ESL Blogs

She greeted me with a friendly gesture. “I am an acquaintance of Ates’s family and I know Nida very well. I am here to tell you the story I know.” she said without waiting for me to ask questions. My desire to listen to the story grew. The few signs I used became less and less adequate. “Your father – God bless his soul – after his graduation, worked as a newspaper columnist and there, he met your mother. They loved each other and decided to marry. Nida was their head. She never wanted him to marry your mother because she also loved your father, in a platonic way. Despite Nida, they married, but she became insane and broke down in hostile tears. She promised to harm them. If they had children, she promised she would destroy them, too. After the fire, her eyes were always on the children - you. She made Tawfeeq leave Anele and marry her; otherwise, she threatened him to kill all of you. She never broke her promise...” I was shocked after all what I heard, perplexed, wholly unconscious of this anguish. Anger and bitterness preyed upon me; a deep languor succeeded to cover my body while the mid-afternoon sun fell on my face.

(8 days ago)

I came to the house behind the small hills. The house had two floors; it looked very old and was almost completely covered with vines. From the bare garden it looked like a big arbor with the veranda surrounding it. The front door was left half-open. I rolled my eyes across the long and dark hall. It was frightening to walk along this hall but I had to. Straight away was the kitchen. The furniture was old fashioned. There were many doors leading to different rooms. Suddenly, I felt a bee stinging me on my right shoulder, behind my back. When I saw Nida with a syringe in her hand, I understood that it hadn’t been a bee; she had given me an injection. But what had she ---?

When I woke up from my drugged sleep, I found myself in a room. One corner of the room was in a mess as if some people had a fight there. The two windows were high and they were shut with boards from inside. There was also a smell of rotten food. Sometime later, I heard footsteps coming closer from the hall. The door opened and a dim light accompanied it. At the edge, I saw Nida holding Anele from her arm. She seemed very exhausted. Nida brought her inside the room. “Now, you two will be quiet here, deal? You wouldn’t want to make me angry, would you?” said Nida with a wicked grin on her face. Her last sentence was spoken with terrible sarcasm.

After all what I have learnt from Charos, I could know how much Nida was dangerous and what, actually, happened to my parents. A strange feeling came out inside me. I knew that it was a feeling that preceded a thunderstorm; and a nameless anger wrapped up in my heart. I hardly remember my childhood. I fancy I still have recollections which I come to understand now. I remember my parents often used to move to new places. My fleeting memories, if, indeed, they be memories, they all seem distinct now, like a nightmare…

(One week and some hours ago)

Even though the situation we were in was frightening, I was happy to see Anele. We had been in the room for hours, and every 2 hours Nida was coming to check up on us. We knew we had to escape from here, but how? If we could find something to help us escape from this room maybe we could get out of the house that way. We searched the room in the hope of finding something. In the drawer of the console next to the door was an album. We were curious to see photographs of Nida’s family and of Nida herself. When we opened the album, however, we found that it was full of stories cut from newspapers. A feeling of chilling terror thrilled us. “We have to leave here right now! Can you see all this news cut from newspapers? She is a consummate psycho!” I shouted my blood beginning to run cold. We had found Nida’s hidden album, full of news from different newspapers, all news about different people, at different places, on different dates. There was news about a fire of a house, dated 1998; 2 people had died in the fire – husband and wife, their names were defaced in black completely. Another news was about the death of a man. The man had fallen down from the stairs and got broken his neck badly. The newspaper called it a “curious accident”. Who was this man and what was his relationship with Nida, I thought to myself. So many murder news, they were either accident or unsolved cases. “She is killing people and never been caught!” said Anele, her voice shaking and grabbing that man’s murdering news from my hand. “I think I know this man! Oh my God!” she screamed. I heard Nida’s voice echoing in my mind. “I killed him because he gave me an ugly look on the street. I killed him because he kissed his girlfriend in front of my eyes. I killed him because he was listening to the music loudly. Why does the reason matter? He was just annoying - so I killed him! ”

to be continued…