The Witness of Usehjiki

Eleven

Osa didn't think about it when she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the unmistakable form of the witness. She simply got up, made her way through the oily, chunky grass, and grabbed her with all her strength.

Except, instead of just tossing her aside, the witness had flown through the air like a ragdoll.

"It worked," she heard the pastor say as an unmistakable rage welled up inside of Osa.

Of all the people she'd had to deal with, recently, she couldn't believe she'd been fooled by his profession of faith and truth and love. She'd thought he'd be different but he wasn't. At the end of the day, he was just another clans-blood who was ready to step over someone else to protect himself.

He was just like the rest of them. Pastor or not.

Osa couldn't believe she'd thought they'd help her. She'd come from a self-sufficient clan that never relied on anyone else. This was why. People who weren't family didn't care. A man who claimed to love equally was just as self-serving as Enechi.

As she inched towards him, intent on snuffing the life out of him, she heard the wispy sound of a light foot touching the ground behind her. Instantly, she knew the witness was on her feet again. Osa couldn't explain how she knew it but she could feel the witness moving. Just as surely as she could feel the thrum of the speeding vehicles moving ever closer.

She could hear the buzzing of nocturnal mosquitos as clearly as she could hear the breath of multiple totas attempting to flee the compound in the midst of the carnage.

Regardless of all the people who'd come together to do this to Osa, there was one person she needed to deal with first.

As she turned to the witness, she saw the woman's broken neck shift from a weird angle as it snapped back into place. From where she was, Osa could see that the witness was looking right at her. She could see Osa, just as clearly as Osa could see her in the horrid light from flickering flames still lit on discarded torches.

Osa lunged at her, reaching the witness with supernatural quickness as she punched her in the face, holding her in place to land another punch. But before she could, Seneseba caught Osa's hand, turned her around and slammed Osa right into the ground. Screaming, Osa pressed against the ground and pushed herself up, ramming that elbow into Seneseba's face. She held the woman by the back of her neck and drove her knee right into Senesba's face.

She had no moment to wait. She'd watched in horror as Seneseba absorbed her sisters and her mother. No weapon could kill a witness. Cut her to bits and she would join back. Shoot her in the heart and her heart will heal. The witness was indestructible. But maybe that was because no one else had tried to imbibe her the way that another witness would.

No one else, that is, until Osa.

Holding the witness by her head, Osa took a sharp breath as she willed Seneseba to be sucked in... to become a part of them, the way that she'd done to Osa's family.

She waited.

She opened her eyes. Seneseba stood in place, watching Osa with an unreadable look on her face. Shocked and confused, she pressed her hands harder on Seneseba's face, but she took Osa's right hand off her face, twisted it again, but this time she held Osa by the right shoulder and wrenched so hard that Osa screamed in pain.

From many stories, she'd heard about it, but the thought of it could never have prepared Osa for the deathly hurt of her shoulder being ripped apart as her arm was wrung from her body. She fell to the ground as her flesh stretched, itching to heal itself but finding nothing in place as she bled out on the floor, struggling to keep her right side up, even as the pain continued to deepen, with every moment that her body couldn't find her hand.