Harmony of Lady Shadow Moon - DhNAi Divine (books for 8th graders txt) 📗

Nay didn't make it back she would have to sneak off to find her. And then to kill TJ, Kevin, Ashley, and Jasmine. Aniyla dozed only to be awakened by Kanaja. Nay was smiling as her hand gently shook Aniyla awake. It was seven at night, dinnertime.

“Hey Niy,” Kanaja said, her grin still perfectly in place.

“You okay?” Aniyla asked, sitting up. “Where them hookers?”

Kanaja laughed. “They went home. It was all good. You should of came. I think they changed. They was so cool. I think you woulda had a good time.”

Aniyla rolled her eyes. “I doubt it. I'm just happy you okay. You wanna have dinner at my house. Or you eat wit' they family now?”

Kanaja smacks her lips, still with a smile on her face. “We ain't that cool yet. Only time will tell. Naw, I'ma go head home. I'm pretty sleepy.”

“I'll walk you back,” Aniyla responds, standing up, and climbed down the porch steps.

“No, I'm good.”

“It’s really not up for discussion. You may trust them, but I don't.”     

Aniyla saw less and less of her friend as Kanaja found new friends in the four busters Aniyla refused to hang around. She wasn't mad at Nay for it, she knew it wouldn't last and she knew Nay wasn't dropping her as a friend. Niyla looked at it as her friend just enjoying what it feels like to be popular and well liked. Aniyla wouldn't dream to stop her from feeling it.

But still at the end of the day she didn't trust them. Kanaja spent a many afternoon after school sauntering around the forest or the city with the four hoodlums. It almost seems they were being true friends. It was good intuition on Niyla's part that she never left the porch those nights, waiting for Kanaja. All was good till TJ, Kevin, Ashley, and Jasmine strolled back from the forest right around dinnertime without Kanaja.

Aniyla tried to ask them first, before completely jumping to conclusions. She yelled out to Jasmine, the ringleader of the group. The only biracial person in the neighborhood, with sluts for parents. Her white mother who couldn't get enough of the men in the neighborhood and the same went for her black father who was always chasing tail. In the eyes of TJ and Kevin she was superior to all the other girls around the way, even Ashley who was supposedly their friend.

Ashley who was a tired Negro, even at thirteen, she practically worshiped whatever Jasmine touched, spat on, shitted on. The lot of them made Niyla's stomach turn flips and she hate that her friend ever chose to be around them.

“Jasmine!” The pale-yellow girl turned to Aniyla in surprise. “Where's Kanaja?”

Jasmine smiled and shrugged her shoulders. “Haven't seen her all day. Maybe the wolves in town got her. She was always shaking her tail feather at them.” She snickered and her cronies followed suit.

“Aye Jasmine,” Aniyla called out, “if that's true I'll make sure one of 'em come get you too. You know the party can't start unless one a the Martins are around, right? Ask ya mama if she wanna join too.”

Jasmine's face balled into a frown. “Fuck you!”

“Why me?” Aniyla pointed at herself. “Oh yeah, your family done fucked the whole town. Y'all ran out a people.”

Jasmine started to come toward the house, but her friends saved her from getting her ass kicked.

“Just know this, all four a you. If my friend don't come walkin' from that forest soon you go regret that you made it out in the first place.”

Niyla went into the house to lay out clothes on her bed, knowing she may have to face her fears today. She tiptoes around the house, not wanting to catch the attention of her family, knowing they would stop her. She couldn't allow her friend to go out the way she knew the busters left her, fucked up. She slips on her jacket, knowing the night would be chilly and heads out the door, flashlight in hand. She weaved through houses, wet grass crunching under her feet, she continued forth until reaching the edge of the community.

The trembling girl ceased her feet when she stood in front of the natural bridge that connected the neighborhood to the forest. There were no more streetlights and no one to hear if she screamed. Her best friend was inside those shadows of lanky trees, wounded since early morning, screaming to all of nature, but silent to everyone. Aniyla would have to brave it. She slowly slid out the butcher knife she swiped from the kitchen from her jacket pocket, then took steps to cross the bridge.

Aniyla followed her intuition, knowing the bastard teens would hurt Kanaja far away from the bridge. Her breathing was labored, her body taken over by a non-stop tremble. Every cell in her body cried for her to turn back now, while she still had the choice. But she didn't, even as she heard growls surrounding her, seeming to chant her name in a language she didn't understand. Voices surrounding her whispered curses, lifted dead hands from the ground.

Aniyla understood now why she feared the forest so. It was Anubis's playground, a spot for him and his kind. Since the first time learning of him, she never wanted to near him or the subject of him again. What she didn't know; he was watching her. He was watching her every move, smiling in the dark.

Feeling the courage wafting off her like a sweet potent perfume. He had no plans to attack her or allow any of his own to attack her. He need her alive in the long run. Aniyla swallowed her fear even as she felt eyes on her back. She smelled something odd in the air, she followed it. Touching trees, feeling springs of energy, pushing her closer to Nay.

She heard whimpering, a body shifting against a rough surface, and that smell. Aniyla sniffed harder. Gas. It was gasoline! Niyla ran to her friend in the dark and saw she was naked, covered in gas.

