DEATH JUNCTION

12

Their gazes soon met mine. I cleared my throat to stow away the fear that rippled through me from their cold, unloving gazes. The lack of warmth brought another longing for my mother, unfurling a deep welling sadness.

“My little Zee, I will never leave you behind.”

The mistiness formed in my eyes but I blinked it away and hardened my farce of a resolve.

“I… I.. I,” I exhaled and tried to string a sentence as my nerves began to fray.

“The librarian in our school, I think he's a murderer. I saw a dead body with him, a few days ago and he-”

“It's like you have grown wings you this girl.” Angry lines formed around mama’s eyes as she walked to me.

“I sent you buy foodstuff instead you go do work wey they no send you. Now you know how to do detective work pass police man, abi?” She grabbed my ear and twisted it. My headache worsened as I cowered underneath her livid frane.

“No I-”

“Will you shut up your mouth!” She smacked me right across the face.

“ Na murder send you to market, abi? I know you just dey lie on the poor man head just because he must have cheated on you. Better tell me where you go drop my money before I descend on you!" 

Tears formed in my eyes.

“Mama, I didn't steal your money.”

She removed her slippers and was ready to slap the living daylights out of me when my stepfather shouted.

“Mama, leave the girl alone!” For once, she stopped, although reluctantly, doing as he requested. My stepfather looked hard at me, his eyes betraying no emotion.

“What were you saying, girl?” His intense gaze made me fumble for what to say.

“I said, the librarian I think he's a murderer, maybe the murde-”

“You still dey think that kind rubbish. I go slap you-”

“Mama, leave the girl alone na!” He shouted and Mama's glare moved from me to her son. A huff left her lips before she spun on her heel while muttering under her breath. As soon as she left, the full weight of his gaze fell on me. The silence that cascaded around had a thick sheen of tension layered to it.

“Talk.”

I cleared my throat. “So, I think he's the murderer.”

“Why is that?” He moved over to the edge of the kitchen, where a stack of cupboards protruded from the top and bottom of the walls, between it being a marble countertop spread out.

“I saw him with a dead body of a man that appeared on the news yesterday and-”

“So, you're saying the murderer is the one with the dead body, right?”

I nodded despite the lump in my throat.

“It is tragic that people have died but I am only concerned about my wife’s death.”

The way he emphasized his wife didn't sit well with me. His face began to contort to something more, undulating rage that reached past the usual neutral mask on his face. A long silence stretched out between them in a low deadly tone, he said,

“I know you killed her.”

My breath caught in my throat. “What? I-”

“You killed the mother of my twins. You killed her.” His tone rose, his hands balling into fists beside him as he rested against the countertop. I stood taken aback, shocked by his words.

“But she's my mother too.” I whispered, watching the muscles in his exposed arm strain.

“You may pretend to cry or mope but I know you're the one that killed her. You were only one that found her dead. You were steeped in her blood,” his voice cracked. I could see the mist that formed in his eyes, the grief that he kept hidden under the blank that he drew over himself so effectively. The grief mirrored my own.

“But-”

“Leave my house.”

I stood frozen and shell shocked.

“Leave my house!”

My heart banged against my rib cage. Trepidation nestled within me at the reality of his statement.

The fear of the unknown.

“Sir, please I didn't do-”

“I said leave!” Before I could blink, a knife hit the wall beside my head and clattered to the floor. Disbelief made my hands begin to shake.  Tears resurrected in my eyes as the concoction of emotion bubbled over the cauldron in me. I pushed a hand to my mouth to prevent the sob that threatened to consume me from escaping my lips.

“Leave before I kill you myself.”

I stumbled, tripping over my legs as I made my way out the door and the compound. The adrenaline that rushed through my veins gave way to a severe headache, dots encroached my vision.

Leave!

The thought cemented into my brain, spurring a never ending chant that continued on in the background, urging me to continue forward. The fears of the night consumed me but the single chant continued on. I passed by the gates of my estate, leading myself onto the side walk of the main road. My vision was still scrambled, leaving me only rooted by the smell of the gutter and the tap tap of my shoes with the surrounding honk of cars.

Suddenly, my legs gave way underneath me. I collapsed. A figure stepped into my line of my flickering vision  and the smell of honey caked my nostrils.

“You look so much like your mom.” I heard the figure say before I blacked out.

Chapter word count: 1594
Word count: 19327
I want to thank God for giving me the Grace to write this. So, how was it?