Silent scre-ms Batch 3

SILENT scre-mS

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Sequence 4

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‘Married,’ a cold shiver ran down her spine.

‘Yes my daughter & you have less than 7 months before your marriage ceremony,’ her mother said

Then there was utter silence, in that brief moment Leila’s world seemed to stand still.

Her knees felt weak and she sank at once to the floor.

‘What do you mean she is married?’ Jada asked

‘It’s not something I want to get into right now but when the time is right and we have to present her to her future husband then all will be revealed,’ he responded.

‘When did this wh0le marriage thing happen?’

‘Jada this has nothing to do with you,’ her mother scolded

’This makes no sense at all, you at least owe her an explanation,’ Jada scre-med

‘I will not have you talk to me like that Jada.’

‘You mean to tell me that you married me off without my consent?’ Leila finally managed to speak up though her voice was hollow.

‘I am your father and I did what’s best for this family and for you.’

Leila stood up, ‘you might be my father but that doesn’t give you the right to play God in my life, aren’t you even ashamed of yourself,’ her voice suddenly rose.

Scarcely had she uttered those words when her father slapped her face with a heavy blow that sent her reeling as she fell on her back with a thud.

Leila picked herself upright, ‘You slapped me?’

Leila’s mother saw the frantic look in her daughter’s face as she held her cheek. If she could only get her out of this situation she would but she knew she couldn’t fight destiny, her daughter’s marriage had been sealed even before she was born and getting her out of it now would have grave consequences.

‘Never again should you ever speak to me like that,’ he yelled at her

‘Hun please, calm down,’ his wife held back his hand.

Leila fought back tears as she tried to regain her senses, ‘And what if I say no to this stupid marriage of yours?’

Her father laughed aloud mockingly, ‘Then be prepared to die Leila.’

Jada gave her father a puzzled look, ‘Dad, you mean you are willing to kill your own daughter for refusing to marry a stranger?’

‘Yes, I am willing to kill her,’ he responded through clenched teeth.

‘I refuse to be forced into marriage, I would rather be dead first before I marry an unknown man.’

‘Then count yourself dead my dear Leila. RIP,’ He laughed ‘you know what? You might as well tell me what type of a coffin you want us to burry you in, should we do use a white or black casket or maybe….,’

‘Stop it Daniel, stop it!’ His wife yelled at him.

‘You better warn this daughter of yours to do the right thing. I will not allow her to bring destruction to this family.’

‘I will not get married you can’t do this to me.’

‘My word is final you will be getting married in the next seven months and I hope you are still a V-rgin or else all hell will break loose.’

‘I hate you, you are such a wicked man, I wish you can just drop dead and die.’

He gro-ned and slapped her again, h-rder this time.

‘Don’t you dare lay your finger on me again,’ she pushed him and quickly ran to her room.

He wanted to run after her but his wife held his hand, ‘Give her time, she will come around.’

‘Mxxxm,’ Jada clicked her tongue, ‘You guys are disgusting.’

‘Jada this is not your battle to fight so stay out of it,’ her mother warned.

‘Whatever,’ she said before walking away.

‘You need to talk to her, she has to understand how important her marriage is to this family,’ he said to his wife.

She took his hand and gently led him to him to a nearby chair, ‘I will talk to her please calm down.’

Danielwas angry Leila was going to be the death of him.

His wife stood behind him and slipped her hands under his T-shirt and began to m-ssage his shoulders.

He closed his eyes and s—-d in a breath of air.

‘Breath!’ she said her voice was in whispers.

‘Okay,’ he said exhaling the breath he had been holding.

*

Audrey sat on the floor, waiting for news on her brother, it had been hours since he had been brought in but no one had given her any information on how he was doing.

She was paralyzed with fear and despair, what if Owen was dead would she be able to live without him? He was the only family she had – since their parents died it had always been the two of them against the world. Yes they had a few aunties and cousins and cousins here and there but she didn’t count any of them as family.

She stood up instantly when the doctor walked out gently shutting the door behind her, she had a pained look on her face and somehow Audrey knew she had bad news for her.

‘Doctor! How is my brother doing?’ she asked her even though she wasn’t emotionally ready to hear her response.

‘Um…….,’ the doctor fumbled for words as she cleared her throat.

Audrey suddenly felt an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach.

‘I need to know how my brother is doing Doctor.’

The doctor looked up at her, the one thing she hated about her job was having to deliver bad news to the family of her patients, it made her feel like a failure.

Audrey felt her eyes become glossy, the doctor’s silence was driving her crazy.

‘What the f–k is going on?’ she yelled much to the surprise of her and the doctor.

