A Gangster's Cry

17. i know why the caged bird sings.

the cage bird sings to cope with pain that runs deep within her very soul, she sings as she weeps and pleads to be set free, yet her master never listens to hew sweet melodies because evil runs deep within his very veins. that's why the caged bird sings, to cope with pain, the caged bird is me.- nasir ama boateng.

*

omniscient.

Nasir's sweet melodies bounced of the walls of the confined space of her en-suite bathroom as she sung a heartfelt song. Her harmonic voice recited along to the words of Cranes In The Sky by Solange. Her hands rubbed her infamous palmers cocoa butter into her mocha coloured skin as she creamed herself. The music played from her phone, as Hazel had borrowed her speaker and held it hostage in her room.

"I tried to drink it away, I tried to change it with my hair," Nasir sung, as she clipped her bra on to her small, but perky breasts. She then slipped on her cotton panties, before hanging her towel up onto the peg on the door and applying deodorant to her underarms. The vibrancy in her feminine gait as she galavanted into her connected room, with her slippers gently smacking against the wooden floor as she entered. Her clothes were laid out on her made bed, she picked up her black graphic tee before slipping it on. She later grabbed her stacked grey leggings and did the same. The individual lashes she'd had done at her friend, Ohema's, small uni accommodation, sat perked up on her eyelids in a curved like manner.

Nasir finally removed her headscarf, analysing her laid her in the mirror located in the far side of her room. Her thick tresses had been packed up, and her curly coils now remained slicked in the middle of her head in a top-knot like style. Her edges had been nicely slicked into her hair, framing her pretty dark brown face in a mature like manner. She ran her pink, marble acrylic nail filled hands over the slickness, satisfied with the result. She lazily dashed her headscarf on the small bean bag that just underneath her mounted tv, before picking her lip gloss up from her dresser and applying it to her beautifully plump lips.

She playfully made duck lips at herself, before slipping her lip gloss and phone into her black, leather cross body bag. Her airpods and keys already sat inside as Nasir carefully scanned her room for any items she'd left out, finally remembering to place some gum amongst the other essentials.

Nasir took some socks out of her dresser before slipping them on, along with the black and grey retro 1s she'd bought off one of her uni friends. She stood up straight after tying the laces, picking up her dark grey jean jacket and slipping it on before slinging her bag on sideways, so that it was positioned diagonally across her body. She then threw her long, ash grey scarf over her neck, letting it hang down from in-front of her jacket, all the way to her knees.

She carefully sprayed on some Arabian perfume, before grabbing her trusty umbrella and leaving out of her cosy room. She heard the light snores travelling from beneath Hazel's room, Nasir chuckled turning the light off in the living room before leaving the premises of her apartment, and in turn travelling down the back stars into the parking lot, where her Nissan was parked.

This is gonna be a long journey, she thought, preparing herself for the long, long drive.

-

On the same side of the river was Hazaiah, who sat in his locked room astounded by news his fraternal twin brother, Hezekiah, had presented him with.

"Say swear?" Were the two words that left his mouth as fury slowly took over him.

"I wouldn't lie to you bruddah." Forty said back, lying to his brothers was something he heavily resisted doing.

"How didn't I clock this?" Hazard asked, generally dumbfounded by the information he'd just been told.

"N*ggas use to call the yute 'young kari' so much he started going by the tag YK. Donnies never knew my mans gov', everyone just knew that was Bakari's little brother. More time Bakari was a calm geezer, never used to come with animosity on our sides. 'Member 2013 days, when Zedekiah use to even roll with the goonie- it was one of dem ones. Then 2015 days we use to roll with Pharaoh, then all of a sudden the bruddah' switched up, started moving bare booky at motives, my guy use to even be caught freely chilling on opp ends. That's when the mandem clocked it, nah he wasn't a snake but the donny wasn't an ally either. Shit was tekky coz' me, you and him used to be bros foreal..." Hezekiah's voice finally trailed off as he finished his rant.

Hazard frowned at the many forgotten memories that slowly started to reappear. He cringed heavily as the flashing images of the past started to clog up his mind.

"Rahhhh..." He sat there, basking in the realisation that he'd been living amongst an unspoken enemy. No, the two weren't close, but they still f*cked with each other to a certain extent. Hazaiah pondered on the fact that Eziekel and Cairo had created a strong bond, a bond that seemed to be genuine. The realisation of this pissed him off. Had this prick been playing mental gymnastics with them the whole time?

Am you a dickhead? His inner voice asked.

Hazard blocked out the sound of his inner demons voice, before focusing back on himself.

How did he slip up like this?

"Don't tell Eziekel." Hezekiah stated, even though Hazard and Forty weren't much older than him, Eziekel was still their little brother and they tried to distance him from the street life as much as they could. They'd seen what it had done them, and didn't want it to traumatise him in the same way. Eziekel was practically the glue that kept together all their broken, and damaged pieces. A walking ray of sunshine, that unknowingly brightened up every room he entered. Eziekel truly lived up to his biblical name, 'I will seek the lost and I will retrieve the one who went astray; I will bind up the broken and I will strengthen the sick...', and truly Eziekel did just that.

"I won't," Hazaiah finally said after a long thought, "I won't." He repeated, almost as if he was trying to convince himself.

Friends or Foes?
- how about both?

To live freely in a poor mans world, is to be an idiot in a rich mans paradise. And no matter what, in both those residences you still have to pay the price.

Why live in harmony, when the melody of the song isn't as sweet as it sounds?

When the caged bird stops singing, you will be free again. Let's just hope that time comes sooner than later, because the humming bird can't sing, when the humming bird is dead.

*

1180 something words.
Longer chapters coming soon.

Another daily chapter for your head top. We love a consistent queen. Hehe.

I'm just pumping out these chapters so I can finally build up to the climax, and it's taking longer than I thought. :(.

This was really just to give insight.

Opinions?

Excuse any mistakes.
Vote, comment and check out my new book 'Becoming Bambi'.
- taimoni.