GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Twenty Seven

“Ella, if your hand moves beyond where it is now, I’m not going to stop, there is no bar left. You need to also help me. Let’s keep your promise to Grandma.”
His voice was sending heat to my system. I gathered all my will and pulled away. I laid down by his side and tried to calm my fast breathing.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this. After all the forgiveness I asked God today. I even asked Him to help me get over this burning desire, but it’s getting worse.”
There was no need keeping it away from him. He did not answer, he was also panting.
“Distract me Ella.”
“Hey I’m the one who needs the distraction.”
“Tell me about your childhood.”
“Nothing there to tell, it all passed with time just good memories of Ibrahim is all I have stored to keep forever.”
“Then tell me about them.”
“I only have few good ones but mixed with bad events.”
“Tell me.”
“You won’t believe me.”
“I will believe you and it will distract me.”
He was right about the distraction because what I was about to tell him was mystic. It was the story Ibrahim told me. He said something mysterious had happened the day his house was invaded by bandits.
“There was this time Ibrahim told me about how he was saved the night his family were killed. I had sneaked out of our room as usual and because he was already used to it, he was waiting for me. He told me that he had three big brothers and one sister. He was the last born. Something mysterious happened to him that night.”
I knew he was already distracted because he was no longer breathing fast and he was very stiff.
“Tell me.”
“He said his family had always been Christians, his dad became a Christian even before he married his mum. He had relocated to a Christian community away from his nuclear family. He said his dad was even a cleric and they were just back from the church and it was not that dark when the bandits broke into their house. Most village houses in the north are not that strong and it was not difficult to break in. They started cutting them with cutlass amidst their screaming. They called them infidel and praised Allah” I paused.
“Continue.”
“You won’t believe what I will tell you and you will ruin everything, I believed Ibrahim and I want to keep it that way.”
“I said I will believe you.”
“Okay, I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Tell me.”
“He said none of them attacked him, he said he was screaming but none struck him. His dad was the first to die and he saw a man on white and his clothes was sparkling and almost blinding and he could not see his face. He said the man was standing by his side with a shining sword. He thought the man would fight off the bandits but he did not. He watched in horror as they butchered all his family and waited for his turn which never came instead, the man placed his palm in front of his eyes and it was a small TV. He saw someone on black on top of the roof. The man was picking people up with a rope, they were carrying guns and weapons like the people murdering his family but the man on the roof was not afraid. He just picked them one by one and slaughtered them. Then the image disappeared. He turned to look at his slain family but the man carried him out and told him to run but he tried to run back to the room. The man seized him and placed his palm on his face and again, the small TV appeared and he saw his family on white, they had beautiful crowns on their head and they were all happy. Then the image disappeared. He begged the man to take him to them but the man told him only death would make him join them. He said his voice was like thunder and it scared him. He told the man he wanted to die like them but the man said it was not yet time and he had so many assignments and he must fulfill his destiny, then the man disappeared. He said the bandits were attacking a neighbor’s house when the man left. They even ran past him like he did not exist. He heard a powerful voice to run and he saw himself running. He told me the reason he kept crying when he arrived at his uncle’s house was not because of their death but because they left him alone and wore fine clothes and crown without remembering him. They could not even beg for him to join them.”
He did not say anything after I had finished my story, he was still very stiff. I never wanted to think of that story because it would ruin my childhood about Ibrahim. I had believed him so much then because I was still a kid. I knew he created those stories to make me stop feeling bad for him because I kept telling him sorry that his mother and father were no more. After he told me that story, I felt happy that his family were happy somewhere else and they left him for me. His plan worked because I never asked him how death looked like because I had been told in school that it was horrible, but his story made me feel happy for his family.
“I said it. I knew you will find it funny.”
He did not answer and I did not blame him. I wouldn’t have believed if I was told something like that at that moment.
“Thanks for the distraction. My battery is half charged” he spoke after a long period of silence.
“Then can we talk about after?”
“After what?”
“After I find the file.”
“I told you the next thing is marriage.”
“And I told you marriage is not all about sex.”
“What else?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?”
“You are the one saying marriage is not all about sex, you must have an idea.”
“Someone falls in love, date, propose, get married, sex, children, learn how to tolerate each other.”
“Okay?”
“Okay? Just okay?”
“What do you want me to say?”
I did not even know.
“It’s weird Ghost. I cannot just marry you.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know you.”
“And I said you will once we find the file.”
“I will still have to decide after that.”
“Okay.”
“Your okay sounds like you already know the answer.”
He chuckled making me aware of him.
“Tell me about your scar.”
“I was once hit by a bullet.”
“I thought you are invisible.”
“Then you won’t be seeing me right now.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I was betrayed and ambushed during one of my missions.”
“I thought you guys are family.”
“The Circle is one family, it used to be a sub unit of the Special Force. They usually paired us with someone from the other units of the Special Force. I could have gotten away but there were people waiting to be rescued and I was not going to leave them. I fought and applied all my trainings. I was pissed off and it helped me.”
“How?”
“I never knew there was a bullet in my ribs until I had eliminated all my targets. It’s a common trait in my family. My backup arrived on time to save me from dying.”
“You have doctors?”
“My sister is a doctor. That was the day she officially allowed me to personalize her mum. She realized that we were not really invisible because we were still recovering from the death of a brother and sister in-law.”
“He also got ambushed?”
“Yes but not by people like the ones I fought. They were trained men, specifically from Special Force. They had given him the wrong code and he had actually eliminated all of them but he was shot by one of us who had gone rogue.”
“Like AWOL.”
“Yes. But Jason made sure he sent him to escort my brother to the underworld.”
“What about your sister-in-law?”
He did not answer for a long time.
“She was killed by a drug dealer who wanted to scare my brother away from his territory.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to. My brother sent the whole clan into extinction. She got justice.”
I could almost feel the pain in his voice. I found myself holding his hands. He was deliberately showing me the other side of him.
“I’m sorry. God bless our soldiers fighting to keep civilians safe.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
I did not see anything wrong with what I said.
“Although I was not forcing you to believe me and I thought I did not care that you did not believe I was the good guy, it feels so good you now believe me. It means a lot to me.”
“I’ve tried not to believe you but you are different from the way I’ve watched assassins behave in movies, it’s just that I can’t come to terms that the DPO is the enemy.”
“I’ve told you not to hate him yet until you discover the truth for yourself. Okay?”
I nodded. He was too cool to be lying. I remembered a question that had been on my lips.
“Who is Jason? It sounds off from the normal names in your family.”
“Code or nicknames are as a result of our personalities. When we can’t find a suitable name for someone, we just leave it at their original name. Don’t ask me further.”
And I wanted to ask more.
“I think he is the first person I want to meet, he sounds normal” but he started coughing confusing me.