Ann2012:
Well done OP

Thank you, ma'am.

The Writer is gradually making the who whole book about Maria.

Why change d name of the book? I understand this is supposed to be a sequel to BLACK MARIA

And your description of things and people is too much, most of us get bore of it and jump to the next paragraph.

Fine job so far, bt i earnestly knw that a gal of 10years wil understand what went down in matron comfort room.

pablobellins:
The Writer is gradually making the who whole book about Maria.

Why change d name of the book? I understand this is supposed to be a sequel to BLACK MARIA

And your description of things and people is too much, most of us get bore of it and jump to the next paragraph.

Fine job so far, bt i earnestly knw that a gal of 10years wil understand what went down in matron comfort room.

Yes, you're right, it's about Maria. It's everything that led to how she eventually met Black...hence the title BLACK MARIA.

And for all it's worth, description is the soul of storytelling.

Wawu

Can't miss this for anything

LarrySun:
Updated, bro. It's been a while. How are you doing?

I am well brother. I just had lost my the desire to log in to my account. I have been on ghost mode. How are you?

thanks for the update

Update 6

The 6th Sense


It seemed like it was only Maria who witnessed the events of the previous night, for there was no mention of it the following morning. The other girls didn’t appear to notice anything out of the ordinary. The strange man, too, – the flogger, was nowhere to be found. He must have snuck out of the compound very early that morning, just before the children woke up. Maria shrugged indifferently. At least the man had left, and Madam Comfort looked absolutely all right. In fact, she was in a brilliant mood this morning. She was a lot different from the irritable woman she had always been. It was surprising that she didn’t curse or beat any child today. The other girls were puzzled about her sudden change of emotion, but Maria knew a lot better; apparently, the flogging the man gave her last night had done something to her. The little girl would have wanted the flogging to continue if that would keep the woman from victimising them, but she knew what the man and the woman had done was wrong; it was a terrible thing to do, and no matter what positivity it brought to the woman, it was still something immoral. She would not support something like that. However, she knew she was powerless against stopping such thing from continuing. Now Maria knew the agendas of all the men who usually paid Madam Comfort a visit. They always came to do some floggings. She found such act utterly disgusting.

About two weeks after Maria was exposed to something so shameful, Maria experienced the flow of blood for the first time. She was a ten-year-old girl with a woman’s body but she had never started menstruating until this moment. It came so suddenly.

She and some other girls were fetching water from the well at the back of the building when Naomi pointed out the fact.

“You’re bleeding, Maria,” she spoke with concern written on her face, “You’re injured!”

Maria was taken aback by the statement. “Bleeding? Where?” She looked at her body but found no blood. “I’m fine.”

“You’re bleeding behind you,” Naomi pointed, “See, blood is flowing through your skirt.”

Maria followed her pointed finger and looked behind her. She could see it now; her yellow skirt was crimson red. She began to panic. “Oh my God! What’s wrong with me?”

“Let me go and inform Madam Comfort,” Naomi was about to dash off when Titi stopped her.

“No,” said Titi, “she doesn’t need to know.” She turned to Maria and gave a reassuring smile, “You have just become a woman.”

“What do you mean?” Maria did not understand anything Titi was saying.

“The bleeding is natural,” explained Titi, “I’ve been having the same bleeding for about two years now.”

Maria stared at her wide-eyed, “And you didn’t die?”

Tit smiled. “No, it’s not life-threatening.”

Maria looked behind the older girl and said, “But I’m not seeing any blood on you.”

“It’s a monthly flow. It comes only once every month and can span for five days or shorter, depending on how your body takes it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Titi smiled again and put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You will understand in time. Now let’s go in, let me clean you up. Take note of this date, it will come again around the same time next month and after this one stops.”

Titi took Maria to an inner room and helped her change her dress. Then she took her to the bathroom and helped her wash. Maria felt unclean. Why must something like this happen to her? She didn’t want it. She would have begun to weep had Titi not calmed her down. Afterwards, Titi helped her block the flow with tissue paper.

“What if I want to ease myself?”

“It’s easy,” said Titi, “you just take off the tissue paper, clean yourself up after doing your thing, and then block the passage back with another clean pair of tissue.”

“This will be stressful.”

“That’s why you’re a woman. This is one of those things we have to endure almost all our lives.”

“I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want this.”

“Consider yourself fortunate that it’s happening. Like I said, you are now a fully developed woman. Now you have to be very careful.”

“How do you mean?”

“You have to be careful around men, Maria.”

“Why?”

“If any man touches you, you may become pregnant.”
Maria frowned, trying to understand what Titi was saying. How would another person’s touch lead to pregnancy? It didn’t make sense to her. Then it suddenly dawned on her that what Madam Comfort and the stranger were doing had something to do with what Titi was talking about. Still, she was confused. If that was what Titi was saying, then why wasn’t Madam Comfort pregnant this morning? Maybe the matron was pregnant already. Maria wanted to tell Titi what she witnessed the previous month but she kept it to herself. It was a secret she had sworn to keep.

What Maria was talking about started to slowly make sense to her. She must not allow a man to touch her. Now she believed that any man who literally touched her would make her pregnant. She was momentarily scared when she remembered how one of Madam Comfort friends had rubbed his hands on her body. This, she decided to tell Titi.

“One of Madam’s friends touched me about two months ago,” she said worriedly, “Does that mean that I’m now pregnant?”

At first, Titi carried a scared expression on her face. Then she asked, “What did he use to touch you?”

“His hands, of course. He was rubbing his hands all over my body.”

“Which part of your body?”

“My chest. He was squeezing my breasts. They were painful.”

Titi’s expression was of pity. “Oh, you poor dear. Did he touch you here?” she pointed at her crotch.

Maria shook her head.

“Listen to me very carefully, Maria. Do not let anyone touch you there! Not even with his hands.”

Maria frowned. “Why would any man want to touch me there?”
“That is where every man is mostly concerned about. They are ready to do anything to get between your legs. Do not allow them. If you do, you will become pregnant.”

“I will never let any man touch me!” she stared at Titi and suddenly asked, “have you ever been touched there?”

Titi cast her face down shamefully and nodded.

Maria was shocked. “Who touched you?”

Instead of answering, she suddenly smiled and said. “Let’s go out and play with the girls,” she ran out of the room before Maria could ask any further question.

It was months before Maria noticed what had been going on without her knowledge. The men who had been coming to visit Madam Comfort had not been coming to see her alone; they had other missions. Maria had discovered that at least a girl would be missing each night before they slept, but the girl would be returned early before they woke up. At first, Maria had always been worried that maybe something bad was happening to the girl – perhaps they wandered away in the middle of the night.

