Kadian

The Great Marriage

"Hey? Hey?!" A sharp voice jolted Alaba out of her memory. She looked at an agitated Shetani, then all of the red surrounding them, and remembered where she was. In a way, Hell was slightly better than what she had been recalling. The pain of watching herself fall in love with a boy as he fell in love with another girl had been unbearable. It was especially painful when the chief had initially given Mimosa his blessings instead of her. However, Alaba managed to win Mohassen in the end, and that was all that mattered.

But now, she would never see her love again. Alaba could deal with many feelings, but loneliness was not one of them. The time had come for her to move on to a new man, a man who would help ease her sorrows. So far, Shetani seemed to be the only choice -and a good one, at that.

"Finally, Alaba's back from wherever the fuck she was," Shetani laughed. "Hopefully it was better than here."

"No," she whispered more to herself than Shetani.

"So what do you say sweetheart?" He waved the ring box around in the air. Alaba stared at it, suddenly unsure again. She thought she was ready to accept, but remembering how hard she had worked for Mohassen bothered her.

"I know you're thinking about him." She looked up at Shetani in bewilderment. Did he know exactly who she was thinking about, or had he assumed?

As if he read her mind, he said "Yeah, Mohassen. I can see that you had such intense love for him. Listen baby, I can tell you right now that we will never have anything like that, because I don't want it. But do you really want him to have that kind of love with someone else while you're gone?"

Alaba narrowed her eyes. "Who else? Because I'm not there anymore...I'm dead. Remember?"

Shetani grinned and shrugged. "Oh yeah, I definitely remember that. But Mohassen is still vulnerable to other girls' charms...another girl's charm."

There were only two girls that had Alaba ever viewed as competition concerning Mohassen, and both of them had died. No one else dared speak to Mohassen when she was around, but perhaps he had been seeing someone behind her back? Perhaps all of the time he spent hunting and 'thinking' was spent wooing another girl. Alaba suddenly knew how Trini felt.

Shetani saw the look in her eyes. "Calm down, he hasn't cheated...yet."

Alaba's chest loosened up-there was still time to save him. "Who's the girl?"

"Who do you think?"

"Yiro?"

"No."

"Taj?"

"Nope."

"Sabari?"

"Nada."

Alaba furrowed her brow and began rattling all the names of young village teens, and women.

"Is it Chinwe, Emiku, Fumnanya, Hiwot, Koko, Lesedi-"

"Kadian. Common sense would point to Kadian."

Alaba looked as though she'd seen a ghost.

"How? Did she not die on Shango? Was that not her corpse?"

Shetani looked amused by Alaba's confusion. "She died, and that was her corpse-no question about that. But now, she's more alive than ever. And she and Mohassen will be closer than ever."

Alaba began to shake frantically. "How, Shetani, how?!"

Shetani began to slowly pace back and forth around the room. "She may or may not have been revived..."

"Oh Onile!" Alaba stumbled backwards, falling flat on her back. How could this be? Here she was, stuck to rot in Hell for all eternity, and Kadian was out clinging to her man? Leaving Mohassen behind was bad enough, but at least he could've treasured Alaba's memory. But now, he would be creating fresh, exciting memories with someone different. Kadian was practically Mimosa number two. Alaba curled up into a ball.

Shetani walked towards her, and knelt to her level. "I understand how you feel Alaba."

"No you don't," she whispered. "You don't know anything."

Shetani paused for a moment to stare at her before continuing.

"When you run Hell, you get a lot of benefits. A lot of advantages that the average mortal wouldn't know anything about," he said. "I know you and your mother dabbled in a bit of black magic. That's nothing compared to what I have, sweetheart. I have the power to give you all the magic I want to, Alaba."

She lifted her head to look at Shetani, but said nothing.

"It's true," he answered her questioning, wet eyes. "I can give you everything you need to see that your man doesn't fall for that little whore, that Kadian won't plague either one of you any longer. And me? I get to try something different, something that I usually wouldn't do."

Alaba grew hopeful. "I have the magic to get rid of Kadian?"

Shetani reached into his pocket. "Well, maybe." He opened the box, and the ruby ring glistened. "Maybe not. You tell me." He closed it.

Alaba sat up, slowly took off her own wedding band, and looked at it lovingly before slipping it between her shirt. She opened Shetani's box, and allowed him to place the ruby ring on her finger. The two then stared at one another, content with their new union.