Unique II: Betrayal

Chapter 2 - Mad House

Tyeedah made her way through the opulent lobby of the Tabby Hotel, trying to figure out what the hell all the commotion was about. She had been coming and going in and out of the hotel for the past few days, hanging out with her best friend Unique, and although the place had been a spectacle all week this evening took the cake. It looked like a full-blown circus with bona fide clowns, certified jokers with both famous and wannabe entertainers, ballplayers, security, and groupies, not to mention the paramedics wheeling an empty stretcher through the lobby. If she hadn’t been summoned to be, the best seat in the house was in the lobby, people watching.
     Tyeedah shook her head at the traveling acts posted up in the lobby, but more so she could not believe how quick the clock was moving. After the massive traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge, she was running about thirty minutes behind schedule and now she had to deal with this.
     She pushed her way through the crowd, allowing her oversized overnight bag to lead the way to the elevator bank. “Excuse me,” she said firmly to a man that thought he was a statue. “Like, hello, I’m trying to get through to the elevator, please.”
     He sucked his teeth. “Isn’t everybody trying to get upstairs?” he said back to her.
      “Yeah, but I’m actually a guest. Now, let me by and stop acting like the Statue of Liberty.”
    He sucked in his stomach, took a half step to the right, and offered an apology as Tyeedah scooted by.
      After navigating the human minefield, she made it to the other side of the lobby. She was happy that the security guard blocking the elevators recognized her and let her get through to the elevators with no problem. Tyeedah pushed one of the buttons that controlled the elevators to the tower she wanted. To her surprise, the six shiny gold-plated doors opened immediately. She stepped in and hit the button that would take her to the twenty-sixth floor.
      As soon as the doors closed, she exhaled, knowing good and well that she was going to have to listen to Unique bitch at her for being late. “Girl,” she could already hear her best friend’s voice in her head, “why the hell you always got to be on CP time?”
     And Tyeedah would answer the same as she always did. “Because I am a colored person, bitch.” Then they both would fall into laughter. That was the beauty of their friendship. They had no problem finding the humor in everything and they accepted each other’s flaws—and lateness was definitely one of Tyeedah’s shortcomings.
     The elevator glided through the shaft without interruption, heading to the twenty-sixth floor. Finally, she was where she needed to be to begin the process of getting glammed up to for the fight. Her hair was already in check; it was the makeup and wardrobe that needed to come together. She and Unique had been looking forward to this big night. Unique was excited that the fight would bring lots of success to her man’s business and that things would get back to normal with her and Kennard. Tyeedah was excited because she knew Kennard would make sure that Unique and her would have a nice time, along with nicer seats. The ringside seats would give Tyeedah a bird’s-eye view of the major players and put her in immediate proximity of them, which was just up her alley. After all, she wasn’t the one damn near married. Tyeedah was single and ready to mingle.
     The elevator dinged when it reached the penthouse floor. As she stepped off the elevator, disorder was all around her. If the lobby had been a circus, then the twenty-sixth floor was nothing short of a madhouse. Along with guests standing around trying to get an eyeful of whatever had caused the commotion, Tyeedah saw the NYPD, hotel security, and some other toy cops trying to control the parade of nosy folks.
      If this place ain’t running neck in neck with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus, my name ain’t what it is. Hell, if it wasn’t a mixed crowd, I would have sworn this place was the UniverSoul Circus. What in the hell is going on here? She thought about stopping so she could give the scoop to Unique. If she came with gossip, then that might excuse her tardiness. Since time was of an essence, she decided to mind her own business and keep it moving to get to where she was supposed to have been thirty-five minutes ago.
     However, all the chaos seemed to come from the same direction she was headed. When she rounded the corner, her heart dropped when she realized that all the hoopla was coming from the end of the hall, focusing on suite 2649, the same suite in which her best friend and partner-in-crime was staying.
      “What the fuck?” she muttered under her breath. She put the pep in her step and started running toward the room, pushing her way through the throng of people.
     She made her way past the bystanders, but was stopped dead in her tracks at the door by an officer of the law. “Sorry, miss,  but you can’t go in there.”
      “This is my sister’s room,” she informed the officer. “Unique Bryant. She’s a registered guest in the room.”
      The cop paused for a second as he wondered if he should let her go. “You have to wait out here, miss.”
