The Imperial Family

Chapter Two: Stealing Innocence

"Innocence once lost cannot be regained. Darkness, once gazed upon, can never be lost." - John Milton.

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Lusaka, Zambia; 2004

Trinah was thirteen years old when she moved to Lusaka. In more ways than one, she was like cinderella, but without the horse and the prince. Just like Bina Mwanza had said, the new family welcomed her with open arms and treated her like she was one of their own. Her new guardians instructed her to address them as Uncle Venon and Aunt Cathy. Their children, eighteen-year-old Mark, fifteen-year-old Chiza, and three-month-old Isaiah became her cousins.

On the first Sunday since her arrival, Trinah was paraded in front of a fully-packed United in Christ Assemblies Church to give testimony about how blessed she was to have been adopted by the pastor's family. The reverence bestowed on the Chaile family could only rival that reserved for the gods.

Perhaps they were indeed gods after all.

No sooner had Trinah resigned herself to the promising colourful life than

her dreams were irrevocably shattered. Barely two weeks in the house, cousin Mark had sneaked into her bedroom in the middle of the night and ripped her innocence from the very core of her being.

"Scream and I'll have my mother send you back to that lay-by village she dug you from," he whispered in her ear.

A week later, uncle Venon would use a spare key to let himself in and repeat the sins of his son. Like a tag team, the two Chaile men would alternate and violate her every night for four straight months.

Unable to take the pain and humiliation anymore, Trinah confided in cousin Chiza who took the news to her mother. To Trinah's surprise, she quickly learnt that unlike what she thought and felt, she was the villain in the horror stories she had shared with people she thought would be her last line of defence. Aunt Cathy and cousin Chiza locked her bedroom and whipped her till the brown belts they had picked as their weapons of choice dripped in red.

"How dare you accuse my husband, an anointed man of God of such vile acts?" Said Aunt Cathy when she took a break from the whipping to catch her breath whilst her daughter stayed committed to the task. "And my son, ooh my poor Mark, my precious boy," the pastor's wife wept. "He has been nothing but kind to you! I begged him to focus on his studies but he insisted on always helping you. 'I'm like her big brother', he would tell."

"I never needed his help!" Trinah cried but no one was listening to her.

"He had been a caring brother to you yet you harboured such evil thoughts for him," Aunt Cathy said. She picked up the belt and resumed whipping. "I shall not let you ruin my boy's future you filthy thing."

It took the mother and daughter pair a while to realize that Trinah had stopped protesting and crying.

Chiza held back her mother's hand in mid-air. "Mum, she's not moving."

Aunt Cathy turned Trinah's blood-soaked body around and placed a finger under her nose. "I don't feel anything."

"Did we kill her?" Chiza started crying.

"Don't be silly," Aunt Cathy said, not quite believing her own words. "Run, go and bring some water!"

"I knew she was going to be a problem the moment I laid my eyes on her," Aunt Cathy

Muttered to herself, gently kicking Trinah to check if she would respond. "I allowed God to use me to take care of the orphan but look what she had turned out to be. A witch trying to destroy my family."