Tabbs

Chapter 21

Gen pulled onto Tabbs' street with both women singing loudly and off key to a fast-paced Kesha song. The volume was set loud enough to rattle the windows of the humble little hatchback. Tabbs didn't know the lyrics all that well, so she decided to inject the occasional pitchy falsetto to a random word she picked up along the way. Her sister, tears welling in her eyes from laughter, had narrowly missed their turn. Parking on the street, she doubled over and grabbed Tabbs' shoulder for support, but was surprised by the rigidity in her knobby arm. The mirth flushed from Gen's cheeks altogether when she caught a glimpse of her sister staring at something outside her window, her spine as straight as a rod.

"You brought me back to my house right?" Tabbs asked, her tone suddenly clipped and difficult to read.

"Course. Who else would live in this shit shack?"

Tabbs felt her eyes lock with the car illegally parked in the grass. A silver Toyota Camry with its left blinker still on, its driver door swung wide open with no driver inside. Her eyes then gravitated towards the white Mercedes parked next to her abandoned Saturn.

"This isn't good."

"I'll say, you see how that guy parked? That normal around here?"

Tabbs popped the passenger side door open, the overhead dome light laminating the black cabin and surroundings. "Gen, call the cops."

"What? Tabby, whats going-" But before she could finish her sentience, her sister was already gone and halfway toward her apartment block, sprinting at full speed.

Every muscle in Tabbs' blood felt like ice water as her heart thrummed madly in her chest. She scaled the flimsy iron staircase in record time and found her front door flung wide open. She stepped through the threshold, examining every corner of the room with a flick of her eyes, her sole illumination leaking in from the yellow street lamps outside. "Valentina!" she shouted breathlessly "Valentina! Where are you?"

She heard a stifled scream from further down the hallway, followed by the sound of a crash. Tabbs barreled down the abandoned hallway and placed an ear against her own closed door. She heard the creaking of a box-spring and the hushed whisper of a man's voice.

"Valentina!" Tabbs shouted again, trying the door, but it was locked shut.

"Tabbs!" she heard Valentina cry, her voice shrill.

"Open the door, Keith!" Tabbs continued to fumble with the knob, which only slid uselessly around in the palm of her sweaty hand. "Keith!"

"Fuck you, you lying bitch!" Keith's voice slurred back. "You can have her when I'm done. Go away!"

"You bastard!" Tabbs threw her shoulder into the door, but she was only forced back off the soft wood. "Fuck you! Bastard!"

"Shut up, would you?"

"If you touch her, you limp-dick motherfucker!" Tabbs laid her back flat against the opposing wall and drove a hard kick with her boot to the space next to the doorknob. She heard a shallow crack and saw the outline of her boot in the white paint.

There was another crash just beyond the flimsy frame of the door, followed by a scuffle. "Stay away - Stay away!" She could hear Valentina shout just beyond. Her voice was strained like weathered leather.

"Valentina!" Tabbs kicked again, this time harder. Then again and again. More cracks and a snap, but still the door wouldn't budge.

"Are you still trying with that?" Keith called back through the door, a twist of laughter in his voice. "You're a buck-twenty soaking wet, girl. You're not breaking shi-"