yorhmienerd:
Shebi na AJ city u dey?

Yes.

ruggedadventure:
Op.

Na me you buy cold stout for?
Thank you oo, e dun tay wey I shayo. You know, recession and stuff

Tgold1:
Good Work bro..... Itesiwaju stori yi, loje wa logun!

Abeg translate the Yoruba

I don show like show-yinka

Mama Saliu said something. It should be the plant. In an unfortunate twist of events, such a plant was a total stranger to Suilyat's ears. She sat on the ground, crying softly, cursing her luck. If only she knew the plant, John wouldn't have to die.

Lost in her sorrows, was she, when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned. It was the quieter or the women, the thin one, whom was accused of sleeping with the Ebeyo's husband.

"I know the leave" she said.

She was confused. What did this woman abuser did to deserve such goodness from a woman he had made mockery of? A puerile thought crept into her mind. What if this broom-like woman wanted to escape? Before she could settle on one of the polarizing thoughts on her mind, the thin lady had dashed out of the house, running into the wild. Suliyat looked at John, placing her hand on John's head. Ebeyo looked on like a mad man who was staring at his reflection on a mirror. Silently in the depths of her heart, she was praying, hoping that John survives.

Hatred, disgust, was filled in her eyes when she looked at the old woman. She couldn't just help but be disgusted at the sight of someone who would want to kill her son, and had all sorts of fetish objects as souvenirs in her home. It even smelt like the devil's dungeon, where roasted skin is incense.

Whilst waiting for the thin lady that might never come, Mama Saliu, in no hurry, or fear of death, talked slowly, telling Suliyat what she did what she did. Her son, Saliu held a grudge against her, on several occasions attempting to kill her because she refused to make a powerful 'ishe' for him- a charm, that would make him untouchable. Mama Saliu, knew that her son was a snake, hideos and evil, hence her refusal. She told Suliyat that Saliu vowed to kill her, that was why, with the help of her sister in their witch cult, they prepared a charm guarding the house against. If any man entered, death would be his welcome gift.

Suliyat listened with rapt attention, although it did little or nothing to calm her blood from boiling with hatred.

"What about the blood?"

"na my husband blood. My sister use am do the charm"

Suliyat wanted to throw up, she was disgusted and terrified to be in the presence of a cold blooded killer, a witch. Was anything impossible in this horror called Ajegunle?

"he been get the death sickness"

The kiss didn't tranquilize whatever was happening to John though, it only made him fight harder but 'harder' didn't quite do the trick. Much to the beffudlement of everybody in the room, the muscular man, who had been reduced to a nobody began convulsing, as if he was thrown into an icy lake in the heart of Moscow.

Suliyat ran over to him "John! John!" she called, but no word came out of his mouth. He had stopped convulsing. John was dead. Suliyat fell to the floor, like a maniac, sobbing. Ebeyo and the thin lady, however hard they tried to be emphatic, couldn't cry for someone they barely knew. He had earlier acted like he could lift the world from its feet.

Surging forward, in an obvious rage, the scorned woman, Suliyat dragged Mama Saliu by the rag on her. "Why shouldn't I kill you, witch?!" Ebeyo fought hard and freed Suliyat's hands on the woman, holding her back. Even though Suliyat struggled hard to free herself, strength was on the fat lady's side.

The accused witch laid down back on the rough ground. Her lips parted slowly, as three words emerged from wherever words emerged from.

"Him never die..." Suliyat was astounded, in shock at this revelation, she came closer "now" the old woman concluded. For this to be said, there was some sorts of remedy, anything, that could drag John back to the shores of life. Suliyat looked at him, he was sinking deeper, and deeper, sweat drenched his entire body. She turned to face the old woman, asking "what?".

A weak cough. Suliyat looked closely at the old woman, but it wasn't she who coughed. Her surprised squinted eyes met those of Ebeyo and the other woman. Their eyes refuse to agree. There was just another person in the place that could have coughed. But that person was dead, or not.

"John?" Suliyat ran over to where the fallen man was, holding his hand. Slowly, his eyes were opening. The joy was evident in the journalist's countenance. Trembling still, John managed to say "thank you".

"For what?" Suliyat asked, surprised, taking the light, black jacket off herself, and used it to pet John's forehead.

The man was in pain, but his lips formed a thin smile. "the kiss" he replied.

Suliyat almost hit him with the back of her hand. So foolish. How could one be dying and was so happy about a kiss? John's eyes were turning pale, death was on its way.

