Chapter Three

Struggling to open my eyelid, feel so difficult like glue has been applied to my eyes

I forcefully open them and my eyes were blurred that I couldn't see clearly, had to blink deeply twice before my vision became clear to a chubby pink smile with wrinkles lines waiting for me to wake up.

I raised myself immediately only for the towel that was placed on my forehead to fall on my body,

“ouch...it is hot, ”Zena remove the hot towel her mom had placed on her forehead to suppress Zena's fever.

“Yes my dear, you were uncautious and you have been running high temperature for three days now, but I'm happy because you look better.

“Three days!”, Zena exclamated,

“Was it really that bad, because I can't remember anything?”

“Not bad my dear, but it's fine now, go fresh up and come join us for dinner,

Oh lest I forget, a young man has been the one providing the herbs, I can't remember his name properly, because I'm not sure of what he said,

I think I heard him say Trekk, Trick, Oh Drake maybe, Could that be a person's name?”

My mom sometimes can be really funny, in the midst of worries she will definitely put up what will make you smile or even you laugh out your ribs

Watching her demonstrate just to recall the person's name that helped my family with my recovery made me forget the important reason why I'm here.

My face stretched with smiles, which made me wish I can't ask for any other parents but the happy and beautiful family I am blessed with.

Still looking at her as she questions herself and answers herself, maybe old age has taken over her,

“He is definitely Drake, I'm very sure this time.”

“Okay mama, is he here now?”Zena asked with the assurance that her mom would say yes.

“No, my dear, but he was here a few minutes ago.”

Zena bite her lips when she heard what her mom had said,

I had to quickly raise myself and look through the window if I could see him leaving.

“Are looking for him,” Mrs. Angus asked while she uncautiously join Zena to view the window to see what it might be.

“What that smell, Zena you really need to take your bath because you smell like a dog in a deep shit.” Mrs. Angus whined after she had spanked Zena gently on her head.

“Mama that is too aggressive, you can be nice if only you said it without hitting me,” Zena affirmed, but her mom had left before she could finish her statement.

“Gosh,” Zena exclamated, and fell back on her bed, only to quickly raised herself again when she remember her mom had invited her to join them for dinner.

Munching sound on the cracked old table, Mr. Angus carried the old plastic drinking water cup and drank, in other to gulp down the carbohydrate food substance that almost choke him.

“Be careful how to chew the potatoes, do you want to get choked?” She warned her husband to slow down in eating after she observed him eating unusual.

“Can you slow down and tell me what it is?”

This time around, she was very loud that Zena could hear her smash the table while she yelled at her husband.

He grumbling warned the wife,

“Can you control yourself for a minute, Did you tell her who brought her home?, Did you ask her what she was doing in the woods at that earlier hours?

You have spoilt this child, and I'm not happy with the way you treat her.” he continued eating his fried Irish potato cheese with vegetable sauces.

Zena was about to come out from where she was eavesdropping on her parents when the sound of her mom paused her movement.

“Really, I spoiled her right, why does the father always blame the mother whenever the children are not behaving right?

and when the children are behaving properly they claim to be perfect fathers, that the children took after them.”

He looked at his wife after he smirked and said,

“I don't have to respond to your foolish ideas.” and he was about to put in the vegetable he fetched with the old steel-rusted fork in his mouth,

Then suddenly, there was a polite twice knock at the door,

Mr.Angus stood up immediately like he has been expecting a visitor, but he was actually trying so hard to avoid exchanging words with his wife.

He got to the door and recklessly open it without checking from the door view who was knocking.

Zena's mood lighted a bit when she heard the knock, the first person that came to her thought was Drake and she was very certain it was him that would be knocking.

She thought of coming out, but the second thought of peeping and eavesdropping on the person at the door was her best idea.

Mr.Angus was startled when he open the door to see the unexpected guest but one whom he is familiar with.

“What are you doing here, I have told you to stay away from my family.

My wife and I are grateful for bringing our daughter home, but you can't be seen around here or with her, I don't want to lose my daughter please.”

“But, Mr. Angus?”, Before Kate could finish her words, Mr. Angus angrily replied to her.

