The Voice Episode 17 – 18

The Voice – Episode 17

A story by Alabede Jude

LOCATION: Isolo , Lagos state.

12:05pm.

Emily alighted from a commercial hired cab.

She straightened her red gown and stepped into the compound as the gate was opened by the gatekeeper. She long pressed the doorbell and it rang for a couple of times before someone opened the door.

A head popped out of the door first, then the body . It was a boy of about seven years old clad in white shorts and singlet.

“Aunty Emily” the boy shouted immediately he saw her.

He ran and jumped into Emily’s waiting hands in a brief hug.

Emily let the boy down with a nourishing smile emitting from her face.

“How you Jacob?” Emily asked as they str-de into the spacious living room.

“I’m fine aunty” the boy replied smiling gleefully.

“Were’s your mother?” Emily asked as she sat on a couch.

“She’s in,side the kitchen”

“Oh! Please fetch her for me” Emily said pleadingly.

“Aunty, you didn’t buy anything for me abi”

“Oh! I almost forgot, but I bought you this” Emily hurriedly brought out a wrapped parcel from her hand bag and handed it to the boy.

The boy happily collected it and unwrapped it immediately.

“Wow!” The boy exclaimed as he saw what was in it. It was a big toy Jeep.

“Hope you like it?”

“No aunty, I don’t like it. I love it” the boy grinned showing his missing tooth.

“Oh! Emily is this really you?”

A voice called and Emily looked up to see her cousin walking towards them with outstretched arms.

Emily stood up and embraced her tightly, she let go afterwards.

“You never told me you were coming, I would have prepared your favorite”

“No aunty, I just want to pay you a surprise visit”

“oh! So how you doing Emily?” she asked as she also settled down on a couch adjacent to Emily.

“Just trying to be fine aunty” Emily replied wearing a forlorn look.

“Trying to be fine? What’s the problem Emily?”

“Its a long story aunty”

Emily sat back resting her head on the armrest of the couch.

What other problem does she have if not Ben.

She had decided to visit her cousin all the way from

River state to Isolo where she resides just to advise her on what to do even though, she herself was yet to meet Ben.

“Let me quickly call my husband, he has been wanting to meet you”, Jacob’s mother said as she stood up.

Emily nodded, “Have been wanting to meet him too. You know he’s always not around whenever i come here_”

“Lucky you, he’s around today”

Emily smiled, lucky indeed.

“Honey … honey…” Jacob’s mother called as she walked out of the sitting room.

“Yes baby” a faint gruffy voice answered from in,side.

“My cousin Emily is here” She shouted and str-de back to her seat.

“How’s life in Rivers state?”

Emily was about to answer the question when her eyes darted to the door leading to the sitting room.

Her face suddenly formed to a shock demeanor as her mouth flung wide open surprised.

Ben stepped into the sitting room oblivious of Emily who had already seen him..

“Baby .. I …” the word hanged in his mouth as he saw Emily. His legs became rooted to the s₱0t and he couldn’t move an inch.

Jacob’s mother on the other hand was all smiles.

That’s before she noticed the weird and intense silence from both party.

She followed Emily’s shocked gaze and saw Richærd which was the supposed Ben also shocked.

Her instinct immediately told her that something was really amiss.

~

CIB TOWER

~

“What did you do to me!” Cole asked agitated fuming with rage, obviously in a loud pitched voice.

He was once seated on a swivel chair in his office but stood up immediately Agent bola entered his

office.

Cole was irked by her presence and aggravated with the fact that she didn’t knock before she entered.

“keep your voice down Cole” Agent bola said in a rather cool voice.

Cole surprisingly suppressed his anger as his anger

diminished at the thought of being in the office and at work.

“Why did you do this to me? .. bola why?” Cole bursted into fresh tears, the tears subsided and turned to sobs. He couldn’t imagine betraying Nora, worst of it, she was missing and the best he could do was to sleep with some slut.

Tears streamed down his face as pangs of conscience pricked him.

What had he gotten himself into?

Agent bola on the other hand showed no remorse for what happened. instead, she felt elated as it was now a part of her achievements.

“You don’t seem to care, do you?” Cole asked amidst sobs.

“No I don’t, you wanted me to fix you and I did just that, so why should I care?”

Cole swallowed hærd, it was all his fault.

He was damn f****ng stupid!

He sat down slowly uttering incoherent words to himself like he was going crazy.

He was really going crazy.

A knock sounded on the door, Cole immediately comported himself as he sniffed and cleaned the tears and mucus that had gathered on his face with the back of his hand.

Agent bola opened the door and left without saying a word.

A young man stepped into the office after a thorough scrutinization on Agent Bola.

