Ashanti

Chapter 4

 [Present Day]

Pushed back Dinner with Oliver

"I'm starting to think that your little boy toy isn't here." Esther says as she cuts into her steak. "Doesn't he know that it's quite rude to not show up to anything scheduled without warning the host? I mean, you called him, right?"

"Yes Ma'am, I did call him! I called him, I texted him, I even knocked on his apartment door which is across from me, and get this...His supposed roommate said he never heard of him!" Ashanti angrily takes a sip of her water, Esther softly chuckles while also grabbing her glass of water.

"Oh sweet Shanti, you already know he's probably covering for him somehow...You must let me set you up with a nice young man from the church! I'm telling you!" Esther smiles, Ashanti smiles back. "Where could this man be? He should've got himself together after the extra four days of preparation!"

NYPD Lobby

Oliver shakes in the interrogation room as the officer explains how the wires work. Shockingly, he hasn't figured out Esther's name, only Ashanti's so the police have practically nothing.

"I swear Officer, the only girl I know is the girl I pretended to date, Ashanti something. She's a little weird. She asked me to pray with her after we-"

"Look, can we please focus on the case? As I was saying, I want you to wear this wire to wherever this damn church is, and then ask around, probably ask that girl you're seeing-" The Officer points to the diagram explaining the wiring process before Oliver interrupts him.

"We are definitely not seeing each other...I'm supposed to be at a dinner with her and her crazy grandma to discuss how we broke the lord's will...Like..All we did was fuck-"

"Did you say that you're supposed to be there with the suspect?" The Officer makes Oliver stand up so he could attach the wire before Oliver could say anything else, "Here, take this 20 get your girl some flowers, and maybe her grandma some flowers since you were late, go, go, go! I'll be waiting in my van. Excuse yourself so you can tell us where you are!" The Officer pushes Oliver out of the lobby and excitedly rushes to his investigation van.

Esther's Home

Ashanti scrapes her hurt leg on the counter, her broken knee healed pretty quickly, she just has a limited range of motion which she'd rather have than to not be able to walk at all. Ashanti notices how the edge of the counter was sharp enough to start ripping skin, so she bent down to rub the side of her leg while softly singing a Kirk Franklin song. Esther told her to do so, and it seems to have worked.

Oliver finally shows up to the house, and Ashanti opens the door for him. "Where have you been?!" Ashanti harshly whispers into his ear so Esther wouldn't hear them.

"Sorry- Me and my roommate uh..- Got into a fight. He broke my phone so that's why I haven't been able to reach out or anything." Oliver avoids eye contact with Ashanti while heading to the dining room table. Esther notices him, stands up, and glares at him until he says something. "Hello Ma'am, my name is Oliver-"

"I know who you are." Esther's voice grew deeper, as if it wasn't her own, Ashanti didn't notice the interaction because of how nervous she was. "Don't you know it's considered rude to show up late? You ought to have some sense, son."

"I know and I apologize, I had an altercation with my roommate, one where he broke my phone, which is why I couldn't reach Ashanti-"

"Don't say her name." Esther practically growls, still using the deep voice that doesn't belong to her.

"Mama-" Ashanti tries to calm Esther down, but she only makes it worse.

"Don't call me mama, it's mother. Mother to you, mother to him, mother to your dirty whore of a mother that died before she could even meet you." Esther leans closer to Ashanti, her nails dug into the table causing marks.

"How did she die? Mama-...Mother?" Ashanti's voice grew more concerned, she was just laughing and smiling, now she's acting like one of the exorcized.

"I let her bleed, I let every ounce of whorish blood leave her body, after you were born. So if you really think about it, you killed her." Ashanti shoots her chair back so she could gain some distance, Oliver quietly adjusts the wires so the officers could hear properly, he mistakenly turns them off.

That's when he wakes up, alone, in a bed, the entire room's walls were stained with some kind of red paint. Ashanti smiles as she hands him the milk and cookies Esther made for the two. "You did good today, My grandmother is very proud of your devotion." Ashanti says as she kisses Oliver's cheek and takes a cookie. Oliver panics and pats himself to check if the wires were still there, they were not. "She wants to speak to you about giving more time to the church!" Ashanti chirps, she lays down and prepares to go to sleep, Oliver stands up and walks to the kitchen.

Once he gets there, Esther firmly holds her pre sharpened cross also stained with red, she smiles and looks at Oliver.

"Do you mind...cleaning my dear cross in my tub for me?" Esther asks, mimicking the voice of a sweet country grandmother. Unfortunately, Oliver agrees.

He bends over the tub, aggressively scrubbing the cross, no success. Esther appears behind him, kneeling beside him, resting her hand on his head. "You see son, no matter how much you try to clean the sin, it stays there. Like what you did to my granddaughter..."

"Is...Is this....blood?" Oliver asks, unable to move.

"Yes, it will be aligned with yours." Esther's voice echoes and distorts as Oliver's hands start to shake, Esther digs her nails deep into Oliver's scalp and starts shoving his head into the bath water. Each slam is followed by "The father..." SLAM. "The son..." SLAM. "And the holy ghost." By this time, Oliver slowly starts to lose his ability to breathe, that's when he passes away.

"I can't believe he would just...go" Ashanti weeps into Esther's arms, biting a cookie before crying some more. "Mother, was I not good enough?"

"Sometimes, dear, the devils from Lucifer's resting place come to Earth, they beat us, they hit us, they take advantage of us...At the end of the day, we must do our best to rid the world of their souls." Esther sighs as she strokes Ashanti's hair.

"You mean like, killing them?" Ashanti asks, still between tears.

"No, dear." Esther responds. "Of course not."