Dark Night

Dark Night (episode 1)

© Oladipo Daniel

DARK NIGHT EPISODE 1
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The breeze blew gently, toying the cotton room to and fro. No sound was heard except the snoring of a young damsel  sleeping  half unclad with a short white cloth covered her tiny yellow thighs  to the middle of her stomach. The two balls on her chest were looking at the roof – hun-un! hun-un! It was very early in the morning. Suddenly, a faraway barking of a dog disrupted the atmosphere, she slightly opened her eyes, stretched her two arms. Jesus!  She yawned. She looked round the room as she realized half of the bed has been squeezed as if there  was battle going on there. Chief?… Hono… What has happened said she. A fairly good looking man laid down beside the bed with a knife on his chest. Why would a man totally unclad in such position?  She ran to the door, it was locked, who has entered?  Could this man have  killed  himself? Beauty sat down for a while only to think of what to do and the predicament that would follow. She hasted to the key beside the bed,  packed her clothes,  rushed towards the door,  as she was dressing up. Quietly she found her self outside the hotel building without anyone notice or suspicion. She spoke to herself, beauty, use your brain else you put yourself in big mess. A time like this, unplanned thoughts occupied her mind.  She took a cab without a certain destination.  The cab man asked, madam, where are you going?  Just keep move she retorted. Nothing to compare with her body not even the then Nokia 3310 as she was  shivering  behind the car ‘crying over spilt milk’, finally she uttered, Surulere, take me there. What is Surulere or why Surulere. A proverb says, “people run to God when there’s trouble”.  Surulere is where  aunty  Helen lived (her long forgotten and abandoned aunty who brought her to Lagos). Aunty Helen was generous and kind.  she had already knew something was wrong but could not ask at the moment,  she brought her in, prepared her hot tea and told her to relax.   Though, she (beauty)  was laying  down but widely her eyes opened like a man monitoring a crab. Her mind was filled with myriad questions which she desperately needed answers.

What do you think?  Could she mistakenly kill Chief, or Chief kill himself? What advice would you give her in this condition?
 Please do comment and share as you read our stories.  
Early the third day Beauty came to aunty Helen’s house, she was outside brushing when she suddenly saw a police car with its loud siren.  She fainted immediately the car stopped at the other side of the road; she thought they were there to arrest her. People rushed  to safe her life, fortunately, there was no car around than the police car to take her to hospital after they had poured several buckets of water on her and she did not wake up. Right on their way, the only murmuring on the street was the police were really nice this time.  They could help the citizen without collecting money, they said… Before they got to hospital, a miracle happened, Beauty woke up. O, what a great irony! Her eyes were opened an ounce, she saw the raffle of long mouth pointed towards the side door. She looked at the front and realized the driver was a police too. She could not help herself but raised an alarm – shouted “moku ooo.. ” (I’m done for! ),  she fainted again. Every body in the car was surprised, what could have happened they murmured. The driver asked Aunty Helen if her sister was a criminal.   She quickly defended her with a doubtful mind…  Beauty spent complete three hours on bed before she could be herself, even when she was conscious.  She found it difficult to open her eyes – thinking the police was still around.  Thank God you are finally back, you really scared hell out of me’, aunty Helen said in relief. She has been asking her what actually happened the very day she came to her on that faithful morning, now,  was another event that really bewildered her. She asked again, what are you going through or you committed a crime because the drama that happened today portrayed such.  Beauty response ever was “NOTHING”,  she never knew how she could tell her sister.  even what truly transpired that night, she wished someone could explain her…
Beauty, in the evening after she was discharged, went to her house at Lekki. She has a young girl of about 12 years of age working with her as housemaid. She told her boss that various men have come to ask of her since she left home. She went into her room and came back with a book where she wrote the names of the visitors. Beauty seemed unconcerned on the list but just have to compose herself so that the young girl would not be suspicious. She only mentioned five names (honorable  Ugo, he said he wanted to go to  Abuja for the meeting two of you planned to attend.  There was this man,  he  refused to tell me his name.  He came with three big jeeps, he said he would call you. Mallam, Uncle soldier, Uncle Dennison…  beauty finally opened her tiny l-ips which was painted red, Stop!  She said, go in,side and pack all your load. The girls was confused, but there was nothing she could say than to obey her boss.  She went in and returned with a box. Beauty gave her an envelope.  Take this and go back to your village. I’m traveling and don’t know when I will be back. Pls, don’t tell anyone about me, is that clear? She concluded, and don’t ever come back to this side anymore. Beauty too went in to pack some of her clothes and some other things. She entered her car and drove off. 

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The hotel management had aware of the scenario, they called the police and the chief corpse was taken to mortuary till they found out the cause of his death… Various investigations were being taken, the hotel management was blamed for not installing CCTV in their twenty-first century building. Nobody, not even the staff on duty claimed to witness or have any information on the young lady with chief that night. The Chief family brought a detective, Shadow. He was a Yoruba man who had traveled abroad for good fifteen years. Shadow was a professional on his field. He was a family friend of the late chief too.  He promised he would get to the bottom of the matter.  
To be continued….

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