INFERNO

CHAPTER THREE: FIRE CALLS II

But something has changed for Tamarys, she felt it even in the wind and the dark cloud she could see in her mind's eye. A storm is brewing.

Tamarys doesn’t know what this storm was all about and she can’t shake that feeling try as much as she could.

Fortunately, today was a lucky day at school. No one went out of their way to look for her or abuse her. It seemed like she was invisible. Everything was unusually calm, and as Tamarys walked home that day, she pondered this too. This has never happened to her. As long as she can remember, ever since she came to live at her dad’s her life has been one abuse story after the other both in and out of school. Even when she felt her abusers were too tired to bother with her during school hours, they still came to throw garbage at her, call her names, make fun of her or beat her up after school. So you can imagine how surprised she was no one paid attention to her today, but her luck was destined to run out.

On getting home, her step-mother Mina was already in the living room waiting for her, and since she walked home in a daze she arrived a few minutes later than usual. Tamarys greeted Mina and headed towards the stairs to her attic only to be stopped halfway there

“where do you think you are going?”

Tamarys paused and pointed upstairs as she turned to face the sitting woman but this person wasn’t looking at her lost in her digital device as she was. She wanted to say she was going to her room but does it matter or would she be putting herself in more trouble by calling attention to herself. Who knows if Mina is talking to her?

Was she making a call?

“Come down here this instant!” she glared at her,

Tamarys rushed down at the speed of light, she even knelt beside the furious woman hoping for leniency. “Yes, ma.”

“Speak! Where are you coming from?” she dropped her device on the couch beside her, now focusing on her, her face a tale of malice and disdain.

“fro...from school ma, from school.” Tamarys couldn’t help but be frightened to death.

Who knows where this is leading to?

What will happen next?

 At that particular time, Marsha opened the door to her room. Upon seeing what was happening in the living room, she went into the kitchen and brought some snacks to watch the drama.

“don’t mind her mom, you know how she is so full of lies.” she sneered. ”Didn’t I see you Getting off that man’s car? Don’t tell lies now.” She asked Tamarys in a sweet tone all the while smirking at her as she lied through her green teeth.

Mina was surprised to hear her daughter speak. “Really?” she asked hoping for something more incriminating. “Did you see her getting off someone’s car?”

“yes, I even saw them kiss.” She said as she chewed on a chip. ”The funniest part is that the fool in question is older than dad.” She chuckled.

No one was more shocked than Tamarys.

Didn’t I just walk home by myself just now, when did I enter any vehicle?

“ Mother, please don’t believe her, I just walked home by myself I didn’t go anywhere else, I did not enter anybody’s car.”

 Before she could finish her plea, her face was forcefully turned the other way, she lost her sight for a few seconds before she felt the heat on her cheek. She could feel the pain in her neck muscles. She brought her hand up to caress her hot cheek.

What just hit her face?

Did someone slap her?

Why?

Her ears were ringing.

What did I do? Tamarys wondered. She could hear Marsha laugh hysterically in the background.

A few seconds later, her question was answered

“Haven’t I warned you not to call me mother?”

“Mama! Get me ‘the thing’, I cannot feed, clothe, and raise a p********e in this house.” Tamarys watched as her dear sister sprang up from her seat excitedly. She knew what was coming next. She was going to be beaten again when her sister returns with their mother’s special whip. Getting whipped was not a new occurrence, it’s something that happens almost everyday and she had gotten used to it. But not long ago Mina had gotten the most brilliant idea of the century to purchase a horsewhip and imbed tiny metal spikes on it. This is not only extremely painful but also tears off the skin wherever it touches. Mina was very satisfied with this kind of ‘disciplinary’ tool because it delivers on its promise but she rarely uses it, leaving it for special occasions, not wanting Tamarys to get used to it. she calls it the thing because she probably wants to hide this side of herself from her husband. Even if their marriage is strained they still need to live under the same roof with some semblance of peace.

Mina turned around and dragged Tamarys who didn’t stop pleading roughly by the hair down into the basement.

“If I don’t correct your errors you will turn out to be just like your stupid hoe of a mother, and go around ruining other people’s home!”

“How do you even have the effrontery to call me your mother? I can't possibly have a bastard daughter like you, can I?” she screamed into her face, then kept dragging her to the basement. Tamarys hissed in pain when her skin scratched on the rough surface of the floor. She was tied tightly to a beam in the basement with some nylon cords that bit into her flesh as mina waited for Marsha to arrive.

“Mom please, I didn’t do any of those things!”

“Please don’t beat me, please!!”

She tried to reason with her.

“Are you saying your sister is lying?”

What else do you think  I am saying? Wondered Tamarys.

Just when Mina was done with tying her up Marsha entered the basement with the whip.

“It doesn’t matter, I still have to teach you a lesson even if you were saying the truth.” Said Mina when the first whip landed, Tamarys felt like the world was coming to an end. Agony shot through her whole body. She felt thousands of needle prick in her scalp and tinging in her extremities. She could hear screams but didn’t recognize the heart wrenching, body chilling screams as her own.

Tamarys was beaten mercilessly by Mina as Marsha cheered her mother on amidst pleas from Tamarys.

There was blood everywhere on the floor, her body was slippery with her bodily fluid, the flesh on her body was torn off wherever the whip hit. She was in pain worse than she ever felt before.

“I won’t do it again!”

“I won’t do it again!!”

“I will be good!”

“I will not lie anymore!”

“Please mother, save me!”

“Please!”

“Please, don’t beat me anymore!”

“I will die, mother, save me!!”

But Mina never listened to her, the whip kept landing over and over , sometimes in a place, other times in another place until she was spent. Only then did Mina, breathing hard, leave the room to go freshen up, maybe. Tamarys thought her misery was over, but there was one more person who has it out for her still in the basement. Marsha grabbed the whip her mother had dropped and continue to beat Tamarys with it, when she felt Tamarys wasn’t responding as she should, she dropped the whip, put on a pair of rubber gloves, grabbed the chili powder she had gotten on her way from the kitchen, and rubbed it generously on Tamarys' open wounds. Tamarys, who was almost unconscious at this point, woke up once more, screamed, convulsed violently, and passed out.

“Didn’t even endure for long.” Marsha pouted at the miserable figure. "Anyway, we still have so many opportunities to play together, don’t we?” she smiled sinisterly and untied the miserable girl who fell to the floor with a dead thud. A single act of mercy on Marsha’s part, then she followed her mother out the basement, locking the door behind her.