‘Get up and fight,’ papa screams.

Whimpering, and twisted into a heap, I stare bewildered at my mother. She is running towards me, but she never reaches me. My father grabs her by the hair and jerks her back. I see her mouth open, but no sound come out. He throws her and she goes hurtling backwards and slams into the wall with the most awful thud. Winded and shocked she lays propped up against the wall. Mama legs are open wide and I can see her underwear.

Papa hisses at mama like a snake and calls her a bad word. ‘Stay out of this you, witch. This is for his own good.’

Then he turns towards me. I can see mama beginning to crawl on the floor.

‘Don’t hurt him, Igor,’ she snarls.

Papa freezes, his face twisted and ugly. He turns around, goes back to her, picks her up as if she is a doll, and smashes her face against the floor. Blood gushes out of her nose. I can’t breathe. I can’t say single word. Gasping sounds come from my mouth.

‘Don’t interfere,’ Papa says as he kicks mama again and again in her poor belly. She curls up into a ball and doesn’t make a single sound.

‘Mama!’ I scream again and again, but nobody pays any attention to me.

I get up even though my whole body feels the way my finger felt when it was crushed under a rock, and rush screaming towards my mama. ‘Stop, papa. Stop. You killing mama.’

Papa grabs me as I lunge towards him.

‘Scream will you?’ he bellows, and kaboom, punches me in the side of head. My whole body sails backwards. Then there is no more pain. Just blackness…





What you want baby, I got.





Two


Dahlia Fury

Supreme excellence consists in breaking

the enemy’s resistance without fighting

- Sun Tzu

I turn the handle and open the door without knocking. Only one lamp is lit and the room is full of long, still shadows. I can make him out sitting fully clothed on the armchair by the window. His legs are crossed at the ankles and resting on the low glass table in front of him.

Our eyes meet.

His are luminous, like that of a wolf. My heart lurches and suddenly my knees feel weak. I close the door and stand leaning against it.

‘You shouldn’t have kidnapped my sister. It was a despicable thing to do,’ I say, my voice making ripples in the heavy silence.

He doesn’t move. ‘How else would I have made you come to me?’

‘What you did was wrong. My sister had nothing to do with us and you made her suffer.’

‘If only all the suffering in the world could be that mild,’ he says callously.

‘My mother went out of her mind with worry. She is old and she didn’t deserve that.’

‘Yeah? I didn’t deserve to feel the way I did either.’

I sigh. We’ll be going in circles. ‘Anybody else would have just asked me out.’

‘I didn’t want to ask you out. I wanted to steal you away and own you; do whatever I wanted with you.’

‘Why?’

He leans his head back against the back of the chair. ‘I don’t know why. I just knew I had to have you. From the moment I laid eyes on you.’

‘That’s no excuse for what you did.’

‘It is you who is trying to find an acceptable excuse for me. I don’t need one. I don’t wait for anybody to give me what I want. I just take it. I wanted you and I took you. Now you are mine until I say otherwise and heaven help anybody or anything that comes between you and me.’