The Girl Who Brought the Storm by RJ Law

Author:RJ Law [Law, RJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-04T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Heather awoke sometime in the middle of the night, the heavy air hot against her skin. She turned over her body and peered into the darkness across the living room, where Mila slept on the floor, her body curled into a ball beneath a tattered brown blanket.

With slow and delicate movements, Heather stood up and crept across the wood floor, which creaked and cried with every light step. She approached the front door and peered out the peephole. Outside, Claire sat on the porch reading in the dark, her silhouette faintly outlined by the weak moonlight.

Heather pulled away from the door and looked down the narrow hallway. With infant-like steps, she hurried down it, stopping outside one of the tiny bedrooms. She looked to her left and then to her right. She curled her hand around the doorknob and pushed it inward. She slipped inside and shut the door behind her.

Inside, Hakeem lay shirtless on the floor, the curtains dancing as the breeze swept in through the open window. Heather watched him for a moment, her eyes tracing the outline of his body beneath the sheet. She turned and twisted the lock on the door. She stripped away her clothing and crept toward his makeshift bed.

“Heather?” said Hakeem.

“Shh,” she said as she nestled against him, her young body naked and cool against his burning skin.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

She put her hand on his bare stomach, fingertips delicately tracing his muscled flesh.

“It’s ok,” she said.

She leaned in to kiss him, her lips pink and moist. He pulled away and turned his head.

“We can’t do this,” he whispered.

She furrowed her brow.

“Why?” she asked. “I like you. Don’t you like me?”

He reached down and moved her hand away from his stomach.

“No,” he said. “It is not that. You are pretty and very nice.”

She frowned.

“It’s ok, Hakeem,” she said. “I’ll be 18 in a few months. It’s not a big deal.”

She leaned in to kiss him again, but he pulled away.

“It’s ok,” she said. “It’ll be between us. Anyway, you heard what they were talking about. This may be one of our last nights on earth.”

He swallowed and looked at her apologetically.

“I can’t,” he said.

She turned away and pulled the covers over her breasts.

“Is it because I’m ugly?” she asked.

Hakeem put a hand on her shoulder.

“No, of course not.”

She swallowed and stared off into the darkness.

“Is it Mila?” she asked. “Do you love her?”

Hakeem frowned.

“It isn’t either one of those things.”

He squeezed her shoulder.

“You are young,” he said. “That is all.”

She continued staring off into the darkness. The breeze filtered through the open window. A dog bayed somewhere far away.

“I’m scared,” she said.

Hakeem put his hands behind his head.

“Yes,” he said. “I understand.”

She pulled the covers up to her neck.

“I don’t want to die,” she said.

Hakeem took a deep breath and stared up at the ceiling

“When I was a young boy in Nigeria, my father was killed by the Boko Haram.”

Heather looked at him.

“What is that?” she asked.

“It is not a what, it is a who,” he said.

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