GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Four

             I never thought of exploring my environment, I only focused on where I lived and the road to school so I had no idea about the street he entered but what was clear was it was the darkest street I’ve ever walked on. I kicked a wood and struggled to balance myself. By the time I raised my head, he was nowhere to be found. I turned around and discovered I was standing close to a hostel which was not yet completed because there was no sign of life there. While I considered where he had disappeared to, I was suddenly lifted like the first time. The rope must have been hooked to him. He dropped me on the roof of the building. It was already roofed, might be the other essential part of the building that was yet to be fixed. He was still holding me from behind and I waited for what he planned to do but he just held me, like he was calming me down, making me comfortable with his heartless soul.
“Why?”
There was no answer.
“I did not break any deal. You have not yet told me to do anything, yet you killed them, why?”
“You told the DPO my name is Ghost, then you told him you would play along with me but will quickly give him the file when you find it while you keep playing along.”
“You were monitoring my text?”
“I told you a deal with me cannot be broken and their death was the consequence of the rule you broke and more will die, even your fellowship brethren won’t be safe.”
“Don’t, please don’t hurt them. Please, no more deaths, please” I cried.
I did not stop crying, it was as if I had to release all the stocked up emotions for the day. If I had not sent that message to the DPO, those police officers would still be alive. And he was threatening to hurt students, innocent students who did nothing but to be in the same fellowship with me. He did not stop me neither did he do anything. He just let me cry.
“What do you want from me?” I asked after exhausting my tears.
“You must continue with the game you started.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Make him believe I’m not aware of your plans. Pick his call and talk to him as usual.”
“I thought you wanted me to stop.”
“The game has changed. You changed it. But from now on, you will be playing to my terms except you want more deaths.”
“Even if I can locate the file you are looking for and you collect it from me and kill me and the criminals are left to live freely, there will still be karma. God has a way of preserving the wicked for the Day of Judgment. There is no appeal in God’s case and you and all the people who killed my family and the other families will rot in hell.”
“So we have an agreement?”
My case was hopeless. I was thinking my speech would reawaken his humanity but there was nothing to show it went past his ears.
“As long as you don’t hurt them.”
“As long as I’m not offended” he countered me.
“But I don’t have a phone, I don’t want you thinking….”
“I know, I heard everything.”
He was very calm with his last statement but there was something to it, something scary.
“You can have your phone.”
He placed something on my hands. I wanted to ask how but I saved my energy. That would be a stupid question.
“In case you have forgotten the deal you offered which I accepted, you asked me to do anything I want with you in exchange for my targets’ life.”
“They are human beings not targets.”
“We will start the hunt for the file tomorrow but I have something else in mind this night.”
“I don’t…”
His lips was already on mine. The little touch sent a sensation all over my body. I did not forget everything about my Christian background, it was my body that betrayed me. I found myself opening up for him. I had watched more than a hundred kissing scene in movies, then read a character describing the sensation of being kissed but no one mentioned a shock. It was like an electric shock and it shook my body then became liquid fire filling my blood stream and setting me on fire, a fire that I wanted to burn, to consume me. I never understood the meaning of emptiness until our lips touched. I felt filled, I found myself turning to face him, I wanted more, I wanted to be filled to the brim. I was going crazy because the more he deepened the kiss the more I felt it was not enough, the more I felt there was still a cold part of me that needed to burn, that needed to be filled. I pushed closer grabbing his shoulders. His hand left my waist to my neck, then to my back, then my head. I felt warmth wherever he touched, like I had been frozen and he was heating me up. It was intoxicating and my body was working separate from my mind. I knew it was all wrong, religiously and morally wrong. I was kissing a soulless killer, I was dishonoring my family’s memory, I was betraying the police officers he had killed because of me, but I’ve never been this filled. He needed to stop, I needed to hate him, oh I hated him but this feeling was good, so good and irresistible.
    My sanity returned when his hands raised my T-shirt. My body did not want him to stop but my will was now stronger. I pushed him away and surprisingly, he did not resist, he stopped and turned me before I could look at him. I never thought I was supposed to look at his face until he turned me. Not that I would have seen him clearly, but I would have seen something.
He held my waist and took me down, then left. Before I could turn, he was gone. I ran few steps from the house to look at the roof but he was gone. I felt guilt and shame. I could not accuse him of abuse because I gave in, there was no force, I had even been the one to turn, I had even enjoyed it and he had stopped when I pushed his hand away. This was torture. He knew what he was doing, making me a willing partner. I was hopeless and I could just imagine what Grandma would say. I felt filthy and I hated myself. My phone blinked.
‘You have five minutes to get back.’
He was still around, I could still feel him. I felt like crying and I did not stop the tears from flowing as I walked back to my hostel. He was gone the moment I entered my room. I knew it because I could not feel him anymore, his absence brought back my emptiness, like I lost something. I hated what he was doing to me yet my body wanted it, my body wanted to be filled up again.  I went to my bag, where I had kept Ibrahim and held it close to me as I cried. He had died when I was just seven yet I still missed him. The teddy bear was a gift he bought for me after doing all kinds of jobs. He was twelve and his uncle was our neighbor, then we were still living in the north.
       I was one major reason Grandma came back to Ozoro, although she kept denying that she just wanted to come home. She said tailoring business could be done anywhere but I knew I was the reason. I was just seven yet I had fainted when Ibrahim’s Uncle came to officially tell us and confirm Ibrahim was dead and had been buried according to Islamic rights, that was after not being able to see him for two days because his uncle said he was seriously sick and visitors were not allowed. I was sick for a long time. That was the period my prodigal father returned home. I had no knowledge of him, Grandma said he ran away the day I was born. Grandma had refused him from entering the house but after my dad knelt down for the whole day, she caved in. He had cried after seeing me, he said I looked like my mother. He said he did menial jobs and was already training himself in the university. He had asked why I was looking sick, when Grandma told him, he became afraid I would die. Then Grandma had come up with the idea of moving to a new environment. Grandma had been the one to sow his name on the cloth of the teddy bear, and I made it my best friend. I was always with it, I even took it to school and Grandma had begged the teachers to allow me. She said being close to the teddy bear was healing me. I stopped carrying it around when I discovered it would go bad. So I only held it when I was down. It always comforted me. I held it and cried myself to sleep.
         Friday was not that busy and I had just two lectures, the first one by 8:AM. I was able to make it on time but I knew something was terribly wrong as I entered Faculty.  There was an ambulance belonging to the university health service Centre. A man was being carried on a stretcher, his body was covered with a white cloth and only his face was opened. There was a blood soaked white cloth on his ear. He was still breathing, and he was Dr. Bright.
“We just got through the locked door, luckily for us, he is still alive, he is on his way to UBTH, he has not yet mentioned any name. Okay sir.”
The man on the phone was carrying some tools unknown to me. Dr. Bright was already being driven away when the man ended the call. My phone blinked. It must be him.
‘Until the deal is over you are mine, no one touches you but me’ was written in capital letter.