A throatful cry tugged her out of sleep. Hand flying out in the dark room, Kambili reached for the volume knob to turn down the music humming from the speaker beside her bed. Her chest was tight as she quickly found purchase, hoping that the cry was a figment of her imagination. Alicia Key's Sleeping With A Broken Heart died down with a swift twist and silenced covered the room. Her ears moved on their accord, searching for the source of the noise. One, two, thre-

The cry came again.

Utter pleasure accompanied with a deep groan of a satisfied male. Bitterness traveled in a flash from her gut, spreading fire all over body until it arrived at her heart and squeezed tight.
Oh, She knew what that sound was. A sex duet featuring her ex, Muzo and Essa, the girl he cheated on her with. They were going at it a wall away from her. How unfortunate that they were stuck in their shared apartment, roommates until she could found a better job with a better pay, enough to get a cubicle of a one bedroom apartment for herself. Burdened as she was with piling debts, monetary demands from family and omnipresent bills, moving out wasn't a near future option. The humiliation soared with every hug, every kiss they exchanged in front of her.
Her friends had flipped their weaves and told her to 'boy bye' him but it wasn't that simple.

Was it ever?

Muzo had been her best friend and boyfriend since college, the cute boy turned ambitious hunk of a man, turned heartless monster. Their breakup was just a month old and he'd basically moved the new chick home.
Her nose stung as she swallowed back tears. Smacking wet sounds filled the quiet apartment in a frenzy that increased by the minute as the heartless cheating couple raced to the finish line.
"Yes!" Essa cried out in sheer estacy. "Yes, Yes...oh God, I'm gonna come. I'm going to... Muzo, you are killing me."

Me too, Kambili thought. He's killing me too.

She could forget sleeping tonight. Slumber had fled the scene. She was utterly alone in every sense of the phrase.
She lay still for sixty more minutes of listening to multiple orgasms and moans. Each second was dipped in rich, red hot agony.
Kambili waited until the Muzo's telltale snore wracked their apartment.

He was out.

Then she moved, her quiet nimble feet traveling on cold tiles to her first destination; the kitchen. She did need to wet her dry throat after-all.
Her next stop was her ex's room. She stood over them, her eyes trailing the lines of their entangled bodies. This used to be them, Muzo and Kammy, but now she was alone, filled with one-sided grief.
"It's only fair we share it. Only fair," she whispered in the darkness.
Muzo eyes peeled open. He was like her, a light sleeper. A tidbit he'd conveniently forgotten in his sexathon with her replacement.
"Kambili?" He called out, his panty-melting deep voice roughened by sleep. "What, Kamm-"
"I'm in pain," She whispered, cutting him off. Her voice was broken by tears that had begun falling since she entered the room. "We should share this pain," she insisted. "We shared everything else. You took all I had to give."
Muzo blinked, still sleep addled. "What?" Confusion suddenly gave way to horror as he turned on lowlight bedside lamp. "Kambi-"

She brought the knife down.



© Vanessa Chioma Aghagbon