GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

    I never knew death could come in many ways until my life ended and the last chapter was splattered in different newspapers, the broken heads of Efe and Maro my kid brothers, my step Mum’s battered naked body though blurred but visible, then my father’s butchered hands and chest, the only person missing was me. I was supposed to be there but Grandma had delayed my travel. Then the final sentence of the last chapter of my former life ended with Grandma’s death. I did not die physically but I died mentally. 

 After the perpetrators were brought to book, I tried to start another life but I soon discovered not all were brought to book.

  It started with a tingling at the back of my neck, then I saw them, same people I had been seeing around me for a week, I quickly contacted the Divisional Police Officer who had helped bring their murderers to justice. He promised to handle it. 

  Two days later, they were surrounded by armed police men. The DPO said they were looking for something. They thought my father left an evidence that could nail someone but I had no idea. Later, undercover policemen were put on my trail. I still did not like being watched. I found a way to evade them, about three of them but everything changed from fear to dread just few days later.

 I was going home after staying in campus to read for a test. University of Benin, Nigeria to be precise. I knew something was wrong when I saw people gathering around the dead body of one of the policemen. The others were nowhere to be found. Fear gripped me and I started running. 

   As I ran home, I felt his presence, I could not see him but I knew he was there, another one, he radiated danger. The hairs on my skin stood up and I could taste dread. I was good at noticing something unusual but I could not tell where he was, then suddenly, the feeling stopped. I had evaded him, but I was very wrong because the moment I entered my room, I knew someone had been inside. The door was not broken, there was no sign of a break in but my bed was no longer where I placed it, it had been shifted to the right. I tried to calm my fears, to think of a way out. I contacted the DPO and he told me he was on it, he told me to stay clear of the night and that was what I did, until few days later. 

  I had seen one of the policemen, he was with six others; they had increased their numbers. It told me more than enough. And for the first time, I did not evade them as they trailed me from a distance. Immediately I got to the less busy Edo Street, I started running but same time, the dread came again. He was following me, I turned to try locate him but there was no one. I changed to another street but I was suddenly being lifted. He was very swift, I knew I was first on the roof but before I could comprehend it, I had landed on the ground and my body was being pushed to the wall same time my eyes were covered. I wanted to scream but my dread froze my mouth. He was tall, very tall and masculine. As he used his body to push me further to the wall, my adrenaline kicked in and I tried to wriggle myself out of his grasp but I was not sure he knew I was fighting him. He let me struggle for a while and just when I opened my mouth to scream, he gaged my mouth and pushed me further that I was almost suffocating. I was going to die, my second miserable life was about to end in the arms of someone I could not see. He never spoke he just held me till I gave up struggling. Then he wrapped me with his arms. I stood there waiting for what he would do next, I wished he would be quick. He bent his face to my neck, then he dipped his right hand in my jeans pocket. Immediately his hands touched my pocket, I felt heat all over my body, followed by a sweet tingling sensation in my stomach. I had no idea what the feeling meant. I had been raised by a very strict Christian Grandma and in all my life, this killer was the closest I’ve ever been with any male. I tensed and waited for what he would do next. It was my phone he wanted. I tried to look, even though it was dark, I wanted to see something about my killer but he held my hands and pulled it up, then used only his left hand to keep it there. I had no idea what he was doing with my phone or what game he was playing.

  Soon my phone was back in my pocket but his hands remained there. Fear gripped me when I felt his hands leave my pocket and moved to my waist. He was going to rape me. I should fight him but my body had its own mind. I had never felt fear and excitement at the same time. He must be doing something to my brain. He moved his hands slowly burning anywhere he grazed. I did not want him to continue, neither did I want the desire he was awakening to stop but I found my will and struggled. If he was going to rape me, I would not give him to satisfaction of making me a willing partner. 

  Suddenly, I felt empty, like really empty. He was gone and I knew he took my sanity with him. He did something to my body because I felt like I lost something. As I struggled to remove the gag, my sanity returned because the dread was back in full force. He was still there watching me. I hated being watched.

