Chaos and painkillers

5. Laughter in the tombs.

Laila was terrified of the dark.

Everyone was, at a certain point.

She was terrified of the monsters that lurked in the dark. She was terrified that these monsters would grab her, drag her face through the mud and dissect her into pieces. She was terrified they'd feed her carcass to the dogs. She was terrified she'd be erased from the surface of the earth and people's memories.

Laila flinched at the sound by her left. Or was it her right? She didn't know.

It was completely dark. And it smelt like horse shit.

It was horse shit.

She was in one of the dark rooms in her dad's chateau. One he had people thrown in to chastise them. One he had her thrown in after she had refused to utter a single word for twelve hours since she came home.

A sound whipped past her ear and she let out a cry, cowering back. A similar sound whipped past her other ear and she froze.

Breath held, eyes wide and body tense, Laila narrowed her view to the direction of the sound.

She remained arrested, counting from 1 to 30 before she whipped her hand towards the sound that came. Her hand whipped 240 degrees and hit the clay wall she didn't realize was there. That was it. Wincing loudly, she brought her fingers into her mouth to try and suck off the pain.

Sand. That was what she sucked off instead of the pain.

Chop chop, she retrieved her hand from the warmness of her mouth and continuously spit out the sand. She went on until she was puking her intestines out.

Her palms went flat on the cemented but still sandy floor as she felt as if her insides were being ejected through her mouth.

She sighed and sucked in a breath when it stopped, landing back on her bottom.

Laila's palm flew to the left side of her chest. She squeezed the spot as if to squeeze her poor organ out of its misery.

She looked up. Anything. Any light. Any sign.

There wasn't any.

The extractor fan she was sure she noticed a few hours during P.M was magically absent. Or was it a window, though? Was she hallucinating?

No. She wasn't imagining things. She rubbed her eyes only to open them to pure darkness. She rubbed them optics once again and the same outcome came.

No. No. No. Please, have mercy on me.

She tried once again.

No. No. I didn't go blind. I can't go blind. Please...

Blended voices came to her heed. "Lailaaa..." her muscles tightened when she froze.

They'll not get to her. She won't let them. They weren't real.

Except they were. The voice came again, only this time, a little bit clearer. "Laila! Laila!" Her eyes flew open. It was useless as she wasn't seeing which was why all her other senses intensified.

She heard inaudible bangs before her name came again, only this time, it wasn't in mock. "Laila. It's me. Shehu..." her wobbly legs shot up at that.

She placed her ear to the patchy wall with her palms on the opposite sides of her head. "Shehu? Shehu? Is that you? Please, tell me...tell me...that's you." She shook her head, lips starting to tremble.

She pressed her ear harder and curled her fingers at the thought that it was just her mind playing more games with her.

Turns out, it wasn't. "It's me...Laila, don't let this get to you. It's what Ba-Daddy wants. He is twisted. He-he wants to break you. He wants you to come crawling to him ready to listen to whatever he says."