TAKEN

[13]

Faintly, I watched Dozie and his boys pick me up from where General's boys dumped me right in front of the bus stop. I was pumped with drugs and my surroundings made no sense to me.

It was still early morning and people were going about their business. Nigerians and their love for early morning hustle is like water and plants.
Every sound business-minded person from that country never joked with early morning. It was when people made it or lost it.

Although everything was blurry and full of fog, their continued movements and loud conversations unsettled me. Everything moved like plants and humans walking in the air.

The pain in my ears transitioned into loud ringing and ache around my head and neck. My legs felt like jelly and strength failed me on every side. The ache in my ribs wouldn't let me turn my body. I felt like someone in another's body, I couldn't move it.

I would think that after being there for quite some time, someone, a good Samaritan maybe would help me. Instead, women hissed and spit on me while the men called me a whore in a child's body.

Trickles of blood ran all over my body. I just didn't know where the blood was oozing out from, for it felt like my whole body had open wounds everywhere.

If not for a stray dog that barked off another man who also tried to rape me in my very disoriented state, he would have also had his way with me right there on the streets.

The sky kept spinning like the wheels of hell as Dozie's men lifted me off the wet ground.
Like a feather, I floated in the air, in their arms, wishing to die. The more they tossed me around while trying to get me in their car, the more my body yelled out in excruciating pain.

"Are you sure she's not dead?" Dozie's voice asked the guy who was fitting my body in the car.

"No, she's alive." Came the voice above my head.

"Are you very sure?" He asked again.

"Very sure boss. I checked her pulse myself." A cold finger went around my neck, pressing gently all over. "She still has life in her. But we must get her to the camp doctor before she dies."

"Or maybe, we should just dump her in the river," Dozie suggested.

"And tell Mama what?" The same guy questioned.

"Yes, you would have to answer to Mama and you know she is with her assets." A deeper voice interjected.

"Well, before you toss her somewhere, why don't you call Mama first and tell her how we found her, then she can decide what to do." Another voice which I didn't register suggested.

Following their communication, I concluded that there were four guys in the car and only one of them seemed to have a real conscience and maybe a bit of medical experience.

Silence followed and I waited with bated breath, hoping and praying these guys give me another chance to live. Even though death was calling my name, life pulled me with its stronger strings.

Another minute passed and no one said a thing. I could hear the car running and the sounds of cars and people around me.

"No, this lady is valuable to Mama, plus she makes more money than the other girls. Saving her would be in Mama's best interest." Dozie was speaking now while punching his phone which made a beep, beep that increased the pain and pressure in my head.

I tried to move, to show that I was alive but my brain refused to pass the message to my limbs, so I stayed still, listening.

"Yeah, you know it. And that General guy could request for her again." The guy who had my head in his palm added.