“I’m pregnant.”
That was the first thing Abeni heard after her door was slammed in her face that same day. And those words calmed her rapidly beating heart. Her rage. Her helplessness.
Made her collapse onto her cut-up knees, grimacing as they bore the weight of her fall, and looked up at the female ẹda who continued speaking from her new upright position by the fireplace. In a position not visible from outside the door. Looking Abeni’s way with duller eyes than she had ever seen her with.
“I’m sorry I worried you. I just...didn’t realise what this was until I started acting differently. Our bodies were completely different, but one thing that eniyans and ẹda have in common...are most of our symptoms. The only difference is that I’ll be due a few weeks from now.”
Abeni let out a deep sigh of relief, feeling herself tear up. Pregnancy. She was pregnant! Abeni stared at the other’s bumpy tummy before looking back up. How could she not have realised that? There were so many things she should have realised...but didn’t.
“Congratulations?” Was that what people said in situations such as these? Naturally, this was the first time that anyone had told Abeni this directly. She was only a thirteen-years-old with no extended family, after all.
“Oh no,” the female ẹda waved it off with a forced tone of nonchalance, briefly breaking their eye contact. “I never wanted this. But male ẹda never ask for permission anyway,” her chuckles were bitter.
Wait...that meant...oh no. “...I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine…” The female ẹda paused and looked her over with apprehension. Likely taking notice of her now bleeding knees as the white-haired girl stood up again, “What happened when you were out?”
But Abeni shook her head. That wasn’t important right now. This meant the female ẹda would survive then? “Who was it? Will you be, OK?”
“I’m fine. He…he was the one that your parents killed,” and that killed her parents. Great. Amazing news, actually. “Come on, Abeni. Let me see your knees.”
And that was how the rest of the afternoon went, the female ẹda slithering up next to her, trying her best to dress Abeni’s knees with ointment that they already had in the house. Only to make the pain worse and the floor oiler than before. Something Abeni just…decided not to comment on and just took over as best she could later on.
Because it was thought that counted.
In turn, Abeni sympathised with how the female ẹda became pregnant, and warned her about the house arrest, her sneaky uncle and the chief’s plans which started with a hunt of some kind. Plans she couldn’t think about today…because she had to…sleep…
With a blink, the next morning came around and so did her uncle.
“You almost ruined everything for me yesterday...so, tell me, honestly. What did you really hear? And where’s your fucking money?”
Abeni just stared blankly at him. After everything, everything. He still had the gall to demand answers? Without a single apology or explanation? Was his nice guy act finally up?
Today was the first day of her confinement, and this was what Abeni woke up to. A knock on her door, an angry Uncle Ibrahim on her stone doorstep and entitled steps into her stone hut as he went on an unexplained trek to ‘confiscate’ her money. The female ẹda quietly hidden away.
Abeni didn’t want to deal with him right now or ever. Honestly, deep down she wanted to him to hurt as much as his betrayal hurt her…but the village chief had at least eight junior manipulators on his side, including her uncle. At least, she highly suspected he was one. And should the chief still want to use Abeni for his own little scheme, she couldn’t expose her awakened abilities until she absolutely had to.
Yes, she had to seem weak. So, they let their guard down around her. So, they wouldn’t alter the plans that she overheard. That was the only way she’d obtain the information and opportunities that she wanted to. If they planned to manipulate her, then she wouldn’t be afraid to manipulate them either.
“Not gonna answer?”
Abeni had to lie. Make him believe that he was in control. It shouldn’t be too difficult. “Uncle…I really didn’t hear much of what you were saying yesterday. Like I said, I was just coming to visit you...”
“Why?” He narrowed his eyes as he walked into her corridor, Abeni close behind him. “And where is your money?”
Fortunately, before she answered the door, Abeni made sure to tell the female ẹda to wait until he was near to transform into a ball, hide in her bathroom bin where her money pouch was covered in tissue. The tunnels Martin mentioned by his hut weren’t near hers, so they didn’t have many options. And should he stay for longer than fifteen minutes...this day would turn out much worse.
But hopefully, everything would be fine. His constant avoidance of her suggested this would be a short visit. Plus, despite the female eda protests, Abeni insisted that someone like Uncle Ibrahim who had always taken good care of how he smelt, would never want to rummage through a bin or clothes pile for no good reason.
Well, unless he was desperate.
So, before he spiralled and got too agitated, Abeni would have to use those sales techniques she learned from working at the market to get him out of the hut and back to doing something more worthwhile than demanding money from a thirteen-year-old child. The female ẹda had already transformed and she had fifteen minutes to get him out.
“Make the customers think they’re doing you a favour.”
So, Abeni slowed her speech, trying to add a tone of fatigue to her tone, and with her tired body and sore knees, it wasn’t hard. “I felt sick, uncle…I don’t know why the chief visited you, but please help me. Let me keep my money. And please tell my boss that I can’t come in for work. I promise I won’t cause you any more trouble.”
“Ugh…” He looked her up and down for a moment, before letting out conceding breath. “Fine. I believe you. You don’t look well and you’ve never been a good liar,” he bent down to look at her dead in the eyes, pulling Abeni’s gaze away from under the bed where the stash resided. Luckily, he didn’t seem to notice where she had been looking, but still. She chided herself over making such as stupid mistake. “But if you really want me to tell your boss why you can’t come in, you at least need to tell me what your parents knew about the underworld that the chief doesn’t,” he gripped her shoulder tight as he leered over her.
Who was he trying to intimidate? She almost broke character to snicker in his face but bit her lip to stop herself. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I told you, I don’t know.”
Uncle Ibrahim sighed, sounding more disappointed than anything, releasing her as he sent a half smile her way. “...Remember, I’m the only one who really cared about you. More than they ever did.”
“Yes,” Abeni verbally agreed, but when she returned his smile, the corner of her eyes didn’t crinkle. She…hated this man now. A few minutes had already passed and she already wanted him out, out, out! “I promise to tell you anything I remember as soon as I remember it. So—!”
“I’ll tell your boss about this when you tell me what your parents knew.”
Of course…why had Abeni expected otherwise when she asked him for a favour? Why had she expected that with all his lies about how much he cared for her, he would be able to do her this one simple kindness. If not just to prove that he was on her side as he pretended to be. But no, he couldn’t even do that.
Abeni wouldn’t make the mistake of expecting anything of him ever again.
Every day from that day onwards went like that. Uncle Ibrahim came in for short visits at random times, eating any stray food he found lying around, always asking for information about what she knew to an escalating degree. To the point that the day before her two-week-long house arrest ended, he threw her into the wall with a threat that he’d beat her if he didn’t get what he wanted, but paused in his violence at the sight of her fake begging, her fake crying.
Her false weakness.
That day, Abeni practised extra hard with the short swords.
Fighting when not prepared to fight is rash, she told herself. Fighting when angry is unwise. Fighting when not to defend herself or the lives of those she cared about is unnecessary.
…But, boy, did she want to fight and defeat him just to see the look on his self-righteous face.
So, Abeni made a promise to herself that one day, she would. She’d make him experience a defeat ten times as sweet as the one she was feeling right at that very moment. And it’d be a memory she’d never forget.
[Current Total Beings In ‘Abeni’s Army’ – 1]
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