WHATEVER, POLICE OFFICER

Fourteen.

OUR DEAL... Each paragraph🤝

ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA.

And that is how Fatima spent three whole days in the jail with no sign of her father coming. The small girl in her is still holding onto the hope that he is coming from somewhere or maybe he didn't come back at all from abroad but that is a blatant lie when the whole officers are mocking her about it. Her father back to his hometown and never came for her, not directly to her face but they murmured enough for her to catch on their words.

The witch stepmother didn't come too, that didn't hurt her at all since she's never liked the woman and her coming there won't change anything in their relationship. But her father didn't come! She wants to see only her father, he should come and get her from that dirty place. She hasn't eaten anything except water that she forced herself to quaff twice when she got to the brink of dying.

None of her emotions rushed as she'd expected them to, not even tears or anger. Why would she feel anything when the worst hadn't arrived? She is just there, depleted and tired of everything around her but still couldn't burst out the bottled emotions within. How do those motivational speakers explain this feeling? They cannot answer her questions, none of what she's read answered them.

Ahmad didn't come to taunt her about the matter, only demand that she eats food and not die in their station due to her stubbornness. She didn't listen to anything he's said and shun him away like an unwanted pest, that didn't stop him from coming twice a day to check up on her. It doesn't mean they are on the same page now, oh no, far from the same.

There is this one fight they had, most of the officers were stunned to say the least.

Ahmad stood before the bars for the second time that day, his eyes narrowed and pitched with annoyance. "If you won't open this door and leave, then make sure you eat the food you've forced us to add with you!"

Fatima raise her head from between her thigh and glare at him, eyes filled with contempt. She's already been filled to the brim after Betsy left few minutes ago, demanding that she release herself from the jail and meet her father but she wouldn't listen. Why should she? She wants her father to come, to see his daughter locked in a dinky place and feel sympathy.

Something she's never seen in his eyes since those years ago. She can't begin to fathom where she's gone wrong at that tender age. What should she have done in such situation when she barely knew what was happening? Oh life is so cruel, this test is something she badly wants to pass but she is not sure whether she's hadn't failed already. She might've failed right at the beginning when she started questioning her sanity.

When she started ruining other people's lives so they can be just as miserable as she is.

"I never forced you guys to add the potion with me, I'm okay with what I have inside my stomach. If you will disappear please." Since she is sitting at the far end of the cell, she had to raise her voice a tad bit so he can hear what she's said clearly which got the attention of the other officers.

"Why don't you just leave? No one wants you here and your issues shouldn't be solved with government. Go home for goodness sake." He's had enough, it is written all over his face and stern voice.

Fatima didn't like his tone, it feels like he is insulting her and being the defensive person she's always been, she rose from the bed but didn't mosey. "You can go back to arresting other criminals and leave me here to rot. I don't need no babysitter!"

A mocking smirk evaded his face unknowingly, she thought he is babysitting her. "If you'll stop thinking so far ahead of yourself, brat. I'm going to have someone break this cell tomorrow and you will leave whether you want to or not."