Then one night, Maria decided to stay awake in the night. At around 7pm, Madam Comfort usually made them have their dinners and then sent them to bed. By 10pm, all the children would be deeply asleep – especially when they had done some tedious jobs in the day. This night, however, Maria fought the urge to sleep off. Whenever she felt drowsy, she would open her eyes wide and battle the effect. She wanted to know why some of the children always went missing whenever she woke up to relieve herself, and why they would mysteriously appear back on their beds just before dawn.

Then at around 11pm, just about when she was submitting herself to the looming slumber, she heard the door open. Thankfully, she was sleeping at an angle where she could see everything going on in the room. She maintained her position; not moving a muscle, pretending to be deeply asleep. Madam Comfort came into the room, and behind her was a heavily moustached man. They were silent. Maria saw Madam Comfort step aside for the man to have a clear view of the room. Then the stranger pointed towards one of the girls. Her name was Binta. She was about fifteen years old, just about the same age as Titi. As soon as the man pointed to his choice, Madam Comfort nodded in understanding and directed the man to leave the room. Then the woman proceeded to where the girl lay and gently tapped her.

“Follow me,” whispered Madam Comfort as soon as the girl came to.

The girl obediently rose from her bed and followed the woman out of the room. Maria watched everything silently. She gave them about a minute before she rose up and left the room. She crept quietly, as quietly as she had done the other night she was snooping on the matron. She reached the door of Madam Comfort and listened. There was no sound coming from the room. It appeared to be empty. Then she started hearing some conversations coming from outside the building. They were outside, she discovered. She would have remained in the safe position she was had she been able to understand what they were saying outside, but most of their words came as mere muffles. If she would hear them more clearly she would have to go nearer. But there was no way she would get closer without being discovered.

A better idea occurred to her. She opened Madam Comfort’s room and entered. The window of the room overlooked the frontyard. She was taking a very dangerous risk. She didn’t want to dwell on what the woman would do to her if she was discovered in that room. That room was out of bound to all the girls. Entering it now was more than trespassing; Madam Comfort would destroy her and there would be nothing anyone would do about it. A voice within her told her to leave the room now when she could but she disregarded it. She must know what the woman had been doing with the other girls. She needed to know it so that she could prepare herself in expectation of the worst; or – if she could – protect herself against whatever evil that might be impending.

She quietly drew the curtains and looked outside. The stranger with Madam Comfort was leaning against his Volkswagen Beetle as he conversed with the woman. Binta was standing close-by like a mere slave. Her face was cast downward as the two older people discussed; a lot of their discussions about her. It was obvious that this was not the first time the girl would be brought out like this. This caused Maria to wonder how many of the other girls had been sold off this way.

“Make sure you bring her before 5,” Maria heard Madam Comfort say to the man who was grinning from ear to ear like a monkey. He didn’t seem to be fully attentive to the woman as he kept staring hungrily at Binta. If he could, he would pounce on the girl right there.

“Did you hear what I just said?” the matron asked.

“Oh, of course,” replied the man; his moustache ruffled as he spoke. Maria could hardly see the movement of his mouth; all she heard was the man’s voice. “She must be returned before 5.”

The woman stretched her hand forward and the man reached into his pocket and brought out some money. He counted the notes and gave some of them to her. Madam Comfort pocketed the money in her bra and stood back as the man directed Binta into his car. By the time he started the engine, Madam Comfort had already opened the gate. The man reversed out of the compound and disappeared with the girl she had paid for. Maria quickly stepped out of the room before the woman would return. She ran back to her room and lay on her bed. She had witnessed first-hand what had been happening; the evil woman had been selling the children into prostitution. She could guess what the man who had taken Binta away would be doing to her. He would touch her where he was not supposed to. Maria was afraid for the girl. What if she gets pregnant? What will become of her? Why is Madam Comfort allowing this evil in this orphanage?

Maria became more scared of the woman. Madam Comfort had proven that there was no line she would not cross if it meant making money. She had resorted to turning the girls into prostitutes after selling her own body to men. Now she was turning the home to a brothel. Maria was certain that there would be some men who would not bother taking the girls away. A lot of them would take them to one of the empty rooms and touch them there. Maria was afraid as she watched her own body. She was a girl who had everything a man might desire. It dawned on her that it was a matter of time before a man would demand to have her, too. What would she do when something like that happened? How would she save herself? She started crying when she realised that there was absolutely nothing she could do about the situation. When it was her time, she would be given out too and she would be touched. She might even become pregnant. Titi had told her that she would become pregnant if a man touched her. Her life would be ruined.

Madam Comfort was a true definition of evil. She had the responsibility of taking good care of them but she wasn’t doing that. Instead, she was using them for her own gain. The girls were not her children; they were her tools, and she would use them as she pleased. The children could do nothing about it. They had no one to report the situation to. They were totally helpless. Maria wished she had never been born. Why would she be given birth to only to live this kind of life? Her life was not hers to live; Madam Comfort had the absolute power over every kid in the orphanage. Maria was sure that the woman was capable of committing murder, and if she killed any child there she would get away with it. It was as if the government that put her there gave her the right to do as she pleased with the children.

She could not sleep that night. She kept weeping silently so that she would not wake the other girls. She was weeping for herself and for the girl that was taken away. What would become of Binta now? What was the man doing to her? She could imagine how the girl would be screaming in pain. It was horrible to think about. She wanted to stop imagining it but the horror didn’t leave her. She knew the man would not only be touching Binta, he would be stabbing the girl with his cane. She doubted that the girl would be able to urinate again after the experience. Madam Comfort might have enjoyed such immoral act, but it would be a torture to young girls like Maria and Binta. Being powerless against sexual abuse was a terrible thing for a girl-child, and the person who they were supposed to confide in was the same one subjecting them to this unkindness.

A few hours later, Maria heard the sound of approaching footsteps and she quickly controlled herself and pretended to be asleep. She saw Madam Comfort open the door and step in before Binta who was shivering. The woman directed the woman to her bed and the girl obeyed without questions asked. Maria noticed that Binta could not walk properly as she moved towards her bed. Her frame seemed shrunken from the rigorous experience she must have had with the wicked man. Maria felt very bad. She wanted to rise up and comfort the girl, but she must not do that. Madam Comfort would give her hell. As a matter of fact, she must not indicate her knowledge of what was going on. She knew the dangers of a loose tongue. She must mind her business and pretend absolute ignorance. All she could pray for at this juncture was that no man should point at her whenever they come to their room in those nights. But how that would be possible, she didn’t know.

