As soon as mom alighted from her vehicle, she started up the hallway stairs with one of the luggages. I carried the other. Cameron was not anywhere around but as we both climbed up with our luggage and one baby strapped to her chest, and the other in a baby carrier which she pushed as we walked, we heard a phone ring, and Cameron answered the call. He was inside the house after all. And we could hear his footsteps approaching us in the hallway. He must have heard a car drive into the parking lot. Mom went over to click the switch in the hallway and the lights came on. He needed to see how much of a beauty she was, even after having three babies(me and the twins)-- three beautiful girls. Then, with her shoulder bent backwards, and her chin raised, mom walked farther into the house towards my room. He stopped mom halfway by standing on the way."Hey" he said, smacking his lips. It was obvious that he liked what he saw, but he also looked shocked and confused."Hey too" mom said and pa
The next day, I woke up earlier than anyone in the house, mostly because it was my birthday but also because I was returning to school. I had my bath without any help, cleaned up and dressed up. I sat at my desk and took out Joe's white pouch, the one he left in my room on the last day I saw him. I kissed it, smelt it and after staring at it for a while, returned it to its rightful place. Then I thought of what i can do to set my mood well for the day. I wanted to be in a good mood. I decided to send a message to someone faraway hoping for a reply . Remember that superstition I believed in? Yeah, that.I designed a kite and affixed a message at the top. It was a letter to Joe. This is how it read:"I hope you're doing great up there, buddy. I am returning to school today after weeks of mourning your death. I want to be strong, I want to make mom happy, she's been worried about me. I want to live for both of us, and I promise you, Joe that I'll avenge your death. I don't know how to d
Joe didn't appear to me in human form like I envisaged; he answered my questions in a dream. I woke up with mixed feelings because Joe's response elicited both joy, surprise, anxiety and fear in me. Besides that, my second dream that night was totally bad. It was not new to me, yet it was still scary. It was the dream about mom's baby dying. That would be like the third or maybe fourth time I would see mom in my dream, with a baby in her arms but she looked sad and tears streamed down her face as she stared at it because the baby in her arms was no longer breathing.I was not the type that dreamed. In fact these dreams would be my first ever since I was born. They were spectacular dreams, and I was not as confused as I thought I'd be, because the two dreams were interwoven. In my last letter to Joe, I had asked him what the significance of his white pouch was-the small bag he left in my room before he passed away. It had taken him a while to reply me. Probably he was trying to decide
The next day at school, during the training at lunch break as usual, Uncle Robinson read the rules to us like he always did before going into the lesson:Be punctual to training (It's either you eat your lunch earlier or eat it after the training). Coming late to training lessons attracts punishmentTraining lasts for two hours everyday. 30 minutes during lunch break, and one hour, thirty minutes after closing hour between the hours of 1:30pm-3:00pm. On no account should you leave the school premises except the training lessons are over for the dayWhen you're asked a question, you're mandated to respond as soon as you can.Do not eat during the training hoursThese were the rules for the time being. I decided to break all of them, and so when Uncle Robinson asked me a question, I acted like I didn't hear him. I also brought some of my leftover food to the hall and ate so openly. My other competitors warned me but I was hell-bent on getting disqualified. Uncle Robinson and the other t
Prologue The sound of the gurneys almost deafen my ears, and the light from these doctors' torches is blinding me but I keep running towards the scene. It is 12 o' clock. In the midnight, I know even though I don't look at the clock over my head. With sweaty palms and terrific faces, five gurneys are wheeled towards the emergency rooms by the late night doctors. Even though their mouths are shut tight, I can hear millions of inaudible sounds coming out of them. Each of the gurneys are being wheeled by two personnels, and each time they pass me by, i peer into them to see the victims' faces clearly because I can not see them from where I am.The first face I see is badly disfigured. It's got a big mark from the forehead down to her upper eyelid, her lips are charred and her jaw is almost totally detached from the rest of her face. Hot drops of blood trickle down her head to her chest and her dress is soiled. She looks like she is no longer breathing and just as the ambulan
I was christened Ariana May. I bear Ariana May Peyton in case you do not know my name, but I'd prefer to be called Ariana May. Peyton reminds me of pain.This is Ariana May, and this is the story of my life I am telling you. The ones you've just read is nothing compared to others that befell me, if you don't mind being patient going through my story. Hopefully one or two things will catch your fancy in the matter of character adjustments and or hope for survival.I am a bookworm, a book lover I mean. I've always been one right from kindergarten. I read so much books I felt I would explode one day if I didn't stop. I didn't stop, and I also did not explode. Instead, they made me smarter. I read mystery books, thrillers and fantasies or general kid books. I read teen fiction too but I stayed away from horror. Mom bought me all of my books. I've got at least seventy books in my bookshelf and mom got them all for me. It was not a problem for her at all.Someti
I didn't like compounding her stress. Sometimes I feel bad for letting her cook for me, or take me to school. But what can I do when I don't like the bus? Yes, I could catch the bus everyday to school, to save my mom some stress, right? I wish I could, but I didn't like the bus. Or maybe I liked the bus but disliked the people in it. Especially Big Joe. Big Joe's a classmate of mine. They called him 'Big Joe because he was tall, and his handwriting was huge. He was not physically big, but he was really tall. He was in fact the tallest in my class.I disliked Big Joe because he picked on me with every chance he got. He mocked my body hair and my size. He called me 'fat', 'rich and ugly', and 'clumsy'.He was right. I was fat and clumsy. Sometimes my steps get awkward when I walk, and it was because I was nervous and frightened by the people around me. About me being ugly, I'm not sure. Everyone I get close to, calls me pretty. He is the only one, (apart from the monst
I wanted to talk to someoneAnyone.So I went into Cameron's room, where he was working on his computer, and subconsciously hugged his leg while wailing on the cold floor."Cameron, I was kidnapped, some men..some men..." I couldn't let the words out. Surprisingly, he stopped typing and lifted me off the floor."A man..carried ...he....I was waiting for Mom...he..." I was stuttering, my eyes filled with terror.He didn't say a word. He just carried me into my room and rocked me to sleep. I had never seen him like that. It was so soothing that I soon fell asleep. It was because I was really tired, so it was easy to fall asleep under his soothing hand movements on my shoulder. It was the first time he ever touched me.When I woke up, Cameron was gone, and the room was darker now. I still couldn't process what happened in the past hours. My head was hurting, and my legs felt like steel. I carefully sat up on my bed and looked at the time: It was roughly th