Singapore.

Madina made her way back to her room, her expression taut and her night already yawed to another angle. She's planned on escaping or avoiding Bilal throughout this journey but the man is hellbent on making things hard for her.

Throwing her heels at the edge of the bed, she removed her clothes and made her way to the bathroom. She hissed when the warm water caressed her body, washing away the sins of the day down the drain leaving only slothful muscles at it's wake.

Madina removed a tampon from her suitcase and wear it before taking the fluffy mauve robe that the hotel provided in her en-suite. She cloaked her body with it and made her way to the bed. She's so exhausted but she's not sure whether sleep will come.

She's had insomnia for several years already, she's gotten used to her pills. For some peculiar reasons, she doesn't want to take one. Her mind is filled to the brim with unspoken words and if she doesn't get them out, she might go cuckoo come morning.

Extricating her lethargic limbs, she made her way to her suitcase and probed the bottom of it for a small phone. She meandered back to the bed and sat down on it, turning the phone on then checked time. It is already one in the morning.

Her hands swipe across the screen of her iPhone, wandering from TikTok to Instagram then Snapchat while waiting for time to race. She's got this unspoken rule of not calling anyone before three in the morning just in case that person is still awake.

When she calls around three, there is a high chance that the person is asleep so they'll keep the phone as per her request while others will rudely hang up as though it was their credit she was using. Mostly though, people allow her to ramble on and on eloquently.

As soon as three pierced, her hand turned on the phone where a sim she's asked one of her maids to register with their name, flashed on.

Reclining back on the bed, a pillow between her thighs and one behind her head, Madina drag her candies closer to her. She needs something to distract her from crying when she reaches the deflagrating point of her story. It will make her eyes swell by dawn, she hates it.

Immediately, she dialed a random Nigerian number, her left thumb pressing on a seven when with all her heart she wanted to use six as the last digit. Since it's unaimed, she allowed the last digit to be seven, it doesn't matter anyway.

As long as the person is going to answer the call and leave it for her to digress and meander through the arsenal of her corrosively putrefying cranium.

The phone rang thrice before it was answered and as usual, before the other person could say a thing, she removed the phone from her ear so she wouldn't know who it was. Some people talk first while others wait for her to go ahead as she is the one who's called.

Clearing her throat, an uncomfortable knot twisted and turned inside of her, and that hint of orange fire behind her eyes gave her a rush of bravery. That fire never seize to push her into opening her mouth no matter where she is.

"Hello. I'm sorry for calling you this late." She paused, gathering her wits. "I tend to do this everyday in hopes of getting things off my chest. I know, I know. You are no therapist and this is not your forte nor business but you don't need to listen, you can just keep the phone somewhere while I talk alone. I don't want you to say anything because I don't want to know who this is. After today, I won't ever call you again. Please."

It was quiet from the other end, susurrus and shuffles came before the phone settled down like she's heard so many times. The other person is agreeing to her terms, a smile ambled to her lips at that. There are so many kind people out there even today.

From the other end, the guy holding his phone to his ear put a cessation to his movements. His hands stilled as he heard a sweet, soft voice. Not at all distinguished or operatic, kind and pleading. A voice of a broken woman.

Madina took a deep breath, stuck a candy inside her mouth before she started. "This is a continuation so it's probably off from somewhere I don't know. It's been two days since the last time I called anyone. I'm pretending that someone is listening to me when really, they all fall asleep and allow to just wander around. I appreciate it a lot though.

"The first day I agreed to sell my body for money, I knew I was going to regret it for the rest of my life but I had no other option. Besides, I was not a virgin when it all started happening so I won't blame my lack of virtue on the predicament that befell us all those years ago.

"I gave my virginity to the first guy I fell in love with even though my sweet sister always advised me not to make such a mistake. The minute he took my virginity, he left the state and I never heard from him again till date. Please... I've moved on way before I even knew what moving on was.

