SACRED_OATHS

Author: Samuel Frederick

Episode 24: ESCAPE.

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Three days.

Three days of torture-merciless beatings, starvation and unending trials-weakened me severely. I became bony and pale beyond recognition, adding to the bruises and wounds all over my skin. I'd become a nightmare to behold in just three days.

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Splash!

I felt a splash of water surging through my entire body, bringing me back to life.

"Wake up, idiot," a voice yelled fiercely beside me. I opened my eyes slowly to see Big Tiny towering before me, holding a bucket in his hands.

I was still in my sitting position, with my hands and legs tied, and my mouth sealed. I looked around and noticed that we were both alone in the room, meaning that I was in grave danger in his care.

"Wetin you dey look?" Big Tiny yelled loudly. I tried to say something, but my voice croaked up.

"You wan talk?" He asked. I nodded in the affirmative.

He moved towards me and stood behind the chair, unwrapping the piece of dirty cloth off of my mouth. I gasped and breathed in as much air as I could once it came loose.

"Water, please." I begged weakly. "I am thirsty."

"You wan drink water?" He asked harshly.

I nodded again. "Yes, please."

"Take water!" He said and behold, I felt the cold water travelling down my whole body for the second time. He had poured it on me.

"Idiot!" He cussed and raised a hand to hit me, but then he stopped. I noticed him looking in-between my thighs in disgust.

"Wetin be that?" He asked, pointing there. I looked down at my thighs and saw blood trickling down slowly. Surprisingly, I was on my period. It'd come faster than I expected.

He waited for an answer, still glaring at me in disgust as I looked back at him too. Then all of a sudden, he spat out thick saliva and acted like he was about to vomit, and then he dashed out of the room, locking the door behind.

Shortly after, the door creaked and opened and another figure walked in. The figure held a tray containing a stainless steel plate, bottled water, a handkerchief and a tissue.

He pulled an empty chair close to me and sat on it, placing the tray on his laps. He then rolled out some tissue paper and reached for my thighs with it.

"Stop it!" I shouted at him. "What do you think you're doing?"

He paid no attention to me and extended his hand further.

"I said stop it!" I shouted again, shutting my legs. "I mean it!"

"Aunty, behave yourself." He simply said, way too calmly. "Stop resisting. I'm only here to help."

I watched how he scrubbed the chair with the tissue paper, as though he wasn't fazed by the sight of blood. He wasn't the same person I knew anymore. He wasn't the same kid I knew some days back. He wasn't the same innocent, helpless boy I thought he was.

He was something else now! Something different entirely, with a stone-cold face that deserved no place in the life of someone his age. I wondered what made him choose this path.

"What's your name?" I whispered to him, but he ignored me.

"Do you have parents?" I asked again.

He ignored me, still.

"What about your mother?" I pushed on. This time around, he raised his head with an expressionless face, staring coldly at me.

"Aunty, shut up! Don't put me in trouble." He warned quietly, almost in a whisper.

I ignored his offensive remark and continued: "Were you forced to do this? To live this life?"

With that, he faced me, angrily.

"What is your business with my life?" Although he whispered to me, the tone of his voice still made it sound like he'd shouted.

"I want to help you," I whispered calmly, trying my best to establish a bond with him, "believe me."

He laughed quietly to his heart's content, peering at me as he did so.

"Look at you! Your hands are tied, your legs are strapped, your body is decorated with bruises and wounds, your skin is pale, and you look sick to death. Yet, you want to help me? Why not help yourself first?" He mocked me with finality.

"I can help you." I persisted.

"What possible help can you render to me?"

"Do you have a family?" I asked, neglecting his mockery.

Immediately I said that, his countenance changed.

"Don't you ever mention my family again! Ever!" He raved, bitterness and pain evident in his voice. "I don't have a family! I hate them!"

I was shocked at the gravity of his words.

"Why? Why do you hate them?" I tried to maintain my calmness, in order not to provoke him.

"I lost my father..." He said, feeling hesitant to discuss anything personal with me.

"Go on, please?" I urged him on.

"I lost my father, and-" he continued, "-I became an orphan overnight. He was the only one who cared for me, who fended well for me. And he just died!" He paused again, and then went on: "I hate my step-mother with passion. I've never actually liked her. She's the reason I turned out this way. She poisoned my father and killed him, and I would have been next if I wasn't wise enough to run away."

"I understand how you feel," I tried to console him, "but this is not the way forward."

"Do you know how much I suffered before these people picked me up from the gutters? From the bloody streets?" He questioned. "Do you know how much I begged?"

"I understand you, but-"

"You don't understand anything!" He interrupted me angrily. "Stop pretending!"

