Her Boyfriend, My Husband

CHAPTER 61

Dawud's POV

That same scream was what woke me up. I was startled awake and jumped out of bed, running towards the direction of the agonizing sound which as always, was Mo's room. I found her in bed, still asleep and battling off the clutches of the nightmare as she screamed and kicked wildly.

The lights were off but I could still faintly make out Mo writhing between the bedsheets and struggling to rouse herself from this dream that has been tormenting her for years. When I held her wrists to stop her fidgeting and wake her up, I felt how she was covered in sweat. It had been like that almost every other day for the past six years and getting used to it doesn't make it easier.

My heart was still always broken when I saw her in a condition some might interpret as an epileptic episode, or a jinn possession. There was a lump in my throat as I kept her hands constrained in mine and placed my side over her legs to keep them kicking too. But there was nothing much I could do for her deafening screams, I had to wait for her to wake up before they ceased.

Thank God I'd managed to convince Mama to move to the room on the upper floor where she won't be woken up by this same thing that might make her blood pressure shoot up. She'd tolerated too much and now it was her time to rest, I could take care of my siblings without getting her worried.

The only light was coming from one of the security lights outside the window but it was enough for me to see Mo was beginning to stiffen until she stopped moving and finally opened her eyes. Her hair was in a wild mess that covered a part of her face and I had to move it out of the way to see her half opened up eyes.

"Hey," I smiled, gently letting go of her, "It's all alright OK?"

She couldn't reply but broke down crying, and turned her head away from me, burying it into the pillow until I could see tear stains wetting the white fabric. They were nights when the dream was really bad and this seems to be one of those nights so I let her have the moment to cry it all out peacefully.

When she calmed down and slowly turned her tear streaked face to me, I adjusted my self to sit closer to her.

"Mo, it's okay," I cooed, as I placed my hand over her forehead, "Everything's fine, you're safe. It's okay, ssshhh."

She nodded and croaked brokenly, "I know."

"You'll be fine, alright? Now I want you to recite du'a before going back to sleep,"

"I will." Mo said as she sat up and rested her back to the head board of the bed.

We opened our palms as we both started reciting a prayer and when we were done, I blew some spittle over my sister before nestling her back into bed. It had been our routine almost every week, and I could tell tonight had been an especially extreme case of her episodes.

Mo had sleep apnea that was triggered by a traumatising incident that happened when she was a teenager. She was only fourteen when she watched our father being brutally murdered right in front of her eyes and what made it worse was how she blamed herself for it since she was the one who insisted on our dad taking her out that night.

Fate had it that it was during that drive that an innocent man would be highway robbed and killed right on front of his daughter's eyes. They shot him and left him to bleed to death before any help arrived with Mo helplessly watching it all in the background. She's been marked and branded by that incident ever since, even when now, all that was six years ago.

We had tried therapy, but no amount of sessions have been able to erase the memory that triggers her nightmares. And then on Mama's behest, we tried an Alfa who claimed to be the "most powerful jinn destroyer in all of the country" to free her of the supposed evil jinn that had possessed her and had been tormenting her all this while.