Chapter 2: Dakari

2

Chicago sat atop the State of Illinois like a jaunty, precociously donned cap. Serving as the State's primary economic engine, amongst its greatest exports, its main contributions to the downstate economy, was a steady stream of bodies to fill the many prisons spread throughout the rural areas.

And while this provided a financial boon for these sparse communities, it meant hours and hours of separation from the families left behind.

It was hard enough to take the El to a real grocery store.

Many of the kids around here, where Bealz lived, were just like him. Their dads were housed in prison units hundreds of miles away. They were basically left behind to figure things out on their own. Especially the boys. The girls tended to have more intact maternal structures within their families. Their main problem was dealing with the well-armed, dangerously confused preteen and teenage boys raised in a rape culture in the middle of an urban war zone.

The women then, many forced into responsibility, had no choice but to take up the mantle of leadership, not just in the home, but in the community at large. Many times, before they can even vote.

For those boys who chaffed under this direction, who yearned for some greater connection to the worst of their rapidly developing instincts, there were the streets.

There were people like the grinning monster seated across from Bealz in the back of this one hundred thousand dollar sedan.

“What's up, lil nigga? I been tryin to catch up to you for a while.”

Blinking against the unnatural darkness, Bealz can't speak. He is too afraid to move. This seems to please the man across from him.

“What you scared for, my man? I ain't gon bite.”

Looking at the wet, wide smile that broke like a crack across the man's dark face, golden teeth gleaming with menace, Bealz thinks that this man is capable of doing just that. He had the look of a predator all too willing to sink its teeth into its prey.

“I know you know me, right? Don't act like you don't. You gon hurt my feelings,” the man says. His words seep into Bealz's brain, making his head hurt.

As Bealz continues to cringe against the locked car door, the man's grin melts away into a menacing sneer, “Aight now lil nigga. You hear me talkin to you. I'm tryin to be nice. To show some respect. Where's mine? I asked you a question. You know who I am?”

“Uh, yeah. I know you...” Bealz stammers hesitantly.

“What's my name”

“Dakari,” Bealz answers. The name seemed cold upon his tongue.

Sitting back, Dakari's grin returns, pleased by Bealz's answer. “Yeah. You know me.”

Nodding stupidly, Bealz can feel his heart attempting to burst from his chest. There is a man in the car with him. All of his senses tell him so. But Bealz can see something else. Sense something else. Something like a viscous, shifting shadow hiding just underneath.

As he stared in horror, tried to understand what he was seeing, and not seeing, the pressure in his head continued to grow.

“I know you too, little man,” the monster says. “Or I should probably say, I know your pops.”

Taken aback, Bealz looks away from the eerie, rippling nothingness. He looks at the man, the fear momentarily suspended by the mention of his father.

“Oh...,” Dakari says, self satisfyingly bobbing his head. “Didn't know that, did you? Well, homeboy, let me be the first to tell you, there's a whole lot you don't know.”

Dakari reaches out suddenly towards him and Bealz jumps back before seeing the gold link chain puddled in hiss outstretched palm.

Laughing, Dakari says, “Go head on, lil nigga. I ain't gon bite you. Shit, I can't even touch you right now. Against the rules. Later for that.”

“Take the chain. It's yours...”

“I'm good,” Bealz blurts out, every cell in his body screaming out in panic.

The grin remains steady upon Dakari's face. Leaning closer, he says, “Take the chain.”

Looking from the man's hand to his grinning, golden face, Bealz is filled with dread. The necklace seemed almost to vibrate. He could feel a menacing iciness emanating in waves from it. He wanted no part of it.

Dakari wasn't asking. Tipping his hand over, he drops the chain into Bealz's lap.

“Now get the fuck outta my car,” he says, all of his charm evaporating.

When the back door suddenly swings open, Bealz yelps in surprise and falls backward out onto the grimy, cinder strewn alleyway. Looking up, he sees Big Mook staring down at him. Bealz can see through him. The sunlight streaming down seems to shine right through him.

He can see the large man's true form. It was huge. Bealz began to struggle, trying to scrabble away from the car and the hulking monster lingering over him.

“Mook!,” Dakari calls out from from black hole of a backseat. “You can touch him. Put that chain around his neck. Now!”

As the double image of a man and a monster reaches down towards him, Bealz continues to scramble away, now trying to crab walk awkwardly to the side. His mouth is opened wide, as if to cry out, but he makes no sound, manages only to dumbly stare in disbelief. He understands that his reality had broken. He thought maybe he was going insane. He just wanted to get away.

He doesn't get very far.

Mook daintily plucks the chain from amidst the gravelly cigarette butts and discarded detritus and gently lifts Bealz's head, cradling it like an infant in the crook of his massive arms.

Bealz can feel Mook's huge hands/talons moving with an uncharacteristic deftness across his neck, like feathers.

When Mook fastens the clasp, Bealz feels himself washing away.