The Cursed Child - S01 E05

3 years ago

The Cursed Child - S01 E05

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 5

“Where have they gone?” Olivia asked the neighbors.
“The University Teaching Hospital,” Mrs. Ndlovu said. “You know my Emily is a medical student right?” The woman said proudly. “Well, she told your aunt that if they rushed to the hospital, the doctors might be able to fix him back.”

Olivia ran back into the house, got some money from her piggy bank hidden in one of the drawers in the closet under her clothes and hurled a taxi outside.

After searching the hospital for close to thirty minutes, Olivia finally found her aunt and cousin Nancy in the waiting room.

“How did you get here?” Nancy asked her cousin.
Aunt Hilda who had been resting her head on her laps looked up. “What are you doing here?” She asked.
“I came to see Chris.”
Aunt Hilda got up and walked over to her. “Your bedroom is right next to my son’s and yet you were sleeping soundly while strangers broke into his room and did that to him?”
“I am sorry.” Olivia cried. She didn’t know why she was apologizing but the words just kept coming out.

“Why do you keep saying sorry like you are the one who did this to him?” Nancy remarked. “Stop whining and come sit down. You’re stressing me out.” She patted the space next to her on the bench. Olivia sat down.

“She knows she is bad luck that’s why she’s apologizing,” Hilda said. “Nothing like this would have happened if she wasn’t here. Bad things have been happening to us ever since she came into our lives.”

It would take a whole other hour before the family was allowed to see Chris after surgery. Aunt Nancy started crying the moment she laid eyes on her sleeping son.

“Who could have done this to you, my child?” She cried.
“Mum, stop crying. The doctor said the surgery was successful so why are you still mourning?”
“I just want to know who hates my son so much that they would do something like this.” The mother of two lamented.
“Mrs. Chanda from next door said that there’s a group of people harvesting parts for rituals. We are just lucky they didn’t get away with his stuff. That’s something to be grateful for.” Her eighteen-year-old daughter said.
“It’s my fault,” Olivia said, crying whilst holding Chris’ hand.
“Mum wasn’t serious when she said that silly,” Nancy said. “What could a ten-year-old have possibly done even if you heard the attack?”

I wanted him to hurt so badly and it happened . I did this to him . Olivia thought.

When the anesthesia finally waned off, Chris opened his eyes to find his mother and sister hovering over him. His cousin Olivia was carefully hiding behind them in unexplained guilt.
“It’s okay my son. You’re going to be perfectly fine.” His mother assured him.
“What happened?” Chris labored the words out.
“You don’t remember being attacked?” Nancy asked.
“Attac-“ His memories quickly came in place and played before him.

Chris forgot about his pain for a second and bolted up in bed. The last image to play on his mind was that of Olivia wilding the biggest steak knife he had ever seen in her hands while he lay hopelessly on the bed, both his hands and legs tied in place. She was unflinching in her attack. There was nothing about her blazing fiery eyes in the dark that looked like a ten-year-old’s. When the knife finally came down, she was smiling while he painfully gnawed on the piece of cloth she had shoved into his mouth.
“Get her out of here!” Chris was pointing at Olivia, grabbing his mother so she could shield him from the girl.
“What is she doing here? Get her out of here now!” He was screaming on top of his voice that all the nurses and doctors close by came in the room.
“Nancy, take her out of here.” A visibly perturbed Hilda instructed.

Sobbing, Olivia followed Nancy outside.
“Why doesn’t he want to see me?” She asked.
“I don’t know,” Nancy answered. “Maybe like mum he blames you for not hearing anything. It’s easy to want to blame someone in these situations. My God you are shaking like a leaf!” The ever so clueless Nancy laughed.
Back in the ward, the doctors sedated the inconsolable Chris.
“Why is he acting like this?” Hilda asked the doctor outside the ward.

“This kind of behavior is not strange after this kind of surgery.” The doctor said. “It’s nothing to worry about. He will be just fine after resting.”

When Chris woke up hours later, it was to tell his mother;
“I am not going back home until you have that girl prayed for. She has demons. She is full of bad luck. She is the reason this happened to me.”
“What do you mean she is the reason-“

“Just listen to me mum, PLEASE.”
“What if I send her away-“
“No!” Chris said. “You will do no such thing unless you want me to die.”
“What do you mean die? Why are you talking like this, my child?” Hilda asked. She leaned closer to examine his eyes. “Are you sure you’re okay, really okay?”

“I am fine mum just do as I say,” Chris said. “Have that girl prayed for. I feel like she is such bad luck that’s all.”
“You might be right about her having demons you know,” Hilda said.

Chris looked at his mother curiously. “Did something happen?”

“It’s nothing important.” She brushed that morning’s incident off. “It’s nothing. I just keep sensing that something is wrong with the child. She is different…weird. I am definitely going to take her to church and have all the pastors there pray for her.”

As promised, Aunt Hilda took Olivia the very next day to her church where a group of six pastors surrounded her and prayed for her. They sprinkled bottles and bottles of Holy water on her and cast out demons and the only thing the ten-year-old could do was stare blankly at the faces of all the strange men surrounding her. She couldn’t wait for them to finish whatever they were doing so she could go home to her dolls

“How’re you feeling?” Aunt Hilda asked Olivia as she drove them back home after two hours of prayer. She was watching the girl closely for any change in behavior.

“I feel perfectly fine.” She answered nonchalantly, smiling and playfully running her hands up and down the hem of her skirt.
“Aren’t you feeling strange or anything like that?” Hilda asked.
“I don’t think so. I feel very normal, as usual…maybe better than usual.”

“Listen, Olivia, about what happened to Chris….”
Olivia froze.

“Chris refuses to tell me the details, just kept insisting that I bring you here for prayers.” Hilda continued. “Tell me, did you see or hear anything that happened that night?”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Olivia said. “I was fast asleep I swear.”
“Are you sure?” She asked.
“I promise, I don’t know anything.”

“Alright, there’s no need to sulk. I was just trying to understand my son’s strange behaviour. Wipe your tears, people will think I beat you up or something. Geez.”

A few weeks later, Chris was whisked away to study in Russia. That was the last he would ever see Olivia.
Or so he thought.

The End..