₦airaland Forum

crownaayam17:
Divepen1
bravo sir

Thanks boss.. Who's your favorite character now..

FunnyDude:
Seriously. I've passed through a lot from some bad guys. When I'm Starting out, I met some bad client that gave me 20k words to write on. He absconded with my work and money.
Another person chatted me from the blue to quickly write a job to pay 5k, he did same thing by scamming me.
So many dishonest people here. You got be careful .

1. Don't accept an offer from a person that quickly chat you up from the blues without knowing them, say they pay commitment fee.
2. Don't agree to write large projects without commitments, it will be disastrous at the end most times.
3. Don't be greedy to accept job from anyone you don't know with short deadlines.


The following monikers should be avoided as well:

FOREVERMORE
TOMMYIKES
MESUTOZIL

08141109078

And more coming soon

Hi, what was outcome of this. Someone contacted me about this number and when I searched for it on Nairaland, all the posts with this number were marked as Spam....

I had to correct the one in the literature section.

Ann2012:
Shocker
Thanks for the update

Lol.. You're so welcome..

TarOrfeek:
Wole Soyinka and Lil Kesh.


Who is better?

**

skarlett:
How can you even compare that's a gross insult to Chinua Achebe, no offence

None taken...

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o is an award-winning, world-renown Kenyan writer and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu-language journal Mũtĩiri.

While



Chinua Achebe was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. His first novel Things Fall Apart, often considered his best, is the most widely read book in modern African literature. He won the Man Booker International Prize in 2007.