She desperately wanted to tell someone the following morning. Maybe they could all have a meeting and find a permanent solution to the problem. There must be something they could do about what was going on. Couldn’t they write a letter the council and demand the removal of the evil queen? But if they wrote the letter, how would the council receive it? Even if by a mysterious chance their letter was received, would they be believed? The government officials evidently always did whatever they liked. Matron Nene had begged them to allow her take Maria but they had turned her down. If they could turn down that simple request, how would they take action about their complaints? She thought about telling Titi what she witnessed but she was scared the girl might take some actions that would turn around to hurt her. She remembered Titi’s response when she asked if she had ever been touched before. She had said yes but had refused to tell her who had touched her. There was no doubt that she had been taken by one of the men, too. And the fact that she refused to talk about it showed that she probably had an allegiance to Madam Comfort.

One thing was clear to Maria, she could trust no one.

***

Nice one Larrysun

Unfortunately, this is the sad reality of what is happening in today's world and it saddens me that very little can be done about it. I wonder how many young girls who have experienced this but can't speak out.

The next update (The 7th Wonder) shall be posted next week Sunday. But if you can't wait til then, the PDF and other subsequent updates are available for sale at N50 only.

Contact me via WhatsApp or call to know how you can make payment. Thank you and God bless you.

LSD
09061754872
larrysundynasty@gmail.com

Nice one larrysun

thanks for the update ..is the novel complete so we can pay for all the episodes at once?

Thanks for the update

Matron Comfort is devilish

Thanks for the update

A tenth update (The 10th Generation) is also available for N50 only.

09061754872

nice 1 op

Update 7

The 7th Heaven

***

Maria could not stop spying on the activities of the matron. Somehow she had managed to keep herself away from the attentions of the woman and the men who patronized her, for instead of her, the men were pointing at less-developed girls than her. Although Maria felt bad for the other girls being abused, she was grateful that she wasn’t the victim. Each time she went to bed, she would dress fully-clothed. She would even wear dresses a lot bigger than her so that her endowment could be safely hidden from the randy men; and it had been working wonders. The men would look at her, see only a small girl who was not yet ripe for the plucking, and they would move away from her to other girls. Maria knew she could not keep herself hidden for long. Her body was developing at a very fast rate, and soon the big clothes would not be able to protect her anymore. Thankfully, the man who had noticed her growth and had tried to take advantage of her never came to the orphanage again. Maria had always wondered what had become of the man. Whatever had been the issue, she was grateful for it. If the man had still been coming, he might have done something bad to her. She didn’t like the man; he was about fifty years old and smelled terribly of hard drinks. He was a big and ugly man.

While her body developed, Maria prayed that some divine intervention would occur before the woman began to hand her over to men like she was doing the other girls. A few months after Maria’s discovery of what Madam Comfort had been doing to the girls, the evil act had become a norm; the woman didn’t always wait for the girls to sleep anymore. She had grown such a confidence that she could give out as many as five girls in a night. The number of men, too, increased exponentially. Maria wondered where these men usually came from, or how they got to know about what was going on the orphanage. The most important thing was that she must not in the trap of the men. Every night, she prayed that she was not taken. Her greatest fear came the day Madam Comfort brought a photographer to the orphanage and had the pictures of all the girls taken. Although the other girls didn’t know the significance of the photos – they were only too glad that their pictures were being taken – only Maria suspected rightly the implication of the shots taken. Madam Comfort would not have to take the men to the girl’s room to make their picks. All she had to do was show them the pictures of the girls, the men would pick their choices and Madam Comfort would make the delivery. It was smart and easy. The true secret would be hidden from the purely innocent ones and the men would get their choices a lot easier.

Once, Maria had caught Madam Comfort giving two girls to one man. She had been paid a huge sum of money for this. Maria had been shocked. What would the man be doing with two girls? She knew that something ugly and dirty would come to mind if she kept dwelling on it and so she quickly disregarded the thought. After a while, the business became a glaring thing for everyone. The men would pick girls in the mornings and drop them off in the afternoons, the ones who pick them up in the afternoon would drop them off at night, while the one taken in the nights would pass the night with the men and be returned in the late mornings. Somehow, most of the men usually preferred taking the girls in the nights. Maybe because it was only the time they would be free after works, or because they spent more hours with the girls from night till morning. There were instances where some girls did two or three shifts, and other girls like Titi would be used round the clock.

One of the girls became pregnant; no one – not even she – could be absolutely certain who impregnated her because those who had used her were too many for her to keep count, and most of them never used protection – the men never believed in that. Besides, they believed these were young girls, there was very little chance that they had infections resulting from sexual intercourses. And so when Nnenna became pregnant, all the other girls had thought she was going to give birth to the fatherless child right there in the orphanage, but they were wrong. Madam Comfort had employed the service of an amateur nurse. The woman had been totally unprofessional with the abortion process. She probed and cut the little girl like beef, until she nicked a vital organ. The pregnancy was aborted quite all right, but Nnenna was never to conceive again. The nurse had worriedly relayed the news to the matron and Madam Comfort had waved off the information like it was nothing important. She was more interested in the fact that the girl would live. She could not afford to lose any of her girls; losing them would mean a reduction in her cash flow. The girls were her ticket to riches, she wouldn’t want any of them to die, except, of course, the ones that were totally useless to her. And those ones who the men never picked were less cared for than the ones bringing her money. The woman would give small ration of food to Maria and the other useless girls but fattened up the ones bringing her profit.

Maria had walked in one Pastor on top of Loveth in an abandoned room. She had been searching for her old Mathematics textbook when she opened the door and saw the man grinding the girl. Pastor Matthew had used his tie to bind the girl’s wrists together, then he had used the Bible as a pillow for Loveth to rest her head. The girl was lying on one of the reading tables in the room. Pastor Matthew’s pair of trousers had been totally taken off and was hanging against a nail on the wall; the only things he had on him were his shirt, his chain with the cross pendant and his underwear. The girl, on the other hand, was entirely naked. Loveth was younger than even Maria. The girl was eight years old, and Pastor Matthew was a man shy of forty-five years old. The girl was weeping silently and the pervert didn’t stop hurting her. There were bite marks on the child’s body where the man had gone cannibalistic on her, and her cheeks sported red bruises that must have been made by series of harsh slaps.

Pastor Matthew was the same man who usually came to preach to them every Sunday morning. Ironically, the pastor always emphasized on the value of abstinence and chastity. Maria always believed – before this shocking discovery – that Pastor Matthew was the only righteous man in the entire world. Now what she discovered had proved to her that all men were scum. But unlike the scene Maria had witnessed between Madam Comfort and the strange man, Pastor Matthew discovered her staring. He had quickly dressed himself up and left the room, leaving Maria and Loveth there in the room. The man had gone to Madam Comfort to report what had happened.

