Bayo looked at the picture in front of him. It was the framed picture of Atinuke, his heartthrob. He missed her so much that some nights he sees her dressed in rose dancing to the song coming from his croaky stereo.

"I shall marry you Atinuke. I will make money and make you mine." He always said to her.

"You should do that quickly. My father may give me to Alao, the biggest merchant of pepper in Oshogbo." She would reply.

Bayo wished he had the money. Done with schooling and with a 2.1 CGPA, he hadn't been able to get something worth doing. All the applications he had written and the interviews he had gone to amounted to nothing. He was desperate. There was no way he could live life without Atinuke.

Suddenly the light on his Tecno Y3 started blinking. A call had come through. Picking his phone, he looked at the screen. It was his childhood friend.

"Hey, Chibuzor, how far na?" He asked. Bayo could hear the loud protests of the worms in his stomach.

"Baba, I dey o. Where you dey na?" Chibuzor asked from the other end. His voice sounded an octave higher than what Bayo was used to. His friend was super excited.

"I dey for house na. Where else I wan dey? Buhari still be President o."

"Omo, I dey show now now. Just pam wait for me." Chibuzor said as he ended the call.

Bayo looked at his phone and shook his head. He wondered why Chibuzor was excited. Well, he must have gotten a job, he concluded as he stood up and made his way outside to douse his head with water. People say that pouring water at intervals on the head have a way of calming hunger down. Bayo believed that too.

He was still feeling the coolness of the water when he heard the sound of jamming stereo. A car was driving down his street towards the one shop apartment he occupied as his house. Lifting his head up, he looked through the windscreen to see Chibuzor behind the wheel. Bayo was shocked. Maybe Chibuzor had become a driver. Imagine a graduate becoming a driver because the leaders of the country chose to enrich themselves than provide job for the citizenry.

"Ogbeni, fara baale!" Chibuzor screamed as he jumped out of the car. A clean Infinity Jeep.

"Omo Igbo, how far na?" Bayo asked too weak to move towards Chibuzor. It wasn't like his friend was smelling. On the contrary, his friend appeared well dressed with golden chains dangling from his neck. He also held a bottle of champagne and some wads of Naira notes in his hand.

"Guy, show your person love na. Move enter my hand na. Abi you no wan celebrate my success?" Chibuzor asked laughing obviously enjoying the effect he was having on Bayo.

Moments later, in one of the biggest restaurant in town and eating a whole chicken with a big bottle of Udeme 1749 by his side, Bayo asked Chibuzor the secret behind his success.

"Omo, you remember that my girlfriend? That one wey I say I wan marry?" Chibuzor asked.

"Aisha, that Hausa girl. I remember her na. What about her?" Bayo asked.

"Omo, I plus her." Chibuzor replied coldly.

His reply shook Bayo to his very marrows. Chibuzor had sacrificed his girlfriend, someone he said he loved on the altar of personal gains and ambitions. He had killed someone so maga would pay in Dollars. And here is he, Bayo, enjoying the proceeds of an ill gotten wealth. Blood money.

"O boy, na the way be that?" Bayo asked slowly, the fleshy, tasty chicken suddenly becoming sawdust in his mouth.

"Omo, na the only way o. Ehen, what of Atinuke na?" Chibuzor asked innocently.

Bayo looked at his friend and pictured himself landing the bottle of Big Stout on his head and using its shrapnel to slit the jugular in his neck.

Him, Bayo, use his girlfriend for money rituals? The world truly has gone below the dogs, it is now contending with the slime of the earth.

The end.

LOVE AND MONEY

Joey