Saturday January 19, 2019

                Eli put a finger to his head, scratched, looked up at Anna who peered down at his notebook in interest and sighed wistfully.

                  "I don't get it."

                  "It's pretty easy Maths Eli-"

                   "Not that. This." He splayed his hands before her. "This whole revenge thing. Studying does not help me at all. If I pass, I make him proud. He'll have something else to brag about!"

                 She smiled and it irritated him. That knowing smile like she thought he was stupid. "You need to think outside the box Eli."

                  He grunted and sank into the sofa in his living room, willing then TV on with his eyes. It's poor remote was suffering the crime of being compressed by Anna's backside. Apparently he had no break even on the first day of coaching.

                 Yeye girl. He cursed inwardly.

                  "What happens when you do well in the WAEC exam?"  She asked and he gave her a look that conveyed just how irritated he was. She shifted uneasily under his angry gaze.

               "Are you deaf? He gets something else to brag about! I want to punish that man. I want to hurt him and let down his expectations. Failing was my option until yesterday." He yelled grateful his mother was the only one at home. And she was a heavy sleeper. If Anna was going to come over frequently, he had to be stealth. No one had to know he was failing.

                  "Or,..." She began timidly, her voice finding it's timbre as she talked. "You could get a good WAEC grade, find a federal University far away from here and never look back. With good grades, you get to choose your path Elijah. What happens after you fail huh? What's going to happen to your future? You need to think Long term Eli. Long. Term."

                    If stupid was a feeling, he was sure it was what trembled in his veins at the moment. How had he never thought about it that way? He could get the hell out of this darned place and be free.  He nodded appreciatively and grinned.

                     "Good point. How... How do we do this?"

                    Anna sighed and picked up the notebook on the centre table. The remote she sat on made a funny sound and Eli imagined it choking for air.  "You're way behind Eli. We're going to have to study everyday  so you can catch up."

                  He threw his head backwards and groaned. "Whyyy!"

                 She laughed softly. " You should've prepared harder."

                   "Whatever." He grunted. "Oh and no one must know of this. No one."

                  Her lips parted in an 'O'. "Okay. I... But there will be questions Eli."

                "Let's just do it at your house instead." He mumbled and frowned when she froze up and shook her head frantically. "Why no-"

                A knock upon the door cut him off.

               Shit! Enoch?

               "Stay in here and do not come out." He warned and left only when she nodded. Filled with apprehension, he stalked towards the door and opened it slightly. His eyes widened in surprise as he took in who stood at his door.

                  "You."

                    "Hi."

                   He slapped a palm over his face and rubbed it hard. "You're in front of my door." She had to have taken some wrong pills. "Are you high?"

                   "Look Eli, there isn't much time. We need to talk. About that Anna girl." Tokunbo explained stepping closer so she could open the door wide.

               Eli shoved her backwards, stepped outside and closed the door. "Are you crazy? You can't just walk to my house after a year like shit didn't happen."

                 Tokunbo pinched her nose and slid up her glasses. A sheen coated her face. "Now is really not the time Eli. I think she's bad news."

                 "I think you're delusional, if you think I'm going to listen to you." Eli snapped.

                 "Eli-"

                 The door opened behind him and Anna peeked her face. Eli turned to her angrily. "I told you to stay inside!"

                She whimpered. "I just heard loud voices and-"

                 "What is she doing here?!" Tokunbo hissed and Eli couldn't take it anymore.

                  "I could ask you the same thing! Leave this place Tokunbo. I don't know what weird dream you've had that's made you come here and I don't care." He bellowed.

                    The skinny girl remained unmoving. Her back steeled and rigid. What was wrong with her? What did she want?!

                 "I think it's best you talk to her Eli. So she goes." Anna murmured meekily.

                   Tokunbo scoffed. "Cut with the act. You definitely weren't speaking like this yesterday. Or the day you approached me at the library! She's fishy Eli. She's fishy I'm telling you. How well do you even know her Eli? How did you-"

                    "She's my girlfriend!" He fumed. "She's my girlfriend. I know her well, so back off Tokunbo! Back the hell off." 

                 Eli relished the shock that registered on her face. He stepped back, his right hand on the door handle. "Go talk about your fears or whatever to someone who actually wants to listen."

