GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Seventeen

          It was so cold, I shook from the chills the water gave me. Before I could struggle to come up to the surface he pulled me up.
“What was that for?” I shouted.
“You need to learn how to swim.”
He started pulling me further down the river till my feet could not touch the ground.
“It’s cold.”
“You will be warm soon.”
He pulled me to him, making my back rest on his chest.
I immediately started feeling warm, then heat from his masculine body. He placed his palm on my stomach and made me lie flat on it. It was doing more than heating me up.
“Concentrate Ella.”
I did not even hear what he had said. His voice was not helping. I was now absolutely sure something was wrong with me.
“Stretch your toes and hit it on the surface of the water.”
I did as instructed.
“Good, have you ever ridden a bicycle before?”
I nodded.
“Now as your legs are still stretched, move it like you are riding a bicycle.”
I did as instructed. He spun me round as I moved my leg. He moved me away from the deep to where my feet could touch the ground.
“It’s a gradual and continuous process. Try do it on your own.”
I was facing him and my stomach could almost touch him, the male heat radiating from him was intoxicating. I found myself closing in the gap. He let me wrap my hands around his waist.
“I know I should not ask this, but do you know if my behavior is normal? I’m not like this, I feel ashamed confessing this but I feel cold all the time and being close to you warms me up.”
I had said it before realizing I was confessing to a criminal.
“Your body craves for what completes it.”
“Meaning?”
He did not answer but kissed my hair. He gently pulled me away.
“Break time is over. Let me see you practice what I taught you.”
I laid flat in the water, it was not deep and my head could still be out on the surface. I stretched my toes and flipped my legs like I was riding a bicycle. He made me to continue even after I begged him that I was tired.
“This is not how you treat someone you love” I shouted.
He was by the right further down the river, almost at the end of the open creek. There were so many bamboo trees and he was resting his back on one of them. It made me wonder how trees could survive in the river and how they were able to part the river into three. He ignored me and pretended he did not hear what I said.         After some minutes, I felt like I would never be able to walk on my legs. He swam to me.
“Good job, we will continue next time.”
But he was pulling me inside.
“Hey, this is the wrong way. You just said we will continue next time.”
“I meant your swimming lesson.”
I could no longer touch the ground and before I could sink, he raised me and placed his palm on my back making me face the sky.
“Watch Ella. The night is the most beautiful time of the day.”
I forced myself to stop focusing on the sensations from the hand under my back and studied the sky. There were numerous stars. The one he had called satellite was the only thing moving. Some of the stars were bigger and brighter than the others and some were twinkling. No wonder the twinkle twinkle little star poem.
The moon was not available but it did not change the beauty of the dark sky with shinning tiny tiny lights.
“Can you hear the wind? Can you hear the silence? Can you hear the voice of the night creatures? When humans are silence, the ozone and nature repairs itself the little it can.”
I listened, I could actually hear the wind, the flow of water, the trees clapping their leaves and tiny branches bowing to the power of the wind. I could hear the night creatures living their part of the day, the whistling of birds, the craw craw language of the frog, the hooting of an owl, the orchestra of another flight of birds. He slowly spun me round as I stretched my hands and listened more. The stars were beautiful, they were not aggressive like the sun. Grandma had said every human could have one star each and many will still remain. The most important sound of all was the silence of humans.
“It’s beautiful” I exhaled.
“This is what bandits and criminals don’t want humans to enjoy. We should not fear the night, it’s a time to come out and heal with nature.”
I ignored that he mentioned criminals, he was not going to ruin my bliss. I just enjoyed nature as he spun me round. There was something so soothing resting on the surface of a river while watching and listening to the beauty of nature. How was I so afraid that first night? He was right, there was nothing bad about the night, the night had never been the problem but humans. For a long time no one spoke, at one point I took a peek at him, he was watching the stars too. I wondered what he was thinking, maybe who he would kill next after I must have offended him.
“You are getting cold. Time up.”
He pulled me down and pulled me back to the bank of the river. It was then I noticed I was getting cold.
“I guess you have a plan of drying me off, since you did not notice I have one clothe.”
He did not answer but pulled me back to the tent. He left and later came back with a heavy blanket and wrapped me up in it.
“Are you for real? I’m going to suffocate before it dries me up. Where on earth did you descend from, the cave?”
I watched his reaction to know if he was offended but I did not see any sign to indicate I said something wrong. He left the tent and came back with a big towel, he pulled the blanket away from me and started cleaning me with the towel.
“Seriously? How will this dry my clothes?”
He left the towel and left the tent again then came back with an equipment I did not know. He switched it on and within a minute, the tent started heating up. He brought it close to me. The heat it was emitting was too hot.
“Are you planning on burning me?”
He dropped the heater stuff, sat down and stretched his hands like, what-the-heck-do-you-want-me-to-do? I started laughing because he was looking funny.
“You know your clothes are wet too.”
He started pulling his clothes off. I should have closed my eyes but he took me by surprise. How could someone be lanky and muscled and sexy and attractive at the same time?
“What did I score?”
He had been silent for a long time but had to talk at that moment.
“Two out of ten.”
“I’ve always preferred your body to your mind. Your expression is saying wow, you scored eleven over ten. I know your body likes what it is seeing.”
I looked away and concentrated on drying myself while trying to remove the image of his half naked body from my mind.
“Don’t fight the memory of what you have seen.”
He was sitting down but his back was resting on my back. Even that slight touch heated me up.
