On The Run // Blackened Hourglass

Nicki POV

“You still with that nigga?” My older brother Jelani asked.

“Yes I am! Now well you shut up before I get in trouble!”

“You need to leave him now!”

“Why?”

“Did you not just hear yourself?! You can barely do anything without getting in trouble!”

“Stop yellin’ Lani damn. I only get in trouble because he thinks I don’t stand up for him. You guys only see the bad, he’s actually a good person.”

“Good person my ass, he gon kill you one day if you don’t get out now.”

“Stop saying shit like that!”

“Whatever, love you lil sis.”

“Love you too.”

I’m so sick of hearing my friends and family telling me to leave him. Everyone only sees the bad in him, we had good times, he’s a good person, he just has...problems. He being, Tyrel Williams, NYPD Officer, he’s my boyfriend of 2 years. Everyone says he’s no good for me, especially my best friend, Aubrey. Aubrey ain’t no saint either though. He’s a drug lord, but under a different identity. He doesn’t tell me a lot about it. I think he does it to protect me and the fact that my boyfriend is a cop and if he catches us talking we are both fucked probably has something to do with it too.

“HELLO I’M TALKING TO YOU!” Tyrel yelled.

“Oh um I’m sorry Rel. What do you need?” I answered looking down.

“My dinner ain’t gonna cook itself now is it?”

“No uh um I’m sorry I’ll get right on that.”

N/O POV

As Nicki was making dinner she let wonder to the topic her best friend, Aubrey brought up. Like everyone else, he was telling her to leave him, he was no good for her, but Nicki insisted she loved him. That was one thing Aubrey or Drake couldn’t wrap his mind around, why she would stay with someone who makes you feel like shit and beats you? He loved her with all his heart and when he found out Rel was beating her, he was ready to go on a killing spree.Nicki sighed aloud. A lot was on her mind. Did she really love him? Or was she afraid to be alone? Onika knows staying with him is wrong and something she said she would never do, stay with a man who beats up a woman.

Onika set the table and put their beverages on the table before going back into the kitchen to the put the food on the plates.

"Rel dinner's ready!" Nicki yelled.

Just as Tyrel was coming down the stairs Nicki set their dinner on the placemats. Nicki waited to take her seat, it was kind of a rule Tyrell made.

The King is higher on the ladder than anyone else, therefore, everyone must treat him as such.

“So how was work?” Nicki politely and cautiously asked.

“Fine, working on a drug case. Looking for this one dude.”

“Oh yeah, what does he look like?”

“Uh regular type a dude, tall, muscular, slim yet medium build.”

“Oh, do you his name?”

“Yeah it’s Marcus Brown.”

“Have you met him? I mean caught him or came close?”

Tyrell looked up from his dinner and arched an eyebrow. Nicki gulped, she had tipped him off.

Flashback

"Aye Nic, call me when you get this, we need to talk it's important." Aubrey left a voicemail.

"Who are you talking to?" Tyrel asked

"Um I was checking my voicemail."

"Okay this is the last time I'm gonna ask you, who was it?"

"Just my brother damn Ty."

"WATCH WHO THE FUCK YOU'RE TALKING TO!" He rose his voice. He lifted his hand like he was gonna slap me, I flinched. There was no way I could tell Ty that it was Aubrey who called me. Out of all the people who Ty doesn't want me to talk to, Aubrey has to be the first on the list. When I first met Ty, I was hanging out with Aubrey and they never saw eye to eye especially Ty. I guess I would have to wait to call him or sneak a phone call.

~

"Alright I'm going to work. You gonna behave?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"Yes sir."

"Good girl.”

I waited until I heard the door close and the sound of his car starting before quickly grabbing my phone and dialing Aubrey’s number. It rang three time before I heard his deep voice.

“Onika?"

"Hey." I whispered out of habit.

"That nigga there?"

"No."

"Then why are whispering?"

"Sorry, force of habit, not usually allowed to talk to other people."

"Nic you need to-"

"Look if you only wanted to talk to me to tell me to leave him which I already know-"

"Well if you know what you need to do why aren't you doing it?"

"Goodbye Drake."

"No Nicki wait!"

"You got about 2 minutes to tell me what you need to tell me."

"Okay okay, one of my boys just confessed to me that he is selling to your boyfriend."

"No, I think he's mistaken. My boyfriend is a cop."

"No he's not. Number 1, why would my friend, who is like my brother lie to me. He saw your boyfriend and his partner was sitting in the patrol car waiting for him. Number 2, I know no one likes the nigga, but I would never lie to you about something serious like this.”

“Okay, what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing, yet. I just wanted to give you a head ups.”

“Okay thanks.”

~

"Why are you asking me so many fucking questions?"

"I-I don’t k-know. Just um making uh conversation.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

“N-no, of course not-t, why would I?”

Tyrel got up from the table and stalked up to Onika. He sat on the corner of the dining table and took a deep breath before speaking to her in a low stern voice. The kind of voice that sends shivers down your spine.

“I’m only gonna ask ya little lyin ass one more time. Why the fuck are you all up in my business?"

Onika tried to speak but the words got stuck in her throat. Does she say what she knows? Or does she stay quiet and maybe his outburst will pass. She opened her mouth to speak and before she could make a sound, Tyrel slammed the palm of his hand on the hardwood table, making Nicki jump.

“I’M SO FUCKING SICK OF YOU!!” He screamed in her face before getting up and flipping the table over.