                  "I'm just worried about you."

                He let out an agonizing groan and rushed towards her until they stood eye to eye. She stood before him, staring back with all the fierceness her wiry body could muster. How could she treat him like dirt and still look so freaking righteous?!

                   "Don't lie to me."

                      She chuckled dryly and shook her head. "You like to yourself everyday anyways."

                       "Skinnine!!"

                       Anna hurriedly clasped a hand on his trembling shoulder.

                      "Leave." The Igbo girl stated firmly. "You've said enough. Come when he is more stable."

                     Eli glared at Tokunbo for a full minute before allowing Anna's gentle hands coax him into the house leaving a steaming mad girl on the balcony.
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                  When the lights turned back on, Betty gasped repeatedly like the darkness had held her throat. The place smelled musty, like an old cupboard. She coughed, rising to her knees and tried to look around. Cardboard boxes littered a corner of the room, stacked haphazardly. The floor was dusty and cold.

                   "Keep quiet and we will be gentle." The voice that had rained chills on her at Ugo's party rang in the room. Her eyes settled on the guy that sat on a chair before her. He wore a dark brown hoodie that shadowed his face from hers.

                     "Who... Who are you?" She whimpered, shifting away from him and stumbled into someone behind. She looked back and screamed when she noticed the figures in brown colored hoodies, that surrounded the room. "All of you. Who are all of you?"

                    "Call me Hetch." The male before her replied. "And I will repeat this once. Be calm, and we will be gentle."

                    "C-Calm?! Calm! You abducted me! And you want me to-"

                  She was cut off by sound of  knives against each other. One of the hooded figures across held two in his hands, the shiny metals glistening in the poor lighting. Betty sniffed in fear.

                   "What do you want?! Please, I don't have any money-"

                    "Are you stupid?"  A guy behind her hissed in a gravelly voice and she turned to face him in fear. "Do we look like a bunch of thieves?!"

                   "Quiet." Their seeming leader ordered and leaned forward in his chair. He smelt funny. Perhaps some weird cologne Betty had never heard off. "We have a job for you Elizabeth."

                I am so dead.

                 She tried to make a mental note of the number of people in the room, but her brain was in a frenzy of fear and panic.

                 "What Job? Please, I don't want any job." She begged.

                  The guy chuckled. "You think you have a choice? If you do not do this, bad things will happen Elizabeth. To you. My friend here is really good with those things in his hands."

                    "Ah!" Betty shouted and placed her hands on her head. "Please don't kill me. I'm begging you. Please. I'll do what you want."

                "Oh no no no. I won't kill you Elizabeth." The guy laughed and rose up from the chair.  "It'll be far worse. Death? Pish! Of course not." He chuckled darkly and turned his back to her.

                     "Here's the thing. Ugo has something we want. And we want you to get it."
             
                     "What?" She squeaked.

                   He turned around again and she wondered how he kept angling so she didn't see his face.   "Deets. Elizabeth. Deets.  No one leaves the Skylars that easily without so much as a scratch. But Ugo. Smart Ugo. He has something we need. And you, dear Elizabeth, are going to find it and bring it to us."

                      " What thing? I really can't. Ugo and I are not... we don't talk."

                     "Really now." He kneeled before her, the light luminating a side of his dark chocolate face. She gulped and looked down when his hands brushed her face. "For some reason, Ugo seems to race after you. He has gone long without a weakness. An Achilles heel..."

                    His voice rasped in her ear. "You will find that information Elizabeth. And you will give it to me. And if we aren't clear yet..."

                  He motioned to the one with the knives to step forward. "How about a Demo?"
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                Annoyed and very irritated, Tokunbo tore into the house fiercely. Her hands trembled with the need to crush something. But she whipped at the air frustratedly instead.

                    "He could've just listened for a moment!"

                     He did.

                      "How did he? With that creepy crazy girl hanging around him. Foolish idiotic... Arghhhh!"

                    Breathe.

                  Drawing in deep breaths repeatedly, she lowered herself to a nearby sofa feeling aware of her surroundings. She peeled off her glasses and massaged her eye lids slowly.

                    "What now Rebecca?! This is getting too incessant." Her father's commanding voice reached her ears and opened her eyes. She slipped her glasses on hurriedly.