Chapter 15

Hunch
Chief Suberu opened his eyes, stared at the ceiling, and smiled at himself. Even a fierce lion like himself couldn’t overcome sleep when it came. His head was pounding. He rose from the bed and rested his back on the wall. He enjoyed the sleep. Chief yawned as he stretched his body and checked the time. The wall clock had stopped working. How would it say 11.35? He checked his phone and saw that the time on his phone correlated with his wall clock.
‘Ki lode…What happen?’ He shouted and felt the noise run through the house. The voice rebounded into his room. That was unlikely. He rose from the bed hurriedly and went to the wardrobe. The house had never been so deserted before-no music, no chatting, and no smell of alcohol.
The moment he opened the wardrobe, he unlatched a part of it. The wardrobe was full of Agbadas and some other traditional clothes but Chief grabbed his Dane gun that was hidden behind the clothes. He snuck out of his room like a hunter, his eyes scanning the whole place to be sure he could proceed. When he got to the parlor, he met some of the assassins and thugs sleeping as if they were drugged. He went to other rooms. And he discovered that they had all slept. How would everyone in the house sleep? Something was wrong.
Chief spun around in the room until he sighted the megaphone he got for such purpose then he screamed into it. ‘Stand up… Wake up everybody’.
People scrambled into the parlor. Many of them still looked drowsy. He looked at the room and knew something was amiss.
‘Shadiat…’ He said as he pointed to his secretary.
‘It’s Chioma’.
‘Ehn…. Whatever your name is?’ He screamed at his secretary, who shifted back as he moved his head forward. She eyed him. He knew she hated him and he wasn't concerned. In fact, he loved to strangle her, to kill her but he didn’t have a better person to replace her. She was good at what she did and he had even mistakenly commended her in the public before, to his chagrin.
‘Count everyone in the room, and make sure nobody is missing’.
She brought a book from a folder and began to call out names, and the owner of the names replied with either a noise or by raising his or her hand.
Chief sat and watched as the secretary reeled out the names of everybody, until she got to Jasper.
‘Where is Jasper?’ He asked. No reply. ‘Did your mothers use their head to hit the floor?’
No response. He turned from one part of the room to the other, expecting one of them to talk, to give him a reasonable reply. He stumped the Dane gun on the tile and the tile broke. The tiles had been replaced after an advice from his beloved daughter that he should do so, and now these new ones had started facing the same fate the former set faced.
His secretary moved near him. He smirked.
‘Yes…?’ He said, maintaining a stoic expression, ’talk what you want to talk’. He bit his lower lips, he hated making mistake in front of this girl.
‘He had travelled for more than three weeks now’, his secretary said, ‘and had not reported to me’.
The feeling was still lingering on his mind and he knew he must be thorough. He smelt danger. Something was definitely amiss and he must get to the root of it. ‘Who has seen Jasper?’
No one talked. He felt like becoming many and rushing to every of these boys and girls he trained to give them resounding slaps for staring at him like dullard, for staring at him with no one to give him a good reply.
‘Check the log’, the chief ordered the secretary. Her body, twinning like a snake as she scurried out of the parlor, made his heart warm-up as he watched her go. God! If only he could lay his hand on this lady, and…
'Run, my friend’, he shouted at her.
She rushed off, out of the parlor, to her room, returned with her laptop and switched it on. Chief watched her. He looked around to make sure nobody was watching him so that they wouldn’t see the lust he had for the lady. They were all watching him. He hissed.
‘Be fast…’
She plugged a modem into the laptop and worked on the laptop.
‘The last place he was seen was… Agric’.
‘That’s still good…’
‘But he is dead…’
‘Dead…?' Voices from the others said.
‘How do you know?’, one of the others in the room asked, making his secretary look at the person with disdain, her long eye lashes making chief’s heart melt. Chief unconsciously licked his tongue, and caught himself doing so. He stopped.
‘If she says that he is dead, he is dead. Continue, my friend’, Chief ordered.
She continued calling names.
‘Jeremy….’
No response.
‘Where Jeremy…’
‘I wake am’.
‘Talk like a professional, madman. Talk like a professional’, Chief said and was happy to see his secretary smile.
‘I woke him when you made the call but he didn’t stand up’.
‘Go to his room and tell him that if he does not come around now, I will come up there and send him to heaven quicker than he had ever wished’, Chief shouted, and rejoiced within that his sentence was correct. Through the corner of his eyes, he looked at her, and saw her face brightened. He hated her.
They waited as one of the assassins went to call Jeremy, who came into the room, looking tired, grumpy, and in need of more sleep.
‘It seems you want the god of thunder to visit your parents', Chief fumed,’ come down here foolish son of many fathers’.
Chief quickly looked around to do a mental count of everyone in the room and saw everyone or was he not seeing well?
‘Erm… Rachael…’the secretary called as if she had said it before but Chief didn’t hear her.
‘Rachael…Racheal’ Chief said,’ she would be with my daughter in the other quarters,’ she would come around when the time for meeting starts. Call… Call the others’.
‘Um sir…’
‘What…?’ Chief said as he stiffly turned to her. He had been trying to avoid looking at her. The moment he looked at her, the tingling feeling came under his skin again. He hated that feeling. He hated her for causing that feeling in him, ‘What?’.
