GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Thirteen

         I did not know how long I was on my bed still on my wet clothes but I had to pick my call after the fourth ring. It was the D.P.O.
“Ella what is going on? I thought you had everything under control?”
“I am sorry, I am trying my best” I cried.
“We just lost eight men today, four in the school, four in Ekosodin.”
“Four in Ekosodin?”
“He killed two early this morning, then two not too long ago. You need to find that file, it can’t get to the wrong hands because not only will the culprits go free, the one who gets his hands on it will use it to blackmail others. Don’t allow the efforts of this men to be in vain. Your father said you will know where the file is, just think.”
He cut the call. I wanted to cry and scream but all I had was anger. I was pissed off. He was always with the deal yet he could not keep to it. That was what I had felt in the morning. I was not doing a good job of protecting them. I knew the one who died behind me. He had been following me from the beginning. Ghost had no emotions and feelings. I needed to do something. I left my phone and went outside with my ATM card.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I did not feel his presence. I entered a Faculty bus to Main Gate and withdrew fifty thousand naira, then I entered a bus to ring road where I bought a Nokia torch phone and an already registered SIM card. I only spent about six thousand naira in total. I had written down the D.P.O’s number on a paper. I dialed his line.
“It’s Ella Sir.”
“You have good news?”
“I have a way to make him stop killing your men.”
“I’m listening.”
“He is going to make me meet him this night. I will send you the location using this number, he will not be expecting your men. Then I can settle down to think of where my dad could have kept the file.”
“You are very smart like your dad. I never thought of that idea. Well done.  I will get many of my men ready.”
He cut the call before I could tell him to make sure they were many and they wore bulletproof.
        I did not feel his presence even after I had entered my hostel.
It was almost 6:PM and I kept on moving round my room thinking of how it would work out. My body kept screaming no, but my mind told me it was the right thing to do. But I could not erase the fear I was having for him. I was really messed up. He had killed so many innocent people yet I felt so sad that he was going to be ambushed and killed. I even started crying and I felt miserable. I just couldn’t place what was wrong with me. My phone started ringing and it was Ken. I remembered the warning I was given to stay away from him. If only I knew my life would become this exciting. The one person I did not want was who my body yearned for and the one person my mind loved was who I was not allowed to date except I wanted to end up dead. That was if Ghost did not eliminate them and that was if Ghost was not killed as I had planned. Just the thought of him dying sent panic to my veins, it felt like massive ice was forcing its way through my bloodstream, freezing my blood.
“Ella are you still there?”
I had been distracted again.
“Sorry Ken, what did you say?”
“Ella what is wrong? I have been talking for like two minutes now. What is distracting you?”
“I’m sorry” was all I could say.
“I was asking about this night. You promised to think about it.”
“Oh, can it be tomorrow?”
Then I remembered Ghost must be listening
“That’s if I don’t have plans.”
I hoped I didn’t because Ghost must have been killed. But the ice increased and my body protested against the thought.
“Okay, have you been to Kada cinema?”
“No.”
“Okay, now I have one place to take you to. What kind of films do you like?”
I wanted to say Zombie and walking dead but I needed to end the call. I had more pressing issues
“Anyone will be okay, Ken I have something to attend to. Can I call you later this night?”
That was if my plan worked out and I needed a shoulder to rest on.
“You promise?”
“Yes, bye.”
I cut the call before he could delay me further but delay me from what?
    9:PM yet no show from Ghost. I got a text message on my new phone. It was the D.P.O.
‘We are ready and waiting for you.’
‘Okay’ I replied but tears forcefully came out of my eyes and the liquid was very cold. I really needed to get rid of him before he encapsulated me and make me love his soulless body. My phone blinked and I rushed to see the message.
‘Five minutes to get to our roof venue.’
My hands shook and it felt like a force was pulling it away from my new phone. I felt cold, feverish and sorrow as I described the venue and sent it to the D.P.O.
I discovered I was no longer shedding tears but was literally crying aloud when I noticed the message had been received. I got an instant reply from in D.P.O.
‘That is too difficult to know, you need to come out and my men will follow you, you are safe. I sent the best of the best.’
I went back to read my description and he was right, those who had not been to Ekosodin would not be able to locate where I had described. I checked the time and discovered I had three minutes more. I took off leaving my phone behind but taking the Nokia torchlight.
