The guard opened the cell gate. And walked her through the lobby. She smiled at Lucy, the girl who occupied the next cell to hers. She was holding her cell gate tightly, and looking at Tonia with fear. Almost all the inmates had been doing that since the execution day had been announced.
Lucy was 22 years old, and got her death sentence a year ago. News around the row had it that she murdered her father, because he wouldn't stop abusing her. It had been happening since Lucy was ten and she lost her mother. He defiled her and never stopped having carnal knowledge of her until she turned 20 and couldn't take it anymore.
That night, he had crept into her room as usual. Lucy expected it, and was battle-ready for him. She knew it would take the usual turn. He would sneak into her room after midnight, quietly open the door, since he had warned her never to lock herself up in the room. He would enter, locking the door without the slightest sound so as not to wake her younger brother. He would stay for a few seconds to make his eyes adjust to the darkness, then make out her shape on the bed. That had always been the pattern.
As expected, he came in that way, sat on her bed, raised the wrapper from her legs and starting caressing them. She awoke. Silently she laid still on the bed. She had promised herself never to fight him off again, since the day she tried it and he beat the living hell out of her. She resolved to lay still and let him have his way.
He continued stroking her legs, and moved to her thighs. Out of habit, he pinched her, because it always annoyed him whenever he was with her and she showed no emotions. Still she didn't move. He lifted her, removed her nightgown, and proceeded to get out of his own briefs. Then he mounted her, and filled her to the hilt in one swift movement. He rode hard, deep, and fast. Though tears streamed down her face, she held her sobs. It was going to be the last night, she would endure it. After about three minutes, he groaned loudly, and poured into her. He remained in that position for another two minutes before rolling off her. He collapsed on the bed, arms outstretched and eyes tightly shut. He was quite relaxed. That was when Lucy struck.
The icebreaker had been under her bed for three weeks, but the courage to make use of it never came. That night however, the abuse and shame she had endured for ten years gave her the strength, and the hatred she had for her father, preceded by the rage burning inside her, led her hand under the bed. She grabbed the icebreaker, turned her head in the direction of her father, who was still savouring his post-climax moment, held the icebreaker with two hands, raised it high above her head, and rammed it in her father's chest. She removed it, and stabbed him over and over again, not minding his screams and the knock at her door. Her brother was pleading to be let in. She made sure he made no sound again before she stopped stabbing him. Blood gushed out of his stomach and chest. Her bed was a mess. Blood was on her face, her hands, her body.
She got off the bed, placed the icebreaker on her night-stand, and grabbed her mobile phone with the bloodied hand. She called the police.

* * *

Tonia smiled at Lucy, who looked so pale, like she was the one who would be executed in a week. Before unlocking the main gate to the cell, the guard had her handcuffed. He led her towards the room where the doctor waited. She sat on the only wooden chair in the room, and faced the doctor whose face was separated from hers only by a 3-inch thick glass with a small opening where files can be passed.
He asked the same questions they always asked. Was she having trouble sleeping? What was her temperature like? Any headache? Stomach ache? Had she been excreting well? Tonia smiled. Suddenly the state had started caring about her. A doctor who had never visited her in all the eight years she had been on the row was now fussing over her. After all the questions, he concluded she was healthy enough to be killed. So the state could go ahead and hang her. The doctor left.
She knocked for the guard to come and take her back to her cell, but to her surprise, someone else came in, her lawyer. She wasn't expecting him that day. She had exhausted her appeals, left to her, nothing could be done anymore. She had an appointment with the hangman in a week.
Tony sat watching her. His perspiration made him a shade darker. He had removed his jacket, exposing his white shirt which had brown stains around the collar. He loosened his tie, rolled up his shirt sleeves, and drew an inch closer to the glass separating them. From the look on his face, Tonia knew something serious had brought him. But what could it be?

