a stare at the three portraits in front of me and for the first time, I thought I saw Mary smiling at me, ‘no way, that ain’t never gonna happen,’ I said. She just kept staring back at me, not smiling, not frowning, and just being sober.

I wondered why mum hadn’t come to my rescue when she heard me screaming, I turned to the book shelf on my left, where I had earlier drop the bottle of whisky and could no longer find the already half drunk whisky bottle. I walked out of my room in the morning and headed downstairs where I found my mama fast asleep on the couch and lying next to her was the empty bottle of whisky.

I tried waking her up, but she was too deep asleep to hear me, so I left her on the couch and got myself prepared for school, but I wondered why mum ain’t preparing for work on a Monday morning, she worked two shifts. Anyway, I got showered and all set for school, just then mama woke up and said to me, ‘have a nice day, dear.’

‘Ain’t you going off to work mama?’ I replied.

‘No dear, don’t worry about me, you worry too much, and I’m on sabbatical.’ She said back to me.

I had to rush off since I was already getting late for school.

Raul Santiago was already waiting for me in his V8 vintage latest Aston Martin series, which was giving to him as a gift by his father. I guess the dope money paid off after all. However, Raul loved good business and really had no interest in the dope game, and he just loved making clean money. But the big boss, Phillipe Santiago Don Carlos, always wanted his only son close by to him, so he could always keep an eye on him, due to the threats on the streets by rival gangs who envied his cartel and wanted to become the new king of Brooklyn.

Phillipe Don Carlos Santiago also never wanted his son to ever do drugs and so kept filling his pockets with all the dope cash, he needed to stay clean and as he would say, ‘your love for me doesn’t  mean you have to love me to death.’ Therefore, clearly, he wanted all his loved ones to stay alive. Another student in our school, Sophia, seated in the front seat of the V8, Vintage, while I joined Kim at the back seat, cruising all the way to the school as we listened to rap song titled ‘We Run Brooklyn.’

The local cops always had a way of wanting to ruin our fun and as soon as they saw four youngsters cruising on a V8, Aston Martin, they wanted to know what business they were into, and how, on earth, did they get such a large amount of money for such a luxurious car.

The patrol officer drove closely behind us and asked us to park aside, but they had no idea who they were messing with. The boss of Brooklyn, you don’t touch him or any of his or you will be losing your barge.

Raul the parked car aside, as the white officer walked close to our car, putting on a dark sunshade and having a thick mustache. He walked confidently towards our car, but as soon as he saw the boss’s son, he immediately recognized him and said in a friendly gesture in Spanish, ‘Almigo’ as both of them continued by speaking Spanish to one another. I stared at the barge of the officer and I saw on it his name, which was Joe. He looked like a dirty cop and probably one of his father’s boys on the inside, but he spoke sweet Spanish like a Latino.

The officer made this last statement; ‘please, say hi to the boss for me’ and then ‘Adios’ which is the Spanish word for goodbye.

We drove off and reached school, the Brooklyn Bridge Academy might not have been the best high school in Brooklyn, but it was nice and fun filled, with so many students. We got in late, but not that late.

After the morning section, Max called for a brief meeting with all members of our dance crew. I could hear Natasha whispering to MB, Mayor Banks, ‘it seems the mole has been found.’

‘Who?’ replied Mayor Banks.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘and guess what?’ she whispered again.

‘What?’ asked MB.

‘Rumors had it that the sheriff, Collins Woodgates, might have been responsible for the death of the Black Jackson,’ said Natasha.

‘But the sheriff looks clean, he is a perfect gentleman’ replied the astonished Mayor Banks.

I was pretty shocked myself, because if there is anyone who had been given the drug dealers and P.I.M.P.S in Brooklyn one hell of a fight, it was no other than Sheriff Woodgates. Releasing so many young girls from enforced prostitution in the hands of greedy drug lords, but he committing such a crime is just as bad as hell and so unbelievable.

‘But why will the sheriff of all people want the Black Jackson dead,’ I reasoned to myself, still surprised about that news. I was eager to know who the mole was and that’s why I still remained in the gathering, not wanting to walk away until I know who the snitch really is, and why he or she betrayed the team, besides my walking away was due to the long-faced Max Dwayne and not with the crew.

As I stepped into the gathering, Max already positioned in the middle of what looked like a circle.

‘I called for this gathering at this time of the day,’ said Max and he continued ‘and that’s because it will interest you all to know that the Snitch Wesley gave us a clue about has been spotted. Yeah, this is quite difficult and also dissapointing for me, but I definitely  ain’t surprised,  we are the most favored dance crew in the United States, loved by the fans and the Dance Empire knows that, we have taken over the spotlight in New York and still remains the only undefeated dance crew in all of Brooklyn. And we still retain our pride as the legacy of the lighthouse.’ My feet were already killing me and I could barely take it any longer, so I said ‘Quicken it up, Max my feet are killing me, besides we ain’t got much time, we starving already and we definitely did not come here for some Maximus Prime historical lessons. So, just cut to the chase boy.’

