Tomorrow

Joe

 My leg ached badly.

I had to limp behind her, I went over boundaries just to make her trust me wholly. I had to do it, in less than a day, the deal would be finalized and I would be rich as ever. I had to do everything to make her trust me.

 “I can see a little house ahead, maybe the owners would allow us to stay for the night,” she said, her condensed breath shown greatly under the moonlight. We trudge along slowly, tired from the chase of my men. I had to made sure she believed I was on her side. She was just too hard to kidnap and I had to think of every way possible to see to it that I got her.

 I waited beside a tree as she went on and knocked thrice on the door. She bade me to come as she opened the unlocked door and went inside. I closed the door immediately, the cold was eating me up and I had started shaking. We found an Hunter's flashlights and switched it on, the dim light illuminated the dark hovel a bit, revealing the usual cobwebs and dust that fills an unused house. We found a small fireplace with several pieces of unused wood scattered around. We gathered them in a pile and made fire to warm up the room. 

***

I wouldn't really describe her as beautiful, with a short dyed brown hair which doesn't fits her rough face and a missing tooth replaced by an ugly golden artificial one . She even has a rough muscular body, so, I didn't find it difficult not to fall in love with her. But tonight, which seems to be the last I would be the last we would be together, I find I really beautiful. I wondered how she would look when the men comes and she discovers I have betrayed her. I remembered seeing my father die after he was shot six times by her father. . My father and hers had been business partners but something came between them and my father had to be disposed of. 

  I was driven by vengeance but I didn't want to hurt anybody, I just needed money. I need to pay bills and treat my sick mother. I felt it was just normal if I took it from them but it was very difficult but not impossible. Along came Godfather, no one had ever seen him. I was working at a janitor at his company till the day he called me in and made me a proposal. He had read my file and dig into my past. He also had a score to settle with her Dad. I was to bring her to him and I was to get a fat and attractive eight-figure cheque. He would lure the father out with the daughter. What he would do with the father and daughter next was no business of mine as long as I got the money.

***

 A sudden wind came, shaking the foundation of the hovel, the wooden parts shooked and jagged, making eerie sounds. She clung to me as the door slowly opened making different sets of sound. The chilly wind came in and almost blew away the fire. A figure ran across the entrance. My body shook, it wasn't my men and it mustn't be her body guard. 

 “The owner!” My mind jumped at the thought, the house was old and full of dust, it definitely had no owner or the owner is dead. I gestured to her to move away as I took a stick out of the fire.

 “Who is there?” I said. I walked towards the entrance as slowly as I could still gesturing to her to stay back. I laughed dropping the wood when I saw the animal looking at me stupidly in the snow.

 “What is it?” she asked.

 “A mountain goat.” 

 The goat kept staring at me, it's horn were middle sized, yet to reach their maximum length. Its hairs had layers of brown and black and the hairs on its back were raised. It had tall legs and body. I laughed again.

 “What? Is it looking for shelter?”

 I laughed again. “It seems the place is his and he seems ready to fight for his right.”

 “You mean we are the trespassers here,” she said laughing also. 

 I went back inside still laughing hard but also shivering, the cold having penetrated my body that little time and I had to close the door and rush to the fire. The door had no lock so it couldn't be locked. We moved a chair to support it as lock from inside the room, I wasn't bothered about the act, my men will break in not knock or even bother passing through the door. She rummaged to a wooden box as I shook beside the fire, she found a blanket.

  As I dusted the little bed we found, the mammal outside also settled at his spot. We got in bed, facing each other, I shifted the hair on her face, revealing a speck of black mole where she should have had a dimple. I kissed her forehead as she run her hands round me. Tomorrow, it will all be over. Tomorrow, I will avenge my father.

Zara

Dad called me ‘scorpioness’ since I was a teenager whenever we trained together or with Uncle Kade. He made sure I learnt all I could in the art of fighting so as to defend myself. I had judo, taekwondo, karate tutors and I had guards that I could spar with. ‘If you don't want to die like your mother, you've got to fight’ he would say whenever I told him that I wished to live just like other normal children. He had always feared that they would come after me and he had been right. 

