THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

 THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Badru is running.

The street is silent, dark, and endless. He doesn’t know where he is, only that someone is chasing him. A man in all black, face hidden under a hood, is coming after him with slow, heavy steps. Badru is shouting, begging for help, but no one stops to help. People pass, looking straight through him like he doesn’t exist.

He keeps running. His lungs hurt, his legs are shaking, but the footsteps behind him are still moving calmly, like the man knows he will catch him eventually, so no need to stress.

Then he sees a fire burning in the middle of the road. High, loud and wild. And Leila is standing beside it, her face is calm and glowing in the firelight.

Badru runs toward her, gasping her name. But just as he reaches the flames, his legs stop moving. His feet feel trapped in something cold and deep. Water? He looks down. He’s stuck. He can’t move.

Looking at where he is coming from and realizing the man who is chasing him close, Badru begins to beg Leila to please help him. But she doesn’t say anything. She just walks to him slowly, calmly, and without a word, she places her hands on his chest and pu-shes him backward and he falls into the burning fire. It drags him under fast. He’s screaming but no sound comes out.

Badru jerks awake to a cold splash of water slapping across his face. He gasps, blinking rapidly, wanting to move his arms but can't. His arms and legs are bound tightly behind the chair. His entire body is pinned to the wooden dining chair in the middle of the sitting room, helpless.

He looks around, dazed and confused. His head is pounding aggressively. He tries to speak but something thick and bitter-tasting is gagging him, a scarf, t!ed tightly at the back of his neck.

What's going on? Who did this? Who t!ed me like this in my own house or am I still dreaming? Badru thinks to himself as fear creeps into his whole body and his heart begins thumping loudly in his chest.

Akin? He is the one who has ever t!ed me like this? Is he the one again? But how? How did he enter my house? Of course Leila opens the door for him.  At the thought of Akin, his heart starts be-ating rapidly and he almost pees in his pants again.

This is not the time to panic or think, I need to escape first. Badru says and starts struggling to unt!e himself. Even though the probability of him being able to lose the rope is zero, he's still trying.

Then Leila walks gallantly  to his front. She took the water bowl inside and now back.

Seeing Leila in front of him, Badru starts doubting the reality of what is happening.

Wait, am I still dreaming? The dream where someone was chasing me earlier, am I still there? Or what's going on here?

Badru struggles and uses one of his nails to scratch his inner hand, feeling pain, Badru heart skips a be-at. I am no longer dreaming? Leila is the one who t!ed me like this? Omg.

Leila stands in front of Badru, barefoot, wearing one of his oversized shirts, frowning deeply. His face is swollen and red from Badru's blow and she has a small wound on his head.

During the confrontation and Leila hurling insults at Badru earlier, Badru begins be-ating her. Ha, he be-at her. He used one of his belts and he be-at her to the point that she almost fainted. And then after a long be-ating, he t!ed her leg and used it to draw her outside the compound. He was determined to be using the rope to draw her around the compound sharp floor so she could get bruises more but luckily for Leila, Badru was blinded by anger and didn't look ahead. He then mistakenly h!t his head at the wall in front of him so hard and like that he collapsed.

Leila wasn't able to stand up for about ten minutes. She was so in pain. And when she stood up, her lips were folded inside his mouth and all she could think about was revenge.

She helped herself unt!e the rope on her legs and immediately used it to t!e Badru with a chair and also gag his mouth with a tiny scarf. And when she's done, she also lied on the floor lifelessly. After a while, she went inside the house, took a shower and took a pain relief drug. She's in so much pain. And then he lied on the couch and sleeps off, thinking if Badru wakes up, he would definitely make a sound and she would wake up. But she still wake up before Badru and it's a few minutes to 8pm.

The sight of Badru disgust Leila. She couldn't wait anymore to avenge what Badru did to her so she went and fetched water from inside and splashed it on her eyes.

Badru furrows his face in utter confusion. He wants to open his mouth to ask why he’s in that position but is stopped by the gag in his mouth.

Leila crouches slowly in front of Badru until her face is at his level.

“You’re awake,” she whispers.

Badru mumbles something, struggling against the scarf. He obviously can't believe he's being t!ed with a rope by Leila.

Leila slowly reaches for the scarf in his mouth and yanks it off.

“What the hell is this, Leila? What on earth is going on here? Are you mad?! Unt!e me, now!” Badru rasps with his eyes burges out from an intense anger.

Leila doesn’t move. She remains crouched in front of him, looking deeply into his face.

“Mad?” she finally says, her voice low and raspy. She closes her eyes deeply when she remembers how Badru be-at her mercilessly today. She opens her eyes a few seconds later and continues,

“You think this is madness? No, Badru, the real madness is what you did to me today and trust me, I will pay you back tonight in a hundred folds.”

