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2024-10-29 19:42:56The taxi driver and I are antsy. Occasionally, our eyes meet in the rear mirror, his to my bloodied shirt and mine to his phone. He's wise not to reach for it because my current state shouldn't mean anything to him. My bloody nose speaks volumes.
The taxi driver and I are antsy. Occasionally, our eyes meet in the rear mirror, his to my bloodied shirt and mine to his phone. He's wise not to reach for it because my current state shouldn't mean anything to him. My bloody nose speaks volumes.
The car comes to a stop. The driver waits for me to pay him. I don't bother searching my pockets for money.
"Wait here. I'll be right back."
I try to shake the visceral feeling away and focus on the task at hand. The house is empty but I make a cautious step not to make any sound. I haven't stayed here for long to know where they all are; my aunt and her husband but I know who's here. Alice. She must be sleeping, her rake-thin body must be clad in sheets on her new bed. The thought gives me comfort that I've ended it all. We are free.
It's cold outside when I step out and I dread seeing the look on the driver's face as I hand him my fare. He must think I'm a monster. I am. I don't spend much time outside because the walls are shorter than I'm used to and anyone can peek over them and see me.
In the bathroom, I stare at my reflection transfixed by the illusion I've created. I close my eyes still seeing the body in my mind's eye, buried under dirt and debris and no one will know I did it. They'll never know.
Tears prickle my eyes as I continue to stare at the blood and I don't know if it's real or not, whether this is all a nightmare and it never happened. I'm an echo of the girl I used to be. Pure and innocent isn't who I am anymore. The tap gives out a loud gurgling sound and washes away the blood from my shaking hands. I scrub at them furiously, willing every drop to leave its surface and I know these hands will never touch Alice again, not like the way they used to.
A sound behind me startles me. My breathing becomes shockingly rapid and I wipe at my brow thinking it must have been the wind. I was stupid enough not to have locked the bathroom door. My sister stands behind me, rubbing at the crust in her sleepy eyes. Her drowsy body relaxes on the door frame and I hold my breath, hoping she's sleepwalking.
She's a beauty, my Alice, so unlike me. I pray she never becomes me. She should never get the chance to do what I've done and I'll make sure of it.
"Eve?" she says and steps forward, reaching out for me.
Don't touch me. I want to scream, afraid that she too will be plagued by this curse of living a lie. I'm shaking vigorously when I feel the first touch of her warm hands against my icy skin. I pry her fingers off my waist and jerk away.
"Get out, Alice!" I yell at her. "Get the hell away from me."
She runs away.
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Traces of Eve Chapter 1
ALICE | Now There are always facts and there are lies. The fact is, It's the early part of March in the year 2019. The icy wind coming from the windows cuts through me as easily as a knife would. My teacher, Mrs. Andersen, has no clue she's my anchor back to this world. I'm slowly receding into a world of my own, one unlike this one where there are only illusions. A place I call lost at sea. There are always facts and there are lies. I should bear the brunt of it, after all the teacher is always right, and the student is definitely always in the wrong. But here's another fact, everything she says is three sentences condensed into one and I cannot decipher if she's speaking gibberish or plain out English. It's a miracle she isn't my English teacher but my Biology teacher. She talks with the speed of a ticker-tape accelerating along a page, and that's not the only thing hindering my
Traces of Eve Chapter 2
JEWELL | Then I don't think it was a coincidence—how I met the woman who's been declared dead for over a day now. It had to be fate because the timing was perfect. Exactly a week before she died. That morning it was the chilling cold bathwater that woke me up and the never-ending ringing of my phone. I wished it hadn't that I could've waited in there until my fingertips became raw and pruned, and my palms a mass of wrinkled skin. I loved it when that happens, and I was reluctant to give the solace up. My roommate's classes were earlier than mine so she'd rouse at the crack of dawn with such a douce mind I wondered how she even made it to the door without tripping. The ringing ceased for a bit, and I cuddled deeper into the water, not feeling the foam anymore. It was in those times I felt I could drown if I ever wanted to, but then the thought would go away as quickly as it came making me ques
