His hulk muscular self towered over me, eyes piercing straight into my soul. The only thing on my mind was to flee. But that thought seemed to come a second too late because my oppressor had thought of everything thing before my mind could even fathom it.

From his mouth came a mind numbing laughter that shot terror into my soul. All the horror movies I'd watched didn't even come close to the beast standing above me.

"Femi!" It hissed, snarling.

I shudded. My brain froze for a minute, forcing a thought to cross my mind in the same instance. "He even knows my name".

I willed my legs to move, the response to that action was the sound of rattling chains. It gripped my two legs and held me in place, keeping me just where my tormentor wanted me.

"Fe.....mi!" It's voice rang out like a thousand bells, forcing the depths of nature to respond.

"Let me go, please!" I begged.

Another set of laughter rang out into the cold night which was thicker than darkness itself. My bones, nerves and skin trembled beyond control. I felt I was going to melt any moment.

"You dare war against me?" It howled, pushing its masked face towards me.

"Please!" My hands went up in the air, shaking nervously. "Please, let me go!"

It's frame moved closer, dressed in all black armour of war. A thick long cross stayed on its right hand while the other housed a bloody long spear. If not that I was yet to feel pain on my body, I would have thought the blood came from me.

As it continued to stare at me from its hidden mask, I knew it was time to plead for mercy, even when I hadn't even done anything wrong.

"You want the church!" It dead panned.

My head moved allover the place, intentionally missing the spot here he stood. "I...I....don't understand."

A loud growl followed my answer, then, it stilled and pointed the cross at me. "Salvation? Or Judgement?" The cross simultaneously swapped places with the spear as it viciously taunted me.

"No, no, please." I tried backing away as the tip of the sword collided with my forehead.

"Those who dare me end up in sorrow!" It's mask gently came off and on his face was the face I never expected. I just couldn't believe it.

"Adrian!" I screamed.

"Yes, it's me. Don't say you were not warned!" And with that it vanished.

~ ~ ~

I woke up with a start, my whole pillow wet with sweat. Thank God, Nara's wasn't anywhere close or this would have turned into family court. Slowly, I sat up and check the time, it was 2am.

The sheer horror from that dream numbed me to silence. The only thing that moved was my nervous limbs.

Regardless of the fear that sat in my stomach, I pushed myself to my office. Morning heat was beginning to gradually take over the atmosphere, signaling a very hot day ahead.

My schedule mirrored a busy day. Over fifty deliveries to make. I intentionally pushed the dream to the back of my mind and focused on the hustle of the day.

The loud ringing of my phone forced me grab it from the table where it was being charged. "Good morning." A faint voice came on, barely audible.

I knew right away it was Bolaji on the other end. I had been waiting for days to get a call from his fat head, yet no show. Words were forming rapidly in my brain, I wanted to unleash all my bottled up anger on him. The memory of how he walked out on the other day was still fresh in my mind.

"Have you thought of what I told you?" He asked, pushing me to delve into something I didn't want to speak about.

"What thing?" I barked. I was crossing the line of full blown anger by the second.

"About Adrian, you need to let this matter go." He was quite easy on the phone.

I hissed and stayed calm. There was no reason to go off on him, since I still needed him.

"Adrian is beyond our reach." A tone of warning was evident in his voice.

"Hey, hey! Calm down! We haven't even started, yet you're chickening out?" I was confused at my partners reluctance to follow up with the mission.

"Listen Boss, this guy is bigger than you can imagine." A pang of fear came through the pitch in his voice.

"What do you mean? We are a full team. We are not going to be afraid of one lousy man." I scoffed. My disdain for Adrian blasted like the light of day.

"You really don't know what you are messing with." His loud breaths filled my hearing. "I repeat, he's bigger than he is. Bigger than Baba Tolu! And as for me, I'm out!" Before I could interject, he'd already hung up.

Confused, I stared at the phone, bewildered.

Again, months passed and Bolaji didn't contact me again. After his last shocking message, I had hoped he would call back and explain his sudden change of plans.

My fear and suspicion centered on how Adrian almost strangled me the last time I was in his office, followed by that horrific dream. I should be scared, but I was not. My heart was centered on one thing, the money or nothing.

So I decided to give Bolaji time, maybe, he would see reasons and come back to the negotiation table.

And if his cover was blown, then I feared earnestly for his life. Although, Bolaji wasn't one to bail out on a fight, no matter how deadly, so I still had hope.

Daily, I waited patiently, hoping he would call back. A broader information was all I needed than the cherry picked one he gave the last time. I stole another glance at my phone, it just sat there, staring back at me.

Customers streamed in and out, businesses was booming, I was making money, but Adrian was glued to my thoughts.