She scowled and kept quiet, looking at him and making him feel so uncomfortable. ‘She is not with your daughter’.
‘Ehy… Where else would she be? I say she is with my daughter. Call other people’.
‘She is in Kasali’s room…’
‘Kasali…? Racheal…? Kasali…? Is Kasali is mad?’
‘What is Rachael doing in Kasali's room? ‘Someone asked.
‘Eh… You… You and you follow me. I will teach this girl a lesson she will not forget. I will let her know’, Chief said and turned towards the door, with the others following him.
He moved on to the gateman’s office with such anger that if he ran into the wall, the wall would crumble. When they got to the gateman’s condo, Chief felt like rushing into the room and beating Kasali up. Kasali was a professional illiterate; Rachael was a professional killer, a professional Guard, a professional Cleaner of evidence, a professional runner, a professional… A professional brainy student, a professional trainer and a professional everything and the first girl he would train into being an assassin, also the best of all the assassins he has ever trained, and their teacher. Was this what she would teach the others? How could Kasali be sleeping with the same girl as he? Kasali wanted to start dipping his filthy hand into the same pot as he?
When they got to Kasali’s doorstep, they heard the serious moaning of a lady, presumably Rachael. Chief’s blood boiled, and he felt himself puffing invisible hot smoke. He would make Kasali beg for his life with what he had done. Even, that foolish Rachael- he would let her know one doesn’t use one's mouth to praise a king and use that same mouth to praise a slave- never.
‘Kasali, your life would be ruined today', Chief shouted as he banged the door, ‘I will destroy you, your family and I will…destroy you’.
Kasali rushed to open the door.
‘Enter and bring her’, Chief ordered his men, ‘bring her for me’.
The men pushed Kasali aside and entered.
‘Leave me’ someone screamed. The voice was different from Racheal’s.
They brought out a lady. The bulb in front of Kasali’s door reflected on the lady’s face and, of course, she wasn't Rachael. Her face was laced with five Gombo-a type of tribal mark that runs from the head to the chin.
‘Is Chidinma mad? Go and call her for me’.
‘Who…?’
‘Secretary. Idiot. Be fast’, he shouted and watched as one of the men ran to call the secretary. He didn’t know what the fuse was all about but he still felt this same way. The last time he had that type of feeling and didn’t do anything about it, he almost died. He wasn’t leaving any stone unturned.
The secretary came towards him, her figure shifting to both sides rhythmically, with her laptop in her hand. Her slim but attractive body aroused that feeling in him.
‘Oh…’ Chief mouthed, ‘I hate this girl’.
‘Sir’, she said as she got near him, even in the night she smelt nice. He shook his head. She smelt bad.
‘Rachael is not here’, he scowled.
‘But this is her link blinking’, she said.
His secretary went forward and stopped in front of Kasali. She dropped her shoulder, faced one of the men, gave him her laptop, and ran off into the room.
‘Shola, where are you going’?
‘It’s Chioma… I’m going to pick the scanner’.
What is wrong with this girl?
‘You!’ He said to the lady Kasali was having nice time with,’ enter the house…’
The lady, grateful, stood and ran into the room, closing the door behind her as she kept on saying ‘Thank you, sir’.
The secretary returned with alacrity, the scanner in her hand, and rushed to Kasali. She went to him, not minding Kasali’s look of disdain as she began to run the scanner over him. She stopped when she got to a part of Kasali’s hand. The secretary drew his hand nearer and hissed. The chip was at the back of his hand. Rachael had discovered the chip, removed it, and had escaped.
Chief waited patiently to hear the result of her search.
‘She has discovered the chip, Chief, and has escaped’
‘Escaped, why?’
'What chip? Someone asked but quiet when Chief gave him a cold glare.
‘Ogini, how will I know? May be you …’ she said, stopped, eyed him and turned towards the house.
‘Kasali, when Rachael pass?'
‘Chief, it's been long’.
‘How did that thing get to your hand?' Chief asked pointing to the back of Kasali’s hand.
'Chief, I don't know’.
Chief shook his head and turned back towards the house. When they got to the house, people have changed their position, many of them were now sitting, but he wasn't concerned. Why did she run away?
‘My Money…’ he said faintly as he quickly held the chair to stabilize himself. Then, he screamed, 'go to the room. My money…’
His men ran to check the room.
‘The money is not there’, one of the men that left to check announced as they returned to the room, and from their stance he understood that they were waiting for orders from him. They wanted to know if they were to start looking for the money, the thief or to kill someone. He felt bad and looked at the men.
‘Let her go. It's Rachael. Let her go. She has been here since she was a child. Let her go with it. And you people won't be able to handle her’, he said and faced his secretary, ‘Simbi, continue’.
‘It’s Chioma’.
‘Ehn. Continue’.
She called their names until she got to Once.
‘I’m here’, Once said, entering the house, his cloth draped with bloodstain. He was clutching his stomach as he entered the room. Everyone’s eyes turned to him. A lady ran to him and supported him as he limped into the room.
‘Chief, Bidemi Adeoti is still alive’, he said and faced everyone, and ‘Leech is still alive’.
The secretary dropped the laptop she was holding and it rattled on the tiles. Chief shifted back. Even the ceiling fan stopped having sound.

germaphobe:
no boss i wasn't

We thank God..