Traces of Eve Chapter 3
EVE | Then Dear Alice, There's something you should know. Something they don't really teach you in school, that only life has the luxury of doing. Monsters come in different shapes and sizes. I remember when the real monster came into my life. It's not the kind of monster we think is under our beds or the ones we read about in fairy tale books—no, those are too pretty. A figment of our imagination. The actual thing was big, bad and ugly. And whether I liked it or not, he was my monster. He was tall, all six-foot-six of him mocking my and mama's short frames, with serious hawkish eyes that must've seen a lot in his days. They were hard and cold, almost frost-like, but then on some days, they'd be almost as warm as a hearth. He looked oddly out of place with his burgundy V neck T-shirt and blue faded jeans that hang low around his waist and dropped to his fe
Traces of Eve Chapter 4
ALICE | Now When you lose someone, there's a process you go through and it doesn't help that people keep staring at you. They wait and anticipate your breakdown—the crashing of a chair against the wall, the loud declarations of denial, and the tears that'll glide effortlessly. The tears never come for me, not when we lost contact with mama and surprisingly not when I hear Eve's dead. Dead as a doornail. Gone like the wide. As I walk in a daze, I take a stroll down memory lane and for some eerie reason, I can remember my childhood without the pain and the gory details. Eve wrote poems and hanged them on her bedroom walls. They were everywhere; plastered firmly near the windows, by her bedside lamp and even on her wooden wardrobe. I loved scrutinizing them because it was one of those rare occasions; I got to see something pretty other than the blank walls with flaking white paint in my room. I
Traces of Eve Chapter 5
JEWELL | Now Two weeks after Eve's death I pass by similar-looking houses while driving by in my Honda. They have the same paint colour, same roofing design, some even have the same hedges out in front but with different shades of evergreen. I drive slowly, cautiously, looking at my rear mirror. The police will be looking for me very soon. I don't know how soon. It can be minutes, hours, seconds, I have no clue. What I do know is that someone around the house would have called to report a disturbance and they'll enter the house and see what exactly I'm hiding from. With my right hand on the steering wheel, I use my left to pull the hem of my shirt above my head quickly so I won't lose sight of what's in front of me as I drive. Some of the blood on my shirt is smeared on my left cheek. My eyes blur from oncoming tears and my nostrils flare in disgust at the stench of it.
Traces of Eve Chapter 6
EVE | Then I'm not going to tell you everything, Alice. Just the things I think you should know. That night we hailed a taxi at the peak of the street- it wasn't really hard to find because there was a taxi rank just near the busy road. That side of the city had an intoxicating lifestyle I loved. There was a familiar tumultuous sound of horns blaring through the atmosphere. Out there, the pollution was a little less, don't get me wrong. There was smoke from the exhaust pipes of crowded cars but this way when you rolled up the windows and switched on the air condition unit, you wouldn't smell a thing. Then there was the sweet scent of sizzling food from the restaurants and food vendors that lined up near the road. It was quite something. Nothing like the silent solitude of Golden Gate estate. I watched as mama paid the driver before getting out of the yellow and
Traces of Eve Chapter 7
ALICE | Now The sound of the whistle shatters the silence, and the runners start their sprint rather sluggishly from where I'm perched. It's been an hour and forty-five minutes since I finished packing my stuff. An antagonizing hour with my thoughts filled by Eve, the cadence of her slightly deep voice and her obsession over colourful clothing. "Don't you miss it?" I yelp, frightened that I've been caught off guard. My stomach knots into coils, my head snaps sharply to my right and makes a pop sound that makes me cringe. My best friend, David flops on the space beside me and unfurls his fingers from a water bottle. I try not to look at him or listen to the sound of each sickening crack as his hand works its way over his knuckles. I even hold my breath so his scent doesn't waft through my nostrils. Most boys swim in their cologne but not him, it's faint and lingers only
Traces of Eve Chapter 8
