ANOTHER LOVE STORY

"You are mine, forever... right?" Chika beamed at her boyfriend, holding up a rose that had lost a few of its petals, which she had picked up from the garden floor.

Kay was busy distracting himself, fascinated with how excellently the ants climbing the only tree at the backyard were dutifully passing on a tiny piece of biscuit someone had carelessly dropped close to the base of the giant tree. He paid no attention to Chika who he had convinced to come over for the weekend, since his whole family had left earlier this morning for Lagos, leaving him in charge of the house and half-expecting him to take advantage of the weekend and study hard for his college entrance examination the following week.

Chika lived in the school hostel, and when the other girls were permitted to go home to their families for the weekend, she decided to jump on her boyfriend's proposal to live adult lives for two days.

Chika's smile soon dissipated into a mild frown when she wasn't getting the attention that was due her, she was only 15, Kay was 19 and probably the hottest guy in their high-school.  

Tapping Kay on his back, she waved the worn-out rose in his face, "You are mine... forever, right?", she said, resuming her hopeful smile. This time Kay turned and chuckled as he saw the "used-to-be-rose-flower" in his girl's hand.  

"What is this?", he now laughed really hard, pointing to the flower in her hands.  

This really hurt Chika, and her eyes almost started to tear, thankfully Kay noticed this in time and regained his composure. 

"Oh my, I'm sorry", he said as he stood up straight, towering over her and opening his arms for her to run into them as she always did, like a little girl who just saw her father come home. He was 6-ft above the ground and his height made her look more like his younger sister than his girlfriend. Chika found her smile and ran into his arms, clutching him tighter as he said, "Forever and a day more babe."   

After the somewhat long embrace, Chika asked, "So what's for dinner tonight?"  

"You." Kay replied coquettishly. 

"Silly...I'm serious. Mum always says dinner is as important as breakfast, and must be eaten early enough also." 

"You aren't planning to starve me, right?" she asked.

"How would I even do that, with all the food my mum cooks and stuffs the refrigerator?" with that, He lifts her off her feet in one muscular sweep, carrying her on his shoulder, he climbs into the house through the back staircase. 

Dinner was finally ready, spaghetti, egg sauce and a bottle of wine which Kay would have a hard time selling to his dad why that wine was opened. They lay on the floor in opposite directions with just their heads adjacent to each other. Chika finally turned to face Kay, using her hands she turned his head to face hers. He kept his face intentionally blank as though he didn't recognize the person that was looking back at him.  

"Kay Kay Kay!!!"  she cried.

Kay then smiled and leaned in to give Chika a peck on her very lush cheeks, she blushes really hard and turns to face the ceiling.  

“Your mum is a really good cook you know?” she manages to say amidst her reddened cheeks.

“She makes the best egg sauce I have ever eaten in my life”, she continues as she stands up and makes to head into the kitchen, halfway to the entrance of the kitchen door, she stops and rushes back to the sitting room to pick up the plates the used in eating from the floor.

“What are you doing?” Kay asks, noticing Chika gathering the plates.  

“Ermmmm, taking the plates to the kitchen”, she rushes off before Kay could say anything that would discourage her.  

She quickly slid the plates into the sink and started off to wash them, throwing the bones of the chicken and the other spaghetti remnants in a black nylon she found stuffed at the edges of the kitchen window.

After washing, she picked up the black nylon now contatining half-eaten chicken bones and scrubs from the washed plates, scanned for the kitchen for the wate bin and frowned when she saw it was very full and almost about to vomit it’s content.  

“Such a boy” she muttered under her breath as she picked up the trash and headed for the back door.  

It was locked.  

She tried to manuever it but failed at all attempts.  

“Kay Kay!!!” she called out.  

“Where is the key to this door, I want to throw out the trash into the big bin outside” 

There was no response.

“Kay!!! She called out again, her voice laced with concern. 

No response.  

Chika immediately dropped the trash in her hands and bolted into the sitting room to give her 19-year old hunk of a boyfriend a piece of her mind.  

He wasn’t there. 

There was a faint noise coming from one of the rooms in the house.  

“Kay... Kay...okay fine I’m scared alright... can you stop this now?” 

NO RESPONSE. 

She counts her steps as she walks into the inner corridor of the house, the bathroom door is wide open and the shower is running, the tap at the sink is running too.