“I don’t think I still have my control bar, it’s showing red. I want to hold you close to my chest but this will be better till I recharge.”
He was just too difficult to understand. How could a heartless killer be concerned about ruining my chastity? It just didn’t make sense. Maybe, I was having my lucky day and I did not want to miss the chances it presented.
“Can I beg for something else?”
“I’m listening.”
“Can you spare me the day and can you not intervene like Dr. Bright’s case.”
“No.”
Just two words but powerful enough to shatter my hope. So much for thinking it was my lucky day.
“But it was really not fair to stab him there.”
“Stab him where Ella?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Say it and stop assuming I know what you mean.”
“Am I the one to tell you where you stabbed him?”
“Your Grandma did a lot on you.”
“You are trying to avoid the point I’m making. You pierced his ears.”
“That’s my mark on selected criminals that were not given the maximum punishment for their crimes. I give them that mark to remind them I’m always watching them.”
He mentioned criminals again, like he was not at the top of the chain of criminals.
“And the stabbing? Was that punishment not too much.”
“That man was lucky he did not meet my sister. That punishment is the lightest he could ever have. My sister would have castrated him.”
“You keep mentioning your sister like she is a boy. How is that possible?”
“Because she can fight.”
“Maybe one person but not what would have happened to me today.”
I felt cold talking about it but his laughter was a big distraction from the cold.
“Do you know the true reason behind rape of the female gender?”
I had read so many reasons people had stated as the cause of rape. Some said it was because of the way females were now dressing. Some said it was caused by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like what happened to me. If I had been in my hostel, nothing would have happened.
“Because it’s easier to rape a girl. Physiological and biological structure contributed more.”
“Wrong Ella, you are very wrong.”
“Then why?”
“Because they can.”
“I was not really expecting something good from you. Are you now justifying rapists?”
I was getting angry, he just had to ruin my mode.
“No I’m not, I am just stating a simple fact. Aside for biology, do you think it’s easy for twenty five girls to force me down and force my consent?”
Twenty five armed trained men could not even kill him.
“You know it’s not possible.”
“Why do you think so?”
“Because you are a trained killer with no mercy and emotion, you are stronger than them.”
“Exactly Ella. We are saying the same thing. Rape occurs to adults because the men can force their way. A man can never rape someone stronger than him. The female gender is known to be weaker than the male but some females are stronger than the average man. My sister is one of them. What almost happened to you today can never happen to her.”
“You mean she would have fought off four boys holding her down.”
“I don’t think she would have allowed them get to that stage.”
“So she would have fought more than twenty guys?”
“Fight? Hell no, she would have beaten them to stupor while sipping her favorite drink or chewing chicken wings. They are not even qualified to have a death dance with her. Death dance are meant for those kind of men sent to kill me.”
“You know you are describing warrior princess? And it’s just a movie not real.”
But he laughed. I did not even want to find out what he meant by death dance.
“The point is no rapist born of a woman would try her. She look for them sometimes, especially when she is pissed off. And she finds at least one, especially at night. She is the Venus flytrap, beautiful, sexy and attractive but poison once taken without permission. My sister sees rape as murder and most rapist always derive pleasure in their victims’ fear, this is because of the fact that they have strength and control. But my sister sees it as the coward’s way out. Subduing someone weak and feeling powerful is the definition of a coward, I hate that.”
I wanted to counter him but I could not, he had never forced me and had stopped when I wanted him to, it now explained everything. He was a criminal who derived more pleasure in defeating the strong. His actions had nothing to do with morality. But I knew he was over exaggerating his sister.
“So you have a sister who is like you, who does same job as you?”
“Yes.”
“And how can you say your sister is sexy?”
“What is wrong with saying that? It’s the truth.”
I tried to think of an answer but could not, I just knew Grandma wouldn’t have seen it as the proper word to use for a sibling.”
“You know over confidence is also dangerous. She should be careful.”
“Thanks for your concern but I know what I said. She is very conscious of rape that she will never let that happen to her. I meant it when I told you she is sweet but poison. Even if she ever gets overpowered which will never happen, they won’t be able to rape her. I’m a bit at peace when she goes out for a mission because our technology is becoming our superpowers.”
“Like that alien spinning thing.”
He chuckled but did not answer.
“When you say mission, do you mean killing people?”
He did not answer.
“I really wish I’m powerful, I felt so weak and so powerless. I really tried to fight but they were so strong. I wish I have superpowers, I wish I was not that week.”
I did not know I was shaking until he pulled me to our normal position. It felt different from when he was putting on clothes. I was beginning to feel warm and fire and fresh desires. He shifted me back to our former position. I rested my back on his back and tried to breathe normal. We were silent for a while.
“Ella you need to help me get that file. These people don’t value human lives, they will continue sending criminals with a promise of huge reward to take you down. That file will stop this nonsense.”
“Human lives? You don’t also value human lives.”
“I know I have a long way to go in convincing you I’m the good guy, but it’s okay if you still believe what the DPO from your tribe said. I’m capable of protecting both of us. They will keep coming and I will keep sending them to the underworld. There is enough space to house them there.”
“So you want me to believe the DPO who has been like a father to me, is the one who wants me dead?”
He did not answer and I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe he was the good guy, then I could allow myself to be consumed by my feelings for him but wishes were not horses and I was not ready to be deluded and tricked. I had read so many novels about that and if he thought he could deceive me, then he was in for a very big surprise.