PrologueJaheim
Eight years ago from present day…
Evette runs up to me as soon as I get downstairs and then pulls me into a warm hug. “Happy twentieth, Sweetheart.”
I hold her around her back. “Thanks.”
“Happy birthday!” Carisse screams, almost deafening us.
Evette chuckles as she releases me, and I smile down at my twelve-year-old stepsister, gently holding her head against me as she hugs my side. “Thanks, Little Sis.”
She steps back and smiles up at me while tucking her stray curls behind her ears. “Open your present, Jah!”
“Alright, alright.” I sit down on the couch to unwrap the gift on the coffee table, finding an Apple watch inside. Damn, I can't believe Evette got me this. I look up at her. “Thank you.”
She smiles, but I see the sadness in her eyes like I do every birthday and know she’s thinking about my parents, especially my Mom. “You're more than welcome.” She sits beside me. “I know today is bittersweet for you, but just like every birthday, know that Cadence and Alex are with you. And they would be so proud of you, Jaheim.”
“I hope so.”
“There’s no hope about it. I remember them as if they were here only yesterday. You have become everything they dreamed you would.”
I sigh deeply and look down at the watch. “Yeah.” I wish my parents were here to tell me that themselves, but I know what Evette is saying is true. “I'm gonna go see them before I leave.”
“Did you want us to come?”
I shake my head. “Nah, it's alright. But thanks.”
She nods and then gets up before returning with a vanilla cake, decorated with my name in smudged blue icing and twenty lit candles in it. I listen to them sing happy birthday and think about the last time I heard my parents sing it.
Twelve years ago. Shit seems forever ago now.
“I decorated it,” Carisse beams, jumping on the couch beside me. “Do you like it?”
“I love it.” I blow out the candles and make a wish.
I wish whatever started happening to me a week ago stops...
“What did you wish for, Jah?”
I look at Carisse as she sticks a finger into the icing. “I can't tell you that, can I? Otherwise it won't come true.”
And I really need this shit to.
“Oh.” She sulks so I rub the top of her head, making her laugh instead.
“Stop!”
I take the knife from the tray and cut a piece of cake for her before she eats all the icing off the whole damn thing and then I cut Evette and me a piece.
“This cake is really good, Evette.”
She wipes the side of her mouth. “Well, I know I don’t bake often, but you’ve gotta have a home baked cake on your birthday.”
Mom always baked me a white cake and I’m pretty sure that’s why she does. She’s always remembered the little things she saw my mom do for me. They were best friends for over twenty years and my mom loved her like a sister, that’s why she made her my Godmother and made sure that if anything happened to her and dad, I’d live with Evette.
We spend the next couple hours watching films until it’s time for me to get my shit ready to leave. My classes at college don't start for another week, but I need to get myself away from here because whatever is happening to me is getting worse by the day. My moods are extreme, and my sex drive is through the fucking roof. I ain't ever wanted to fuck as much as I have these past few weeks.
And it’s rough sex I'm wanting, too. Hard, rough, almost violent sex. But not only that, I’ve been craving steak like a muthafucka. And raw, not cooked either.
I’ve always been stronger than most, even as a young kid, but that’s helped me to get my scholarship and defend myself growing up. One fight with me was enough for anyone, and I was glad cuz I wasn’t the biggest looking kid. My ass was scrawny as hell.
But this new shit that’s been going on is far more worrying.
“Call us when you get back, alright?”
“I will.”
***
I arrive at the cemetery and make my way to my parents’ graves. I picked up a bunch of lavender blossoms on the way. My mom’s favourite. I smell them as I stop in front of where they rest side by side. They smell just like her perfume did.
Cadence King & Alexander King
July 22nd 2001
“Hey, Mom, Pops. It's Jaheim...”
I kneel on the grass and sweep away the fallen leaves from their headstones. It’s been a few months since I visited. I empty out the dead lavender blossoms from the two vases, replacing them with the new ones and filling them with water.
I sit down on the grass. “I made it to my twenties... Evette made me a white cake. It wasn’t as good as yours, Mom, but it was still nice. She got me the watch I wanted, too. You’d like it, Dad… I can imagine you sat in front of the fireplace playing with it… It’s been a good day, but I know Evette was thinking about you both… and so was I.”
They’ve been gone twelve years and I still miss the hell out of them both. They were the best parents.
I sigh and shake my head. I dunno why the fuck I do this. It ain't like they can hear me.
A sudden gust of wind ruffles my hair, and I feel comforted for a moment. I close my eyes like I always do, imagining it's them telling me they’re proud of me. I wonder what they'd think of how their only child turned out. I'm at college with a full football scholarship, never been in trouble with the law, and I work hard just like they did.
“I miss you both, every day.” I get up off the grass and brush down my jeans. “I’ll see you when I come back up here. Love you.”
I get up and make my way back to the truck, remembering the day my life changed forever.
They were killed in a car accident, barely a month after my eighth birthday. I wanted to see their bodies because I didn’t believe they were actually gone but the police wouldn’t let me, so I just had to accept it and face the harsh truth that I was an orphan.
Just like that.
It was the worst time of my life.
I take another look over to their graves before starting the truck and heading for Lakehead. It ain’t long before I start feeling hungry, though, so I run into a store for a couple steaks and then stop at a layby next to Wabakimi Provincial Park to eat.
Damn, this shit tastes good. There’s blood on my fingers and I lick it off. I never eat anything that ain’t well done, so I dunno why the fuck I’m craving this shit all of a sudden. It’s far from normal but I can’t ask anyone what’s happening to me, because they’d think I was a freak.
I’ve been eating a truck load of this shit for about a week now. I've tried eating other meats but always come back to craving raw beef. And my gut hurts like hell if I don't eat enough. The hunger pangs are the worst.
I soon finish the steaks and pedal the clutch to pull back out into the road, but quickly lift the handbrake again when my heart races out of control.
‘You must get out of your car, Jaheim,’ I hear a woman's voice inside my head. ‘Out and into the woods.’
I look around but see no one, inside or outside of the car. “Excuse me?”
‘Quickly, Jaheim.’
The door opens and I'm dragged from the car. The sticks on the ground snap under my fall. My heart races faster and the car door slams shut.
‘You must get deeper into the woods, Jaheim, so that you are hidden!’
The voice sounds panicked, so I get up and stagger through the trees until I fall into a ditch. Pain surges through me, but not from my fall, this feels like venom in my blood.
I feel a hand on my shoulder and turn my head as I begin to gasp, smelling something old and strange. I can only just make out a blurred image of a woman’s silhouette, with dark skin and long hair, like an angel.
“Who are—” I yell suddenly when my skin feels like it’s ripping on my back.
‘Breathe,’ I hear her say into my mind. ‘You must breathe.’