“Good afternoon sir” he greeted.

he was dressed in the CIB uniform and his tag indicated that he was from the cyber security unit.

“How may I help you?” Cole asked in a gruffy voice which suggested that he wasn’t happy.

“Sir, I have found the location of the killer”

Cole’s face lit up as he heard the frolic news.

“Are you kidding me?”

“No sir, am not”

“Then how did you know it’s the killer location?” Cole asked.

“I have been working on this tirelessly, day and night trying to breach the killer’s security wall and today, it came as a success.” David said showing him the device which displayed the location.

“We need to move immediately” Cole voiced out after minutes of consideration.

Episode 18

Nora opened her eyelids for the umpteenth time in the day. Everywhere was dark and vague the last time she opened her eyes that was due to the blindfold that covered her eyes.

She blinked her eyes and closed it afterwards, her pupil was just adapting to its surroundings. She opened it the final time, now conscious to her environment.

The room was empty as usual but it looked dirty as though a broom never touched the plastered floor

for once.

She heard footsteps from a distance coming to the room she was kept hostage.

She still couldn’t visualize how she got there but she knew better.

she was kidnapped! But to be killed?

She can’t really tell.

The footsteps stopped at the doorstep and the door knob turned open.

Nora quickly closed her eyes pretending to be unconscious though she hærdly breaths. She could hear the sound of the footstep stopping just before her . She felt tempted to open her eyes but she resisted the urge.

“Stop pretending and open your eyes” Nora was surprised. She never knew her pretense would be known so soon.

She opened her eyes to see a man dressed in an all black with a mask covering the face.

He wasn’t tall and wasn’t short just average like every other normal person.

“Who the hell are you?” Nora shouted but it was more of a whisper.

“Wrong question” The man in mask replied.

“Please! Why are you doing this to me?” Nora asked after finding her voice back.

The man grinned through the open h0les of the mask.

“That’s a good question” The man circled Nora who was strapped to a wooden chair and stopped at her front.

“Cole caused this” The man looked away like he was hurt trying to hide the pain that engulfed him.

“He killed my wife” he said tentatively in a low tune. “He killed her and I will have my revenge”

“But Cole never killed anyone” Nora retorted.

The man laughed and didn’t stop until he thought he had enough of it.

“Cole never killed anyone?” he mimicked Nora then laughed for a while.

“Well, I don’t blame you because you never knew who he was before you met him.”

“And who was he?”

“He was a monster, a deadly one at that. He was thevone that compelled me to kill too”

Nora found his words meaningless, it doesn’t make any sense to her.

How could cole be a killer and the monster that compelled him to kill.

“He was an hired assassin, he kills without leaving a trace” the man started circling her again. “No one knew him to be a killer not even me.”

The man again stopped at her front, “He was popular in the game and they respected him a lot. Cole was a carefree type. he made life convenient for people but once you’re on his death list… You

die and no one would find his trace.”

The man squatted in front of Nora and placed his two hands on Nora’s thighs.

Nora twitched her legs trying to snap the hands off but she couldn’t.

Reason?

She was tied.

“I had been wondering who this smart dude is and why he was never caught.

My curiosity got the better of me when he killed my wife.” The man smiled in his masked face. “She was beautiful like a goddess and I really do love her.. I loved and I still love her. That’s’s why I can’t stop until I have my revenge.”

“After the death of my wife, I became determined to know who the killer really was but then, Cole suddenly stopped being an assassin. He became a better person and joined the CIB bureau with a new identity. Cole wiped off his memory himself to keep the past away from haunting him and then he became something else. he became a detective, trying to keep the state peaceful but my main objective is to make life a living hell for him after which I will kill you just as he killed my wife”

Nora froze at the point of being killed.

What?

Cold was once an assassin?

“I will kill everyone he loves starting with you. I will….” a sound interrupted him.

He brought out a small device from his pocket and saw it blinking red.

Oops! Cole has found him!

~

Cole locked his office door and pressed the combination codes to permanently lock it.

He stepped into the elevator and pressed the exit button.

He walked out of the elevator as it opened.

Cole jumped on his powerbike and sped off towards the location blinking on the tracker.

He loved speed and it helped clear off his head.

Backups were just getting ready and he couldn’t wait.

He really needed to teach the son of a b***h an indelible lesson.

Cole noticed a truck on his trail through the rear view mirror.

The black truck changed Lane and started speeding towards him in the opposite direction.

He always had very sharp Instincts, he trusts his guts so much.

He quickly slowed and jumped off the bike into nearby shrubs before the truck made impact.

The noise was deafening. Cole rolled far away from the collision deeper into the shrubs.