JEWELL | Then The second time I see her, she is standing on the Boundary Road, near the N4 signboard, about to cross the road. I think she's about to because she's awfully near the asphalt, the tip of her flats peek over the sidewalk but she doesn't make a move. The red traffic light replaces the green hue in a heartbeat, halting the incoming vehicles. People brush past her to walk on the zebra crossing, but she stays rooted to her spot. The woman is dressed in a light faded blue jeans with splashes of what I assume to be a creamy white paint on the front. The jeans are ripped in a way that tells me it was a DIY project, that, and the frayed edges at the soles. It clings to her skin and makes the lines of her thighs more prominent and unfortunately, so does the V-shape of her pelvis. I wonder if she notices. I look around me, thinking that if someone near her takes notice, they should tell her. No one does because
Latest Chapter
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 18
Alice | Now The next day it rains, taking me by surprise. The rain droplets stain my bedroom window. The gutters are nearly flooded to the brim and from a distance, it runs through pleats in the low-lying streets, accumulating at the sides of the pavement so that when you stepped out of the house, your shoes get drenched. Desmond complained about it. He said it was raining cats and dogs and it was going to be difficult getting to the car in the downpour, making us late for the service. In my view, it is a gloomy day to go to a funeral-a day we bury Eve. The same day two other people are going to be put six feet under. When my aunt and uncle sat both Melly and I down after dinner to explain what happened, I got to know that it wasn't just Eve who died. Unexpectedly, both James and Annabel were gone too. Even though I never particularly liked my sister's best friend, I couldn't help
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 17
Eve| ThenI was sitting in Doris's dainty candy shop when she first spoke to me about sex.It was inspired by her new tenants, a young couple from a slum settlement, Nima just on the outskirts of the community. She claimed they lied about their ages, twenty and twenty-three years old respectively but they looked anything but. I got a good look at them for myself and agreed with her that they did look younger, teens perhaps.I couldn't help but feel sympathy for her because it wasn't easy waking up early at the crack of dawn to sell but I was on edge. I had just come back from school exhausted, my legs were sore and weakened and I should have never greeted her, to begin with. She told me to stay away from boys, that they were bad news and sex wasn't for me at my age. I don't know why I let her talk because I did know what sex was. I was young, like thirteen going on four
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 16
ANNA | ThenI stayed away the night after Eve met James. I was filled with anger and self-loathing.It just goes as well to say that I couldn't stand being in the same room with Eve though it wasn't her fault that she had no clue he was mine before she met him at Will and Ella's party.I waited two nights for him to call me only for me to remember that we hadn't exchanged numbers. A little internet surfing disappointed me as well, there were so many James in the world. About a million in Ghana, so many more in the US and UK combined. Although it annoyed me, I kept pondering over every single detail Eve narrated to me about their meet-cute.She was talking to Will when it happened. When she moved across from him to grab a drink from the bar and met him. They collided, she said. His martini seeped into her white blouse, the one I got from Primark, another gift from me to her. While te
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 15
JEWELL | ThenI can't help but think of the woman for reasons I can't decipher. I blame it on my insomnia, having not slept a wink the night before, and there's nothing interesting to think about. The weather is dreary and I hate how the wind carries dust around, hitting me square in the eye as I make my way to my room. I ignore a couple huddled in the shadows not far from where I'm walking. They cling to each other, making noises that disrupt the cool, solemn evening, and I know for a fact that they are under the impression that no one can see.When I enter the room, a pool of darkness greets me and I quickly flip on the switch and instantly, I can see well again. I throw my messenger bag on the bed along with my car keys and set the grocery bag from the Night Market on the low-lying counter. I open the curtains on my high window to allow cooler breeze in because the room is stuffy. Moving to the kitchen, I settle into a comfortable silence
