Somethings are better left unfixed… Ayo was one of them.
"Ayo!" Ayonna heard her mother's voice, jumping in fright. She wobbled as her vision blurred.
"Ah!" she felt her ear warm up in pain, her mother twisted it while dragging her out of the room.
Walking into the kitchen and slamming the door shut, she turned towards her daughter. For the first time in a long time, the woman seemed extremely angry.
Her mother's mood came like storm—sudden and dangerous.
Ayo, shaking immediately went on her knees.
"I'm sorry Mama, it won't happen again."
No response.
She glanced upwards, wondering if her mother was still there, and she was. Staring down at her daughter with a very dark expression.
If one looked closely, the look of worry in the woman's eyes couldn't go unnoticed. The reasons were way deeper than her daughter could fathom.
She stared at the young girl, fuming with anger. She was tempted to raise her hands, but at the same time —that was infact one of the reasons Ayo had turned out to be the way she was.
She closed her eyes, exhausted.
It's not your fault. I blame the one that raised you.
The words flashed through her mind. Sighing internally.
Yet one couldn't tell if she was referring to herself, as she was clearly the mother.
Ayo couldn't read her mother's face. She never could. The woman's silence alone was a warning.
"Mama?" Ayo called quietly, desperately needing a response.
Her mother turned away, as though the very sight of her daughter angered her. With a grave tone, she spoke.
"Ayo…sometimes it's best not to explore. Stay exactly where I put you!."
She lowered her gaze, but her mother's tone made her spine prickle.
"I'm sorry Mama." whispering out those words she bowed her head, closing her eyes in shame…and fear of something else.
"Get your things ready, you'll be starting work soon" she spoke, dismissing her apology.
"But the royal result isn't out y-"
"Just do what I tell you to" her mother scolded, walking away from there to sit in her usual spot, a small round table and a tiny stool.
"Yes Mama" Ayo stood up, headed towards the door her head hung low, yet relieved even though it had been long since madness had befell their now quiet house.
"Ayo" her mother called after her. It seemed she still had something to say.
Ayonna turned towards her mother, one leg already out the doorway.
"You can't own people…you earn a spot in their heart" she casually spoke, but the concern in her voice couldn't go unnoticed.
The air stilled, as they held each other's gaze. Ayo's gaze flickering towards her mother's neck scar for a brief moment.
"...That wasn't what you said three years ago" she dared to speak, her hands trembled slightly at the realization of something she had always refused to think about.
"I never spoke three years ago." her mother calmly replied.
Ayo squinted, her face tightening.
"Leave Ayo" she ordered, drawing the candle closer towards her desk, which highlighted her shadows.
Ayo's breath stopped the moment her eyes caught her mother's shadow.
The shadow had hair—rich, full, rising upwards like dark curling smoke. But her mother who owned the shadow was in braids.
She just sat there, suddenly looking like one of the scholars from Timbuktu.
Ayo froze, her mind couldn't make sense of it.
'What is that?'
As if it could hear her thoughts, the shadow turned towards her causing her to stumble backwards, a small gasp escaping her lips.
Her mother looked up to see her daughter shook.
"what's the problem Ayo? Why are you still standing there?"
"I was just about to leave." Ayo stepped back towards the doorway, forcing a small smile.
Once Ayo left, her mother dropped her pen, her expression grim.
"What do you want? My time isn't up yet!" Her voice was strong, as though rebuking whatever was in the room with her.
The candle flickered, slowly fragments of shadow thickened into a human outline.
It took one step, and she agressively slammed her hands on the table stopping it in it's track.
It hissed, pointing towards the window—insistent.
She took a glance and her expression changed.
She had miscalculated…her time was in fact up.
The air shifted. It no longer smelled like seasoning, but something darker.
She stood up, a strange and unfamiliar rush of authority wrapping around her. Right now, she looked nothing like a lowly woman living with her daughter.
Instead she looked like she owned both life and death itself.
"Leave. I need more time!" She dismissed, and immediately within a blink it dissolved into thin air like it never existed.
She was all alone now in the room, and her hands trembled. She steadied her breathing, fully knowing the price of what she had just done.
An exhausted sigh and she collapsed onto her small table. Whispers of hundreds of voices filled the air, sometimes it sounded like prayers, to her it sounded like a curse. Vicious whispers that made her clutch her ears in pain.
She groaned, curling over in pain as her ears began bleeding.
"Stop! Stop!" She mumbled, her voice strangled. It didn't last more than a second, and the voices died down. Panting and sweating, she opened her eyes staring into the open.
There wasn't much time left, yet she still had something extremely important to do.
The most important peice of the plot, had found it's way to her…
"Well done Maraye, you made it back here." she scoffed, a slow, sick smile made it's way towards her lips…
Breathing in and out, she laughed, one that continued to echo in the small kitchen. Dust clung to her braids as her body shook with a low, broken laugh.
Looking at the matter of things, one would begin to wonder if it was just one person who was broken.
Her eyes suddenly snapped towards the doorway, as though sensing another presence.