Rel couldn’t believe what the fuck was happening to him. A minute ago, he was waiting for his man Groovy so they could get some ass, but now he found himself leaking with two assassins closing in on him. He weighed his options and figured a good run was better than a bad stand any day.

38

“That nigga trying to run!” Jah shouted.

“I got him,” Spooky said, trying to draw a bead on Rel’s fleeing back. He fired two quick shots, missing with both bullets.

“Damn, you missed him,” Jah said, jogging ahead of Spooky.

“Why don’t you pop off instead of running your mouth!” Spooky shouted back.

Rel was tearing through the projects, screaming like a girl. He ran in zigzag motions, trying to avoid the flying death that was at his back. After hopping a fence, his building was finally in sight. He banged on the lobby door, but none of the people waiting for the elevator bothered to let him in. Rel had been terrorizing the St. Nicholas projects since he came home and frankly, the residents were tired of his shit.

Rel turned to seek an alternative escape route and his shoulder exploded. The fire shot from his neck to the tips of his fingers, putting Rel in a world of pain that he had never imagined he would visit. He was in so much agony that when he opened his mouth to scream it came out as gibberish. As he lay on the floor bleeding, he prayed for God to save him.

“God ain’t gonna do nothing for a worthless sack of shit like you,” Jah said as he walked up. He was out of breath and tired as hell from the chase, but seeing Rel leaking gave him added stamina.

“Yo, what the fuck is y’all niggaz doing?” Rel asked, scooting closer to the lobby door.

“What you think we’re doing?” Spooky asked him, as if the question was a stupid one to begin with. “Time to answer for what you’ve done, Rel.”

“Man, it wasn’t my bullet that killed that boy. I swear it wasn’t!” Rel tried to tell them.

Jah doubled over with laughter. “You silly muthafucka, this ain’t about Crazy Eight. This is about you touching something that didn’t belong to you.”

Rel looked back and forth between the men, trying to figure out what was going on. He assumed that Jah was riding on him because of the botched hit, but he was telling him something different. He had done so many grimy things to people that there was no way to tell what Jah was talking about.

“Don’t look around like you don’t know what’s going on, you fucking rapist.” Jah kicked him in the face, knocking out his two front teeth. “That girl you and your homeys raped is someone very dear to me.”