Balogun

TRUTH

"You can't help me. I want Abike. All I can think about is Abike. I want her. I'm getting anxious and I can't do this without her, I swear. I want to go and get her, man."
           - Prince Murewa.

"Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime."
        - Mineko Iwasaki

   "It is easier to forgive an enemy, then to forgive a friend."
        - William Blake.

                                    xXx

When Murewa opened his eyes, the room was dark and it took some seconds to adjust his sight to the darkness.

He saw Jamal asleep on the couch across the room and shook his head.
Why didn't he just go back to his room to sleep?

The clock above the couch Jamal was sprawled on said five a.m. and Murewa shook his head in shock at how long he had slept.

He tried to sit up slowly and managed to do so with little pain.
His back ached from lying horizontally for too long, no wonder, since he had been sleeping for over twelve hours.

He reached for the glass of water by the bed and downed it in one gulp.
He set the glass down again and then stared into the darkness. He suddenly wished he was still asleep as the memories he was running away from came crashing down on him again like a heavy boulder.

Abike.

Muyiwa.

The thought of Muyiwa's death was like a fresh stab and he sucked in a painful breath to relieve the pain. Instead of relief, it was Abike's image flashing through his mind.

He gripped the sheets painfully as he thought about her still in Amu.
What was she going through right now?

She hadn't been physically hurt when he saw her yesterday, but she was still in the same dress of three days ago, which meant she wasn't being taken care of.

He felt useless.
He had promised to save her, yet she only witnessed his disgrace.

He tried to think, but there was no way he could have done it different.

Jamal had been right.
He had been cornered by a group of forty, just thirty minutes after he crossed the border into Amu and he couldn't fight them all off.

"You despise your father so much. But your grandfather, the one person you should truly hate, you love him and chose him over your own family. What does that make you?"

Murewa sat up immediately he remembered those words. King Ola he said them to him yesterday.
What did he mean by them?

Murewa thought about his Grandfather.
He hadn't seen him since the day in the Throne Room when he had defended Abike against him.

Was the sudden distance between them caused by his anger at being spoken to so harshly because of Abike?

Murewa slid from the bed and scowled when the earth spun for a moment.
He gripped the wooden edge of the bed to right himself.

After a while, the ground became solid beneath him again.

Jamal was still asleep as Murewa made his way to the door and slipped it open.
The hallway was dark and empty, but he knew the way.
Although his steps were slow, he was in front of his Grandfather's door in no time.

He knocked once and when he didn't get a reply, he knocked again.
He didn't want to knock too loud because it was just five a.m and he didn't want to wake anyone except his Grandfather.
The man had some questions to answer.