The knife
1067 Words
The day was pretty cool. There was that kind of breeze that makes you feel 'comfortable' and 'elated', though it's temporary and all in your mind. The sun wasn't harsh and people were getting along pretty well. Don and Kalu stopped being bullies. Vices didn't stop but Don and Kalu were no longer the perpetrators.
Joe had a fun chat with Ada, Chuma and their other friends and they became closer.
"Only God knows if I'll still be able to use a phone when we get out of here", Tammy, one of Ada's friends, said. Chuma was teaching Alex to play 'Tinko Tinko', a childish and girlish game, played by clapping hands in a special rhythmic pattern while chanting a poem repeatedly till one of them makes a mistake.
"Only God knows if we'll ever get out of here", Another girl commented.
While they were chatting, a sudden wind blew. Joe seemed like he was the only one feeling. Toby had come around.
Joe left the others and walked to a corner. "I'll do it".
"Good", Toby replied. "Immediately you kill Soko, you get the access to a million ghosts"
"And how will I make use of them?"
"They'll fight your battles and make you stronger.... Mainly hypnosis"
"Ok... I don't even have a plan-"
"We do", Toby replied and a ghost appeared, holding a small knife. "Take the knife".
"Uhn?", Joe stretched his hand, wondering how he'd make physical contact with a ghost. "Whaaa! how's that possible?"
"The apocalypse comes soon and the gates of Heaven and Hell are closed. We're neither considered dead, nor living. We are not ghosts. Till the gates open, we are daywalkers.When we pick objects from our realm, it becomes real in the hands of a living being."
"Wow! That's a lot to understand", Joe replied, still amazed by the knife on his palm. "Why am I the only one seeing you?"
"There's darkness in you... There's something dead in your soul which connects you to this realm. The more you cause pain, the darker you become. All you have to do is kill Soko, then you'll become a conduit..."
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"Okay, bring it", A soldier said. "You already took too long".
"I knew it! You want to poison me, uhn?", He said, acting angry.
"Nooo! No, definitely not. The food's okay"
"Then prove it!", He said with his eyes wide open. That was one threatening look he often gave whenever he intimidated people.
"O-okay, sir", She said, shivering as she took the spoon and swallowed the food quickly.
"Good!", he smiled, mischievously. "I'm satisfied now. You can go. You're welcome".
The women left the scene, as quick as they could. The lady had to lament about it for hours to get it off her mind. She'd probably never choose to serve the soldiers again.
"Let's quickly go to the back", one of the cooks said.
"They must not catch us. Let's be patient", another cook replied. They had set aside some food for themselves, secretly, since the soldiers wouldn't allow them to take lunch for themselves.
"They are never at the backyard by this time of this day, remember?", the other cook said. "They'll be having a meeting with other leading soldiers".
"Uhm... I'm very scared", another one said.
"If we continue to be scared, we'll never get a chance to eat this one... Let's go while we are sure of their absence. We can't eat, in here".
"I can sacrifice this lunch and keep my life"
"And if we do that, where are we going to dump the portion we reserved for ourselves without the soldiers finding out"
"We'd probably lie..."
They couldn't just throw the food anywhere and also, while disposing the food, they must not be suspected or caught. They didn't agree to do that. Instead of disposing it in a secretive way, they chose to eat it in a secretive way.
The first cook, that addressed the food, carried the small cooler and led the way to the backyard. The others followed her and they kept sneaking and moving silently till she stopped, abruptly. She had encountered a soldier, hiding at the backyard and smoking. It was Soko.
They ran backwards, quickly, but Soko followed furiously till they got to the kitchen.
"What were you doing at the back with a cooler? uhn?".
They began panicking and pointing hands at one another.
"It's ok", he said, and looked at the woman who was the main cook. "You are the oldest here and you should be the wisest so you'll bear the consequences of their sins".
Soko put a finger across his lips. "Shhhh!", he said, pulled out a gun, and he shot the woman in the leg.
They screamed. The gun refused to make the gunshot noise so they decided to make the noises with their mouths. The gun must have been silenced.
"If any of you says anything... I mean, anything at all, you will die", he said, showing them the gun, and he left.
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Joe stood in the middle of the field, staring at the knife in his hand and reflecting on Toby's statements: 'Till the gates open, we are daywalkers', 'there's darkness in you... connects you to this realm', '...become a conduit'.
"Joe... Joe!", Alex called. "Joe!"
"Yes?", Joe replied, startled. "What's up?"
"No, nothing... Just checking up on you"
Joe put his left hand behind him, preventing Alex from seeing the knife.
"I'm alright... just thinking about some things"
"Okay", Alex replied, and turned back, slowly.
"Hey! You!", a familiar voice was heard. It's one of the soldiers. "Who's that i***t?", Soko shouted, referring to Joe.
He opened the gate and walked to Joe, who had turned, keeping the knife from sight.
"I saw the knife in your hand, where's it?"
"Where do you expect us to get weapons?"
Soko slapped him. "I'm not stupid. Show me your hands". Joe thought of taking his chance at the moment but... "I said, show me your hands. Are you deaf?"
Joe showed him empty hands. "We don't have weapons".
Soko checked the ground but couldn't believe that there was nothing.
"Taye! bring four", Soko shouted to another soldier, standing by the gate. Taye came along with four soldiers.
"Take this goat, give him twelve strokes of the cane, strip him and search him. He has a weapon on him"
- Writer
