"God be with you till we meet again
Till we mee-ee-eeet
Till we mee-ee-eeet
God be with you till we meet again
Till we meeet...."

The voices rang out in the night. Beautiful voices, voices filled with grief. The young girls of Amaife were at the front of the group. Marching slowly and singing, their candles seemed to burn the brightest. Some of them had framed photographs of their friends; the deceased girls of Amaife. It was troubling...the photographs were many.
Amara held Ezinne's framed photograph but she didn't hold it out like the rest, instead she held it to her chest. She didn't hold any candle as her two hands gripped the photograph. Her eyes had a distant look and her lips moved softly as she sang.
One of the girls held up a picture; heart wrenching it was. The pretty girl in the picture had to be Ozioma, she had a bright smile, radiant face that seemed to shine even in the night with just the soft glow of the candles (as the moon had remained under covers)
She had her arms round a smiling elderly woman. That had to be mama Ozioma. Mother and daughter, so beautifull, so alike.
Both of them had been killed by the same monster. Abused by the same monster.
The picture seemed to hunt Osi as he stared from the road side watching the procession.
Each person had a burning candle in his/her hand, a sorrowful but comforting song on the lips and a tearful eye.
Emotions rocked Osi as he watched the villagers; sadness, anger, regret (regretting the birth of the killer) guilt (there has to be something he could have done to prevent this...
Apparently he wasn't the only one going through these feelings.
"Whoever did this is a bastard" Ovie muttered beside him.
"Bastard is a kind word in this case" Osi replied.
Bukky sighed "I can't even caution you pastor...this is too heartbreaking"
They joined the crowd, following at a distance after the last person had past.
"Pastor you need to stop blaming yourself" Ovie said after a while.
"I'm not blaming myself" Osi replied but he was. If only he had been more conscious when Oluchi had first told him Ezinne had given her the letter. If only he had been faster. If only....
"Pastor..." Gregory caught up to them walking fast and breathing hard. "Pastor the deacon is at the house, he came back...he and Samuel arrived about ten minutes ago"
Osi nodded. He could guess the reverend had given the deacon more than a slap on the wrist and sent him back. To tell the truth he wished the deacon hadn't come back. The man was a sower of discord.
"He seems to be in a very bad mood" Gregory commented as he settled beside Osi, matching the walking rhythm.
"It would take a very special kind of grace for me to deal with his rubbish this time around" Osi replied tiredly.
"I agree, grace indeed"

.·.·.·.·.·
After walking round the village twice the villagers converged at the market square. The candles had all burnt halfway by now and a slight breeze threatened to blow out all of them.
They formed some kind of circle, circling pastor Batholomew and Pa Kenneth.
"My people, it is times like this that we need to hold on to our fate more than ever..." Pa Kenneth started his speech with a low voice. He could barely be heard and for the first time, he looked and sounded really old. The past couple of weeks seemed to have added a decade to his real age.
The candles were almost at its end when he finished his speech and by that time the sounds of hands striking the legs and arms against the bloodthirsty mosquitoes had almost drowned his voice totally.
Pastor Bartholomew took the stage.
"You see this is the time we need to hold on to our faith the most, the devil doesn't want us to have our crusade...my friends from PortHarcourt are here because God wants to use them to bless us, to use them to speak to us, to use them to direct us in the midst of our present crises...but you see the devil doesn't want us to focus but my brethren, now more than ever we need to set our eyes on the most high....not on the bitterness, not on the pain...not on the heartbreak..No, we set our eyes on him....let us pray"

.·.·.·.·.·
"I'm sorry about Ezinne...I know how close you people were" Paul located Oluchi and Amara. He glanced at the framed picture still in Amara's arms.
"Paul (sniff) where you the one outside the gate today?" Oluchi asked. She hadn't been able to stop crying.
"Outside the gate...when?"
"Earlier today" Amara spoke up for the first time. She had a strange look in her eyes, an accusing look. She could vividly remember how he had grabbed her the other day and suddenly she was extremely suspicious of Paul.
"No...I've not even come home since I left in the morning" he replied with a somewhat shaky voice.
"Where did you go?" Amara countered before he could talk.
"Errm..I went to tidy up something.." he said unable to look her in the eye.
"Just what exactly?" She pressed but her younger sister tugged her from behind.
"Amara let's go...Dé Nwachukwu is waiting for us"

.·.·.·.·.·
Osi didn't eat(no appetite) and now he couldn't sleep. He was back in the parlour thanks to the deacon's arrival and as he lay stretched on the couch he cracked his brain...there was something he was missing...he was sure of it, something important.
The letter was the key...he could feel it.
He made up his mind to pay Stevenson a visit the next day.