Badru face furrows in disbelief. What kind of stupid audacity is this? How dare you?

“Pay me back in folds? What does that mean? What are you talking about? Pay me back in folds in my own house? Are you out of your mind?” Badru asks with his heart palpitating.

“Yes. I am out of my mind. And I will show you how a woman who is out of her mind behaves.” Leila says in a low dark tone.

Then she stands up, moves closer to him and lands a slap across his face so hard that it echoes in the room.

Badru’s eyes widens in shock.

What just happened? Did she just slap me? Oh my goodness. What kind of life is this? What kind of absurdity is this? My own wife be-ating me? So at this stage of my life, with how rich I am, how tall I have climbed, I can still get be-aten. What kind of life is this? Why am I always getting be-aten up? Why? Why?

After the slap, Leila stands straight, twist her neck to check if she's satisfied but she shakes her head and says,

“No. No. I am not satisfied. You need a genuine be-ating. And I am going to use the exact thing you used for me this morning. Belt.” She leaves Badru's front immediately and walks inside.

She comes back a few seconds later with Badru's belt.

Badru's eyes trace the belt as Leila is flipping it and then to beg her comes to his mind and he embraces it immediately. be-ating is his greatest nightmare. He can do it to others but not to himself.

“Leila. Please. Don’t do this. I am s—” Leila cut him short by saying,

“Hun hun hun hun” and shaking her head.

“No, no. Don't beg me yet. That’s cheating. At least let me be-at you to stupor first.” She's talking dramatically and then suddenly the first lash strikes his shoulder and Badru cries out. The belt is so flexible and lands dirtily and painfully on his body.

His mind spirals into memories of this kind of be-ating, he’s been here before when he was growing up. The bullying. The disgust from people he once loved. He hated them and hated himself even more.

His mind is in chaos.

Why? Why can’t I dominate people? Why is it that no matter how hard I’ve been trying, I’m still the victim? My wife should be the least of my worries. She should submit to me without even forcing her. She should be miserable for me and begging me for mercy but here I am, getting be-at up by her like I am the wife. Someone who I feed and cloth. First it was Hanan, she never took my dominance seriously. She never breaks no matter how hard I try. She always acts like nothing I do matters. She wouldn’t even blink at my torture, and she always mocked me behind my back. I can't even be-at her, I know what's in there for me.

And now, Leila. Chai, I underestimate her. I thought I have gotten her on my web but see what she turns to? She’s be-ating me like I’m some helpless schoolboy whose uniform is torn, whose teeth were never brushed, who has big boils all over his body. Why? Why can’t I dominate people? Why has no one ever begged not to lose me? Why do I always find myself dragged through the mud, even after I’ve managed to rise? Why? Why must I go to the last extent to make them submit to me? Why are people so disrespectful to me?

All of this is cr-ashing through his head, violently and bitterly, while Leila continues la-shing the belt across his body.

“That’s for being a bad husband since I moved into this house.”

Leila lands another one across his thigh.

“That’s for every lie you’ve told me, for cheating on me with Halimah, letting her be-at me up and also for threatening to divorce me and marry her.”

Another lands on his neck, “ This is for mocking me after Halimah be-at me to stupor….” She lands another one on his head and continues talking,

“Feel what I felt today and that day. Is it painful? Do you understand my feelings now…”

He lands one on his forehead and says,"This is for be-ating me and making me lose my baby.” Badru screams on top of his voice. That one is super painful and a hard headache str!kes Badru's head. Leila continues,

Another on his stomach, so hard and painfully.

“And the ones I will be giving you from now on is a payback of what you did to me this morning. How dare you be-at me that much? Am I your daughter? Even one mustn't be-at one's daughter like that. And this isn't even your first. Even if all this is as a result of your ex-wife intensifying her jazz on you, shouldn't you be resistive for once. She's pushing you and you are pushing so hard, aiming at my life. You wasted my child and then acted like nothing happened. You even have it in mind to marry Hanan back. Your cup is overflowing and today is your payback day.”

She still doesn't want to mention that she no longer has a womb.

Badru is sweating profusely now. As the belt is landing on his body, he is shouting out in pain. She continues be-ating his whole body with a belt continuously.

“Leila, please stop. I am sorry. I swear, I will never lay my hands on you ever again. I will never lie to you again. Please, just stop for God’s sake. Please, just stop. Please.” He’s begging her while breathing heavily. He’s not shedding tears but he's sweating profusely and in a lot of pain.

But she doesn’t stop. At least not yet.

Badru is still t!ed, still shaking and feeling something deeper than pain.

Humiliation and loss of control.