Soul Ties

eleven

a liars worst enemy is someone with a good memory

Soul Ties 2:1

Shantaè

I looked around the room tension etched in my features. It was awkward. Having to sit in the same room as all these people, the past was coming back to me and I didn't want to welcome it. All these things could have easily been avoided if he hadn't come back; in those two years that he had been gone everything had been fine. I was broken from the past events but I was healing. As soon as he came back everything had turned to shambles. The same type of drama I had been trying to avoid was floating back. I scratched my head and looked at my lap, refusing to be the first person to speak. Anyone could speak first but me. It didn't matter that we were all in my house. I would not open my mouth first.

"So, we all know why we're here. Right?"

Me.

Zaïrah.

Lezain.

Amara.

Miah.

Trey.

Messiah.

It all came down to us.

I wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was going on before it got blown out of proportion.

Amara began to speak again,"Weird things have started happening and none of us want a repeat of two years ago."

A deadly silence echoed around the room, everyone listening carefully to what Amara had to say. I breathed out, trying to even my anxiety before I lost my mind. My head was beginning to throb and I rested into Lezain, knowing he was the only one that could calm me.

"Messiah," Amara directed,"Someone obviously doesn't want you back here. So for all this fuckery to be avoided I think you should just go back to wherever you came from."

"I second that," Lezain muttered.

"I'm not going anywhere."

I rolled my eyes.

"How come you guys came here together? Like no offence but why are you here Miah?" I asked, pointing between her and Messiah.

She sniffed and looked around, clearly embarrassed,"Ask him."

Everyone turned to Messiah but he glared at Miah, refusing to speak.

"Well if Messiah isn't going back we need to find out what's really going on and sort it out fast because I don't want to get dragged into this," Trey said, finally speaking up.

"You're already dragged into this. You're the problem," I snapped.

Trey raised his eyebrows and sat back,"How am I the problem?"

"Amara's baby daddy? Your license plate?"

"I'm her baby daddy, and what? What does that have to do with anything?"

I loved the way he was purposely ignoring my second point.

"You don't just show up! It's weird, you knew my name but I never told you what it was."

"Yeah, Amara spoke a lot about you. I needed to see you for myself."

"But why?"

He shrugged.

That's it?

"What about the license plate?"

"What about it?"

"UT. That's the end of your license plate, right?"

"Yeah . . . So?" His gaze hardened, as if he was daring me to speak.

"UT. The same van that shot at Zaïrah, the same car that was watching me."

"I have a car. I don't own a fucking van."

"There's a missing piece," Zaïrah whispered.

Her voice was nothing more than a croak but everyone turned around instantly and looked at her expectantly.

"There's only seven of us here. But there should be more. We're not the only people involved in this."

I was confused, wasn't this what we needed?

Just the seven of us?

"What if this includes more people? Maybe they're not even here?" She asked, leaning forward.

"What do you mean? Like . . . They're dead?" Lezain asked.

"Yes. Daniel? Karma? Whoever is behind this is clearly playing with us, they've got us thinking it's someone here. But the person is already gone."

"It's not Karma," Messiah muttered.

"And it's not my brother."

"Leah."

"Who?" Lezain asked, eyebrows furrowed.

Miah shifted uncomfortably,"It's not my sister. Why would it be my sister? That doesn't even make sense."

This was a result of our own choices.

We had twisted ourselves in a life of lies and vengeance; a life full of sin. The streets had taken us and we were trapped. Slaves to the life of crime. Our souls were tied to it. Where our bodies felt as though it had left that part of our lives, our souls were still embedded in it and always would be. It was playing with our minds, the streets was a master and we were the puppets. The strings tied us all together.

Gang By Association.

Associated with the streets, that was what it was.

But it still didn't make sense to me, my head felt as though it was going to explode.

Who?

"All I know is, whoever is behind this is playing around with our heads. Making us think something else when we're really off track," I stated.

A knock at the door stopped us and we all looked around, I wasn't expecting anyone.

I stood up on surprisingly shaky feet and walked towards the door, aware of everyone else behind me following to see what was going on. I pulled the latch off the door and opened it. No one was there.

"Look down," Amara whispered.

My heart beat increased and I looked down to see an envelope at my doorstep a red ribbon tied around it, I bent down and picked it up. My palms were sweaty, I was too scared too open it. I felt sick, all of a sudden. This was the true fear I had been awaiting. We had all been skating on very thin ice, waiting for it to break.

This was the break.

Everyone looked at me, waiting for me to open it. I slowly untied the ribbon and let it fall to the ground; the paper inside was like a card and a few words were typed onto it, not hand written.

R A S M D K Z

THE ASSOCIATION PUZZLE.

PART ONE.

The Game Has Only Just Begun . . .

~ MAJESTY