[STORY] DEADLY DESIRE (Episode 32)

Episode 32.

Itohan brought out all the money she sold for the day and started counting them. She arranged the money according to their dominations to enable her know the total amount of money she made for the day.

Knocks sounded on the door and she packed all the money in a nylon, then hid the nylon under a pillow. She went to the door and opened it.

The presence of Mr and Mrs Igiebor graced the entrance of the door. The surprised Itohan opened the door wider for them to come in. She was happy to see them.

“How Cindy na?” She asked.

“Aah, she is doing great” they chorused.

She offered them chairs to sit on.

“We came for a reason” Mr Igiebor told her.

“Ehen ehen! I hope no problem sha”

“No no! There is no problem. Cindy is our only child. We waited for 13years before God answered us. If money could buy a child, we would have bought many children because God blessed us with wealth. If we wanted to adopt a child, we would have done that long time ago. We just wanted our own. Since Cindy became of age, she has been giving us problem. She was disobedient, disrespectful and promiscuous. The devil wanted to destroy her life but the mercy of God said No. Today God has shown her mercy” Mr Igiebor told her.

“Hallelujah, hallelujah! Thank God sey devil fail for her life oo. The thing wey dey important be sey she don surrender to Jesus”

“We are grateful to God. Thank God she could not be used for ritual purpose. Cindy wants us to help you start up your tailoring business”

“Ah, me and her talk that time. I tell her say I sabi sew clothes but I no get machine and money never dey to rent shop” Itohan said.

“That is why we are here. We want you to start up something for yourself. Whether to go into tailoring or any other businesses of your choice” Mrs Igiebor said smiling.

“Ehen”

“We would give you money to….”

Itohan stood up immediately. She went to the door and locked it with key and she shut the window in the room.

“Abeg make una no vex oo. I no want make another ear hear wetin una dey talk. Talk that thing wey you be dey talk just now”

Mr Igiebor smiled then switched on his phone’s torch for the room was dark.

“If Cindy had died, our money would have been useless. My daughter wants us to assist you. So we are giving you N10m. We will also sponsor Osas education to any level”

Itohan sat on the carpeted floor and began to cry.

“You have become my family” He told her “Whatever plan you have for Efosa, tell me and I will take up the responsibility”

“Efosa wan go university when he finish secondary school. I want make e go school.

“Settled them. Let us know when school fees will be paid and I will do the needful” Mr Igiebor told her.

“As for this cute baby, I will be sending money for his upkeep every month” Mrs Igiebor said.

“You could have allowed Cindy to die but you didn’t. You and your children showed her love. Even that elderly woman was not exempted” she told itohan.

Itohan held their legs and began to pray for them. When she exhausted all the prayers in her heart, she stood up and thanked them.

Mr Igiebor left his wife with Itohan for a while and returned with a Ghana must go bag.

“This is N10m in cash”

Itohan opened the bag and laughed. She touched the money and quickly zipped the bag. She pushed the bag under the bed and sat on the bed.

“We want to see Iya Folake too” he told itohan.

She followed them to see Iya Folake. She was also appreciated in a big way. She poured blessings upon blessings upon their lives. They didn’t sleep in Iya Folake’s house. They left and lodged in a hotel.

Itohan and Iya sang and danced round the compound.

“Tomorrow, my son will go to the bank and lodge the money there” She said happily.

“First, you need to open an account” iya folake told her.

“No problem”

When Efosa returned from a viewing center where he went to watch football. Itohan briefed him. The boy screamed excitedly.

“Mummy you are now a millionaire oo. Hey!”

Itohan brought out the bag . Efosa opened the bag and saw the new crisp of money.

“And my father went after a woman because of her money”

Itohan didn’t comment. She zipped the bag and pushed it under the bed. She asked Efosa to set the table for supper.