“Oh my god,” Aniyla whispered. “Oh my god!”

Kanaja was tied to a tree from her wrists and her ankles, there was no bleeding from her genital. But there was blood on her face. A small cut going down her tear stained cheek. Her head was down, a weak attempt of protecting the only thing she could, her face.

“Please,” Kanaja whispered, “please don't hurt me. Please.”

“Nay Nay,” Aniyla said, coming near her. “It's me, Niyla.”

Kanaja lifted her head, showing her bloodshot red eyes. “Oh my god Aniyla. I should of listened, oh I should have listened,” she sobbed. “They left me here to die! Niyla, they brought me out here saying we would meet the wolf. God!” Kanaja was hysterical.

“Shh shh honey. You don't have to tell me. I knew they were shady. I'll get you home.” Aniyla cut the rope from her wrists and ankles, then took off her jacket and wrapped it around Nay's quivering body.

She led Kanaja to her own home, cleaned her up and let her sleep on her bed. Aniyla went to call Kanaja's parents to let her know that she was okay, but they never thought she wasn't okay. Jasmine beat Aniyla to the punch by checking in with them herself, informing her parents that Kanaja would be staying the night with her and Ashley. Aniyla simply hung up the phone, leaving Kanaja's parents with the impression that Aniyla spent the night over Jasmine's house as well. Aniyla went back to her room to get comfortable on the floor and found that Kanaja was still awake.

Nay couldn't fall asleep, she stayed up the whole night telling Aniyla the story. About how Jasmine convinced her to stay in the forest a little longer than usual, how TJ and Kevin tied her up, how Ashley poured a bucket of gasoline on her and Jasmine poured the other. Jasmine cut the side of her face and left small cuts all over her body, supposedly to lure the demons. Aniyla had been waiting for a reason to take any one of their heads off.

She was going after the ringleader first, make an example out of her. Aniyla had all night and the morning to go over what she'd do, but it was all quite simple. That Saturday afternoon she made up her mind and was dragging Kanaja with her to the park. Most families in the neighborhood spent their Saturdays at the park, but Niyla's family didn't. Aniyla walked so fast toward the park she might as well start jogging, pulling a scared Nay behind her.

Aniyla was too in the zone to hear Kanaja's pleas to think about this plan more. She spotted the four sipping lemonade and laughing under the shade, chilling, without a care in the world. Jasmine saw Niyla as soon as she entered the park, raised her plastic cup to her with mischief glinting in her eyes. Her smile dropped when in slow motion she caught a glimpse of the butcher knife that was in Aniyla's pocket. Niyla had decided against wearing a dress or skirt, so she borrowed a pair of pants from one of her older brothers.

All so she could carry and conceal that knife. Nobody else saw the glare off the silver knife except Jasmine. Once Niyla was close enough she grabbed Jasmine by the neck, backing her onto the tree they were sitting under. Her friends jumped up, getting ready to get in between the two.

“Get her TJ, Kevin!” Jasmine yells, “This crazy bitch—”

Aniyla backhanded her before she could finish her statement, then took her neck again. The teen girl pulled out her knife, placing the cold metal to Jasmine's neck. “Make a move—she dies.” The noise from the teens by the tree started to catch the attention of other families. Jasmine's family were first on the scene, begging Aniyla to put the knife down.

“I told you,” Aniyla whispered.

“Sh—sh—she came out, see,” Jasmine stuttered.

“No!” Aniyla yelled, pressing the knife a little harder on her neck. “She didn't. I came and got her!”

“What's going on?” Some woman in the crowd asked.

“Tell 'em bitch or I will kill you. Right here and today. You left my friend in there to die. All four a ya!”

“I'm sorry!” Jasmine cried.

Aniyla squeezed her neck. “Don't say it to me. Say it to her. My beautifully naïve friend. Believin' y'all heart was as pure as hers. So, she trusted you! And then you betrayed her and tied her naked in the forest with gasoline on her body! Say it ain't the truth!”

“It is,” Jasmine whispered, looking at the crowd, “it is.”

“I wanna hear it from all of you. Tell these people what you did!” The other three cosigned, revealing that all she said was the truth. Aniyla had never been this mad in her life and never been so ready to take another life. She heard voices behind her pleading for her to let Jasmine go. Only one voice was relevant.

“Please,” Kanaja said, placing her hand on Aniyla's shoulder. “That's enough. Don't kill her. She ain't worth it Niyla. Don't let them take my only friend from me.”

Aniyla took a step back, still with her knife up, but away from her throat. “I won't kill you today.” She heard a collective sigh of relief from the crowd. “Instead I'll do something else for you.”

Aniyla's smooth hands latched onto Jasmine's chin and she watched as Jasmine's big eyes bulged. Aniyla's face twisted in satisfaction as she cut a deep gash on the right side of her face. She took her time slicing into the left side, disfiguring her pretty face. The crowd could do nothing but cringe as her sound of agony pierced their ears. Aniyla released her from her grip causing Jasmine to lose her balance, she knocked her head against the tree.

Jasmine held onto the sides of her face and got back up on her feet. Aniyla pulled back her fist and let it go, pounding Jasmine in the nose, forcing