The doctor raked her fingers through her hair, ‘Your brother has slipped into a coma, he is brain dead and he is likely to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life, ’she finally said

Audrey felt weak, she had to hold on to the chair next to her to keep from falling.

‘Nothing adds up, how does he go from being healthy to being in a coma? You mean the beating he received could have landed him in the Coma?’

‘Your brother’s situation is quiet complicated.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I feel like I have failed you but I can’t honestly explain how he slipped into that Coma. We ran a few tests but it seems he is medically okay.’

‘Are you saying my brother is as good as dead?’

She took a deep breath ‘Yes.’

Audrey stared at the doctor as she shook her head, she was too shocked to react and too numb to cry.

SILENT scre-mS

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Sequence 5

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Leila threw herself upon her bed, weeping into her pillow. Her body was exhausted and her mind was restless, why would her parents do this to her? She was only 24 and marriage was the last thing on her mind, she wanted to focus on her studies explore and travel the world before finally committing herself to someone in marriage.

‘I will fight them if I have to but I will not be forced into a marriage I don’t desire to be in,’ she thought at the back of her mind.

Amidst her thoughts, Leila’s eyes grew heavy and she felt the grip of exhaustion- she dozed off.

*

It was a cold dark evening the air was sharp and brisk, the coldness of the night pinched at her skin making it raw and numb. Leila’s mind wandered in all directions, she had no idea where she was.

Everything seemed a little too strange she was standing barefoot in the middle of nowhere & her clothes were replaced with red fabrics.

She looked around and all she could see where trees in front and to either side of her. She was suddenly alarmed, this place was awfully quiet, how was she going to get out of here alive?

Eventually she started walking around aimlessly trying to find a way out, she was cold – the air she was inhaling made her in,sides freeze.

She had only walked for five minutes when she heard a very loud amplified sound like heavy breathing. An unreasoning fear swept across her body and she stood still shivering and shaking, at that point the wind became fiercer and the air harsher, Leila knew she wasn’t alone in the forest, she could feel the presence of someone watching her from behind, afraid to look back she began to run as fear pumped adrenaline through her veins.

As she ran, she heard loud curdling scre-ms from behind her but she didn’t stop, she ran as fast as her body could take her.

She suddenly came to an abrupt halt when she heard another scre-m louder now and the voice sounded strangely familiar.

This time around she turned and came face to face with a man in a heavy black cloak not too far from her. He was holding someone by the neck and sort of strangling him.

‘Owen!’ Leila gasped trembling when she saw the person who was being strangled.

‘Ha! Ah! Ha! Ah! Ha! ‘A loud pearl of laughter bounced against the trees.

Owen chocked and gagged in his grip fighting for air. Leila was horrified at what was going on but she couldn’t move anymore.

‘Owen! No!’ she scre-med as tears of fear and frustrations spilled over dripping down her cheeks.

As he continued to tighten his grip around Owen’s neck, Owen’s eyes rolled back into his head then he let out a breathless mo-n and collapsed to the ground and did not move further.

‘Owen,’ Leila scre-med, she wanted to run to him, she had to save him from this monster but before she could do that her eyes snapped open and she was back in her room lying on her bed, her room was dark though she didn’t remember switching off the light.

‘Could it all have been a dream? It seemed so real. What did it mean?’ Oh Owen, she had to call him to see if he was okay.’

She tried to get up but her body was paralyzed it was as if someone was holding her down, she couldn’t move her arms and legs neither could she speak, this experience was similar to what happened the other day, Leila was frustrated what in God’s name was happening to her, she thought about praying in her heart but she didn’t know how to, her parents were not religious and she too had followed in their footsteps, she couldn’t remember a time when she had prayed in her life, doing so now would be a sign of hypocrisy.

She lay still staring at the wall waiting for this awful experience to end when all of a sudden the door in front of her opened, it wasn’t just a little push it was as if someone had opened the door completely then she heard a huge bang and the door slammed shut.

After a while, she was aware of a familiar strong presence in her room & she began to see movement, she could feel his presence coming closer and closer, she tried to scre-m again and although she felt her mouth moving, no sound emerged. She was desperate she needed to get herself out of this situation before he harmed her, but how would she do that. Just then Leila felt like someone was touching her and she began to panic, it was kind of a human touch she could feel it all over her body and then there was a weight on top of her body and a breath on her neck.

‘No,’ she scre-med but to no avail. Shortly after, Leila felt a hand stroking her th-gh followed by a sharp pain that radiated in her back down in her upper left th-gh.

After a few moments of excruciating pain, it was gone and she was able to move.