You're yet to hook the readers... The Aunty is nice. Teju is not in immediate danger. Nothing I'd making the readers want to stay. No hook.

Good introduction though. We know Bisi has a husband.. Teju is in a tertiary institution. But hit us...

Ann2012:
I'm enjoying this story, each update is a bomb

Well done OP

You're the bomb too..

francium001:
Thanks for the update

You're welcome baba

germaphobe:
i was once confuss like jerry that i believed and followed someone whom everyone saw as a crazy guy but it later turned out that he was right after all. Nice update waiting for more more and more fire updates. Divepen carry go no shaking.

Hope you weren't injured in the process..

LightQueen:
Divepen1 I am speechless.. Each update issa bomb

plenty thanks for the updates

Plenty thanks for the back to back comments.

Chapter 14
The Beginning of Woes

Pastor Matthew stopped in the dark tunnel and switched on a torchlight. They had been walking in the underground tunnel for a long time that Jerry had even lost count of time. Although he informed Jerry that he had worked on the underground, he never expected it to be so equipped for such thing like they were about to do. Jerry seemed to remember being in a place like this when he was younger but he knew it would be one of his memory and hoped to get it soon.
‘Oh! Lest I forget, Merry Christmas’, Pastor Matthew said when the light came on.
Jerry couldn’t bring himself to reply Pastor Matthew. If he gave him a definite response, then Pastor Matthew would be in trouble because he would tell him the truth that would make anybody cry.
There was nothing interesting about the place. They kept moving with the light as their guide, until they finally came out of another bush. Pastor Matthew climbed out of a tunnel and Jerry did so.
They soon began to move in a bush path that made Jerry hate the little life he had. Pastor Matthew led the way until they got out into a street that soon led to Agric bus stop.
Luckily, for them it was Christmas. People wandered the street; the vigilantes were absent to question people’s movement; instead, they were in a corner at one of the dry gin seller’s shop.
‘How do we leave this place’, Jerry asked, irritated. He himself didn’t know why he allowed one situation to be the propellant of his belief in Pastor’s Matthew visions. Why had he released the Pastor and hadn't allow him to be in the psychiatric home? In fact, that would have saved him from the trouble he was having now.
‘We didn’t take the plan for the ship’, Pastor lamented and raised his hands.
‘How do we get away, Pastor?’
‘Don’t worry, brother Jeremiah, the lord himself has provided a car for the easy movement of our natural body out of Greencity’.
Jerry was tired of everything that had been happening. He needed a sound rest and, probably, a cold drink.
The beautiful night thief told him that there was an impending evil and that he needed to leave town. And here was the most wanted Pastor in town telling him that they they had to leave too. He believed a water doom was coming. Where would the water come from? It had not been raining for a long time now. The cloud kept gathering everywhere; yet, the rain refused to fall. Thunder rumbled in the distant again like it had been doing since the beginning of the time Jerry woke; yet, the rain didn’t drop.
A black Toyota parked in front of them and a young woman scrambled out of it, acknowledged Jerry and faced the Pastor.
'I knew you were right. And this is a confirmation that I must start what the lord had been telling me'.
‘So far you're sure it's God, then you don't need any more trouble’, Pastor Matthew said, holding the woman’s hand firmly.
'Bro. Jerry, meet Chloe Kings Obaigbanwen. She is…'
Jerry's eyes opened in surprised. 'She was the one that was said to have escaped the asylum after kidnapping and killing some women that saw visions of heaven. I read her story in the news'.
She looked sideways towards Jerry and her eyes caught his doubting look, and she quickly turned to the Pastor’s again.
‘I will … I know where to meet you’.
‘Please, make it fast before it starts’.
The woman bent as Pastor Matthew gave her a side hug and opened the door to enter the car.
‘Bro. Jerry, please enter’, Pastor Matthew called from the other side. 'Time speeds on.’
The woman pulled Jerry aside.
‘You seems afraid of me because of the half-baked news you heard about me. I saw doubt in your eyes; yet, you are following him…’
‘That’s because I myself have no place to go…’
‘You have to believe everything he says’, the woman said and squeezed Jerry’s hand very well, ‘he told me to meet him here last year. We were in the asylum together before he was released and we've not been in contact ever since. But here we're today. And I also the vision of God. The rapture is coming. I'm to prepare the world for that. God would destroy the world after he had taken some selected few away’.
‘But how…. the Lord says he wouldn’t destroy man with rain again’, Jerry said as Pastor Matthew honked.
‘Yes. However, it’s men that are causing it this time, not God. His only job is to give the final say. How will God not allow the spiritual causes to have its effect when some people are already sacrificing humans to Devil the god of this world and had made him the master of their life? How will God not accept when the blood of men is a power to invoke anything in the heavenlies’? And Christians are not praying- for the drought or to know what will happen in the future. They are not trying to know the mysteries of the spirit'.
‘What mysteries of the spirit?'
'There’s always more and more of God that can be tapped. The secret of God is so much that it takes closer relationship with him to know a lot.’
She squeezed his hands harder and the car honked thrice this time. Jerry let go of her hand and felt the pain the woman must be feeling at that time. At the same time, someone drove pass and the music that blasted from his car was ‘Story for the gods’ by Olamide. Jerry smiled and headed for the car.
‘Pastor Matthew, I will tell as many people as I can’, she said.
‘May the lord strengthen you’, Pastor Matthew said and drove off.
‘Where are we going now?’ Jerry asked after thirty minutes of their journey.
‘Brown valley’.
Jerry sighed. A least, they would leave Greencity for the people giving him trouble.

