Stepmother

08 | Hide and Seek

NEITHER THE PAIN-FILLED shrieks of Aisha, nor the stench of the vomit disturbed Dana as much as Jocelyn's statement did. She sat with bulging eyes and parted lips.

"Oh, yes." Jocelyn confirmed, eyeing Dana's reaction, before she glanced at Jim who peered at his sister with confusion. He couldn't tell what had been said that made her appear so shocked.

"Basically..." The stepmother twisted the knife where it was atop Aisha's hand. Soft cracking could be heard the more Jocelyn moved the blade, since it cracked the frail bones above her knuckles. Aisha slammed her foot on the floor repeatedly, her face bright red and pain twisting her features.

Dana snapped out of it and her gaze landed on her friend's impaled hand, as well as the blood seeping out and dripping down the table's leg. The metallic smell combined with the odor of throw up became unbearable.

"I used to work as this man's secretary. The first time he raped me, I became pregnant with you, Dana. After giving birth to you, I left you at his home and fled. He was a powerful man and I was scared to report him, so I ran far, far away. But every single day there, I would miss you. I'd yearn for the feel of you in my arms."

Aisha whimpered when Jocelyn pulled the knife out, at an agonizingly slow speed. The girl used her able hand to grab the wrist of the punctured hand, and she pulled it towards herself to cradle it. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and her breaths came out rapid.

Jocelyn leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, her eyes zeroing in on Dana.

"I went back. Surprisingly, he let me see you. He even offered me a place to stay, and I thought he was trying to apologize for his past actions. I was wrong. Turns out he was infatuated with me— obsessed, as one would call it, and he planned on making me his wife."

Dana felt sick to her stomach. Suddenly, she wished to throw up again. Deep down, she even wanted to forgive Jocelyn for her insanity, seeing as she wasn't entirely at fault.

"He managed to seduce me and sleep with me a second time, making me pregnant with Jim. After giving him birth, I found out about the bastard's plans of a marriage with me, but I wasn't ready. We even had a big argument over this and things escalated to me stabbing him repeatedly on the chest."

"Then you threw us into an orphanage and ran away again." Dana finished bitterly, her eyes brimming with tears. Surely she wasn't being unfair? All those years of feeling unwanted came rushing back, and when she recalled how her late adoptive father accepted them as their own, her sorrow doubled.

"Don't you dare be ungrateful to me!" Jocelyn shot up from her seat, her palms slamming on the table. Moments later, her mouth curled into a grin.

"Everytime I see you, his face comes before me. You both, actually. You have his hair, and Jimmy has his ugly eyes."

Jocelyn slowly lifted her hand that held onto the knife. She inspected the blood dripping off of it.

"And that's why I'm here- to erase everything related to him."

Suddenly, every loathing glare that she directed at Jim made sense.

Dana stood up as well, her hand flying to grab Jim's elbow. She glanced at her whimpering friend, who started standing up, her hateful eyes on Jocelyn.

"Let's play a game!" Jocelyn exclaimed out of the blue, with her face lighting up all of a sudden. "Hide and seek. I will count to five, and after that, me and my knife will begin the seek. The winner will receive a prize!"

Chairs were shoved away as the three already began their journey away from the table, and that's when Jocelyn started counting.

"One!"

Dana grabbed Jim's hand and broke out into a run. She didn't worry too much about Aisha, since she knew she could take care of herself.

"Two!"

They all nearly collided into the main door. Dana tugged the handle desperately, but it wouldn't open. Aisha concluded that it must have been locked, and the key was hidden somewhere.

"Three and Four!"

Their faces paled. Dana led them deeper into the house and towards the staircase that led up. She made Jim go first, before she followed and then Aisha, despite Dana's protests to go last.

"Five!"

Aisha shrieked when Jocelyn called out from right behind her. The woman had yanked onto the girl's hair and pulled her backwards, making her fall to the last stair.

"Aisha!" Dana screamed and she paused her steps to peer behind her. It was of no use. Jocelyn had climbed on top of the girl, and then began the assault of her knife onto the flailing girl.

Her heart shattered into pieces, but she had to leave Aisha and carry on for Jim's sake. She let out a deep sob, and her vision blurred when drops of sadness clouded it. They both reached the top floor and ran to the nearest door.

Dana slammed the door shut once they entered and locked it, before she turned on the lights. The place turned out to be a guest room.

"What do we do now?" Jim asked, pure terror coating his voice. Dana was preoccupied with searching the room for something specific, and she couldn't respond.

"There!" She said once she spotted the windows. Dana jumped onto the bed and ripped the curtains apart to reveal tinted glass windows, making it impossible to see outside.

Her aim was to bust it open so they could both jump out and make a run for it, but it seemed that won't be happening soon.

A deafening slam echoed against the guestroom's entrance, making the siblings flinch in their spots. Jim whimpered as he looked at Dana, who tried sliding the window open, but it wouldn't budge, like it was jammed.

The slams carried on without falter. On the fifth one, the bedroom burst open.

At the doorway stood Jocelyn, malice coating her eyes and blood coating her bathrobe. She held onto her drenched knife like a trophy in one hand.

The brother and sister knew when they exchanged a fearful glance, that soon, it wouldn't just be Aisha's blood covering Jocelyn.