“I'm not reporting you to the hunters because it's a favor from me to you, I believe you are different from the others,

but, please stop coming around my family for your safety and my family's safety, especially for Zena.

“Zena's safety is the reason why I'm here,” Kate replied to him while trying so hard to convince him to let her inside the house.

But Mr. Angus had held her chest to stop her from coming into the house while he pulls her backward and continues explaining,

“Zena is nothing like you or your kind, I watched her grow in my very eyes, she might be different but she is not your type, so please stay away.”

He pushed her hard out of the house and slammed the door.

Only to turn and saw Zena and his wife staring at him like were ready to interrogate him.

For more than twenty seconds, they both stare at Mr.Angus,

“Papa, can you explain to me what you were discussing with the lady and the reason you don't want her in our home?” Zena confidently asked.

“You don't need to know anything, for the safety of this family” he left them and return to the dining.

Zena and her mom followed him to the dining while Zena said,

“What makes you think keeping me in the dark is the best way to save this family?

I might be that your little girl papa, but I'm a grown-up now, I demand to know what happens in this is family.” Zena crudely asked and Mr.Angus glared at her like she is about to lose her boundaries of respect.

And he said to his wife in a dignified way,

“Woman, hold or rather warn your daughter because if she speaks again I will ground her for a long time she never expects.

Before he could finish his statement, Zena angry said,

“I heard you tell her, I'm not her kind, but with the look of things you are not my kind, I don't belong here, all that this family is good for, is to take me to the farm always.

I barely went to a normal school like my mates, I hate thi-,” a slap chime her cheek unexpectedly from Mrs.Angus and Zena was disappointed to see her mom was not even supporting her or saying something that will make her dad say something.

She looked at her parents with her bulged eyes, and her eyes has turned red with red veins stripes on the white space of her eyes, and tears had filled her eyes pack which has already begun to drop consistently.

She wiped her tears constantly with one hand while the other was calming the hot slap she had received from her mom, still staring at her parents and she angrily left to her room.

But Mr.Angus was not remorseful rather he yelled at Zena at the top of his voice,

“You are grounded, no more going to the farm, no selling of fritter, and no leaving of this house till I say so.”

Mrs.Angus was really sad about her action that she went too far as to hit Zena, but she had to, in other to stop her from saying more words that will implicate her.

At that moment she knew Zena was angry about how her husband treated the visitor, and she needs to do something due to Zena was not thinking straight because she was angry.

Although, she was not thinking straight either, but could only react by slapping her to calm Zena's temper.

Mrs.Angus looks at her husband with a crude expression, and her husband could see his wife was mad at him too, and he said,

“What was I supposed to do, I had to stop her from coming into our home because the neighborhood might be watching.

I heard she was among the people that killed Mr.Jones.”

“Mr.Jones, oh my God!, Is he dead?”, she asked with a worried feeling.

“I just said they killed him and you are still asking me if he's dead! is the old age getting into your brain?”

I could not find words to spit on my husband, because I was lost to myself, watching him make fun of me.

“Can't you understand me for once, I know you meant he died, and you don't need to make fun of me either.” she angrily stood up from the wooden chair, packed up the empty dashes, and covered Zena's meal with the empty plate behind her meal.

She went to the kitchen and drop the plates, while her husband watched her move around.

She return to the dining, carried Zena's meal, and was about to leave when her husband stop her with a question,

“Where are you taking the meal?”,

“To Zena's room of course!”

He farrows his grey brows and said,

“Why do you need to take the meal to her room?”, he asked irresistibly.

“Come on dear, she has not eaten anything for three days, you are beginning to be harsh on her and I don't like it.” She affirms and continues to walk to Zena's room.

Before he could reply to her, there was an aggressive knock at the door,

The couple went quiet, and Mr.Angus was worried and certain that the hunters had seen him with Kate and they have decided to arrest him and his family.

The knock was harsh this time again when the person outside the door knocked.

Mrs.Angus immediately left her husband to Zena's room while her husband snail walk to check the person knocking through the door tinny view whole and saw strange men,