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 14
ALICE | Now"Where's Alice?" I hear my uncle ask Tala when she steps through the front door and embraces him.It's dark outside, the bluish hue of the sky tell me it's probably past seven already. We hadn't anticipated the drive from school to be this long, but there aren't any short cuts from school to Golden Gate Estate. I grab ahold of my duffel bag and suitcase. As I walk towards them from the car, I'm greeted by the funky scent of curry from the kitchen, the words from the news playing from the living room TV invade my head.On the news: recorded rainfall in Accra which strikes me as odd because we are still in the dry season even though the cold winds are receding gradually back to the Sahara desert. It won't surprise me to see that there will be only crowded clouds insight and not a hint of rainfall but then again, what do I know?A collection of dust-covered shoes rests against th
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 13
EVE | ThenPaul was everywhere.I saw him outside the gates of my school, on our living room couch, beside Mama in the kitchen, stirring idly at chopped vegetables sizzling in a frying pan while she poured wine for them. He went on dates with Mama. She didn't need to confide in me, I could tell I was twelve, not blind.There were changes to her I couldn't comprehend. The physical changes were hard to ignore; the new clothes, clean and straight, iron pressed each day. She looked nicer in her nursing uniform than ever before. She spent more time at Daawo's salon, coming home for a brisk lunch with hot pink rollers tucked in her hair. The bathroom even changed, a coconut milk and jasmine petals shower gel sat in a brown wooden basket, an oval-shaped stone for rubbing under her feet came along with the package, lots of scented perfumes and it was the first time I saw a facial wash on t
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 12
ANNA | ThenI met him on the street. It was lonely, almost sequestered, the kind no one wants to drive on, but there I was, standing akimbo beside my broken-down car looking on at the rising, swirling vapour emanating out of the engine.The day was warm, bittersweet but lovely in a way that I could've spent it by using the little time I had to sketch, but I was stuck on a long curvy isolated road with a car that wouldn't start and a low battery phone. It was all Raisa's fault, being my stepmother did not give her the right to coerce me into going to her son's university graduation. The thought of her getting away with it rubbed me the wrong way, but I would do anything for my dad even if it meant putting up with his stepson's perverse looks throughout the ceremony. I got out as fast as I could once the robes were thrown down and a throng of people descended on the proud graduates.After all my fake enthusiastic chi
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 11
JEWELL | Now Two weeks after Eve's funeral My head hurts. It's the first thing I take notice of when I come to. There is a sharp ringing in my head, it throbs with a vengeance I know all too well. I should stop starving myself. The cool wind sends a shiver down my spine, causing me to huddle deeper into the thick blue blanket covering me. My fingers skim over my abdomen thinking of finding it bare because I discarded the blood coated shirt earlier, however, they come into contact with a thick material. I peek under the cover to see a hoodie. It's white. A colour so pure even my soul could tarnish it. "Here, take this." I look up from my space on the dark brown sleek couch to see Ms Riley hovering over me with a small plate in her hand. Two white pills wait for me on its surface. "The Advil will take care of your headache, and here are some beignets I made yesterday for the boys. You can
- Traces of Eve
Chapter 10
ALICE | Then Eve's birthday I dreamt a dreadful dream that day, the kind that left me coated in precipitation, choked my throat with unbridled quiet sobs. Eve was there. It was like déjà vu when I met her a second time for lunch later that afternoon. My vision was impaired by darkness as black as the inside of a coffin. It felt barren like it did seven years ago and then there was the cold that bit into my skin, numbing it to the point that it was unfathomable how I survived that night. There was a power cut in my dream, an exact mimic of what transpired. Fingers curled around my shoulder blades, sending pin prickles of goosebumps running down my skin. It took long before Eve's face morphed into view, but it was pitch black. I jerked away from her. I didn't like it when Eve touched me solely because she didn't know which part of my flesh didn't sting with pain. "Really,