GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Eight

              I was supposed to start reading so I could cover up but I just couldn’t read not eat. Ibrahim’s absence was making me feel feverish like he would completely disappear from my life and I would forget him. I kept looking at my phone, monitoring the time but it was as if it was running backward. By 6:PM, I checked my message box, he might have sent a message but there was none. 7:PM came and no message, then 9:PM still no message. I picked my phone and sent a message to him.
‘Please.’ It went but he did not reply.
I was becoming restless and panic was setting in when my phone blinked.
‘You can come out now.’
I was running out almost immediately, it was only when I got to the gate that I remembered I did not close my door. I hurriedly ran back.
     As I stepped outside, I noticed the night was not that dark. It was clear enough to walk without a torch and clear enough to see a little of his face. He was not standing by the gate but I knew he was there because I could feel his presence. A bike was driven to where I was standing, there was a big bag tied to it. The driver stopped very close to me.
“Hop in.”
It was him and he was wearing those kind of helmet that covered someone’s face. I looked around and saw people were still active and going about their life. No one was looking my way, none were concerned that a bike like that were rear in Ekosodin.
“Ella.”
I hated the way my body reacted when he called my name.
“Where are we going to?”
“To wherever I’m taking you to. Five seconds.”
I knew he was not bluffing about the five seconds thing but there was no way I could navigate my way between him and the big bag. As if he knew my thoughts, he shifted to the bike tank giving me the space I needed to hop in. I had no choice but to climb and follow him to my doom.
        He drove down Edo Street, then turned left when he got to the T-junction. I had on few occasions bought akara, a beans cake at that junction. He drove straight ahead and soon, we were out of residential area and he was still driving. It was just bushes and bushes and more of foot road. I was right, he was taking me to where he would finally kill me because he had found the file.
“Where are you taking me to?” I shouted so he could hear me.
He did not answer but increased his speed. I was so afraid, that I started shaking. He could have just killed me where people would easily find me, but he had to take me to where I would never be found. I wish I could do something, like jump down but the load at my back was a big obstruction. I wondered what was inside. He slowed down and stopped. I tensed waiting for death. He came down and without asking for my permission, he lifted me and dropped me on the ground. He did not leave me immediately but pulled me to him, then turned me.
“Look up?”
I did as instructed but there was nothing.
“The night is very beautiful especially on days like this when the sky is clear and full of stars.”
“Just be done with it.”
“With what?”
“Did you not bring me here to kill me because you now have the file?”
But he chuckled and I felt the vibration in my stomach, down between my legs.
“I can kill you anywhere if I want to.”
I always had that delusion that he was not that bad and I was kind of special and he was not going to kill me but no more. He was saying it as a matter of fact and I had no argument against that.
“So why did you bring me here?”
“You are so afraid Ella that you’ve forgotten we have a deal. Is Ibrahim no longer important?”
How could I forget? I had really forgotten about Ibrahim.
“Where is he?”
“You mean it?”
“I know what I said.”
“A teddy bear is he but humans are it?”
“Humans? Did you just say humans? You murdering soulless bastard” I shouted turning and pulling away from him.
I was so pissed up that I had forgotten who he was. He just stood there watching me and when my senses returned I wanted to run but when I turned, I was facing a river. I shifted back and bumped into him.
“You know how to swim?”
He voice was very close to my ears, I hated the sensation it sent to my cool body.  I did not answer, I could only pant in fear. I just could not figure out while he brought me to a river in the night. He left me and went to his bike. He was pulling off the helmet when I turned and I was anticipating to finally see his face but I was disappointed, he was wearing a cloth mask with only his mouth and nose visible. His eyes were not because he was wearing a dark spectacle, and his nose and mouth were not enough to define his appearance. He untied the big bag and carried it close to where I was standing.
“To wish to see my face it’s same thing as wishing to die.”
He was already bringing out things from the bag. Of course he knew what I was thinking.
“Those who hide their faces are ugly and it’s not even worth seeing” I retaliated.
Something was definitely wrong with me, I had to find my bad mouth right in the middle of nowhere. He did not answer but I knew it did not also mean he did not hear what I said. I wondered what he was planning to do from all what I’ve called him. Fear gripped me when I remembered I had never been the one to suffer the consequences of my actions.
“If you feel insulted by what I said, just take it out on me, don’t you dare kill someone because I’ve not broken the deal.”
“Okay.”
He was on me almost immediately. I should be used to fear, I should not fear him because the worst he could do would be to kill me. I waited for him to strike.
“There are worse things than death Ella.”
“Get out of my head.”
He did not answer but covered my eyes and almost immediately, he pushed my hands behind and started tying it.
“What are you doing?”
“Sssh, don’t ruin my surprise and it’s better to remain still when you are being held by someone powerful, your wriggling attempt can send the wrong signal to a male and give them ideas.”
I stood still and frozen.
“Good, you are a smart learner. Sit and stay still, I will be back.”