Maria was trying to help the girl off her bondage when Madam Comfort suddenly burst into the room. She was having a cigarette in her mouth. This was the first time Maria would see the woman smoke. She only knew Madam Comfort to be an incurable dipsomaniac, she never knew she smoked cigarette, too. Is there anything this woman is not capable of doing? she thought sadly. She knew what was coming to her and she steeled herself for the impact. What she didn’t know was how far Madam Comfort was willing the go to punish her.
“What are you doing here, Maria?” she demanded, but she didn’t wait for reply before giving the girl a nasty slap. If felt like a flash of lightning to the poor girl. She fell and hit her temple against the leg of the table. The woman went further to kick the fallen child. She kicked Maria with so much force multiple times that she had to stop to catch her breath. Then she dragged the half-conscious child out of the room to the passage and into the compound. The girls stopped what they were doing and watched the drama with concern. They knew Madam Comfort had a very special kind of hatred for Maria, and so they were not surprised by the brutality the woman was unleashing on the poor girl. She dragged Maria through the mud and pushed her into the shed formerly used for goats. Madam Comfort had entertained her guests with the goats. Now there was no single goat in the compound anymore, even the hens were getting fewer. She personally always killed the hens and made the girls prepare chicken soup for her. She would eat the food without even offering the bones to the girls.

Having pushed the girl into the dirty shed, Madam Comfort stripped her totally naked by tearing off her dress. The girl couldn’t resist the attack. She was weakened by the kicks, most especially by the injury in her temple. She had hit her head very hard. The woman left the room and returned with a bucket of cold water. She splashed the water on the girl, then she picked up her cane and began to flog Maria. She flogged the child all over her body. The girl was too weak to rise but she felt the pain of every lash. She was weeping like a witch on fire but the woman was relentless. When the cane got spoilt she picked a new one and resumed the beating. She stopped the beating only when she saw the child bleeding all over. She only stopped the beating but not the torture.

She reached into the pocket of her blouse and extracted a cigarette lighter. She flicked the fire on and placed it under Maria’s feet. At first, she didn’t feel the heat because of her wet body. But when the fire burned through, she screamed out in pain. It was excruciating. She tried to crawl away from the fire but the woman held her down firmly with the other hand. She concentrated in the girl’s left toe – the first toe. She burned it that it turned black, glistening with oil. Maria could smell herself; she felt the familiar smell of burning flesh. She was horrified to discover that it was her own body burning. She wept loudly and begged the woman to show her kindness. Madam Comfort didn’t seem to hear the girl’s pleas. When the skin had melted enough, she stopped and left the room.

After about half an hour, she dragged the girl out of the shed and pushed her into the mud in the compound. The sky had changed and a deluge was imminent. The naked girl remained lying in the puddle as the other girls gathered to watch. Madam Comfort had called out all the girls to show to them what would be their fate if they crossed her. Maria was the scapegoat. If anyone went against her rules, then that person would suffer similar fate with the condemned girl. As she spoke, her words came down like thunder. The girls were so scared of her that one of them simply lost control of her bladder and wetted herself. Fortunately for her, the other girls stood in front of her. They covered her so that Madam Comfort would not notice. Had the matron discovered what she had done she would have been the second scapegoat. Madam Comfort, the evil lady, was desperate to make an example of someone else.

Maria tried to get up but fell back into the mud. She didn’t know which of the pains was the worst – the head injury, the bodily bruises or the burns? Surely, she would not be able to walk for a long time. And her left toe was scarred for life. For the rest of her existence, she would always carry the scars: the deformed toe and the blemished skin. Maria was too young to care about pulchritude for now; all she was concerned about was getting better, for she was not feeling good at all.
She remained in the same position all night long; naked and alone. Madam Comfort had forbidden any of the girls from reaching her. Nobody must help her in any way whatsoever. As a matter of fact, she forbade everyone from even having eye-contact with Maria. The little girl was cast out. The door of the building was shut against her outside. And while the other girls slept in the night, Maria lay naked in the cold outside.

At 8pm, the rain came. It fell in heavy torment. Each drop came like stone on the girl’s body. She lay on her side and drew her knees to her chest, weeping in the rain. She was too broken to rise up; even if she did, she had nowhere to hide. The door of the house had been shut on her. The only place she could stay was the goat-house, but she couldn’t rise. And crawling was a waste of time. The ground was slippery; she would not make any progress if she tried to crawl. The only thing she could do was endure the cold. It rained for hours. Maria thought the deluge would never stop. She was there in the dark, under the open sky. She cried, the sky wept and heaven shone its light via occasional flashes of lightning. The rain would cease one moment and fall anew another moment. Even the people in shelters felt the cold and covered themselves with blanket, let alone the girl who had neither shelter nor blanket.

As she laid there in the rain, helpless and hurt, Maria wondered what she had done wrong to deserve this kind of cruel treatment. She had only walked into a room at the wrong time. She didn’t say anything wrong to Pastor Matthew. All she did was help the girl that the man had raped. When has it been wrong to render help to helpless people? Why would anyone not help her now? Was she such a terrible person did she have a kind of disease in her that would not allow people to help her. Why did Madam Comfort dislike her so much? She felt sorry for herself; once again she wished she had never been born. If she had known that this was the kind of live she had been conceived to live, then she would have preferred to be aborted like Nnenna’s child. Maybe killing that baby was the best thing to do for it; for no child desired to live this kind of life. No child desired to be left at the mercy of the mean Madam Comfort. Anyone else in the world was better than the woman, except, perhaps, men. The only thing men knew how to do was take advantage of helpless girls, and the matron was helping them achieve their goals easily.

When the rain finally stopped at around 4:30am, Maria was already unconscious. She was probably asleep, or most likely fainted, before the rain stopped. And by 6am, she was conscious. As she woke up, the excruciating pains she had endured at the hands of Madam Comfort resumed. It was as if she was having the punishment all over again; she could see the mean woman kicking her the second time, giving her another round of flogging, burning another toe. But she was hallucinating. The pain she felt was too much that she was not mentally lucid. She was seeing things that were not there. One moment she would whimper with agony, another moment she would scream out in terror.

It was one of her screams that woke up the household. At first, the girls had thought that there was a dying dog in the compound. It took them a moment to remember that Maria had been locked outside the previous night. And like Madam Comfort had said, they dared not go to her.

They were helpless. All they could do right now was pray that Maria didn’t die.

The next update (The 8th Element) shall be posted next week Sunday. But if you can't wait til then, the PDF and other subsequent updates are available for sale at N50 only.

Contact me via WhatsApp or call to know how you can make payment. Thank you and God bless you.

LSD
09061754872
larrysundynasty@gmail.com

An eleventh update (The 11th Commandment) is also available for N50 only.

09061754872

well done Larry

.well done larrysun

A twelfth update (The 12th Entity) is also available for N50 only.

