Rah

Moses

With a lazy grin, Smoody slid into my hospital room with a paper bag folded under his arm. He sank into the chair by my bed and laid the bag on the serving tray, crowding the cold, untouched hospital food they’d tried to pass off as lunch. “Here’s your cut.”

I eased into the pillows, sore as hell, yet I still managed a smirk. “Good lookin’, bro. I appreciate you for holdin’ shit down while I been stuck in here.”

Smoody waved me off like I was talking crazy. “Nigga, what? You think I wasn’t gon’ keep it moving? You trippin’. This your blueprint. I’m just following the plans ‘til you back on your feet.”

I nodded, appreciating his loyalty. “Still… Means a lot.”

He shrugged as he settled deeper into the chair.

“The internet still goin’ nuts about your shooting.

The whole city talkin’. It’s all kinds of hashtags, fake R.I.P.

posts, and blogs acting like they know what happened.

” He shook his head, chuckling at the fandom.

“Same way they did with Duck, Pop Smoke, and FBG Cash. The streets don’t let a nigga breathe even when he fighting for it. ”

I sucked in a slow breath. The sound of those names hit me hard. There had been too many young kings that were gone. Too many caskets lowered too soon. I wasn’t ready to be another one on that list.

“My homies keep blowing up my phone,” Smoody went on. “They want names. They want to slide. They already talking about getting payback.”

I stared at the ceiling, feeling the anger burning through the fog of pain meds. “Nah. That’s my job. I’m the one who gotta do it.”

Smoody’s eyes narrowed. “You saying you already know who did it?”

I clenched my jaw, forcing my face blank. “Nah, but when I find out, I’m handling it myself.”

Smoody studied me for a long second, then nodded, like that was good enough.

All I could think about was killing Rah. I wasn’t about to let anyone else take that shot but me.

In the Bible, Moses was a songwriter. After Moses split the Red Sea and the children of Israel crossed the land, he removed his staff and the waters closed up, drowning the Egyptian army.

To celebrate their escape, God instructed Moses to write down a song that He had composed, which became known as, “The Song of Moses”.

As I lay in that hospital bed, I felt the need to write some music.

Even though the last thing I wanted to do when I got out of this hospital was follow my rap dreams, the natural ability to write what I was feeling out on paper couldn’t be controlled.

As usual, I needed to lash out on paper.

But as I wrote the song, “The Song of Moses,” I knew that the song would never be heard by anyone other than me.

Being a rapper was a dream that had been drilled into me by Rah.

Before then, I didn’t have any dreams to be much of anything.

I didn’t know what I wanted to be or how I was going to be it.

All I knew was hustling, but I didn’t want to do that forever.

Rah had talked me into turning my talent into fame and riches. But I had ridden that cloud with Rah for long enough, though. It was time to hang up those delusions, cut ties with Rah, and just focus on my bag and my family.

It was funny how, when I was in the darkest moment and had given up on my rap career, I wrote the coldest chorus of my life.

Then the verses that I wrote along to it were sick.

I damn near wanted to give this rap thing a second shot, but I chopped it up as a classic that would be for my ears only.

Because of Rah’s lies, rap stopped being my escape and became a burden I no longer wanted.

Just as I was closing out the last verse, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened, and Kahlani and Trent came in.

“Hey, babe.” Kahlani greeted me as she walked towards me and gave me a slow peck on the lips.

My dick jumped. I had been in that hospital bed for too long.

Now that I was starting to feel less pain in my stomach where I had taken the shot, I was starting to feel more pain in my dick from the throbbing.

I wanted to get of that bed so that I could get home to my baby and put this dick in her.

She looked good all the time, but lately she had been looking exceptionally good to me.

Her body was the reason she had caught my eye in the first place.

Since she had been back and forth from work, taking care of Trenton by herself, and spending the rest of her time in the hospital with me, she hadn’t had time to put on makeup and curl her hair.

But her simple bun, that looked to have been slept on, and bare face was so fucking gorgeous to me.

Her beige complexion was so flawless that I didn’t see why she ever felt the need to wear any makeup to cover it.

But when she did, it enhanced her, making her look like a baddie.

“What are you looking at?” Kahlani asked as she caught me staring at her.

Watching her get Trenton settled made me admire shorty even more.

She was beautiful. But what made her even more attractive was her dedication to me and Trenton.

As I watched her remove his coat and give him his tablet to play on, I think I fell in love with her all over again.

Beauty was one thing, but loyalty and dedication was a different breed.

Finally, she looked up at me, waiting for an answer. I smiled big as hell and told her, “You.”

She blushed and said, “You better stop.”

My eyebrow touched my forehead. “Or what?”

“You’re gonna make me get in that bed with you,” she answered as she licked her lips.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“A lot, silly,” she replied with a giggle.

“Shiiiid, why?”

“You’re healing. I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“I didn’t get shot in my dick,” I replied, biting my bottom lip, admiring the camel toe in her leggings.

“Watch your mouth around the baby,” she warned me, but Trenton wasn’t paying us any attention. Just in case, Kahlani took out her headphones, plugged them into his tablet and put them on.

“You better watch your mouth around me,” I said, palming my hard dick.

She tried to look appalled, but I caught her gazing at my long, thick erection that was stabbing its way through the sheets.

“Anyway...” she said, playfully rolling her eyes. “What you been doing all day?”

I decided to let her change the subject. But the next time she came into the room alone, I was going to lose myself inside of her.

“I was writing a song.”

“Really?” she asked, sounding surprised.