* * *

She had known Tony since she was 20. Then she was in her final year in the University. She should be writing her final exams, but the student union government had an issue with the school management, which resulted in the students being sent home. The strike, as it was called then, had lasted for four months.
That afternoon they met, she was on her way home from church, where she went for Catechism class. Tonia was a Catholic by birth, and she had her infant baptism when she was eighteen months old. She was named Anthonia. She had already started receiving the the holy communion, but she had to be confirmed, which required attending the catechism class again. The church was a stone's throw from the estate where she lived with her parents, and she was already close to the house when she heard a voice behind her.'Hello, good evening',
Tonia had replied 'good evening'. 'Glory to Jesus', he had said. Tonia smiled and replied, 'honour to Mary'. Obviously he had noticed the scapula on her neck, and the rosary she was holding.
'Are you a Catholic' she asked, 'I used to be', he replied.
'Hmmmmm, used to be. What made you leave, lemme guess,you left when you saw the light right?'
To that, he smiled and replied 'yes'
Tonia smiled and said 'I thought as much, that's what you people always say'.
That was how they became friends. He told her he was a youth corps member, serving in Ede, Osun state, but he had relocated to Ogun state because he got a job he would love to keep after his youth service there, so he was shuttling between Osun and Ogun states. He told her he was a lawyer and assisting in a certain SAN's office, though the salary was meagre, it was picking his bills. She on the other hand told him she was a student in her finals, and was home because her school was on strike.
He told Tonia he stayed on that same road in the estate. And he pointed to his house, which was not too far from hers.
The following week, Tonia visited him in his house. He occupied one room in a three-bedroom flat he shared with a certain bank manager. The room was sparsely furnished, with just a mattress on the linoleum floor, with a transistor radio which served as the only sound system in the room. She stayed for about an hour before she left, by then, they had established a good friendship, which would later become a relationship that lasted for more than two years.
They started dating two months after they met, though Tonia hadn't wanted to go into the relationship then, because of the experience she had with her first love, Femi. Femi had stayed on that same road in the estate, and the way they met had been similar to how she met Tony. If asked, she would say Femi didn't entirely represent pain and sadness, but she wouldn't wanna date anybody in the estate again, she was avoiding the sense of deja vu it might bring into her new relationship with someone else in the estate.
However, Tony succeeded in talking her into a relationship with him. They liked each other very much, though Tony was the one who loved most in the relationship, yet he would never say it. He finished youth service and continued working for the chamber he had been when they met. She graduated and started working for her uncle who was a politician while waiting for youth service. They were well known in their respective offices, since both offices were so close, as well as in the estate too. Whenever he went to court, he would be back in her office, he would only leave if he had a client and his secretary called him. He was so jealous and protective of her. He wouldn't let any man come near her, and he practically chased all her suitors away. He created an awareness of her non-availability, which annoyed her most times, but she kept her cool, knowing she was with someone already.
He loved scrabble, and when they were not discussing, eating, or making love, definitely they would be playing scrabble. He always told her 'I don't want you to just know how to play, am preparing you for a tournament, go to the NYSC camp and dazzle them, you have to play for your platoon'.
He expected him to propose before she went for youth service, if not for anything, at least to seal their relationship and for her to know that there was someone back home waiting for her, but he never did. She was to find out years later that he had based their love on assumptions. He had expected her to know what he never said. He had expected her to believe the love he never professed.
Posting letters were out, and she was posted to Delta State. She went to camp, had fun but never dated. She actually wanted to play scrabble for her platoon but the game was struck out at the last minute. She got posted to a village school to teach English language. All the while, communications between Tonia and Tony had weakened. She was so preoccupied that she no longer had time to call or send him texts, what with her assumptions that he might be cheating on her back home, since he didn't make any effort to seal the relationship. As far as she was concerned, their relationship was all about sex and scrabble, though they liked each other.
The foundation of their separation was her youth service, coupled with the fact that she never lived in Ogun state again after she passed out. She had her postgraduate studies and later worked in Lagos, which caused a permanent break up between them.
In spite of all that, Tony never stopped being her friend. Social network kept them together. They communicated almost everyday, even when he knew she had started seeing someone else.
Sitting there and looking into Tony's eyes, she remembered he confessed to her, few months before she stabbed Timi, that he had never loved any other woman like he loved her. He said it when she asked why he hadn't gotten married, as comfortable as he was, because then he had started having big clients, he was handling big cases. He rode the latest Toyota Camry, and lived very comfortably. He made her understand he wouldn't mind if she came back, and that he still loved her so much. She had waved it off then, since she was so beclouded by Timi's love that she couldn't imagine herself going back to Tony.
When he heard about the murder she committed, he had been devastated. Without anyone contacting him, he had offered to take up the case, without charging Tonia's family a dime. When they were still dating, her father had known him to be a good friend of Tonia's, even her mum knew him well. He would always drive down to their house in the evenings, with his scrabble board, they would play, chat and have drinks. What her parents never knew was that they dated.
He had tried so many tricks to get her an execution stay, or to reduce her sentence to life imprisonment, all efforts had been in vain. He had even appealed the judgment to the extent of reducing himself to a nuisance in courtrooms, all for a pro bono. Eight years after her sentence, and a week before her execution, he was still with her, he had never left her.