09061754872

Update 8

The 8th Element

That morning, the girls thought the matron would show the girl kindness, but that was far from it. It seemed like Madam Comfort had just started with Maria. The woman rose from bed, had her bath and breakfast, went out of the building and dragged the tortured girl through the morning mud again. She pushed her into the goat-shed and locked her in there. Throughout that day, the girl was left in the shed, the stench of the goats’ wastes did nothing to ameliorate her illness. And the constant hunger worsened her situation. By evening, she was barely conscious. Her eyes were swollen shut. Even if she could open her eyes widely, she would not be able to see anything definite for the confinement was dark – everything was pitch-black.

Deep down, Madam Comfort wanted the worst to happen to Maria. If the girl died, she would be free to do whatever she wished. Somehow, she still felt threatened by the girl. Whenever Maria looked at her, it was as if the child was staring into her dark soul, as if Maria knew her deepest and most shameful secrets, and she judged her by her stares alone – those stares, those stares that could kill. There was a time she had put poison in the girl’s food and had expected the girl to eat. It was as if Maria knew from the way she had stared at her. The girl had looked at the food and had studied her face, then she had pleasantly rejected the meal and walked away to take pap in place of the rice and chicken she had been offered. Madam Comfort believed that Maria knew she wanted to kill her that day; and since then she had always avoided to meet the little girl’s eyes, for they always made her feel guilty, and Madam hated feeling guilty. Since that moment, she had never dared offer the girl food directly, and she never tried poisoning her again. Perhaps the girl was a witch, she had suspected. Only a witch would know what evil act was being planned against her. She had momentarily been scared of the girl; for a long time she believed Maria was capable of harming her. She tried to have nothing to do with the girl as much as she could.

The only way Madam Comfort supposed she could get rid of the girl was by beating her to a stupor and leaving her to die. She had burned her toe as her own way of making sure that the witch lost her power. She had heard somewhere that witches were being burnt at the stake in the early days. Burning them would keep them from coming back to life as it was common among very powerful witches who were killed by other forms such as poisoning, strangulation or drowning. Legend had had it that a lot of local witches who were sent to death had been seen in their homes even before their killers returned to the villages.

However, while the news about witchcraft was true, Maria had never had any connection with witchcraft; in fact, her ancestors never practiced witchcraft; as opposed to Madam Comfort’s great-great-great grandmother who had been accused of witchcraft and had been killed many times, until she finally died and never returned after being tied to a tree and set ablaze. She was literally roasted alive. But Madam Comfort never knew this – no one ever told her. Her ancestors had left the village in the middle of the night out of shame for having a member of their family practice witchcraft in a village that strongly opposed it. Apart from the shame, they had also left because of the fear of being killed, too. Families of witches were usually wiped out in those days because they were always believed to be involved in the practice of witchcraft, too – the only slight exceptions were usually the men. Maybe it was bad that the family was able to escape. If the family had been wiped out a person like Madam Comfort would not have existed to torture an innocent ten-year-old girl.

Shika, Comfort’s great-great-great grandmother, had been accused of witchcraft which she didn’t deny; in fact, she had publicly confessed all her atrocious acts in the village square. She had given birth to fifteen children and had sacrificed twelve of them to her coven. She had caused the death of one of her adversaries’ husband. The man had been on his way to the farm when a giant tree fell and crushed him into the ground. The child of another adversary had been killed in the night. Shika had turned herself into a snake in the night and had crawled into the little boy’s bed while he slept. She had stung the child about eight times and had crawled back to the bush where she transformed back into a human being and went home.

No one could tell how Shika had gotten her powers for she was gravely feared in the entire village until she suddenly lost her power and confessed. Shika had been very powerful right from the time she was about Maria’s age. She used to be a very stubborn girl in the family. She would refuse to do house chores and would fight dirty in public. She enjoyed causing trouble. She would hide in trees and stone the water-pots of people returning from the stream. She was a problem child who already had a deal with the demon.

One afternoon, Shika’s mother had gone to the farm and had discovered some brilliant mushrooms growing under a mahogany. She had harvested the plant and had taken it home to cook. She had called Shika to wash the pots for her to make a delicious a delicious pot of mushroom soup. As usual the girl had refused to do the chores. She had rudely told her mother to pick one of her elderly ones to do the job. Her angered mother had assured her that she was not going to share in the meal. The woman had washed the pots and cooked the soup. But being a mother, she couldn’t intentionally starve her own child. She had served the food and given some to Shika out of pity. Rather than being grateful, the girl had kicked the food away in anger, telling her mother to go to hell with her food. She had proceeded to the back of the house and fed herself some paw-paw fruit instead.

That night, the whole nine family members of Shika had died from mushroom poisoning; only Shika who didn’t share in the meal stayed alive. She had somehow discovered that the food was poisoned. And instead of informing the mother, she had kept the discovery to herself. She had watched her parents, brothers and sisters convulse to their death. She counted as they died one after the other. She wanted them gone so that she could be free; she desperately wanted her freedom. When she was sure that everyone was dead, she had gone to bed with the corpse of her family members. For the first time all her life, she slept soundly and woke up the next morning at her own time; there was no one to wake him up against his wish. When she had had enough sleep, she had risen up and went to the community chief to report the unfortunate news.

Everyone had been sorry for the little orphan but Shika had felt relieved instead. She had turned down everyone who offered to take her under her wings and had married an old palm-wine tapper who already had four wives. She had joined the family and showed all the wives hell. Everyone packed out of the house in fear of Shika. And when the tapper died mysteriously, too, she had the house to herself. At nineteen, she had married another man. This one was younger and worked as a hunter. She had given birth to fifteen children for the man but twelve had died. At thirty years old, Shika had already lost all her teeth. She looked three times her age and her wickedness grew worse. Anyone who opposed her would either pay with her life, the lives of her family members, or be afflicted with a terrible disease. There was no doubt that Shika was a very powerful witch, and she was feared all around the village. Even herbalists had tried to topple her spiritually but they had all failed and had faced mortal consequences.

The day Shika met her waterloo was the moment she publicly confessed her evil acts in the market square. She had only confessed because of her overconfidence; she was sure there was nothing anyone could do to her. She was too powerful for the entire village to overpower. If she wanted to dethrone the king and take his place, she would. But Shika was gravely mistaken. As soon as she confessed, she had been grabbed by able men, tied in chains and thrown in the river, of course. Everyone had thought she would drown but the witch was more powerful than that. She had lived and had attended the next market day. Again, she spoke out in public, admitting to the fact that she was truly a witch. She dared anyone to try to kill her again.

