Anaya: A Dark Voyage [#1 LightBlood Series]

Chapter 7 - Time Does Not Heal All Wounds

~*~

The Past.
Eighteen years later.
19th December 2016.

The years moved faster after the naming ceremony and Nia Afriyie moved with it. It all happened so fast — the day she started crawling, her first word, her first step, first day at school, everything.

It was her eighteenth birthday and no one could believe the beautiful young woman Nia Afriyie had grown into. Or should I say, the beautiful, bitter, angry and sad young woman?

Birthdays weren't the best days of her life. Her birthday was a day she dreaded and wished never came. It was the same day she lost her mother — a mother she never met and for all her life, been reminded of the fact that she took her away from the people who loved her the most.

Growing up, she was always faced with the question of whether to celebrate her birthday on that day or mourn her mother. Others, like her father, chose the latter.

Her birthdays weren't the average birthdays filled with a lot of wishes, cakes and sweets and whatnot that other girls her age got used to growing up. Not anymore. Birthdays stopped being anything but special to her on her fifth birthday, thirteen years ago, when her father began slipping into a dark path — a path she later learned was created by her birth and her mere existence.

Olamide became someone else all of a sudden. Each day with him reminded her that she didn't deserve to be alive.

Everyone grieves differently. Some people find it easier to run from their grief. Some find other problems to avoid it and others pick up new addictions and sometimes self-harm as a way to cope with their grief. For Olamide, it was getting totally immersed in his work and giving no reverence for the fact that Nia Afriyie existed. That was his escape and a young soul had to suffer for it.

Yes, there was someone, Olamide's younger sister Amara, who helped with the upbringing of Nia Afriyie but with her biological mother dead, her father's affection and attention were what Nia Afriyie needed the most.

At a time she was old enough to question things, she once found herself asking her father if he hated her because her mother died giving birth to her?

"You never knew her! Why is it such a big deal? You don't deserve to even talk about her!" Was all Olamide could spew out before pushing her from his way. She fell to the floor from the hard push and nearly broke her hand.

Nia Afriyie spent the entire night crying and thinking of ways she could relieve her father of the pain he was going through. Even if it meant she had to disappear. Running away from the house was one of the options and the other which was the most extreme, ending her life. She was only twelve! But she resorted to being around for a bit in case things changed. It never did.

Her father became his bitter best on her every birthday. He would drown himself in alcohol from the first light of the day to the last light. He would do nothing. Just drink and wished he wouldn't set eyes on Nia Afriyie. That would make things worse for him. He would sometimes cry when he was sure he was alone. Nia Afriyie knew that and tried her best to avoid being seen by him on her birthday.

Today wasn't any different.

As the shorthand of the clock settled on eight in the morning, about four empty beer bottles lay discarded about in his room. He sat not so far away from these bottles, an almost empty bottle of beer in his hand and a picture frame lying beside him. His gaze was fixed on the picture in the frame — a picture of himself and Nia on their wedding day — as tears filled his eyes.