"I truly understand you." I assured him wholeheartedly. "I know what it feels like to lose someone you love. I also lost my mother to the cruel hands of death, and right now, as we speak, my father lies on a hospital bed, probably dying deep inside with the thought that his daughter has been missing for three days straight now." I paused, feeling my eyes becoming teary.

The teenage boy retained utter silence, having no readable facial expression.

"You need to help me, please." I begged.

"So that when I do, you would eventually come back with tons of police officers to arrest us, isn't it?"

"No! Never! I swear on my life, I honestly don't harbor such thoughts for revenge. If you help me, we could both escape together. We could leave this place, you could start afresh; start a new phase of your life all over again. Think about it!" I tried to convince him.

He looked at me as if he was about to say something, but then we heard footsteps outside coming towards the door, and then it opened. Big Tiny and some guys walked into the room. Big Tiny stood at a distance with a frown in place, observing me and the boy who already pretended to be focused on his errand, while I bowed my head out of cooperation.

"I heard voices now! Na who dey talk, Emeka?" He raised his voice fiercely.

I was wondering who he was referring to until the boy beside me turned around and walked up to him. I realized the boy's name was Emeka.

"Nobody at all o, Bros T!" Emeka countered in our defense.

"You mean sey I deaf?" Big Tiny yelled again, fuming. "You dey mad?"

"Bros I swear, nobody talked between us!" Yet again, Emeka defended us. "I'm serious."

The next thing we knew, a heavy, unexpected slap landed on the boy's face.

"Na me you dey raise voice for?" Big Tiny fumed, holding onto the boy's collar. He clenched his fist and raised it up, about to punch him hard but a colleague stopped him.

"Guy leave am!" His colleague pleaded and withdrew the boy from Big Tiny's grasp. He manhandled the boy toward the door, got there, opened it and pushed him out.

After that, they both turned around and faced me.

"You still dey bleed?" Big Tiny asked. It sounded rhetorically stupid. I didn't have to answer that.

"Are you deaf?" He asked again, clenching his fists as he approached me. His colleague quickly intervened and pulled him back.

"Guy calm down na." His colleague pleaded on my behalf, holding him firmly. "This girl is bleeding. She doesn't need this. Make we just leave am until Senator go land tomorrow, then we go see wetin go happen." He reasoned. Big Tiny concurred with him and unclenched his fists.

"I'll make sure you die here. You think sey you stubborn! I'll show you hell!" He threatened and moved behind me to gag me again. Afterward, he left with his guys, locking the door from behind.

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Seconds ticked to minutes, minutes ticked to hours, and hours upon hours soon turned to night-time. The day passed slowly and time literally crawled like an injured tortoise.

I'd lost all hope of ever leaving this hell hole I'd gotten myself into. It was unfortunate that I had to leave this way; to die a cold, pointless death all alone.

However, I'd accepted my fate and prepared myself for the worst. I thought about my family. I thought about my sister. I remembered my father. I remembered Boma.

What would he be doing now? I wondered. Perhaps, drinking himself to stupor, thinking about me? Or probably living his life like we never happened, as though we never met each other, like I never existed to him? I gave that a thought as well.

In the process of my thinking, I heard footsteps approaching the door, so I quickly pretended to be asleep while the door creaked and opened very quietly and a figure sneaked into the room, tiptoeing towards me.

"Aunty?" The figure whispered, pointing a torch at my face. I raised my head instantly, having recognized his voice.

"Emeka?" I whispered back, surprised.

"I thought about what you said, aunty. You were right. Let's get out of here!"

I couldn't believe my ears.

I watched as he got behind me and loosened the ropes on my hands and legs, and then untied the piece of cloth from my mouth.

"Aunty we have to be very careful!" He warned quietly, with a very serious facial expression. I nodded.

"I will lead the way and you will follow behind me. When we get out of the room there's a guy sleeping on duty who is supposed to keep watch, but I've drugged his drink already, so we'll have to tip-toe across him," he explained. "Do you understand?"

I nodded affirmatively.

"Now let's go!" Emeka said. He held my hand and led me to the door, and we both went out.

Just as informed, there was a guy sleeping just beside the door with a machete in his hands. We tip-toed past him and proceeded to a corner, where we then took another corner leading to the exit.

"Stop there!" A husky voice screamed at us from nowhere. "Hey!"

Immediately, Emeka tightened his grip on my hand and dragged me with force toward the door. He kicked it open and we started running in the middle of the night.

We ran as fast as our legs could take us. We ran without looking back, like our lives depended on it.

It undoubtedly did.

All of a sudden, we heard a gunshot...

Suddenly, Emeka screamed...

Almost immediately, I looked back and saw him fall right to the ground, panting heavily. He'd just been shot in the neck, bleeding profusely.

I screamed out loud and continued running as fast as my legs could carry me, straight into the pitch-black night.