Niko’s Eye

Chapter 18.

"100 Ways To Die."

Alejandro.

Alejandro had been geared up to guide Isis as she drove but he was pleasantly surprised.

She took the wheel and sped down the empty street, tearing the still night apart.

"Whoaahhh, slow down babygirl. I can’t die without an heir to the throne."

Did he just call her that?

When he saw that Isis was oddly quite, he had assumed that she was just focusing on the wheel.

Especially because they were in a sports car.

Many women feared driving sports cars but Isis kicked the gears higher, as the engine sung to the lone, palmtree-filled roads.

Alejandro looked at her in awe. He pressed a button briefly, which caused the sunroof to open midway.

He didn’t want Isis to get too cold but he could tell that she did need a bit of air.

Isis relished the roaring winds that twirled in her curly tresses and whistled in her ears.

"Are you okay?" he shouted, as he tried to get his voice across the noise of the engine and the howling wind.

She nodded.

No, you’re not. And I’m sorry about that.

Having Isis drive, gave him time to think about some things he didn’t have the time to reflect on.

He looked at Isis.

She had a kind of understated beauty, perhaps it was because she was so disarmingly unaware of her prettiness. Her caramel-mocha skin was completely flawless.

Her side profile looked like an odalisque in an ancient Greek museum.

She was teaching him what the opposite of everything he had ever known, was.

Whatever witty retort he had, she had one better.

She was beautiful, smart, funny, sincere, and undeserving of his ruthlessness.

Whatever he was trying to protect her from, was futile because he was the number one bandit. The number one sorcerer in her life.

He felt his heart beginning to ache.

He didn’t even know where she was driving to and he was hoping they’d talk when suddenly, Isis made a u-turn.

The f**k?

Isis.

Isis just wanted Alejandro to stop fussing over her.

Especially if he could’ve just been playing a game.

She had no time to think about Alejandro and his Donald Duck s**t.

She had a heavy heart. She felt like somebody was sitting on her chest.

Something was not right.

She couldn’t get her mind off of her grandmother.

She thought about her mother too.

If her grandmother was aware of her mother’s ordeals, then her mother would definitely put one and two together and make out that she was the one who had warned her to escape.

But that didn’t make sense because her grandmother didn’t imply that her mother knew that she knew that she might have had something to do with the death of her father.

Isis’ head was spinning. And Alejandro wouldn’t shut up.

Or stop looking at her.

She could feel his eyes on her, from the corners of her eyes.

Isis gathered her thoughts once again and tried to make sense of them.

If dad died because of something that mom had something to do with, then that’s the same reason why she’d want me to be dead right? But she’d be smart enough to know that I wouldn’t be that smart without somebody else inducing such an action. And also, even though that wasn’t the case,she knew I was close to Mami, so I’d tell her about my plans to escape. Mom would then confront Mami, possibly putting her in danger...

OH. MY. GOD.

Isis hit the brakes and turned into the road that lead back to her house.

She raced down the street, even faster than she was going.

I’m practically teaching myself how to Tokyo drift. Wow!

She ignored Alejandro’s pleas for her to slow down and stepped on it even harder.

"Isis!"

She reached the car’s maximum speed and started to slow down once she turned into her street.

She didn’t want to warn her mother of their arrival, in case she was was doing something horrible.

She parked about 5 blocks away from her house and got out of the car in a lightning speed.

"Isis, what’s going on?" she heard Alejandro shout behind her, as he tried to keep up.

"My grandmother could be in danger! I need to make sure she’s okay!"

With that, Alejandro sprinted ahead of her and reached her house before she could get there.

She caught up to him and found that the lights in the house were all on.

"Oh my God, Mami!", she whispered.

She attempted to run into the house but Alejandro stopped her.

"Let me."

Aisha.

Aisha had barged into her mother’s room and found her sitting in her bed, with a rosary in her hand.

"Hello Aisha, you’ve come to eliminate me as well?"

Aisha’s eyes grew wide.

She could not believe what she was hearing.

How did she know? And how much did she know? Did she tell Isis everything that she knew? Or maybe it was a way to get her to confess her other crimes.

