Chapter 5- Between the devil and the deep blue sea..

Uncle Jude has no idea of what his new wife is capable of, only God knows where they met, birds of the same feather flock together. Beatrice is a she monster, she is wicked and evil and infact the devil's first daughter. I try my best to avoid her but she's just too unavoidable. While I was thinking of my life so far, I heard screams of my name Jessica "Where is that stupid girl?" she screamed as she held a cane.. I knew I was in for trouble, I quickly rushed to her, "Go and cook white rice with brown beans and half boiled egg, with deep fried plantains and a small touch of spaghetti with chicken stew, make sure the chicken is well fried enough, Now bounce!" She commanded and I went to the kitchen.

While I was frying the chicken and pouring the rice on fire, the hot oil splashed on my eyes, I almost went blind so I screamed for help, but I was even beaten on top of it all and asked to continue cooking, I don't know if I should just run away and forget about everything that belongs to my dad or just wait till I'm 21 that's if I reach that age! So I decided I'm running away tonight! Beatrice kept shouting for her food, it's not like I'm the fire cooking the food..

I brought it out with a cloth over my eyes, she hissed at me and took the food and started eating, she kept staring at me as if I put poison in it, I would have gladly poisoned her if not for the fact that she wasn't my main target. She threw the rest of the food all over me and asked me to follow her upstairs as she finished eating. She called me in and locked her room, then she picked some fruits and ate in a way that disgusted me sincerely.. I just looked away, she told me to get a bath in the tub in her bathroom, I finished bathing and she barged into the bathroom and started staring at my body and dragged me into the room.

She asked me to lie on the bed and I got confused, "what do you want to do with me aunty Beatrice?" she asked me to shut up, she asked me to close my eyes I wanted to know if she wanted to stab me with my eyes closed, but then she didn't care if I closed my eyes she picked up a carrot and opened my legs to put it in but I stood up and ran to the door, I will not be an experiment for a psychopath lesbian, she took a whip and whipped my back with it and asked me to go on my knees and bend over!

I cried and begged her to let me go but she just whipped me more and I later surrendered when the pain was too much, she will put a carrot from the smallest to the biggest and then pull my hair and drag my face to her hairy private part and ask me to lick, I refused and she whipped me so hard that I lost count of how much she flogged and I was swollen all over, when she was done with me, she just asked me to bring her one chilled cocopine drink in the freezer, I rushed out of the room and served her and quickly scrammed off.

I locked myself up in my room crying and mourning my brother, who I've not seen his corpse since he was taken out, I've not been allowed to go outside the gate ever since. My uncle came in so drunk and came into my room and pounced on me and raped me like he always does, I was just a thing of the day for Beatrice and a tool of the night for Jude who is always gambling away my dad's properties!

The next day, I was feeling sick in the morning so I just curled up in bed and waited for whoever wanted to take advantage of me but I just collapsed out of exhaustion, I could swear I didn't want to wake from the unconscious state I was , I just wanted to die but Beatrice brought in a nurse who told her, I am dehydrated, malnourished and it's not good for my baby! "What baby?, my eyes flashed open and was like what! Aunt Beatrice paid the nurse and she left and came with a whip and knife.

"Was it the carrot from yesterday that got you pregnant" she asked me rhetorically and I annoyingly said yes! she whipped me but I've had enough and stood and asked her to stop! She was surprised at my sudden boldness, "I've had enough of you treating me like a maid in my father's house and going up and down as if you own the world" she was shocked at my words "Jude is your father!" she said more like a question, "God forbid, that monster can never be my father, he killed my father and took over everything" she looked me like I was crazy and laughed! "That's none of my business, who got you pregnant?" she shouted at me and I wanted to walk out of her but she pulled me back and started whipping me like a horse and I screamed, "It's your stupid husband, yes Jude your husband got me pregnant!"

Beatrice was shocked so she just left the room and I didn't see her face throughout the day, I curled up at a corner of my room and wept my eyes out, I'm carrying the child of the man that killed my parents, I tried to kill myself several times that day but I couldn't, then I went to the kitchen and took a knife and hid it under my pillow, uncle Jude will surely come tonight!

Later in the night, around 11:30pm he walked in, he wasn't drunk and he began to touch me, I drew out my knife at his neck and he smirked at me, he held my hands and twisted it and pointed the knife to my neck! "How dare you threaten me with this, you dirty little cunt?" He brought the knife closer to my neck and I knew he was going to kill me right that instant, I was gasping as the knife got to my throat. "I'm pregnant!" I mummbled and he looked shocked "What?" he whispered.

"You better get rid of it or I'll cut it out for you" he threatened and I wept "You ruined my life, Uncle! God will punish you for this!" I cursed bitterly. "I guess your work is done here, you've got no use for me anymore" he said and strangled me. I felt life slipping out of me when the door was flung open and I saw Beatrice with a bottle of acid! "I wanted to get enough evidence that you were truly sleeping with my husband, now get up right now!" she shouted and uncle Jude quickly let go off me, I fell to the floor trying to catch my breath.

"Now who got you pregnant once again?" she shouted and I pointed at uncle Jude but he snatched the whip from Beatrice and began to whip me, I screamed at the top of my voice, Beatrice sent me out of the house in the middle of the night, but I kept banging the gate. She poured the acid all over my face and neck, I screamed as I scratched, I fell and fainted! I guess my heart skipped a few beats and they thought I was dead. Beatrice is now added to my death wish list.

Uncle Jude and Beatrice carried me in a car and dumped me on the famous dumping ground close to the market. They thought I was dead, I felt flashes of cameras when my eyes opened, a crowd was all over me, looks like I spent a whole day on the dumping ground and people were scared of coming close because I looked like a rotting corpse due to the acid, when my eyes opened everyone scattered and ran off, I wept and left where I was, I looked at the window of a house and I was staring right into a hideous looking creature, I was deformed to the worst opposite of the beauty I was before.