                     "I am saying the truth. You know this. Timi gets to go out and meet his friends while my daughter wastes away!" Her mother retorted. She groaned and sank into the cushion.

                      "Stop saying that. You know why Tokunbo has to stay away from people."

                     "I know that you had something to do with it Francis. My daughter will not be victims of your ploys! I will not allow it."

                    "Ploys? What are you talking about Rebecca? Look I'm  tired of these games you play."

                     Her mother dragged a long sarcastic hiss. "Don't play dumb with me. I'm not stupid. I know you told that wicked, yeye, therapist to convince my daughter that she is a monster!"

                    If Tokunbo were standing, she would have fallen to the ground in shock. She jolted upright on the sofa, eyes wide as if listening to a foreign tongue. There was silence from her parents room and when her father finally spoke up, it was in a small low voice. One she had never heard him use.

                    "I was trying to protect her Becca. You know what rage does to her. To us. It was my only way."

                  Her mother scoffed. "You tagged your daughter a monster to protect her?  You're sick Francis. She's a fourteen year old. She deserves a normal childhood."

                     "How did you even find out?" Francis murmured evidently frustrated.

                    "I read your text." His wife replied unapologetically, bracing herself for the worst to come.

                     "You snooped through my phone?!" He thundered so loud, Tokunbo rose up from the cushion in fear. 

                  How can mom stand that loudness?

                    Silently she tiptoed to her parent's room and found Timi standing by the open door, covering his face.

                   "Hey" she whispered.

                   He glanced up at her and she reared back at the venom in his eyes, shifting until she was flat against the wall as he stalked towards her.

                   "You always cause problems. Why are you always the reason they fight?! The reason everyone gets mad and angry. It's always you!" He yelled and shoved her in the stomach causing her to double over. "I hate you." He cried and ran off.

                     Too weak to do anything else, she slid to the floor clutching her stomach, willing the tears to stay in the boundaries of her eyes.

                     "...It is my job to protect my children!"

                   Rebecca sniffed. "Well it is mine to make sure my daughter doesn't grow into a sad miserable person who is terrified of herself!"

                  "Becca-"

                   "Will you listen to reason?!" Her mother yelled and for a moment, Tokunbo was stunned. "You're turning her into you. You're avoiding her problems for her. She will never learn to control it Francis."

                     "If she avoids it then she doesn't have to control anything. Look at me Rebecca. In a span of six months, she has attempted murder twice!"

                    Rebecca let out a long frustrated groan. "She's a child with anger issues."

                   "Exactly. She must learn to flee from rage!"

                   A bitter laugh escaped his wife's lips. " You ran all your life, where did that get you? You lived a gloomy life in some mouldy house. Afraid to step outside."

                   "Rebecca!" Francis bit out nastily.

                   "What? You can't stand to remember it? You were a loner. A nobody. You would've died and no one would've given two figs-"

                     "Becca!" A loud slap echoed in the building. A baby's loud cry followed. Tokunbo launched to her feet and peered, frightened, into the room.

                  Her father towered above his wife, his hands extended from his side, trembling in the air. Her mother's big brown eyes shone with tears as she walked towards the baby cot, a hand print on the right side of her cheek.

                 "B...Becca!" He yelled again, his body shaking with anger and disgust at himself. He whipped around and spotted his daughter at the door looking scared. Sad. Sorry. He marched towards her and winced in pain when his Tokunbo took rapid steps back. She screamed when he grabbed her puny arms and dragged her towards her mother.

                     "You see it?!" He bellowed pointing to his wife's face. "That's what happens. Rage is fire and it consumes and tear us apart Tokun! I did what I had to do. I did it to save you from regretting too much."

                       She nodded frantically, trying to pacify him more than she needed to pacify herself. Her father was never wrong. He always did understood her better.

                     "You let it slip," he held his thumb and pointy finger together, "just a little and it gives you memories that will never leave you!" And like that, breathing furiously, he stormed out of the house.

                  ...memories that will never leave you...

                  She could see Andrew lying on the bed again. Cold. Helpless. Haunting. The memory sank in, birthed seeds, scattered over every inch and crook of her brain, constantly reminding her of who she was.

              A monster.
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This chapter has got to be the lengthiest I've written.

What are your thoughts on the story so far?