‘Well speaking of the devil herself,’ said Max Dwayne ‘the Snitch just happen to be one of its own co-founders, Melina Spanks.’ I just had the shock of my life and for ten good seconds, I kept staring at Max and the rest of the dance crew and really not knowing what to say in return, I kept my eyes focused­­­­­­­­­­­­ on our dance crew and then finally something jumped out of my mouth, since no one was willing to speak in my defence and it seemed everyone was already believing what they heard from Max.

‘why will I of all, want to help destroy a crew that I help you  founded?’ I said to Max. ‘Well that’s because you’ve been acting funny for quite some time,’ said Mayor Banks, as he moved behind Max.

‘So, does that make her the snitch?’ replied Lloyd, as he also moved and stood behind me.

‘Yeah! We think she is the snitch, and with that drama you put on yesterday, it was obvious,’ said Klause, as he also joined behind Max.

‘Well, I don’t know what’s really happening Almegos but I think this can be resolved calmly,’ said Raul Don Carlos.

‘We might really not know who the mole is, here, but I think Melina is our best chance of beating the Phoenix, later today,’ said Ryan.

‘No, Ryan I’m already done here,’ I said

‘Yeah, I think you should go,’ said Natasha.

The wordings from Natasha just made me very mad; as a result, I walked straight to Natasha, whom I have always suspected to be the mole. ‘You got something you wonna bring off your chest, well little lady, bring it.’ She stayed quiet just staring at me ‘oh, I thought so, now you are all quiet at my face.’

‘Well, guess what Natasha? My boys on the streets found out your dirty little secret, your affairs with Wesley.’

‘That ain’t true,’ said Max ‘you are just lying to get back at her’ joined Major Banks.

‘Well you haven’t been the only one hearing secrets from the streets,’ replied Natasha, ‘I think I’ve also got some dirty little secret too for you’

‘About me?’ I questioned.

‘No, about your mama,’ replied Natasha.

I really cannot deny it, that moment shocked hell out of me.

‘Tell her, MB,’ confined Natasha Flames.

‘The Street Rats says they’ve seen your mama several times having sex with Mr. Hudson. Their leader, the Ghost, also says for the past two weeks, Mr. Hudson has been going into your house to have a good time with your mama on her own bed,’ said Mayor Banks with an intentionally loud voice, so that the other students could share in the information.

Now, I could recall several times, when I wanted to drop the whole world on Natasha, but why do I have a funny feeling that someone just dropped the entire world on me.

The rest students stared at me with the most disdain look, as they muttered to one another about my mama and Mr. Hudson. No one really likes Mr. Hudson, not even the whites in our neighborhood.

Raul and Lloyd tried comforting me, but that just brought out more tears from my eyes as I could not believe this was happening to me. ‘First I was accused of being a mole to a dance crew I helped found, and now, this about my mama,’ I said to the two young men who tried to comfort me, ‘this is far worse than a nightmare being fulfilled to me, thanks,’ as I walked out on the team.

Raul walked up straight to Mayor banks and said ‘do you have any idea what you’ve  just done, you really have gone too far this time around, and this better not happen again, for this, you owe her an apology,’ referring to the entire team.

The bell which triggers the beginning of the afternoon section suddenly rang, startling me, but I couldn’t return to class, I just had to take my leave and headed back home. As I walked along, the students kept muttering about my mum and Mr. Hudson. I quickly visited my locker, locked it up and headed out of Brooklyn Bridge.

A cab came in handy and that was just good enough for me as I really needed my own privacy and a quick drive home, never have I been so embarrassed at Brooklyn Bridge. I just had to give mama a piece of my mind. The tears gradually dried on my face behind a sleeve trail.

The cab stopped and I was so eager on getting at mama, and unleashing on her all the yelling in the world. ‘If she worked two shifts,’ I sincerely asked myself, she definitely would not be at home by this time, how much such rumor  will ever get a chance of being painted by such propaganda.

I paid the cab driver off, and told him to keep the change.

As I got closer to the door, I could hear noises, ‘could they be having sex as the Ghost and his Rats said?’ I said to myself. I listened more carefully and could hear Mr. Hudson’s crooked voice as he yelled louder on...’that should be my mum,’ I said.

‘This definitely ain’t any sex,’ I said to myself. As mum yelled back, really it was a fight. I tried opening the door but it was locked, mum screamed aloud, and I could hear sounds of strugglings and falling objects crashing to the floor.

I moved back a little and hit the door with my big boot, as it banged open; Mr. Hudson was on top of Miss Taylor chocking her neck with his huge hands

‘Get off my mama,’ I yelled, running towards him and trying to pull him off. I Held him very tight on his broad shoulder and gave him one hell of a bite on his neck.

