Guilty Eye

Chapter 7

The first thing I realized upon regaining consciousness was that my hands were free. I opened my eyes and immediately closed them,feeling blind.I then opened them slowly until they had adjusted to the harsh light. I looked around slowly, confused.

I was in what seemed like an upholstered room. The bed I lay on had no sheet but was soft and plush.I staggered to my feet and ambled around the room,touching the walls to confirm my first impression. I was in padded room.And search as I could, I failed to find a door.

I looked up and as I had guessed, there,in one upper corner hung a CCTV camera.

I walked to the corner and started gesticulating wildly.

Soon there was a beeping sound to the right and a section of what seemed to be the wall slid back and in came a man and a woman. I gaped.

I recognized both of them. He was the man I had seen in Mudodo hill that morning! As for her,well ,she was my father-in-law's wife.

"How are you feeling, mkwasha?" She purred.

I was at a loss for words. What was my wife's stepmother doing here?

Her companion took a step towards me,the expression on his scarred face terrifying. His camouflage fatigues hung tightly to his muscled frame. An unmistakable stench of dagga permeated into the room,and as he came closer, the light seemed to dim as it bounced off the blackest man I have ever seen.

His voice was gruff."Stop gawking and answer the question. "

I was confused."Umm...ah,what question?"

Before I even finished speaking I was on the floor,my cheek numb,my ears ringing and the taste of blood in my mouth.

The giant stooped down,grabbed me up by the collar and hauled me up.He shouted the words in my ear,nearly bursting my eardrums.
"HOW ARE YOU FEELING,MKWASHA!"

"I'm fine. I'm fine,ma'am."

I was thrown unceremoniously onto the bed.

My stepmother in-law looked on,seemingly unconcerned about the rough treatment. She was nicely turned out in a blue fur coat, and jeans.Her wavy hair was tucked into a matching hat.

"Ba Blessed," she said with sigh."You've caused us a lot of trouble. First you saw my friend here, fleeing from a murder scene, then you escape when he tried to silence you when you were coming to the city. He lost track of you,mkwasha.If it was not for my resourcefulness we would never have found you. And now Dr Mate is dead.Tell me,Ba Blessed, how did you kill him?"

"I...I..."

At that the gruff gorilla lunged at me again. "You murdered my partner! For that you gonna die."

I ducked out of his reach but I knew that I did not stand a chance in the confined room.

"Jerima!" My name in-law snapped and he stopped. "Remember your orders?"

'Yes, ma'am. "

****

After they left I found myself fighting tears.It was frustrating and humiliating to be manhandled by a gorilla and be stripped naked while my wife's mother-- well stepmother-- -watched.

The duo had left me wearing a blue hospital gown. They had told me I had no chance of getting out of the most secure mental health facility in the country.

Now as I lay on the bed all the strenuous events of the day caught up with me. I dropped into a dreamless sleep.

I did not sleep for long before I was awoken by a ruckus outside the room.There were repeated thuds as if someone was pounding on the door.I sat up abruptly,limping to the door and put my hand on it. I immediately withdrew it as a revebrating blow ripped through it. I jumped back just in time.

The door fell in under another heavy blow and I beheld the most beautiful woman in the world,also known as Portia Percival, aka Ma Blessed, aka my wife.

She wore a black leather jacket and pants tucked into military style boots. The gun in a holster fastened around her thigh told me she was in her full-on commando mode.Did I tell you she was in the army before we got married?

She stood framed in the door, her lovely hands curled around the handle of an ugly hammer.Her face lit up in that  world--stopping way of hers,inciting a somewhat similar response from my heart.

The next moment she dropped the hammer and leaped gazelle-like towards me. We fell to the floor in a hug.

"Oh,Ba Blessed." She crooned into my neck."I missed you so much."

"Hmm,huh,heh." Yes I was so much touched I could not form an intelligible thought, except:This is life.Oh!How I missed the smell of her.

After a while though, some semblance of sanity started coming so we stood up.

"How are the kids?"That was the first thing I wanted to know.

" They are fine, "her voice was wistful. " They miss you. Grace insisted on bringing the guitar. "

"Oh,she did, did she?

Portia planted a kiss on my lips before looking at her watch."We need to move now.The guards will be waking up soon."

We jogged through the narrow sterile door-lined corridor with the double doors at the end.

Before we reached them,they burst open.Jerima marched in,hate on his face and an AK rifle in his hand.