 They came, lots of them, from his past to revenge all the evils and wrongdoings he did to them. 

*** 

They came in different sizes, different tribes, different races, different forms. They all failed, the highest they got close earned me the scar on my left hand—a visible machete scar. These particular gang came with machetes and axes. I laughed when I saw them, my guards and I underestimated them. No one brings machete to a gun fight. 

 And the fight broke out, we killed a lot of them, but one of their leaders managed to get to me. Before I could reach for my Glock, he threw his ax dangerously at me that I had to dodge it first. Then, he came at me swiftly and bought down his machete on me. But he missed again and I moved a little distance from him. I took off my jacket and challenged him to drop the machete and fight like a real man. He agreed—the greatest and last mistake he would ever make. He was skilled, strong and fast and I was clearly no match for him.

 But I had my penknife, my 15th birthday gift. It was a beautifully made knife with a Scorpion diagram on its handle. Dad said it was a female scorpion, the deadliest of its kind. It was designed blue with dark red pincers. He charged at me and started throwing punches, jabs and kick but all I had to do was to cut off his major arteries and veins with the little breaches he had in his attack and defense. 

“Any last words before you die in the next two minutes from those bleeding cuts.” 

 He wasn't moved by what I said at all, he took up his machete and charge at me instead. Before I could dodge, he had strike me. I screamed loudly, jumped at him and cut off his throat.

 “With that, you.... wil...die... less.. two,” he muttered as he died. I wrapped up my hand with my jacket to reduce the bleeding before the other guards came to take me to the hospital.

***

 Unlike all that came with violence, hatred, anger and all, Joe came with love. He came as an innocent young man full of brains. He was ambitious and had all his plans in place. He was ready to take all the time in the world as long as his plans go the way he wants. We fell in love or rather i fell in love because now, I know that he doesn't love me, I was just an accessory to his revenge. But things changed a bit when I introduced him to my father.

 “Joe, am I right?” Dad had asked.

 “Yes.. sir,” he said uneasily.

“You know Joseph Spooky?”

 Joe was taken aback with the question. He looked as if his cover has been blown up, but he regained composure as quickly as he could and chuckled.

 “Joseph Spooky! Such a ridiculous name. I've never heard of him. Who is he?”

 “Don't mind me son. Just an old friend of mine, let's dinner.” 

“And who is Joseph Spooky, Dad,” I asked that night after I had seen Joe off. He didn't stay for a long time when Dad kept staring at him when we were eating.

 “A friend I killed many years back when your Mum was still alive,” Dad answered.

 “And what has that got to do with Joe?”

 “Everything, Joseph had a boy whom escaped with his mother.”

 “And what made you think Joe is that son?”

 “He has the eyes of perfidy just like his father. Be wary of him, he has a lot up his sleeves. Just as you have said he is a smart kind. We have to be one step ahead of him in everything he does.”

 I didn't have to argue with Dad I just had to wait for an evidence, just a move. And it came, Joe knew he had to rush things up since my Dad recognized him. 

There came series of attacks—drugging my guards, creating chaos at a party. Sending some men to fight with my guards, spying on me. I knew he was bogus, I wasn't disappointed but I just wish he had loved me.

His men were so good at their job that commit suicide when caught so as not to say anything when they are rendered to torture. 

 We managed to capture one of them before he could poison himself on the night they chased us in a car and got into a ditch. He had told us the the Godfather's real identity and his hideout before another gang came and killed him.

 They planned on kidnapping me to lure Dad out, so that the man could have his revenge by killing me just like Dad had killed his pregnant wife and Joe was to be paid in millions.

 I played along till today, he still believed I trust him. My guards following Dad's orders went along with the decoy Joe had created so that Joe's men would chase us and Joe would help me in escaping. He pulled alot of stunts, injuring himself in the process of our running so that I would really believed he cared. 

 I cling to his shirt as we laid down to sleep with an hand, the other hand holding my penknife. Dad was to take care of Godfather and I was to take care of him. I knew he wouldn't be easy as he was also a fighter, a street fighter. Nevertheless, by tomorrow, he would be six feet below.