Don't! Look Closer - Episode 4

 

Their journey took them a while but she wasn’t in the least concerned. Her heart was too broken to fiddle with the idea of knowing where they were. No matter where they were, she needed a space to herself. Her mind was befuddled at the moment and she just couldn’t understand how to stop the pain. Tolu had really made her go through a pain she couldn’t recover from.

If she was a regular girl, Ireti wouldn’t have found the situation painful . Now, she couldn’t think much about any other thing. To her chagrin, Bayode kept shouting at the men to release him. The blindfolds prevented from seeing what was happening around but she preferred it. She hated Bayode’s egoistic view of life. She lived a better life than he but she had kept quiet and only feigned tears for the few times. Why can’t he learn from one that lived in wealth?

The men dumped her into a chair. They were too rough for her liking. They didn’t take a second glance at her but she wouldn’t even know because of the blindfolds. She banked on the moment to cry her eyes out. The surreal view of Tolu and Ayo lingered on her mind. Tears found its way through her cheek to her nose, and she sniffed.

‘Aww… She’s crying’, someone said. If life could give her one chance at this, she wanted to keep running from everything and this kidnapping was the only way to do that

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/don-t-look-closer

. Nothing spoke of wealth in her life. Her stingy father couldn’t part with his money easily for her to travel the way many others have. The emptiness of her life kept gnawing at her. Even the alcohol she found solace in hadn’t been able to fill it. She wanted an out of everything she knew and this was the perfect way to do that.

Someone pulled their head covers and that gave Bayode the opportunity he sought. He lamented about how much he must have been mistaken with someone else. Ireti stared at them for a while, hungry and wishing that she could understand why her day seemed cursed. But she accepted the blame. When Kike came late from getting the gate, she should have understood that life meant something else for her. Now, she was soaked in the pain of the knowledge. She moaned again as the memory of her naked lover and best friend came again.

“If life gives you a lemon, make lemonade out of it” read the cloth of the head kidnapper. It disgusted her.Everything about it made her squirm. A wise criminal should understand that nothing of such should be seen around them. But what did she know? Moreover, the maxim repulsed her. It would have been better if nothing bad had happened to her that day. Now, she couldn’t help but compare her situation with lemon. No lemonade can be birth from it. The soar taste clung to her heart and she couldn’t see the honey that would reproduce it for her.

A young man who would be in his late teens tied them and she wondered if he would get his right cut of whatever money they made. As much as she might want to find it interesting, these guys were beginning to take it too seriously. The plan should have been that she would sit on the couch while they carried out the transaction with her father. Now, the boy tied her as if everything in him hated her for being rich. With Bayode present, she couldn’t have a straight conversation with them.

The young guy moved over to Bayode, who only sat still because the one with the motivational polo pointed cutlass at him.

“Rasheed!!! Come here, now!” Someone shouted from the other rooms in the building they were taken to. She looked about and couldn’t help but detest their taste. They should have gone for something more comfortable. Now, she would have to keep up with their impoverished lifestyles.

The young man ran off. The one with the motivational cloth walked to and fro the room. He spun like someone controlled and pointed the cutlass at them.

‘Now, you will call your father’, he ordered.

Bayode sat up. The redness of his eyes made her feel like laughing at him. She couldn’t believe he could exhibit any form of fear when she looked calmer. If they hadn’t brought him, she wouldn’t have had to keep up appearances. His eyes bulged as he looked from the door to their assailant and the cutlass.

“Why will you call my father?” Bayode asked.

Their assailant shook his head, disgusted. “Why will anyone call your father? Is he a rich man?

Bayode shook his head. She loved to watch the event play out. Her mind played on the words she would use whenever she recounted it to Kike. Tolu wouldn’t hear a word of it.

“Is he a renowned art collector?” The kidnapper questioned again.

Bayode shook his head again. She wanted them to skip to the part where they were threatening her but there was no harm in having a little fun while doing it.

“Then, you keep your mouth before I ruin it with my fist”, the kidnapper said.

Bayode seized the moment. “If so, let me go. I don’t have any reason to be here”.

The kidnapper smiled and strutted towards him, hitting his palm with the side of the cutlass. She felt like spending the whole year watching their drama. But Bayode wouldn’t keep his mouth shut. From the way he handled her the other time, he wouldn’t have guessed she was Chief George’s daughter. Nothing could come out of him. His presence was tainting what they could have started.

“When your mother was praying for you, she forgot to pray about you not helping the wrong persons. This, lady, here has been under our radar for a while”, the kidnapper said.

“Please. Cover my face. Our faces were covered before we entered this compound. Do the same. I just want to get home to my wife”.

Infuriated, the kidnapper shook his head. “Heys. Kingston… Bring me that second cutlass. I need to cut someone’s lips”.

