Hold You Down

Chapter Twelve | Hell On Earth

Chapter Twelve x Hell on Earth

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'Cause I found the light at the end of the tunnel  

That's why I kept my head high

 Instead of selling my faith  

Sitting here wishing I would die  

Living in hell on earth - August Alsina

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Essence

I sat inside of a booth at Olive Garden, patiently waiting on my guest to finally get here. I was very paranoid since the things that happened to meet at the sports bar the other night. I wore Versace shades over my eyes, because my bags were ridiculous and noticeable. I couldn't sleep for shit lastnight and it was weighing on me heavy this morning. Right along with the fact that I still hadn't heard from Money yet. My life was just going back downhill once again. I just wanted to be happy, but it seemed that was impossible, especially now with a crazy ass nigga pulling the strings on my life and blackmailing me in some form.

I tapped my Concord 11 Jordan sneaker rapidly along the floor as I waited on her to show up at the place. The text said twelve exactly and it was already twenty minutes after that. I was tempted to just leave and forget about the whole thing, but I noticed her coming in as I got up from the booth. With that I slid back in my sit and waited as she did the same in the one in front of me. I took a sip out of my water and got prepared for what she had to say to me.

"Hey, I'm glad you could meet me today. Sorry, I'm late, I had to find a way to get out of the house without him knowing I was gone. Look, I have to make this very quick before he finds out that I left and come finds me, he always does." she rambled on quickly. She too had glasses covering her eyes, which made me wonder what her reason was behind her bumble bee shaped sunglasses.

I sat across from the same woman that had assumed that I wanted her man back at Southern Savor a couple of weeks ago. She had found my number in Tevin's phone and called me up this morning asking can she meet me. She sent the details in a text for some unknown reason. Over the phone, she sounded scared and I just wanted to hear what she had to say, so I agreed to come here today. I had nothing better else to do with my time anyway.

"No problem, I just want to hear what you have to say. You sounded kind of scared over the phone so I became kind of concerned. Are you okay?" I asked genuinely as I sipped from the glass of water that I'd ordered while waiting on her to arrive. She slowly removed the glasses from her face to reveal not one, but two black rings surrounding her eyes. My hand flew to my mouth as I looked at her as she held back the tears. Damn, was all I could think while staring at her. She looked like she'd had her ass whooped more than once.

"Look, Tevin and I have been together for two years now and it's been hell every since his father was killed by some drug dealers around town. I read what he told you in the messages and I just wanted to warn you. He's crazy, he will not hesitate to kill you. He killed our own son when I tried to leave him and it still hurts to this day, but I can't leave. He won't allow me to leave him, so I live with it because I have no other choice but to. He is sick and he is dangerous Essence. I'm sorry about that day, but just please be careful and watch your back. I'd hate for him to kill you, you seem like such a nice girl and you're young." she said as she wiped the tears from her eyes that had managed to slip through.

As I sat here, I felt like crying for her right now. You never know a person's situation behind their smiles. I would have never expected this from her after the rudeness at the restaurant, but the information only scared me even more. Again, I was stuck with no one to run to with this new information. Now that I got a glimpse of what he could do to me, I didn't want it to happen. I felt helpless to my own self and there was nothing I could do about it, but keep quiet in the situation. It's so hard not telling DJ or Adrian all of this, but I wanted to live. If I was going to tell before, I definitely wasn't now.