      “What?” Tyeedah almost bit the officer’s head off, then she said with some pitch in her voice, “This is my sister’s room. I need to get in there.”
      “I’m sorry, miss.” And although the man was only doing his job, Tyeedah immediately disliked him for what he was about to say. “But you’re going to have to wait out here until we get the situation under control.”
      “Situation? What’s going on?” She could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t going to give her any more information.
     Tyeedah was pretty sure that she could take him. She turned to calmly walk away and just when the officer thought she had let it go, without any notice, she tried to push past him. Not a good idea. He was only a few inches taller than her, but outweighed Tyeedah by about a hundred pounds, mostly around the middle. He easily held her off.
     “That was a good attempt, but I can’t let you go in there.”
     “But you can,” Tyeedah insisted. “You just won’t.”
     “Look, miss, I can’t let you go in there,” he said firmly. “I understand you are concerned for your loved one, but it will help if you wait out here. I cannot let you go in there.”
      She could tell by the look in his eyes that he meant business, but there were always two ways to skin a cat so she started scream at the top of her lungs, “Unique! Unique! Kennard! Kennard!” hoping that they were all right and that one if not both of them would hear her making such ruckus and would tell the officers it was okay to let her in.
      She only wanted to know if Unique and Kennard were fine. Maybe it was a break-in, she tried to convince herself. But deep down in her gut, her street smarts knew that the police wouldn’t have come out in this type of numbers for a B&E. And there would be no need for paramedics. “Unique . . . Kennard!” she kept calling out, hoping and praying for a response from one of them.
      “Miss,” said the overweight officer, who was not only holding her back but blocking her view as well, “you’re gonna hafta keep it down.”
     Tyeedah didn’t care about him. He wasn’t on her side, and she had no use for him. “Fuck you!” She was tired of this fool telling her what she couldn’t do. “My sister and brother-and-law may be in there and you’re playing these games with me.”
     Just then her tantrum was interrupted by a loud, clear, firm voice, saying, “We need to clear a path so that we can get out of here. People, we must clear the way. We have to get to the hospital.” The voice had come from inside the suite. The officers in the hall went into action and began clearing a path so that they could get the stretcher out and to the elevators.
     Tyeedah’s heart almost fell into her pumps when she saw the gurney being pushed by the EMT guys with Unique lying on top. “Oh my God,” she said out loud.
     Kennard was right alongside the gurney. His clothes were discolored from what appeared to be Unique’s blood, but he kept stride with the fast-moving gurney as he held her hand. Tyeedah peered into Unique’s eyes. They looked empty. “Kennard,” she blurted out as he and the two emergency technicians rolled past her. “What happened to her?”
     Kennard didn’t answer. He seemed to have a one-track mind. He walked right past as if he didn’t even see her.
      “Kennard, tell me what happened to my sister,” When he still didn’t answer, Tyeedah thought that Kennard might be in shock and so tongue-tied that he couldn’t even answer.
     The sea of onlookers that filled the hall parted way as the gurney made its way to the elevator.
   “Kennard, that’s my sister! What happened to her?” she asked with eyes and a tone that demanded an answer.
      An officer tried to stop Tyeedah from getting on. Kennard looked at him and said, “Let her on.” Tyeedah slid her body through the elevator doors just as they were closing.
      It hurt her to see her friend like that. Unique had been so full of life, and seeing her almost lifeless body and the harm that had been inflicted on her brought tears to Tyeedah’s eyes.
     Kennard got the words out. “I don’t know what happened. She was attacked, brutally beaten and left for dead. I came back to the room to try to get a little time with her before y’all showed up and found her lying on the bathroom floor with no pulse or anything.”
     Tyeedah believed him. Fire, hurt, pain, and anger were written all over his face.
     The elevator seemed to fly down to the lobby, as if it could also sense the urgency. As soon as the door popped opened, the wheels of the gurney were gliding across the marble floor of the lobby of the Tabby Hotel, then out the door to the waiting ambulance.
      With Kennard on one side and Tyeedah on the other, they were there every step of the way until Unique was put into the back of the ambulance and Kennard got in with her. When the doors were about to shut, Tyeedah asked, “What hospital y’all taking her to?”
     “Mount Sinai.”
     The trained driver of the emergency vehicle was no slouch. He pulled that ambulance into New York City traffic and peeled out like he was a NASCAR driver.