Laila's eyelids were glued together.

How that happened, she didn't know. She gave her best shot at moving her arms and legs but blank. Nothing.

She skimmed through her last memories and with further obstinance, she groaned through the back of her throat until the substance obscuring her eyes and lips cracked open. She let out a loud sigh as she scanned the room with hurting eyes. Or rather scan the ceiling of the room.

She wasn't tied up, So, why was she unable to move even a limb?

She was trapped, that was for sure. She gasped, feeling her heart skip a beat or two and coming back to beat in full force along with elevated breaths.

She tried to speak but she couldn't even catch her voice.

In a panic, she tried harder. "Hello! Anyone?" She heard no response and attempted to move again. This time, she could feel her restraint giving in, but not enough for her to move freely. "Who is there?"

Laila was normally a hard girl. But, after joining medical school and now that fate had decided to turn her life upside down, she couldn't help it. She let out a scream, feeling a few parts of her body in pain, while others were blank. Numb.

That would be dealt with. Now, she needed to get out.

"Mami!" She cried out, the solid substance holding her back now slowly melting, but not enough for her to move. She needed more, so, she roared for the people that could save her. "Mami! Shehu!"

Laila was having a hard time deciphering where she was. She was unquestionably in her dad's palace, but where exactly?

Do not get her wrong. It wasn't a new house or anything. That was her home for as long as she could remember. But, her being a princess meant she didn't have to visit certain places like the maid chambers, the guards, or the animal house. And this...where she was something she'd never been to.

The ceilings were high like the rest of the château, but, the ceilings were dirty unlike the rest of the chambers that were kept squeaky clean.

Where the hell was she?

"Mami. Mami. Shehu!"

A nervous voice came, "S-sorry! I'll let them know you require them."

Laila craned her neck to the side to no avail. She wasn't moving. And now that she was the closest to any human, they wanted to leave her?

"No way. Stop. Who are you?" She inquired, craving to see who it was.

A lady...more like a woman who must've been a lot older than Laila slowly walked around the pool the poor lady was trapped in. She grimaced at the sight and Laila couldn't help but grimace along with her.

Did she really look that miserable?

"What is this?" Laila had her deductions about the restraints around her, but, she couldn't be too sure.

The woman's hand came up, shaking side to side, "I am sorry, Hajja."

Even in her pathetic situation, Laila still struggled with containing her anger. She snapped. "I don't need your apology. I want to know where i am."

"You're fine, Hajja. An-and you're at home. You're in a pool of wax that'll help heal your wounds faster." She stepped closer to the pool.

What was it? A stupid healing room?

Laila's eyes traveled lower from the woman to the translucent half-solid, half-gooey wax fastening her to a rigid spot. "Get me out of here...please." She shook her head slowly, her mind slipping into a 1080p footage of the scene that got her in that wax pool.

Earlier, after Laila had been walked out of the darkroom by Shehu, her presence was required by her father.

She had sluggishly sat on the floor and chucked down 2 cups of cucumber water with her parents studying her.

The room had fallen into deep silence and Laila knew it was coming, sooner or later. With weak limbs and a voice, she started to narrate everything that went down.

Midway through her narration, the Sultan had thrashed half of the room in anger, courtesy of her point of view as he threw insults at his stupid daughter who he had no idea how he had fathered such a kid.

She came to a point, the dreaded point but still didn't stop until she said it. She was going to go through hell whether she unveiled or not the mystery she had managed to hide for months. Might as well get it over and done with.

Laila hadn't seen it coming, only felt it. Her dad's palm smacked against her cheek. Responsively, her weary palm came up to hold the area of assault.

Slowly, the metallic taste of blood spread in her mouth.

Her eyelids shut down as another smack landed on her other cheek.

Soon enough, the temperamental man was agitatedly pacing the room in search of an object of assault. His eyes landed on the chest of drawer. He went on a rampage until he caught a drawer filled with leather belts in different shades and sizes. He dipped his hand and pulled out the first belt he grabbed. He stalked towards his daughter, his wife hot on his tail and wailing all sorts of 'Calm downs.'

Her apologies and even her daughter's apologies went on deaf ears as he grabbed Mami's arm and dragged her along with him. He swung the door open and struggled with the woman on his arm until he was successful in peeling her off before pushing her out. He slammed the door and clicked the lock before turning around with more determination than he had ever approached before.

At his stalking figure, Laila's arms flew over her face, dragging away while begging for mercy in all the languages she could speak.

"Daddy, wait! N-no! No. Please. I didn't-" her confession was cut in half as the cruel leather whacked against her skin.

With the cruel mind games her mind had played with her in the darkroom and all the lesions she had acquired, her body was on the verge of giving out but she willed herself not to and cowered away, aiming at getting away from her dad.

"Ni zaki batawa suna?" At that point, he wasn't seeing, nor thinking. All that mattered was hurting the girl as much as she hurt his reputation.

"Daddy!" Laila wheezed, raising her hand higher whilst palming the spot on her stomach where the metal part of the belt had assaulted. "I'm sorry, bazan sake ba."

His body shook harder at her words. She wasn't helping. "Baza ki qara ba?" He smacked her across the back. "Menene baza ki qara ba?" Another smack across her back. "Ni zaki sa al'umma ta zaga?" His belt-wrapped hand motioned at the door that kept pounding under her mum's assault, "Ko mamanki kikeso a zaga?" The belt smacked across her face for the first time and she let out a tortured cry.

"A'a!"

"Mu zaki jawo wa abun kunya?"

"A'a!"

Over the sound of his wife pounding on the door, begging mercy on behalf of her daughter, he raised the belt higher each time he was aiming to strike again.

Mami's sustained poundings on the door only fueled him.

He watched as the girl struggled less, begged for mercy less and less until he struck her again and she didn't flinch, cry, or scream. No locomotion whatsoever.

Before passing out, all Laila could hope for was never waking up again.

Except, she did. In a wax pool for that matter.

She scoffed.

If he cared so damn much about her, he wouldn't have locked her away for God knows how many days just to break through to her. Then beat her to unconsciousness the next minute over something she partially had no control over.

For her final wish before she had passed out, guess it hadn't come true and she had to go through this shitty thing called life all over again.

She cornered her eyes to the woman still standing agitatedly by her side. She focused all her emotions into rage and yelled, "Why are you still standing!? Get. Me. Out. Of. Here."

The woman shook her head, bouncing on her feet. "I-i can't. Hajja wants you here for 24 hours. She-"

"Where is she?" Laila had no time to be listening to the woman. She just wanted to get out of the pool. She just wanted out. Out of everything. Out of life, in general. "Where is my mother?"

The woman pointed in the direction she came in through. "She's praying. Should i get her for-"

"Of course! Go get her for-"

"Okay, Hajja! I'll go get her for you..." she gave a nervous smile before scurrying away.

Laila struggled against the wax until she was able to move a finger. Two fingers. Three. And then it was her whole arm. She wiggled her head side to side, side to side, her obvious exercise exerting heat on the surface of her skin which in turn warmed up the wax enough to melt off her skin.

However long it took, Laila let out a loud sigh when she was able to completely detach her hands and head from the wax. She wheezed out, her hands flying up to cover her breast and her throat that felt as if her gut was being pulled out of it.

"Maa-" she gasped at the sight of purple-red substance cough ejecting off her mouth.

Blood.

Despite being naked and knowing anyone could walk into the stupid 'Healing room', Laila's hand that shielded her titties left their post to grab her throat in an attempt to stop the heave of blood ripping her scratchy throat off.

Her attempt went up in smoke, more blood in the form of clots and regurgitation coming off of hers.

In a pure panic, she yelled. "Maa! Ma-mi!"

Footsteps, Laila heard. Her weak figure whirled towards the sound while still violently coughing blood that went straight to her hands and mixed up with the half-melted wax.

Mami's hands flew to her chest as her pace quickened and she yelled at the woman from before. "Get her a robe towel."

Laila's weak, oily hand lifted to her mum, her palpitations and coughs elevating.

"Maa-"

Mami placed an index over her daughter's lips. "Shh." She plucked off her peach hijab and wrapped it around her daughter. "Sannu, Laila." The woman maneuvered around Laila's coughing figure until she had placed her daughter's hand over her shoulder and did the same to the poor girl's waist.

They both let out a groan as Mami pulled Laila up.

She wasn't exactly a giant but was still tall. 5 foot 9. Slender figure except for the thick thighs and hips she had inherited from her mum. But, at that moment, it felt like she weighed a thousand pounds from how hard it was just trying to pull her out of the pool.

"The towel, Hajja."

"Wani towel ne kuma yanzu kam!" The mother and daughter yelled in sync.

The woman cowered back, throwing the towel to the floor and running to lend a helping hand.

Mami stretched a finger at the towel, "Bring the towel."

The poor woman hastily walked back to retrieve the towel.

She helped remove the himar that was patchily covering Laila-if it was covering her at all. They wrapped her in a robe as she continued to wheeze and cough out blood all over herself and them.

The women's attempt in picking Laila up went south when she fell on her side and hit her hip, subsequently sucking a groan off her.

"Come on, Laila. Let's get you up, again." Mami snapped, draping Laila's arm over her shoulder.

Laila shook her head, un-draping her arm from around her mother. They needed to make peace. They needed to make peace with the fact that this was probably the end.

"Go get help!" Mami shouted at the dumbfounded woman. The woman struggled to get up, and just when she did. Mami shook her head and stood up. "Sit down. I'll get help. Stay! Stay with her. Make sure she keeps her eyes open."

Laila's view slowly moved and blurred, her body, her mind, and her soul, all drained out of every little energy she had in her.

She smiled.

Then it died down.

No, please.

She couldn't die like this. Not when she knew heaven wouldn't be her next stop.