Page 207 of The Ninth

“Why couldn’t Poncho just look for and take the camcorder while he was down there?!” Kenzie asked.

Tati jumped to his defense quickly, “He said buddy ass be on hella pills and hella paranoid. Said he came in to take a shit in the basement one day and dude busted in with an AR.”

“Mm,” is all Kenzie and I offered.

I cracked my door, listening for any sign that Poncho was back out back. After a minute, I heard one nigga coughing while the other was speaking. With one last glance to each other, we all popped out of the car, leaving the doors slightly ajar.

I threw my hood on, running on the grass to not make that much noise. Once we got to the windows, we all dropped down, trying to figure out which was unlocked. Their laughter in the back sounded eerily close at times like they were walking towards us. Branches snapping and the wind blowing had me checking behind me multiple times. Fear of Poncho giving us up was greater than my fear of getting caught inside of this house.

The windows were above ground and pretty big. Plus there was multiple. Tati was the one to find the unlocked window. She pushed it all the way open before dropping inside of the house without a second thought. I helped Kenzie inside. Once she was in, they both helped me.

The basement was nice, finished, and fully furnished. There was a large sectional, a big screen, plus two rooms and a bathroom. It look like the granny loved it down here before she had to let her shitty booty grandson do parole here. Now there were pill bottles with no labels everywhere, liquor bottles, white cups, and it reeked of weed. Tati grabbed Kenzie and I’s arms,

“Should we lock the basement door?”

We both looked up at the shut door.

“Maybe?” I offered.

“I say no and we hurry the hell up! If we lock it, that means we gotta unlock it before we leave. Imagine having to run back up them steps to unlock the door instead of running straight to those windows and hopping out!”

“Let’s get it then!” Tati agreed.

We all three went our separate ways. I searched the living room while they searched the two bedrooms. The big TV sat inside of a large, wooden entertainment center. It had multiple drawers and cabinets in which I looked inside of. It was hard rummaging through years of shit while also trying not to let anything look out of place. I could feel myself starting to panic every minute that passed that we were still down here.

I looked under the couch, pulled the cushions, checked inside of the armrest, nothing. I rushed into the bathroom, opening the cabinets above and below the sink. Eventually I just decided it wasn’t out here. Instead of wasting time, I rushed inside the room Tati was in to help her. She was going through a dresser as I opened the closet, prepared to go through there.

“COME HERE!” Kenzie whisper yelled.

Both of us put everything back how it was quickly. I held my breath as we hurried our asses to where she was. As soon as we walked in the room, I seen a tub of dry rice sitting on the bed. It looked like a regular spare bedroom with just a bed, TV, and dresser. Kenzie had her back towards us. She spun around and—

“G, I’M FINNA CRY!” Tati damn near shouted.

“SHHHHHHH!” Kenzie and I hushed her.

I hugged her despite scolding her, because I felt the same fucking way. On my granny, the feeling of seeing that fucking camcorder in her hands hit better than dick or money. The charger was in a zipper that was attached to the case. She already plugged it up, waiting to see when or if it came on. I started to tell her fuck it; we can check when we leave. But then the buttons started to glow.

The screen was white with pieces of green and black. It was clear there was water damage from the drinks we spilled on the table. You could faintly see the option to put in a passcode, but the screen would barely allow you to touch it.

“Did it have an SD card?” Tati asked.

Kenzie shook her head as she unplugged it, “No. It came with storage on it and then you had to buy a card. I planned on using it for that night, deleting everything, and then actually buying the card. Without this camcorder, there’s nothing. We need to be lucky they didn’t get the clue to take it to a repair shop or maybe they did and it didn’t work.”

All three of us finally exhaled. Tati and I scooped the rice that fell out back up and placed the bin where it was originally. Kenzie had the pink camcorder all packaged up, already heading outside of the room. As soon as we crossed the threshold into the living area, there was a thump on the stairs.

“AWWWWWWWW! I’M TELLING BIG CUZ YOU DOWN IN THE BASEMENT, LYRIE!”

“I NOT CARE!” a small voice that was already down in the basement said.

Kenzie pulled her gun out as Tati took the camcorder. Once we heard the kid at the top run away, we took off running for the window. Glancing over at the stairs, the door was wide open with a little two-year-old coming down the steps. She paused, looking at us for a few seconds before continuing to come down. I all about threw Tatianna out that window.

“FUCK IT! I’M FINNA BEAT THE BABY UP!” Kenzie whispered.

As if this was the fucking time, I couldn’t help but crack up laughing as I climbed out of the window myself. After grabbing the gun from her, Both Tati and I helped MacKenzie out, sliding the window shut behind her. Instead of running to the car, we had to drop to the ground, crawling quickly in case this nigga popped out before we made it.

The ground felt wet due to the coldness of the air out. I had to force myself to ignore the mosquitos and ants as we got closer and closer. We took the grass by the cars, so it smelled strongly of earth, rubber, and oil. The smells plus the anxiety were making my headache come back tenfold. God, just please get me out of here.

Instead of getting in on my side, I crawled through Kenzie’s door that was facing the street and not the house. After we all shut the doors we left ajar, the front porch door swung open. I almost felt the need to hold my breath as we sunk lower into the car, praying nobody seen us or worse, came to the car themselves.