"John" Suliyat called, holding his hands tighter "you will not die, you will fight this. For me, for us"

"I ca-can't" John retreated, breaking into a sob. The other women in the room looked at them with pity, as the previously evasive tears were now camping in their eyes.

"Yes, you can"

"Here" John placed his hand on his chest "apply pressure. It may give me three extra seconds"

Suliyat pressed on his chest, weeping like a four year old dropped at home whilst the mother attended a meeting.

"You said you can do something, please" Suliyat begged the old woman profusely, her veins threatened to pop out of her forehead, catarrh streamed down her nose. She wasn't prepared to have someone die in her arms.

e get one leave wey fit save am. But e hard to see" the old woman spoke, more audible and fluid like she hadn't done before.

"what plant?" Suliyat asked calmly, hoping it would be something she was familiar with.

Suliyat shifted closer to the old woman "What do you mean?"

Mama Saliu coughed thrice, very dry and pitiful, but all pity that remained in Suliyat had been thrown off the surface of Earth. She just cared for the truth, and John.

"Wetin dat one dey talk?" the old woman asked Ebeyo weakly, she couldn't hear English.

The fat woman, the floor-ridden person's former client did a better job, by explaining what the journalist wanted to ask Mama Saliu.

"I know it !" suliyat screamed, as everybody looked at her surprised, including John, who was now experiencing something inside of him, but he refused to let it show, even though sweat trickled down his face like rain being forced from the clouds. He gropled his belly in pain, he couldn't fight no more.

Suliyat moved closer to him, supporting his weight with her body. "the woman who was acting mysteriously outside the gate. When you asked her where you should drop the key, she said 'if' you came out, not 'when'. She knows something, and this woman knows too"

Too puzzled, was John, as he saw pigs swimming in the air, he knew something fatal was happening to him, and he couldn't resist, he was going to go down, like a helpless cockroach, without a fight.

"What have you done to me?" he raged, approaching the woman, staggering, still clutching the sides of his belly.

The old woman seemed to be ready to talk, but not because she heard the incessant gibberish called English which John spewed, but because, her conscience was eating her up inside.

"I be herbalist" the woman said softly that it almost came out like a whisper. However, it wasn't the information any of them present wanted to know. "that woman, wey give you the key, she be my" the old woman coughed more severly, sitting up as she did, slowly. "she be my sister" she finally completed the sentence. It still, wasn't the 'koto of the matter'.

"the charm wey I put for dis hauz, na for Saliu. Him wan kill me" she revealed, as the quiet thin lady gasped, why would a son want to kill his mother?

As if she read the lady's thoughts, Mama Saliu spoke again "the boy na devil".

All the while, Suliyat held her mouth in surprise. John had fell to the ground, and his breathing was eloping. Tears formed in Suliyat's eyes as she bent over him, holding his hand, praying he doesn't die. The more she prayed, the severe his troubles were.

"Kiss me" John demanded, in an overtone of love, he knew it would be his last wish. He never thought that Nollywood movies made sense but here was he, dying from a spiritual attack, and having a pretty damsel cry over him, and he demands for a kiss. How poetic.

It was as if the sun stopped shining, the moon's light no more, the world paused, and just he, and Suliyat, as she kissed him. He closed his eyes. What a perfect way to die, he thought.

Not to bore you with the specifics, Damilola and I blossomed into peas inside a pod, unseperable, unseen to the outside world. Love made my heart flutter like butterflies, anytime I set eyes on her.

There came a day, when we were enjoying each others company in a secluded part of the campus She rested her head on my shoulders and I wore a huge satisfactory smile on my face, thanking the heavens, at the same time wondering what I had done to be so lucky.

"Dami" I called out to her "Yes, love?" she replied, sitting up, looking into my eyes with so much love that I couldn't contain.

"You remember how we met?" I asked, placing my arm around her.

"It was in the track field" she said, as I smiled still. I noticed that afterwards, she bit her lower lip in regret.

"What is it?"

"Nothing" she replied in a dour manner. I observed the shift of moods on her face. She tried so hard to fake a smile, but what she truly felt, wouldn't allow it.

I shifted closer to her, our hips grazing each others, "You never told me what you were doing in the track field that day, for I know you terribly hate sports"

She broke into a laugh, turning her face away from mine.

"You're doing it" I said, gently shifting her neck back towards me.

"Doing what?" she asked innocently, with her pretty eyes almost melting my resistance.

"You're shielding your emotions with these deceitful laughter. I can help, I can-"

"Stop it, Chike! Stop! There's more to life than just poetry" she raged at me.

