DINING WITH THE DEVIL PART 2

Cynthia was not only beautiful with a good shape; she was classy too. She was the daughter of the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the school. This was her saving grace from lecturers whose advances she turned down; she would have been victimized. Those lecturers too were subtle with her in their advances. They were careful not to annoy her so as not to get her to report them to her highly placed father. She, however, accepted Chike because she thought he was different and cool-headed. Azeez was her spec – he was fair and thick-bearded, with a baritone that had a kind of sexiness attached to it. However, Azeez was a ‘ruffian.’ He had all the character flaws Cynthia detested. He was proud, bullish, and generally mundane. Chike, on the other hand, was clean-faced without a strand of hair except those on his head, brows, and lashes. However, he was very jovial and intelligent, cool-headed, and lively. She enjoyed his company. It came as a surprise when Chike called her out to the quadrangle in front of her hostel at 8 pm that night to tell her that he had been initiated into a cult without his permission, worse still because of her! However, she consoled him. She could see palpable fear in his eyes. Not even for the numerous lecturers disturbing her had she thought of involving her father, but for this, she was going to involve her father. She had come to love Chike so much, and she was going to make sure that he came out of this. The following day, she called Chike to meet her at the same quadrangle; there she told him what she had done about what he told her the previous night.

Back home, Chike was restless again. How was he going to implicate Uzo? Why would Cynthia involve her dad, the DVC of the school, without telling him first? Now, the DVC wants to see him in the evening of the very next day, in his office! How was he going to exonerate Uzo? He didn’t want to fry Uzo with the others. He was like a brother to him. Even though Uzo had put him in a condition he didn’t want to be in, he understood that Uzo did what he did for his ‘protection.’ He did it because he cared for him. All through their secondary school days, Uzo had always gotten himself or both of them in trouble for trying to protect him (Chike). In all these, he had always understood that Uzo did all he did for him. That was why all efforts to get him to denounce Uzo and cut their friendship proved abortive. He would always stand by and for Uzo. It was the least he could do. However, by the evening of the following day, he was with Cynthia in her father’s office. He narrated everything without leaving a single detail. Even though in his heart he wanted to extricate Uzo, there was no way he was going to say the truth and leave out Uzo’s role. He had already told the story to Cynthia, who in turn had told her father, which warranted the meeting. There was no way he was going to extricate Uzo without sounding like a liar.

Immediately he finished his story, two men came out from behind the bookshelf at the back of the professor’s seat. “We heard everything,” said the man in police uniform. “You are going to hand over all of them to us, and we will let you go as a cooperating witness; otherwise, we will take you in, and you will face the consequences alone.” Cynthia held his arm closely and beckoned to him to accept their terms. The professor nodded in agreement too. “All these would have been avoided if you had simply reported the matter to us, the school security, after Azeez assaulted you with his thugs, but no! You boys would rather take the laws into your own hands. Now, not only have you committed murder, but you are now also a member of an outlawed sect,” the other man in the school’s anti-cult uniform put in sternly. Chike simply bent his head, confusion and fear clouding his thoughts. “Just cooperate with them, and you will be free,” came Cynthia’s voice. “Are you in or not?” shouted the policeman. “I am,” replied Chike. “Good. So this is what you are going to do…”

Wednesday was the D-day. Chike called Uzo to meet him at Opara Square, close to the school’s third gate. Mr. Folarin’s wife had a big supermarket and bar just outside the third gate at Opara Square. Mr. Folarin was a senior member of the cult. The supermarket and bar were owned by his unsuspecting wife. It was also a rendezvous for the boys. As far as Mrs. Folarin was concerned, her husband was a good lecturer who drew students close to himself, and as such, the students liked to patronize her bar as a hangout and relaxation spot. Of course, there were boys and girls who smoked and exhibited other behaviors she personally didn’t like, but she counted them as excesses that were normal to see around a school environment. Also, it was a public bar; all sorts of people were bound to patronize it.

Mr. Folarin was around when Chike came in to wait for Uzo. The time was around two in the afternoon. However, for a Wednesday, and at that particular time of the day, there were quite a lot of customers, all men. There was nothing unusual about them, or so it seemed. Chike came in and greeted Mrs. Folarin, who was inside the inner part of the bar, before proceeding to greet Mr. Folarin. “Abakariya,” greeted Chike in a whisper. “Abakariya, my boy. You are really learning fast,” Mr. Folarin replied with a huge smile on his face. “Hey dear, bring one chilled Heineken for this my brilliant student,” this time calling out to his wife. Chike struggled to control his palpitating heartbeat and shaking body. “This one you are sweating like this, did you walk all the way here from your house?” asked Mr. Folarin. “Y-y-yes-sir,” stammered Chike. “The sun was too hot.” This was a lie. He was dropped off by the men seated in the bar at a reasonable distance. He only came 20 minutes after the last man had settled down, as was planned. “Use this chilled Heineken to calm down,” Mr. Folarin said as he laughed. In a few minutes, Uzo came in. He came in with Segun and Hamza. They all exchanged pleasantries and greeted their ‘senior man’ there present specially. Each ordered drinks except Segun, who requested only a packet of cigarettes. “Bro, what’s up? You called me to come urgently,” asked Uzo after taking the first sip of his drink. “Anybody dey harass you? That’s why I came with Shege and Hamz here. Tell us make we go fuck the person up.” The agreed sign was for Chike to raise his left hand and then walk away quickly. However, the hand seemed heavy. His heart was beating faster than one on a sprint. He struggled to hide his tears as the other men seated in the bar began to draw close. Mr. Folarin was the first to notice the encirclement. “Boy, what have you done?” shouted the agitated Folarin. The other three boys were confused. Chike looked at Uzo with hot tears streaming down his cheeks. “Uzo, tell them they forced you to join too. I will testify for you,” he said quickly as they all stood up, this time all aware of their impending doom. “Chike, you! Why?” shouted Uzo, disappointment and fear obvious in his voice. “Just tell them that…..” BOOM! Came the loud bang from the gun Uzo had brought out. The bullet hit Chike in the neck, and he fell down to the hard ceramic floor immediately, his head smashing on the elevated pavement just by the way leading inside the supermarket from the bar section. For a few seconds, he gasped for breath. It was fruitless. He gave up. In about 2 seconds after he was shot, Uzo and Hamza fell too. The policemen fired at them point-blank. “Lie down! Lie down or I shoot you too!” one of the mufti-wearing policemen shouted at Segun and Mr. Folarin. Another moved to check the pulse of Chike. With two fingers on the blood-stained neck of Chike, he shook his head at his colleagues. In about five minutes, the Black Maria arrived. The three corpses were put in by the officers, followed by the handcuffed Segun and Folarin. THE END