“Kay...” she edges further into the corridor, there is a loud thud from one of the rooms to her left which stops her in her tracks.  

“Chika..”  

She heard her name faintly coming from that same room.  

“Chika..” 

This time she recognized Kay’s voice and ran into the room only to see him on the floor with blood running down the right side of his face.  

“Oh My!!!”, she exclaimed as she ran towards Kay and lifted his back off the floor.  

“What happened?” she asked, amidst the hot tears that now burned her cheeks.  

“I’m not sure” he finally managed to say as he tried to get up with Chika’s assistance.  

Soon as they opened the door to the corridor of the house, they heard something fall in the sitting room and almost immediately, the electricity in the entire house was out.  

Chika, screamed really hard and held on to Kay who was really silent as they walked, carefully numbering their steps, towards the sitting room. Chika was as cold as a livid corpse, she fumbled with her trouser pockets till she found her phone, then she turned on the torch which they used to guide their steps into the sitting room. Still clutching her phone in her hand, she scanned the room to see what fell some minutes ago, she found nothing. 

“Kay, are you sure we are alone?”  she aaks

NO ANSWER. 

She turned the camera towards Kay’s face and screamed as the light went right through where his head was supposed to be, the figure she had been walking with was headless. She closed her eyes tightly with her palms, waiting for the worst to happen.  

NOTHING HAPPENED. 

Opening her eyes, the electricity in the house came back, and Chika was all alone in a well arranged sitting room.  

In the same instant the light came back , Kay who felt he was leading Chika away from the noise they heard in the sitting room, found out he was all alone.  

“Chika Chika”, Kay shouted as he dashed for the sitting room only to see Chika quietly sobbing at one corner of the room.  

He walked up to her and hugged her tight as he joined her on the floor. He held her till they both fell asleep whilst sitting.  

The sound of the neighbor's dogs barking as he drove out of his compound woke Kay up, his hands were still perfectly clasped around Chika. Placing a kiss on her forehead, he nudged her a bit and she opened her eyes, the perfect blue eyes stared into his and he remembered in that instant why he asked her out 2 semesters ago.  

“We still have one more day together...do you think you could manage another night in my hunted house?” he grinned mischievously. 

“It’s really not funny Kay, we almost died last night.” she said as she detached from his embrace, rubbed her temples and scanned the room till her eyes rested on the security camera hanging from the far end of the sitting room.  

“Does that work?” she said, pointing to the camera.  

“I guess...my dad’s a bit of a techie, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it does” he replied her trying to understand what that had to do with anything. 

“Like does it record, in real time?” she pushed further. 

“I guess we’ll have to go into the upper room with the giant bed to find out” he said throwing a cute smile at Chika. 

“Can you just not think of sex right now?” she shot at him with a concerned look. 

“I only meant that the security cameras are controlled from my dad’s room. The giant bed is just a landmark” he said as he opened his arms once again for her to run in. She fell for it yet again.  

Seated on his dad’s office chair in the bedroom, Kay hit the rewind button and motioned for Chika to come sit on his laps and they relived the previous night.  

****** 

IMAGE 1 

Chika holding the trash in front of a wall, calling out to Kay 

“Kay Kay!!!” she called out.  

“Where is the key to this door, I want to throw out the trash into the big bin outside” 

IMAGE 2 

Kay walking into the corridor, he enters the bathroom, and stares at his reflection for a while before running the shower and turning on the tap at the sink. He appears possessed by something as he walks stoically out of the bathroom and into one of the rooms.  

IMAGE 3 

Kay climbs the edge of his bed and free falls to the ground.  

IMAGE 4  

Chika alone as she walks into the sitting room. She waves her torch all around and then starts shouting before covering her face and retreating to seat on the floor.  

IMAGE 5  

Kay walking alone in the opposite side of the room.  

********* 

“Okay so this is very disturbing, something definitely came over us yesterday, and it definitely wasn’t my mums sauce because I had eaten that a few days ago and I was ok.” Kay said.

Together they both chorused. “The wine!!!”  

“It still doesn’t explain the light going off” Chika added, rubbing her temples, and almost immediately there was another thud from the room below their feet.  

Instinctively, they both dashed to the sitting room, Kay picked up the wine bottle and threw it out of the house. 

Night came again and Kay played chef, while Chika was the wife who was about to be spoilt by her man. They finally had dinner and retired to the giant bed where Kay held Chika close till both slept off.