I was taken aback, shocked. That was the first time she had ever yelled at me. I almost wanted to give up on her, on us. But no, love perseveres. I held her hands, looking into her eyes, telling her ''it's okay".

A moment of bliss; our kiss, she fondled my tongue with hers, I caught her lips off-guard, we licked our mouths dry, not even giving the faintest attention to anybody sneaking up on us.

She broke it, the kiss. As she sat down on the grass, her back to me, and said;

"I couldn't run"

I was stranded in my thoughts. "What did you say?" I asked to get a clearer sentence that would enable me know why my angel, the reason I lived, was sad.

"I-I couldn't run, and he-he-raped me"

Great read.
I know I have the blessings of Fiyah, so lemme say this...If you enjoyed this, and you're all in for a suspense-filled, emotional, tragic tale, you should check my signature.

I'm waiting to see y'all reading.

This is a well-crafted and thoughtful poem. Wife beaters, shey una dun hear?

John entered the house stealthily, then Ebeyo, as she entered, John's face shifted rather uncomfortably, fearing if her body mass wouldn't bring the building crashing down. Suliyat entered lastly, looking around as she entered. There was nothing that suggested that the house belonged to a 'mericine woman', in the words of Ebeyo. Not yet.

The bucket was the first thing John sought out. He approached it, the ladies behind him. He stretched his neck, and inside the bucket, was blood. John shook, fearing the worst. Could it possibly be, human blood? He turned back, and his reaction was rubbing off on the women.

"What is it?" Suliyat asked, fear evident in her face.

John took some steps backward, coming closer to her "Blood" he said.

"Allahu Akbar" Suliyat exclaimed, John was terribly afraid of the prospect of what they might find inside the house. Suliyat too was, as that was the first time he had ever spoken in Hausa. Looking briefly at Ebeyo and the other lady, he didn't needed to be psychic to tell that a huge cloud of fear was hovering over all of them.

But, they couldn't go back. They were too in it now. The mystery must be unravelled. Ebeyo seeked to take to her heels, but John immediately warned her against so.

"This is Saliu's mother house, you are sure" John asked the question for the second time.

"I be like blind pesin?! Na the house!" Ebeyo raged, seeting in anger.

Suliyat asked "What do you sell sef? We forgot to ask you that"

"Yes" John corroborated

"Ehmmm, I dey sell spoons, plate, knife"

"Utensils, you mean" John suggested

"Anyone" she replied, with a hiss.

"The boys were killed by knife stabs" Suliyat remarked, recalling the details her editor-in-chief filled her in before she set out.

"She probably might have given them to the killers" John accused.

"No ooo" Ebeyo flung her arms to the sky in disagreeance "my armpit clean for dat matter"

The talks suspended for a while, and they went closer to the house, knocking on the front door twice. No reply. John forced it open, and what they saw shocked them to the marrow.

An old-age stricken woman, lying feebly on the ground, her skin had been over-run
by her bones, that they wondered if this wasn't a skeleton. They thought so, until the person coughed dryly. Skeletons didn't cough.

Pity drove into their hearts, and they let their guard down, moving slowly, slowly, getting closer to the woman. Upon closer observation, Ebeyo realized that this was no other than her former employee, Mama Saliu.

"Mama, good evening" she greeted

The aged woman coughed again. Suliyat was worried about this and looked around for anything that seemed like water so she could give some to the woman. Not only were the walls unplastered, thick cobwebs hung eerily on its corners "Wh-wh-who be that?" Mama Saliu asked

"Na Ebeyo" the fat woman responded, knowing that the 'skeleton' would recognize the name.

Mama Saliu inhaled deeply "ok" she said weakly

"We dey find Saliu"

"W-we?" the old woman asked, her surprise showed in her tone. It was then that they realized she was blind. Why shouldn't she be? Living here alone, totally secluded from the outside world, Suliyat thought. She was even a special kind of survivor not to be dead.

"I no know where that bastard dey" she finally responded, with powerful hate towards the person she was asked about his whereabouts.

John felt the hate in her crooked voice. He knew it was only natural that she wouldn't want to talk about such a person. He pleaded "Mama, abeg", interlocking his hands into each other as though she could see him.

Mama Saliu shook uncomfortably upon hearing John's voice, her almost-inexistent eyebrow raising higher in surprise "Na man be dat?" she asked, as all present looked at themselves, wondering why the over-reacting over John's plea.

"Him no suppose come here" she finally said, the words coated in doom.