Smoke and Mirrors

Mia

Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out, at an attempt to control her breathing, Mia repeated the steps in her head while she tried to catch her breath.

"Vanessa.." Amire's voice replayed in her head, and she almost lost her balance; she tried to shake it from her mind. "Vanessa.." No no no, she told herself, Vanessa is gone. She shook her head in an attempt to accept the lie she had just told herself.

"Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out" Mia repeated rapidly out loud as she began to freak out.

Suddenly her hands began to shake and tears formed in her eyes as it felt like something was weighing heavily on her back. For a moment it felt like she was sixteen in a two bedroom apartment gagged, and pinned down while being raped from behind. She wrapped her hand around her throat and gasped for air as the elevator doors to the Penthouse slid open.

Mia tried to call Angel's name, but no sound came out. She tried again, but her voice was mute and nothing came out besides an uncontrollable cough. She cleared her throat. "Angel," she called her name and looked around the Penthouse for her girlfriend, the same person her brother had told her not to trust, when she noticed a box of chocolate covered strawberries on the table.

"That's weird." She thought, why would Angel buy strawberries knowing she was allergic to them. Mia mumbled to herself, "If Amire flaring my pantic attacks didn't kill me, Angel sure would with these strawberries."

She made her way into the bedroom to see Angel sprawled out across the bed with nothing but a robe on, and one of her chocolate tits peeking out of it. "Angel," Mia slid her hand up her robe along the inside of Angel's thigh gently and tried to wake her, "Angel."

She nudged at her side lightly, but she didn't budge. She just laid there like a lifeless body.

Buzz. Ring. Buzz. Ring.

Mia looked around the room trying to figure out where the noise and vibrations were coming from. It sounded like a phone, but it wasn't hers, and Mia knew it wasn't Angel's phone because she had tripped during the boat ride the night before, and her phone fell in the ocean.

Buzz. Ring. Buzz. Ring

"What the fu..." the noise was coming from the night stand beside the bed. She opened the drawer, and to her surprise, there was a burner phone there ringing and vibrating. "Who's phone is this?" She wondered. Mia picked up the phone and looked around the room. Whoever's phone this was had to put it there while her and Angel were on the beach because the drawer was completely empty when they checked into the hotel. She knew because she had opened the drawer herself and nothing was there.

She read the screen, NO CALLER ID. She hit the green phone button to answer and place the burner phone to her ear.

"Hello," she spoke into the receiver.

"I have a message from Mr. Billy directed to a Ms.Vanessa Diamond," the voice on the other side of the receiver spoke to her, and a lump formed in her throat the moment she heard him say Vanessa's name.

"There's no one here by that name," She took the phone from her hear and quickly hit the red buttom to end the call then threw the phone on the bed.

"Why is everyone so interested in Vanessa all of a sudden," her nerves were shot, and her stomach was tightening. "Did he say he had a message from Mr. Billy?" She thought about what the voice told her over the receiver then back to what Amire' had said about not trusting anyone but Mr. Billy. Who was this Mr. Billy everyone kept referring to?

Something told her that something big was about to go down, but she wasn't so sure if she wanted to know, what but most importantly if she wanted to have any parts of it.

Buzz. Ring. Buzz. Ring

The burner phone continued to vibrate and ring on the bed. She contemplated on answering; a part of her was afraid of what would come after the phone call, while deep down another part of her was anxious to find out. It was that same part of her where Vanessa resided.

For fifteen years she'd worn the face and lived the life of Tamia Lakewood, always wondering if ever a time would come where Vanessa Diamond resurfaced and came out of hiding. There were so many unanswered questions. Till this day, she didn't know how her mother's room door got open, who grabbed her, why she was attacked, who set their apartment on fire, why the news reported Vegas had died in the fire, who was the other body, but most importantly where her mother was, and why Amire' was sent to prison.

The last thing she remembered after blacking out is waking up in a hospital in so much pain. It was excruciating, down right terrifying, and the only thing she could think about or picture is a shadowy figure grabbing her from behind, gagging her with a bandana, tying her wrists, bounding her ankles then raping her. Somehow the apartment caught on fire, and the media reported Akeem Vegas was one of the two bodies found as a result of the fire, leading her to suspect her mother's boyfriend Vegas was her attacker because Vegas was Akeem's last name, but she was still curious to know who the other person who wasn't named was. A part of her wanted to believe it was Vegas who had raped her, but something in the pit of her stomach told her it was more to the story.

There was something about the man that attacked her; his scent stuck out to her. He smelled sweet. Like a sugary substance, maybe donuts. She'd never forget how sweet he smelled. Which was odd because Vegas hated sweets, he even made her mother stop buying junk food for the house. He said it was bad for their health and teeth, and if he had anything to do with it they wouldn't develop diabetes. Vegas normally smelled manly, like a cologne. You could smell him the moment he walked into a room.

During her hospital stay men of all superior were in and out of her room asking more questions about her family and Akeem than her rape from the local police to the FBI. There was nothing that she could offer them though. She had never met her father or any other family member, besides her mother and Amire', two people's faces she had yet to see. She didn't know anything about Akeem or Vegas or whatever her mother's so called boyfriend was named. She wasn't any use to them, nor them to her. When she asked about her mother and brother, all they could do was tell het "they were trying to locate them both".

After three days in the hospital, and no sign of either her brother or her mother, the Division of Family and Childcare Services came and informed her that her mother had been declared a missing person, and her brother had been arrested for transporting drugs and stolen guns. She was lost for words. Her mother missing? Amire' transporting drugs and guns? And in the midst of it all, she just so happened to end up raped and alone? It couldn't be real or a coincidence.

She didn't realize how real it was until she was moving in with a Caroline and Joseph, the grandparents she never even knew she had, instead of being thrown into the system. She guess she was supposed to find relief in knowing that she was with family, but she still felt like she had been thrown into the system with two complete strangers.