sister that I’m off to work. Perry will be home in about an hour. Come lock the door behind me.”
I followed her to the door, and once she was gone, I raced back up to Anisa. She was still asleep. I lay beside her and we wrapped our arms around each other. I knew that we had to get out of that house. Even at such a young age, I was aware of danger. I just felt it in the pit of my stomach that things were never going to get better. With Perry around we would never feel safe, and Anisa had just gone through hell just to hide what he was doing to her. I wanted out. I wanted something better for both me and Anisa, and I promised myself that once we broke free, we would never look back.
I awoke when I felt the bed sink down on Anisa’s side, but I didn’t open my eyes. I already knew it was Perry. I recognized the familiar scent. It made me gag, and I felt a burning at the back of my throat. I hated him for what he had done to Anisa. I knew what he wanted, and I froze out of fear. I lay there stiff as a board, playing possum. I prayed that this night wouldn’t be like all the others. It was this night that made me lose faith in God, because if there truly was one, He would have surely intervened. God would have protected us… saved us.
“No, stop!” I heard Anisa say. “Please, just not tonight! I can’t!” she cried.
I had never heard her sound so weak, and I squeezed my eyes tightly as my heart beat out of my chest.
Perry pulled Anisa by the arm, but I got up and pulled her other arm. “She said no!” I screamed.
Perry stopped and looked at Anisa with a menacing smirk. “It’s either you or her.” That was the choice he gave her.
I trembled, and Anisa looked back at me while gripping her stomach. I could tell she was still in pain. Tears fell down her face. She hugged me and whispered, “Everything will be alright, Mia. Go to the closet and wait for me to come and get you.”
“No!” I said defiantly, my tears no longer willing to hide. “I’ll do it, Anisa. He can take me this time.” Snot dripped down my nose as Perry forcefully grabbed me from the bed, carrying me out of the room by my waist kicking, and screaming.
“No! Let her go!” Anisa screamed as she fought him. “Please! Stop it… she’s too young!”
Perry turned around and backhanded Anisa into the wall and threw me to the ground. “Bitch, get your ass up and let’s go!” he yelled at her. I crawled over to Anisa and we huddled in the corner.
“Anisa, don’t go!” I whispered.
Perry loomed over us as he unbuckled his pants and pulled out his oversized penis.
“Miamor, go get in the closet,” Anisa whispered. I shook my head no.
“Just do it!” she yelled in between her tears.
Anisa left with Perry, and I climbed into the closet, covering my ears while crying uncontrollably. This had to stop. I couldn’t understand why this was happening to my sister. It all seemed so unfair.
The scream sent shivers up and down my spine. I had never heard my sister scream like that. Something was different this time. She needed me.
“Aghh. No! It hurts! Please!”
I thought of all the blood I had seen earlier. All of it had come out of Anisa. I never wanted her to go through that again. I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. I ran out of the closet and into my mother’s room.
Anisa was lying there with a pool of blood underneath her while Perry was on top, humping furiously like a dog in heat. It was a sight that petrified me. I thought he was killing her. “Get off of her!” I yelled as I rushed at him and began hitting him. I felt his hand cross my face as he backhanded me to the floor, his wedding ring leaving an imprint in my face.
“Miamor, help me!” Anisa cried.
I ran as fast as I could to the downstairs closet. I knew it was where my mother kept her shotgun. She didn’t know that I knew, but I did, and I needed it more than she ever would.
I closed my eyes at the blood curdling cry. Anisa needed me. I pulled out the double barrel shotgun, but couldn’t find the shells as I looked frantically, hands shaking, as I could barely hold up the big gun. Tears clouded my vision as I ran into the kitchen. The headboard was banging loudly against the wall, creating a sickening scene in my head as I pictured Perry molesting Anisa. I tore every drawer out of the cabinets before I sent a box of shells scattering across the floor. My shaky hands barely allowed me to load them into the chamber. I had played with the gun enough to know how to use it with expertise. I was only able to load one shell in. I couldn’t waste any more time trying any more than that.
I raced up the stairs and burst into the room. Anisa’s hand was outstretched for me as Perry was on top of her. She needed me. Without hesitation, I lifted the shotgun and fired. The blast sent me flying back against the wall.
Perry grabbed his chest as the buckshot filled him. His chest looked like Swiss cheese and he tried to gasp for air.
Anisa jumped out of the bed, blood dripping from her womb down her legs, but before she could reach me, she collapsed. My heart felt as if it was going to burst. I had never been so afraid in my entire life.
I picked up the telephone and dialed 911.
“Hello, 911 Operator. What is your emergency?”
I was out of breath, and I breathed into the phone as I watched Perry’s life slip away before my eyes. “He… he raped my sister! I shot him! Please, we need help!”
I then crawled over to Anisa and put her head in my lap. “It’s going to be okay, Nis. They’re coming,” I sat in the room with my sister until help arrived. I wouldn’t leave her side until she opened her eyes. “I got him, Anisa. He won’t hurt us anymore,” I said when she finally looked at me. Anisa didn’t respond, but from the look in her eyes, I knew that she had heard me.
Once the police arrived and I told them what happened, they handcuffed me and put me in the back of a police car.
I knew that I was in trouble and would probably be going away for a while, but Anisa was safe, and that’s all that mattered. I would have done the same thing if I had to do it over again. Nobody could hurt us anymore, and I felt that it was worth it. So, when I went before a judge and told him that I would do the same thing, he said I had no remorse, and was a menace to society. He remanded me to a juvenile facility until my eighteenth birthday. Bitch ass nigga! After getting the news, I looked at my mother, and she had tears in her eyes, but I knew they were for Perry and not for me. I rolled my eyes at her and then I turned to Anisa and smiled. “I love you Nis!” I mouthed.
“I love you too, Miamor! Thank you!” she mouthed back as sincere tears streamed down her face.
Chapter Three
Six years of lockup in juvie was too much to even recall. The loneliness, the abandonment, every day spent there took a little bit more of my sanity away. It was bullshit. Day in and day out it was the exact same. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that Anisa was waiting for me on the outside.
My mother tried to come and see me, but I never accepted her visits. I didn’t have shit to say to her because I felt there was no excuse. She wasn’t there for Anisa and me when we needed her most, and as a result, I got locked up and Anisa had skeletons in her closet that she would harbor for the rest of her life. I didn’t fuck with my mother, and I probably never would. All Anisa and I had was each other. That was enough, and she did my time right along with me, keeping my account full as well as visiting me weekly.
I never regretted my actions… not once. That’s part of the reason why they made me do all six years. They had me going to therapy as if I needed rehabilitating. All I had to do was show remorse, and they would have let
