It’s in the morning, I am debating whether I should go out, or stay locked in my room. But I hear my aunt’s voice so I open the door and head straight to the kitchen.

“Morning,” I say with a very low voice.

I am met with a hot slap across my face. I scream in pain, holding my left chick that is now reddish.

“Didn’t I tell you that I don’t want Steve to be fucking any whores?”

Just when I had finally believed that I would never taste that salty water again, it starts falling down my burning cheek. There I am, standing and holding my cheek with both hands like I fear it will fall down. I’m in awe that this woman firmly believes that if she doesn’t sleep with her husband, I should.

Somehow I keep hoping that my aunt will come to her senses and realise that this is all wrong. I keep praying that she will protect me like she’s supposed to, like she promised granny.
She clicks her tongue and storms out of the kitchen.

I don’t hear a word she says after she gave me that hot slap. I’m struggling to comprehend why someone would do this to her sister’s daughter.

I don’t do what I came to do in the kitchen, I go back to my room and cry myself to sleep. God knows I want to escape this, I want it to end. I even wish for death upon myself. Every day before going to sleep, I pray to God that He takes my soul for I cannot take it anymore. I even suggest that He send my mom and dad to come and take me.

The way I wish to die, I sometimes hope that maybe he will rape, beat me and kill me. Throw me somewhere where it will take time for people to find me, just like my mom’s killers did to her. She was found dead and naked in the woods. They raped her repeatedly, beat her up and left her lying there. Knowing my mother, she must have given them a hell of a fight.

As for my dad, he was in a weird accident. No one knows how he hit the tree because there was no sign that he lost control of the car, there was nothing wrong with his car. My parents’ death, up to this day, remain a mystery.

I wonder if I was the last thing in their minds before they took their last breath. Especially mom. How did she feel when she realised that she would never see me again? She used to say, “My Angel, I’ll take a bullet for you, I will kill for you.” And my Dad would simply say, “No one hurts my Angel.”

I am trying so hard to fall asleep but I am not winning.

There is a hard knock at the door and I jump out of the bed and open. The moment I open up the door, Aunt Grace throws herself in. It’s her house after all.

“Why did you lock the door?” Aunt Grace says.

I don’t say anything, I just stare at her, hoping she would say her piece and leave. But she walks up slowly to me and puts her hand under my vest, finds my small rounded breast and gives it a squeeze. I jumped back in shock and pain.

“Aunt Grace, what are you doing?”

“I just want to find out what is that husband of mine love about you,” she says, walking up to me slowly. I take a step backwards and she takes a step forward. I find myself trapped in the corner of my room.

She runs her hands all over my body as if she’s touching something smooth. She runs her tongue on my cheeks and lips. She’s making sounds as if she’s tasting something she longed for her whole life. I stay there frozen, not knowing what to do.

I allow her to do whatever she pleases with my body so she can just finish and leave. She does things to me that I never knew a woman could do to another woman.

“Damn girl, you are amazing. I just want you to know that I don’t mind sharing my husband with you. I mean, you are my niece,” she says getting up from the bed.

“Rather you than some skank I don’t know.”

I just stare at her, I can feel tears building up in my eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you. You will never be in need of anything,” Aunt Grace promises.

She blew me a kiss and walks out like just accomplished a lifetime achievement. Right now the only thing I need is the one thing she will never give me; my freedom.

***

Tell us: Do you think Angel will ever get her freedom?