Category : Stories

Sub Category : Suspense/Mystery

"Kpa...kpa...kpa," three shots fired; and the quietude felt after that was as the moments before dawn. It came from my block in Victoria Island, on the 31st of one December, 199'...something.
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It all started eighteen years ago in my academic days in the University of Lagos, (UNILAG). All vibrant, radiant and youthful, dating one of the most popular guys in school at the time, Tayo Adenifuja Folorunsho David.
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Tayo, Mr. Sought After, had his eyes for I alone, and our world was as the empire of Solomon.
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Oh, Tayo could sing and angels would dance!
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Final year came and we were nothing but anxious about our promises: after service, get jobs and start a beautiful family. It was that simple, but as the saying - man proposes and disposing is left to God.
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Little did we wonder that my rich parents could have other plans for me.
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"The moment you are through with your service, you'll be getting married to Oladele of the Goke family," passing such news was my strict mother's specialty.
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There was my Dad, sitting quietly as usual, not planning on seeing the look on my face, which always mesmerises him.
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"What! Is this a joke, Mum?" I posed, still trying to dissect what my little ears had drawn in.
"Young lady, do I look like a comedianne," my Mum interpreted.
~
Swiftly, Tayo came to mind. The young man with whom I had spent an entire life. All effort to sway my Mum from that fell on thorns. That night I cried...like a little girl. Usually, my father would come to my room to cheer me up but not that night; and that...that was how I knew they were really serious.
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Informing Tayo of this unpalatable plan of the parents, all in the name of my father's newly bred political aspiration, was out of concept. How could I bring tears to the face of the man I claimed to love.
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While I was in Abuja serving with Tayo, plans for my marriage to Oladele Majekodunmi Adegoke Paul was protuding at home.
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I was left in a state of dilemma. A bride ought to be in ecstasy in a period as such, but I... I was in a trance-like situation. I tried using busy-ness as a cocoon, but each time my bubble bursts.
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It's only two weeks to go back home and there I was, looking for solace in a waterfall in the quiet central city, Kuje. I went through its gate and stayed in Asiri (secret) - an enclosed place where just a few of us knew.
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Ten minutes later, someone walked in.
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"You've been awful quiet and secretive of late. What is wrong?" Tayo puts in the sweetest of tones.
"Nothing," I replied wiping off my tears while sniffing.
"You're crying?" He rushed and cuddle me; and there and then, I broke down.
~
"I can't marry you," I managed to say with tears filling my eyes.
For a few seconds he was still and quiet.
"Please say something, Tee," I reverberated slower than a stammerer.
I'd never heard such a deeper sigh.
"You can't or you want to?" He asked gently.
"Oh, I want to! But my parents...." I hadn't finished when he stood up and was about to leave. I held his lanky body, pulled him to myself and stole a kiss.
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I'd wanted to stop him but that'd have been regretable. Was I doing the wrong thing? I hadn't cared.
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As though time was still, we were both trying to squeeze our steaming skin inside little Asiri, and before I knew it we were undressed.
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We stood there naked, not caring if we got caught. For the miniest of moments , we stopped and looked at each other's eyes. In his, was a fire; his balls a furnace and pupils ash. In mine were hot coals, pushing to shoot out.
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Oladele was an handsome young man; probably same age as Tayo, 28, but this finely built man had accomplished more than Tayo could in three generations. But matters of the heart is best left to the heart - for we love whom we love....
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Sex with this stranger was a business deal - timely based.
Patiently, I stayed as a wife, but we only had an issue...maybe, just maybe I didn't want to get pregnant again.
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It was my 37th birthday party. My neighbours, friends and coworkers were all present. The waiters and waitresses all dressed in white and black with a touch of sea blue - it was picked by my strict mother.
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"Happy birthday," that voice I'd recognise any day. I turned and there stood a man I'd not seen in years... I melted and as though the ocean succeeded in gushing out of its bondage, all that feelings resurfaced.
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"Isn't it your birthday?" He said again with a smile, trying to slumber the awkwardness he had seen on me.
"Yes, it is. It's been a long time. How have you been?" I had managed to say, but those words were forced.
"Well, you can see, greatly."
"Are those for me?" Referring to the two little wrapped packages in his hand.
"Oh! Yes, it is." Stretching them to me.
~
We had been staring at each other when Oladele interrupted.
"Hon, this is Tayo, the Tayo"
"Hey! Mr Tayo, I've heard so much about you."
"I hope all good, Mr...?"
"Oladele"
"Mr. Oladele".
~
Standing beside Oladele was a young fellow of 12. A biological replica of Tayo.
He was still staring at the young son, and his profound suspicion was so obvious that I knew what he must have thought - this is my son.
~
Few minutes into the party, Tayo who was sitting by a corner with a glass of Chardonair '96 got a phone call:
"Hello! Who's this?"
"Come through the back door, I have something to tell you". Who made that call remains an unsolved puzzle.
~
He dropped his bottle on the table and walked through a door that says - exclusive: residents only.
The road seems narrowly dark, but he could see a light's ray from a slightly closed room. Suddenly, it all went dark.
"Kpa...kpa...kpa,"
three shots fired. The light lit up in the room, looking at each other in amazement are: Oladele, myself and my son, with Tayo lying dead on the floor.

"Who shot him?!" I screamed...