CHAPTER SIX — THE PRICE OF LOVE
1909 Words
The world stopped.
The gunfire fell silent for one impossible moment, hanging in the air like a breath no one dared exhale.
Amara stood frozen at the shattered doorway, rain dripping from her hair, her shoulders trembling violently. Her mother Mama Ada was kneeling outside in the mud, hands bound, face swollen from slaps, clothes torn, a knife pressed hard against her throat by one of Balogun’s masked men.
The sight tore through Amara’s chest like a blade.
“Mummy…” she whispered, voice cracked, heart breaking.
Ghost’s stomach twisted into a knot of pure dread.
“No… no… no…” he muttered as he pushed through the haze of his pain, blood soaking his shirt, vision pulsing with red. “Amara get back!”
But she didn’t move.
Couldn’t.
Her legs felt like they were made of stone.
Ghost staggered toward her, but Vee caught his shoulder.
“Ghost wait. Think.”
“I no fit think!” he snarled, wrenching his arm free. “They go kill her mother!”
Vee grabbed him again harder this time.
“Exactly. That’s why you MUST think.”
Outside, the man holding Mama Ada barked:
“Ghost! You move again, wey no be surrender her throat go open like yam!”
Ghost froze mid-step.
His heart hammered.
His pulse roared in his ears.
He had faced guns. He had faced torture. He had faced betrayal.
But this
this was the one thing that could break him.
Amara turned her head slowly, tears falling freely.
Ghost had never seen fear like that on her face.
“Ghost… please…” she whispered. “My mummy… they will kill her…”
Her voice shattered him.
Scorpion stood behind her, torn between shock and fury.
“Ghost… na trap,” Scorpion whispered. “Big trap.”
Ghost’s jaw clenched so hard it ached.
“I know,” Ghost muttered. “But na trap we no fit run from.”
Another voice rose from outside.
Cold.
Mocking.
Familiar.
“Ghost come outside. Let’s finish this like men.”
Balogun.
The devil himself.
Thunder cracked across the sky as Balogun stepped forward, flanked by a dozen men with rifles aimed at the hideout. His black leather jacket glistened with rain. A wicked smile played on his lips.
Scorpion cursed under his breath.
“Balogun come by himself? No wonder na set-up.”
Ghost felt a scream building inside him, strangled by rage, pain, fear, and something far worse helplessness.
Vee raised her rifle slightly.
“We still have an advantage,” she muttered. “Balogun wants something. If he wanted all of us dead, he’d have thrown grenades already.”
Ghost didn’t look at her.
His eyes were on Balogun.
Balogun spread his arms like a king greeting subjects.
“Ghost! Omo Lagos! The boy wey think say e fit dethrone me!”
Ghost’s fist tightened so hard blood seeped from his palm.
Balogun laughed at the sight.
“Look you. Bleeding. Weak. Scared. I told you nobody win me for my city.”
He pointed at Amara.
“And you girl, move closer.”
“No!” Ghost barked.
But Amara…
…already had.
Balogun grinned wider.
“You see? You love am. And love dey make even the strongest man foolish.”
Ghost’s breath trembled.
Vee whispered sharply, “Ghost. Control your expression. Don’t let him see fear. That’s what he wants.”
But Ghost wasn’t hearing anymore.
His focus was razor-edged.
Balogun snapped his fingers.
Two riflemen stepped forward, lifting their guns toward Amara.
Ghost’s heart almost stopped.
“NO!” he shouted, stepping out of cover.
Vee tackled him back instantly, her voice a hiss.
“What are you doing?!”
“I go no watch them touch her!” he roared.
“You step out, we ALL die,” Vee barked.
His breathing was harsh, wild.
He felt trapped in his own skin.
Balogun shook his head with exaggerated pity.
“Ghost… Ghost… Ghost…”
He clicked his tongue like scolding a child.
“Your weakness don show finally.”
He pointed directly at Amara.
“She is the reason you go die tonight.”
Something snapped inside Ghost.
A fuse.
A switch.
A threshold.
His eyes darkened into something dangerous
A quiet storm ready to explode.
Balogun saw the change and smiled, amused.
“Good. Let the anger grow. Use am. I want you angry. I want you desperate. Then I go break you.”
Vee whispered, “Ghost, calm down. If you rush, you die. If you hesitate, she dies. Think.”
Ghost swallowed hard.
His mind raced.
He scanned the terrain
the mud, the broken fence, the broken porch beam, the shadows behind the soldiers, the angle of the doorway, the distance between Amara and the nearest gunman.
He could work with this.
But only if he survived the next five seconds.
“Balogun…” Ghost called, voice deep and cold. “Leave her mother out of this. Na me you want.”
Balogun flashed a grin.
“I dey confused. Who give you impression say you fit bargain?”
Ghost clenched his jaw.
“Because you know I no go run. And you know if you kill her mother, Amara go turn to fire wey you no fit quench. She go hunt you. She go haunt you.”
Balogun raised an eyebrow.
Amara flinched at the words.
But Mama Ada lifted her swollen face.
Her trembling lips whispered
“Amara… don’t… come…”
Amara burst into tears.
Balogun yanked her mother’s hair, forcing her silent.
Ghost’s veins burned with rage.
Balogun chuckled.
“Oh, Ghost… your girl get fire. But fire no dey fight gun.”
He snapped his fingers again.
A gun pointed directly at Amara’s head.
Ghost stopped breathing.
Time cracked.
Vee whispered, “Ghost… now is when he tries to break you completely.”
Ghost’s eyes were bloodshot.
“Vee… if anything happen to her”
“I know,” she said softly. “That’s why we won’t let it.”