Chapter 13
God or Brain Touch?

Jerry couldn’t fathom why Pastor Matthew had initially kept this place but it was useful at that time. Two months ago, he had saved the Pastor from being sent to an asylum for the second time and today Pastor Matthew was the one saving him. Pastor Matthew, a 5.3 feet tall man, who also had a very big bald that made the little hair on his head look like an island. People had advised him to let the hair go, but he was adamant. He told people he was a Nazarene and the hair of a Nazarene mustn't be touched with a blade.
Four weeks ago, about the same time Jerry began to have problem from left and right, Pastor Matthew was almost sent to an asylum. All preparation had been made, but Jerry saved him by helping him escape the church members that tied him down after Pastor Matthew gave him assurance that he was actually sane.
The church, at that time, after many deliverance sections, had agreed that the best option was to take the pastor to an asylum, where he would have little or no contact with anybody, whosoever. How would God tell a Pastor to go to the wild and gather wild animals for a coming doom? Either the Pastor wasn't hearing well from God or the Pastor was misinterpreting God.
The more he fought the urge to think about the events, the more the events came to him vividly. Jerry smirked and gently hit his head on the wall repeatedly. He shouldn't have allowed his emotion overrule his logic. If he had followed one of the women, he would have information about himself. He hissed and turned to face the pastor, who was busy drawing something.
Pastor Matthew, who was constructing something in a big drawing book, turned to Jerry. The small table held a lamp, a Mathematical set, gum, compass, protractor.
‘Bro. Jeremiah, you do not understand what you have done by coming here? How the lord plans to use you to wrought great wonders and great preparation. Eyes have not seen. Ears have not heard. Neither has it come to the hearts of men what God plans for you. However how long the moon disappears, someday it must shine again’.
Jerry nodded. He didn’t understand what Pastor Matthew was talking about, but he had to respect him, no matter what others might thought of him.
‘I have plotted the ship. According to what the lord is telling me, it would be bigger than Noah’s ark. All I need now is to start work on it’, Pastor Matthew said, rubbing his hands happily.
Pastor Matthew stood hurriedly and opened his bible. He bent over it, drew the orange lamp towards himself, and began to rapidly write out figures into a small notepad. This behavior was disturbing to Jerry.
The house was cozy. It was plastered inside out, there were two arm-chair in the mini-sitting room. In addition, there were two other bedrooms. When Jerry entered one of the rooms to drop his bag, a bed had been placed there for him.
Jerry sat there like one of those University students, who were bent on graduating, but have no real plan for their life. Right now, Jerry believed, anything goes.
‘Bro. Jerry…’ Pastor Matthew said as he sat on the chair opposite Jerry.
‘Why are you worried as if there is no solution? God is always around to solve whatever problem you might have. More so, all things work together for the good of those that love God and you love God. Don’t you believe in God again? Be like the cricket. It’s never blinded by sands of its burrowing’.
Jerry couldn’t utter a word. If Pastor Matthew was a child, Jerry would have slapped him for telling him to trust in God at that time. So, he nodded.
‘So, what’s your plan? Plans are the foundation of our tomorrow. God has been teaching plans for days now. You needed to see the underground road, he made me build these past days’.
‘Plans? Pastor Matt, I have no plan whatsoever. All I wish was for is the cold hand of death to grab my hardened souls and return it to God’.
‘Well, you are still here’.
‘I know. I know and that’s disturbing. I want to die…’
‘Hmm... Bro. Jerry. Have you forgotten that lines are falling for us in pleasant places? The lines we are talking about here are sometimes problem. What did the lord say about the lady of the night?’
‘I didn’t hear anything from God as regarding her, maybe because I was so much engrossed in appreciating her beauty and personality that I was so deaf to God concerning her’.
‘Hmmm… Would God have wanted you to follow her’?
Jerry waited and stared at Pastor Matthew for sometimes.
‘No…’ He said affirmatively.
‘What of that woman that called herself your wife?’
‘Nah. God wouldn’t have wanted me to follow her. She is too possessive’.
‘Do you have anything in mind that you wish to do?’ Pastor Matthew asked as he shifted forward as if he expected something and had been praying Jerry would say what he wanted.
Jerry’s eyes flew to the time on the wall that kept ticking and striking chords in his brain. The time was fifteen minutes after midnight.
‘I’ll like to leave Green City’.
Pastor Matthew flew up and screamed, 'Yes!’
He jabbed the air excitedly and began to pace the room, his hand behind his back like someone who had gotten an idea but still feared the consequences.
‘I think the lord had impressed it on my heart to leave Greencity for my house in….’
The door burst open and five men rushed into the room. They ran to Pastor Matthew, held him tight, and began to tie him with a very long rope.
‘What’s this? ‘Jerry shouted, standing and trying to pull the men off Pastor Matthew, ‘Bro. Seye, what is the meaning of this?’
‘Bro. Jerry. We must carry Pastor to Yaba, Lagos. He needs it. Don’t you know how many people died from the animals he took the other time? And now, he is hiding here. We don’t know what he would be doing next. Moreover, whatever he might be planning, God knows, would be detrimental to humans' health. See, Police had been looking all over the place for him’.