“Show yourself and just kill me. Just end my miserable life” I shouted but there was no response, not that I was expecting any.

 I still felt being watched until I got to my hostel gate. I felt a temporal relieve that he had decided to let me be. He must have gotten what he wanted. I was very wrong because my body froze the moment I entered my room. Not only was he in my room, but he had arranged my scattered bedspread, my books and my clothes. As I shook from fear from the invasion, my phone blinked. With my hand shaking badly, I slowly brought out my phone from my pocket. There was a message. I did not want to read it but I found myself opening it.

‘Hello Ella. I will be with you till I get what I’m looking for. Keep your mouth shut if you want to live- Ghost.'

  Few weeks later, some police men tried escorting me to my hostel at night but I would never be able to fully comprehend what happened. I just knew within ten seconds which I was just guessing because I was not counting, the policemen were all on the ground. All six, one looking dead and the others tased. That instrument must be a teaser, it electrified someone and made their body shake like they were having a terrible seizure. I knew one was dead because he was the only one not shaking, the one I had gone to, who should be someone’s father. There was no time to assimilate everything because my body had a mind of his own. I was running, running without knowing where I was running to. It was a waste of energy and adrenaline because he was on me in less than three seconds. My screams were cut off by a gag. Did people not notice something wrong was happening in the street? The police officers where still on the ground when he dragged me to a secluded area behind an uncompleted building. Just like the last time, he pushed my body to the wall and brought out my phone. I tried to fight him but he was strong, I could not talk because of the gag in my mouth. He kept my phone back and removed his hand without lingering but he did not release me, instead he pushed me to the wall with his body, enveloping me with his powerful male scent, I had no idea where the thought came from, but there was a scent to his body, I had no idea if it was common to every male. Like I had said, he was the closest I had ever been to a male. I was trapped, unable to even wriggle my body, unable to scream or do anything. I was at his mercy. I felt his breath on my neck. It was warm, then hot, then liquid because it flowed down to my stomach and below. Something I had never felt before. It was sweet and wrong. I knew it was wrong, Grandma had trained me enough to avoid males and to avoid ending up like her and my mother who died after giving birth to me at nineteen exactly my current age. My father was also nineteen then, and my grandma had also gotten pregnant at nineteen. She was always mistaken as my mother because she was still young. She had always told me to be the one to break the chain. 

“Don’t let a male touch you. You can live different from me and your mother and your father. Your body belongs to only your husband” she had said to me every day till she died and I had succeeded in escaping the nineteen years curse as she called it.

   I knew about sex because I was not living in a stone age. There were lots of books to read, I had also read descriptions of the feeling of the characters but I had not experienced it. I was not going to delude myself into believing the feeling I was having was something else and not sexual urge but it was not supposed to be. I was not supposed to experience this with a killer, with someone I could not see, with someone I dreaded, with a ghost. I could still taste dread but that sensation was already mixed up with the dread. He had not moved away, neither had he done anything else. I tried to wriggle away for the fifth time but nothing. He was just too strong and he was not letting me go. 

“What do you want from me?” I mumbled hoping he would hear me or understand what I was trying to say.

There was no response but he still held me, heating me up, filling my icy pores with a hot sensation. I was beginning to feel faint from being enclosed and I struggled again to free myself. He had loosened up and I could move my body. He allowed me struggle but still kept me in his grasp almost like he was having fun with my futile attempts. If only I could twist my body for a second, I would at least see his face, I would know my killer but I just knew he did not forget to cover my eyes. He must have felt it was not necessary. I froze when his hands held my waist and his lips touched my ears, I found myself breathing in gasp anticipating what I had no idea of. My breathing increased when his lips moved to my neck and I found myself surrendering to the feeling that went way down to where I could not mention, to where Grandma called sacred. The thought of Grandma brought my sanity back. I tried to push him away but there was no need because he was gone. I spun fast to catch up with him but nothing, nobody. I did not even hear the sound of a footstep to show someone was walking or running. He was completely gone because I could no longer feel his presence. I immediately ran out and found myself on the spot we were attacked. 

