Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Loyal: The Prequel To Retaliation
    Loyal: The Prequel To Retaliation
    Loyal: The Prequel To Retaliation
    Ebook174 pages1 hour

    Loyal: The Prequel To Retaliation

    By Still Eye Rise Media

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    When a gang member is shot at a heist, his sister copes with trying to help him heal while he proves his loyalty to his crew.

    In the prequel to Retaliation, brother and sister, Khalil and Tashera find themselves on different sides of loyalty. Khalil's loyalty to his gang threatens the loyalty he should have to his family. This book illustrates the dynamic between a brother and sister and shows their love, challenges and desire to be there for each other.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStill Eye Rise Media
    Release dateAug 23, 2016
    ISBN9781941797075
    Loyal: The Prequel To Retaliation
    Author

    Still Eye Rise Media

    I'm an author and an award winning filmmaker. I write books that are inspired by the things that I witness in life. I used to own an entertainment magazine, Mad Rhythms. My first book, The Blueprint for My Girls was taken from my teenage journals. My second book, The Blueprint for My Girls in Love was inspired by all the relationship issues that me and my friends had from high school and through college.So far in my career, I've had two really GREAT breakthrough books: The Blueprint for my Girls and my first young adult fiction book, Retaliation. Retaliation was named as a Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers by the American Library Association.

    Related to Loyal

    Related ebooks

    African American Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Shame Is Ever-Present When You’re Sitting in a Cell

      Oct 23, 2020

      Between a strained relationship with my family and the death of a good friend, I’ve struggled to feel like I’m worth something.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      What is the uncanny valley? asks the student and I draw the graph on the board, and point to the lowest point, and then move up the slope; This is like a scarecrow, it’s kinda shaped like a human but you’re not sure; This is where you’d put a mannequ

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Temporary Arrangement

      Oct 2, 2023

      A Temporary Arrangement
      19 min read

    • Article

      The Bullet in My Arm

      Sep 6, 2018

      The Bullet in My Arm
      13 min read

    • Article

      Cricket League

      Sep 1, 2022

      First prize 10 and under Tang Li, age 9 Palmetto Bay, FL My name is Anisa. I was in Hawaii on vacation. I enjoyed sipping refreshing drinks, overlooking the turquoise ocean, and dancing with others, before I overheard that the priceless Fire Ring wa

      10 min read

    • Article

      My Prison Experiment

      Jun 26, 2016

      My Prison Experiment
      124 min read

    • Article

      I Never Called Her Momma

      Sep 13, 2023

      I Never Called Her Momma
      39 min read

    • Article

      Come with Me

      Dec 1, 2022

      Come with Me
      12 min read

    • Article

      Coming To Terms

      May 25, 2021

      Coming To Terms
      14 min read

    • Article

      AN EXCERPT FROM The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno’

      Dec 1, 2020

      Early forties, tall, self-possessed. Hiking in the woods in search of her missing sister. A young park ranger, late twenties. Pretty. Slim. Strong. The play is formatted like prose; however, it is intended for performance. If actors simply perform th

      15 min read

    • Article

      Kings

      Jun 5, 2023

      1.Kings lie down to zip up their jeans,buy Cetaphil, candy, magazinesat Walgreens because they canwalk there unsupervised, describeblowjobs they’ve given to seniorsin cars, spend what they think of astheir own money. Home sick from school,they learn

      6 min read

    • Article

      Beyond Rose Street

      Nov 10, 2021

      “Don’t tell anyone what happened to Tyler.” I stop running just long enough to turn, hoping for more instructions, but Leyton is already sprinting up his porch steps and through his front door. “Should we—” He slams the door behind him. Even from whe

      20 min read

    • Article

      Book Extract

      Jan 20, 2020

      My year off was also interesting, in that I didn’t feel any less loved, or cherished, or wanted. Why? Because my life is already rich with soulmates, and I got the chance to behold that. You don’t have to shag someone for them to be a soulmate. We do

      7 min read

    • Article

      Now That I’ve Arrived

      Dec 30, 2020

      Now That I’ve Arrived
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Boy Who Cried Wolf

      Jun 9, 2020

      Josh Turner from Austin, Texas The egg landed with a splat on the truck window. ‘Bullseye,’ grinned my buddy Dave*. Hiding in the shadows, as the car drove past, we could see the driver gesticulating furiously. It was 31 October 1990 – Halloween – a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time

