BATTLE BORN III

And it is for family that we live for.

It is for family that we shall die for.

That none may tear us apart.

We have each other’s back.

Family above all else.

Nothing else above family.

“Remember this words Luma. Keep them written in your heart. Let them guide you in this life. No one else will be there for you in this world apart from family”.  Miha told young Luma as they sat by the fire.

Miha was a young vibrant woman who was sold by her parents to a drunkard who mistreated her but she still hangs in there. Despite the backlash, the rumor-mongering from her peers and the elderly in her village, she still walked head held high, graceful, and without a care in the world, because she was brought up knowing that you guard and protect your family at all cost, and this man was her family. When she was heavy with child she convinced her husband that they should move a bit farther away from the rest of the village so that her child could not grow up feeling mistreated by the rest of the village. This only worked for a while.

“It’s a baby boy.” The middle wife said as she held the baby boy in her hands. She gave him to a tired-looking Miha. The moment she laid her eyes on him she fell in love. She smiled, with tears flowing freely on her cheeks and she said, “I shall call you Luma meaning Light. My beautiful baby boy.”

He woke from the cold water running down from his face to his body. He had been splashed with it. He could barely open his eyes, he saw blurry images, voices from a distant yet so close. As he came to he realized he was suspended. Hanging from a tree. Hands tied together. Fear suddenly rushed through his body pumping up his adrenalin. Struggling to let himself loose from the ropes. His shoulders were in pain like they were slowly being ripped off from his body, one muscle at a time.

“Aaah, you are awake now. For a while there I thought you are dead and had gone to be with your drunk father.” Mukhwana’s father mockingly said as he walked towards him.

“Release me from these ropes and face me like a man. You are a coward. COME ONE! RELEASE ME!” An angry Luma shouted at him, his eyes red shot, teeth gnawing against each other, and blood boiling in his veins. Oh he wanted to get his hands on him. To look into his eyes knowing it’s only him and Luma, no escape, no help just the two of them. But he can’t, he is hanging from a tree and Mukhwana’s father is right there in front of him, mocking him, smiling that crooked toothless smile. Luma was a bull. A raging bull.

Mukhwana’s father punched Luma in the gut. Knocking the wind out of him. He punched him again and again. Luma coughing, trying to catch his breath and when he almost did, Mukhwana’s father punched him again. And when he saw Luma wasn’t ‘suffering’ enough, he went to his face. Punching him again and again till Luma’s face was covered in his own blood. When Mukhwana’s father stopped, he took a look at his doing. A swollen face. A cut on Luma’s left eye, a cut lip, and what looked like a broken nose. Luma was drowning in pain. Blood coming out of his mouth flowing onto his chest. He spit out blood and a tooth on Mukhwana’s father’s feet. A show of disgust. He was punched again.

“Beg for mercy you dog. BEG FOR MERCY!” Mukhwana’s father shouted in his face. His fist was covered in Luma’s blood. Rage and hate fueling his violent act. It was sweet to him. It was quenching a thirst for violence. For blood.

Luma slowly lifted his head up, looked straight into his eyes, and whispered “A lion does not plead for mercy from a dog. An elephant does not bow down to a goat”.

Mukhwana’s father looked at him. His eyes growing wider, his fist clenching tightly and shaking. Those words made him angry. He was disrespected by a boy. A young man not even half his age. He was shaking with anger. Like a mountain about to erupt. He walked away from Luma and hurriedly walked away. Luma thought that it was over until he heard two women pleading. Mukhwana’s father came back, wielding a knife in his left hand.

“I will slit your throat boy and feed you to your lions”. Mukhwana’s father shouted as he came closer to him. A shocked Luma looked at him, paralyzed by the same fear that energized him. He closed his eyes.

“Father NO!” Mukhwana screamed. With her mother by her side, crying and afraid.

He came to a halt. Breathing heavily like a bull with his eyes locked on Luma. He looked back at his daughter, she was crying. Her mother, his wife, looked at him. Fear in her teary eyes and on seeing this sight, he dropped the knife, looked at Luma again, and walked away from them. His wife followed him.

Luma came to. Fear had knocked him out. Fear and pain. He opened his eyes thinking he was in the spirit world but to his pleasant surprise, he was still alive, still hanging from a tree. He looked around at noticed Mukhwana, sitting next to him on a tree stump.

