Iheoma episode 33 – 36

IHEOMA 💐

EP 33🌿

There was nothing I could do. The questions the police were throwing at us were impossible for me to answer. How could I tell them that Emeka had killed me before, and had planted my heart in his bedroom? How could I explain rob them that some ritualistic were after me because I had died in their hands and come back to life?
Anna herself was confused as to why the police would arrest us when we were actually the victims of such an attack. At a point, while in the questioning room, one of the policemen interrogating us went straight to the point, and asked us to pay Fifty thousand Naira each as bail.
“Bail for what? I don’t have that kind of money,” I s¢ræmed, shocked at the incredulous request he was making.
Anna on the other hand asked them to give her a phone. Thirty minutes after the call, Her uncle came around and promptly bailed us.
As we left the station, the man kept staring at me.
“Anna, where do you know this your friend that looks so much like you from?”
“We don’t look alike Uncle,” she murmured angrily.
“I’m Anna’s Uncle, her mother is my sister. You look so familiar, who are you?,” the man quietly asked.
“I’m Iheoma, your sister’s first daughter. The one she gave birth to in her first marriage to Ibe, the palm wine tapper. I’m that girl.”
The man’s eye’s w¡dened every moment.

“You…You’re really her! You’re that baby…”
As he hugged me, I couldn’t help but feel relieved that he believed me. That he remembers me…

IHEOMA💐

EP 34🌿

I sat there, holding hands with Anna, and watching my mother lying in the hospital bed. Our Uncle sat next to me, examining every feature on my face.
“You have your father’s eyes, but your nose is definitely your mom’s,” he whispered.
“You’re really my sister?,” Anna asked as her finger wrapped around mine tightly.
I looked at her, and found a tear drop in her eye.
I nodded slightly.
She smiled, her eyes were filled with pain.
“My father just died, and is in a morgue being examined by police officers. My mom is lying unconscious on a hospital bed, and I met you; my lost sister, all of this in one day.”
She looked at me now,
“At least, tell me why those men wanted you dead. Explain to me how you could have so many enemies such that everyone around you loses their life, or gets into trouble.”
As we sat there, I explained to them my ordeal. Starting from my lonely life in the village where everyone saw me as evil, to how Emeka was after my life in order to make his money ritual a success. As I told my story, Anna’s eyes were glued to me.

When I talked about the prophecy that talked about me leading to the death of the Igwe and his village elders which had been accomplished, my Uncle jumped in.
” That was the reason your mom left you. The chief priest said he saw doom for the Igwe all around you on the day you were born. Everything about you was special from the day you were born. Have you ever wondered how you got your name?”

I shook my head. I had never read meaning into my name.
“Iheoma isn’t your full name. It’s Iheoma Obodo. It means A good thing for the village. I don’t know why you had so much placed on your shoulder by God, but you were born to change our community.”

“Is that why everyone around you have to die? Do I have to die too?,” Anna asked suspiciously.
Looking her in the eye, and knowing she was my flesh and blood, I couldn’t tell her what the angel had said…

“You won’t die. I will rather die than lose you…”

IHEOMA 💐

EP 35🌿

“You’re not going to die…,” I said, trying to convince myself to believe I could change what the angel had told me.
A sparodic cough, and we all turned to find my mother panting hærd in the bed with her eyes open.
We all ran to her, excited to see her awake. Seeing me, her eyes w¡dened with surprise.
“You, You, I…I…I know you.”
With that, she seemed to slump into a faint. Our panicked s¢ræms draw the attention of one of the doctors who came around. After examining her, he asked us to leave as the fainting had come from tiredness and shock.
“You can come back tomorrow Evening. She’ll be ready to talk to you then. Right now, she’s not really stable enough to be with anyone.”

As we turned to leave, I felt my mother’s hand as she grabbed my hand.
“I have to talk to you. I have to tell you now.”

The doctor immediately spoke up,
“Madam, I’m sorry but you can’t talk with anybody until tomorrow.”

With much difficulty , my mother sat up, still holding my hand.
“Everybody has to leave us. I need to talk to her alone.”
Seeing the urgency in her voice, my uncle convinced the doctor into leaving the room along with Anna. As soon as they were gone, my mother began to weep. It was the most agonizing tears I had ever seen anyone shed.
“You’re my daughter right?,” she asked with doubt filling her face.
I nodded slightly.

She coughed heavily, spattering blood all over me. As I patted her back, she drew a way from me, and staring me in the eye said,
“Then, You shouldn’t be here. The Igwe has been killed, I saw it with my own eyes, and I know now that there’s no one left to pacify the demon that rules our town. You are about to lead to the death of the entire village. You shouldn’t be here my daughter…”

IHEOMA 💐

EP 36🌿

The next thing I knew, I was already in my Uncle’s car, speeding towards my village. The speed and urgency with which he drove portrayed to me that he was well aware of the urgency of what was about to happen.
“Uncle slow down please, you might get us killed” Anna whispered from that back seat.
My uncle ignored her, pressing down more on the accelerator leaving me to explain the situation to her.
“Listen to me, Anna. An entire village could be dead by morning if we don’t get there before sundown.”

“What are you talking about?”
I made to explain to her, but was cut short by my uncle,
“You’ll understand everything when we get there. Right now, you need to keep quiet so I can concentrate on my driving and not kill all of us,” he said as he overtook two tankers in a hurry.

After Two long hours of strenuous driving, we got to the village. As we made to drive into the community, my Uncle’s car went off on it’s accord.
“What’s the problem?”

My uncle got down, opened the bonnet, and found that his engine was gone.
“It’s the demon. They say he’s against progress in any form. Seeing that the car is a scientific achievement, he’ll definitely not be happy with it,” my Uncle explained.

As I got down from the car, and touched the village soil for the first time in some weeks, a chill ran down my back. A chill that showed,

“Something evil is in this town right now…”
“What do you mean?,” Anna asked as she got down from the car behind me.
I realized then that she didn’t understand the extent of what was about to happen.
Before I could explain, my uncle quickly cut in,
“Everybody in this town might be dead by Midnight…”

TBC
#justicenike