Grabbing The Hot Gate - Episode 15

 

 Gladys kept jotting down on her book of spells as she concentrated on the movie about Wicca. When Stella made her get the books, Gladys had done so religiously because she was popular for her retentive memory. However, she understood how much she could do with the book. She saw the activities of some of the witches in her church on Wednesday. They were crude and reckless . If she had her way, she would have made sure they never operated in Black Town anymore till they were schooled in the knowledge of evil.
Gladys began watching the movie after ensuring that crazy man was gone. She didn't know what made him think she would help him. Even when she was a Christian, she had her limit to those she helped. There were things that should be done.
At that point, she remembered she hadn't done an incantation Stella taught her the previous day. Stella was stricter than any lecturer she had ever encountered. She had a perfect, crazy punishment for every offense. Gladys hurriedly got up and went to get candles. Stella had warned her to always hold a weapon to protect herself because this was the most trying times for her. The aura had been emitted into the atmosphere that she was soon to be something great. She claimed that people weren't after her when she was powerless, but now, they would go to any length to bring her down

All episodes of this story can be found here >> https://www.ebonystory.com/story/grabbing-the-hot-gate

. So, she pocketed a small knife as she winked at her bottles of herbs. They were neatly arranged alphabetically and the sight of them gladdened her heart. She was a regular user before, and now, she would become an obsessive user because she noticed Stella and various websites online recommended them to her. It was as if everything in the world was preparing for this moment of her life, and she wouldn't throw it into the ditch. Instead, she would embrace it like a blanket in the cold.
 Upon getting outside, she met Mrs. Jones, Elizabeth's mum.
'Miss. G', Mrs. Jones said. After getting that name from Elizabeth, all her neighbors had taken to calling her the nickname. Mrs. Jones was also going out of the compound. She wore a knotted crop peach T-shirt on a crazy Jeans trouser, which suited her slender body frame, and had a pink sunshade on. At a first glance, one would never assume she was married, especially with her sultry look.
'Mrs. Jones. Good evening'.
'You've been a bad bad girl, and I wonder how you bribed Elizabeth'.
She looked astounded. 'How? My sweet Elizabeth. What did I do wrong?'
'Where were you some weeks before? She even made me call your cell phone, and I even wanted to go as far as reporting to the police until she gave me one Mrs. Stella's number, who told me you traveled home'.
'Oh Yes, my mum was sick, and I returned the following week'.
'My God! How's is she now?'
For every statement Mrs. Jones gave, she always had a perfect lie to suit it.  When they got to the gate, she scolded the gateman and told him to never direct people to her place without proper identification. Mrs. Jones garnished him with an insult or two before they departed at a corner of the end of the estate she resided. The moment she was alone, she felt a strange body following her. She would have tried astral projecting, but Stella had warned her against astral projection that it would make her look older before time. And because of this, many African and American witches became old before time. If she wanted to be a better witch, still beautiful and acceptable by Lucifer, she had to maintain her beauty.
 Seeing this, she moved onward, passing the shop she had the intention of buying her candles from. She had ordered for bigger, colorful ones online. But before their arrival, she had to get some of them right now, and the only place she could get it was from those traders who sold wares for members of Celestial Church of Christ or Cherubim and Seraphim.
Immediately she turned to a corner, she hid. Even if she wasn't as strong or as fast as Stella she had been undergoing a little taekwondo training that would help her surmount whatever opposition that headed her way. Stella had told her that demons can be funny. They pushed witches to be desirous of taking others' lives, and if she let down her guard, she would be a scapegoat to the others. Gladys clutched the knife firmly, hoping to have her first taste of personal killing. Probably that would give her access to more power.
 Suddenly the lanky obnoxious man, who came banging on her door, lamenting about his missing dead friends, sneaked into the corner. She watched him sneak past and peep. She didn't care if she would astral project or something, but there was a need to make him pay for stalking her. She pulled him from behind and placed the blade of the knife on his neck.
 He struggled a bit but loosened up when he felt the blade knife on his neck. 
'Why are you following me?'
The man stiffened as he heard her voice. 'Please. My friends'.
'What happened to them? I told you I didn't see them'.
 'They entered. They entered the place. Miss, you need to understand my plea. They entered. Even if the son of the soil was drunk, he would remember what he saw. I was the watch. We went to steal. I'm not proud of it, but I was with them. So I was sure'.
 She detested people like this, who were hungry to die. They were moths and were always carelessly roaming places they would be crushed. If this man had a discerning spirit even from God or Satan, he would have deciphered that something terrible had happened to his friends, and that there was no way he could get them back, get revenge for them.
She released her clutch and dialed Stella's number to know where she was. Stella informed her that she had left home on an urgent business. 'Okay. I have a spare key to her house. We can enter before she comes'.
