“Induced adulthood”

I found myself slowly drowning in sorrow after being deprived of affection and discarded like a used tissue.

Sunny made a promise to marry me. He told me he loved me. He vowed he'd never hurt me... I took his every word as law, like the oblivious child that I was.

I was such a fool to have allowed his nefarious intentions to slip my notice. He took off as quickly as an expelled breath once he had what he wanted.

He begged me to keep everything that happened between us private, as if I had anyone to confide in. He told me to wait a week and assured me that my life would improve once the wait was over, and I foolishly believed him.

Three weeks passed in front of my eyes with no sign of Sunny keeping his promises to me. He made no attempt to contact me, not even when I went to his home and place of business on several occasions just to see him; instead, he ensured that all my efforts were futile.

With desperation gripping my lonely and broken heart, I found myself searching obsessively for the man who was once so easy to find. It was as if he had fallen off the earth's surface, but I could tell he was avoiding me at the bottom of my chest, and yet I couldn't bring myself to believe such a terrifying possibility.

During my numerous searches for Sunny, I was fortunate enough to meet one of his neighbours, who kindly disclosed his whereabouts to me after much pleading. Sunny's neighbour, Mr Kule, told me that he usually arrived home late every day and left for work as early as 5 a.m.

What surprised me the most about that information was that I had visited him at night on several occasions over the previous four weeks, but he had never once opened the door to my mild and sometimes loud knockings.

On one of my Sunny-hunting missions, I even went so far as to inquire about his whereabouts from his friends, but none of them claimed to know his whereabouts, no matter how sincerely I pleaded with them.

So, with a strong determination in my heart, I concluded that I would have to wait all night on the cold, hard floor of his apartment's hallway for him to arrive. No matter how terrified I was of sitting alone in a dimly lit hallway, I was determined to do so.

I was well aware that my decision would not be without consequence. I knew it would be to the detriment of my body, which was about to be brutally battered by my stepmother once I returned home, but I was determined to stay focused in the face of danger.

Seeing Sunny again was a matter of life and death for me.

To cut a long story short, things did not go as well as I had hoped. Sunny made sure I regretted going through all that effort just to find him the next day, as soon as he stepped out of his house and saw me sitting beside his door.

I found out the hard way that Sunny had morphed into an unrecognizable monster, ready to rip me into a zillion pieces if I dared to cross his path again.

I found myself crying for days after my encounter with my once-caring boyfriend. I just couldn't accept the harsh reality that Sunny had served to me. How could I accept that Sunny had hit me for the first time ever? That he didn't want anything to do with me? How could I bear the realization that my hopes and dreams had once again turned to dust? How could I accept the horrors of starting over? How could I just accept the fact that I had no choice but to move on with my life without Sunny? How?!

*****

My stomach felt like it had been turned upside down as I clutched a black plastic bucket like it was a life raft, waves of cold heat coursing through my blood and glistening in my gaunt features. Suddenly, I felt a warm sensation rise through my chest; it rose to my throat, and soon enough, I could taste it at the back of my mouth, but before I could stop it, a small mouthful of bile spilt from my quivering lips into the waiting pool of rancid vomit.

Sunny had slapped me across the face and kicked me out of his house, promising to bathe me in hot water if I ever showed him my face again; and in those two weeks, I had done nothing but cry and mop around the house and everywhere I went. Now I was sick, which didn't surprise me in the least.

Why would I not get sick? When all I did was cry all the time. Sunny was entirely to blame! If he hadn't treated me the way he did, I wouldn't be in such a bad way; if he hadn't made my heart suffer from so much grief, I'd be in great shape. So it was entirely his fault.

Since my illness began, I could constantly feel mother's eyes skimming all over me and eternally watching me like a hawk, and this action of hers was skillfully driving my anxiety through the roof.

Mother had beaten me several times, threatened to kill both Peter and myself, and even forced us to go hungry for three days before she was convinced I wasn't faking my illness. Poor Peter was suffering as a result of my stupidity. I felt useless to myself; I couldn't do anything, I was constantly nauseous and prone to vomiting at the slightest provocation, my face had gradually become gaunt, and I was always ten times hungrier than before, which was a complete disaster because it simply added to my long-term misery of constant starvation. Last but not least, no matter what chore I was assigned, I found myself falling asleep while performing it. Due to my foreign sleeping habit, I usually ended up waking in the strangest of places.

My illness was clearly beginning to strain Mother's finances, as she became more irritable than usual. If you can believe it. My health condition rendered me practically useless to her.

I'd go out to hawk in the morning and always come back almost empty-handed at night. I simply couldn't keep up any longer, and my incompetence quickly became my undoing.

I was mistaken if I ever complained about how difficult my life was. With what came after, it was safe to say that I had previously had a pleasant life.

*****

Third-person pov

When Nellie's strange illness began, Gift knew the right thing to do was to take the young girl to the hospital; however, like the selfish, heartless woman she had now become, she decided not to spend her money treating the person she sincerely believed was the cause of her childlessness. As a result, the only thing she thought reasonable to do for the girl was to leave her alone until she recovered. After all, whenever they became ill, they miraculously recovered on their own. But on the other hand, she could sense that something was off about this particular illness.

After careful examination of Nellie and consultation with her friends, Gift came to the unassailable conclusion that little Nellie was, without a doubt, pregnant.

The thought of Nellie carrying a child made her feel like she was going to burst; how could she be pregnant when the little witch and her brother had made sure she couldn't bear children of her own? And she had the audacity to do it under her own roof!

The little girl was going to be punished for her arrogance, and she was going to pay with blood! Because she was desperate to become an adult, she was going to be treated as such, with no mercy shown. Gift vowed to herself that she would suffer as a result of her hasty maturation.