‘Get off me! You little vampire; your teeth only itches. He grabbed me with his right hand, pulled my hair tightly and this forced me to take off my face from his neck. Turning around he then turned his attention towards me, using his left hand to touch the left part of his neck and he saw his own blood. This made him angry as he said, ‘Now I’m gonna kill you and your pathetic mother and send your bones to hell.’ The cruel Hudson grabbed hold of me and hit me with two right hand hard punches on my stomach, this made me incapacitated as all I could think of was the terrible pains I felt on my tummy. However, the son of the devil’s incarnate certainly wasn’t through with me, as I held my stomach backwards, he swung a left hand blow straight at my face. The force of the punch was so hard that it threw me off the ground; I landed backwards hitting the back of my skull on an old wooden cabinet separated from the wall.

Mr. Hudson kept coming at me, but I was too weak to defend myself, I was really scared and cried out of fear when suddenly an object hit Mr. Hudson on the side of his head. Mum had just knocked him out cold with his own empty bottle of whisky.

‘This will definitely keep you down, you bastard,’ she said, as she walked up to me and tried helping me up, but I had suffered a sprain on my right elbow. But while mama was still trying to help me up, we heard sounds like that of a dead man coming back to life and just then I wondered who this weird son is, ‘the undertaker, or the devil himself?’

Mr. Hudson grabbed hold of Miss Tayor at the back of her head and pushed me back to the ground with a left kick. Mr. Hudson swung mama towards the couch and gave her some punches at her face and then grabbed her neck, and kept strangling it.

I searched for any object I could use in defending mama and me; I finally found something, an object, a pistol, a Beretta pistol. I could not grab a proper hold of it with my right hand, due to the pains I felt on the right arm. So I reached out for it with my left arm, stretching it forward, towards Mr. Hudson, ‘get off her now,’ I warned, but Mr. Hudson kept on choking her by the neck, concentrating on my mum, and ignoring me completely as he said ‘And what will you do? Pull a gun at me, and then what ha ha ha ha! I don’t think so.’

I stared at mama and noticed her eyeball were flowing deep inside, I shouted at Mr. Hudson again, and kept starring at mama, and then suddenly out of no where a loud sound  occurred. I immediately recalled my nightmares and I blanked out completely. Mama ran towards and said ‘look at me, look at me young woman, look at me! It ain’t your fault okay; you did what you just had to do.’

At the same time, the FBI was about heading back to the station after an investigation, due to some recent killings on our street by two rival street gangs. As soon as they heard the gunshot, they turned on their siren and headed straight to where the sound came from.

As soon as mama heard the sound of the siren, she said to me, ‘come on girl, weve  got to go, I ain’t gonna watch you spend the rest of your good life in jail, come with me now!’ as she hurried me to an escape.

Mama grabbed hold of a save box beneath the bed in her bedroom, and inside it was a good sum of money and an international passport, which mum had secretly acquired for me by herself and the picture of a man. Written on the back of his picture was a name, Gregory Obikah and an address in London. You always wanted to know who your father is, now you finally have the chance of meeting him.

‘I ain’t leaving without you mama,’ I whispered to her, but Miss Tayor replied ‘If I go with you, we are both gonna get caught even before reaching the airport, you go, I’ll stay behind,  I’m already use to the life in jail, remember, I gave birth to you there. I’m just scared of standing before Judge Richards again, oh! He’s gonna be so mad.’

I cried and hugged mama one last time, but as the sirens got louder, we just had to part ways.

I ran through mama’s window, flying over a fence, which led me directly into Belleview Street, found a cab and zoomed off with tears stuck in my eyes as I wondered what would happen to her next.

Mum locked the door behind her, grabbed the pistol and ran several more shots into the thick lifeless body.

FBI agent, Jessica Strauss pushed the door open and ordered mum to drop her gun and she cuffed her hands. Her partner, James Carlton, forced the door to mama’s room open, and mama yelled ‘there is no one there.’

Which they found to be true, ‘no one,’ replied Carlton; Miss Taylor was handcuffed with her hands behind her back and taking to the New York police department for further questioning.

My nightmares were not the only ones that came through on that day. The Maximus Prime dance crew finally found who the real secret mole amongst them was, it was no other than Tonya Fox, but she was not alone, she also had an accomplice and it was my primary suspect since day one, Natasha Flames. As the dance was about starting that night, both girls made their identity known by quitting the Maximus Prime and joined the Phoenix, even putting on the phoenix all black uniform.

This left the highly disappointed Maximus Prime destabilized and prune as they had no other female dancer in the crew and were defeated badly by the Phoenix.

For the first time in their own hometown, and for the first time at the lighthouse, they knew what this meant to the Dance Empire now led by a new boss.

I travelled as fast as I could to the airport, I turned on the radio of my phone for some news, with the hope of finding something about mama, and received two really troubling news via the radio, first was the arrest of the sheriff Collins Woodgate in connection with the death of the Black Jackson. As the finger prints found on the forensic analysis carried out on the corpse of the Black Jackson perfectly matched with that of the sheriff, Collins Woodgate. But I knew right from the onset that it must be a set up, while the second was pertaining to the arrest of Miss Tayor Sparks, in connection with the death of the renowned politician, Mr. Hudson.