INFERNO

CHAPTER SIX: TRUTH

That morning, Tamarys sat in silence, tears running down her cheeks. She had woken up just a few hours ago with memories she didn’t know she possessed. Hidden truths that have been unveiled. Her head felt enormously big from the things she’d seen, she wasn’t even sure her legs could support her if she tried to stand.

The truth is that her life was a series of one sad tale after the other. She lived a terrible life, died a tragic death and now, she lives again to repeat the same series of mistakes and consequences? May the gods forbid!

Wiping her tears, she stood and paced the ground. Soon enough, Mina will come to release her from this makeshift dungeon just like she had seen in her memories.

Tamarys sighed.

Her heart was very heavy and sorrowful. She can remember every bit of suffering she had gone through right until her death. Amidst danger and the apocalypse, no one had wanted her, no one cared. The people who should have protected her, those she called ‘family’ were the ones who sold her off to die. She could still feel the agonizing pain and hear horrifying screams from when she lay on that table in her past life dying one piece at a time. The calm voice of those sadistic scientists still haunts her even now.

The jiggling of keys in the lock woke Tamarys from her thoughts. She lay in a corner of the room pretending to be unconscious. Mina came in with a flashlight in hand and a bucket of ice-cold water in another, she found the miserable girl in that position but she couldn’t find it in her heart to care. What do you know? this child is the evidence that her husband doesn’t wholly belong to her. What woman doesn’t want a caring, romantic, and faithful husband? So even if that seductress is dead and buried she is not gone from their lives. She left filthy evidence of her a******y behind to torment Mina’s mind and drive her crazy every single day. But Mina has vowed it with every drop of blood in her body to destroy her enemies and devour them. She will make sure that no trace of that filthy woman will be left in her home. Just you watch.

She raised her foot and kicked the i***t with all the strength she could muster.

“Wake up fool, haven’t you had enough sleep yet?” she dumped the bucket of chilly iced water on the poor figure. Tamarys groaned.

“Go and clean yourself up, be more of a help and less of an embarrassment to this family” she sneered at the sorry picture of a girl, Constantly pointing her flashlight in her face. “ your father is coming home with a friend. You should make sure this house is pristine by tonight.” Tamarys was taken aback. apparently, she had been in this dungeon more days than she had thought. She remembered that in her past life she was allowed to come out on the third night after her punishment, and her father came home alone four days later. If that is the case, she has been lost in her memories for a very long time and today should make it a full week she’s been locked in here. The more baffling thing is that even though she has been coma all this long, her dearest stepmother still expects her to do house chores.

What crimes did I ever commit in my past lives to be treated this way?

She stood and walked to her room to take a shower, not forgetting to grimace in pain and reduce her pace when needed least she’d be found out.

When she was done taking a shower, she went ahead to dust, wipe and clean the house from the top to bottom, do the laundry, and begin making dinner. Thankfully, her stepmother and sister had gone off somewhere so there wasn’t much hindrance to her work. By the time dusk approached and her privileged relatives returned home, Tamarys was almost done making dinner.

Amsel Adams returned almost thirty minutes later with someone one Tamarys hoped to never see in this lifetime, Dominic Black. Mr Black is a middle-aged man, older than Amsel by half a decade, who, in Tamarys’ past-life, will marry her a year later when she graduates high school. This perverted old man had put her through an emotional wringer. First sexually tormenting her daily to the point of exhaustion, then he pimped her off to be used by his friends. As if that wasn’t enough, when Tamarys had fallen pregnant, he had beaten her up until she lost the baby and almost lost her life along with it. Fortunately, this stupid old man became one of the first victims of the apocalypse. Tamarys hoped and still hope he died a very painful death.

The shadow he left in Tamarys’ heart still lingered, so when Marsha welcomed her father and the guest, she Was in the middle of setting up the dinner table for the family and the guest. The result is that the wine glass had fallen from her hands and shattered. This earned her a very dirty resounding slap and a glare from Mina who just happened to be coming from the kitchen at that time.

With tears in her eyes, Tamarys had apologized to both her parents and the guest, quickly finished with what she was doing, and immediately disappeared from their sight.

However, from what she had seen, everything was still moving according to the script but at a much faster rate. Dominic didn’t appear in her past life till months later. That day he also came to have dinner at the Adams’ home. Their union was a result of some business deal that Amsel wanted so badly he sacrificed his teenage daughter. She must have set off something when she traveled to the past because now things are moving along faster than it did before. She wouldn’t put it past her precious mother or Amsel himself to try and sell her off or promise her to Dominic in advance. So, she has to hurry up and do the needful now there’s still time. Tamarys sat in silence for a very long time, trying to decide what to do. She was in a dilemma, she’d like to escape this hell hole possibly in one piece, if not, with as minimal damage as possible.

A plan formed in her head, she doesn’t know how to carry out this plan. But one thing is certain.

No one is allowed to hurt her anymore.

This time, she won’t succumb to the tragedies of her past life. The gods forbid that she walks that same curse path again. She will not wait foolishly like the earthworm and become a meal to the cockerel. Those who have harmed, and mocked, and taken lives will receive retribution when the time comes.