“So I will go to university without financial struggle”

“Na so oo. na Dem go still pay your school fees for this term sef. This God love me too much. See as he dry my tears”

When everyone has gone to bed and the street was quiet, Itohan didn’t sleep. She sat on the bed and began to count all the good things God has done for her. Then she went on her knees and began to pray.

———————————–

Pastor Smart stood in his shrine with hands raised. He held a life chicken in one hand and the other a sharp knife.

“I have come to offer you blood, so that the gate of death will be open for Itohan” he said before a carved image.

He placed the neck of the chicken on a flat plate and cut it. Blood splattered on the plate. He left the dead chicken and took the plate to the big frightening image. He poured the blood on the image.

In the shrine, Pastor Smart has a big mirror which he covers with a black cloth. He doesn’t remove the cover unless there is an assignment to kill. He removed the covering and stood before it. It is a mirror that doesn’t show one’s reflection only the person that is to be killed. Pastor Smart dipped his hand inside a big clay pot that is beside the mirror. He brought out a black egg. For five minutes he began to do incantation. He threw the egg on the mirror but nothing happened. He dipped his hand into the pot the second time and began to make incantation. He threw the egg on the mirror and nothing happened. A deep frown crossed his face.

“What kind of thing is this. I don’t waste time to kill my victims” He said.

He went to the pot and dipped his hand the third time and brought out another egg. He looked carefully at the egg. Then he began to murmur. He threw the egg at the mirror but this time he saw Itohan kneeling on her bed praying. Beside her were two huge angelic beings. Pastor Smart wasn’t satisfied.

He covered his mirror with the black cloth then decided to go on a spiritual journey himself. He has not failed on any assignment and he wasn’t ready to fail. Behind the big carved image was a small pot. Pastor Smart went there, brought out the pot and drank a little of its content. As soon as he dropped the pot, he fell and turned to a cat. The cat moved round the shrine then disappeared.

The cat appeared in Iya Folake’s compound. As at the time the cat appeared, Itohan was not the only one praying. Iya Folake was up praying warfare prayer. The black cat watched Itohan’s door but was surprised there was a big animal there with shining eyes. It was lying at the entrance of the door. Slowly, the cat moved closer and discovered that it was a lion guarding the door.

Fear gripped the cat as it’s eyes locked with the lion. The lion sprang up and roared. The fur on the cat stood. It ran and jumped over the fence.

Even after the fence, the cat could still hear the roaring of the lion as it rang across the street. When the cat appeared in the shrine, it was panting hard.

Suddenly, it turned to Pastor Smart. He sat on the chair panting.

“What is a lion doing in that compound?” He whispered.

So annoyed that he sprang out of the chair.

“Itohan cannot disgrace me. Who the hell does she think she is”

He stood before his shrine and began to invite his friends. One after the other, they appeared in his shrine, seven in numbers.

“I need your help” He told them. “A woman is proving too difficult to kill”

They looked at one another and laughed.

“A mere woman?Not possible. We have known you to destroy any obstacle easily. She can’t be as powerful as you or our leader. This is not possible” one of them said.

“I have been trying. She seems so powerful. Do you know she kept a lion guarding her door?”

They looked at each other again and frown their faces.

“We will go with you and finish her up. It will not be difficult to kill the lion” another said.

The lion can’t be a physical one. It could be the power where the said woman draws her strength” another told them.

“We need to be in unity to facilitate a quick death for the lion first then the woman” pastor smart told them.

The eight of them formed a circle, held hands together and began to chant. Suddenly they appeared in Iya Folake’s compound in the form of cats.

It was the lion that first saw them and it roared. The cats scampered but the lion chased them round the compound until all of them were killed. Pastor Smart was lucky to escape. He sustained an injury in his legs. The other seven were killed gruesomely by the lion.

When Pastor Smart appeared again in the shrine, he wept profusely. He knew his friends had been killed because of him.

For six days, he refused to leave the shrine. He wept and mourned his dead friends.
To Be Continued… . . .