SIX-- IT GOT BLOODY

I trailed off as my eyes began to shut down. I was tired too, and the warm bath mom gave me had only put me in a refreshing position to sleep easier. I only slept for ten minutes because I knew what the time was, when my eyes were shutting down. 

I woke up suddenly, with a jolt, and with my hands on my mouth, because I knew a short scream had just escaped it. I made up my mind to protect mom, as much as I could, from the hand of her monster-husband, especially protecting the baby. I would not let anything happen to him/her, I told myself. If Cameron tried to lay his hands on her, I'd hit him with something big and strong. Or something small and sharp. It was not something I merely thought.

It first came as a thought, but I let it grow into a plan. I didn't dismiss the thought. Because I remember seeing Cameron come to the door of my bedroom, he knocked and knocked, like a hundred times but when no one opened the door for him, he kicked it open and the door fell with a mighty thud just with one kick. 

Then he walked in fiercely and with his ferocious build, he pulled my long hair and yanked me out of the window without thinking twice, as though I were as light as a feather, then just as I fell slowly down to the pavement outside, I saw him lift mom's head from the bed and hit it several times on the wall, violently.  Blood was everywhere. That was why I had woken up suddenly, screaming. But it was a great relief to find mom sleeping peacefully before me, and there was no Cameron in sight. 

Well, when the thought of hitting Cameron with something small and sharp came to my mind at first, I had quickly dismissed it. I did that because I didn't want to bring trouble to my mom or for myself. Cameron was brutal but I was not in a position to hurt him or possibly kill him. It'd be better to hand him over to the cops than take law into my hands. I was even too little to think of murder, and too naive to do it clean and get away with it.

One of my teachers, my Civil Education teacher taught us in class about crimes and effects of crimes, especially murder. 

I would not want anything to separate me and mom. So that is why I dismissed the thought. But I was soon to call it back. If Cameron was that heartless, then maybe he deserved to get hurt too, at least. 

The first night mom slept in my room, Cameron didn't return home. Only God knew where he went to, because he didn't tell anyone, or maybe mom knew- he must have gone to patronize one of his whores. As usual, it was nothing new. He didn't even hide it. He never did. He called his girlfriends on phone in the presence of mom, whenever she refused him sex owing to her accumulated fatigue. "His sexual drive can never be termed as normal. He's a vampire, aiming to suck me dry, everytime" Mom did say. Not to me though. For all mom cared, he was a male harlot.

I imagined what would happen if Cameron walked into the house in the middle of the night, drunk as usual, and finds out that Ruby was sleeping in my room, and not in their matrimonial room. Yes, Cameron drank too. I felt like I was about to watch an horrific movie play right in front of me.

 The way he harassed mom was horrifying. I wondered if the dream would materialize in reality. I wondered what would become of mom and me.. It was as if our lives were in the hands of Cameron.

"God, please" I muttered to the heavens with a small voice.

"God, please. Please, God" I didn't know what else to say. Probably because there was too much to say. I held on to the hem of mom's skirt and watched her sleep. She looked so peaceful. Except for the bandage on one half of her face, she looked like she had no troubles. 

Her left hand was on my thighs, so I didn't move an inch. I didn't want to wake her. I wanted to make sure she had a good night's sleep, like she did for me too. 

So I waited, and kept my eyes open all through the night. Mom didn't turn in her sleep but she soon started to snore heavily. She wasn't a snorer, but she was exhausted that night. 

I waited until it was 11pm. Then I slowly took mom's left hand off my thighs and laid it carefully on my bed, and opened my curtains a bit wider than it was. The street was not so quiet, some vehicles were still moving. I watched and waited twenty more minutes to see if his vehicle was coming yet. 

After twenty minutes and his vehicle was not forthcoming, I left the window side and went to have a seat at my desk. My eyes were shutting down, but I forced them open. 

"Nothing's going to happen to you anymore, mom" I whispered to her sleeping body. I put off the lights, and carefully lifted my wardrobe stand. There was my secret place. No one else knew about that spot, except me. I opened one of the tiles and dug deep into the sandy area there. I dug for five minutes, yet I couldn't find what I was looking for. I couldn't even find the other things that were there that I wasn't looking for 

You know, I stole Cameron's gold chains, Bangles and trinkets.  He had too many, so he never found out eleven of it were missing. Imagine that? If he had found out, all hell would have been let loose. I didn't steal it for myself, I did it for Mom. I'll tell you more about this soon.

Meanwhile, I had to use my diary. It was always kept in the soil under the tile I removed, the tile under my wardrobe stand. And that was what I was searching for, that moment. 

I needed to make a record of what might possibly happen that night. 

"Tonight, I'll stab Cameron. Mom has had enough of his games. I'll stab him anywhere the knife touches. I don't care that he has to go through pain, it's just a dose of a well-deserved poison" I wanted to write . But where was my diary?

"What?? Where has my diary gone to??" I was worried. That was where I kept the diary where I wrote everything that happened in this monster's house. It was dangerous to carry this diary with me everywhere. It was not safe because I didn't want anyone to see it. 

"Where's it? This is where I bury it every night. Where is it?? Oh my goodness" I began to sweat despite that the weather was not warm. 

