5

Inara called Zee’s phone but there was no response from her. She contemplated paying her a visit in order to confront her about the strange message but instead, she rode home, unable to control the constant pounding of her heart.

At home, after handing over Amara’s pringles to her, she went straight inside her bedroom and locked herself inside so that she could think or more like hide from the world. Flopping herself down onto her bed, she curled herself into the comforter, wishing that she didn’t exist. To her surprise, her phone rang and it was Zee, so she picked the call and listened.

“How many nightmares have you had?” Zee asked, going straight to the point and Inara was surprised. She didn’t know that Zee knew about that.

“How can you know about that? Did you have any too?” She asked, her voice a hoarse whisper due to the fear that she was feeling.

“Yes.” Zee answered. “How many have you had?”

Inara cleared her throat so that she could find her voice.

“What does it matter?” she asked, gratified that her voice was more audible.

“This is important Inny.” Zee said gravely.

“One nightmare.” Inara informed her.

“My God, she was right.” Zee exclaimed.

“Who?” Inara demanded. “What are you talking about?”

“Inny, listen to me very carefully.” Zee said in a voice that sounded crucial. “You are two nightmares away from dying in a horrible way if you fail to perform your dare.”

Inara froze for a few seconds, goose bumps marring her skin. “I don’t understand.” She said finally.

The line went dead and before she could think, her phone was ringing again. It was Zee, but this time, it was a video call.

When Inara picked the call, she saw what looked like Zee standing in front of the camera in what looked like a low class hotel room. She wasn’t sure that it was Zee because Zee looked advanced in years, with pale, swollen eyes like one who wasn’t getting enough sleep.

The sight was too unsettling for her to keep lying down and Inara had to leap off from the bed and onto the floor where she managed to stand, though her legs were shaking.

“Zee, is that really you? You look like you’re eighty years old.”

“Seventy eight” Zee corrected. “This is how you will look if you don’t perform your dare.”

A rush of mounting dread enveloped Inara, freezing her.

“But I’m recovering.” Zee explained. “After your second nightmare, thirty years will be added to you as a warning. The third nightmare adds another thirty years after which you will …die Inny.”

Inara couldn’t control the rapid rising and falling of her chest, as her heart pounded with a sick feeling of horror.

“How…how did you know all this?” she asked.

“I saw a spiritualist after I started changing and she told me. I’ve run away to some hotel to recover after I performed my dare because my parents will be back soon. I don’t wanna scare anyone. Recovery is a day after you’ve done it.”

“Did you know the consequence of this dare?” Inara whined.

“If I did I never would have tried it.” Zee said regrettably and Inara wondered about how Zee had gone about the dare she had given her.

“So how did your dare end?” She asked.

“Let’s just say that he declined.”

Inara was afraid but still felt bad for Zee at the same time.

“Wait a second Inny.” Zee said urgently and it made Inara feel like something horrible had just happened.

“What?” she almost cried with heightened tension and panic.

“I thought you said that you’ve not had a second nightmare.”

“Yes, I’ve only had one nightmare.” Inara confirmed. She didn’t like the way that Zee was looking at her. It was a look of horror as though she was seeing something ghostly.

“Are you sure? Because you just changed.”

Inara’s eyes widened and she tore her eyes away from the phone and rested them on the mirror at her dresser, shocked to see that the reflection of herself was late forties.

In that horrifying moment, time seemed to stop for Inara as she stared at her strange reflection, frozen. It was Zee’s voice calling her name that rendered her mobile again, jolting her out of her shock.

“Inny.” Zee called again, drawing Inara’s attention back to the phone “Get a hold of yourself.”

“Oh my God.” Inara whispered, feeling her body grow cold. She hoped that she would not faint from the terror that had wrapped around her like a second skin.

“You have to hurry Inny.” Zee advised urgently.

“But I never had…” Inara started and remembered the text message that she had received from Zee at the supermarket.

“Did you send me a text message some moments back?” she asked.

“No.” Zee responded, shaking her head.

“It read The last dare will no longer wait” Inara explained, doubtful about Zee’s response. But why would Zee lie about such a thing? She wondered.

“As you must know by now, I am familiar with the words but I never sent them to you.”

“Hold on.” Inara said and quickly checked the last text message that Zee had sent her. It wasn’t there. An uncanny realization hit her then and she brought the video call back to her screen.

“That was my second nightmare.” She said to Zee who let out a gasp of alarm. And then Inara heard a knock on her door.

“Inara.” called Amara from outside her bedroom door.

“Shit, I have to go” Inara said to Zee.

“That was your warning change Inny, please be smart.” Zee advised and ended the call.

With trembling fingers, Inara placed the phone on the bed and cast her gaze upon her reflection on the mirror again. The older version of her stared back and she still could not believe it. She touched her face and every move she made was reflected in the mirror like it was normal.

“Inara, open up. Mum just called. They are heading home.” Amara said from outside her bedroom door and the information hit Inara with a fresh jolt of panic.

