Chapter 9 :Nightmares

~7pm ...Back at Mel's house~

"Melanie come down here ...its time for dinner "yelled Miss Gwenah , Mel's mother..."Jus' a few minutes mum ...am coming " Melanie uttered as she hurriedly got out of bed to fix her face that was all swollen and pink due to crying .

Since Mel arrived home early before her mum got back from work , she simply went upstairs, locked herself in her room and started crying to release all , that had been bottled up in her chest.. that she didn't even notice , her mum had come back home ..except now that she heard her mum call her for dinner , good thing she was a silent crier ..or else .

She washed her face and applied a light shade of concealer as usual, to cover up her dark swollen eyebags and organised her hair before opening her bedroom door and dashing downstairs to where her mum was ...

"Good evening mother "she spoke , causing Gwenah to turn around and look at her ... she took longer than usual , staring at her daughter's face before she too.. spoke" Alright ! tell me what's wrong ...what made you cry this time" she asked....

'not again' Mel thought to herself, eversince she was little she was never able to hide anything from her mum , this woman was always able to know or sense when her mood was off ,so she developed a habit of telling her mother each and everything whenever something would trouble her knowing it was impossible to lie to her....thattt!! not being the case today , how could tell her mum that the boy she has feelings for just recently made out with his girlfriend and their video is trending all over social media! right now .That she cannot say ..so Mel this time cooked up something else to tell her mother , although she felt really bad that she had to lie to her this time , she had no other choice but to do so...."Mum! no one made me cry...its just that , today I got this really bad tummy ache at school so I got excused from class and came straight home, took some pills and got some rest ...but am much better now"....Gwenah surprisingly bought the story this time and said" how many times must I tell you ..not every tummy ache needs one to swallow pills hmm?.. you may have even needed to do a number 2 instead of taking medicines ..", " Mumm!!" , " okayy!.. but all am saying is don't make your body get soo used to drugs n' stuff ..its not good ...let your immunity do the work but when things are really out of control, don't again hesitate to take medicine okay ! " ...Melanie could not help but chuckle at her Mum's way of reasoning whenever it came to taking medication "okay ma'am ", "Good girl..now eat up before your food gets cold"...

The place went quiet as the two enjoyed their dinner . When dinner got done , Mel cleared the table and went on to do the dishes having thanked her Mother for the delicious food . And when she was all finished with everything , she kissed her mother goodnight and went back up to her room to get some 'real' rest .

(1am---- in the morning)

" Daddy where are you going?" , 4 year old Mel asked her dad( Mr. Peterson)..." Come here my little cupcake..." he said as her carried the 4 year old with curly brown hair and big blue ocean eyes in his arms

"Daddy is going far away but promise Daddy one thing", " What is that Daddy " she asked " Promise me that your going to take good care of mummy while am gone " , " I promise Daddy ...when are you coming back ?" .." Daddy doesn't know that yet but he'll see okay" .." okay " ...he put little Melanie down and looked back at his wife (Gwenah) who had a hanky in her hand and was seemingly cleaning her eyes " Good bye sweetie ...please take care of her " he spoke ,

too emotional to speak ,Gwenah simply nodded her head and he pulled her in and placed a light kiss on her forehead before he looked back at little Melanie , turned his back and left...never to be heard from till now...

Melanie kept struggling in her sleep while repeatedly uttering the same words she always says whenever she has this nightmare " Daddy don't go please ...don't leave me and mum.. please dad don't.." until she finally snapped out of it and woke up panting , her entire body was drenched with sweat and her face was wet with tears that she simply wipped off and got out of her bed. Melanie went straight to the bathroom and took a cold shower ,came out , turned on her lamp light and just sat there on her bed ...she picked up her phone and the first thing that popped up in her notifications was 'Swan high students' sex tape' causing her to switch off her phone and throw it on the bed ....

She laid back and simply stared at the ceiling..aiming to be awake till morning in fear of getting that very nightmare again but gad knows how long she stayed like that until she finally drifted off into sleep again.