"If you take one more step forward, that will be your doom. I’ve already informed the police that if anything should happen to me, they should immediately get out a warrant for your arrestation."

She is fricken smart! But I don’t give a damn. I can always pass it off for a burglary, and since Isis has gone, it would be perfect to pass this off as a robbery. I can take advantage of Isis’ almost-empty room and also state that she had been kidnapped in the process. They won’t be anything to prove if they don’t find anything incriminating.

Aisha smiled evilly as her wicked thoughts were about to transcend into action.

"I’m going to kill you mother. Just like I exterminated all of the others. That’s what you wanted to hear right?"

"Oh, I know about your crimes Aisha. You can’t school me. I’m your mother."

You’re bluffing old lady.

Aisha was dumb enough to want to start confessing her crimes before she committed a new one.

What if the crime she was going to attempt to commit, didn’t follow through ?

Her thoughts made her even more determined to kill her mother as she took out the knife that she had picked up from the kitchen, on her way to her mother’s bedroom.

"God has given me the power to tread over all of my enemies. Especially serpents and scorpions like yourself. I shall triumph. That is Luke 10:19. Would you even know it mother?"

She spoke these words as she lifted the knife and slowly approached her helpless mother who was now grey from fear, clutching onto her rosary for dear life.

Just as she was about to bring down the knife onto her mother, she got knocked out cold, from behind.

Aisha dropped onto the foot of her mother’s bed.

The knife, accidentally driven into her chest, as she fell over it.

Aisha had specially chosen a Güde Synchros Chef’s Knife for her mother, but ended up using it on none other, but herself.

Self-inflicted.

"Beginning Of The End."

Alejandro.

Alejandro crept into the house like a ninja or a character from Brother’s In Arms.

He heard voices, and followed them.

Thankfully, the lights were on. So they didn’t have to stumble because they could see exactly where they were going.

Isis followed closely behind Alejandro.

He slowly walked through the lit hallways and carried on following the voices until they stood outside of what seemed to be Isis’ grandmother’s bedroom.

They arrived just in time to hear Isis’ mother confess to her crimes and maliciously menace the old lady.

Alejandro carefully popped his eye into the room, making sure that he was unseen, so he could get a visual of the situation before he could barge in.

Just as the situation was about to reach its crescendo, Alejandro leaped forward and placed his arm around Isis’ mother’s neck, hitting her and resulting in a knockout as he hit her jaw area.

Hitting the jaw of a person with sufficient power and the perfect angle would cause their head to rotate around, thus causing maximum movement of the skull, affecting the brain.

Alejandro watched as Isis’ mother fell face first onto the foot of Isis’ grandmother’s bed.

Isis rushed in and looked down at her mother in horror as the blood spattered onto the peeling linoleum.

She had stabbed herself.

They stared down at her as the life fluid drained out of her in it’s garish red, her skin taking on the pallor of a corpse.

Alejandro looked at Isis.

Did he just commit another murder? Did he just kill the mother of a woman he seemed to care so much about? All he wanted to do was to make her unconscious. He hoped that Isis knew that.

He was about to start apologizing but Isis reverted her attention back to her grandmother and jumped over her mother’s corpse, into her grandmother’s arms.

"Mami!", he heard her scream.

They both began to cry inconsolably, with Isis kissing and asking her grandmother to tell her if she was hurt.

He just stood there, not knowing exactly what to do.

He gave them a moment while he stared at the ground.

And then he decided to introduce himself, to make it less awkward for himself.

"Mam, I’m Alejandro. Isis’ friend. I hope that you’re okay?"

You’re so forward bruv.

He waved his thoughts off and took a step forward and stuck out his hand.

Isis’ grandmother looked into his eyes and smiled.

She lovingly took his hand in hers and said,"Yes, I’m quite alright. Thank you my child."

His heart began to melt.

He had never been able to meet his grandparents from any side of his family.

Nobody truly showed him any affection.

He grew up having to settle for tough love.

Having no form of communication with his parents, even though they worked from home and were always there.

He looked at Isis’ grandmother and smiled back at her. His dimples apparent.

Her wrinkles were the map of her soul, made all the more intricate by the sweetness of her voice.

