ALUU 4: Goodnight Pain.
By Stivin Nwaekwe


"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 fromthe 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 rolledaround, 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. RIP ALUU#4: