Jeremiah
Two days.
That's how long it had been since I was out of my room. That was how long I was in my bed, tucked into my blanket. I still felt very cold, dizzy and very lazy. I felt so sick, and I was in a lot of pain. I had spent the whole day, the day before, shivering, taking pain relief medicines and trying to stop my fever, and I had locked myself in my room so no one had to know. Thank God for the weekends.
My throat was sore. and the last time I had checked the mirror, my face had lost a lot of color too. I was awfully pale. I shifted under my blanket when I heard my phone ring again. By now, I must have had over a hundred missed calls since I had intentionally ignored all the calls that had come in all through the weekend. This particular person had been calling for five minutes straight, and probably texting too because my phone kept churning after every third call. I was so numb around my legs. It has hard to even turn around, talk more of reaching for my phone. but I managed to, groaning the entire time I did. I tried to search my bed with my hand till I felt my phone, I picked up on impulse.
"Mnnnn. What's up." I said the moment I recognized Kingsley's voice from the other side of the phone. I was too lazy to even open my eyes to check who the caller was.
"Where are you?"
I forced saliva down my sore throat and it hurt like hell.
"Home."
"I've been trying to reach you all day yesterday. Where did you drop your phone bro?"
"I'm sorry, I've not actually been out of the house or excited to. I think I'm down with something-"
"I found it." He cut me off before I could even complete my sentence. What was he talking about? I drew a deep breath. "What you asked me to do. I found out about the relationship between Kora and Charles."
And from that moment, I opened my eyes immediately, pushed the blanket off my body and sat up quickly. Was he serious? Did he really find out? Did he really know what exactly the story was between Kora and that guy, and why she acted the way she did, the day they saw him at the rooftop?
"You serious?"
Kingsley exhaled.
"But I must warn you man, I'm not sure it's something you'd want to know or get yourself and family involved in. It's a really scary and sad stuff."
I only had two seconds to decide what it was going to be. If I wanted to know the secret he had found or not. I rubbed my aching forehead gently.
"Tell me." I dropped my hands. "What is it?"
Kingsley exhaled. He was taking his time. I could sense it. He was trying to hold back. To hold back the information. Why was he hesitating?
"Kingsley." I could sense something was wrong. I could hear him breathing the way he did when he was nervous. "What's going on man?"
"Kora and Charles met three years ago." He started. "At Kora's step father's birthday party." I had to listen attentively. "Her mother was married to Chief Fredrick Hassani that year, the CEO of Hassan electronics who happened to be best friends and business partners with Mr Jumbo Orji."
"Jumbo Orji?" I could feel my body weaken. My head was starting to throb again, and my mouth felt so sore.
"Charles' father. He owns one of the biggest fish ponds in about eight countries and counting. Farms too. He's top notch as far as farming is concerned. He has recently started investing in wine making, and he's doing well too. He's one of the leading men in young money."
"Oh." I exhaled, hoping he just got to the point.
"According to what I heard, Charles and Kora went to the same school too. Saint Augustine high school, Lagos. He asked her to go out with him in front of the whole school on prom night, and she turned him down. Later that night, he and his friends spiked her drink and then-"
He paused.
"T-they-" he exhaled. "God, I don't even know how to say this."
"Say what?" I was almost at the verge of losing my cool because I was trying to stop myself from making a guess about what Kingsley was trying to say. "What did they do Kingsley?"
"God. This was harder to say than I thought." He whispered.
Was he going to talk or not? He was keeping me on the edge, and I hated to be on the edge.
"They raped her." He said. "H-he raped her."
I froze.
I could feel my hands start to tremble. For a moment, my head wasn't hurting anymore, and everything else became static. Everywhere became so cold, so calm and my frown deepened.
"What did you just say?" I finally brought myself to ask him. I had to be sure I heard him correctly.
"Charles and his friends raped her bro. She was only fifteen at that time, and then they left her on the field to die. One of the security guards that had found her the next morning was the one that alerted the authorities about it. According to them, she was barely even alive. A few weeks later, Kora's mother divorced her husband because he tried to take sides with his friend who claimed that his son was innocent, and Kora was just making things up to extort money from their family."
"Kora and her mother did all they could to expose Charles, but no one ever believed them. Somehow, Jumbo found a way to get rid of all the evidence and turned everyone against them. Even the security guard refused to be a witness to the case. The Orjis have the money and the influence, so they made it happen. Kora's Mum was only a house wife who had divorced her husband. She had no power, she couldn't do anything. The press, the media, no one believed her, not even when she tried to protest in front of the police station."
"They even managed to get the case dismissed in court, when Kora's mum tried to press charges, and then Kora and her mother were made to pay fifteen million in damages. It was a really rough year for them. That's not all. It happened to be that Kora found out she was pregnant after a month due to the incident, but she lost the baby after she was brutally cornered, kidnapped, drugged and almost beaten to death by a group of unidentified thugs. My guess, the Orji's must have sent them with fear that the baby might have been evidence to prove Charles was guilty of what he was accused of. She was only three months gone at that time."
"Kora spent the rest of the entire year fighting for her life in Silver spade hospital, and battling depression. She made three attempts to take her life after that. She tried to jump from the window in her hospital room. but she was saved by one of the nurses, she also tried to overdose and then almost succeeded when she cut open her wrist with a pair of scissors. She had to take therapy sessions while she was still at the hospital, and five months after the hospital. She was diagnosed with minor spinal injuries, a broken rib cage, and a few fractured bones." He exhaled. "I forwarded some pictures to your email. I just thought you might want to see them. Kora and her mother had to leave Lagos the following year. while Charles was sent to study in Singapore shortly after."
I took my time. I was too shocked, and my heart was aching so much that I could barely even speak or say anything. My hands were trembling. I sniffed and then turned to my laptop. I opened my mail and Kingsley's mail was the first I saw. I needed a moment, a moment to catch my breath and wrap my head around what I had just heard before I opened the attachments.
What I saw, who I saw was almost unrecognizable. There were photos of bruises Kora sustained on every part of her body. Photos of her in intensive care and on life support too.
I shut my eyes immediately, I couldn't look at it anymore, I raised my head up and sniffed.
"Man, Jer." Kingsley called me. "Are you there?"
I wanted to speak. I tried to, but I ended up saying nothing. Not a single word.
"I'm really sorry Bro. There's something else I think you should know..."
I hurried down the stairs as fast as I could, putting on my jacket at the same time. School was the last place I thought I was going to be that day. I already took that off my to do list, but Kingsley's last words pulled me up from my bed and into my uniform.
"Charles is making Kora eat with him at the cafeteria right now. He's not letting her leave, or letting anyone sit close to them. She looks so terrified. and she won't stop shaking."
I increased my pace towards the front door. I had to get out of the house as soon as I could, I had to go to Kora. I needed to.
"Jerry!"
Kodi yelled my name in an attempt to stop me from walking, jumping in front of my way with a bright smile on her face. I barely had the time to notice her or the excitement in her face. Her smile slowly faded when she saw me up close. She must have noticed how pale my face was, and how I wasn't in the mood to play with her. I walked past her.
"Huh?" She went after me and then grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop. She rushed to my side again.
"A-are you okay?" She asked me just as we stood a few paces to the front door. I slowly turned to look at her. She had worry in her eyes. "You don't look so good."
I slowly reached for her hands which were already grabbing my jacket so tightly. I slowly took them off.
"Your hands are so cold." She rubbed her hands together.
"I'm fine." I told her. "I'm just going to school."
"Can you give me a ride please?"
"Not today." I told her, I honestly didn't want to talk much. Anytime I did, it felt like I was burning out a lot of energy. "Next time."
I walked away from her as soon as I could and rushed outside. The driver had turned one of the cars around based on my instructions. He rushed to the driver's door the moment he saw me come out of the house. I walked as fast as I could to him.
"Good morning sir." He greeted me, opening the back door so I could get in.
"Give me the keys." I ordered, stretching my hands towards him. I knew that if I wanted to get to school on time, I had to be the one behind the steering. Going with the old man in front of me was just going to waste my time.
"But sir, your father-"
I grabbed the keys from his hands immediately. I was done talking. I jumped into the car, closed the door before he could stop me, put my seat belt on and then groaned the moment I felt a sharp pain on my temples. I tried to open my eyes and look outside, but everything was so blurry. I took a deep breath. I needed to breathe. I pulled myself closer to the steering wheel after a few short seconds, and then opened my eyes again. Everything was back to normal. The pain had stopped. I started the car and drove out.
Twenty minutes later....
I ran as fast as I could down the hallway, my legs and my mind directing me to the same place. The cafeteria. I didn't stop for a second. I knew I couldn't afford a second's worth of delay. I couldn't imagine what Kora was going through. How scared she must have been. The thought of her being all alone with that guy terrified me. I knew I was really close when I spotted Kingsley, pacing in front of the white door, squeezing his phone tightly. I stopped running the moment I got to where he was, and he let out a relief exhale.
"Bro." He tried to call me, but I just walked into the cold room, pretending like I didn't see him. I hope he understood that I didn't mean to ignore him. Kora was just the only thing on my mind at that point. I just needed to know she was okay. I stormed in, and the moment I did, there were a lot of eyes that had turned from the table, towards my direction.
"Oh my God. "
"Oh my God it's Jeremiah- "
"Jeremiah is in NAUN cafeteria? "
"Get out your phones and take this."
I barely cared if they were taking pictures or not. I just scanned the room as fast as I could, in search for Kora. It wasn't hard to find her amongst all those people standing and recording. because half of them had their eyes and cameras focused on a particular table. They helped me find her. There she was. At the center of the room. I could see how still she sat, or should I say, how still she was pretending to be, because I could still see her body trembling. I watched her squeeze on tight to her thighs while her eyes were glued to Charles who was busy eating the plate of chips in front of him. There were a lot of empty plastic plates beside him. How long had he been at this?
I had never seen Kora so terrified before. Her legs were trembling from under the table and it must have felt even worse since everyone were gathered around, watching them. Was he really making her watch him eat? Was he just going to do that to her, after everything he had done? I clenched my fists. The more I watched them, the more angry I got. I knew I needed to calm down. I didn't have to cause a scene, at least not until Kora was away from him. I took a deep breath, and another one, trying to get calm, and then I walked to the table, my footsteps echoing around the room.
"It's really him. It's Jeremiah." People kept on commenting. even as I got to the table and then stood still. I slowly turned to Kora. I could see her lift her head slowly to me. There were tears in her eyes. Had she been crying? Did he make her cry? God I wanted to kill him.
"Hey." I whispered to her, forcing a crooked smile on my face. I was just as nervous. "You've waited for me for so long haven't you?"
She sniffed as another drop of tear fell from her face.
"Jeremiah." She managed to whisper my name.
"Come on." I gently reached for her arm. "Let's go."
Kora didn't argue. She slowly let me help her up the table. Charles hit the table hard before she was even halfway up. Kora fell back into her chair. I turned to Charles quickly.
"What are you doing?" He asked me.
I didn't owe him an explanation. I didn't have to explain anything to him. I grabbed Kora's arm again. This time a bit tighter.
"Come with me." I pulled her up as hard as I could and turned to leave with her when Charles grabbed her other arm, forcing her to stand still. I could feel her hands tremble. I turned to her hands, she was holding on tightly to my arm, too scared to turn, too scared to look at him. My eyes shifted to his hands on hers. I swallowed hard and then looked up so I could take a deep breath.
"I asked you a question." Charles glared at me. "What do you think you're doing? Where do you think you're taking her to, when we are just having breakfast? Didn't your mother teach you that it is rude to interrupt someone's meal?"
"Let go of that hand." I slowly turned to look at him. The frown on my face got worse. Worse enough to tell him I wasn't joking. He looked into my eyes for a short while. I could tell he was scared, and he was trying to hide the fact that he was scared. He scoffed.
"Who are you to tell me what to do?"
"Let go of that hand." I repeated. "Don't let me say it again." I warned him.
One of the guys beside him walked quickly towards him. I watched him whisper something short into his ears. right before Charles turned to me. He scoffed. He was slowly starting to loosen his hands from Kora's.
"Whatever." He slowly let her go. Good for him. I grabbed on tightly to Kora's arm and then pulled her.
"Let's go." She managed to turn to leave, and that was when Charles smacked her butt and then squeezed it. I could hear a lot of noise from the crowd now.
"Did he just-" I froze for a second not daring to take another step the moment I heard that slap sound, and felt Kora's grip on my arm tighten.
"See you around boo."
That was it. I wasn't going to hold it in anymore. I couldn't. I was so angry. Too angry now to pretend like I wasn't. I turned around quickly and then grabbed his shirt, raising my fist up so I could launch a punch on him, aiming directly for his face, right before I felt someone grab me.
"Don't." Kora tried to stop me. Holding on tight to my shirt. Her voice was shaky. I pushed myself closer to him. I was finding it really hard not to want to hurt him. Kora pulled herself closer to me. "Please." Her voice broke. She was crying again. "Don't do it." She begged me, holding on tightly to me. She was almost on her knees. I couldn't understand why she was trying to stop me. Somehow I found myself listening to her, no matter how I tried to fight it, no matter how hard I wanted to hit him, the urge to take Kora far away from him and everyone else suppressed that. I slowly dropped my hand, taking a deep breath. I just needed two seconds. It took exactly two seconds before I turned. I grabbed Kora's hand and pulled her out of the cafeteria.
Away from everything, away from anyone.