Life's Journey

Alone

After Saheel's death, Barka remained alone in Madam Chichi's house with Leo still having it out for her. Now that Saheel died, Madam Chichi sent Charles to a boarding school also cautioning Leo to control his feelings towards Barka but even with his brother's example, Leo was still adamant wanting to follow in his brother's footsteps. Knowing that she wasn't safe, Barka also tried cautioning herself and staying in her room whenever Madam Chichi went out. As she also didn't want to have the same fate as her sister. Even though she didn't know if Leo also had the disease, she still stayed away from him as birds of the same feather flock together, it was better to be safe than sorry. Leo wanting to r**e her tried the trick he tried before with Charles but Barka was too smart to fall for the same trick twice. Knowing that Leo had it out for her, she decided to end the contract with Madam Chichi threatening her with Saheel's death but Madam Chichi was as adamant as her son as she refused to end it. She even locked her up after she finished her chores in case she tried to escape but Barka was also thinking the same thing. Madam Chichi would only lock her up after she had finished her chores so Barka decided to slow down her chores. Madam Chichi would only allow her to do the laundry by by hand washing the clothes so she used that to her advantage. After washing the clothes and going to sun- dry them. She went outside and instead of spreading the clothes on the line she poured them all on the ground hiding under the bucket as cover using it to sneak passed Madam Chichi and Leo. She then went to the back of the house with a small stood, she tried to jump over the fence. As she grabbed the top of the fence, she felt cuts on her hands. She looked up at the fence to see that Madam Chichi added some broken glasses to the fence for security. Still thinking of what to do about the glasses, Leo came to the back of the mansion to see Barka trying to escape, quickly, he called Madam Chichi out who drawed the stood from her legs. Barka fell down on her knees having bruises on her knee. She then told her to rewash the clothes, even though she had cuts on her hands, she managed to rewash them.

In the night, she came up with another plan involving Leo. During her work hours she called Leo and said to him, "I will let you to touch me only if you help me to escape".Leo who has always wanted her, agreed without hesitation and was about to touch her when she said to him, "not yet, not yet, after I have escaped then you can touch me". Leo threw a tantrum as he wasn't okay with it thinking Barka wouldn't keep her part of the deal but after careful consideration they were finally able to come to a conclusion carrying out the plan at night when Barka would get locked up and Madam Chichi went to bed.

Leo went to Barka's room opening the door for as she quickly ran out to the gates while Leo kept on reminding her about the deal. Just as Barka was about to go out through the gates Leo grabbed her arm saying,"you can't just leave, don't you remember our deal. I get to have you". Then Barka sighed pulling him closer as she pushed him to the ground running as fast as she could. Leo called out to his mom as she released her bull dogs who fiercely chased after Barka. Barka ran into a compound climbing up a tree as the dogs barked as loud as they could waking up the owners of the compound. Using scraps of meat they lured the dogs away and went back to bed without noticing Barka who was still in the tree.

Barka was on the streets again, this time without the one person she had always depended on. She lived on the streets for three days unharmed as she had experience. She had no problem with shelter but still she had no food to eat or water to drink plus she stinked like yesterday's kitty litter. She just roamed about the streets and one afternoon, while roaming, she saw a street dog scattering through some trash. Hungry, she decided to catch and eat the dog even if it was raw. The dog ran away when it noticed her approaching, she couldn't chase after the dog as she had no stamina. Too hungry to wait for the dog to return, she sacrificed her humanity and started searching through and eating the dog's trash. After eating dozens of trash, she stopped, but she was still hungry. She continued roaming when she saw a girl having a birthday party with so many different types of food. Hungry, she lost her mind and ran to the party grabbing as much food as possible. She was about to run away with the food when the mother of the girl came out grabbing her arm calling her a thief as lots of people rushed to the scene. Barka couldn't deny the woman's accusation as it was true, the stunt she pulled wasn't so different from theft. The crowd grabbed her hands and legs carrying her as they were parading all over the neighborhood. They called out some cultists who brought out weapons threatening to kill her if she didn't say where she came from. Barka was too frightened to say anything as they beat her mercilessly making her know that criminals have no place in the society. They then brought out tyres throwing it on her and brought out petrol pouring it on her. They were about to lit her up when a couple of officers noticed them. They stopped them, threatening to charge them to court for jungle justice. Quickly, the crowd ran away as the officers took Barka to their station where they clothed and fed her telling her never to steal again.