Initially, the men who had thrown her into the river had been scared of what would happen to them. The villager herbalists had come together to discuss how they could overpower the wicked woman but they came to no definite conclusion – they had no solution to the problem. Shika continued to hold the villagers to ransom, until a little girl revealed that the only way Shika could stay dead was by burning her. Again, they had grabbed Shika and tied her with strong chains. This time around, they tied her to a tree. But as they poured oil on her and lit it, the fire refused to ignite. She started laughing at the people’s folly, just as she had laughed when they had once tried to behead her and the cutlass wouldn’t penetrate her skin. Her laughter resounded all around the village. Everyone was scared witless; the laughter was evil, malevolent. A normal human being was not supposed to laugh that way. The same girl who had told the villagers that burning Shika was the solution had told them that they had to draw a circle round the witch with the blood of a chicken, and only a virgin must light the fire. The circle was done quite all right, but everyone was scared of volunteering their virgins to set the witch on fire. Surely, something bad would happen to whoever torched the witch. All the virgins of the lands stayed back. No one was brave enough for the task. When it was apparent that everyone lacked the confidence to do the deed, the little girl collected the burning stick, entered the circle and torched the hem of Shika’s dress doused with the oil. As soon as the fire came in contact with the witch’s dress and ignited, a lightning struck the girl from above and she died instantly. But Shika continued burning. Even she was shocked that the ritual could work. She tried to break free of her chains. She said incantations in strange languages, trying to extinguish the fire, instead, the flame grew bigger and burned her. The same Shika whose laughter had resounded throughout the entire village began to scream in pain, and once again, her cry was heard all through the village.

The villagers who had locked themselves in their huts in fear of the witches started trooping out when they began to hear her screams. They all came to the square and watched as the witch that had been tormenting them for years burned. She wailed terribly as her evil soul began to depart from her body. The villagers could swear that they saw her soul travel upward with the flame.

After Shika’s death, a lot of other witches were burned at the stake. A better way of burning witches without having to sacrifice a virgin was determined. The villagers rejoiced when they were able to cleanse the village of its witches. Shika’s few surviving family members had escaped from the village and settled in other faraway villages. Had they not escaped, Maria would not be facing this kind of hardship; she would not be having her toes burned because she was suspected of being a witch. Perhaps other innocent women had been burned in the past on the suspicion of practising witchcraft.

These days, however, the act of burning people alive is not exclusive to witchcraft alone. Necklacing is a form of human burning that is being practiced all over the country. This is a summary execution and torture method being carried out by forcing a tyre around the neck of a victim, bathe the victim with petrol and then set him on fire. It is a hideous form of torture and the victim may take up to twenty or thirty minutes to die, suffering extreme pain and severe burns in the process. This kind of barbaric act is mostly carried out on thieves, rapists or murderers. Nowadays there are very few cases of people getting accused of witchcraft and getting burned alive; at least such process is not predominant in the cities.

On the third day, Madam Comfort believed that the little witch would have died by now. She had locked her there in the shed and had refused to feed her. No child could survive that kind of treatment; not after going through such severe beating or the extreme cold. Surely, the girl would be a corpse by now. The woman approached the door of the shed as if she was opening the tomb of Lazarus. At this juncture, she was scared of being in the same room with the girl. What if she didn’t die? What if she has been waiting for me to come in so that she can attack me? She was insecure. She knew that witches usually possessed superhuman strength, no matter their age. She dreaded the possibility that she could be pounced on by the child.

She slowly inserted the key in the padlock and turned it. She was as quiet as possible. The time was around 4pm. She had sent all the other kids to their rooms. Although the children had not asked about Maria from her because they were scared of her but Madam Comfort could see the concerned look in their eyes. She had wanted to tell them that the girl had been taken away to another orphanage but there was no use saying that; the children would not believe her anyway. Besides, it would not be wise of her to say that before confirming that the girl was truly dead. After unlocking the door, she didn’t step into the dark shed immediately. She waited a moment, gathering her courage, deciding whether to go in now or give the girl two more days. But she couldn’t wait for five days without knowing what had become of the girl. And so, she slowly went into the shed.

Maria was lying on her side but she was having her bruised back turned to the door. Her knees were brought up against her chest. Her knees seemed to be the only blanket she had against the cold; and it appeared as if she had been in that same position for days. Her long black hair was disheveled and her face was still swollen. She was still. Madam Comfort thought that she was already dead. She approached and the girl was still not moving. Maybe she was faking the death. Maybe the child was waiting for her to come nearer so that she could suddenly attack her. She took careful steps close to her. But Maria didn’t attack her; even if she wanted to she couldn’t. She was too weak to do anything. She was barely alive; the only thing she could do right now was breathe shallowly. It was when Madam Comfort came closer to her that she realised that the girl’s breath was coming as a wheeze, like someone taking his last breaths before giving up the ghost.

Although she was surprised that the girl was still alive after three days, she had no doubt now that she would be dead in the next twenty-four hours. All evidence pointed to that fact. Then as she stared at the dying girl, an idea occurred to her. What if she ended everything right now? She could just easily kill the girl now and get it over with. She hated the suspense the girl was giving her. Why couldn’t she just die already? The little girl evidently had the nine lives of a cat. She thought about bending down and strangling her there. The girl was dying anyway. It would only take a short moment. She wouldn’t even have to use both hands. In less than a minute, the girl would be dead. She knew she was going to sleep well knowing that the girl was dead. She would kill her right now, wait till the middle of the night when all the girls were asleep, then carry the corpse to the backyard where she would dig a shallow grave and bury her in it. That would be the end of Maria. It would be as if the girl never existed at all.

As she bent down to do the deeds, the girl turned around to face her. Once again, it was as if Maria knew what was going on in her mind. The little girl forced her swollen eyes open and stared directly in the woman’s eyes. Maria’s eyes were bloodshot red. And in the dark it seemed like they were burning with fire.

Madam Comfort ran out of the room in fear. She discovered that she was shaking terribly. She needed some hard drinks to calm her nerves.

“Tomorrow,” she prayed as she walked back to the house, “Tomorrow she will be dead.”

The next update (The 9th Cloud) shall be posted next week Sunday. But if you can't wait till then, the PDF and other subsequent updates are available for sale at N50 only.

Contact me via WhatsApp or call to know how you can make payment. Thank you and God bless you.

LSD
09061754872
larrysundynasty@gmail.com

thanks for the update

A thirteenth update (The 13th Enemy) is also available for N50 only.

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A fourteenth update (The 14th Terror) is also available for N50 only.

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Dear larrysun
Why not finish the story once and for all and then make us pay for it at once instead of selling each updates like this....
Because your story is sweet doesn't mean you should use it to extort us.
*In patience Jonathan's voice*
"There is God oooo"

Vulcanheph:
Dear larrysun
Why not finish the story once and for all and then make us pay for it at once instead of selling each updates like this....
Because your story is sweet doesn't mean you should use it to extort us.
*In patience Jonathan's voice*
"There is God oooo"

I'm extorting you? OMG! I post an update every Sunday, if you cannot wait, pay for subsequent updates. You can choose not buy and just wait for the updates. How is that an extortion? I feel highly offended that you can say I'm extorting from you.

