Shadows Of The Past

A New Chapter

This chapter is dedicatedly dedicated to Monelo_Aurum

"Alright sir, yes sir, no problem sir", Kayode kept replying as he threw grins at me as I kept making faces and whispering to him to get a hint of what was going on.

Everything I did to get a clue to what they were discussing proved abortive as he kept signalling to me to calm down.

As soon as he dropped the call, he chattered excitedly, beaming even wider

" He's coming over in two hours from now!"

"Oh! No!", I groaned, throwing him a murderous glance.

" Common, you have nothing to loose. If things don't go well, you die. You were about to do that anyway", he gesticulated, trying hard to make a point.

I shrugged nonchalantly in response.

For hours that seemed like months, Kayode kept talking about himself and though, it was not any different from my life, I could not but feel sorry for him as well. His mother dumped him as a baby in the waste bin and he went from one foster home to another because he was really rebellious. He was later freed to roam the streets after he became 18 and he struggled hard until he learnt carpentry and became good at it.

He lived a good life thereafter. The end sounded like fairytale to me. Nevertheless, I admired his strength and courage to have passed through that and not tried to commit suicide for once.

Soon enough, I saw the stranger alight from his car just in front of the canteen. Kayode kept talking as he was oblivious to his presence as he backed the entrance.

Few seconds passed and Kayode was able to sense my obvious focus shift and glanced behind him as the stranger approached.

"Good day Raymond", the stranger beamed at me, stretching his hand towards me to shake hands with me.

" Good day sir", I drawled, ignoring his hand and looking away.

"Haa! Good day sir. Thanks for honouring our invitation.", Kayode addressed him, while pulling a chair out for him to sit.

"Thank you very much. What did you order. Hope you haven't paid", he replied, his gaze now fully on him.

" No sir", he smiled exaggeratedly

My long sigh drew their attention to me again.

I wished I still had food before me to focus my gaze on as they bore holes  into my frame with their eyes.

"It's good to meet you again, Raymond. I thought I'd never see you again", the stranger finally spoke, carefully though. It was as though he weighed each word mentally before they became audible.

" Please, make my death a quick one, almost painless, in fact", I said coldly, while gazing into space.

A brief moment of silence passed before he cleared his throat and spoke again.

"I really don't know why I'm doing this, Ray. I know it could be a foolish thing to do...

The heated gaze I flashed in his direction shut him up temporarily

" I meant, I know practically nothing about you and I'm offering you a space in my house. However, asides the unexplainable affection I have towards you, I believe everyone out there on the streets deserves a chance ", he continued, trying hard to drive a point home

" Ray, give this a chance. After all, you were about killing yourself some hours ago", Kayode quipped, intimidation evident in the uneasy look on his face after he had spoken.

"What! Killed himself?", the stranger asked, worry written over his face. Although I couldn't tell if it was real

" I'll follow you to the shrine. My life is pretty useless anyway. Like I said earlier, please endeavor to make it a quick one", I said emotionlessly, blocking the traffic of thoughts that had started to build up in my head.

"Yes!", Kayode exclaimed, smilingly

I rolled my eyes at him and sunk deeper into the chair

" I'm not going to kill you, Ray. I was sincere when I said I was going to provide you a better life. I...."

"When are we leaving?", I interrupted, not wanting to sit in the canteen any longer.

" Soon, hold on, will you?", he replied, a bit tiredly this time

I guess he was getting fed up of my attitude.

And for more than 30 minutes, he spoke with Kayode while eating and laughing merrily.

"Is this another ill fate or a twist of fate?"

I kept thinking as echoes of laughter drew me even farther to a secluded world...

I fulfilled my promise😁.  tifetobi,  Thanks for the sticking through❤❤❤