Days went by and I'd already been on two more missions. More girls had joined the camp, some as little as six years old.
I observed that they kidnapped more teenage girls than boys.
The new girl, Sandra had been crying since she was brought to the camp. Mama had done everything to pacify her but she seemed inconsolable.
The wickedness of these people was something else. Who would kidnap a child and expect her to keep still?
"Ogwu!" Mama's voice snapped me out of the little courtroom in my head. I was standing face-to-face with her in her hut.
"General has asked for you again." A whimper left my mouth and a whole basin of tears quickly flooded my face.
I'd been pimped to other men, but none of them had been half as brutal as General.
"What are those things I see on your face?" She asked harshly.
I fell to my knees and began begging this woman." Please send me to other men but not General, please. "I even held her legs, pleading. She pulled away from me with those lines of disdain on her face.
"Well the General had requested for you, and General gets whatsoever he wants."
"Mama, please."
She scoffed. "Why are you begging as though you didn't enjoy it?"
The rage within me couldn't be contained as I involuntarily scowled at her.
"He raped me!" I yelled.
Mama scoffed and twitched her lips. "So? Are you the first? Go and get ready!" Her fingers snapped, which was my cue that she was done with me. Frank dragged me back to Ifechi's hut.
I rushed into my clothes while Frank kept screaming at me to hurry up.
We passed the back way through the numerous smaller huts. Screams of women came out of those huts.
It wasn't new around here that among drugs and arms deals, Mama made prostitution her side gig, which surprisingly got the business moving.
Men of different colors, smells, height and trooped into the settlement every night and even during the day.
Frank hurried me past an open hut, a child of not more than twelve was whimpering near a very old man. I clasped my hand over my mouth to keep me from screaming.
Before I could triangulate my brain back to my mission, I found myself in the room.
The terribly-looking old man was snoring away while the girl was weeping by his side.
Rage shut off my reasoning, and I grabbed one of the empty bottles of beer and smashed it on the sleeping man's head.
Frank ran Into the room but the deed was already done. I pulled the little girl into an embrace. Her cries erupted something in my heart. She reminded me so much of my sister Jidechi, the one who died after a very short illness, reducing our number to three siblings.
Why would anyone find a twelve-year-old attractive? I held the girl as she hung onto me for dear life.
Frank was pacing the room after he'd checked on the man who hadn't moved an inch since I hit him with the bottle. "What did you do that for?" He yelled.
The guy was one of the rational men around here. He did everything diplomatically. Never truly on any side. My eyes shut as the little girl held me firmly.
"They will kill you!" She whispered in my ears.
I nodded. "Then so be it."
If wasting one of these predators was all I'd achieved in my fifteen years on earth, then so be it!
She nodded. "Thank you!"
I detangled myself from our embrace and gazed into her eyes. "This isn't your first?"
Her head shook. "No, my third. He's the third for today." Her tears flowed freely without much of an expression. I knew instantly she'd been in this longer than myself.
"Let's run," I said pulling her right hand.
"No, they will find us. It doesn't matter where we run to, they will still find us."
"Then we'll run to the police," I suggested.
She chuckled in between tears. "That man over there, " she pointed at the stone-cold body on the bed. "He's a police officer."
"Jesus!" Came the scream out of my mouth.
Kiru nodded, having disclosed her name previously. "So you see, there's nowhere to run."
"Ogwu!" Mama's was was close. I was at the door when her figure forced me further into the room.
"You killed him?" She asked her eyes icy cold.
My head was shaking when a very ear-deafening slap met my face. I felt my jaw tremble at the impact. I nursed my right cheek first but another came on my left one, and then she descended on me, hitting me with her elbow and hands. I crawled to the floor and waited for her foot to come down on me.
"You killed him! A whole inspector of police!"
Her hands were on her head. "This girl, you will not ruin me!" The boys were now in the room, another man with a stethoscope walked behind them, carrying a box.
Mama stepped aside and waited for the man they referred to as a doctor to check out the police officer.
"Time of death: 10:45 pm." He was speaking to Mama who nodded stiffly.
"Boys, you know what to do." She walked out of the room without sparing me another glance.
That night I stayed in Ifechi's hut waiting for my dreaded punishment. But none came. Mama also halted my mission to the General.
In her words, "If you are going to go about killing off my customers, then I'd better reassign you to kitchen duties."
In my heart, I was more than grateful. But another thing left my stomach sore. Three days had passed and no one had come to beat me into a pulp.
To say I wasn't terrified of that uncertainty would be whitewashing the situation. I expected to get a severe punishment and if that wasn't happening, then it might be time I finally went home to my ancestors.
When Ifechi retired to the room that night, I mustered the courage to ask her.
"Where's my punishment?"
She turned abruptly at me and smiled. "Don't bother yourself. You won't be receiving any."
I sat up from my bed. "Why?.... I killed a man."
Her gaze went to the door and back at me. "You better keep your voice down. As long as we are concerned, that man was never here."
My mouth flew open in bewilderment. "Meaning?"
She rolled her eyes. "We have our ways." She looked at me to make sure I understood. Seeing my mouth open with another question, she waved me off.
"No one would know he was here. They never tell anyone they are coming here, how much more sleeping with underage girls."
She shrugged before pulling herself forward to the edge of the bed. Her forefinger pointed directly at me. "And you would do yourself a great favor to keep your mouth shut about this. Do you understand?"
My head bobbled up and down in forced agreement.
"Use your words." She pressed.
"Yes," I mumbled, but I was confused, very confused.
She crawled back to bed, backing me again. "But that doesn't answer my question. Why haven't I been punished?" I pushed.
Whooshed breath escaped her mouth, but she kept her back towards me.
"Because Mama has been seeking ways to eliminate him."
"Huh?" I gasped.
Ifechi faced me with much difficulty, pulling her long loose nightwear to cover her chest. "He'd been blackmailing her. So I guess you did the job for Mama."
"My God!" The words stumped out of my mouth with awe.
"Yes o!" She was turning away from me now. "You better kneel and thank your God. He saved your ass."