He thought he could survive anything if he didn’t go through the pain of loving someone.

He had grown up with a placid heart. A cruel character and the mindset of a hyena.

But who were these two human beings in front of him, totally rewriting his story?

He felt tears beginning to sting his eyes as he watched them coiled up in an embrace.

Isis showered her grandmother with kisses.

He cleared his throat and excused himself.

As he walked out, he let the tears fall.

Belvia.

Belvia had been horrendously traumatized by what had just transpired.

She couldn’t even think straight. She simply basked in the love and genuine concern that was being given to her by Isis.

She was so grateful that Isis had came back.

"How did you know, birdie?"

Isis told her that she felt it in her spirit.

Their connection was so strong that she had sensed that her grandmother was in trouble.

"I don’t know what would have been of my old vessel, if you and your courageous friend had not been here."

Isis looked like she was too emotional to even speak.

Her grandmother gave her time to gather herself and just held her.

"God, I’m so grateful for this."

Ahah, she’s bueno now.

Belvia looked at her granddaughter with so much love. Stroking her coily tresses and lovely face.

"Come now. Tell me, is that the dress guy?"

Isis burst out laughing, and shook her head.

"How are you gonna come out of almost getting killed but still have such thoughts harbouring around?"

Belvia laughed as Isis griped about her gossiping spirit.

Just as Isis was about to answer her question, they heard sirens.

Isis.

Isis didn’t have the time to feel furious at her mother for wanting to kill the person who loved her the most.

She needed to make sure that her grandmother was okay, which indeed she was.

She thought of what would’ve happened if they had came in one second later.

The thought had made her cry even harder than she was already crying.

They had both began to smile and laugh as Isis’ Mami queried Isis about Alejandro.

Why the hell is she asking about Alex at a time like this? And while there’s a fricken corpse laying on the ground.

Isis could not stop snorting at her grandmother’s inquisition.

"Okay, I’m sure I told you what his name was right? Alejandro is.."

Sirens rang.

They looked at each other and decided it was best that they stayed right there.

Within a few moments, Alejandro had appeared with two paramedics, and had walked into her grandmother’s room, accompanied by two additional policemen.

They all greeted them and went about their business, as if Isis and her grandmother did not exist.

They heard the two paramedics pronounce her mother dead.

One glanced at his watch and read it out loud.

01:23, she heard him say.

Jesus, it’s passed my bedtime. No wonder I feel so sleepy.

She found it weird that she didn’t react to hearing that her mother was dead. And neither did her grandmother.

They just sat there, most probably giving the men the impression that they were responsible for her death.

Isis didn’t feel the need to redeem herself because she knew her mother’s own fingerprints were all over that knife.

I mean, it was the truth after all.

Why would she feel the need to feel guilty about what happened? Her mother had asked for it.

She was just simply annoyed at the fact that her mother had not lived to pay for her sins.

It irritated her the most, because if she ever had to find out that her mother was responsible for her father’s death, in any kind of way, she would’ve wanted her mother to be severely punished by the law.

Finally, the two policemen had finished doing the rounds in their home and in her grandmother’s room and had asked them if it was okay for them to answer a few of their questions.

Isis started to panic, but was reassured just as Alejandro took a few steps towards her.

She breathed out and motioned for him to sit right next to her, on the bed.

"Family of the deceased?"

Isis and her grandmother had nodded.

Isis knew that Alejandro would feel left out so she held his hand with her left hand, while holding her grandmother’s hand with her right hand.

They had told the officers what had happened, in detail.

The officers had looked at them, doubt in their furrowed brows, until Isis’ grandmother stood up.

She pointed to the corner of her ceiling. And asked everyone to look up.

A camera?

"I had it installed one day when I no longer felt safe in this house. It would have served as evidence to help keep her locked away if she hadn’t killed herself by accident. The device used to monitor and watch the video tapes are in the wooden box that I gave to my granddaughter."

Isis had a pensive look on her face. She looked at Alejandro.

"I’ll go and get it. It’s in my car. "

He left the room and was accompanied by one of the officers.

Isis slowly sat back down, her brain buzzing with all of the new information.

So, Aisha Kasmira was really a bad woman.