      Dec 1, 2023

      Proverbs Of A Faceless Time
      9 min read

    • Article

      Festival

      Sep 15, 2018

      My husband, who loved festivals, who was a great fan of festivals, wanted to get to the square in time for the first band at eleven o’clock. From bed, the dog and I watched him dress. He tried on various T-shirts, declaring some of them too tight and

      13 min read

    • Article

      It Happened To Me…

      Jan 26, 2023

      It Happened To Me…
      7 min read

    • Article

      Finding Peace—and Briefly, Freedom—at My Grandfather’s Funeral

      Oct 11, 2019

      “Saying goodbye with the people who loved him—and me—I remember that I am not the tomb that imprisons me.”

      6 min read

    • Article

      Joshua Mohr: The Time I Robbed a Liquor Store

      Mar 10, 2017

      Our alibi was a sandy blanket in the back of my truck, an acoustic guitar, a knockout brunette in the passenger seat. Our alibi was a night picnic at the beach. When we got pulled over—if we got pulled over—the cop would peer in the cab and he’d thin

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Silhouette Artist

      Jul 25, 2019

      The Silhouette Artist
      6 min read

    • Article

      The HOOD LIFE

      Dec 16, 2021

      The HOOD LIFE
      10 min read

    • Article

      The HOOD LIFE

      Dec 16, 2021

      The HOOD LIFE
      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Loyal

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Loyal - Still Eye Rise Media

      Chapter 1

      Tashera

      I had been home by myself for about two hours. My mom worked late—she was a secretary for a boss who never let her leave before six pm. My older brother, Khalil was supposed to be watching me, but he had something to do with his ‘crew.’ Lately, he’d been with his crew a lot when he was supposed to be with me. But when he’d leave, I didn’t have to share the remote control or fuss about the computer. So, I’d be like, Buh-bye, have a nice time, and I’d shoo him out the door.

      I’d watch some old TV shows on Netflix on our computer, or I’d watch Fresh Prince of Bel-Air re-runs in the living room or I’d read a book. Lately, I’d been reading books with characters that look like me. No offense Twilight fans, but can there be an African American character who is NOT Laurent?

      Anyway, I cooked dinner for myself. I fried two hotdogs in a pan and and then I put a bowl of baked beans in the microwave. I cut up my hotdog, put them in the bowl and before I could get two forkfuls into my mouth a heard a weird knock on the door. The knock was hard like when the police came looking for Dakeisha’s dad, but rhythmic like they were listening to hip hop music at the same time. Weird. Anyway, I figured it was one of Khalil’s crew friends so I walked to the door, grabbed the knob with my hand on my hip. They knew he wasn’t at home, so why were they knocking? I peeked through the hole and didn’t see anybody. Strange. My mom and Khalil both told me to never open the door unless I checked first. So, technically, I had checked. Let’s be straight on that point. I figured they were playing games so I yanked the door open with my lips puckered, ready to tell them off for knocking on the door so hard. I might have only been thirteen, but I’ve been telling people off since I was five. My mother has a mouth on her and she don’t take no mess. I guess I inherited her razor sharp tongue.

      Well, when I opened up the door, no one stood in front of me. Instead at my feet, at the bottom of my front door, lay my brother, Khalil, crumpled like a sack of dirty clothes. Blood had soaked through everything he was wearing and he lay there on the ground. Moaning.

      I fell to my knees and patted his face. Khalil. Khalil. Say something. Say something. Are you okay? Khalil didn’t respond. I yelled out, Somebody help us. Please. I screamed like some kind of killer was after us, and maybe there was. Maybe a killer had dropped Khalil off at the door.

      Chapter 2

      Khalil

      I was shot. Me and my crew were robbing some old man’s electronic store earlier. Krypton wanted a new flat screen TV. Plus, he said it was time for me to show my worth to the crew. I was gonna get a few digital cameras and sell them on the street. People on my block be tryin’ to make their own reality shows. So, everybody wants a good digital camera. I wanted to be the go-to-electronics-guy. And, I wanted to show Krypton that I could handle any situation that he put me in. I could have sold the cameras, broke off the crew with some food, and picked up some matching Dickies or something.

