Ashanti

Chapter 9

Glass clinks fill the room as a small group of people fellowship, Ashanti stands on the edge of the stage since she isn’t good with crowds, Kai walks behind her so he could try and cheer her up.
“You alright, hon?”
“I don’t know…There’s just so many nuns, and elders, I don’t want to mess up my speech-” Ashanti turns to Kai, gripping a small paper like her life depended on it. “The worst part is…I don’t want them to know that I have stage fright, I’ve seen what they’ve done with the others…”
“Baby, if we can hide the fact that we slept together from your grandma of all people, it’ll be a piece of cake to hide stage fright. The trick is to be confident, you don’t even have to do the speech if you don’t want to, you’re doing it because you’re a compassionate person, which is what I love most about you.” Kai says as he blocks the crowd so Ashanti won’t see them.
“Aw..You’re so sweet…” Ashanti says back, smiling before she takes a breath and walks onto the stage.
“Shanti, wait!” Kai calls, Ashanti turns around. “I love you.” Ashanti doesn’t say anything, but she smiles and walks to the center of the stage so she can do her speech. Kai steps back in embarrassment, but he tries his best to not take it personally. Ashanti begins to clear her throat to try to gain the crowd's attention, “I’d like everyone’s attention, I have a speech prepared, but I wish to start off with a prayer. Dear heavenly father…” Ashanti’s voice trails off, Kai cleans his ears, so he hears static noises but the strange thing is that he also hears a few voices.
“She doesn’t love you….”
“Just end it now…”
“End it…”
The static leaves, but the voices never leave, they pile up repeating the same phrases until Kai couldn’t take it any more.
Ashanti sees him walk away during the end of her prayer, but she just ignores it.
“Mother, first I’d like to thank you…Thank you for staying beside me since my birth, thank you for showing me the true path of God, and lastly, thank you for accepting me and Kai. I hope you have a lovely birthday, and I pray that God gives you more.” Ashanti finishes her speech with an encore. She walks off the stage and finally tries to find Kai.

“Kai! Kai, wait!” Ashanti catches up to Kai and turns him around, she sees his eyes are red and puffy from crying. His face, covered in scratches that he caused all by himself.
“You never loved me.” Kai sighs, out of breath while clenching his fists.
“What? Honey I do love you,I’m just not ready to say it yet… ” Ashanti tries to rub his chest to calm him down, but he throws her hand to the side.
“You only used me! You’re a user! You’re a using bitch! And I should’ve known all along! And I hate you, I really do!” Kai shouts so loud that people start to notice them fighting.
“You don’t mean that.” Ashanti says, trying her best not to cry, “Now come inside so we can eat.” Ashanti stares at Kai so sharply that he calms down, she turns around to walk back into the Party, Kai goes to the men’s room to wash his face.

Ashanti on the other hand, gets so upset that the vein on the side of her neck starts to show.  Eventually, Kai sits down, some of the scratches faded away, some didn’t, but aren’t noticeable.
“Hey, I’m sorry about before…It was wrong of me…” Kai tries to put his hand on Ashanti’s knee, but she throws it off.
“I do not wish to speak of it.” Ashanti replies sharply, Kai leans away in shock, she’s not speaking like herself, but this only happens when the vein starts to show.
“Babe, I really am sorry, I don’t know what got into me!” Kai pleads for Ashanti’s forgiveness, but she remains cold.
“My name isn’t babe. It’s Ashanti.” Ashanti stands up to check on the other guests, Kai watches her walk around. The little girl in a pink gown appears behind Ashanti, but she doesn’t notice her.
Kai wipes his eyes, but that only made the little girl get closer. He blinks, she gets closer, so close that she was practically in his face.

After the party, Kai notices the little girl lurking in Ashanti’s shadow, Ashanti still wasn’t speaking to him after what he said to her.
“Can we talk?” Kai asks, trying to stop Ashanti’s path.
“I don’t know, can we?” Ashanti shoots back, she’s busy cleaning up Kai’s laundry.
“May…we- Look, I said I was sorry, I just get paranoid when I’m under pressure…” Kai notices that Ashanti drops the heavy laundry basket when he said the word ‘Paranoid’
“You’ve been off your meds.” Ashanti says sternly, she picks up the basket and continues to tidy up Kai’s room.
“Meds? What meds? I don’t take any meds, baby.” Kai lies, he tries his best to play dumb to hide what happened in his past.
“You aren’t being honest with me.”Ashanti stands in front of Kai’s family photo that also acts as a mirror due to its shininess.
A familiar chill slowly crawls up Kai’s spine, he hasn’t told anyone that wasn’t his immediate family or his medical professionals about his diagnosis.

January 15th, 2014

A cold man sits outside of an apartment building. Kai, in nursing school at the time, noticed the man from a mile away.
The man keeps his head down, and his eyes on the sidewalk, despite the man not doing anything to him, Kai’s paranoia gets the best of him.
Kai attacks the man with a large bottle of laundry detergent, aiming for a specific spot on his forehead that would kill him with no guaranteed survival; he previously found out about this trick in his first year of nursing school.
The homeless man got away, but the guilt of this assault always stayed with Kai. He began seeing the man outside his apartment, despite him not actually being there.
For extra closure, he asked his neighbor for CCTV footage of the incident, the footage shows Kai fighting with no one but himself.
Kai lived in denial after that, it felt so real, Kai’s mother eventually took him to get evaluated and that’s when he got diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Ashanti was right, Kai hasn’t been taking his medication since he’s too lazy to pick it up. He figured that since the incident was so long ago, he no longer needed it therefore it wasn’t worth the trip to the pharmacy.

Present Day
Once Kai snaps out of this sudden flashback, Ashanti leaves to wash his clothes for him.
She angrily shoves the load into the washing machine full of water, pushing them down harder and harder each time. Ashanti notices a strange ripple in the water that makes her forget everything. She no longer saw a reflection of herself, but it was a reflection of the man from the grocery store, the same man from the newspaper, standing beside Esther and the little girl. Ashanti wonders, “Who is this man?”
Kai walks behind her, waiting to apologize again, but he realizes that this is not the time.
“You’re a nurse right? You have access to people’s records and stuff, right?” Ashanti asks while feeling the water.
“Yeah, I have access but I’m not allowed to look people up unless it’s life or death…” Kai whispers, “What’s going on?”