He pulled me down. He was going to leave me by the river surrounded by bushes, in the night.
“Why don’t you just kill…”
I was not even allowed to finish before he gagged my mouth. Now the only active sense I had was my ears and it was whispering a lot of things. It was telling me the river goddess would soon arrive and claim me as a sacrifice that was if wild animals did not find me first or witches and wizards who had their meeting by a mango tree not far from me didn’t notice a girl alone by the river. What of herdsmen who slept in the bush, who raped and killed women in broad daylight? What if one saw me sitting by the river?  There could be a snake crawling towards me, maybe a big python and it might suffocate and swallow me before the others.
I shook from fear waiting for what would first get to me and I screamed when someone touched me. My scream was cut off from coming out by the gag in my mouth. This was how I would die, with no one hearing the cry of a lonely girl. I felt myself wrapped in a warm body. I never knew snakes were warm blooded animals.
“Ella, you will collapse from fear.”
It was Ghost. He removed the gag, the cover on my eyes and he untied my hands. He wore a spectacle on my eyes.
“Open your eyes Ella.”
Why did my body keep reacting anytime he called my name?
“Open.”
I slowly opened my eyes and I could see. It was like being under a blue bomb but still very clear. I could see the river clearly. It had two creeks, one running to the right and the other running straight up but bent at a certain end. The creeks were separated by thick shrubs. The one at the right was flowing and foaming like it was angry while the bigger one which was straight was just flowing normal, I tried to follow the bend and discover it must have split to two making it three creeks. By my left was a little red hill full of bamboo trees. It was so amazing. I never knew Ekosodin had a river and such amazing sight. It was like I was back home, back at Ozoro, although the rivers at home were larger.
“Raise your head.”
He was still holding me from behind. I raised my head and it was just so cool. The stars were looking so bright and the moon though not full was amazing to look at. There was one particular star that kept moving and twinkling.
“That’s not a star, it’s called a satellite.”
He responded to my thought and not only that, he just ruined my happy mood because I remembered who he actually was.
He turned me from the river and I could not believe what was before me. A transparent tent, because I could see what was inside including Ibrahim. I pulled away from him and ran to the tent. I tried to locate the zip but nothing like a zip. Suddenly, a part of it started opening, I turned to see him pressing a watch on his wrist. I rushed inside and grabbed Ibrahim. I held it to my cheek and inhaled a sigh of relief.
“Very predictable.”
I turned to see he was already inside and the tent was closed. Then my panic came back.
“You always fear the wrong thing.”
He moved closer to me and I pushed back, but he crawled past me to where he had set food and drinks. The tent was big, there was enough space for two to lie down and there was a foam mat already placed on the ground which I was sitting on and opposite the mat was the food.
“Let’s eat so you can have enough strength to answer me.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I know that. I can make you hungry when I’m ready. I was talking about the food in front of you not the other food.”
“You think you are funny?”
“No, my family do.”
“So you have a family? How is that possible? Are they humans?”
“Only few are humans, the rest are like me.”
“So you agree you are a soulless freak, who derives joy in killing humans and tormenting an innocent girl?”
“I prefer soulless ghost, there is nothing freaking about being a ghost and I don’t kill humans but targets. I neutralize or eliminate them. Most importantly, I send them to the underworld straight to luficer. And as for your innocence, I am yet to find out if your claim is true. Can we do that after the food?”
I looked at him, really looked at him. Even though I could not see his face and the glasses had covered his eyes, I really looked at him and thought of all the curses I could not say.
He ignored my stares and started eating. It was pepper soup with yam and the scent was making my stomach sing.
“Ella eat, unless you want us to skip this part. You have no idea the number of people looking for me to cut off my head for pickpocketing their food.”
“And if I don’t?”
He raised his head to look at me. I had no idea what he was thinking or if he was provoked.
“Then I will finish it.”
That was not what I was expecting. I was expecting him to blackmail me.
“It’s good you are beginning to see me as human enough to threaten you to eat which is for your own good. But I won’t blackmail you to eat a delicious meal, that is none of my damn business and if you choose to starve to death, it will be good for me.”
I did not know what came over me because I was already eating before he finished his statement. And once the first taste burst in my mouth, I forgot the evil before me and rushed at the food. I had tasted a bush meat but just once. The taste was exquisite and mind blowing.
“I wonder if you are as passionate with the other food with the way you are moaning.”
And he had to kill my appetite.
“Not only are you a soulless killer but a pervert.”
“And how did your mind explain what I was saying? You may not be that innocent.”
“I am a virgin and I have never had a man….”
I stopped talking, he was doing it on purpose, he was making say what he wanted to hear.
“Why did Ibrahim leave you a virgin?”
“Get lost.”
“Who is Ibrahim?”
“Get…”
But he cut me off. He was just too fast and I never expected his action. Ibrahim was out of my hand and I was lying down on the soft mattress, he on top of me. He raised me up and made me to sit in between his legs.
“Burning of the teddy bear and throwing it to the river which do you prefer.”