The Imperials

Terrors

Harun POV

"Uncle Hurairah is babysitting," Mama squealed, bursting into my room with one of her excited and crazy heroic poses. 

Being startled, I leaped from my seat with a frown. "Mama, can't you ever knock?" 

"Wait a second, what is that?" She asked with her hands on her hips, catching me red-handed with one of the VR gaming devices that I had snuck in while she was too occupied with her singing and cooking this morning.

"What?" I asked stupidly, aiming to play it off cool while in the inside, my heart was clenched into a fist.

"Don't 'what' me, Harun! What did I say?" Mama frowned, her smile vanishing with the trickling passing of seconds as she came forth and snatched my device from my grip.

"Umm... you love me so much Muah, muah." I laughed nervously, swiftly backing away towards my bed and unfurling under my duvet before she got the chance to hold of one of my delicate ears and give me a blast of lectures. When mom was furious, she would go through a phase of a monster transformation haunting my nightmares. According to her, the transformation was due to the aftermath of living with twins, and disciplining them into human beings rather than donkeys.

"Get out of there!" Mom screamed, snatching my duvet away from my body, leaving me defenseless. Her nose fumed like a bull, her face turned red, and a vien in her forehead twitched in rage. I screamed at the sight of her angry monstrous face that looked like it was ready to pop open from her body.

"Aaahh," I shrieked, tumbling off the bed and thundering down the corridor towards Musa's room. 

Once I was in, I banged Musa's door closed, propelled the dresser and chairs with all my might to blockade the door. "Finally," I sighed, wiping off the tiny sparks of sweat trickling down my forehead.

"What is up with you--?" Musa asked quizzically, his snuck-in gaming device clutched in one his hands. We both had secretly resolved to get all our electronic devices back from the stash of bin located in the basement where dad had always hid our stuff when we were grounded.

"Hide!" I panicked, pushing Musa away from the door. "Mom found out, she's in the transformation process."

"Oh Jesus!" Musa's eyes widened with fright, and he quickly pocketed his device in his sweats slipping under the bed and pulling me with him in the darkness of his hideout. "Mom will never find us out here." 

Musa's window was kept ajar and the buzzing sound of lawn mowing wafted in our ears, the blaring vehicle honks, the tinkling bells of bicycles whoosed in creating a natural lullaby. Time passed, and mom did not bother to push herself into the room. 

Eventually, in the dim darkness of our secret hideout and due to the buzzing sounds of nature, we drifted off to sleep.

*********

"Muahaha." A villainous laughter yanked me awake from my slumber. When I came to, my vision bestowed a faint silhouette of a familiar figure hovering over us.

With a yelp, I jumped only to find myself roped onto a dining chair with my hands tied behind the back rest. "Ugh!" I grumbled with gritted teeth, trying to untangle my hands from behind.

"It won't work. Tried already." Musa shrugged boredly. I jerked my head towards his voice, finding him seated next to me and facing the same dreadful fate. Just like me, he was tied to another duplicate chair yanking at his hands with his jaws clenched.

 "Where are we?"

"Uncle Hurairah's house."

"No way," I hissed with panic, my heart palpitating harshly in my chest. My eyes fervently scanned our location; the familiar grey wooden tiles, the green and black marble counter, the white cabinets seemed to all inform me that we were kept hostage in his kitchen. "Do something Musa before he kills us again."