"Why have you refused to die?" His voice simmered into my thoughts, pushing away the beep sounds that came from the machines monitoring my body.
The room was deathly silent after he spoke. I could hear my heart thumping away into oblivion. Suddenly, cold shivers ran down my spine and got me shivering under the sheets.
Too terrified to move, I remained still on the bed wishing I could magically vanish. But of course, I had no extraordinary powers, and wishes only happened in some magical realm.
Rather than clouding my eyes with tears from the emotions building up in the pit of my stomach, I decided to count in no particular order.
"Is it you or the witchcraft you ate that is still keeping you alive?" Dozie's words floated to me the second time like a foul-smelling odor, thereby forcing my thoughts to scramble for safety.
My body began to move. I needed to run, but to where? I had all these wires all over me, a man sitting directly opposite me with deadly intentions in his huge skull, and only one door between us.
"Stay still." He warned coldly. "Stay still."
His gaze lifted slightly on me before he refocused it on his gun which was subtly pointed at me.
I gasped and grabbed onto the bed rail, pulling myself up a little so I could see him properly. I was calculating if I could by any divine chance escape the room before my blood becomes the only thing that could satisfy him.
But those damn sheets were heavy on my body, and my weak legs tried to push them down so I could wriggle out of them.
The madman sat up and leaned towards me."I will warn you for one last time." He pointed the gun at me "Stop. Moving!"
My mouth was sealed to silence and fate. How could I not oblige him? He was Mama's right-hand man and who was I to question or disobey his instructions?
"Again, why can't you die?" The words slide off his lips iced and frozen. He withdrew the gun and placed it on the table next to him.
He was surely barking at the wrong tree. Even if I were to answer his question, I was only human and didn't have the power of life and death in my hands. So that question was directed at the wrong person.
"Every time it was programmed for you to die, you would survive against all odds. Why?" He hissed again, running his fingers around the gun that was innocently sitting on the table, gently caressing it as if waiting for a wrong answer.
"I don't know." I meowed like a cat.
He let out a hysterical laugh. "You know! And not just that, you've poisoned Mama, my mother against me!"
Wait, did he just say Mama was his real mom, or was I getting this all wrong? Didn't Ifechi confirm that Mama had no biological children? That it was because of her barrenness that she began to pluck children off the streets and out of their mother's hands? My dialogue was to no one but myself. Something bigger was going on.
Dozie sucked in all the air in the room while blithering me with his evil gaze. The gun was in his hands again, twirling gently in his right fingers urging me to answer, any answer. But, my brain was taking its time to churn words out of my mouth.
His big overly grown afro hair bobbled up and down, followed by the restless tapping of his foot on the cold white tiled floor.
"But," he raised a finger, lifting himself off the same couch where Mama sat a moment ago. "I think all that game with death is because you've not had this placed in between those witchcraft eyes of yours."
His full height came into view as he slowly walked towards me and placed the gun right on my forehead. I whimpered and tried to brace away from him.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, "He kissed his teeth repeatedly. "Don't move away from me now." He snarled, pushing the gun harder into my skull.
The pressure was building and the pain from it forced deathly tears from my eyes. "Please," I begged.
I'd known for a long time that this man's desire was just to see me six feet beneath. If not for Mama and her greed, Dozie would have ended my journey on earth permanently... And maybe put me out of my misery.
But I would never understand the joy in death or the relief that comes with it. How would anyone know if their misery ended for real? Because, no matter how we look at it, after this journey comes another, this world doesn't end existence, it only ends a journey that gives birth to another.
He was still willing to pull the trigger. All the veins on his face and neck were evidence that he was struggling to kill me right there on that hospital bed.
He relished the fear in my eyes and let out a dry laugh, throating it so long that it sounded like the ghosts from my father's village. "She speaks." He mocked, hissing at my whimpering body.
He looked me over and hissed. "How do men find you attractive?" He let the nozzle of the gun run up and down my body. "You are nothing but a pack of bones, yet they just keep going for you!"
"Please." I maintained my plea, lifting my hands even though I had infusion lines on them.
"Put those bones down! Who asked you to lift your dead skin?" He leaned into me and spit on my face. "Because you make few miserable dollars?"
His head lifted, then he ran his left arm over his mouth, wiping it.
I tried to wipe the saliva off on reflex, but he barked, "Put your dirty hands down!"
I obeyed, allowing the thick smelly saliva to run down my face.
"With just one click, you will be dead as a rock." He boasted while placing his fingers on the trigger."
