Endurance

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

Layla gave the bike man the money she promised she'd pay him if he helped her get through with this madness.

"Immediately they run out you'd see them around that path." She pointed to the narrow path that was beside the house which was covered in tall grasses and trees. She hadn't been in this neighborhood ever since the first few weeks of her wedding, and the crawl of her skin at the thought of Malik harming her sisters in this very place they'd shared a few loving memories made her sick. The man nodded and moved his bike to a more secluded spot where he couldn't be easily discovered. She walked towards the main entrance as the gate and fence had been taken down, leaving the compound of the building bare.

Astagfirullah. Forgive me ya Allah. Grant me victory ya Allah. She chanted continuously in her head as she walked.

When she reached the front steps she thought her heart was going to burst with fear and panic, but all it did was beat loudly in anger. To what in particular, she had no idea. Her head pounded painfully as a funny feeling took over her body, sweat trickling down her forehead, drenching the black Jilbab she wore and the black face mask that covered the lower half of her face. The door was pulled open and there he stood, his eyes red and face perilously dark.

"I hope you haven't brought anybody with you."

"Are you scared that you'd get caught?." She calmly shot back.

"Don't play with me." Without warning he yanked her into the house. Zahra and Munira sat behind a couch, turned and whimpered upon seeing her but he shouted at them to keep shut. Layla observed them, making sure they were alright and thankful he hadn't hurt them. All he did was bound their hands with a rope, apart from that they seemed alright. The house was dusty with all kinds of debris in it. It was one of his father's houses that she was taken to when they married before they moved to Lafia. She had always hated its environment and the scanty neighborhood, especially the fact that the house was old even then, but the so called love she had for him had blinded her, then beaten the hell out of her.

"What do you want Malik?. What is the meaning of this?."

"You know better than anybody what I want. I want you and I want my son. "

"You don't have..." She braced herself to be calm at the wild beating of her heart. She swallowed at the nauseating feeling that overtook her and the shake of her body that rendered her breathing ragged. Malik was clearly depraved or under the influence of drugs or both. She couldn't really say because right then, they were on the same page because she was high with vengeance that was fueled by the anger and hatred that consumed her whole.

"Don't you dare say that! I have a son! You took him away from me! You took my chances at having a child away from me you cursed woman. You're good for nothing. You ruin every single thing that comes your way. Even your family! You made me do this! You made me do this!" She felt his hands gripping at her shoulders hard and vigorously shaking her like a raving lunatic, his filthy saliva spilling from his mouth to her face.

Acting on the wild instinct she had developed in his presence and slid the small opened pocket pepper spray that she had tucked in the slightly loose sleeve of her Jilbab which was the only defense weapon she had against him apart from her prayers and sprayed aggressively on his face, causing him to stumble back clutching his face with an outcry. There was a table two feet away from where she was and before he recovered she grabbed one of the empty bottles that sat on it and smashed it on his head. Malik staggered, completely disoriented and the key to the door fell from the front pocket of his shirt. Layla snatched it and threw in her sister's direction. Zahra was quick to stand and dragged Munira with her after picking the key. Thankful that he hadn't bound their legs, Layla turned around and was about to run after them when she got dragged by the hem of her cloth. Falling face first on the tiled floor, a painful cry rang out of her mouth as Malik dragged her on the cold, dusty ground.