Actually, this is a PROLOGUE, but because many people may skip this, thinking its not important, I decided that I name it this way. That being said,

Skip This Page At Your Own Risk.

It's not even a threat, it's a warning, lol.

~ TEN YEARS AGO~

Something about cutting off a head from its body fascinated Dabeluchi Orji.

It was an obsession, really.

And astounding as it may sound, even at the age of seven, she was well acquainted with the concept of Obsession. Or dark, crawling Addictions. How it seemed some people were just fighting, wrestling the wicked demons that had them cuffed and bound in chains and whips. They were like puppets, tangled around the strings of these fiendish creatures', wrapped around their creeping fingers as they they screamed for release. Freedom. Shrieking at the top of their lungs for a savior.

Anyone to take them out of their 'torture rooms'.

"Mummy..."

For some, these torture rooms - or chains, cuffs, and puppet strings - took the form of drugs, alcohol, and countless. For Dabeluchi, it was the urge to feel in control of something. Anything. Even a person's Life. Like she was a god in her own little might, holding the reins of fates and destinies and lives. An Alpha who could even write the stories and events of any life to suit her own narrative, to tally with the point of view only she wanted.

Even if it meant to blur the lines of illusion and Reality.

And, the only thing that gave her that control were her play toys. The barbie dolls in her trembling hands who never fought back when she snatched their heads off their bodies. Those lifeless things that shook in her tiny seven year old fingers, wearing an unsettling representation of false happiness and sprouting with their glowing blue eyes and unnervingly fixed plastic smiles, even as she ripped them apart. Accepting their fates with pure submission and an eerie smile on their faces.

In many way, she was a lot like these toys in her hands - lifeless and submissive. Dead inside. Everything Numb.

"Mummy..."

Especially, tonight.

Something felt wrong tonight. Very wrong. But, she could not seem to pin her finger on it. On what seemed out of the ordinary tonight. She sat there in the children's bedroom, brainstorming, trying to block out the screams that filled the entire house.

Those screams that sounded like it came from Hell, shrieking, screeching, wheezing howls, that reverberated all around the Mansion from the store room that her father never let any of them go inside. Dabeluchi tried. Tried to block out the 'distraction' in order to figure out what was off about tonight.

So, for the hundredth time, she sought questions from who she knew always seemed to have answers.

"Mummy..."

Mrs Orji preferred to sit outside the house, that night. Maybe the noise inside gave her a headache. Or at least, that was what Dabeluchi thought. For a moment, she had gotten distracted herself, wondering if it was not better to join her mother to sit there on the porch, instead. She would grab a stool, just like the one her Mum sat on, and maybe, if she stared as hard enough into space as her Mum was doing, she would see what her Mum seemed to be moping at too.

"Mummy..."

She still hadn't answered. The closest things to a reaction were her feet that tapped once every three seconds against the broken porcelain tiles of the porch. Dabeluchi felt her Mum was anxious about something, she was almost certain. But, what? What could have been the problem, she wondered.

"Mummy."

"What is it, Dabeluchi?"

Her little eyes peaked when her mother finally answered, her next words hanging there at the tip of her hesitant tongue.

"I smell something, Mummy," she spoke, a pitiful innocence oozing off her tiny frame as she stood there and waited for a response.

Mrs Orji didn't even miss a beat.

"It's Fire."

Dabeluchi barely fazed, her eyes never blinking for the quarter of a second. No shock. No off guard reaction. Innocent eyes moped back into her mother, wide and curious still.

"Stephen is in there with Dad," she said to her Mother, "In the Store Room filled with Fire."

Mrs Orji sucked in her teeth, adjusting her torn, dirty wrapper as clear anger registered in her eyes. Dabeluchi didn't fail to notice these little things, how her Mother's eyes had hardened at those words that came out of her mouth, her zombie-eyes glaring down the innocent moon up there in the sky even harder.

"It's your Father that insisted," she answered her daughter, "The Bastard says he wants to make your twin brother a Man."

Dabeluchi tilted her head to the side, a subtle note of confusion lingering in her demeanor.

"A man?" She repeated with a frown, "But, Stephen is not a man, Mummy. He's only seven. And, he talks too much."

Mrs Orji didn't answer, but that didn't deter the rest of the answers that Dabeluchi wanted.

"Will Daddy also do that to you?" She asked her mother without a filter, "He likes to hurt you every time, Mummy."

Again, there was no specific answer from Mrs Orji, but that didn't mean Dabeluchi didn't pick up the subtle change in her demeanor either. Dabeluchi didn't understand why, but every time she brought up her father's abusiveness, her mother got uncomfortable fast.

More self-conscious too.

She watched, blinking innocently still, as her mum started to shield the right side of her face - a lousy and failed attempt to hide the swelling of her cheekbones.

"Mummy," she called her again.

Mrs Orji looked disturbed. Bothered, even. A small frown causing creases on her forehead as she answered her daughter again with her face shamefully turned away.

"Dabeluchi, what is it again?"

The little girl was relentless, almost oblivious even.

"I see something, Mummy."