Bro. Seye was a fat man. His belly protruded under the t-shirt he wore and he was panting heavily.
‘Honor me. I’m your pastor. Carry me well’ Pastor Matthew shouted as he wriggled in the hand of the men tying him, ‘No…I’m alright. I’m not mad. I’m perfectly alright’.
Jerry ran from one man to the other and tried to pull their grips off the pastor, but the men were adamant and were soon carrying Pastor Matthew away as if he was a robot that needed repair.
The men kept carrying him away, not minding his noise, not minding the way Jerry pulled their hands off him. They carried him on, out of the garden, through the bush, and headed straight for a car that was waiting for them.
‘Good’, a throaty voice called from afar, ‘I knew we would find you’.
Jerry stopped trying to save Pastor Matthew and stopped as he saw the owner of the voice coming out of the darkness into the light emanating from the headlight of a van. The owner of the voice was a plump policeman, whose belly didn’t allow him to close the button of his shirt well.
‘Do you think you can keep on hiding from us?’ The policeman said.
‘I was not hiding’, Pastor Matthew cried in pain, ‘it was an instruction from the lord’.
At that time, Jerry felt like slapping the pastor to tell him to shut up. He felt like crushing these church members, who thought they were helping the pastor, for ruining his plan. He had hoped that he would enjoy his stay with the pastor but these loyalists have disrupted every plan he had.
‘The lord told us too to carry you. Take him into the van’, the police officer shouted. Some of the policemen ran to carry Pastor Matthew, loosened him and used the rope to tie only his hands.
‘What do we do with the remaining people?’ One of the policemen shouted above the noise of a car hurrying towards their direction.
‘Leave them, we have gotten the person we need’.
Jerry shifted back in frustration. He decided to keep on staying in Pastor’s hut and turned towards it the same time a shot rang from afar. Jerry turned hurriedly to see where the gunshot was from. Suddenly the shots became more than one. The sounds of the gunshots were different- some sounded like Dane guns, some other pistol, and sophisticated guns and another set sounded like old type of modern guns.
Jerry crouched as stray bullets hit one of the policemen and one of Pastor Matthew’s church members. Noises erupted from everyone as they tried to hide their heads. Even light from lamps suddenly went off in some houses. The siren of a police car blared and disturbed the choky night.
‘Thief!’ People shouted as a car zoomed past Jerry and others in the night. The police officer that was supposed to catch Pastor Matthew joined in the shooting. His gun hit the tyre of the car and the car swerved and later stopped. The policemen ran towards the car.
Jerry, seeing this opportunity, not knowing the reason he was doing that, ran to the Pastor and opened the door. Luckily for him, the rope used to tie the pastor wasn't tied well. He untied it and pulled Pastor Matthew out of the van. They ran back towards the hut- Jerry at the front, not minding if Pastor was running fast. All he wanted was to get out of the danger zone and to help Pastor Matthew escape these people.
‘Come here’, Pastor Matthew shouted, when Jerry rushed towards the house.
Jerry stopped and followed him. Pastor Matthew had better have a good plan or else he would tie him down himself.
‘Where are we going?’ Jerry asked amidst his pant and desire to escape.
'The underground', Pastor Matthew ran to the back of the house, screeching to a halt in front of a big blue plastic drum, which was locked, and stood there.
‘What now?’ Jerry asked as he stopped behind the pastor.
‘Pastor’ someone was calling from afar
‘We have to leave here fast before they catch you’, Jerry said. He didn’t know what he should believe. Should he agree with the pastor that a doom of water was coming fast and that they needed to prepare like the days of Noah? On the other hand, should he agree with the members of Pastor’s church, who believed Pastor was mad and needed immediate remanding.
Pastor Matthew pushed the drum. Bennett smirked and nodded in agreement to what everyone believed, that the Pastor was mad, and that he needed to tie him, but there was no time to tie Pastor down. He had to bring Pastor’s back to the situation at hand.
‘Pastor Matthew, what are you doing?’ He shouted as the person calling Pastor Matthew got nearer.
‘Come. Help me remove this drum of sand. Two hands better one.’
Jerry joined him in pushing the drum away. The drum rolled away in the dark, clanging on the floor as it kept on running into stones, but the drum didn’t stop until it got to a fence. Pastor Matthew bent and opened a trapdoor. If not that he saw the head of the trapdoor, he would have ever believed it was there.
‘Follow me’, Pastor Matthew said as he jumped into the hole. Jerry hesitated and he scanned the hole and then decided to enter the hole seeing he had no better option.
Pastor Matthew locked the trapdoor from within. The whole place was so dark to the chagrin of Jerry, who held his breathe and refused to talk as Pastor Mathew held his hand firmly. He nodded even though Pastor Matthew wouldn’t see him. The men looking for Pastor Matthew were already outside the hole and were calling his name.
‘You have to hold my cloth. We will be walking through this place in the dark till I am sure we can put on the light’.
Jerry knew he was done for. But no matter what, he was totally free from everyone that wanted him at all cost.