You're accusing me of being a criminal. That's not fair.

If I refuse to update, you will still insult me and call me all sorts of names. The Let The Guns Speak I completed and put up for sale at just N300, how many people bought it? I've had just 11 sales since over a month I put it up. Still, you feel that I'm extorting? Okay. You have a right to your opinion.

A fifteenth update (Damnation on 15th Avenue) is also available for N50 only.

09061754872

Update 9

The 9th Cloud

V

Titi waited for everyone in the home to sleep off before she took action. For the past couple of days she had been watching how Madam Comfort was treating Maria. She suspected that the woman was doing everything she could to get rid of the innocent girl; perhaps because the girl was somehow threatening her business. They didn’t know why the woman had suddenly attacked the girl. What could Maria have done to deserve such kind of brutality? Did she steal Madam Comfort’s money? That was highly unlikely. It was hard imagining Maria to be a thief. Such a thought just couldn’t fly. Had she insulted the woman? That was also as hard to imagine as it was with thievery. Maria was the most polite girl in the home. She would never insult her peers let alone an elderly person. Titi and the other girls had all made various guesses but none of them made sense. Maria was a girl who was simply incapable of any wrongdoing. She would never steal, insult or do anything that would put a stain on her reputation. As little as she was, Maria respected herself more than anything else and if you can respect yourself, then there is no way you can disrespect others, or would there be any reason for others to disrespect you. But Maria’s case was different; as much as she respected herself, Madam Comfort did a lot more than disrespect her – she nearly killed her in their presence. Even now, Titi doubted that Maria was still alive, but she was willing to find out. Unlike the other girls in the home, she was not going to sit back and not help someone she liked so much.

That night Titi was to check up on Maria, she kept her meal uneaten. She knew that if Maria was still alive, one thing that would be threatening her survival would be starvation. She, Titi, could go a night without eating; there was someone who had not been fed for four days straight. At around midnight when all the girls had slept and Madam Comfort had retired to bed after handing over some girls to the men who usually came in the night, Titi snuck out of her room. She stood in front of the matron’s room and listened. There was only one way to know if the woman was sleeping. She didn’t need to place her ear against the door to know, for Madam Comfort was snoring heavily. The girl was glad. Now she could easily open the front door and step out; but she needed the key to the shed. She had studied Madam Comfort and she knew where the woman always kept the key.

She held her breath as she placed her hand on the door handle and turned as silently as possible, then she carefully pushed forward. She was hoping that the door would not be locked from behind. Sometimes Madam Comfort would go to bed without locking her door, since she knew that none of the girls would dare step into her room if she didn’t call them. As Titi pushed the door forward, she prayed that this was one of those rare nights that the woman got careless. Lo, it was true, the door was unlocked. Before stepping into the room, a dangerous thought occurred to Titi; she wondered if she could end everything permanently. She could liberate herself and the other girls right now. All she had to do was go into the kitchen, grab a knife, return to this room and stab the woman in her sleep. She would stab her as many times as she could until she was sure that she was dead. If Madam Comfort died, they would all live a much happier life. But Titi didn’t have the courage; she could only think it, she was incapable of carrying out a cold-blooded murder. She was not a monster; she was better than Madam Comfort. All in all, she prayed that someday the woman met with misfortune. She might be going on the road one day and get run over by a truck, or she might be felled by an incurable illness. The only thing Titi could do was wish the woman evil. Madam Comfort was evil, she deserved nothing but evil. Unfortunately, Titi was old enough to know that life was not fair; evil people usually thrive while the good ones suffer. The world has been mould in a biased fashion.

At this moment, she had gained enough confidence. She stepped into the room boldly. If the woman caught her, she was ready to bear the consequence; she wouldn’t mind being beaten for trying to do the right thing. She was the only girl among all the girl of the orphanage who had enough courage to act against what she considered wrong. Besides, she would not be like Maria if she was caught. She would not allow herself to be subjected to such unkindness. She would just run out of the orphanage, escape, be independent. She didn’t know what she would do out there but anything or anywhere would surely be better than what the woman would do to her. If it meant selling her body to survive, she would gladly do it. It was something Madam Comfort had been forcing her into anyway. The only difference this time around would be that she would get paid for it and get to keep the money for herself. She would not have to deliver to anyone. She would be her own boss. She had no skill whatsoever; the only selling point she had was her sexy body; that was enough to bring her comfort.

The room was dark, of course; Titi had expected it to be, and she was prepared. Switching on the overhead bulb was risky; the glare of the bulb might awaken the woman. She was not willing to take that risk; that was why she had come with a torch. She knew switching on the torch could be as dangerous as flicking the wall switch, so she covered the face of the torch with her palm before flicking it on. Then slowly, she allowed a little ray of light to pass through her fingers. She scanned the room slowly until the light shone on the wall close to the window. Titi knew exactly what she was looking for and where she could find it. She could find the key in the dark but she wouldn’t risk on tripping on something that would alert the sleeping woman; hence the torch. The key was hanging from a nail in the wall just beside the window. If that part of the window had been open Titi could have easily picked the key from outside. But it wasn’t; and the louvres made a hell of a noise when drawn; they were old and rusty.

She crossed the room and unhooked the key from the nail, making sure that she did not shine the torch on the face of the sleeping woman. She quietly stepped out and shut the door behind her. She knew she would have to return it but she must not leave the door open. What if the woman woke up with the intention of relieving herself and found the door open? Surely she would know that someone had come into her room, and she would immediately take drastic actions. Tit wouldn’t want that.

She returned to the kitchen and picked up the food she had kept for Maria. It was a plate of rice and stew with little fish she had salvaged from the pot. She had found a sachet of a powdery painkiller and had taken it. Then she filled a cup with water and left the kitchen.

She had no problem with the front door; that one was usually unlocked, what they always did instead was push the bolt in place and go to bed. There was no turning of keys or clicking in padlocks. And it was a silent door, too; the only door in the whole of the building that made zero noise. She opened the door and stepped out into the compound. She walked straight to the goat-shed, unlocked it and stepped in. the shed was even darker than Madam Comfort’s room; thankfully she still had the torch with her. What she saw shattered her. She broke down and cried. No human being deserved this kind of treatment; this was the height of savagery. Maria was naked and looking like a child torn by war. Her long hair was caked in blood and dirt, and her body parts were torn in various parts; even her beautiful round breast had torture marks. The most unsightly parts of her body were her back and her burnt foot. How the girl was still alive after all that was nothing short of amazing.

While she wept, she reached for Maria. The girl withered in her arms like a dead flower stem. Her breathing was shallow and her swollen eyes were shut.