  I cried as I walked to my hostel. Not too long ago, that man had been talking to a friend, he had been alive and he would have still been alive if I had not asked for help, if I had faced him alone. At the end, he had what he wanted and a policeman was dead, the third one dying because of me. At least he was gone and only had my number but had no idea of where I lived, so I thought until I opened my door and saw my bed had been made and the clothes I had dropped while trying to choose the best one for the day were no longer on my bed. He already knew where I had moved to, he knew where I stay.

My body shook from the knowledge and at same time my phone blinked. I knew it must be him. I brought out my phone and opened the message box.

‘The more you talk the more somebody dies’ was written in capital letter.

‘What do you want?’ I sent back.

‘There is a file with you. The last place your dad visited was Ozoro and you are the only lead to get it.’

That was what the DPO said. He told me many people were hunting for the file because it was not only Umaru and Abdul that were involved in my father’s death, that there were more people in high places and had hired assassins to get it hence the first people I had seen who had confessed one Mohammed a Senator sent them. But the DPO said he had no idea who this killer was working for and even Mohammed could not be arrested because there was no proof. Only the file had the proof and they all believed I knew where my dad must have kept the file. I had told the DPO where to take our house key. He had called back that there was nothing that I should think hard because I would be safe once the file was found and the perpetrators were brought to book and I had been thinking since I moved to my new hostel but I had relaxed because he never showed up again until now. He wanted to take the file that could bring justice to not just my family but the other families that were murdered.

‘I don’t have any file and you will still kill me anyway.’

‘You forgot to add all the people following you. Keep talking to the DPO and they will keep dying.’

He knew how to play dirty, he was using them to blackmail me. Either I died alone or I took so many lives along with me with three deaths already recorded because of me. 

‘Leave them alone, they have nothing to do with this.’

‘The file Ella.’

I wished I knew where the file was, I would just send it straight to the DPO, even if I would die, there was no way I was going to allow those murderers walk free.

‘Don’t even think about it. From now on, if you answer the DPO, one of them dies.’

How did he know what I was thinking? My phone started ringing making me jump. I was that much afraid. It was the DPO.

“Are you okay? I got report of what happened” the DPO said.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry for your loss” I stammered.

“Hmm, did you see him?”

“No.”

“What of the file?”

“No.”

“Ella you need to think, think fast, that file is important. Once you find it, call me. This will be over if you can find that file.”

“I will try” I stammered.

“Make sure you stay clear of dark places. Take care Ella, this will soon be over.”

“Okay Sir but…” but he had already cut off the call.

The reality of my situation immediately became glaring. Three police officers were gone and more would die because of me, because he believed I had a file, a stupid file. I could not have more men die just to get justice for the dead. I was his main target, he was going to kill me and it was not okay for me to take innocent people along with me.

 I wanted to tell the DPO about my plans, to play along, to still use my phone and my SIM, to still stay in my hostel so the killer would stop attacking the police officers, then tell him once I discovered the file while deceiving the killer but he had cut the call.

‘Don’t kill anybody, I will get you the file, do anything you want with me but stop killing them’ I sent another message.

‘Do you really understand your message?’ he replied almost immediately.

I scrolled up to read my message and just when I grasped what he meant, another message came.

‘Deal. I have a thousand and one things I want to do with you as I wait for the file. Be warned! Once a deal is made with me, it cannot be broken. See you tomorrow-Ghost’

Panic gripped me as I quickly wrote another message.

‘That was not what I meant. I meant I will cooperate with you not you doing anything to me…..that’s not the deal.’

But the message bounced back and there was a glaring ‘message not sent’ with a red color on my phone screen.

I had just made a deal with a merciless killer, a predator and a ghost.