Ghost tore his gaze from Amara
and met Balogun’s eyes.
And something unexpected happened.
Ghost smiled.
Not warm.
Not kind.
A smile that carried death in every edge.
Balogun blinked.
“What be funny?”
Ghost’s voice came out low.
“You dey make mistake.”
Balogun scoffed. “Which mistake?”
Ghost lifted his chin.
“You think say na only you get mind for war.”
Balogun frowned.
Ghost stepped sideways, using the doorway shadow to hide his small movement.
“You dey think say I dey scared,” he continued softly. “But you forget something.”
Balogun’s grip tightened on his gun.
Ghost’s smile widened.
“You forget say I no dey alone.”
That very second
Vee moved.
Silent like smoke.
Fast like a shadow.
Her bullet tore through the wrist of the soldier holding Mama Ada hostage.
The man screamed, dropping the knife.
Mama Ada fell back into the mud.
Amara cried out.
Balogun turned sharply
just as Ghost lunged forward with a roar that shook the walls.
Scorpion burst past him, knife in hand, charging toward two men at once.
Chaos exploded.
Gunfire ripped through the air.
Shouts filled the rain.
Amara dropped to her knees beside her mother, sobbing, trying to drag her back.
Ghost slammed into the nearest soldier, ripping the rifle from his hands and smashing it across his jaw.
Vee rolled behind a concrete pillar, firing precise, deadly shots.
Scorpion fought like a beast unleashed
slashing, dodging, tackling men twice his size.
Blood sprayed.
Fists collided.
Bodies hit the mud.
Balogun shouted orders, firing wildly toward Ghost.
Ghost ducked behind a rusted generator, breath ragged, vision spinning.
His wound throbbed violently.
He could feel himself fading.
But then
A scream cut through the storm.
Amara’s scream.
Ghost turned instantly.
Two men were dragging Amara away
her arms kicking and flailing
her mother weakly reaching after her.
Ghost’s heart split open.
He pushed off the generator, adrenaline flooding him like fire.
“AMARA!!!”
She twisted toward him, eyes wide, terrified.
“GHOST! HELP ME!!!”
Ghost sprinted, ignoring the pain exploding in his ribs.
Vee shouted, “Ghost STOP too many guns!”
But he didn’t stop.
Couldn’t.
Wouldn’t.
The men dragging Amara lifted her roughly, pulling her toward a truck at the edge of the clearing.
Ghost roared
“LEAVE HER!”
He was ten meters away.
Eight.
Six.
A gun c****d.
Ghost’s eyes snapped toward it.
Balogun.
Aiming at Ghost’s heart.
Balogun smirked.
“This time your story end.”
He fired.
Ghost dove desperately.
The bullet tore through his shoulder.
Ghost screamed but rolled, using the momentum to rise again.
Amara sobbed as the men dragged her closer to the truck.
“GHOST PLEASE!!!”
Ghost staggered to his feet
blood pouring
vision blurring
mind screaming.
But love forced his body forward.
Balogun fired again.
The bullet grazed Ghost’s thigh.
He stumbled but kept running.
Amara reached a hand toward him
“GHOST!!”
He reached back.
Their fingers almost touched.
Almost.
Then
A gun butt slammed into Amara’s face.
Ghost’s heart stopped.
Her body went limp.
The men lifted her into the truck.
“No… NO… NO!!!” Ghost roared, collapsing to his knees as blood soaked the mud.
The truck engine revved.
Balogun smirked cruelly and shouted:
“Next time Ghost learn say love dey kill!”
The truck sped off into the night
with Amara unconscious inside.
Ghost screamed
a sound raw enough to tear the sky.
Vee rushed to him, grabbing his shoulders.
“Ghost-stop-stop-STOP! You’ll bleed out!”
Ghost tried to stand.
He fell.
He tried again.
He fell again.
Scorpion limped toward him, fury in his voice and tears in his eyes.
“They take Amara… they take her… Ghost… they take her…”
Ghost pressed his forehead to the mud, shaking violently.
“Amara… Amara… AMARA!!!”
His voice cracked.
His breath broke.
His heart shattered.
And Vee whispered the words that froze his blood:
“Ghost… listen to me. Balogun isn’t taking her to kill her.”
Ghost’s head snapped up.
His eyes wild.
“What do you mean?!”
Vee swallowed.
Her voice was trembling too even she feared the answer.
“He’s taking her to the traitor.”
Ghost’s breath stopped.
The WORLD stopped.
Scorpion whispered, horrified:
“The traitor… want Amara?”
Vee nodded slowly.
“No. The traitor didn’t want her.”
She looked Ghost dead in the eyes.
“They want YOU. And the best way to break you…”
Her voice cracked.
“…is through her.”
Ghost stared at her.
Silent.
Deadly.
Vee’s voice lowered.
“Ghost… Balogun is delivering Amara to the one person you trust most.”
Ghost’s vision tunneled.
His heartbeat thundered.
His lips parted.
“Who…?”
Vee looked away.
Her jaw clenched.
“Ghost… the traitor… the person Balogun trusts with Amara…”
She inhaled shakily.
“…is someone you’ve been protecting all this time.”
Ghost’s world tilted.
“Say the name,” he whispered.
Vee looked back at him eyes full of something Ghost had never seen on her before.
Fear.
“Ghost… the traitor is”
A gunshot cracked through the night.
The bullet hit the wall inches beside Vee’s head.
Someone had silenced her.
Someone close.
Someone watching.
And Ghost understood instantly:
The traitor… was here.
With them.
Now.
And Amara…
Was already in their hands.
- Writer