"All I had to do was act like he never existed and it worked until recently. That is beside the point though. Earning money from auctioning your body felt good at first because the money was huge. My sisters demanded fifty thousand at that time from each of the men that wanted to sleep with me. I was feeling myself because the men wouldn't pay close to that to other women but me. At one point though.

"Weird right? My sisters supporting me in such impertinent situations but I'd like to believe that we were all trying to help our other sister get her operation done. She is the only sister I knew that loved me not because we are siblings, but for who I am.

"I was devastated when I saw her lying down hopelessly on that hospital bed while people look around us like we were shit beneath their new shoes. Very disdainfully. I couldn't take it so I took the advise of sleeping around to help her. It was only me that did the job of an entire brothel, not that easy, huh?"

Madina stood up from the bed, not really comfortable lying down there with pillows all around her. She might end up crying from the comfort of those soft fluffy pillows surrounding her. So she went to stand by the window looking down at Raffles Hotel swimming pool glistening azure blue below.

She licked her lips, she would like to go for a swim before they leave. "So, yeah... she's doing good after so many years. I even took her to India to go see the best doctors there but still, the same thing. Fortunately, she'll be up and running in a few months.

"Don't even question where our parents are." She let out a nasty chuckle at the thought of those two people that gave birth to her and her five other sisters.

Tucking her phone between her shoulders and ear, she opened another candy with her teeth and suckle on the tangerine flavor. Her eyeballs roll to the back of her head, she's always loved tangerine. She thought she's finished them.

Licking her teeth with her tongue, she went on. "My parents..." she trailed off because she doesn't know how to start talking about them.

She's never talked about her parents to any of those people, she's never felt the need. But she just realized that the problem came from them. They were the roots of all the rottenness and boorishness they have from the beginning. No one could prove otherwise.

She needs a fucking diazepam!

"My parents were both deep into their own shit to bother about what we really do and what we're into. Since they couldn't give birth to boys to go hustle and get them food on their table, they decide to make their female children whore around. As long as they've got another blunt to hit on every day.

"It was my two oldest sisters first. We were never truly trained nor disciplined to do anything the right way. That's why only one of my sisters is married with her two kids in..." Oops, she's almost revealed too much. No telling the states.

"It's not that she wasn't a hoe herself but the man was rich and genuinely loved her. She's always been a hopeless romantic so when he proposed, she accepted. My other sisters... I don't know much about them but the one that I sold my body for. She's convalescing in the hospital."

Madina blinked away the tears leaking at the edges of her eyes because whenever she thinks deeply about their lives? She realized that the two people that were meant to love them irrevocably did the exact opposite. They broke each and every single one of them. Inside out.

Mental health and drug abuse is something that is not seeing the light of the day much in northern Nigeria or whole Nigeria.

They don't really give it much importance but it is the problem from within. That is what is going to build the next generations, now and forever. It doesn't matter what people think or say but if those two issues don't get addressed as soon as possible, the future will be bizarre and comical.

She's seen firsthand how these two things can wreck an entire family that have the dream of giving birth to their own children in the future.

How are things going to be then? How do they plan to bring up their children when they don't know what they are doing themselves? What their roles are? When they have no idea what it means to bring up a child?

It is not only about giving birth to children nowadays. It contains more than just that bit of labour pain and nine months pregnancy. That is actually the easiest part of bringing a child to the world but this generation are not taught so.

And not to forget about that awful mentality of a woman giving birth to a male. It is as though it is an unwritten law in the constitution that makes women go berserk until they achieve that goal of theirs. That depressing thought needs to be erased, annihilated from people's minds!

The reason her mother kept giving birth to children with barely two years in between. She's wanted a male child so desperately but she's not the one that's written the future. The doctors stopped her after she gave birth to Madina. It's either she stops trying or she dies because she's already weak.

