Dirty: A Tale Of Akintoye The Wanderer

02 | Death

Job 14:14

If a man dies, will he live again? I will wait all the days of my struggle until my change and release will come.

MADAM BIMBO'S FLOOZIE brothel always had many people swarming around the entrance and inside of the shabby enterprise. A hard woman who made a living from bringing in the slum girls and turning them into an advantage to her pocket. But she treated them right, as right as a woman who ran a dirty business could, except for when they were in the hands of her customers. Then she would not meddle.

This was the place where useless men, some single and married, came to satisfy their filthy urges. The women themselves became hustlers, trying to survive by making money in the way they were taught how. Once or twice Madam Bimbo would get girls from Akintoye and his crew after they had deemed them good enough to keep for their benefit.

So somewhere in Lagos' dark corners evil happened. Another norm of the day in this part of the country. Nobody could blame them because the country wasn't trying to help them either.

The brothel also served as a mini club where drinks were passed and illicit drugs were exchanged at every corner.

Madam Bimbo attended to Akintoye in the makeshift VIP area secluded away from all the noise. The crew came in at the early hours of the morning after all the ransom money had been received, drank and burned money on the girls to their satisfaction creating a buzzing uproar in the building that only they could. Everyone had left except Akin who sat at the same spot drinking glass after glass of beer. It was his way of not feeling, he had to become numb in order to not hate himself.

"You are not liking any of my flavors?" Madam Bimbo asked, not referring to drinks.

Akintoye's mind went back to what he had done to that lady. Her dead open eyes with dried tears. The memory was replaced with another familiar face in the same position. She was fair and beautiful, young and full of life, eyes filled with sadness. She too had her innocence taken by a monster and he couldn't do anything about it.

He had become the same person he feared. Akintoye felt angry with himself, he wanted to die but was too much of a coward to grant himself that easy escape.

Madam Bimbo worried about his silence. She feared he harbored too many things in his heart that can cause any sane man to go mad. Sort of like a ticking time bomb, she was trying to defuse before time ran out. After all she was the one to find him that day with the girl in his arms already dead. She took him in and brought him up as hers, in her own environment.

She wanted better for him because he didn't deserve to see more hardship in his life given all he'd already been through. However, the boy had seen too much to go back to normal, he was scarred and not knowing how to manage that has turned him into the alternate person he promised years ago not to be.

A man who ripped the lives of people. Maybe as a sick form to make up for what he endured in his childhood.

"I'm not in the mood, Bo." His voice came out gruff, "What I need is another bottle of club or something stronger this time. Why are you serving me children's drink eh? I saw all those hard bottles back there," he lazily lifted his arm to point back, "I need those ones."

Madam Bimbo waved the girls in the room away.

"What is keeping you like this?" She asked. "Three months, Akin. You have been drinking yourself to a stupor. Kini o jẹ? What is the matter? You don tire?"

"No na." He sighed frustratedly. It was the guilt and regret eating him up. He knew. Akin knew once down this path the only way out was death. Ever since he took on the position of the man he viewed as a father figure, and his eyes were opened to the reality of the pressure, the things he had to sacrifice, the evil on his hands it made him sick.

"I am just tired. You know sleep hardly comes to me. How can I when all I see are... things? Don't try to coddle me, I'm a hard guy," he beat his chest. "And you're not my mother, Bo. Let me drink myself to death sef. Fi mi silẹ. Leave me."

"Oya die!" Madam Bimbo was tired of his antics. "Die and go and join the rest of them. Abi that's what will bring them back? How many years will you carry this baggage? You can-"

Red entered the room just then so Bimbo had to excuse herself and shove her worries aside. She had a business to run instead of going back and forth with a monster, as he calls himself.

Red dropped the bag of money at Akin's feet. "Twenty million Naira. Less than the other day but many didn't have people to pay the ransom today." Akintoye's now red eyes watched Red with confirmed suspicion. Someone had been shorting the total expenses for the past month. Another headache he had to deal with. As a precaution he appointed a spy to secretly count the money and report back to him.

Forty five million was their total that night.

His jaw ticked as he gulped the remaining alcohol in the bottle at a go.

He said nothing when Red started arranging the money in the hidden panel on the ground. Akin was drunk and unpredictable but mostly angry that Red would try to take what was his behind his back because his father had chosen Akin instead of him to lead.

A click sound caused Red to become stiff. "You think say you be God? You think you're god here!?" Akin had snuck up on him, pressing his gun at the back of his head. "Abi you dey think say I no fit notice that you dey steal my money? Oga Red thought he'd take twenty five fucking million and more from me and I wouldn't notice. Me. Akintoye the don of this place. I run here o."

Red stood up slowly.

"Don't move!"

"You know wetin go happen if you shoot me. That title be play, guy. It's a joke handed over to you so you could have a place here. My father isn't alive to protect you anymore. If you know that you don't want to end up six foot under you'll drop that gun now."

Akin was livid, not thinking and overcome with insecurities. 'Did he think I'm stupid?' 'Do they think I can't defend myself? They don't accept me here too.'

Red noticed his hesitation. "You can't shoot me," he smirked. "You are scared. Akin you never kill person before. Don't start now."

In a blur Red knocked the pistol out of his hand. He took that chance to lock Akin's head in a chokehold between his muscled arm. Akintoye struggled to breathe. In his state of intoxication he was no match against Red. Heck, he could barely see or stand straight. Although he was getting weaker he managed to jab Red in his abdomen.

Caught off guard Akin took the chance to reach for the gun on the floor. Before Red could retaliate with his own pistol Akin pulled the trigger.

Red's body went limp instantly.

Suddenly he could hear every noise around him. With wide eyes he looked to make sure no one saw. Akin was petrified and out of breath. 'Who had heard?' he thought. His hands shook as he quickly started using the bag Red came in with to pack as much money as he could. Red was not wrong. He would pay for his mistake with his life.

A life for another.

"Breathe, breathe," he calmed his racing heart before stepping out into the bright room. His eyes flickered from body to body pressed against themselves to find the entrance. All the while he struggled to act natural.

He was just at the doorway when he heard a scream. Someone had found the body. Instantly all heads turned to him. The crew members present started shooting and running after him.

Akintoye took off with hidden speed for a drunk. He ran through the slums, over rusted fences, knocked down shops and went straight into the bush. He looked over his shoulder every second to make sure he wasn't being followed.

Akin didn't have time to consider the blood of a life he stained his hands with.

∞
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