“Yeah. But don’t worry. I’m not working with Rah anymore. I’m done with rapping.”

“You don’t have to completely quit rapping, Moses. You shouldn’t quit altogether. You have a fan-base that’s gonna miss you. They miss you already.”

That was true. Since news of me getting shot had hit social media, all of my comment sections and DM’s were full of fan mail and condolences.

My likes on Instagram were nearly half a million now.

My TikTok was growing more followers every time I made a post from my hospital bed, showing my progress.

Twitter was jumping with the hashtag #RestWellMoses.

My songs and videos were getting more and more views and streams on YouTube and other streaming platforms. With these new followers, my next song probably would have been an even bigger hit, but. ..

“I’m straight,” I replied, shaking my head confidently.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure I never wanna work with Rah again.

He was putting the money behind my name, and this was his dream.

I’m not taking money from our household to fund a dream that may never come true.

The money from the streams aren’t enough, and Rah has the password to those distribution accounts.

The money from the shows is good, but my contract with Rah ties him to all of that.

After everything that’s happened, I’d rather just walk away from it all. ”

“What about the meeting with Interscope that Rah told you about? Maybe you can meet with Interscope yourself and ex Rah out of the deal altogether. You don’t need him. He needs you.”

“I’m starting to question whether there was really a meeting with Interscope.”

“Really? You think he would lie about something like that?”

I thought about it, visions of Rah killing his own best friend dancing in my head, and said, “Hell, yeah.”

“Maybe you should ask him yourself?” she suggested.

“Rah?”

“No,” Kahlani answered with a frown. “The guy at Interscope that he said hit him up about you after hearing your music. Do you know his name?”

“Yeah, I do. I followed him on Instagram after Rah told me that he was interested.”

“Maybe you should DM him before you give up.”

She was right. That meeting would be my ticket out of this situation, and I could have just gone without Rah. So, I opened my Instagram app went to Eli Stical’s Instagram and sent him a direct message to call me.

By the time that Kahlani found a show that she wanted to watch on the TV, my cell was ringing.

I didn’t expect it to be Eli. I had been getting so many calls from family, friends, and niggas in the street, who vowed to find out who had shot me so that they could revenge.

Little did they know, though Carlos had shot me, the motherfucker that needed to be in a body bag was the nigga that was supposed to have my back.

“Hello?” I answered my phone.

“What’s up, Moses?”

“Yo’, what up? Who this?” I asked, not recognizing the number.

“This is Eli, man. Just got your DM. How are you feeling?”

I sat up, not believing that he had actually called me back. I figured that was a good sign. “More like myself. Still got some healing to do. The doctor says I should be outta here in about a week, though.”

“That’s what’s up, man. You gettin’ back in the studio when you get out?”

I caught Kahlani out the corner of my eye, straining to see who I was talking to.

“That’s what I was calling you about. It’s time that I get some help. Being independent has gained me some fans, but I need more exposure. Rah told me that you were trying to get the execs at Interscope to listen to my music. You got anywhere with that?”

There was an awkward silence. Then Eli started to stutter over his words. “I–I’m sorry, Moses, but I don’t know anything about that. Rah, your manager… I’ve never spoken to him personally.”

I bit my bottom lip, cringing. “He never sent you my music?”

“No. I actually just heard about you when news of your shooting went viral,” he replied with a nervous chuckle.

“Okay,” I forced myself to speak over the embarrassment. “Well, thank you for hitting me back.”

“No problem. Get well soon.”

Defeated, I hung up.

“I’m killing that nigga,” I growled.

Seeing how suddenly enraged I was, Kahlani stood and rushed to my side. “What’s wrong, baby? What happened?”

“I swear I’m putting him six feet deep.” I grabbed my phone and opened up my text message inbox.

When she saw that I was hitting up my boy, Smoody, she gasped, and said, “No!” as she snatched the phone from me.

Lucky for her, I was too weak to get out of that bed and get it back from her.

She hurried away from me, knowing that as long as she was out of reach, I couldn’t get to that phone.

“What are you hitting him up for? What’s wrong? ”

“That was the guy from Interscope. Rah was lying about everything! There wasn’t a meeting with Interscope.

He played me! All of this was for nothing.

The only reason I had his back all this time was because I thought he had mine.

That’s the only reason why I was about to make that drop for Carlos that day.

That’s the only reason why I...” I was about to open my mouth about going to Carlos’ crib with Rah that night, but I stopped myself.

“...That’s the only reason I was still riding around with him the night I got shot,” I said instead.

“I’ve been loyal to him this whole time because I thought he was helping me get to the fame, so I could make the unthinkable happen for you and our son.

And he was lying. If he lied about the meeting with Interscope, ain’t no telling what else he’s been frontin’ about.

It was all for nothing. You taking that case, me damn near dying; it was all for nothing. ”

There was so much sympathy in her eyes for me that I was even more embarrassed. I felt like a fool.

“Baby, please calm down,” Kahlani begged me.

But I hardly heard her and couldn’t look at her.

I was seeing red. My past crimes may have been petty, but those were the ones that I had been caught doing.

Kahlani knew that I was with the shit and knew some real killas.

All I needed was for Smoody to bring me a banger so that I could find Rah’s room and take care of his lying ass.

“Baby, please?” When I heard her voice cracking as if she was about to cry, I finally looked at her.

“Please don’t do this. I hate Rah just as much as you do.

I wish he was dead just as much as you do.

But him being dead and you being in jail would do what for me and Trenton?

I want you here with me, with us. And if you go to jail because of him, he wins and you and your family will suffer, just like Solae. ”