Secrets of the Gods

Chapter 3-1

Chapter 3When Mfon woke up very early on Sunday morning, the first thing she thought of was the story of the missing medallion.

She quickly stood up and opened her laptop. She intended to finish typing Chapter Two of the story before she did any other thing that morning.

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Chapter 2

Clifford had almost finished the bottle of Royal Challenge in his hand while he waited impatiently for Okon and John. He paced up and down his small living room wondering if anything had happened to them. Life had made him a pessimist, but despite that he continued to work hard towards making serious money.

Clifford had lived most of his forty years indulging in one criminal activity or the other. Working only with Okon and John had helped him maintain a low profile thereby avoiding the strong arm of the law. However, he saw what he did for a living as petty crime that wouldn’t get him the kind of wealth he craved for his entire life.

Yes, he had seen some golden opportunities to make it big in life, but was always faced with unexpected stumbling blocks. Clifford believed that there must be somebody in his village that was using diabolical means to destroy his destiny. He had tried everything in life to find a breakthrough but to no avail. He had even gone for deliverances in several churches yet he always met with a stumbling block whenever he was just about to hit it big time.

Now that Okon and John had been able to steal the golden medallion, he just prayed that they got to his house successfully. What was keeping them? He looked at the wall clock. It was almost twelve pm; he had expected that they would be here before 11am.

He had spent the whole night dreaming of what he would do with his share of the money once the medallion was sold. He had met with the foreign merchant who had given him information about the medallion yesterday and had informed him that they had successfully gotten hold of the medallion. The merchant had promised to give him 5million naira in cash once he saw the object.

‘This was it!’ Clifford screamed in his mind, he would finish up with the house he was building somewhere in the outskirts of Abuja town, buy a new car and move out of this dungeon. Then he would buy precious gifts for his fourteen year old daughter. She was the love of his life. Yes, he sometimes got violent with her but he loved her with all his might even more than he loved her mother. Did he even love her mother? He wouldn’t have even married the stupid woman if he had not mistakenly gotten her pregnant and was forced by her poor parents to wife her for free. They were obviously looking for how to get rid of their useless daughter and unfortunately for him his home had been a perfect dumping ground.

He hated her, he was sure that somehow, she was partly to blame for some of his life misfortunes, so he had willingly turned her into a punching bag all throughout their fourteen years of cohabitation. Seeing his daughter, Angela grow up into a beautiful young woman however, had given him reason to love again.

He had disvirgined her when she was eleven and the experience was nothing like he had felt before. Still she always resisted him whenever he wanted to have her; he didn’t understand it and it was why he got violent with her often. One would think that constant s*x with the teenager over the past two years would have made her fall in love with him but she seemed to bitterly loathe him. The whole situation was getting him more frustrated.

Her mother always made matters worse. The ugly hag would always want to stop him like she wanted him to make love to her instead. He couldn’t even nurse the thought of making love to the ugly old b***h.

So, he would first of all beat her to stupor before making love to his daughter. One of these days he would eventually kill the ugly animal.

Someone knocked on his door and Clifford quickly opened it, hoping it was his two counterparts. He would have wasted no time punching whoever it was to death if it turned out to be a false alarm.

Okon and John entered with something wrapped in a cloth.

“What had kept you guys all these while? I thought you’d gotten into some sort of trouble?” he barked.

Okon and John were in their late thirties and held a great respect for Clifford. They were both unmarried and roughly the highest patronizers of all the brothels in Gwagwalada where they lived.

“Easy boss, the police check points before and after Airport junction were the main cause of the delay, but we are here now and we have the gold.” John said.

Clifford’s eyes widened in delight. “Let me have a look,” he stretched his hand and snatched it before Okon could offer it to him. Tearing off the wrappings with haste, he almost screamed for joy when his eyes beheld the object of pure gold. It was slightly larger than the size of his palm and much thicker. He had never seen such an object in his life.

“You know what? The white man promised to give me five million for this, but I will make him pay ten.” He said his face beaming with childish glee.

The two other men only just continued to smile and nod their heads like fools. The money their boss was mentioning didn’t seem realizable to them, but it sure sounded good.

“How did you do it?” Clifford asked.

“It was so easy; I wonder why others have not stolen it all this while. But I must be honest; the information given by your white friend helped us a lot. It made it easier for us to find the location of the gold. We were welcomed into the monastery by the monks; they thought we were from a charity organization. There were four of them and so we used the gas to knock them out of consciousness in the waiting room, tied them up in the toilet and then dressed up like monks ourselves. We located the gold and after beating up the men and made away with it.” Okon bragged.