“My love, help get out of these ropes. Let me loose.” He said.

Mukhwana stood up, walked towards him, looked into his eyes, and smiled. It wasn’t just any smile. Like she was possessed. There was an evil behind that smile.

“No my king, I will not let you lose,” Mukhwana said.

Luma looked at her in shock. How could she say that to him? The love of his life. Now turning her back on him when he needs her the most. When his life is on a tight rope and she’s cutting the rope instead of helping.

“What? Why won’t you help me? Stop joking love. Please get me out of these ropes. Come one. Please get me out of this.” Luma pleaded with her, shock in his voice.

“Didn’t you hear me? I will not get you from there.” Mukhwana exclaimed.

“But why Mukhwana? Why?” he asked.

“Oh my love, you really want to know why?” she asked.

“Yes.” He answered.

“You see, it started a few years back. I had gone to fetch firewood and when I was returning from the forest I met up with your father, drunk as always. Out of respect I greeted him because he was a man and an elder but he held my hand. I dropped the firewood. His grip on my wrist became tighter. He held both my arms, tackled me to the ground, and tried to do things to me, bad things to me. He grabbed my small breasts and my bottom and as he just about to undress me, your mother walked in us. I thought I was safe. She was an angel, sent to save me. How she knew we were there still baffles me since were some distance from the village but I did not care, I was saved from your father. Your mother lifted him from me with punches and slaps. Helped me get up and asked me if I was okay, sat me down and proceeded to hit your father. Then she came back to me, looked me straight in the eyes, and told me if I ever told anyone about what had happened she’d hurt everybody I know. That she’d take my life. She wouldn’t allow anyone to ruin her family, no matter how bad they are, they are still family. I couldn’t believe what she had told me. Luma, I couldn’t believe it. I was dumbfounded. Just like the way you are right now. Yes, just like that. So I walked on home with my firewood, crying all the way home but I promised myself. One day they both of them shall pay for what they did to me. So I hatched a plan and no one would ever suspect sweet little Mukhwana. Everybody thinks the village drunkard was killed by a lone buffalo” she burst out laughing.

 ”I guess I am really good at this killing business. Yes, I killed him. Why you acting surprised my king. You would have done the same if you were in my shoes. Your father didn’t see it coming. Your father was killed by a small girl. After that I thought I was over it, done and dusted. Well, it was so until I met you and I saw his resemblance in you and my vengeance came back crawling back into my beautiful innocent soul and to top it off, I saw that witch you call your mother and I wanted to snap the life out her and what better way to start that off than first taking her son. And you, my love, were gullible. My beauty is mesmerizing” she gloated with a grin in her smile rolling back her eyes. Pure evil.

“But you Luma loved your mother too much, I couldn’t break that bond and that hurt me. I couldn’t never be on higher pedestal that your mother in your heart and that hurt me Luma. You broke my heart. So I killed your mother. It was satisfying. After I first stabbed her, the shock in her eyes as she ran towards her room, grabbing on to anything she could. It was heavenly satisfying to see her scared. Just like I was. She was feeling the way I was, vulnerable and afraid. As she jumped through the open window, I had to finish her off. I had to cut short my fun and end her life. I stabbed her a couple of more times, washed off the blood, and went up to the forest edge to meet you and I knew now there would be no one else that had your heart apart from me, and that made me happy. But no, you still didn’t make me number one, that woman still had a position in your heart even she was dead and that made me extra angry. It wasn’t until I realized I was heavy with child, your child and I couldn’t kill you. I love you too much Luma, I really do.”

At this point, Luma was perplexed. Shocked, confused, and angry. The woman that he loved with his heart. The only woman apart from his mother that he had let her in his life. She had betrayed him. Single-handedly destroyed his life. His heart was in a million pieces. He was broken and betrayed by the love of his life. He was speechless, no words could come out of his mouth.

Mukhwana continued. “My love, I know you are shocked but I had to do it. You should have loved only me. I gave you my heart, my soul, and my body yet I was second to you. I shall raise our child well. I doubt you’ll ever see him again.”

As she started to walk away, Luma called her and asked her in despair and hurt, “Why Mukhwana?”

She answered, “You still haven’t gotten it?” She seemed a bit angry with that question. She walked closer to him, brushed her hands over his bloody body, looked into his eyes, and said.

“You are your father’s son”.

THE END.