Just then, I heard a sound. Sound of a vehicle zooming into the compound. Like lightning, I covered the soil and placed the tile smoothly over it such that no one would ever know something lived under it. Then with calculated but swift steps, I unlocked my door and hastened my steps into the main kitchen. It was dark and I didn't want to switch on the lights for fear of being caught by Cameron. I was careful not to fall on my way to the kitchen. 

My hands traced the knife rack and raked though it for a small, sharp knife. My hand grabbed something very sharp. Even in the dark, I knew it was sharp because it cut my palm just by slowly grazing my hand over it. I picked it up from the handle and made my way back into my room. To get back to my room, I had to pass through the living room.

By then, the sound of a car zooming into the compound had stopped. Everywhere was quiet. I needed to be fast before mom came to harm. I needed to find Cameron before he found mom. 

The light in the living room was on. So I hid behind the refrigerator and watched who had switched on the lights. A figure appeared from the other side of the room, and it was trotting carefully towards...

What? He's going towards my room! 

I crawled under the seats and curtain and crept after the figure. My little feet hardly made any sound. The knife was in my little deep pocket and I could reach for it as quickly as a twinkle of an eye. 

When I got to the front of my room, I found out that the door was open. I shook with fright. He had gone there first. I ran into the room, still unnoticed and went to the bed. There was mom, still sound asleep, only that I do not know if she was still breathing. My eyes darted around the dark room, and my hands ached to switch on the lights but I was scared because of the possible horror before me. 

The noise came again, muffled breaths and silent movements. Why would Cameron move so stealthily in his own house? No, Cameron was a loud person. If he fought with you, everyone would not only hear it, they'd also know why he was quarreling with you, because he'd mention it in his taunting words. He must want to do something sinister. 

I went to the back of the open door and hid there waiting for him to come back in. He was in the bathroom. Yes I knew that because i could hear the sound of the tap and then the sound of someone washing their face in a rush. What if he had killed mom, and was just in the bathroom to wash his bloody hands off the crime? I thought. 

No, no one could be as fast as that, not even a professional robber. I spent barely one minute in the kitchen

 It didn't take me so much time to find the sharp knife I wanted. 

Soon, he intruded my thoughts by appearing at the door. I saw him through the narrow opening that connected the door to the wall. I couldn't see the face or hear him talk, but I saw a figure. It slowly walked towards mom and I carefully bent down on my two knees and crawled after him, careful not to let him step on my shivering body. I saw with the corner of my eyes , in the faint light that was in the room, that he was holding a weapon. I had to be fast. 

He bent down and carefully laid his whole weight on mom's body. Just then, mom woke up, moving her hands with great fear written all over her expression. Cameron pulled down her band aid and grabbed her neck tightly in his hands. He didn't say a word too.

Mom struggled under his grip, fighting for her life. She could not talk or shout, she could only make incomprehensible sounds. 

I took out my knife and walked up to the body atop my mom's. You know he didn't see me because I was behind him and it was even dark. Even though I knew I should use the knife, I was so frightened. 

Soon I regained my courage when I saw mom's feet hitting the bed under his weight in exasperation. She was dying. 

Shutting my eyes and holding my breath, I moved closer to his body and slashed his back with the knife, with all of my strength. I tried to stab a second time, but the knife was buried deep into his back. Blood splashed onto my chest and there, on the small of his neck was the sign. The Blue Wolf sign. I gasped.

He groaned and screamed, and then his body rolled over to the floor. Then I ran down the stairs with unknown energy in my feet, ran out of our house, and into Mike Tony's. 

I hit his door several times with a stone shouting, "Help!!! My mom's dying!" But there was no answer. It was already midnight, but I ran to other neighbors' doors and pleaded for help. Two men answered the door quickly when they heard my voice, and ran back into our house, with me. My palms were filled with blood, and I was in shock. 

Back in the room, the two men who came with me switched on the lights but Cameron was gone. There was a generous amount of blood all over the floor. We were all panting. It had been a five minute race. I ran up to mom immediately. She was sitting up already, and burying her face in her palm. The sight was terrifying

"Please... please don't hurt me" she begged. "PL..please, I'll give you anything you want" she said. 

"Ruby, it's us, your neighbors" one of our neighbors who followed me into the house, Sir Colin answered her

"You're safe now, he's gone. Open your eyes. You recognize my voice, don't you?" 

So she slowly lifted her face. Her other eye was looking really bad. Cameron had yanked the band aid off her face.

"Mom I'm here" i said and went to sit by her side. "Are you okay?" 

"Are you okay, Ruby?" The other man, Zack asked her, and she slowly nodded. For some reason, she slowly nodded. 

"What really happened?" She asked. Oh my! She didn't even know. 

"Someone was holding my neck, I was suffocating" she said. "And then, it stopped and I hear him scream in pain and roll away from the bed. What happened? I was sleeping and..." 

"It's okay Ruby. You'll be fine" Zack and Sir Colin said in unison.

"Let's get you to an hospital. Ariana, please help us get your mom up" he said and I helped lift her from the bed. I had saved her. But I was still so scared. It was not a thief or a robber. The person hadn't requested for money. The person actually came to take mom's life. What if I wasn't fast enough? What if the baby in her stomach had been injured? Why would Cameron try to kill mom?, And why was he so silent? It was unusual. Very unusual.