“They raped my father in front of us.”A male rape story

That evening as usual, we all gathered in front of the TV to watch our favorite Zee world series. Even Daddy was there covertly watching while pretending to be busy on his phone. He had talked all week about how we forget about everything else anytime we’re watching the series and he even threatened to ban us from watching it after I almost burnt down the kitchen. That day, I had abandoned the food I was cooking to watch Twist of Fate with my siblings and it wasn’t until the smell of something burning almost choked us before I rushed to the kitchen to meet a charred pot of rice. Since then, Daddy had been complaining but it seems like he’s also getting addicted to the Indian series.

We were watching an interesting scene involving Abhi and Pragya when the TV screen suddenly went blank and the lights started shaking. Before any of us could react, the generator switched off and everywhere was dark. Daddy stood up and went outside to check what was wrong with the generator and hopefully fix it.

I was getting up to go upstairs for my phone while mummy and Tosin were discussing if Abhi and Pragya would finally be meet again or if Zee world would mess up as usual and they would somehow get distracted at the last second and miss each other when the lights came back on and Daddy walked in with five armed men in masks. One of them had his gun pointed at Daddy while the rest focused on us.

Mummy screamed, “Jesus!” before she was shut up and we were ordered to surrender our phones then lie flat on the floor.

Three of them searched the house and soon one of them returned with Tunde, my ten-year-old brother who had been sleeping upstairs while we were watching TV. He burst into tears immediately he saw us all lying on floor.

Three of them searched the house and soon one of them returned with Tunde, my ten-year-old brother who had been sleeping upstairs while we were watching TV. He burst into tears immediately he saw us all lying on floor.

“Is there anyone else in the house?” The masked man holding Tunde asked angrily.

“No, we are all here,” Daddy replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes sir. We’re just five in the house,” Daddy said.

The man pushed Tunde in our direction and also told him to lie down. I could hear mummy praying under her breath and beside me Tosin was chanting, “God please, God please, God please.” I didn’t even know what to do. I also tried praying but I was so scared and my mind was blank.

They took every valuable thing they could get their hands on and one of them even ransacked the kitchen for something to eat. It took what felt like hours before they were done. I was so grateful none of us got hurt in the ordeal and I could hear mummy thanking God as they were about to leave when one of them decided he couldn’t leave without having a little fun with one of us.

We all froze as we imagined what his idea of fun meant. Mummy and Daddy started begging them not to hurt anyone.

“Please you’ve taken what you want already. Leave my wife and children alone. Don’t hurt them,” Daddy begged.

I could hear the smile in the man’s voice as he said, “Who told you I’m interested in them? It’s you I want.”

For a while no one said anything as we processed what he meant but it seemed so absurd to me I immediately dismissed the thought.

“It’s either you or one of your daughters,” the man said. He came closer and dragged me up. I was too scared to do anything. He was huge and tall and his eyes looked so cruel I knew he wasn’t going to leave without hurting someone. He forced me to look up as he ran his hand over my body while I trembled with fear.

“Hmm…” he seemed satisfied with his inspection. “How old are you?”

I opened my mouth to reply but nothing came out. My heart rate had increased and I was having trouble breathing. My parents were now in a kneeling position begging him to let me go but he didn’t listen. Instead he pointed his gun at my forehead and asked me again.

“How old are you?”

“I’m se-se-seventeen sir,” I managed to say my voice shaky.

“Scorpion abeg stop this nonsense jare let’s go,” the shortest of men said in irritation but the man holding me refused to listen. He looked at his other friends to see if they had any objections and when they averted their gazes, the short man sighed and said, “Fine. Sha be quick.”

Daddy stood up and pleaded one more time, “Please, don’t touch her. Please, I’ll do anything.”

Scorpion shoved me to one of his friends who held me and he gave his gun to another. Each of us had a gun pointed at our heads to keep Daddy in check while scorpion raped him over a table.

I kept my eyes tightly shut and tried to cover my ears but tears still leaked out anyway and I couldn’t drown out the noises. Daddy didn’t make a single sound but I could hear Scorpion grunting and groaning while mummy was sobbing loudly. It was as if she was crying on behalf of herself and her husband.

I barely noticed when the man holding me let go or when they all left. When I opened my eyes, mummy was still crying and Tosin had her arms around both her and Tunde. She was consoling them. I panicked when I didn’t see Daddy anywhere. I looked around frantically searching for him. Tosin noticed my distress and told me he was upstairs.

I curled up where I was and stared at the ceiling without seeing anything. Daddy later came downstairs but he sat away from us and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. No one slept that night except Tunde. No one said a word, mummy and Tosin just kept crying till they were tired. Daddy just sat where he was looking like someone had drained his life force. I tried to sleep but each time I closed my eyes, the horrible events replayed in my mind so I kept them open all night. The generator later switched off on it’s own around midnight leaving the neighborhood eerily silent. Dad got up at a point and went upstairs to bring blankets to cover us.