Chapter six

CHAPTER SIX

Joy couldn't sleep that night. she could barely close her eyes. Whenever she did, she had one of those nightmares and she could wake up screaming and sweating profusely. She kept tossing and turning until she decided to go outside. Maybe if she watched the stars for a little bit, it might really help. But once she was outside, the surrounding deep asleep, she could barely see the stars. The night was darker than usual and the breeze colder than the monsoon. The clouds were pregnant with rain and just like it was warning her if impeding rainfall, thunder began to roar as well as lightening strikes through the sky. A cold chill ran throughout her body and having worn only a light lacy nightgown, she began to freeze. The night was scary. Scarier than she had imagined. But it also reminded her that whatever was in the darkness was scarier. She was a victim to that and she knew it all too well. But maybe that was some sort of a sign too. Only the lightening is perfectly felt at night with these thoughts, she slowly retreated back to her room. she needed some space and isolation. She was going to miss that week's lectures. Not that it made any difference anyway. But maybe just that she was almost done with campus brought the dilemma. She didn't want to go back to school to relieve the pain but on the other hand she couldn't let her parents down. The whole village was looking up to her. She felt weak. She thought about this as she wrapped herself with the bedsheet beside her and soon, she fell into a very disturbing sleep. She was in a dream. In her dream she was running from something. She was all alone in a forest and something was chasing her. She was already tired and wounded but she had to escape from whatever was chasing her. Then all of a sudden, she tripped and fell. On looking up, she wasn't alone anymore. She was surrounded by four men. They were towering above her. What scared her the most was that these four men didn't have heads. They were headless. She couldn't tell who they were. They began to fight to lay hands on her. Before she could scream, she heard people laughing. She swore she had heard that laughter before but couldn't just tell who it was. Then when she turned, she couldn't see anyone around. She woke up sweating. It was already daytime. The hostel was quiet. The wall clock showed it was some minutes past ten o'clock. She didn't even bother getting ready for school.

After a week of self-pity, crying and most of all, skipping school, Joy was tired of just sleeping in the house so she decided that she would just try to forget everything however painful it was. She wanted to go back to normal. To be her old self. She knew it was just a mere wishful thinking because honestly, nothing was going to be the same again. But she just had to try, strive for it to happen. She had isolated herself from her roommates and strangely, Ivy and Vida seem to be okay with it. They had only bothered her the first two days not because they were actually concerned but because Joy had been the one cooking for them most of the time and making those delicious foods they were used to. It was a hard time for them to just take a plain looking breakfast after joy refused to get out of her room.

Joy decided to go out for some fresh air. She had been indoors for a whole week. She decided to take a walk to school. To check out what had missed if at all. She had switched off her phone and all her social media accounts had become inactive. However, the fact that she had won the beauty pageant seem to have triggered new followers and now she was some kind of a celebrity. She was on the limelight now and her life was no longer private anymore.

She met some of her course mates at the gate coming out of the last lecture. It was a Friday and apparently, they had only one lecture that day as per the schedule. She wanted to talk to them but the look they gave her was not a friendly one. They looked at her with judgy eyes, she refrained from asking for anything and just proceeded into the school compound. It felt uncomfortable since everyone was looking at her like she was a ghost. She stood there looking around. Everywhere she turned to she was met with stares that could easily kill her. This was not what she wanted. This was bad. Do they all know? She wondered. What if they knew. Her head began to spin. A thousand eyes all on her. She felt insecure and before she could fall and faint she raced out of the venue to her only place of safety that she knew. Her house. Her fears knew no bounds.