Aluu Killing: “Goodbye
pain” – A moving tribute
to slain students. Goodnight Pain. “Thieves, thieves” he
screamed, it was almost
funny. Not until more voices
joined the chorus as they
screamed and shouted on us.
We could have ran at least to save our lives, but our
intentions were genuine and
little did we know how the
day would end. From a
handful of young men
shouting and throwing questions at us, it escalated to
a crowd of angry mob. There was no way we could
escape this one, so we calmed
down. They pushed us around
and then stripped us all. These
men pulled us pants down,
we were more than embarrassed, the whole
community watched, I
recognized few faces from the
crowd. Obviously they were
so afraid to say “stop” then
the beating started, I wished it to be just a nightmare. But
it was real, these men were
determined. They dropped
heavy rocks on our heads,
they pounded our faces with
large planks, blood covered our eyes, they matched and
kicked us right on our
bleeding nostrils, we couldn’t
breathe. “Bring tire” one of the men
repeated, until they brought
the tires. “Oh God!” We
watched the crowd watch us,
we raised hands of plea, we
couldn’t speak, Some hid, some shot videos and took
pictures. there was no one to
stop this. This was the point
we knew it was over. We felt
pain, helpless and hopeless. I
thought of my siblings, I wondered how my mum
would take this. She would
fall apart. I begged God to
hold her for me, comfort and
make her strong for me, I
prayed same for my friends. Then we started crying, we
cried together. The tears gave
us headaches. We looked up
high, the sky was still. Rings
of tires landed on our necks,
they kept hitting us, but we were numb already. They set
us ablaze. We rolled around,
tried to reach for each other, I
wondered who would give
up first, the fire burned our
bodies. it hurt, it hurt and then it hurt. But suddenly the
pain stopped, Then I couldn’t
hear any other thing, but
silence. I thanked God. the
pain was over and Gods glory
was revealed. Goodnight pain.