Intentionally, I pushed Bolaji's case to the back of my mind and focused on my business. Everything had it's own time and place.

A man standing across me was busy on his phone, while writing something down on a piece of paper. I looked past him to see the long line of people behind him. Patiently, I waited for him to finish his unending conversation, but he kept stringing it along.

"Sir, could you please stand to the corner over there? As you can see, there's a long line of people."

He hissed, ignoring me. I pleaded again in my nicest non-ghetto voice.

Silence followed before he finally spoke. "Do as you are told, for upon you I will build my church! His gaze rose to stare at me dead in the eye.

I whimpered away from the table, shivering at his presence. Slowly he turned around and walked away. Perplexed, I handed over all other customer related transactions to my sales boy and ran into my office.

The people's business lasted another hour twenty-five minutes. I returned back into the room and helped Mario attend to everyone before taking A seat in the open hall where customers sat.

When traffic lessened, I strolled out to see if there were any traces of the man who just frightened me, but nothing came out of my search.

A hand tapped me from behind. On reflex, I turned to deliver a gut wrenching blow to my interceptor, the person flinched away from me.

"Don't hit! Oga. It's me." Mario screamed nervously with his hands raised. "Someone asked me to give you this."

He handed a piece of paper to me. I snatched it from him and almost tore it in the process. It read.....

"Don't fight a battle you can't start. Your calling, you must fulfill!

Red sticky substance splashed over it. I assumed it to be blood. Terrified, I immediately dropped it.

Weird chorused laughter rang out in my head, yet I felt it all around me. My body in cohorts with my head danced around in search of the people who laughed, but I saw no one.

I wiped my eyes and staggered to the closest wedge. The boy who had delivered the message, began to make his way towards me, concern written on his face.

"Oga, are you okay? Did someone die?" He asked, picking up the piece of paper from the floor and bringing it closer to me.

"Don't! Don't bring that evil thing close." I rebuked him, my finger pointing anxiously at the paper in his hand. Whatever was operational on that note took over my mind.

'Take the paper from him or are you afraid?' More invisible echoed voices asked. Then, they broke into another head exploding laughter.

I held my head, my eyes shut, my breathing heavy. The pain of the loud noise in my head now blazing through my entire being.

I became nauseous. Slowly, I crawled on my knees. And began to vomit. Whether this was psychological or spiritual, I couldn't tell.

"Water, get me water!" I yelled at who ever cared to listen. A cup of water landed on my head, giving me a good splash.

I heaved a sigh of relief. My trembling body tuned into the calm that had taken over my mind. I opened my eyes, and over a dozen eyes stared back at me.

"Jesus! Oluwa o! Blood of Jesus! I rebuke you, I bind and cast you ......."

"Femi?" A voice called. "What's going on?"

I looked up to see my wife, Nara. Her evil eyes burned into mine without mercy.

Quickly, I sat up, still staring at her judgmental eyes. Other eyes had withdrawn their eye balls from me, but still peeped from the corner. If only I had magical powers, I would have helped them shut it.

Someone must have given her a call because, Nara's shop was the last on that street, a good ten minute walk. There was no way she could have gotten here that fast.

"Oh, Its nothing, I just felt a little tipsy." I lied, realizing almost immediately, I had choosen the wrong choice of words to define my situation. But trust Nara, she didn't disappoint.

She stood there with her hands akimbo and an intrusive gaze. "Really? Like seriously?" She smirked. "So, after lecturing you about not drinking at work, you came here to embarrass us?"

She paused dashing her eyes around, her voice a whisper. "You still didn't listen!"

I tried to speak, but she was having none of it. Her face had come closer to mine, searching.

Confused, I stared back at her judge and jury eyes. "Nara, Honestly, I didn't drink, and I haven't had any alcoholic drink in a while, even you know that."

"Then why are you laying in your own vomit.?" Her fingers pointed at the puddle of gooey stuff splattered on the floor.

My eyes followed her fingers and what I saw made me want to vomit again.

"Try it!" She howled. "I said try it again!....hmmmm.. If you dare vomit one more time, I swear to Jesus the one and only son of God, I will make sure you eat it! Nonsense!"

My shoulders slumped in defeat as I watched her walk away.

Multiple people still had their eyes on me. I sat back there like a helpless creature.

Mario, on seeing the events of the day play out badly against me, went into action. In seconds, he had a mop and a clean bucket of water. He handed me water to rinse my mouth and wash my face, then, he wiped everywhere clean, disinfecting it with bleach.

I was so grateful that I had him by my side. To think that I had disparaged him, called him names, yet he took care of me even when my own wife couldn't.