The Cursed Child - S01 E02

Story 3 years ago

The Cursed Child - S01 E02

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 2

“Will I go to school this year?”
Five years had passed since Olivia started living in her aunt’s house. Each passing year Aunt Hilda promised to send her to school the following year. That year never came. Every morning Olivia watched her friends leave home for school and in the evening she watched them return. Finally, on her tenth birthday, she decided she had had enough of waiting for next year to come.

“Your mother didn’t leave me any money to take you to school child.” Aunt Hilda delivered her perfectly prepared response.
“But-“
“Are you going to argue with me?” She asked in her usual menacing tone and Olivia silently cowered out of the room.

“Olivia, come back here!” Aunt Hilda called out to her.
“Yes Aunty.” Olivia appeared back at the door.

“There’s a woman coming here tomorrow to teach you something about being a woman in this country. The only good that will ever come out of you is being a wife. I don’t want you to embarrass me when the time comes.”

“I don’t want to be a wife.” The ten-year-old Olivia cried.
“Did I say anything about you being a wife right now?” Aunt Hilda asked. “I am only preparing you for the future. Your cousin Nancy also started right about this age so don’t think there is anything special about you. She’s coming tomorrow at 10. I expect you to be ready before she gets here.”
At 10 the next morning, Olivia locked herself in the room and refused to come out. Aunt Hilda and her children pounded on her door but still, Olivia would not open. Chris was finally tasked with breaking the door down, something he happily did. Olivia was dragged out and taken to her aunt’s room where the strange lady was waiting with a plastic bag of foul-smelling traditional medicines and something else Olivia could not identify. She attempted a final escape just as her aunt was leaving but Hilda shut the door quickly and locked it.

“You are going to stay in there until Aunty Petronella finishes with you,” Hilda shouted from the other side of the door.
And to her friend, she said, “Make sure you use those pegs, Petty. I want to teach this child a lesson, making me run around the house and sweat like a pig at my age…. Use those pegs until I can see something today!”

Left alone in the room with the scary looking woman, Olivia was determined to keep her from touching her at any cost. She looked around the room for any object she could use to protect and defend herself. Unfortunately, Aunt Hilda’s bedroom appeared to have been specially arranged for this kind of business. Everything was perfectly in its place in the eerily usual Aunt Hilda’s style. There were no combs or anything else she could have used as a weapon in sight.
“Don’t touch me!” Olivia cried.
She was backing away from the woman towards the wall but Aunt Petronella pounced on her. She grabbed her by her sides and forced her down on the floor.

“You need to calm down and listen to your aunt.” Aunt Petronella said as she towered over the ten-year-old. “She is only doing this for your own good.” She added.
Olivia kicked her away with so much force that as she tried to hold herself steady on her feet, she fell back against the wooden stool by the dressing table. She looked up and saw the huge mirror by the dresser shake slightly and suddenly, a thought came to her. She looked over at Aunt Petronella who was still on the ground nursing the shock from her kick and she made up her mind to act.

Olivia got up, lifted the stool and threw it against the mirror. Aunt Petronella shrieked as the broken pieces fell to the ground. Olivia grabbed a piece from the floor, completely oblivious to the cuts and blood on her face resulting from the flying pieces of the mirror as it fell apart. She stepped forward towards Aunt Petronella wielding in her hand the new weapon she had just developed.

“Come near me and I will break this in your face.” Olivia threatened.

The woman laughed. “Do you think you are the first troublesome child I have had to deal with?” She managed to get up from the floor and nonchalantly sat on the bed. “Your aunt knew you would be this difficult that’s why she called for me. There is no child in this town that has managed to escape my grasp so just be a good girl and sit down on that chitenge like a well-cultured Zambian girl.”
“This is abuse!” Olivia cried.
The woman laughed again. “You think this is torture? Wait until you get married and you will be thanking me for this.”
“I don’t want to get married!”
“That’s what you’re saying now but you’ll soon be a teenager, you’ll start noticing boys and then your tune will change. When are you going to get it?” Aunt Petronella stood up, a hauntingly dark look in her eyes that dared the child to strike.
“You’re not living with the Muzungus anymore.” She said as she towered over the child. “No Zambian man is ever going to accept an uncultured wife. If you get lucky and you manage to fool one, he will soon leave you for a woman with the full package. Elongating your labia isn’t some form of abuse, it is our culture, our tradition. Mothers do it to their children out of love. Now come and sit down here and stop being such a nuisance child!”

“I don’t want!” Olivia cried, pointing the piece of broken glass at her and at the same time backing away from her.
Aunt Petronella looked over little Olivia’s shoulder and saw that she was about to step onto the broken glass on the floor with her bare feet and she grinned in anticipation. A few seconds later, Olivia fell into her own trap and landed her feet on the glass. She bawled out in electric pain and dropped to the floor, only to land her knees and hands in more pieces of broken glass.

The glass in her hand fell down and shuttered into more pieces before her. Aunt Petronella had managed to step back in time and was now watching the show before her in gaiety amusement. With her head bowed down in pain like that, Olivia looked like she had frozen in time from the shock of it all.

Thinking she finally had her where she needed her to be, Aunt Petronella lifted the ten-year-old by her shoulders and was about to drag her towards a broken glass free spot when the child completely surprised her. Olivia suddenly propelled her upper body backward, turned and grabbed the remaining piece of broken glass still attached to the frame of the dresser and slashed it across the side of Aunt Petronella’s face. The woman went straight to the floor bellowing in pain at the top of her voice. Aunt Hilda appeared in no time. she flung the door open and rushed to her friend’s side.

“Petty are you okay? My God you’re bleeding!” Hilda took in the scene around her and finally landed on a visibly petrified but determined Olivia.
Olivia saw the look in her aunt’s eyes and immediately made for a run but yet again she was no match for her aunt’s swift movements. Aunt Hilda caught Olivia before she could make it past the door, locked the door and then locked the girl’s hands together behind her back.

“I will hold her in place while you insert the pegs.” Aunt Hilda instructed her friend who immediately got up, removed the pegs from her plastic bag and approached Olivia. She yanked her pants off and threw them across the room.
“Nooo…leave me alone…mummy…nooooo…noooooooo-“ Olivia kicked and fought but she was no match for the two determined older women trying to teach her a lesson.
“Have you inserted them?” Hilda asked.

“I have but Hilda, she’s not moving anymore.” Aunt Petronella stepped away from the girl, fear registering all over her face.

“Olivia? Olivia!” Hilda slapped her face over and over again but Olivia wasn’t moving.
Fearing the worst, Hilda dropped her to the floor and went to stand next to her friend. “Do you think she’s…dead?”

They had been staring at her lifeless body for close to a minute when suddenly, Olivia moved.

“She’s moving again!” Aunt Petronella shouted.

Except, Olivia was doing more than just moving, she was convulsing, violently.
“What’s happening to her?” Hilda asked.

“I don’t know. Why are you asking me? Is she epileptic?” Petronella asked.
“I don’t think so,“ Hilda answered.

“What should we do? Should we pour water on her or something?”

“How about just leaving her in here until she comes back to her senses?” Hilda suggested. “What if whatever she has is contagious?”

“Good point,” Petronella said and the two women slowly turned their back to Olivia and tip-toed towards the door.
“Where do the two of you think you’re going?” A strange hoarse voice from behind them asked.
Terrified to their very core, they turned to find Olivia sitting up straight, fully awake and strangely composed for someone that had just passed out and had been convulsing like a leaf against the wind.
“Does this child have demons?” Petronella asked her friend.
Olivia laughed, but there was nothing usual about her laugh. It was throaty and deep, as if there was another person living inside her.