Page 119 of The Ninth

My legs felt like noodles as we moved. Tati turned on her flashlight, scanning the room. Once we saw it was empty, we ran to the sectional, all diving behind it.

Emotion started building up in me. There were at least six different guns going off. You could hear men cussing and arguing. You could hear someone screaming out in pain, crying for their daughter. Another was just yelling in agony, screaming that he was shot in the chest.

I covered my ears. My entire body started to shake. My chest lifted and fell quickly. My mouth dropped open. Before the scream or cry could even come out, Cassie’s hand slapped down onto my mouth. She got so close to my face in the dark, I could see the white of her eyeballs.

“Bitch, you bet not DARE make a mothafucking noise!“ she whispered.

I nodded my head quickly. She still didn’t remove her hand from my mouth. Instead, I wept silently as people upstairs fought and cried out for their lives. Tatianna rocked back and forth, praying for God to get us out of this. Kenzie just balled up, laying on the ground. Cassie was the one actively listening. Actively watching the steps. You could tell she was determined to get us all out.

“AGHHH!” a voice yelled.

POP!

Silence.

I remember skipping school and sneaking home. My mother was over my grandma’s. Dad was at the jail. My mama and grandma would do this thing where they would just go back and forth between houses all day long. I couldn’t come home and turn the TV on, make food or play music. She could pop up at any time. Instead? I would get in my closet and just sit there.

You could hear the electricity in the walls. The water in the pipes. The silence was almost deafening. Too loud. Paired with the anxiety of getting caught, I only did it so many times.

That’s what it felt like now.

Minutes on minutes went past. We didn’t move a muscle. No one upstairs was moving a muscle. The four of us was holding our breaths, listening.

Silence.

Suddenly, the sound of tires squealing off filled the house. No one left out since the shooting stopped for sure. No one pulled up or started a car. That must’ve been the car they came in. They waited for their guys to make it back out, but no one ever came. So they left. It was safe to assume everyone upstairs was dead or injured, and no one was outside.

“It’s time,” Cassie whispered. “Heels off and into Kenzie’s purse. We’re going out the back door.”

We stood, doing as we were told. Kenzie walked in front of us with her gun out. Cassie was behind her, me behind Cassie, and Tati in the back. Although we moved quietly, we also moved quickly. I didn’t allow myself to be scared. I had the same courage I did when I left the basement the last time. My only goal and thought process was to get the fuck out of here. Alive.

We made it to the top of the steps. The four of us linked arms as Kenzie took a deep breath, pointing her gun. With no count down or warning, she just took off.

We sped walked quickly down the long hallway. I kept my eyes trained on Kenzie’s head, not making eye contact with the bodies I had to step over. I was rushing out on my tippy toes, avoiding stepping into any blood.

As we approached the living room, my breathing thinned. None of us stopped. None of us looked over into the room. We just continued into the kitchen, towards the back door. It was as if we didn’t know anything about anything going on. In reality, we didn’t.

As we approached the opened back door, my new fear became that someone was waiting for us. Once our feet touched the cold grass, I realized that wasn’t the case.

“Run, bitches!” Tati spoke out instead of whispering.

CHSK. CHSK. CHSK. CHSK.

The only noise outside was our feet running through the grass of the huge backyard. We headed directly into someone else’s backyard, running through the front and crossing the street into another backyard. We cut through houses, crossed train tracks, ran under viaducts. We only paused to catch our breaths twice. We easily ran for thirty minutes.

Tatianna stopped running as we reached the edge of a more busy area. Despite it being late, several cars and people were a block down. An empty gas station with its lights off sat on the corner. She grabbed her chest,

“Alright....we’re far enough. I’m calling an Uber. Put y’all’s shoes back on. Once he gets up on the gas station, we’ll pop out and wave him down.”

Cassie nodded, “Yeah, we going to my apartment. Nobody is getting past security and if they do, they still can’t come up without a key.”

We watched as Tatianna ordered the Uber. Only three minutes away, perfect. Our hot, clammy hands grabbed onto each other for support as we slid our heels on. My feet screamed out in pain from running and all types of shit we stepped on. I looked around at each of their faces.

Kenzie’s cheeks were red. Tatianna looked both exhausted and still afraid. Cassie was still alert, looking around us while also watching the Uber on Tati’s phone. Without thinking, I pulled the three of them into a hug. We held onto each other, tightly. Liquor, weed, perfume, sweat all filled the little space between us. None of us gave a damn.

“We made it out alive...” Kenzie whispered. “That’s all that matters.”

Headlights approaching the street corner got our attention. As they turned and headed towards us, we popped out of the shadows and waved our hands at them. At best we just looked like some drunk ass hookers.