Gloria woke up from her deep slumber and felt around her bed for her husband. She wanted to ask him to be intimate with her for it had been long since they were that close. But as she felt around, she touched nobody. Realizing that she was alone in bed, she called out for him but nobody responded. She listened and everything seemed quiet and still. She thought maybe her husband had gone out to relieve himself and so she waited for him, still lying on her bed. She waited for like twenty more minutes but nobody showed up.
She sat up and switched on the lights in the room and got out of bed. She looked around the room and everything seemed in order. She wondered where her husband could have gone for she was up long enough for him to be back. She started having a bad feeling of something happening. Then she thought of her little children and she decided to go and check up on them.
As she turned the door knob, she noticed that the door was locked. Locked from the outside! This is the moment she realized that all was not well! She started calling out for Tod. She called thrice and nobody responded. She started shouting calling Victoria. She too did not answer. This alarmed her extremely. Vicky was a type of girl who was a light-sleeper. She could be easily be awoken by any small movement or sound. How come today she has not responded to all her frantic shouts. Something is definitely wrong!
Yet the door could not be unlocked without a key. There was nothing on the hanger where she usually kept the keys. She looked everywhere for the spare bunch but did not find one either. Not wanting to give up, she turned the room upside down looking for anything heavy enough to smash the door with. After combing through several of cartons under the bed, she found an old broken head off a hammer.
"Thank you!" she spat and went back to the door. Taking the hammer in hand she swung against the door knob three times and the lock disengaged. She threw the hammer on the ground and ran to Vicky's room. Her conscience pricked her and she was already trusting her instinct that her daughter must be in some sort of danger. She reached the door to her room and banged it open. Thankfully it was not locked.
Gloria rushed into the room then stopped all over a sudden as though she got paralyzed. The sight on the bed made her dumb-struck. For a moment, she could neither move nor speak. Her entire world came to a standstill, her vision got darkened at that very instant. She felt all energy draining from her joints and she was almost collapsing. Then a very sharp pain soared through her head, and her eyes moved and she jolted back into reality. She looked again from the foot of the bed upwards to the head. Gloria hollered out one piercing scream, a cry of agony, an anguish which only a mother could understand. Her frightening wailing rendered the cool morning sky and was heard far and wide.
She summoned enough courage to run up to her daughter lying, seemingly lifelessly, on her bed. Vicky was still gagged and her hands and legs still tied to the sides of the bed. All her clothes were torn. Blood could be seen where she laid. Gloria ran to her, screaming.
"Vicky! Vicky! Vicky! Oh no! No! No!" as she untied the pieces of clothing around her mouth. She managed to untie the gag and removed it from her mouth. She tried to call her but Vicky was not responding. She pressed her stomach, her chest and even tried to shake her head. Nothing! Gloria let out another yell. She screamed her lungs out. She left Vicky and ran out of the house screaming and talking in between her wailing.
"You monster! You animal! You have killed me! You have killed me oh! Oh! You have ashamed my entirety! You have destroyed all my hopes. Aaaa! Haaa! Oh!" She wept so bitterly, falling on the grounds and rolling. She was so hysterical. She ran back into the house and again emerged as spontaneously as she had run there. She did not stop wailing.
People gathered in the compound so fast. All the neighbors, young and old all rushed to the home to find out what had happened.
There was only once when they heard such terrible screaming from this home. That was the time when Raphael, Gloria's husband had passed away. But the cry was not of as anguish as of today. This is what brought so many people all at once. Everyone as he heard the cry, felt its piercing nature and rushed.
To others they thought that Gloria may be under attack and therefore came armed with clubs, machetes and any weapons they could get. Upon reaching the home they found her rolling on the ground and weeping bitterly. The women who had also arrived rushed forward to hold her still.
"Gloria! Gloria!" they called her name and tried to comfort her. Tears fell involuntarily even from those who came to assist her because of the anguish in her voice!
"That monster has killed me ohh!" she moaned. People now surrounded her. Some elders were there too.
"Who? Your husband? What has he done?" people asked. "Oh my God! That monster has finished my girl! My only girl! My baby!!" she said in the midst of her tears. As soon as the people heard this, it was like a swarm of bees had descended upon them. Everyone started weeping. The whole village cried. Wailing rose to a crescendo.
"Victoria! Oh no! No! She can't be dead! Nooo!" they said and cried as if one man. But some elders and other villagers rushed into the house in silence. The village chief was among those who rushed into the room to check on Vicky.
Among those who had just arrived on the outside were three school girls, two being classmates with Vicky. One lady rushed to them and, though unceremoniously, said in the midst of crying;
"It is your friend. It is Victoria! She is dead! Victoria is dead!" and she started wailing again.
"What!!" The girls shouted, looking at each other in shock then suddenly burst out wailing too. They cried and fell on the grass rolling as the pain and shock was too much.
Inside the room, all those who entered were in utter shock. Victoria still lay on her bed, naked and bleeding. One lady quickly pulled a sheet and laid over Vicky so that people could not see her nakedness. The men who had come in first were respectful enough to look to the other side. The woman who covered Vicky went to untie her hands which were still tied on the bedrails.
As she did this she felt something that made her heart skip a beat. She confirmed it before making a cry of delight. She had felt Vicky's heartbeat. She felt her pulse by holding her hands as she freed them from the strings. She was sure it was her pulsating heart.
"She is alive! She is alive!" the lady cried out. All those in the room and those within the vicinity heard this and a commotion ensued. "The girl is alive! I can feel her pulse. Another lady came and felt Vicky by the neck. The men were not allowed to touch her by custom so they stood there in anticipation, waiting for the confirmation from the second lady. The second lady moved her hands from the neck-side and placed it over the girls left breast and she could clearly feel her heartbeat.
"Yes! She is alive! She is breathing!" she shouted with joy. There were sudden ululation.
"Quick! Quick! Tell those weeping outside to stop the girl is not dead!" the first lady ordered and one of the men rushed out. When the news reached the first group it quickly spread to the others.
"What? Did you say she's not dead?" one villager asked the one who had informed him.
"Yes! They have confirmed it! She is not dead!"
Gloria was the first one to be brought back into the house. "Stop crying. Shut up! Your daughter is alive!" She was in utter shock that she thought they were making fun of her. But as she thought of rebuking them she was lifted up and taken into the house.
One person heard what was said and he informed whoever was nearest to him. Then the one who had been informed rushed to the next one who was still crying and informed her to stop crying because the girl was not dead yet.
Inside the house, Vicky regained consciousness after the women did to her some first aid. All the men on the other hand under the guidance of the chief made plans on for taking Vicky to hospital immediately. They made arrangements and a vehicle was brought. The chief also launched an immediate manhunt for Tod, who had since then vanished into the thin air. When the ladies were through with Vicky they informed the chief and she was taken outside to the waiting vehicle. Momentarily, there was silence as the news had gotten around, finally to everyone that in deed Victoria was alive and was taken to hospital.
Someone was appointed to take care of Gloria's household and her little boys, as she herself nursed Vicky in the hospital and record statements with the police. Three guards were also brought to the home to try to net Tod if he happened to show up around the house.
Having not been told exactly what had happened, from that morning onwards, everyone in the village said whatever he or she thought happened to Vicky. Soon there were so many versions of the story. Some claiming that the girl had been beaten and fainted, and the mother had become hysterical for nothing. Then the girl had woken up. Others propagated that the father had actually killed the girl but miraculously she had resurrected. Yet others proposed that the girl was thoroughly molested by her father – in which manner they didn't know- and had been at left for death, when she was found in a critical state. Had it not been for the quick response of the elders and the neighbors she would be dead by now.