Chapter 2 : "Mourning of A Dying Songbird"

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 2

"Soraya Lewis?" A middle-aged man came to approach her.

She hesitated to make a chat with the man but she had this snoopy cat inside her. 

"What is it?" She replied emotionless but deep inside, she was puzzled.

'How did this man had her name?' she asked to herself.

"Are you Soraya Lewis?" The man asks again. His furrowed eyebrows bent a little. 

"Yes, that's me. What's the matter?" She answered effortlessly. She is hungry and dizzy so she haven't spare time to do some chitchats with this man.

The expression of that man suddenly changed. 

His eyes rounded as big as if it was having a conversation with a ghost. 

His mouth were wide-opened. From curious-looking to ecstatic one.

"You're the missing person on the bulletin board! You've been missing for days! Your parent were definitely worried about you. I will call the police so you can go home." her cold attitude towards the man changed. 

She can't think straight. Threads inside her mind tussled up to the point that she can't even utter a word.

She was rescued by two police mobile and an ambulance truck. She thanked the man for informing the officers about her presence.

A month passed after that incident, she became more sensitive.

She became angry easily and one way or another, laughing joyfully.

Small works and activity that presumed a little force made her bushed well.

Her mom and dad was disquieted about her so they hired a specialist to look for her condition.

"Congratulations Mr. Dwayne and Mrs. Catherine Lewis, your daughter's having a bun in her oven. She's pregnant. Congrats again!" the doctor brought the news to the couple.

But to the couple, it wasn't a good news to celebrate of. Mrs. Lewis yelled in pain. 

"My dear's having a baby with her rapist? You got to be kidding me!" Cath can't take the pressure that she have passed out.

Dwayne panicky called for help. "Old Winston, ready the car now!" Old Winston hurriedly set the car and they drove to the hospital.

They thought Mrs. Lewis only passed out, but they were shocked when the doctor came out of the emergency room.

The doctor shook his head before putting it down.

"Do you mean..?" Mr. Lewis haven't finished the sentence yet when the doctor interrupted it.

"Yes." he replied shortly and patted Dwayne's back.

She got a heart attack when hearing the news of her daughter's bearing a child. 

There's nothing to worry about if their precious princess were having a baby. But the thing is, it's the rapist's own blood and flesh.

Mrs. Lewis can't stand it so she got stressed and sooner or later, died.

Dwayne cried in grief. He's pointing himself to be the one who is in charged of this situation. 

If he took care of their daughter Soraya well, they didn't have to surpass this cataclysm and his wife will not sleep forever in so much pain.

It is he, who is applicable to blame.

It is he, who had the wrong decisions in life.

He raised Soraya even there is an absence of his wife. He cared his daughter and her unborn baby even he is alone.

"Dad what's the meaning of this?" Soraya look puzzled and took a glare to the old woman in front of her.

Her bluish gray-tinged eyes were wandering as she take a look with the woman's figure and its children.

Her blonde afro coiffure looks elegant as if she was one of the members of a royal family. Her rose-tinted lips resembles her well sculpt cheeks. 

Her children looks the same as hers. 

Soraya's thought suddenly discontinued when the old lady finally say a word. "You must be Soraya right?" The old woman gaze at her as if it were talking to a stranger.

"Yes Ma'am, and you—"

"Mr. Lewis' first and original wife." Soraya didn't finished her sentence yet when the woman held over it.

Her slanted pear-shaped ears were at lost. 

'First and original wife?' 

"Come again?" She phrased as she make-believe herself that she have detected mistaken.

"You heard me." the old woman's voice deflected from sweet to a cold homicidal one.

She knew that her Mom and Dad argued for several times but she haven't heard of her Dad's legal wife. She haven't know it all.

"I will have a business trip maybe four to five times a week. Marie, please take care of Soraya until I came back." Dwayne's withered tone flicked through Marie's sense of hearing.