Remembering that she was talking on phone, Madina sniffed and continued. "My sisters used to feed the entire household at just the age of seventeen and eighteen. It was expected of every one of us to take care of ourselves as soon as we come of age. I mean, it's quite simple since our elders are already into it, right?

"Well, it was that sister that is still convalescing in the hospital that tried to shield me away from that life. She promised to feed and cloth me. Even sent me to finish secondary school. Amongst all my sisters, I was the only one that managed to finish school.

"It never bothered them, I'm sure. They are also inundated in that life my parents carved for them. They became connoisseurs in no time and my house is called Gidan Karuwai da Yan Shaye Shaye. House of prostitute and drug users. My parents were deep in drugs even when I grew up.

"As humiliating as that was, it's never troubled or disturbed me until after I've managed to escape their grip. I left them there to rot because there is nothing to pick from them. They might be my siblings but what good would it do to me if I take them with me? They'd continue drowning me.

"Mind you! I've not stopped skipping from one bed to the other till date. I enjoy the luxury and convenience. At first it was because of the price but now, I do it on my own terms. I have become addicted to my own drugs. But not like my parents'. Instead of crack, it comes in men. I don't think I want to stop anyway."

As the words tumbled out from her lips, a feeling she's never felt tranquilized itself within her making her sternum throb. She harangued that and took a deep breath. She's been talking for two hours straight already. It's time to hang up before the other person wakes up.

"I think I've disclosed enough about me already. You've not listened to this but thank you so much for allowing me to rant your phone off. Till we meet in next life." She hung up the phone after that.

It's always been this random. Call, ramble about the part of her life she's been thinking about lately then hang up the phone till next time. When she's got nothing to do, alone on bed without sleeping pills, she calls people everyday. Depends on how busy she gets.

Madina recoiled back on the bed and summoned sleep but it abandoned her like always. Knowing she's got no plans the next day with anyone, she took four pills and lie down. Sleep engulfed her in no time but it was restless like most of the ones she's had after that fire.

"Madina get the hell out of there! The fire is burning down the room. Don't go to there you stupid fool!" A man yelled from behind her but she was sprinting into the room without paying heeds to his words.

When she reached the door, a large log fell and closed her path. Her heart collides with her rib cage, and her breathing stops. She tried bending down below the log but there was no room for her to pass through.

In a voice she didn't recognize as her own, she screamed at the men pouring water to the burnt down building. "There is a baby inside!"

"The baby won't survive. Come back and stand here." A large burly man swiftly carried her away from the door while she forced herself to listen to the infant crying but nothing.

Hysterical, she tried clawing her way out from his grip. "You are a fucking monster. How could you leave a baby in there to die?"

"Don't be such a fool. That fire won't let anything go unscathed. If there is a baby in there, she's already dead." He grumbled from below her then threw her down on the ground when they were safely away from the hungry and rumbling orange fire.

Scrambling back to her feet, Madina raced back to the same door but the man stopped her halfway. Frenzied and frantic, Madina kept trying to escape his frame but there was no escape route. The man is extremely strong and powerful while she's just a small midget.

"Let me go! Leave me alone you fucker! You, monster. Leave me!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, the night carrying her words and made them echo around them.

When he got tired of her screams and spasmodic speech, he slapped her hard across the face making everything still in the background. Every single person there with them stilled to watch, attention off the fire but the woman that is now quiet when her voice was the only thing that could be heard seconds ago.

And then suddenly she was in his arms, her body racked with trembling. She tried to pull away, but she could not stop shaking, and she let him draw her into the shelter of his powerful form.

Instinctively she clung to him, her face pressed against the cotton collar of his tattered shirt until she moved her cheek and felt the warmth of his skin through the material of his shirt. Her tears already soaked the flimsy material.

Madina jerked awake, sweat soaking her beneath the robe she was wearing. She peeled it off her body and went to take a long bath, trembling for another hour before she decided that leaving the room is much better. She cannot wallow in that gruesome memory, again.