The night was very chilly and I was wearing a spaghetti hand top, I ignored the cold, the chattering of my teeth, the feeling of extreme sorrow, my icy tears and ran all the way to our venue. As I rested on the wall, I felt myself falling on the ground. I had never felt such sorrow before, even when I had lost my family I did not feel like I was entering into a bottomless dark hole of pain and loneliness and hopelessness. It felt like my heart was trying to tear out of my body in protest of what my mind had done and that feeling in my stomach up to my chest was excruciating. I struggled to stand up and that was when I noticed something was very wrong.
      I was supposed to feel his presence but I could not. He was supposed to have lifted me to the roof but he had not. My mind told me he must have already been killed and my body screamed in protest. I had no idea what was going on but my gut told me something was off.
I wanted to send him a message to tell him I was already at the venue but I was only with my new phone. I decided to send a message to the D.P.O.
‘Is he dead? I’m there but he is not around.’
I just could not understand why mentioning anything about him dying was making me cry.
  Suddenly I felt his presence and my body responded like it was leaping for joy. I waited for him to lift me but it was gunshots I heard. They were numerous, and I believed I would be deaf when it all ended, that was if I was not killed by a stray bullet. My adrenaline kicked in when I felt a bullet graze my hair and landed on the wall. I ran inside one of the uncompleted rooms and covered my ears with my arms. As the gun battle continued, I sat knees up and rested my head on my knees I did not know how long I was sitting down but my new phone blinked. The shooting was still going on.
‘I hope you are safe?’
‘Yes Sir.’
‘Come out, someone will escort you to a safer place.’
I knew the D.P.O was concerned about my safety and he must have been getting updates on what was going on but he had no idea what was really going on. There was no way I could come outside, I preferred where I was, so I did not reply. I had to switch off the phone. I would call him later that was if I survived.
      The shootings continued. I did not know how many casualties the police now had but what I was very sure of was Ghost was still alive, I could still feel him. It made me to start crying. I had not done good at all because if he was still alive in the midst of the shootings, then so many police officers were already dead. I had seen those he had killed, it took just one bullet and it had been clear he got where he was targeting. If I was to calculate based on that, the dead among the police would be so many. I remembered his night vision goggle, he would not be shooting sporadically because he would have a clear vision. There was also the thought that he was not that human because he was too discreet and invisible.
         The shootings gradually reduced to countable numbers, then it stopped. Just as it stopped his presence was no more. It was not like the feeling I had when he had left me to be for the day, it was the feeling of emptiness. Like I lost something. I started crying. I wished I could describe what I was feeling, I was so cold and I felt like nothingness. I should be happy that he was gone but I felt lost. I felt like climbing the roof and jumping to my death because life was meaningless. I had read so many stories and novels but no one had described this feeling of loss. I had thought of suicide so many times but I had never been compelled to do it, to just end the meaninglessness that was called life. I stood up and staggered out of the building, it was as if I was possessed because I went to look for the stairs to jump down. My mind was screaming that suicide was an abomination and I would go to hell but my body was too powerful.
           I should have noticed the dead bodies on the ground, I should have noticed when I stumbled upon one of them and fell but I did not. I was focused on ending the emptiness left by Ghost. I was on the stairs few minutes later and I walked straight to the roof and looked down. I felt a little happiness that my emptiness would soon be over but before I could jump I felt his presence again. I froze where I was standing wondering how I got there in the first place and why I was standing too close to the edge but before I could fathom what was wrong, I was pulled back and saw myself on the floor of the roof. It was Ghost. He was with mask, I could not see his face but I could feel his anger.
“I told you I’m hardly angry.”
His voice was always calm when he was angry but this was on a different level, it was too dangerously calm. I did not know what I was supposed to feel, relieved that he was alive? Or sad that he was not dead but all those who were sent to kill him?
“I must have been making you believe I’m a joke. The deal is over, just sit and watch bodies follow your wake.”
And he was gone. His words froze me to the ground. He was not someone who made threats, he always did what he said he would do. I stood up and tried to run after him, even though I had no idea where to run to but I still ran out.
“Please I’m begging you” I shouted, my knees on the ground.
The only response I got was the lack of his presence. He was gone. The rain knew exactly when to show its presence, for amidst the dead bodies which the dark had saved me from seeing the details, the rain poured and it came with lightning and thunder.

(I will love to read your thoughts,  thanks)