Listen To Me

Chapter 20

The house was a mess after the event yesterday. Hope noticed as she sat on the dining table and had her breakfast which consisted of Pap and Akara. She gazed at the chaos that was the sitting room in dismay.

There were empty bottles and plastic cans littered on the floor, plates and cups that were used to serve the guests were scattered around the room, not to mention food droppings that made the floors sticky.

Hope was sure that she would have been the one to clean it all up if she wasn't injured.

"Unique!" Mama Unique yelled as she stepped out from the kitchen, "Is that girl still asleep by this time?" She asked.

Hope shrugged in apathy. She was more concerned with the stack of drugs that she was supposed to take after she was done eating. She frowned in distaste.

"Hope, can you-" Hope raised a brow at her mother, waiting for her to continue. "Never mind." Mama Unique eventually said and went to Unique's room to wake her up.

"Mummy, it's too early," Unique whined groggily as Mama Unique pulled her by her sleeve. She was in her pajamas and her hair was all over the place, "We can do this later." She complained. She accidentally kicked over a can of Sprite, spilling its contents on the floor.

Mama Unique glared at her, "Watch where you are going and clean that up." She warned as she picked up the can from the floor. "Guest might come later so this house has to be spotless."

"Tell Hope to do it-" Unique cut herself off halfway. She had forgotten that Hope was injured, "Never mind."

Hope stared at the mother-daughter duo in disbelief. She scoffed silently and shook her head. She was not going to waste her breath on them.

She finished her food silently as Unique went to change. She took her plates to the kitchen when she was done. The kitchen looked worse than the sitting room. She pitied whoever was going to wash the pile of plates on the sink. Flies were buzzing over them.

Hope did not think twice before adding her plates to the heap since it was not her problem. Hope gave the kitchen a final glance before walking to her room.

It happened in a blink of an eye. One moment Hope was walking past Unique and the next thing she knew, her feet no longer supported her body. She was filled with dread as she felt her body floating through the air.

Luckily, she acted fast and latched on to the nearest thing around her which was Unique in this case, but it was not enough to brace her from the fall. She ended up hitting her side against the wall. She grimaced as a fierce pang of pain shot through her abdomen.

"Oh, my God! Hope, are you okay?" Unique yelled as she rushed to Hope's aid, Mama Unique trailing behind her.

"Did I not tell you to clean this Sprite up?" Mama Unique said, giving Unique a knock on the head. She then turned to Hope, "Are you blind? Why did you not watch where you were going?"

Hope ignored her mother's ranting and rushed to her room, slamming the door behind her. She scurried into her bathroom. She gasped when she saw her reflection in the mirror. There was a big red stain on her shirt. She pulled it up in trepidation, the bandage wrapped around her wound was soaked with blood. Her injury had ripped open.

Hope took her clothes off and carefully unwrapped the bandage. She felt an urge to gag when she saw the state of her stomach.

There were lots of black and purple spots around her injury. The injury itself was ghastly. It looked like she had been hacked by an axe, repeatedly. She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

I just need to take a shower and the bleeding will stop, she thought, but she realized she was wrong as she sat on her bed after bathing with pieces of tissues dyed red around her.

Mama Ola, she thought, Yes, Mama Ola can help me. Hope stood up and ran sluggishly out of the house whizzing past her mother and sister in the sitting room.

"Hope, where are you going to? You will open your wound!" Mama Unique yelled behind her but Hope ignored her.

Hope pounded on Mama Ola's door. Her vision was getting blurry from loss of blood.

"Hope is something wrong-" Damilare trailed off when he saw her bloody shirt. "Oh, my God, what happened to you?" He asked as he supported her. "Akinjimi," He yelled, "Go and call Mummy Unique."

As Akinjimi ran to fetch Mama Unique, Hope felt the world spin before succumbing to sleep.