“Who wanna know?!” One of them asked while the other stepped forward.
“Looky here…I’ma say it like this and then we can go wherever you wanna go with it,” she warned while stepping down. “We don’t owe nobody shit. We don’t know where nobody is, and you betta get on before you end up missing like the rest of em. This ain’t the house you wanna get caught up at…”
“We are looking for the daughter of Dr. Marvin T. Holmes,” I said, hoping the name would trigger a different response. Neither of the women budged but I could hear the restlessness in the house. Somebody was listening.
“We don’t know who that is…Like I said…yall better get on before you can’t leave–––”
“Before we can’twhat?” Trevor let out.
“Dr. Marvin T. Holmes, the founder of the Underground and Drew Collins University,” I said before taking another step towards the house. Not out of being reckless but for the simple fact that I know Trevor would not let me have a single hair out of place, let alone have me in a position where he wasn’t able to protect me. I could move freely knowing he was behind me at all times. “We are looking for his daughter Raven Holmes. We just spoke with her sister Cynthia Norwood, and this is her twin brother, Adrias Holmes,” pointing towards Trevor who silentlysnarled like a canine. Suddenly, I could hear a small voice trying to move the two women out the way before a little girl, no older than 10, stepped out in a proper black dress with a white collar around the neck and white cuffs on the sleeves. Her snow-white hair was parted into pigtails with black knockers tied on the end. She had a small black purse crossing over her body and draped down to her hip, white lace socks and pink house slippers when she appeared before the two women. Her complexion showed she’d been in the sun, but she might have been an even light brown turned deep that was darkened by the rays. Her eyes locked in on Trevor like a dog as she stared.
“Mama, go back in the damn house,” one of the women muttered. The little girl waved them off like an old woman before daintily stepping down.
“Adrias is my brother who I heard died years ago.” The girl said with suspicion as she peered her eyes at Trevor.
So she was Raven Holmes…in the body of a child with grown women for children?
Curious.
“Do you know your father, Dr. Marvin T. Holmes?” I asked. She whipped her head to look at me with the childlike attitude of a pre-teen.
“What about him? I know I got a sister back in Georgia somewhere. What about it?”
“Are you aware of the situation concerning him and his granddaughter? Your niece?”
“What niece?” She asked with a roll of her neck before looking back at the two women on the porch. “I got enough going on with their school bus load of chirren running around. I don’t know shit about no niece–––”
“Mama, please,” one of the ladies said with a groan. Raven suddenly turned around with her hand on her small hip to chastise the woman.
“You keep running around here having all these damn kids with these different men! I’m tired! Am I not allowed to be tired?!”
“Hold up,” Trevor let out with a chuckle. “Hold up…You…You’re a child–––”
Raven whipped around with seething red eyes glaring at Trevor, triggered.
“I am not!” She stated with a stomp of her foot in the slipper. “I was perfectly fine with aging. I finally came to terms with it until one day, I woke up from a nap in this body! The same body that was torn and abused repeatedly and I can’t get back!”
I pushed my glasses up against my nose the moment the idea came to mind.
“Do you recall when that was exactly?”
“Yeah…the day the damn sun turned into the moon last year! I haven’t been able to shift back and believe me…I’ve tried everything. You know how hard it is to feed as a little girl? I can’t hunt like I want because nobody takes me seriously–––”
“Mama, they don’t wanna hear–––”
“You hush it!” Raven let out. She held her hand out towards her two grown daughters to silence them without so much as looking back. She threw that same hand on her hip and stared at Trevor once more. “You’re not my brother. I would remember––––”
Trevor suddenly charged forward. The two daughters screamed out for her, ready to attack but instead, he rolled his shoulders back with a snap of his neck as thick strands of whitecurls fell from his scalp, covering most of his face. His body thickened with muscles and height as he knelt down to her level and stared directly at her. Raven stepped back, startled but I could see the blood and tears forming in the corner of her eyes. She instantly recognized him. Trevor has been so good at hiding his true form, no one knew he hid Adrias within his skin. You couldn’t detect it, not even smell that he was First Family.
“A…Adrias,” she whispered. Her childlike voice, suddenly a mature husky tone belonging to a woman. Yet, it was still her as a little girl staring at her brother in awe. I looked back at the house seeing a young man step out with a game controller in his hand, wanting to see what the commotion was about before another appeared from behind him. Slowly, I walked towards the two siblings to interrupt.
“We need to come inside so we can explain the situation. It may also shed light on why you’re in this chosen body and how it happened.” There was no question or suggestion, just facts. Raven stared at her brother with a small smile as she gently touched his hair. Adrias smiled but the two didn’t hug or even draw closer to one another, just simply took each other in with their eyes, and memories. Raven suddenly turned to look at her daughters.
“Bree, put something on the stove, and go in there and clean up a bit so they can sit down.”
“Mama, who are these people? You never mentioned anything–––”
“Just do as I say now,” Raven cut in with a stern childlike tone.