“Maria,” Titi called in a whisper, “Maria, wake up. It’s me, Titi. Wake up.”

Maria stirred faintly but her eyes were still shut.

“I’ve brought you some food, Maria. Please wake up.” Another stream of tears was flowing down the older girl’s cheeks. She felt like she was talking to a rotting corpse.

“Please open your eyes, Maria,” Titi begged, “Please don’t die.”

Slowly, the eyes began to open. Titi was sitting on the floor of the shed, her back was against the wall and she had Maria’s head on her laps. She untied the scarf on her head and wrapped it round the girl to cover her unclothedness and protect her from the cold. Maria was finally able to open the eyes to a slit.

“Titi,” she whispered tiredly. Her word was so faint that Titi could barely hear. She dropped the torch on the floor and supported the girl’s head with one of her hands.

“Yes, Maria. I’m here.” She quickly spooned a rice from the plate and brought it to Maria’s mouth. “Open your mouth, I’ve brought some food.”

But Maria turned her face.

“You have to eat something,” Titi pleaded.

“Water,” Maria whispered.

Titi quickly reached for the water and put it to her mouth. The girl drank the water hungrily. She would have finished the whole cup of water had Titi not stopped her. She was so parched that she could drink herself to death.

“You have to eat something to regain your strength,” Titi said, “Please take some morsels.”

She started feeding Maria who could barely open her mouth. She was having pain all over her body. Even chewing was painful, swallowing was an agony, but she was wise enough to know that eating would probably save her from dying. She managed to eat five spoonfuls – she could take no more. Titi urged her to take at least two more spoonfuls but Maria lacked the strength to even take one more. What she would take was water. Titi gave her the painkillers and more water.

She stared at the girl’s bruised body and gently laid the head on the ground. She rose up and dusted herself. “Please wait for me, I’ll be back.” She quickly returned to the building and opened the first-aid box. She got a bottle of spirit and embrocation, took a roll of plaster and bandages. Then she returned to the shed. She began work on the girl immediately. She cleaned the wounds with cotton wool doused with spirit. She was surprised to see that Maria did not wince in pain. She had initially been scared that the girl would cry out in pain and wake up the evil woman. She cleaned the wounds carefully and applied medicine on them. Then she went to her toe and worked on the burn. She applied a bluish liquid that was meant to heal the wound fast. As she was about to apply the bandage, Maria stopped her.

“Why? What’s wrong?” asked the befuddled Titi, “The bandage will protect the wound from getting infected further.”

“She will find out,” said Maria, her whisper was loud this time. Titi knew the girl was referring to Madam Comfort; and she was right. There was no way Madam Comfort would not know that she had been helped if she saw the bandage. It could cause more problems for both Maria and the other girls in the home. Titi knew Maria did not want to put her in trouble. She would have loved her wound to be plastered and bandaged but it would not be the wisest thing to do in that circumstance. Titi had no choice but to stop.

“Why are you helping me?” asked Maria; her voice was getting clearer. “Madam will hurt you if she finds out.”

“You’re right,” replied Titi, “We have to make sure she doesn’t. I’m sorry it took me so long to attend to you. Madam has been watching us like a hawk, daring any one of us to help you. We couldn’t take the chance. We are all so scared of her.”

“I understand,” said Maria, “The pain is too much. My head is splitting apart.”

Titi returned to her initial position in the shed and cradled the girl’s head in her laps. She rocked the girl. All night long, she comforted the tortured girl.

“You know I wasn’t born an orphan like you. I knew my parents. We were a rich family; at least very comfortable. My parents could afford what they wanted. I attended one of the best schools in this country. You see, my father was a politician. I was too young to understand how he made his money; all I could remember was that the government froze most of our assets. We were asked to vacate our house as soon as possible because the bank had placed it for sale. Overnight, everything we enjoyed stopped. We left a flat to live in a less comfortable home. My father’s appointment with the government was terminated. I remembered that my mum had cried so bitterly when my father relayed the news. His name appeared in the papers as a corrupt person who looted and stole from the government. My father’s name was dragged in the mud; his reputation was soiled. He barely escaped being jailed. But we suffered dearly for what he was accused of doing. I was taken out of the expensive school I attended and placed in a public school with unrefined pupils. I was bullied and abused in school. Every day, I dared going to school because I was seen as the daughter of a man who stole public funds. Everywhere I went, I saw people look at me with judgemental eyes. I thought I was the only person suffering this hatred, I never knew what I suffered was nothing close to what my parents experienced. My father could not find job anywhere. My mother could not walk in the street. Whenever she went to the market, she was always booed by the market men and women. People avoided them in the streets. They were ostracised.

“It got so bad that they broke under the weight. They gave up – they gave up on themselves, they gave up on me, they gave up on the world. The entire family suffered depression. Then one morning, my father put us in the car and we drove off. I was put in the backseat while my mom sat beside him in the front. Somehow, even as a seven-year-old girl, I knew what was happening. We were going on a suicide trip. I thought that was the best way to avoid the wickedness of the world. When we got to the bridge, my father drove off into the lagoon below. The water rushed at us immediately. I struggled but there was nothing I could do. I had been tied down with a belt. The water rushed into my mouth and nose. I couldn’t breathe; soon, everything turned white before I lost consciousness.

“The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself in a hospital. I learnt that my parents were dead and there was no extended family member who would take me. Apart from that, no one was willing to take in the child of a man who had a terrible reputation. So, to save my identity, my name was changed from Chioma to Titi, and I was given a new surname, too. I was brought here after I fully recovered in the hospital.”

Maria listened quietly to Titi speak. She did not interrupt her for once; she didn’t have the strength to be chatty anyway.

“I’m so sorry about that,” Maria said when Titi finished her tale of woe. She wished she could say more to comfort the girl, but evidently she had her own pains to battle.

“I need to go now. I’ve been with you for hours. It would almost be five by now. Madam must not wake up and see me here. I have to return the key.”

Maria nodded in understanding.

Titi left the girl and locked the shed after her. Then she quietly returned to Madam Comfort’s room and hanged the key where she had picked it; this time around she didn’t bother turning on the torch. She knew the exact steps to take in the room. She maintained the same stealth she had managed when she was taking the key. Afterwards, she left the room and returned to their room. All the girls were still sleeping. She breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was perfect.

But nothing was perfect. If Titi had switched on the torch when she was returning the key, she would have seen that Madam Comfort’s eyes were wide open.

The next update (The 10th Generation) shall be posted next week Sunday. But if you can't wait till then, the PDF and other subsequent updates are available for sale at N50 only.

Contact me via WhatsApp or call to know how you can make payment. Thank you and God bless you.

LSD
09061754872
larrysundynasty@gmail.com