The Execution of Atha

CHAPTER ONE

It is kind of funny if you really think about it, my day started off like any other day. At dawn we all rose for our morning prayers, made our way through the chilly weather to the centre of our compound where our church was located.

The sermon began as usual, however, our leader, simply known as The Enlightened One announced to us in an excited voice that sometime last night, God had spoken to him and that we were to cleanse ourselves of all worldly things because the world was finally ending.

Little did I know back then that in a nutshell he meant that we were expected to kill ourselves with no questions asked?

When we returned home, my mother Leya one of The Enlightened One’s many wives seemed so very distressed. She kept on moving from room to room in such haste and it was only when we went back outside that I realised that the whole community was in a panicked state.

Unlike the other wives, my mother had only managed to have one child with The Enlightened One which made her the designated punching bag of the whole community, well from my point of view anyway.

Just like the other wives, my half siblings avoided me like the plague and with the compound thrown into chaos; I had no one to confide in.

Two hours later and we were all gathered back in the church and for some strange reason, my mother decided to sit us at the very back which was unlike her as we were expected to sit in the designated area for The Enlightened One’s wives and children up in the front.

I did not get the chance to continue to ponder on the thought as The Enlightened One began to speak some gibberish through the microphone before him and soon enough, everyone else followed suit.

That was when things turned south as two of the male church elders Kasuluba and Mwiza began to open gas tanks strategically placed within the church.

I did try to gain my mother’s attention by pulling on her dress but she acted as though I was not standing right next to her.
Once all the gas thanks were open, The Enlightened One suddenly stopped chanting signalling to the rest of the community that our end was near.

With a blow torch in hand and a huge smile on his face, The Enlightened One proceeded to turn on the blow torch.

It felt as though from then on my life moved in slow motion as my mother proceeded to push me out of the open church door with such brute force that I immediately fell onto my back and with one last lingering look of sorrow, my mother shut the church door in my face before the church exploded right before my eyes killing everyone that I knew and loved.

If you think that is the end of my story then I am sorry to disappoint you because a couple of hours later, I was arrested for the murder of The Moon Beamers Community which I later on learnt that it was actually considered a cult by the state and that is where my story begins.