He quickly pulled out his phone and speed dialed a code.

It sent a signal to the CIB, indicating that he was in trouble and they could track his location.

A team was sent to his location immediately. Cole’s eyes were closing and he was fast losing consciousness. He barely heard what was going on around him.

The last thing he heard from the crowd confirmed his fears.

The driver of the truck was no where to be found.

************

Time was tickling very fast, emotions were becoming more heated. Seconds turned into minutes, and the moment was approaching gradually.

The silence in the house was deafening except for a young boy named David who was playing with the toy Jeep Emily bought for him. The boy was less perturbed about the happenings around him as he played, running about with the toy in his hands.

Emily’s mouth was still wide agape, Ben was also dumbfounded and lost in thoughts still standing like a statue. His head was tilted towards Emily and they were

locked up in a gaze.

David’s mother was also surprised, she was seated on a couch adjacent to Emily.

She was wondering why silence engraved the house and why they acted as if they were held up in a trance.

With the look of things, they might remain static forever without being conscious of their environment.

David’s mother shook her head in utmost dismay. She had to do something to stop the trance.

“What’s happening?” David’s mother shouted at no one in particular.

Emily was the first to regain herself from the trance that seemingly held her. She closed her mouth when she realized it was open.

“Ben?” Emily muttered under her breath with short gasps but loud enough for everyone to hear.

Ben shook uneasily as he stood, he had never anticipated that the world would come crumbling down on his head such as that. Had it been he knew….

He wouldn’t have dared the dreaded.

Worst still, he married two cousins with different characters. To him, one is cool but desperate while the other hazardous.

He f**ked up big time!

“He’s not Ben, Emily. He’s Richærd”, David’s mother angrily retorted.

Emily tried hærd not to blink her eyes because the tears could spill any moment. She had always known that Ben had a wife somewhere else but she wasn’t sure as she had never caught him with one, but right there was her worst nightmare playing right before her.

“Ben how could you?”, the tears came running down her cheeks like the water falling off a hill.

Emily couldn’t withstand the excruciating pain that engulfed her as she ran out with her handbag. A sob burst out, the tears welled up in her eyes, streamed and poured out like an heavy rain. She quickly brought out her handkerchief and soaked it with the tears.

••••••••••••
Detective Cole opened his eyes to find himself in a strange place. The walls were tiled and painted white. Strange smell wafted across his nostrils and the bed was very small and uncomfortable. He tried to sit upright but the sharp pain sent him back on the bed. There was a drip on his left wrist and a small amount of blood had formed on the tip needed.

How did he find himself there?

Which hospital was he admitted?

He remembered just a little part of the previous events. He was riding a power bike and then, he had a collision. That was all he could remember.

Cole pressed the emergency button.

“Nurse”, he called out but got no response.

“Nurse!!!”, he called out again, scre-ming as loud as his voice could carry him, pressing the emergency button a million times.

Minutes later, a young man came in wearing a white apparel. He was all smiles as he approached Cole on the bed.

Cole’s eyes w¡dened when he realized who was standing before him. He was dumbfounded and his face suddenly went pale.

It can’t be him. No, it can’t. It can’t be the forensic man, it can’t be. He is dead! Maybe he is seeing a ghost.

Cole argued within himself. He became scared with the thoughts let alone the presence of him.

“Seems like you are surprised detective”, the doctor said with smiles.

“Who are you?”, Cole asked in a quivery voice.

“Bamidele William, the forensic man you detained, who happened to be dead but very much alive”

Cole was gobsmacked. “But you were confirmed dead by the medics”

“I wasn’t the one, I made the man do a face surgery which was the replica of mine.

I had my ways like I always do”

The forensic man brought out a syringe and drew some liquid from an ampoule. He tapped Cole’s free hand and found a vein.

Cole drew back in fear. “What are you doing to me!”, he shouted but it was more of a whisper as fear engulfed him and he looked on with horror as the forensic man injected him from the syringe.

The forensic man removed it from his body after the contents had gone down not Cole’s body.

He smiled. “I’m sorry, I set you up. You weren’t an assassin and never a killer but I had to do what I have to do to cover my tracks which prone the killer to be on your trail. I changed for good but one way or the other, the past came haunting and I had to go back to my old self. I have to stop the son of a b***h before he learns the truth which is why I am doing this to you. I injected you with a form of amnesia virus which would make you lose your memories of the past three weeks. I was never here detective, have a nice day.”

Cole only the words ringing in his head as his eyes were fast closing and becoming blur. He heard the bang of the door which indicated that he was out of the room. Even though, he would lose his memory but he would try hærd not to forget the voice.

To be continued…