“Stop!” Nicki pleaded with tears streaming down her face.

“To fucking late bitch! You should’ve spoke up when I asked you to!” He yelled and spit in her face.

Tyrel pulled Nicki up by her hair and threw her to the ground. Nicki groaned in pain and suddenly started screaming, almost pleading.

“Please don’t take me back there! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me anymore! Please!!”

He ignored all her cries and pleas, continuing to drag her down the hallway by her right ankle. He let her ankles go and Nicki crawled to corner in their master bedroom, shaking and crying. Nicki could only remember one time he snapped at her like this. It was around the time Drake told her that his boy was selling him crack. The same drug that got her father messed up. Maybe that’s why he was so fond of Tyrel. Nicki didn’t tell a soul about what happened, for fear of something worse that might happen to her, like death. She prayed to God that this wouldn’t happen again. She didn’t even know how she got herself in this mess. One minute it was like he swept her off her feet and they were living a fairytale and in a matter of months everything switched.

Onika’s cries got louder as she heard footsteps come closer. She begged and pleaded to him, but to no avail. He grabbed her by her arms and pulled her to her knees.

“Suck! Don’t you even dare bite me!” He warned while unbuckling his dark navy blue cargo pants.
 

Nicki clamped her mouth shut and pushed him away. She felt a hard smack hit her across the face, her hands immediately went to the area of pain. Her back hit the hard floor again. For a moment she could breathe. She struggled to get back on her knees. He instructed her to crawl back to him and try it again. Nicki rose to her feet and shook her head. Tyrel punched her in the eye and pushed into a wall. She slid the wall groaning in pain, wishing that he would just beat her to death, just get it over with. Something in her told her to fight, she slowly got back on her feet and staggered over to him. She punched him in the groin and then kneed him in the stomach when he bent over. She dashed for the door, but got pulled back and felt oxygen escaping her. His arm was around her neck. He walked her to the wall and put his hand around her throat, lifting her the harder he choked her. He smiled at Nicki’s gasps for air. Nicki mustered up all the strength she could and kicked him, hard. He unleashed his grip from her throat and Nicki hit the floor like a brick, steady gasping for air. She was so lightheaded and dizzy she could only crawl. She heard him rustling in the background. She tried her best to ignore it and to try and continue to crawl towards the bedroom door.

Just as she got to the door knob and was about to unlock it, she heard Tyrel’s 9 millimeter gun click, signaling he just turned the safety off. Nicki stopped dead in her tracks. A lump grew in her throat. She sensed her final minutes about be spent here, in this dark bedroom, half way beaten to death.

“Get your ass over here! Now! Or I’ll kill you!” Tyrel ordered.

Nicki turned and crawled back towards him, thinking maybe if she obeyed him, it would all be over soon.

“Get on your feet.”

She slowly climbed to feet and look straight at the barrel of the gun pointed at her.

“Get on the bed. Now.” He spoke sternly.

Nicki turned and started walking. The tears started flowing again. She was about to climb on the bed before her gut told her to reach under the mattress. Nicki leaned on the bed to make it look like she was trying to get on it, she slid her hand under the mattress and felt the yardstick that he had used to beat her with during other altercations. She grabbed and it slowly pulled it out, waiting for the perfect moment to strike right in the middle of his back.

“Good girl.” He told her as he open the bedside drawer, reaching for a Magnum condom, so he wouldn’t be caught if Nicki decided to go to the police. Besides who would they believe? A poor woman or a well paid police officer.

This was her chance. Nicki silently turned, picked up the yardstick, pulled it back and swung. The audible sound of the yardstick hitting his back echoed in the room. Tyrel turned so fast, grabbed his gun and fired one shot. Nicki ducked and tripped him, making him fall to the ground. He grabbed her and started choking her again. She used whatever strength she had left and moved her head so she could position her mouth to bite his forearm. He groaned in pain and let her go. They both looked at each other. On instinct they both reached for the gun. Both of their hands on it, they struggled to overpower one another. During the struggle, the gun went off.

“BAM!”

Nicki felt herself and found no wound. She looked over at Tyrel, gunshot wound straight in the chest, blood coming out of his mouth, and blood pooling around him.

“No, no, no, no!!” Nicki exclaimed repeatedly.

She rushed to him and put her hands on the wound like they do in TV shows and tried to talk to him. 

All he was doing was letting blood pour out of him mouth. She moved her hands to his face and cupped his cheeks.

“Please! Don’t die, please!” Nicki pleaded and pleaded, but to no avail.

She watched as the life drained out of his eyes. Her heart immediately sank. Tears started forming again.

“God! I didn’t mean to kill him!” She cried.

She got up from the floor and staggered out into the living room. She paced back and forth, shaking and crying. Not knowing what to do. She didn’t wanna call the police for the simple fact of how it looked and how Tyrel drilled that no one would believe her in her brain for about a year.

The next best thing she could think of what to call Drake. She ran all over the living room, smearing blood on the wall and leaving bloody handprints of their furniture. Nicki finally located her phone and dialed Drake’s number as fast as she could. As soon as he picked up, Nicki fell to her knees and hysterically cried.

“Onika! Tell what he did to you!!”

“H-He didn’t! He t-tried- Aub-reyy, I did something b-bad!” She sniffled into the receiver of the phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heyyyy! This is new series and I hope you guys love it! I'm really proud of it, so thank y'all for reading and as always tell me what you think in the comments below
                           ~xoxo Dessi