“Ha ha, you guys are getting better by the day. The presence of this gold has been kept secret for years... I just wonder how the white man found out about it. I am sure there are very few people who know about this wonderful object.” Clifford said thoughtfully. He brought out five one thousand naira notes from his pocket, saying, “You guys go and have fun for the rest of the day, I will see the merchant this evening. One thing is for sure, by tomorrow, we will all be millionaires.”

It was like a dream come true for the three men. All their life efforts were finally paying off. They knew it and believed they deserved it.

Soon after Okon and John left, Clifford gulped down the remaining whisky in the bottle while he stared at the bright object. He felt a sudden wave of alcoholic pleasure and euphoria, then he imagined heightening it up with a rough intimate intercourse with his daughter while hitting her mother intermittently. Quickly, he entered his bedroom and dragged the girl into the sitting room.

She fought hard to hold fast unto the piece of wrapper that covered her body. Clifford yanked it off and delightfully stared at her voluptuous body.

Tears rolled down the young girl’s cheeks and she stared at her father with shame and self loathe.

“Hey, shush, don’t cry anymore... It’s all going to be good from now on. Look...” he pointed to the magnificent object on the table, “I will buy you all the good things I promised you.”

He quickly wrapped up the medallion, opened the back cover of the old model television in the small living room and hid the object inside. He covered the television and turned to his daughter, smiling like the pervert he was.

She had already picked up the cloth and managed to cover her privates. He slowly approached her and began to fondle her body.

Angela shivered in disgust fearfully pushing her father’s hands away from her body, the smell of booze emanating from him was awful. She knew he was going to forcefully make love to her, all she could do was try to resist him like before and get the beating of her life. She preferred the beatings because she felt she deserved them. She hated herself for being a victim of her father’s constant molestations. And so the pummeling was the only way she could feel good about herself since she saw it as payment for being weak.

The slap landed on her face, causing her sadistic delight, then another that caused her to reel backward as she fell on the tattered seat behind her. She wished she had landed with her head on the floor. Her head deserved some pounding.

Quickly, her father pulled down his trousers and roughly penetrated her. She felt nothing. She felt no pleasure, no sensation, just hate and bitter shame as her father continued to hump her. Her mother rushed into the sitting room and began to pull away the shameless man from her daughter while she wailed in tears as usual.

This was the story of her life; a life tied to a husband who would rather sleep with his daughter than his wife.

His ecstasy was cut short by her interference and this infuriated him. He turned around swiftly and gripped her thin neck with his right palm. His eyes were murderous as he continued to tighten his grip. She fought hard to breathe, gasping, as she felt life gradually drain from her body. Then, he forcefully pushed her into the wall behind her. The impact was fatal enough to break her neck.

Thinking she had finally giving up fighting with him, Clifford went back to his daughter who lay unclad on the floor, just staring at her parents fight with dispassionate eyes.

In a few minutes, he was through with her. Then he pulled up his pants and looked disgustingly at the limp body of his wife on the floor. With nothing more than a cursory glance, he walked out of the house, his body needing to ingest more alcohol; deciding to come back later to have more of the little girl.

Angela continued to stare into space for about five minutes and then she stood up and made to walk out of the sitting room. Something about the way her mum laid on the floor was unusual. She bent over to her and tried to pull her up when suddenly it dawned on her that her mum was dead. She screamed. The scream was the first word that had come out of the abused girl’s lips in the last two years.

***

Okon and John went to a local bar somewhere in the remote area of Lugbe- the owner of the bar provided rooms for prostitutes who rented it for their daily business. By 5pm, both men were already drunk to stupor and decided to crown the day’s fun by patronizing the prostitutes who had been walking around half unclad. The men thought it would be fun if both of them slept with one girl at the same time.

So in their drunken state, they entered one of the small rooms that were built with mud and grass. The lady inside welcomed them. Two men meant more money.

“How much you go collect?” Okon asked in Pidgin English, alcohol reeking from his breath. John was behind him, trying very hard to remain balanced.

“Two of una na one thousand five hundred,” she replied. She didn’t even think she was worth that price, not with all the stretched marks on her aged body. She was almost the same age with the men and that was why she was truly grateful for the alcohol in their system.

“Oya commot your cloth sharp sharp,” John’s rough tone vibrated through the room. He just wanted to have s*x with her and get it over with. He only wished they had hung out in their environment, that way they would easily find their way home after their escapade.

Soon Okon was atop her and humping her.

The prostitute only hoped that the drunk wouldn’t collapse on her; his entire weight was on her body. She waited patiently for him to finish, looking towards the ceiling while chewing fiercely on the bubble gum in her mouth like it was more fun than what the drunk was doing to her. Just then, she noticed a cloud of black smoke forming above her, close to the ceiling. At first it was confusing and she attributed it to her failing sense of vision. But the smoke got darker and thicker and it began to look and feel scary.