      But, it happened so fast. Me, Darren, and Krypton walked in the store just as the old man was about to close it up. The man looked at us and immediately stepped back from his counter. I didn’t know it then but he was probably getting closer to the shotgun he had hidden behind the counter. The old man’s eyes grew big like he saw his future and it was bleak. Krypton let out a little chuckle and Darren pulled out his nine mil and pointed it at the old dude.

      We’re not here to take your cash, Krypton said. Krypton was the leader of Deuce Tres and gave himself the nickname Krypton, you could say he was a fan of Superman. He had a Superman tattoo on his left bicep and would probably wear Superman gear if he wouldn’t have been clowned about it.

      We’ll take one of those, Krypton said and pointed to a 42" flat screen TV. Darren walked behind the counter and hovered near the shop keeper and picked up the TV like it was an iPad or something. It was super light.

      Open the camera case over here, I said and pointed at case with the Canon 7D cameras. Old dude trudged over and pulled his keys out of his pocket like they weighed a ton. His hand shook as opened the glass case.

      I need five of those, I said and nodded at Krypton who shrugged and stepped toward the front of the store.

      Move faster, old man, Darren said. We don’t got all damn day. Darren gestured to the old man with his gun and the man moved faster, putting five camera boxes on the counter. I unzipped my duffle bag and placed each of the boxes inside. Easier than I thought, I said to myself. Krypton had exited the store as I zipped up the bag and Darren had followed shortly thereafter. I threw the bag over my shoulder and as I left the store, I heard the old man calling 911. I figured we’d be long gone before the cops ever came. So, we rushed back to our truck and as I was loading Krypton’s flat screen and about to close the back door, I looked back. I don’t know why. But, some rent-a-cop had his gun aimed at me. By the time I turned my head and closed the trunk, I heard two loud pops. He’d shot me in the back. I collapsed like a house of cards. I felt the heat at the center of my spine. Darren jumped out of the truck, picked me up and threw me in the back seat with the gentleness of a WWE wrestler. The security guard fired a few more times and one bullet shattered the truck’s back window. Krypton peeled rubber, cussing the whole time. I heard him say something about not wanting blood all over his leather interior, but then I passed out wondering if I was gonna die right there.

      Chapter 3

      Tashera

      My mom has always known whenever I’ve been in trouble or had a problem. That’s why I don’t bother lying to her. When she asks me what’s going on, I just tell her the truth. Honestly, I know she’d find out anyway. When I was in the fourth grade, some boy in my class kept trying to feel my butt when I walked by. I told him to leave me alone, but he wouldn’t. The teachers never saw him and I didn’t know what to do. Creepy Colon, the nickname I gave him, had bothered me for over a week. When I told my mom, she went with me to school the next day. She told my homeroom teacher she’d be observing the class but when Colon entered and when the teacher’s back was turned, my mom went over to him, grabbed one of his fingers and whispered something in his ear. I don’t know what she said, but I know he never tried to touch me or speak to me again. I can count on my mom. I wished everybody could count on theirs.

      I counted on my mom to bring the ambulance to me and Khalil lying at our front door. Some of my neighbors had come out and looked at us and then went back inside. Blood freaks some people out. I understand, but can they call an ambulance?

      I live in the projects in Southeast, Washington, DC. I live in a row house, not apartments. A row house is like a skinny house with three bedrooms and one bathroom. The walls are thin so I can hear when my neighbors argue, when they drink too much and when have loud sex. I don’t really like my neighborhood. My best friend Dakeisha doesn’t live here, I don’t hang with the gossiping girls on my block, so I just stay in the house. And, my brother doesn’t have a lot of friends either. Most people who know my brother are scared of him. He’s dark skin and he has a look that says, I’ll slit your throat. I don’t know when he started looking so scary but Halloween is everyday for him and he ain’t wearing a mask.

      I looked down at my brother. He doesn’t look scary now. He looks scared. All of his toughness has left him. It must have bled out in his clothing. His eyes are closed, and he’s calm. I wonder if he’s thinking about anything. I wonder if he knows who did this to him.

      Chapter 4

      Khalil

      I’m cold. My head is in my sister’s lap. She’s rocking me and singing a song. I think its Mary J. Blige or Alicia Keys. I can’t tell. Her long, slender fingers are tapping the side of my face. Every few minutes or in between songs, she calls my name. I wanna say something but my voice is gone and my eyes won’t open. Am I dead?

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1