Urban League (On Hold)

Prologue: A Deal with the Devil

Prologue: A Deal with the Devil

Simone de Veux

The night was young and not too many people would dare to venture out to the area where I was headed. I had no choice. Things were looking pretty bad and desperate. My family was on the verge of being kicked out of our home and living on the streets. With a six month old child, I couldn’t afford to have it. I’d never wanted things to go this way, but I’d do anything for my daughter.

Even if it meant dealing with the devil himself.

The land lady had come by two days before and taped an eviction notice on the door. We had four days left to get our items and leave the premises. Anything left behind would be on the curb. We didn’t have anywhere else to go. My mom had overdosed on cocaine two years ago. My father was married to a rich white woman and he refused to associate himself with me because I had chosen to marry a former thug and have his child. My other family members were scattered on other ends of the state and weren’t associated with me and didn’t want to be.

Some weren’t much better than I was. However, unlike them, I wasn’t strung out on crack or working the corners as a prostitute or a drug dealer. Ray and I had worked hard to get to where we were at this point in life. We had done it legally. As soon as he had found out that I wouldn’t stay with him if he kept up his drug game, he’d stepped down. He had done that for me. For that I loved him. Ray held me down and cared for me. Before we ever became lovers, we’d been friends.

I hadn’t been raised to sleep around or hang around thugs and drug dealers, but I really had no choice in this matter. I had to see DeWayne better known as the fearsome devil in the area. He ran things with a tight ship and he was on the lookout in the area. It was after all his territory. High up drug dealers like him didn’t just let things escape their notice. How he had become the top dog in so little time was a question that most were afraid to ask, myself included.

My first encounter with him had ended with him being rejected by me. I had left halfway afraid of what would happen to me later for rejecting him. He’d never done anything about, but I was sure that this time he would get what he wanted. If he wanted sex from me, he would have it. Whatever it took. Whatever became necessary to save my family. Short from separating myself from them. All I needed was enough money to get another month’s rent, so that I could get another job and save up to move away.

The hood had too many restrictions and though I wanted her baby girl to grow up like the children in the suburbs did, I wasn’t an idiot or a dreamer. I was aware of the rate of failure that was likely to happen. I could only focus in on the now.

Walking down the street, I turned the corner and inhaled deeply. The scent of the night filling my lungs. Usually it would soothe me, but not tonight. The normal scent of the night consisted of the scents of the nearby pizzeria, the fast food joints that weren’t too far away and the boutique that was a block away. My eyes roamed the street cautiously for suspicious looking figures. Nothing was there but the buildings and the shadows.

All Hollow’s Eve was a night that was filled mischief and deceit. Everything that could go wrong, happened. It was the night made this area filled with so much death. It was only a little after seven but I knew that even that late was dangerous to be out on this night. Before I’d left home and my mother became strung out on drugs, she’d always told me that this night was filled with the devil’s work and to do anything that I could to avoid going out.

Taking a deep breath as I finally reached the steps of the large house, I looked up at the night sky and sent a quick prayer. This house had always given me the creeps.  There was something about it that was off. Maybe I was just being paranoid about whose home it was. I turned my attention back to the sky taking in the deep blue of it. It was so dark that it almost looked as though a black abyss was what the sky was made of. The stars glistened brightly and the full moon was out in the sky. Both were a contrast to the darkness.