Marie nodded her head and kissed Dwayne's cheek.

Months passed, her Dad regularly go to overseas because of his job. Soraya and Marie— her stepmom, together with its children, who happened to be her stepsisters were the only one left.

Their sweet and caring attitude in front of her and her father changed all of a sudden. Their bounderish being made Soraya more upset.

'They're wolves in sheeps' clothing.' she sighed cursing them in her mind.

Marie and her daughters, Meanne and Mnemosyne took in charged of the house. They vantage the absence of Dwayne. When he's not around, they brought Soraya lots of hardwork even they were surrounded by maids. 

Her two brat elder sisters furiously hurt Soraya whenever she made a mistake.

"I'm pregnant, do you ever had the culpability to withstand this?" She was so angry that she wanted to dismembered them into pieces. 

But she kept it inside her frigid palm-sized face.

"And who the hell are you to make a voice? You disgraceful illegitimate child of Dad!" Mnemosyne's words were like knives that landed on Soraya's throat.

Her sarcastic countenance made them more angry that they're craved to cursed her to death.

"This is my house, their blood, sweat and tears founded this hacienda. So if I were the b*stard in my own house, then who are you?" she said in a drastic tone as she withdrew a snicker laugh to the two scamp in front of her.

"You.." Meanne's face turn red as if she wished to kick Soraya till she can't walk.

Soraya held her chin up, and leave those assh*les like there's nothing serious happened.

On the other hand, Soraya had this feeling of guilt inside her. 

A sudden burst of tears hugged her being again.

'Is she the one who caused her mother a burden before she dies?' She drew a conclusion while silently looking at the night sky.

Two tubes of liquid continues to drop in Soraya's cheeks. She felt like she was stabbed a hundred and thousands of knife inside her heart.

She can't even go to the cemetery and visit her mother's grave. Complicity is killing her from within.

Even if his father explained it well, she knew that he was doing it to relieved her sufferings.

She turn her head up, forcing herself to cut those tears out. 

A familiar tune flashed from her noddle. The melody kept on swaying swiftly on her head. 

Later she realized that she was singing the same.

"For all those times you stood by me~" she wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

"For all the truth that you made me see~" she's singing even her voice went crack because of her sobs.

This song is often sung by her mother. Her mom taught this song to her when she was twelve.

"Whenever you sing this song, I will show up to you and give you the most endearing and powerful hug ever." her mom told her while grinning from ear to ear.

"Ok mom, I will." she said and hugged her.

Her deep cut back were abrupted when a chilling air  slapped her consciousness.

"Mom, I sang it already, where are you now? Why did you come up and give me a hug?" Her tears burst out while saying those words.

Her mom have been always with her every single day. Now is the day she needed her the most, but she left her too early.

She was in the middle of her thoughts when a voice came at the the back of her head.

"You're being too dramatic again, do you have tons and tons of tears inside that bag? I bet they're not going dry." her high-pitched voice pretending to be cute were getting the cr*p out of Soraya.

"Oh Syne, what's shaking?" she asked and mocked her face up.

"Nothing, I'm bored, kindly help me to wash these clothes...pretty please?" Mnemosyne grinning widely.

Soraya knew it. They're too soft-mannered when they were asking for favor and like a raging bull the second time after.

"Ok." she replied shortly and was about to take the clothes when she slipped into a lubricous floor and spilled the chlorine solution she was holding on Mnemosyne's red velvet fitted dress.

She was so angry that she was about to explode. She held Soraya's hair furiously and drop her to the floor.

"You misbegot and ungrateful child! You're way too disgusting! Let's make a game you will never forget!" she gripped Soraya's wrist and pushed her causing Soraya to fall out of her balance and bounced to the floor.

"Let go of me! M-my baby.." Soraya's weary voice can't stop Mnemosyne for giving her a lesson.

They all stopped when a red liquid went out from Soraya's leg.

"My baby.."