With You, For You

||63||

☆CHIOMA

My throat was parched, my mouth was aching, my head was pounding and my body was hurting all over. I felt very sore. I looked around, recognising my surroundings. Ebenezer's room. I didn't know I had slept over. I tried to get off the bed and that was when I realised I was completely naked. I wrapped the sheets around me and got off, going to look in the full length mirror attached to the wall. I managed to get to it, despite my hurting hips.

I. Looked. Like. Shit.

I looked like a victim of some kind of abuse. My hair and face were a mess. I let the sheets down to get a full look at my body. I was red all over, bruises forming here and there. My eyes were puffed up, my lips were swollen, there were finger prints on my breasts, on my hips, on my neck... I held back tears and I turned around to look at my back. It wasn't any better. I looked between my legs as the first tear dropped. It was abnormally red and swollen and it hurt.

The fact that the last thing I could remember was Tiana leaving this room scared me. What had happened here? Who had done this to me? Ebenezer stepped out of his bathroom , shirtless. he approached me from behind and hugged my waist, placing a kiss on the side of my neck. His lack of surprise at seeing me naked answered all my questions.

My best friend did this to me. "Good morning, beautiful. The marks are really pretty." My already pale face lost more colour. "Well you look surprised. How are you feeling? Tired?"

"What did you do to me?" I managed to croak out. He let go of me.

"I thought it was already obvious." I turned to face him. "We had—"

"You raped me." He looked like I had shot him.

"Chioma, what the fuck?"

"You did this to me, Eben, you raped me."

"We both wanted it." Excuse me?

"I can't remember shit. I can't remember anything. You took advantage of me." The tears were endless. He walked towards me and I backed away, into the mirror. "Don't come close to me. Stay away from me."

"Chioma, calm down let's talk this out. Rape is a serious accusation." I wasn't listening to his bullshit. There was nothing to talk about. I picked up a glass shard close by and held it in front of me. "Put that down."

"Stop coming closer! Stop!" He did not stop and I backed further into the mirror.

"Chioma, you'll hurt yourself." He was so close. "Chioma, drop it." I slashed it and he dodged. "Last warning. Drop it, so I wont hurt you." Could he hurt me more than he already had? I moved back, pressing myself against his mirror. I couldn't explain what happened or how I fell, but the environment changed. I looked around, taking in every object around me, slowly. I screamed.

~

Ebenezer. Was. Sick.

Nine years of friendship and I realised I did not really know who he was. The person I thought was my best friend all along was some kind of mentally deranged psychopath. I felt his arms around me and his lips on my skin. I recoiled in disgust. "Calm down, love. Calm down. It's nothing. it's nothing." How could he say that I this was nothing? My face all over the walls were nothing? Pictures of me, every cad or gift I had given him, items I thought had gone missing when I slept over, my underwear from yesterday was also here. And they were nothing?

"You're crazy."

"You make me that way. I love you, Chioma. I adore you. You are a goddess and I am your devout worshipper. You are religion and I am a follower. I love you. I love you so much that I will do anything for you. This is a shrine dedicated to you."