Inara couldn’t let anyone see her like this. She guessed that it was time to perform her dare but she knew that she couldn’t do it looking like someone else. When was the warning change going to end? she wondered and hoped that it would not be for long. Her parents would be home any moment from now and she couldn’t hide inside her room forever.

“I’m using the toilet.” she said and heard the sound of a car zooming into their driveway. She also heard her sister’s footsteps shuffling away from her bedroom door and towards the living room door. She kept her ears pinned to her door and heard the sound of the car engine stop.

“Mum, dad.” She heard Amara greeting them excitedly. Without being out there, she knew that they had their arms open to hug Amara.

She suddenly realized that she missed that show of affection. But she couldn’t go out there now. It was true what they say; you never know what you’ve got till it’s gone.

“Where is your sister?” she heard her mother asking.

“She is inside her bathroom.” Amara was explaining as she heard the sound of the main door opening, their voices and footsteps growing closer.

Pulling herself away from the door, Inara hurried into her bathroom and locked eyes with her new image on the mirror. It scared her and she sat on the lid of her toilet seat, frightened. She was contemplating running away to hide with Zee at whatever hotel she was staying and then returning home when the warning change elapsed when a knock sounded at her door again.

“Inara, are you done yet?” Amara asked and Inara knew that she was back at her bedroom door.

“Soon.” Inara responded, projecting her voice so that Amara could hear her clearly.

“Mum and dad are asking for you.”

They had been raised up to meet and greet their parents whenever they returned home. Even though they were sleeping, they had to wake up, meet and greet them before returning to bed. It was just their family culture and they were all used to it.

“I’m coming.” Inara said to her sister. “I will be done soon.”

She heard the sound of her sister’s footsteps as she strolled away and tears welled up in her eyes. She decided to escape from the house through her bedroom window.

Inara rose up to gaze at her reflection in the mirror again and a gasp of surprise escaped her. She was back to normal but on the mirror, she saw the familiar words The last dare will no longer wait

scribbled in blood. The words disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

“I’m coming.” She shouted from relief and a mixture of dread because she had no time again.

Inara had no idea about when the next nightmare will come and she wasn’t waiting around to let it happen. With her eyes still watered, she exited the bathroom and into her bedroom, heading straight towards the door. When she opened it, she saw Amara coming towards her room.

“Amara, I’m pregnant.” she said in a whisper.

Amara stopped in her tracks and glanced around cautiously.

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Amara whispered back and moved closer to her.

“I can’t hide it anymore.” Inara said quietly maintaining their hushed conversation.

“Jesus. Dad is a Reverend. He will kill you.”

“I know.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I think the question is, who is responsible?”

The girls were shocked to find their father stepping out from the corridor of the kitchen with a cup of coffee in hand.

“I…welcome dad.” Inara greeted awkwardly and he nodded curtly, his burning gaze full of disappointment. Inara had gotten her green eyes from him while Amara had gotten her blue eyes from their mother.

“You just had to ruin the excitement of seeing you huh?”

“I’m sorry dad.”

Her father placed his coffee on the dining table beside him and began to pace about, left and right. He stopped for a moment and looked at her.

“My daughter, my own daughter.” he lamented, unbelieving and Inara was awash with regret at the pain she saw him feeling.

“Daddy.” she said pleadingly.

“Go to our room.”

“Daddy please.”

“Now!” he roared and Inara found herself hurrying towards her parent’s room. At the door, she gave it a quick knock.

“Mummy, can I come in?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“Of course sweety, I’ve been dying to see my baby girl.” She heard her mother answer excitedly. She wished that she could feel the same way but there was currently fire on the mountain and she had nothing to be excited about.

Inara turned the handle of the door and pushed it open. Her mother was already approaching her, a smile on her face as she threw her arms open for a hug. Inara flew into her arms and quickly hugged her since she hadn’t gotten a chance to hug her dad. Besides if her mother knew what was going on, there would be no hug. After a brief hug with her mother and they had disengaged from each other’s arms, Inara went down on her knees, her body shaking.

“Please forgive me mother.”

Her mother placed a worried hand onto her shoulder in a bid to calm her down.

“Sweetheart, why? What have you done?”

“Mum, I’m pregnant.” She said and her mother’s hand flew off her shoulder from the shock of the information. Inara was not surprised at her mother’s reaction. It had been expected.

“And we are about to find out who is responsible.” her dad said, stepping inside, a whip already in his hand. Inara was sure that he had already lost his appetite and abandoned his coffee, which made her feel very sorry.

That was how the interrogation about her pregnancy had begun. And now, haven mentioned Lemuel’s name, her father ordered her to leave for her room and get ready because, they would be confronting him the next day.

Inara couldn’t control the tremors that rocked her body as she fled from her parent’s room, whipping past a concerned Amara at the corridor and heading for her room as she dreaded what the future held for her on the path that she had chosen.