Her eyes widened because the kidnapper looked serious. She couldn’t watch such a thing happen to someone because of her. They could reach an agreement without anyone getting hurt. The only person she would love to punish was her father. No other person should be involved and she knew she had to interfere but if he refused their offer they could do anything they wanted with him.

“Please, leave him. He’s not involved. He just helped me. He’s not part of us”, she said and looked away.

“Part of whom?” The kidnapper asked.

“Us…”

“What do you mean us?” The kidnapper asked again. This time, he looked too serious for her. She didn’t like the way he was taking the pretence too far.

“The plan we had”.

“I don’t understand you”, the kidnapper said.

“The plan we had with Kiki”, she blurted out. The look on his face made her fear for her life. Why will Kike make the men forget their duty? Their treatment to her should be only psychologically and not the awkward sneer she saw on his face.

The kidnapper laughed. She sighed.  He edged towards her. “Well, I don’t love Kiki. Only Drake does. I don’t know any Kiki”.

She squirmed at his bad breath. “What do you mean you don’t know Kiki? We planned all these together. She just refused to make me know you guys because we had the intention of making sure I’m surprised”.

The kidnapper swallowed hard. Everything that had sound suddenly seemed to have lost them. She tried to remember the place she had seen that look before. Kike always had that look whenever one was giving wrong information or had missed the topic of discussion. The kidnapper’s drama was having its negative effect on her and she couldn’t take it anymore.

He shook his head like before. “This is madness. You’re mad. You can see your life in public. You’re so used to AC and the first time you’ll experience real heat, you became mad”.

“Please, I don’t like this joke”, Ireti cried. She glanced at a daze Bayode.

“So, your… What’s that name again…? Do you love me? Yes… Kiki. Your Kiki got me to be your comedian”.

“Is the cut not enough? We will increase it. Don’t do this. We can do other businesses together. Don’t be greedy”.

He placed the cutlass under her nose. The wetness shook her “Are you out of your mind? This isn’t a joke. This is you leaving your father’s life unless he pays us. Can you smell it?”

The kidnapper’s fierce look said it all. She had truly been kidnapped. Her mind raced through all the things she had hoped to do with the money. Why was life treating this? She burst into tear. Bayode shifted in his seat and turned his head towards her.   

“So, you planned all this?” He yelled. Her mind couldn’t contain the shock. Bayode faced the kidnapper. “ Bros… Bros… I’m not a part of this nuisance. Let me go”.

Ireti cried louder. The kidnapper placed the cutlass under her lips. She muffled her tears. Without any iota of doubt, she had played herself into the hands of real kidnappers. Her life had just become ruined by the error on her part.

“Madam, stop crying”.

She nodded but couldn’t stop the flowing tears. Now, someone was truly getting the money she wanted all along but she wouldn’t get a share of it.

The kidnapper moved back and brought out a phone from his pockets. “Whose phone is this?”

“It’s not mine”. Bayode replied. She didn’t have to look at it.

“Then, it’s the crying baby’s own. See, we are not maltreating you. When we are done, you can still do what you and your friends have planned. All of you are thieves. You, your father… And everyone in Nigeria. Do you know how much he sells one of those arts? He made billions from the last art he collected. The man is a thief. You too, his daughter, are a thief. All of you”.

Bayode interfered. “We are sorry”.

If the Kidnapper hadn’t been angry the whole time, he became angry that he ran toward Bayode and waved the cutlass at him. Ireti watched as the sharp cutlass danced in front of Bayode’s eyes and couldn’t help imagining the pain it would bring if it touched her.

“Are you deaf? Don’t you know your father again? Please, don’t ruin my happiness. Don’t you dare! I’m happy and I’m enjoying the imagination of joy. Don’t make me angry”.

“Sorry, sir. But plea…”

Ireti cried, “please, let us go”.

“Look at their mouths like please… Yen… Yen…”

He stopped talking and looked down at his hand like someone hallucinating. Like one on fire, he hurriedly pressed every button on the phone. She could do anything to get out of that place. Her life had never been this threatened. She burst into tears.

The kidnapper hurried off to the door.

Read " Purified Tomorrow: The Mad Awakening " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. “One of you, guys come o. This phone is off”.   

“It’s the battery o. Or it wants me to touch it”, she called.

The kidnapper hissed. “Why do you like to scheme. You are not going anywhere”.

Rasheed, the kidnapper that tied them, hurried into the house. His tennis boots made the impression that he had made a lot of money from the business of kidnapping. She wondered how much he must have made to wear such expensive one at a location as that. Her eyes roved over him.

The kidnaper torturing them pointed it at the new one. “Open our new car and plug this phone in it”

“Which new car?” Rasheed asked.

“I hate you. You don’t know simple coded language. New… Did we bring any car here? In fact, I’ll do it myself”.

He collected the phone and marched out of the room, banging the door behind him.