germaphobe:
oh mehn my imagination is running like kilode!!!. Superb update

Lol... Well, leave it running. The bucket is still empty.

Deasegun19:
thanks for the update

Thanks.. Baba..

Ann2012:
Several twists
Thanks for the update

Indeed.. You're welcome

Chapter 12
Opening New Jams
Jerry looked from one woman to the other. He was angry with this woman that called herself his wife for showing up at a wrong time to declare that she was his wife. She should have come a long time before he fell in love with the beautiful night thief. She should have come before the beautiful night thief gave him the enticing choice of following her for information about himself. Also, he was angry with the beautiful night thief for playing with his emotion, memory, and intelligence.
Jerry looked around angrily, roughly picked his bag, phones, and his diaries, dropped the diaries, and hissed. He should have guessed that the diary was falsified but he wanted to believe in the lie that had been propounded for him. The others watched him attentively, waiting for what he would do. None of them talked.
The room was plunged into a grave silence as he continued picking one thing or the other. He picked his wallet and checked to see that it contained his ATM card. He removed the I.D card in it and flung it around the room, which hit his dead assailant. He picked a piece of paper, wrote Rita’s number on it, and slipped the paper into his wallet. And then, he removed his Sim cards from his phones, made sure the others could see what he was about to do, and broke the Sim cards. And with that, he moved towards the door. With the bag at his back, he went out of the room.
‘Jerry, where are you going?’
‘Nobody should follow me or find… I don’t know you… Any of you’, he said gingerly, still clutching the bag.
‘Bidemi, come back’, Grace shouted as she rushed to him, and held his cloth. This action infuriated Jerry; he roughly removed her hands off his cloth, and pushed her away, not minding if she fell.
‘Nobody… Nobody should follow me’, he shouted, to the extent that he himself felt pain as his veins expanded, ‘leave me alone…Let me be’.
‘Bidemi Adeoti… Come back, we need to talk about all these murders. I need someone to explain all these to me’, Yemi, the police officer, shouted, making Jerry pause and turn.
‘Go and investigate it yourself. I must never ever see any of you in my life till I die. Any of you’, Jerry warned as he turned back.
‘You cannot go anywhere… Not until you tell me ….’ Yemi began to say but stopped midway as the beautiful night thief pointed her gun at him.
***
‘He said nobody… Nobody… and that includes you’, she growled, ‘now back off’.
Rachael moved back to a point where her gun could cover both Officer Yemi and Grace, who still looked at her quizzically.
‘Now, the two of you, move back. Do you know how it feels to one’s lose memory?’ She barked at them, and watched their expression, ‘Do you? No, you don’t. I know how it feels and that’s why you must leave him alone’, she shouted, tears flowing from her eyes. At this point, her logicality was eluding her and was creating a space for sentimentality, but she wasn't concerned.
‘But he would… I need him’, Grace cried, moving an inch. She glanced at her as if she was trying to come out of a misty position to an open space.
‘To survive? If you move again, I will turn you to watermelon’, Rachael said, eyeing Grace’s feet. Then, she gulped the bottle of coffee.
Grace paused and stared at her.' You are…It's you. I know you o. Oh! My God.’
‘Ehy… Don’t try to enter into my head. You want to play me’, Rachael growled, and later scoffed,’ you can’t do anything to me’.
‘Racheal?’
Rachael's hand faltered and she began to lower her hand. However, she quickly steadied her hands.
‘How did you know my name?’
‘Racheal?’ Grace mouthed and moved forward, not minding that the gun was pointed to her chest, ‘I knew it from the moment I saw you. That bottle of coffee. The gouts. Watermelon. I should have known it was you’.
Grace ran to Racheal and hugged her, crying like a baby.
‘Oh! Racheal’, she cried, her cry piercing the peace of the night, ‘oh! Racheal’.
Racheal, who was still confused, withdrew herself from Grace’s grasp and looked at her intently.
‘Who are you?’ she said as her expression lightened up with joy and hope that she had gotten a missing link she had looking for.
‘I should be the one not knowing you’, Grace said, ‘you have suddenly become fairer’.
‘Fairer?’
‘Yes, you were fair, but not as fair as this. It’s I, Grace’.
Racheal, swallowed hard and looked at Grace intently, hoping that the message she was passing would have meaning.
‘I found out that I was injected when I was small, maybe around 15 or so, and I can’t remember anything that had happen to me when I was small’, said Racheal,’ so, I might not know you’.
‘We will talk later. I can know you anywhere with your watermelon’, Grace said hurriedly, ‘That guy, the one that we've had encounter with many time. That’s Bidemi. He is my husband’.
‘I know he’s your husband but I truly can’t remember the times we've met before. I used to watch from afar but you shouldn't know me…’ Racheal said.
‘Well, he is my husband now. You have to help me find him. I thought he was dead but that’s him’.
‘No…’ Racheal said as she shook her head, and raised her gun to the chest level of Grace,’ you can’t. Let him be. He is safe if nobody knows where he is. The bad people that want to kill him wouldn’t get the chance to do so’.
‘Please, I can tell you everything you were before you were kidnapped. I’m sure that would help you remember the things happened to you when you were small’, Grace said like someone, who had a very hot potato in the mouth,’ I will tell you everything, ranging from Mama Agba, to how Ngozi, the girl that treated you inhumanly and about Madam Flourish, and how ….’
Flood of images flowed into her head; Racheal saw images from her nightmares coming back into her head at that moment and it was horrible and tormenting.
‘Argh…’ she yelled as she raised her hand to her head, and held it firmly, bending her head a little.
‘Stop. Stop’, she shouted and held the gun firmly, stabilizing her hand and the look.
‘Please, how are you sure he would be safe?’ Grace pleaded.
‘He would be…’ Racheal started to say and stopped midway as she realized Grace was right. She had to snap out of her emotional roller coaster and pursue Bidemi before he fell into the wrong hands. What if he fell into the hand of Chief himself or those that had the intention of killing him?
‘Alright, let's go....'
They all ran out into the street.
‘I will use my car to search this side', Racheal said after they had searched the street fruitlessly and they got to a-two-way junction.
‘And if I see him', she continued hurriedly, ' I'll persuade him to follow me, or make sure he gets to a safe place'.
‘Ah-ahn', Grace said, and stopped talking when Racheal raised her left hand, her gun still in her right hand.
'If you find him', Racheal continued,' please, take care of him. Try to persuade him to follow you. Move out of this dung hole. Go very far from Fortunecity. Nowhere is safe. Go to Lagos or outside Nigeria'.
‘And what about the dead man?' Yemi said moving towards her.
‘Guy, what? Please. Go and do your investigation. The dead man is a crook. Now, be gone before I change my mind about letting you also live'.
‘What about your memory, your past?' Grace said agitatedly, moving towards Racheal,’ what about our friendship?’
‘Forget me, and search for Bidemi. Leave my memory, my past and our friendship'.
‘Friendship? You were my half-sister. Our father was… Can’t you bring him back when...?’
‘Half-sister? No bargain. I’m not bringing him back. Be fast and be gone'.
‘In case you don’t see him, what will you do?'
‘I’m leaving the city, of course'.
Grace ran to her, hugged her, and pecked her on the cheek, dazzling Racheal. Grace sniffled.
‘Take care, Racheal. We've been meeting like this before. We will surely meet again'.
‘Hun’, Racheal murmured.
Racheal ran to her car before the policeman decided to follow her, seeing that he was adamant and wanted to know more about Once, who was in pain in Jerry’s room. She almost missed the bangles in his breast pocket. Now, she was happy the idiot had it on him. And so, she drove off.
She searched the whole area as she went on, with the fear that Chief and the few F.A.L.T men with chief would be awake, and that meant she would soon start having one police problem or the other.
She didn’t see Jerry on the way and she had to double back to go through another area. Racheal glanced at the time and decided it was time to leave.
‘He’ll be fine', she whispered to herself, the glasses wound up. She blinked back tears. So she had a half-sister that loved her.
***
Jerry was sure none of them saw him, when he doubled back to go the carnal area of Agric. He entered the deep, into the bush, trying as much as possible not to make any sound as he entered. When he found where he was going, he parted the bush, and saw the frail path. He followed it and walked for fifteen minutes before he finally came to a large expanse of land that had been cleared. In the middle of it stood a wooden house from which slow music flowed into the atmosphere, making it fit as a place one would find joy in resting, thinking, and imagining great things.
He trudged forward and knocked, heaving with relief that he would be safe from everybody now. He withdrew his hand to knock again,
‘Come in, Mr. Jerry. I've been expecting you', Pastor Matthew said.
Jerry opened the door, and felt peace radiating in his bones, and marrow.
***
Once rose at last, after he was sure every one of them was gone. He removed the bangles that was in his breast pocket and stared at it admirably.
‘Guy...’ he said as he tried to stabilized himself with the wall,' you saved a man's life. You are my hero'.
Once took the bangles from his last operation. When he fell in love with the rich woman, Juliana, he was supposed to kill; in fact, he decided not to kill her again and was ready to defile every authority because of this woman. However, the tide turned when he couldn’t hold his guilt anymore and told her his initial plan. When she heard about the consequences of his not-killing-her, she gave him her bangles as a good-luck charm and poisoned herself.
He kissed it and stared at it admirably again. Rachael really wanted to kill just as he wanted to kill Leech.
‘Thank you, Juliana’.
He removed the bullet that was stuck to the bangles and threw the bullet away, smiling happily that he was still alive, and that he knew where he should go first- not hospital, neither would he chase any of those buffoons nor will he look for Leech: He would return to Chief's place to renew his contract. He would use Chief’s love for riches to do his biddings.

