Whodunit

Chapter 10

Despite the fact that loud noises and tense arguments annoyed him to no end, silence didn't favor much better for Dmitri. The car ride back to Myrtle Road unnerved him. No radio played. No engine hummed under the hood. Not one person breathed aloud. Everyone stared at their respective spots on the road and battled separate worries as Jordan made the fateful turn onto the woodsy street.

Dmitri kept replaying the scene at the gas station in his brain. The memory pulled him in more than reality. He relived the decisions and actions he made as if he were lucid dreaming and had the power to change the way he reacted. He wished he could handle it differently and dive to protect Anisa like he had that night they survived a shootout at their neighborhood's annual Summer Bounce Bash. The moments shot rang out that night, he dove to cover Anisa. Bullets flew over their heads as they laid in a muddy ditch, his body completely wrapped around hers. She complained about his weight and the fact that she lost her shoes and her nose ring in the commotion, but he didn't care. As long as a bullet never had the pleasure of grazing her. With each shot, she cried out his name and checked to make sure he was okay. He couldn't understand why she was so worried about him. He had been the one to drag her to the party, knowing she hated large crowds, and so did he, but he brought her along anyway. At the time, he thought he couldn't miss it for anything. Jordan, R.J., and the rest of his homeboys would've teased him for missing out the rest of the year. The bash had a reputation for being the hottest party of the year, and anybody that was somebody always showed their face.

The shootout happened a couple months after their breakup and a few months into his relationship with Serenity. The complete void and utter dread he felt the moment he even considered possibly losing Anisa wasn't the first indication he had that maybe, just maybe he had made a huge mistake. Maybe he had misjudged his true feelings for Anisa. Now, he knew for sure he had.

A loud pop erupted through the stillness. Everyone ducked for cover, thinking another gun had been fired.

"Who's shooting?" Desi asked. "I don't see anybody."

Jordan swerved to the left then to the right and struggled to keep the steering wheel steady and straight. "It wasn't a gunshot. It was the tire. Must've ran over something in that alley."

"Slow down!" Zaria shrieked as she held onto the backseat for support.

"I'm trying!" he slammed on the breaks and cut the wheel to stop the truck from flipping or swerving completely off the road.

The car dragged at an angle till it came to a complete stop. Jordan slammed the gearshift into park and activated the emergency break.

"We're not going to make it out of this night alive, are we?" Desi asked as everyone rushed to catch their breaths.

"How are we supposed to get back to the house?" Nubia answered his question with another enquiry.

"We can walk. The house is right up there." Jordan cut the engine. "I'll come back and change the tire in the morning. Right now, I just need to get high. Please, tell me somebody saved Nell's stash."

"Nell was here?" Desi squinted.

Once again, no one responded. "We're supposed to walk out there?" Nubia pointed to the mossy forest of trees that lined the road and led to the bayou not far behind the house. "That darkness is even scarier than the park. What if another snake pops up? Or an alligator?"

"Or a slave ghost," Desi added, garnering a strange look from Nubia and Anisa.

"Slave ghost?" Nubia asked. Desi nodded. "Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis? I got to be scared of ghosts, too?"

"Yes," Desi exaggerated his voice, "that's what I've been trying to tell y'all all night. Myrtle Street is haunted like a mug. Buku slave ghosts, evil twins, plantation owners, invisible kids, and everything."