Ex Vivo (#2 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 6

Akoma opened her eyes and found herself standing in a brightly lit bathroom. There was a man panting for breath before her, hanging upside down over a sealed bathtub with his feet tied to the shower by wires with his hands tied to his back. The tap was running and the water had risen to a level where it almost touched the man's head. He looked very scared and a cut on the left side of his face was bleeding, his blood dripping into the water in the bathtub. Akoma stared down at him with her jaw clenched and her hands balled into fists. As soon as she placed one foot onto the edge of the bathtub to lean over it, she suddenly felt the scene was a déjà vu. She had done exactly the same thing some time ago and was wearing the same clothes - a blouse over shorts - and she was barefooted. She was not in her own hotel room but had lured the man into this bathroom to serve him his ex gratia for divorcing his wife to be with a nursing student he had been having an affair with since his first child with his ex-wife. Akoma remembered that the man's ex-wife was at the hospital struck down with stroke at that time, and she had vowed to punish her ex-husband after stealthily paying her a visit to draw enough inspiration to hunt the heartbreaker.

"Please," the man pleaded. He was a banker, and Akoma had not given him the chance to change from his uniform that night after work. She had caught him on the streets and flirted with him long enough to suggest to him a one-night stand which turned out to be his doom in disguise. "Don't do this to me. I have a child - and - um - "

"An ex-wife?" Akoma heard herself saying. These were the same words she remembered saying. She was not sure if she was in a time loop or merely thinking what she was doing was familiar. "The mother of your children is at the hospital - bedridden. Do you have any idea how that feels? So busy hammering a nursing student who is - what? Eight years younger than your wife? You honestly think all the cash you've spent on her will pay off? Did you think you'd just go and marry the girl and live happily ever after with her? You're so wrong."

"Please - I beg you! I will not do that again. I promise!" the man shouted helplessly but Akoma hushed him and slapped him in the face with the back of her hand.

"What won't you do again?"

The man opened his mouth to speak but paused. The water started to climb up his forehead and edged towards his eyebrows. He tried to keep his head up above it, but strained his neck and gave up. There was nothing terrifying than knowing you deserved death because you were guilty of sin - and your executioner was the same lady you had looked forward to enjoy a fling with. "I am sorry."

"Say that to your wife," Akoma said, took off her foot and held the edges of the bathtub to lean closer and taunt the doomed man. "I hear your death approaching with each drop of water." The water started rising beyond his eyes and the man started to grow restless. "I know you can hardly hear what I am saying because your mind is clouded with the fear of death." She bit he lip and chuckled. "Are you a Christian, Mr. Asamoah?" He did not reply. Akoma continued, "You would have told me if you were. I guess not. 'Stolen waters is sweet'. Have you heard that scripture before? It's in the book of Proverbs." The man called Mr. Asamoah blinked as he whimpered in anguish. "I agree with that scripture because - well - you never suffered to have those waters, and you drink it secretly - gulp - gulp - gulp -". The water rose slowly up his nose and he started to gasp for breath. "When nobody's watching - until your ex gratia catches up with you, and the same waters you stole, become the flood that drowns you." Instantly, the water climbed over Mr. Asamoah's nose and edged towards his lips. Akoma watched the man struggle in his awkward position under the torture of having water rush into his nostrils without his arms to stop it. The struggle continued even as the water rose beyond the chin to the neck, and Akoma prevented him from attempting to pull himself out by holding his head down with her eyes averted towards the ceiling. In less than a minute, it was over.