I kept roaming about the streets, no one wants to employ me to work, I went to the morgue where my brother was kept and saw his corpse! I watched his dead body and wept like crazy but then I stopped crying all of a sudden, I was lucky not to be blind from the acid and that was a deadly mistake of Beatrice, I went to the management and told them to bury my brother because I have no money to pay, they took pity on me and I worked with them as a corpse cleaner for 2 months before they let me go, I've paid for my brothers burial in that way, I didn't look any different from the corpses I was washing.

I slept close to my brothers grave one night and saw him in my dream, he looked so peaceful, "I love you, take care of yourself, I'm with Daddy now!" he said and left, what about mummy? are you not with mummy too then I woke up and took to my heels when I saw a hand pop out of a grave close to my brother's, then I remembered I was in a fucking burial ground in the middle of the night, at 2pm. My clothes were smelling, I haven't had any good food or bath for about a week now and I was stinking, anyone that passed besides me covered their nose.

I looked exactly like someone who was used for money ritual, a walking corpse, I kept sleeping in front of various shops and tried contacting my friends in highschool but no one recognized me, uncle Jude told everyone I travelled out of the country with my brother and he had sent us to school abroad! Precious looked at me with disgust and said "how can you be Jessica when she's left for USA with her brother to study" I just walked away and tried to hide my protuding belly.

I am literally all alone, I looked like a mad woman as I walked from shops to shops to beg for what to eat and wear, people will chase me out of their shops and say I should not bring bad luck into their shops and it broke my heart, they will throw whatever they wanted to give me at me from afar, a fruit seller walked down to me with a very big gown, my pregnancy is 7 months and almost my birthday, she knew my clothes where too small and exposed my protuding belly. She threw the cloth at me and a nylon containing fruits and prayed to it, I didn't care what she used it to do, I wore the white gown and ate the fruits, and said "Thank you very much ma'am, I'm grateful" she looked suprised because she thought I was a lunatic, she quickly walked away before anyone will see her.

She kept staring back at me and shaking her head, I guess she would be wondering how a mad woman could speak so fluently. Then I saw Beatrice and a maid, I guess they came for groceries, I went really mad and ran towards her and pounced on her and beat her, she didn't recognize me and thought it was just a random madwoman and screamed for help, I ran after them forgetting I was pregnant. Everyone in the market never saw me aggressive like other mad people.

They were all shocked and saw as I bursted into tears and started crying seriously and a little orphan walked up to me and gave me an handkerchief, I took it and walked back to my shade.. The woman that gave me clothes and fruits had a son who doesn't understand his work in school, so I would scribble the answers and slid it in his school bag, the day the woman caught me, she looked at me and said "I was one intelligent lunatic, and then I told her I wasn't a lunatic, I'm just a victim".

I already had plans of abandoning my child once it was born, and I'll pick my life from there, I sat and was about to explain everything that happened to me when we heard siren, they were tax forces, and they wanted to come and arrest and scatter shops for not paying tax, people were already running Helter skelter when I followed my instinct and ran after the only woman that was nice to me, I could be due anytime and I was scared of what I would do when it was time, Sharp pain grabbed me and I fell to the ground, the woman ran back to me and helped me to her house that was close by.

She helped me deliver my baby in which was only a success at around 10:00pm, I was in labour for 4 hours and it was a very terrible experience for me. She congratulated me as she brought the child close to me, I didn't want to touch her, the child cried so hard and a part of me wanted to hold her but it was like holding Jude close to my heart and that's the last thing I would do on earth, The woman saw that I never wanted the child, she understood my pain, I was probably raped by unknown men or a family member and didn't want to have anything to do with what reminded me of my trauma but she begged me to hold her.

When I held her she looked straight into my eyes with pleading eyes telling me she's innocent, she looked like my mom and elder brother! she was nothing like my uncle, she held my fingers tight and pouted, tears flew down my cheeks, she's beautiful! I would never give up such an innocent gift so I kissed her and breastfed her, the woman was almost crying at the sight and gave me some clothes and water to clean up and have some rest. She took the baby away, I found her kindness unnatural but I shrugged it off. I cleaned up and went to my room, my child is still not there then I went to look for her, what I saw made my stomach sink into my stomach!

I rushed at her and snatched my baby from her, she was a ritualist who uses the first water used to bath babies to call more customers to her shop, no one needs to teach me that, I've seen so much when I slept in corners in the market, I took my baby and poured the water away far away and she jumped up and placed her hand on her head, she ran mad instantly and chased after me, I held my baby tight and protectively, yes I didn't want her before but I can't leave my child for ritualist, that's a mother's first instincts, protect your child and I kept running until I lost her.

I sat in front of a very huge gate and held my baby, she was sleeping peacefully, I can't abandon her even though I don't have anything to give to her and for a long time in 2 years I prayed to God because of my child, it began to pour so hard and I just covered her, today is my 18th birthday, same as my child's! A day of joy and reminder of pain..I was too weak to walk anymore and we slept off at the gate midnight approached and sharp beam of light shone on my eyes and I woke up and held my child firmly. I was about to run when a man grabbed me and hit me to the floor and chased me off the gate, I apologized and walked away hurriedly then I heard two hot slaps on his face, I looked back at him to see who defended me.

It was a slim lady of about 20 years who called me back and fired the man..I was scared but hopefully, and I walked in as she packed the car in her garage full of cars, I was shivering in the cold and she put her jacket over me and ushered me in, I stood in, the living room was paradise, three maids rushed out of different rooms to welcome her. She looked back at me with sad eyes and bowed "Welcome Great Empress!"