I found myself dialing Jesse’s number again.
“Hello” Jesse answered from the other end
There was something off about the way she talked; she sounded unusually calm.
“Can you come over, I…” her voice faded
“Jesse, are you there?” I asked but the line went off.
I hurriedly prepared to go over to Jesse’s house. My little black purse was always the closest for me to grab, it contained everything I needed to fight whatever was threatening Jesse: my pepper spray, a small pocket knife that can be folded into a lipstick and a hand glove designed with broken glasses.
I dashed out to my compound, everywhere was dark already, the street light brightened the street, I headed to the garage to use my car but changed mind.
Jesse’s house was just four blocks away from mine, and I didn’t want to give whatever was attacking her chance to know I was close.
I walked briskly down the street looking back at intervals. The Street was still busy; the supermarket was still open with customers.
I entered through the third block. When Jesse’s religious brother who hated her returning late visited, she showed me a broken fence she sneaked in from.
I headed towards the broken fence, an old lady sat at the veranda knitting white wool; we fondly called her “Fashy” a word she learnt from her thug grandson. She used the word out of context and it was given to her as a name. Fashy waved at me, I waved back with a smile “good evening fashy” I said inaudibly.
I passed through the fence, used Jesse’s spare key I had and entered through the back door.
The corridor leading to her room was unusually calm, normal Jesse would play music on a high volume causing the house to vibrate. I was frightened, I headed to her room and pushed the door open, she was sobbing on the floor with her hands folded up to her knees.
She fidgeted when she saw me; I adjusted my glove I had put on at the door. She let out a loud cry and grabbed my hands. I sat close to her.
“What happened to you?” I asked lightly, still looking at her teary eyes.
“Sorry I called you, he forced me,” she spoke inaudibly, she looked scared, her hands were shivering.
“Who forced you?”
I noticed a shadow pass through the bathroom door, I looked at her to know if she noticed, she raised eyebrows, distress written over her face, she didn’t act surprised at all.
“He is still around” she said calmly. “Who nah?” I asked sternly.
“I don’t know him; he followed me from the supermarket to my house.” She was whispering.
I heard glasses smashed on the wall with a loud groan. I stood up to grab my purse from the table. The bathroom door was pushed open, a fierce looking man walked out pointing a pistol towards us. He grabbed my purse before me; I stepped back slowly to where Jesse was seated.
“Let’s see what you have here, I know you will come. You want to call the police? You! You want to reach out to your phone and call the police?” He grinned in between the sentences exposing his teeth. His front tooth had a cut that gave his teeth a gap.
He squatted next to me and placed the gun on my chin, he raised my head up to his face.”You remember me? I believe you don’t.” He asked and answered himself.
I recalled I have seen him once; he was the plumber that fixed our tap before I moved out from my parent’s house.
I opened my mouth to talk but he slapped me. He took a grip on me and refused to let go. It was beginning to hurt. Another man walked in pointing a gun at us, he was on mask. The masked guy brought out a rope and tied us together; he tied our legs and hands. I struggled to let go but he hit my mouth with his elbow.
He walked over to Jesse, brought out a blindfold from his pocket and tied it over her face, he brought out another blindfold and did same to me. Jesse was still sobbing.
They lifted us up and guided us to a car. I felt the car moving, they talked inaudibly. I thought they would stop at the Estate gate for a search but I only heard the voice of the security guard asking them if they were leaving when we got there.
We drove for hours before the car came to a stop. I was seeing black like I was in a cave, the blindfold was hurting. They dragged us out from the car and took us inside a building, the blindfold was removed.
The room they took us to was well furnished. The masked guy forced us to sit close to the bed and tied us to the bed frame. I was beginning to feel weak. Jesse’s eyes were looking puffy; she hasn’t stopped crying since we left. I felt pity for her; she has always been the baby since we were little. She was my closest cousin, we were age mates but she always behaved like the baby while I protected her.
“Can I at least talk to my father?” The masked guy turned and started walking towards me in a visible rage; he held my neck tight choking me. “You were warned not to talk, this should be the last time I will hear you say a word, except you want yourself dead.” I was gagging. “Leave her alone” Jesse screamed, he left me and held Jesse, “What did we do to you people? What do you want from us?” She was still screaming. He hit her head with the pistol and Jesse passed out. It was then I started crying.
I looked at him properly, for the first time, his eyes looked familiar but his mask wouldn’t let me recognize him.
Soon, the plumber walked in holding two plates of noodles, he dropped one on my face and dropped the second one close to Jesse, Jesse was still not moving. He pushed her but she didn’t respond “What happened to her?” he asked. “I just hit her small and she fainted”
He went into the bathroom, fetched a little water and poured Jesse, Jesse woke up looking confused. He squatted in front of me and brought out our phones.
“I will hand this phone to you, you are going to transfer every penny to an account I will give you, then I will know what next to do with you two.”
I was looking at him wondering if it was the same plumber that we treated nicely the day he worked for us that was being mean to me.
She handed our phones to us and pointed a gun on our faces.
We thought they would let us go after taking our money but they didn’t, they held us in. we were only untied to eat. Two girls came into the house everyday to cook for them.
One morning, we were woken up by a loud bang, they were arguing so loud that we could hear them clearly. “These people have been here for 3days now, you don’t want to call their parents for ransom and you don’t want to release them. Why are they here?” It was the voice of the plumber.
“If you know who her father is, you won’t let her go without cutting her throat.” Another voice I was hearing for the first time replied in a thick voice.
For the first time I became physically scared, I was shaking like vegetable.
“I watched that man kill my friend and harvested his organs because we didn’t meet up with his deadline. He sent us to provide someone he could use his organs but we failed to do it. He called us to his hidden house, killed my friend and took every vital organ he hard. His Doctor was there to perform the surgery, I am going to kill both his daughter and his niece then drop their corpses in his house early in the morning.”
“I don’t think I can be part of this, you only paid me to stalk them and kidnap them, I won’t be part of their death. Why not kill the man, why the innocent children?” The plumber countered angrily.
“I paid you full for this job, don’t spoil it for me, I will make sure he feels every pain of losing a loved one before I finally kill him.” He said in anger. I heard him walk out and banged the door.
I opened my mouth to scream but I couldn’t.
I was scared, so was Jesse.
“So, we are going to die” Jesse was crying again. I held her and we cried together.
“I have my second phone hiding in my panties, let me call the police”
“Do you have any police officer’s number to call?”
“There is an emergency number to call”
“In which country?”
We sat silently for sometimes.
I knew my father had a house in the outskirt of town but I have never been there. He traveled every month and had a business but I was sure his spare tyre business can’t provide us the luxury we enjoyed.
Soon the door opened, it was the plumber.
He stared at us for sometimes and left.
He came back again after few minutes and began to untie our legs.
“I am going to let you go before my boss comes back, I am doing this because of your mother.” He said sternly and in a harsh voice. “If Police comes here by mistake, I will find you again and kill you by myself” he warned us.
He took us to the front door and let us run out of the gate.
We didn’t stop till we came out to the major road. I wasn’t sure of how I felt about my father but we left Nigeria and never came back even after he was murdered.
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