* * *

'Tonia' he called, making her jump from her thoughts. She raised her head and looked at him.
'The execution might not take place' he said.
'What?' She exclaimed
Coolly, he said, 'according to your witnesses, you have a psychological problem, it's been established. You have been abused, you have been heartbroken, you have phobia for being let down. Timi was your last trial to see if it would ever work out with a man. You couldn't stand him breaking your heart again, you would die. That night you killed him, something snapped in your brain, and you didn't know what happened. We are trying to reduce it to manslaughter, claiming it wasn't premeditated. The only bone of contention is the knife. The prosecution claims you had it on you before you got to the joint, but no one can establish that fact. I made efforts to get hold of your statement when the murder happened. I read through it, and you never for once said you had the knife on you, you were not asked. All they wanted to know was who killed him, which you admitted to. Between you and I, you had the knife on you, and you always knew you would kill him that night. But for our case, Tonia, on that night you killed Timi, you had no knife on you, the knife was on the floor where you held and kissed him, your eyes darted towards it, and you didn't know when you grabbed it and killed him. Try switching on ur tv 10am tomorrow, I know you've not been watching it. Your witnesses will be in court tomorrow, they will take the stand, defending you, claiming you are a knife freak, claiming you are a needy, cry baby. They will demean you, they will destroy your sanity, but in all, they really want to help. Wish us luck'
With that, he stood up and left.
'Oh my Goooooooooddddddddddd', dumbfounded Tonia let out.

(To be continued. . .)

I'll read later

pls more post,am waiting:............

I automatically followed your thread without commenting. Don't mind that dude that said the update is very long, if only he read it.

Whether you be guy or babe, I'm feeling you.

pls i really need to ask,is this story a true life story?

Preshnenye: pls i really need to ask,is this story a true life story?

real life story dey get part two.

Foxy_Ultimate: I automatically followed your thread without commenting. Don't mind that dude that said the update is very long, if only he read it.

Whether you be guy or babe, I'm feeling you.

bros na babe she be na! Abi why dem put f after her name?

annebaby,more grease to ur elbow my dear.anywia u write de go.i go de follow follow u

Thanks so much peepz. Am a lady, plus, the story is not entirely real, at least the stabbing and the death row parts are not true, though I got the inspiration from what personally happened to me. The 3rd episode will be updated shortly.kindly read and comment, plus, am very open to criticism. Ur kinda pple tell me I shouldn't break my pen yet,am glad u are loving it.

anneabidemi: Thanks so much peepz. Am a lady, plus, the story is not entirely real, at least the stabbing and the death row parts are not true, though I got the inspiration from what personally happened to me. The 3rd episode will be updated shortly.kindly read and comment, plus, am very open to criticism. Ur kinda pple tell me I shouldn't break my pen yet,am glad u are loving it.

wat happened to you ke,dont tell me your old man was................

Nah,not my old man at all. I told u the murder and the death row parts are not real, but most of the plot and conversations actually happened, and they are so real. I posted a link for the 3rd episode buh I just discovered it's been hidden. Pls would u follow it here, I can't post it on NL cos of its length, all comments can be dropped here. Thanks so much.

http://www.anne-abidemi..com/2013/04/a-birthday-to-remember-3_14.html?m=1

nice one. #following

Foxy_Ultimate: This is always the problem I have the all this Nairaland writers.. The moment you start writing and you get one or two comments, you refer us immediately to your blog. Abeg, if you no go post the remaining one, forget.

1million likes

I don't think that's her reason. no one wants to do the hard work of posting and then have spambot hide it. she already said its too long. If she gives me the permission, i can post it here for her in bits.

Hmmmmm. . .only God knows how I ll respond to this attack without offending someone. When I posted that link, I made it clear that I would have posted it here, if not for the fact that it was too long. I had a plan of breaking my story into four episodes,if I shd split it cos of nairaland, then the suspense would be lost,and it ll also alter the planned number of episodes. I don't make money from my blog, and I even directed pple to drop their comments under the link here cos I have a very crazy blood which wouldn't allow any comments. So what's the use of a blog that wouldn't permit comments than to use it in cases like this? @softandmoisty,I ll be so glad if u could help me paste it here in bits, u have my 100% permission. Thanks all.

Hmmmmm. . .only God knows how I ll respond to this attack without offending someone. When I posted that link, I made it clear that I would have posted it here, if not for the fact that it was too long. I had a plan of breaking my story into four episodes,if I shd split it cos of nairaland, then the suspense would be lost,and it ll also alter the planned number of episodes. I don't make money from my blog, and I even directed pple to drop their comments under the link here cos I have a very crazy blog which wouldn't allow any comments. So what's the use of a blog that wouldn't permit comments than to use it in cases like this? @softandmoist,I ll be so glad if u could help me post it here in bits, u have my 100% permission. Thanks all.

Thanks so much for ur understanding, u have just made my day. Am grateful.

Yes my Lord, am gonna do that right away,blogs can be so frustrating, I know, I ll try all the same.

Okay fan, I have stopped. I just posted it, u can now check it out.

Not on ma blog,here on NL, the 3rd episode, and the final one.