Chereads / Amadi / Chapter 3 - Chapter Three

Chapter 3 - Chapter Three

Ikenna dreams of walking through a peaceful forest with lakes, flowers and rivers cutting through the landscape and amplifying it's beauty. 

He hears someone laughing and turns to see a little girl chasing a small red bird. 

Out of curiosity he follows the girl from afar and watches her play. 

After a few moments she stops and turns around saying "Don't think I have forgotten about you". 

The girl transforms into the creature from before and chases Ikenna. He tries to run but it soon catches up to, and wraps it's tail around him. 

Trembling he asks "What do you want?". 

She replies "There is someone who needs to die, Patrick Oyelowo, you should know him, very fat and quite careless. It would be a tragedy if he were to have an accident at work". 

Ikenna begs "Please I will do anything else please". 

The creature responds "I don't want anything else, for now his death will be sufficient. My children will guide you and provide the necessary discipline to see it done". 

She then flings Ikenna into a river and he wakes up sweating and panting. 

He quickly prepares for work and rushes out, trying to forget what he dreamt about. 

His day goes about as it usually does, but he panics when he comes across Patrick Oyelowo. 

They greet and engage in idle chatter. Patrick brings up his marital troubles but Ikenna is unable to properly listen as a voice repeats over and over in his head "touch the railing… touch the railing… touch the railing". 

He obeys and continues talking with Patrick for a few minutes then makes up an excuse to leave. 

A few minutes later Ikenna notices a large number people rushing to the balcony he came from. He follows them and sees the lifeless body of Patrick, in a pool of his own blood, at the bottom of the platform. 

The facility allows some workers to leave early so an investigation can be carried out, Ikenna is one of them. 

He angrily drives to his apartment and once inside destroys whatever he can lay his hands on. 

After venting his anger, he grabs a bottle of whisky from the fridge and drinks himself unconscious. 

When he wakes up later in the afternoon, he sees that his apartment has been cleaned from top to bottom. As Ikenna slowly looks around, wondering what could have done this, his phone rings. 

He picks the call and the head of human resources, Annie Jacobs, tells him "Hello Mr Uzoma, I need you in my office right away. We need to ask you some questions about what happened yesterday". 

Ikenna answers "I'll be there" and cuts the call. 

Once he gets to the human resources office, he sits down with the HR director and chief safety officer, Mr Charles Nwokolo. 

Charles asks him "What transpired between you and the late Mr Oyelowo before he died?".

Ikenna answers "We talked for a while during my break". 

Annie asks Ikenna "What did he say during that time". 

Ikenna sighs and tells them "I wasn't completely tuned in but he spoke about his wife, and how they were having issues".

Noting down all he said, Annie advises him to seek counselling and allows him to leave. 

Rather than go home again, he decides to go drinking at a local bar and pepper soup joint.

He drinks, eats and dances his pain away until he passes out. 

The next day Ikenna is woken up by the sounds of birds and splashing water. He rubs the sand off his face and stumbles out of a small hut onto a beach.

A young woman seated on the sand, enjoying the view, turns to him and says "Oh good, you're awake". 

Ikenna walks to the water to clean himself, ignoring her. 

The woman pouts, saying, "You don't recognise me? Maybe this will help!". 

Ikenna jumps as he hears a hiss and feels something cold rub against his back, shouting, "YOU! You are that witch that keeps tormenting me!". 

The woman giggles "My name is Ada by the way". 

Ikenna keeps shouting "I don't care! What did I do to you, what did Patrick, Mr Smith and the others ever do to you!?". 

Ada gets up, shakes her head and walks to the water saying "You still don't understand". 

She brings out a fish, rips it's head off and squeezes it to bring out a black and foul smelling substance, saying "This is what my home has turned to… ". 

Her words release a long held pain as she throws the fish at him, screaming "... we have to eat poison because of people like you!". 

Ikenna growls "I was here fixing the oil spills, why don't you use your witch powers to fix all this?". 

Ada's screams turn to crying as she says "I did, that's why I made you! Can't you see you were made for more than just killing? Just touch the ground and see!". 

Ikenna touches the oil on the sand and stares shocked as he is able to manipulate then absorb it into his body. 

She helps him to his feet and tells him "Fight for me and I will set you free along with this land, I can't do this on my own". 

Feeling a slight resistance he says "With this we can fix the spills. Are you sure we can't just talk to them, come to an agreement?". 

Ada responds "I knew a man who tried, and died. Our enemies bring only death, I promise rebirth".

She puts her head to his chest and asks "Do you understand now?". 

Ikenna embraces her and responds "Yes…yes I understand". 

The End?