Battered Wife

19

"Surrender? Bow to me once and I'll let you live. Isn't that a good deal?" The man or demon with symbols carved on his reddish dark skin insisted.

Because his 'good deal' sounded like a bad deal, I shook my head again. Something told me if I made this deal, I wouldn't be able to leave this room forever.

I didn't know how I got to the room with symbols drawn all over the wall, lying on the floor and surrounded by people in red robes in a room with ridiculous red lighting and fog that made it impossible to see anything. All I knew was I was standing in the middle of a circle of people I didn't know who obviously had evil intentions and were trying to persuade me to bow to the demon man I saw a few weeks ago in the CCTV footage at work.

My head hurt and I felt as if I was being squeezed into a narrow box that kept reducing in size the more I stayed in this strange room.

"I said bow and accept me as your lord. I'll give you power, money, men, houses, anything you want. All you have to do is surrender to me." He said, staring at me with bulging eyes and a smile that was just scary with the symbols carved unto his face even though he seemed to be trying to smile kindly to me.

I wanted to say no but the air seemed to get thinner with every second that I wanted to say no. A strange voice was chanting like a whisper close to my ears, asking me to say no but something inside me kept telling me not to.

My breathing quickly became strained and my sight grew blurry.

"If you don't agree to surrender, you will die here. I promise that you will die here. Then what will your beloved daughter do? She would have no choice but to return to your husband's household. They'll treat her like nothing. All you have to do is just surrender and accept me as your Lord. I'll give you everything you've ever wanted. Power, money, houses. Your daughter will grow old and..."

A force seemed to press onto my shoulders until my shaky legs could no longer hold me upright. I plopped down onto my knees.

"Now bow or you'll never see your daughter again." The man said again.

I looked up at him and into his eyes but what I saw was nothing but despair in my future if I bowed to him. I didn't know why but the voice inside me seemed to be dying but I could only hear it's last words, "If you do this, you will never see Adesewa again."

Suddenly something sparked in me. "No! I refuse to bow to you!"

My words were accompanied by a strange light that pushed out of me like the pulsing light of the electromagnetic pulse in The Matrix and that light knocked everyone in the room down, including the man demon with symbols carved on his face.

Then I woke up.

For a few minutes, I didn't know where I was.

My mouth was open and air flooded my lungs through my mouth and nose. For the next few seconds, I sucked in the air as if I'd been deprived of air for several seconds while I was stuck in that weird dream.

I stood up quickly and ran to Adesewa's room and only breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that she was in her bed, sleeping well and breathing well.

I stood by her bedside for a while debating sleeping with her or going back to my room, until I eventually caved. Then I pulled off her blanket and slid into her bed with her, clasping her in my arms.