"Bro Dozie, please don't kill me," I begged, looking into his eyes, hoping there was any form of humanity left in him. His eyes were blood red inside the sockets that held them. His usually black-on-black clothes didn't help quiet my viciously beating heart.
His gaze pinned on me intently, "Brother?" He snarled. "Do I look like any of your mother's children?"
"Please, in the name of God, don't kill me." I kept pushing, politely. But with all the drugs he supposedly ingested, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't let his demons of hate take over his mind, But again, I just hoped a kind spirit would change his heart just like God did to pharaohs.
Roughly, he pulled the oxygen tube off my nose and landed me a mind-numbing slap that left me in a daze.
"Don't ever call me your brother again." He warned. "And yes, your mother can't boast of any since she didn't birth one!"
If my eyes bulged out of its sockets before now, I was pretty sure they were on the floor at this point. Well, yes, My mother had only girls, the only reason father even left us. Or maybe the main reason.
He just couldn't stand girls littering all over his house. So one day, he got pretty mad at my mother and left home. That was the last time we ever saw him.
"How? How is it that you know anything about my family?" I sucked in the air, trying to catch my breath, heavy tears stung my eyes, subsequently cascading down my face like a storm.
He laughed maniacally, then shook his head over and again. "You think, we would just pick you up without an insider's information and help?"
I was too stunned to speak or give him a reply to a question I had no answer to. Maybe I should just let him talk since I was between death and explosive information.
"You are shocked huh?" He taunted. "It's always 'family' that backstabs you, baby. Always family."
Then I remembered what he said about my mother on the day his guys picked me up from the Generals. "My mother maybe?" I whispered the answer /question so it was almost inaudible. It was just a Hail Mary. Maybe he would say more.
He lifted the gun off my face and gazed at me in shock. "How did you know that?" He barked, gritting his teeth. "How?"
I didn't respond. Just that my gaze held his.
"Who have you been talking to?" He barked, turning the gun back on my face.
My body jerked, and my lips and body trembled. Tears took over my face and the agony of months of captivity came heavily on me and I began to wail....Loudly.
"Shut up!" He yelled.
Yet, I couldn't help it. I kept bawling, letting my lungs drive out all the pain and maltreatment at once.
Dozie hit me with the butt of his gun. "Shut up! Shut up! You witch!" He screamed.
It didn't work. I kept going, even after I'd tasted blood in my mouth.
Suddenly, the door flew open and two police officers flew into the room as though they were summoned by my cries.
Swiftly, Dozie hid his gun back in his belt, on his right side, and then covered it up with his oversized black jacket that was his signature day wear.
"What's going on here?" The first officer asked upon entering the room, pulling out a baton. When he observed how nervous Dozie was, he walked up closer to him. The other one walked behind him, blocking the door.
"Officers?" Dozie called nervously, running his palms together and widening his teeth in a fake smile.
The first officer didn't stray his eyes off him. "I said, what is going on?"
"Nothing officer," He lied. "Just conversing with my kid sister." His fingers flew in my direction, pointing at me and avoiding the officer's gaze.
At the same time, the other officer rounded the corner to my side.
"You were just talking to her and she's crying profusely like this?" The second one asked.
Dozie's gaze landed on me, balling and threatening me silently.
"Are you alright?" The one nearby asked, taking my right hand. I nodded with my gaze on Dozie.
"Young man, please move away from her now!" The first one commanded, standing between us and blocking him from looking at me.
"But she's my sister. She needs me!" Dozie lamented, his voice breaking down in fake tears.
I stifled a chuckle. This was just interesting. Dozie must have learned the act of deception from Mama.
The two men shared meaningful glances and nodded in unison. Instantly, they grabbed Dozie by his pants and began hauling him out of the room.
At about the same time, two doctors and Nurse Dima entered the room and that halted all movements. I hoped that above all things this would be my freedom, even if it lasted but for a minute.
"Dina? Are you alright? Did he hurt you?" She asked, running over to me. I was still struggling to breathe and the air seemed stuffy. "Help!" I whispered.
She was on me instantly and placed back the oxygen tube in my nostrils. "My God, are you okay?"
I nodded, wiping tears from my eyes."Please help me!"
"I will." She acknowledged. "We heard him threatening you, so we asked those officers to come in first and diffuse any tension before we do."
"Thank you." I mouthed, grabbing her left hand for dear life. "Don't leave me, please."
She gave me a gentle squeeze before calling the doctors over.