The man spun excitedly. 'Thank you'.
'We will search the house together. What if they ran away? Have you considered that they might have absconded?'
' Miss Aunty They can't run away. We needed the money to care for the mother of one of us. For Gerald'.
She was tired of learning the basics, she needed more power and ability. All the books she had scavenged over the net would play out themselves through her hands that night, and Stella would be perplexed at her dexterity. That was the opportunity she needed. Stella had made her do some crazy stuffs together with her; therefore, she wouldn't object to her first practical class. 
She guided the man through the gate of the house. Not just anybody could open the door of the house. Stella had done it that she was the only one able to enter or until she allowed anyone enter the compound, there was no way they would have access to the house. However, ever since Gladys began to enter the house, Stella made her cut herself and drop some of her blood at the doorpost, that would give her access to the house whenever she wanted.
 So when they got to the house, she pretended to be on the watch-out for Stella. She let him into the house and pretended to search for anything that could implicate her. In the process, she stumbled on an old man, who was deeply in sleep in Stella's house.
Quickly, she muttered a sleeping curse, the first lessons she learnt. She said,' in a deep sleep ye shall be, remembering not what I hide from thee Magic work let this be, Let this spell work for me'.
She hurried out of the room, and stared into the inquisitive eyes of the lanky man, who would soon be a sacrificial lamb. She shook her head to his dismay, and they proceeded to battle with the locks of the rooms. The man couldn't open any of the rooms until she took turns to open them. Most times, while pretending to pick a lock, she used some of the door unlocking spells she learnt by rote method online to open the door. 
 They kept searching the massive buildings until they stumbled on the door of the power room, the underground room. The energy that exuded from that room enlarge her head, and hair rise on her body. The room was oddly smelling nice. Stella had a knack for keeping things clean, and she felt the only way she could enjoy her immortal body was to keep it excessively neat. 
'Do you see light anywhere?' The man whispered. 
'No' she said imitating his fearful whisper. 'Search around'.
'I'll use phone torchlight'.
 Although she wasn't all that accustomed to the room, she still had a bit of idea of where he might be. As he fiddled with the phone, and his phone rang.
'Silence the phone', she scolded and placed her hands on the switch.
He picked the call regardless of Gladys' pretentious call for silence. So, she had to stay her hand. There wouldn't be any fun in making aware of where he was when he was still receiving a call. 
'Hello. What? He didn't run away. We're still looking for money. No. What? That's a lie. No. That's a lie. She can't die', he yelled. 
'What's that?' She asked impatiently. 
'She is dead. Gerald's mother is dead', he wailed for a while and sniffed for a prolonged second. 'Ah! We must find his body. His death can't be in vain. Son of the soil wouldn't accept that. I will'
'I found a switch', she said, smiled cruelly and switched on the light. He was already siting on the ground, with his back to the place she wanted him to see. She screamed, pretending to be surprised. The man turned also and screamed as he saw what laid before him.
'Where are we?'
'That's Nnamdi. That's his head'.
He rushed to the washed corpse of his friends, and growled as he tugged at their body. Stella would have dumped them in the hole, but she had preserved them for lessons for Gladys. She claimed they didn't really need to have a fresh kill before Gladys learnt what she needed to know. 
When she was sure he was engrossed in his grieving, Gladys looked about, grabbed an ax, slowly walked to him, and hoped she was doing the right thing. There were various ways of getting power. She could still go back to God, and not face the trauma of being a killer. But she couldn't easily forget the rawness in the power Stella wielded that Friday night, in controlling that demon that possessed her and those that tortured. She moved slowly to him, and with an open-eye, took a clean swipe at his head; she decapitated him.  
At first, she stared at his headless body. She wanted that ax to knock him unconscious, injuring him a bit. She never knew it would be that sharp. His headless body flustered.

Read " Don't! Look Closer " by the same author ( Akíntayo Akinjide )

. Though uncanny, she felt excited about it. A regular feeling, according to the internet was that she would feel numb. But her excitement wasn't one of the things that were recorded as what she should experience on her first kill. Was her conscience that dead? Conscience be damned.
 Although Stella informed her that the demons in her would make her feel excited about anything she did, she wasn't bothered. She had never imagined it would be as perfect as this. She laid him on the ground and watched with ecstasy as his body vibrated. She should feel disgusted, but everything looked amazing. There wasn't any chance she wouldn't give in to the temptation of using the blood of this man for the incantation. She would use everything in the room to serve her purpose. 
She searched the house for a note to jot down the results she would get. She touched her ear, and smiled that she no longer had a reason to use her earring aid. Then, she glanced at the blood oozing on the floor, and jot down things she would need to start the process.