Whispers of Fate

Sam has only one immediate goal and is to outrun whoever her stalker is. She kept running barefooted, holding her bulging midsection. The thorns and blades of the shrubs, piercing and cutting the skin on her face as she ran, she felt the trickle of blood and salty sweat running down from her forehead down her nose to her open mouth as she ran gasping for breath, she has never experienced fear so potent that she could feel its bile taste at the back of her throat. She ran not just for her own life but for the pulsating heart inside her, she has an advantage over the killer whoever that could be, and that is the fact that she is in her territory, she was born and bred in this mansion, bought also decorated by her parents, she knows every turn and path like the back of her hands, she has the knowledge of her surrounding to the intricate detail. 

It has been a tiring season in her life, a rollercoaster of one terrible event after another. Although she grew up without experiencing a mother’s love because she lost her Mum when she was 3 years old due to some terminal illness, it has always been her and her father then their housekeeper. Theresa their housekeeper has been working with them a long time now, that she is presumed to be family, in fact, she grew up to know her as the housekeeper and she was very good to her, especially when she was growing up and misses her mother, she tried to play the role of a mother as possible as she can, she is grateful to God that the older woman has left for her own house long before the shooting. How she wished somebody or anybody can come to her rescue. It has been a painful existence for her since she moved back home, after college. Right now she is more concerned about running to safety, she can sort her thoughts later if she survived this. She could hear the sounds of footsteps gaining in on her.

She ran as her life depended on it, got to a brook flowing gently through the flowering shrubs, she dipped her feet into the cold and shallow water, as she has no other way of navigating to the other side, the coldness of the water doing nothing to soothe her throbbing feet, but shocking her to the reality of her situation, prompting series of questions to her troubled mind, what if today was her last? If she never got to hold her baby in her arms? What if they succeeded in killing her like they did her father and the driver? And what do they want from them? She has lost the sound of the footsteps or so she thought, thanks to several years of athletic training. She has been a good athlete that she even won the female basketball scholarship into college, her height and fluid movement gave credence to her athletic achievement. She moved speedily despite her protruding stomach, looking over her shoulders, the sun is sliding gradually into the horizon giving an eerie orange glow to her environment and heightening her awareness to the loneliness and desertion of her environment, any other day she would have sat and soaked in the beauty of the Mother Nature surrounding her, but not today. Where are all the fishing neighbors when you needed them? It’s like fate is in cohorts with the universe to deprive her of help. a small sob escaped her clamped lips and tears rolling down her cheeks as she remembered the sight that greeted her in the driveway earlier, she maneuvered her way out of the brush, if she can just push a little father, she will soon cross over to the next settlement, the journey is longer if she had passed the known exit route but the killer would have easily apprehended her. Good thing her father once showed her a secrete passageway and also she knows her way around the bushes, the path through the bushes is shorter to their nearest neighbor, plus she cannot risk being seen. She has played and fished at the brook, she even remembered telling her Father to build a little cabin for her near the brook when she was a growing child, but all that seems like another lifetime in the face of the trepidation she felt as she ran for dear life. Sam has been having a sense of foreboding the past months as if someone was watching her every move but having lived a sheltered life, she never believed in premonition or that someone out there is hunting to hurt her or her family. 

She met her husband in college and they both hit it off almost immediately, some months after graduation they got engaged then married, they were happily married, but fate has a way of playing a cruel joke on her, not long after they discovered they were expecting a baby, he had a fatal accident that claimed his life. She often wondered why she kept experiencing recurring tragedies; maybe she is paying for having a Disney themed childhood, as a child she never lacked anything, her father made sure of that, be it possession or attention. The death of her husband made her move to her father’s house so she can be cared for, especially because of her pregnancy, and also to have a semblance of peace and connection with the world again after her loss. She was in her room, after discharging the housekeeper for the day, relaxing reminiscing, and pondering on how ephemeral life really is, she has come to understand that it’s better to enjoy everything while it lasted, for life is but a rising smoke that dissipates into thin air shortly, lost in her own world, she experienced a rude re-awakening when she heard the two gunshots that robbed her yet again of another beloved, her father! She padded gently down the staircase; her throat in her mouth to check where the shots came from, what she saw will remain etched in her memory all her life. The blood-splattered windshield and the lifeless body of the driver hanging on the steering wheel. She backed away gently and ran into the house locked the door behind her and fled through the secrete passage known only to her and her parents. She kept running but very tired that she did not think she could take another step, whoever fired that shot could be lurking somewhere waiting to kill her too. She wept, sobbing soundlessly as she made her way out of the house. Her father was the founder and chairman of Douglass communications, a prosperous telecommunication Multinational company. He was probably killed for his money or by a rival company? What could be the motivation? and the reason for his death remained elusive to her. She waddled gently and hid behind a tree, panting and catching her breath, the baby in her womb moved as if to approve of the rest. She rubbed her tummy gently tearfully crooning soothingly to the beautiful soul growing inside her.

She did not know how tired she is, and how she managed to doze off till the flash of light, penetrated her unconsciousness. “Hello, sleeping beauty?” A deep voice said close to her ears she screamed and tried to scramble to her feet holding the tree behind her for balance. “Please don’t kill me and don’t kill my child.”  She cried and pleaded.