Chapter 11

Confusion

Jerry smiled, lying down on the bed, listening to Nigerian Asa's 'No one knows tomorrow'.
Just the other day, the other day
I was talking to the weatherman about today, oh, oh, oh
And all, all he could say, was no one knows tomorrow.
See I can read the weather, child. I can say maybe the rain will fall....
The rain, Jerry thought. The wind had been blowing horribly for days now as if it would rain but there was no rain. Thick, dark clouds have been hovering over Greencity. News had it that rain hadn't fallen in Brown valley since January- wells were dry; borehole engines were spoilt; Rivers, streams and ponds were drying up as if all the water was on strike.
He was still thinking of these, when he drifted into sleep, and had slept for two hours when he felt someone tapping him. He imagined the shake in his subconscious, wondering if he was still dreaming. But the shake was rough and real. So, he opened his eyes to see a man pointing a pistol at him.
The night has arrived and Fortune City’s Electricians had been able to restore the electricity. Jerry jumped up and backwards when he saw what a lanky man was pointing at him. And he swallowed hard as he watched his assailant eye him terribly with a big smirk.
Suddenly, the room became small. The fan began to sing lullaby as the man kept staring at him as if he was a specimen that needed to be studied for a once-in-a-lifetime examination. Jerry swallowed hard in preparation to talk.
‘Who are you?’ Jerry asked.
‘Leech, you…’
‘Leech’, Jerry heartbeat waxed in anger and every of his fear disappeared into the thin air, manipulating his thinking pattern as he stood, not minding that a gun was pointed to his head.
‘So… You are the Leech that almost got me killed. Someone almost killed me because of you and here you are pointing a gun at me’, Jerry said and stood in anger as he faced the man, on a kneeling position. The man pushed him back and tighten his grip on the gun.
‘Shut up! You are Leech. You are Leech. Idiot, do you want to play me? You can’t deceive me. You will die. But before that, what happened to the man that almost killed you?’
‘He is dead’, Jerry said as he braced himself to die.
‘No….’ his assailant groaned. Jerry had to shift back as his assailant moved forward.
‘How did you kill him? Why did you kill him’, he said slowly as he hit Jerry with the butt of the gun on the face, making Jerry fall sideways on the bed. Jerry rose immediately so as not to be killed without a fight.
‘I didn’t kill him’.
‘Then who killed him? You are a liar. If you want to revenge, why him…?’
'Revenge?'
The door opened, making Jerry almost faint, thinking he had been shot.
Suddenly, the pop sound of a silenced gun reported and his assailant staggered back. Jerry stood immediately and ran to the corner of the room, and hid under the table. His assailant screamed in pain and fell with a thud, making Jerry think he was dead at first. However, he gave a loud cry and tried to reach for his gun, which flew out his hand. Another bullet was shot into the injured man, who moaned in serious pain and stopped moving: Died.
‘You are crazy…’ A gruff lady’s voice shouted in pure anger as Jerry began to see clearly. The person who shot at his assailant was none other than his beautiful night thief.
‘Why did you rush?’ The lady shouted again, coming into the view of the light, making Jerry see her very well. He had to hold himself from shouting when he saw her. It was none other than the poor beggar that he had been helping, the one he loved to give money. This time around, the wrapper around her was no longer wrapped around her body. The only thing she wore was the brown sweater she was known to wear. Jerry couldn’t fathom how he had been fooled for days. What was he? What do all these people want from him? Why was someone watching over him for months?
‘Spoil everything. You want to spoil everything we have been doing for months? For your information, I suffered for this thing’, the lady shouted now at the top of her voice, not minding what would happen to her.
The beautiful thief turned to face this lady-the old haggard beggar- squarely, and smiled at her.
‘You don't want to understand anything about this life at all…’ She said as she moved back, ‘Mat… I'm sorry…’
She shot Martha on the right thigh, her expression not changing. Martha screamed with intense pain, folding, and sprawling on the floor. Then, she reached for something within her cloth.
‘Martha, you know I trained you… Even though, you are now getting the glory that is mine’, the beautiful night thief said, smiling broadly as she moved to where Martha was wriggling in pain, removed the silenced-gun Martha was about to bring out and placed it away from Martha’s reach, her big smile lingering on.
‘C'mon, stand up’, she ordered Martha, who was still moaning in pain as she held on to her injured leg, limping, ‘go, and protect Jessy’.
Martha stared dagger and limped off. 'I will get you for this’.
‘In your dreams… Now, leave before I change my mind about letting you live’, the beautiful night thief snarled, shooting the grounds around Martha, making Martha hop off in haste.
‘What are you? Who are you?’ Jerry asked.
‘Leech… Jerry, we need to leave here now’.
‘I said who are you? Who am I? What did you people do to me? Why are you doing all these?’
‘I promise to tell you everything if you follow me’, she said with her usual raspy, whispering voice.
‘Follow you… So that you can do what did to me again. So, what we did that night was a means of deceiving me,’ Jerry said as he edged near her.
‘They were true. It was from my heart. I love you sincerely, and dearly’ she said, as her eyes became red and tears began to well up in them, ‘all these were for you, to save you, to help you, to…’
‘Then, tell me everything now’.
‘Now?’
‘Yes, now’.
‘There is no time. Please, let’s go. Let’s leave this God-forsaken place. What they are planning will destroy many people’s lives, so your live is nothing to them. Please, Jerry let’s go’.
‘What? Who?’
‘Them… Chief… The people we all work for’, the beautiful thief said, pointing at the dead man, 'they will stop at nothing to succeed, and they are ready to send anybody to the slaughter house as a sacrificial lamb even their children’.
‘Before I follow you, what is my name?’
The beautiful night thief, looked at him with remorse, shook her head, and moved near him. She put her hand on his head, ruffling the little hair he had on it. At first, this warmed his heart, but he let the thought go, and concentrated on the present need. He looked at her as she stared into his eyes.
‘Tell me. This moment’.
‘Your name…’
‘Good evening…’ two voices said- a male’s and a female’s voice, with the female’s voice being exceptionally loud.
Jerry and the beautiful night thief were startled.
‘Who is there?’ He roared.
‘It’s the-’
‘Bidemi’, a lady said as she ran to him, hugged him tightly, crying over him like she found a lost pearl.
‘What now?'
With the new twist of event, he knew he would go mad.
‘Who is Bidemi?’
‘Bidemi, It’s I, Grace’.
‘Grace?’
‘Yes, your wife. Grace. Bidemi. Why did you leave me? Bidemi’.
Jerry removed her hands and moved back Although, he had seen beauty, especially that of the beautiful night thief, and Shade’s beauty, he had never seen anyone as beautiful as the lady in front of him. Quickly, his eyes roamed to the man at the other end and he felt blood pumping faster in his heart. The man at the other end was the police that came days before to ask questions.
***
Ever since the day the Rachael could remember waking up without memory of the past, she had never ever felt so inferior to anyone, none- be it her elder or mate. Neither had she felt so drawn too quickly to a lady like she just did.
However, she knew that if she didn’t take Leech with her, she would lose him to Grace, his wife, whom Jerry always loved. She cringed as she watched Grace hug him and almost ran to stop them from hugging. She had to make Jerry follow her, to forget Grace or not know her because the moment he did, he would give up everything for her. She had watched them from afar years before he lost his memory, and knew what he could do if he remembered who she was.
‘Jerry, you have to follow me’, Rachael said raptly, holding her pistol well, making it visible enough.
‘Where are you taking him to? Bidemi, look at me.’, Grace said with such a tone that even the daughters of Aphrodite in their beauty and splendor would obey. Her voice was more enchanting than that of any charm talker. Grace stared at for a while and turned to Jerry. He looked at her. ‘I’m your wife. You are going home with me’.
‘Please, Jerry you can’t go home now’, Rachael said with her pleading voice, ‘please follow me. Remember, I am the one that have all the information about you. Please, let me help you’.
She herself knew that her pleading voice could be also charming and confusing. Jerry glanced at her. She had once used this pleading voice to destroy a whole family- a family of ten. Jerry seemed ready to succumb to her request.
‘Bidemi, you have to follow me’, Grace said again, firmly. Grace gave her a prolong look like a wounded Lion, who was ready to pounce, finish, and destroy any obstacle, making Rachael feared for her life for the first time in many years, despite the gun she held.
‘Jerry… See you need to leave her, even if she is your wife. There are more to this than meet the eyes. Look at me, I have a gun. I would have used it to force you away, but if you need to make any decision, you need to make it now’, she said with the expectation that her word had sunk into his brain.

queenitee:
Wow, all in a circle niyi. I'm not even sure Jerry is really Jerry

Beta Reader to make sense..

germaphobe:
typical divepen1, must you leave us in great suspense nawaooo, abeg come update sharp sharp my blood don d hot. Nice episode up there

Thanks.. Update coming soon.

LightQueen:
Thanks for the update
Thumbs down

Ojoro..

Ann2012:
Thanks for the update

Thanks a lot.. For loving it.