Her mother stiffened. Like a spell, her eyes travelled to the the glass window of the store room, upstairs, where she could clearly see from the porch where she sat. And with a slight dread lingering in her, she watched the stain of crimson color against the window drip down the glass, down to its rims.

Dabeluchi watched it too, eyes plastered and moping at the same view without a faze in the world.

And, with a sigh, her mother's dread-thickened answer came;

"It's Blood."

Dabeluchi remained placid, her curiosity only piquing.

"Blood and Fire?" She said, the words sounding strange in combination to her, "Blood and Fire. But, how do Blood and Fire mix, Mummy? I am curious, Mummy."

"Dabeluchi, leave me alone," Came her Mother's cold response.

Still, the little girl was barely offended.

"Okay, Mummy. Bye bye, Mummy." And with a jolly smile and a skip in her steps, she dashed back to the Children's room.

The Children's Room was Dabeluchi's favorite place in the entire Mansion. A small cozy room inside their father's luxury mansion in which they lived in, littered with barbie dolls and teddy bears that she massacred, as well as action figures and toy simulations that her brother, Stephen, would never let her dream to touch or destroy.

"Come," she hummed with delight as she picked up a stray teddy bear from the dirty red rugs of the room, "We will start with you." She dusted the stuffed animal as she hopped towards the bed at the end of the room, away from the iron-rusted bunk beds where Stephen's action figures were littered on.

The screaming in the house only got louder, the stench of burning flesh from the Store Room thick and suffocating, and the puff of smoke from it filling the Children's room until she was in an atmosphere that looked like thick white clouds. Nonetheless, Dabeluchi was having a field night, entertaining herself in the midst of the chaos as she fondled with button eyes of the teddy bear in her hands, picking them off.

"Onye mere nwa nebe akwa. Egbe mere nwa nebe akwa," she started to sing, glee in her eyes and excitement in her voice as she dabbled into a traditional lullaby for the 'suffering' teddy bear she was holding, "Weta uziza weta ose. Weta ngaji nkuru ofe.-"

"Dabeluchi n'wam."

She stopped, her attention instantly diverting to her mother who just entered the Children's room.

"You removed the heads from the dolls again," her mother said, a stoic look on her bruised, dark face, "You know that she doesn't like it when you do that, Dabeluchi."

Dabeluchi watched quietly as her mother started to walk around the room, the older woman bending down and picking up the toys that were scattered all over the rugs, one by one.

"She already complains that you are becoming very disrespectful for your age," she said, squeezing multiple dolls at once at her side, shielding them with her messy, torn wrapper, "And, that you do very intrusive things. She thinks you are running mad, Dabeluchi. Don't give her that impression."

"I'm sorry, I won't do it again," Dabeluchi answered quietly.

"You always say that," Her Mother said with a sigh, dropping one of Stephen's Captain America action figures in her hands carefully on the bottom bunk of the bunk bed, "Your Father won't buy more toys for you children, this is all you get." She grabbed the teddy bear from Dabeluchi's hands, added it to the dozens packed in her arms, "One day, I will pack all these things and put it all away for good. You children are getting too old to be playing with toys anyway, and if you have started destroying them, that means you simply don't want them anymore."

"I'm sorry, Mummy. I really don't mean to," Dabeluchi said, remorse evident in her innocent, bright eyes. "It just happens, sometimes."

Her eyes softened, something Dabeluchi rarely saw in her Mother who she knew so far her childhood was a bundle of anger and bitterness, from day to day.

"It's okay," she responded softly to her daughter, "I will clean the Children's room and arrange the toys. You should go."

Dabeluchi blinked, a bit lost.

"Go where, Mummy?"

Her mother's answer was rather calmer than it should have been.

"To the Store Room, Dabeluchi. It's your turn."

The little girl had a wide, oblivious stare hovering over her Mum's vague behavior, her questions unending.

"My turn for what?" She had to ask her Mother.

Mrs Orji felt heavy, the walls of the composed demeanor that she was feigning breaking down rapidly as she turned around and set her gaze back on her innocent little child's bright, moping eyes.

Her answer, thick and heavy;

"Your Father wants to see you."

A/N: Oh, man, I just love messing with you guys. 😂🔥 So? How is this for an Intro into the Second book of TMBT? Your Thoughts?? Tell me what you think, tell me EVERYTHING in the comments!❤️🔥

And, if you have your conspiracy theories on this intro chapter/prologue comment it here o! This chapter is VERY crucial to finding out the truth behind what goes on the Orji Mansion. Read between the lines sha, there are hints. If you missed them - which I think you did😂- ntorr! Nonetheless, let me know all your thoughts sha. Every single last one of them! I'm so excited for this book, argh!

I hope you enjoyed everything so far, from the Introduction to Cast Page to this Intro Chapter Zero. Did you enjoy it???

Anyways! We meet again next week, familia! 🥺❤️ Updates come WEEKLY only on FRIDAYS alone, and according to my spirit and my mood, there may be DOUBLE UPDATES next week Friday.

Love you, bye!❤️🔥