TEMPTED SOUL

Though, I wasn’t really surprised when I saw Alfonso stroll into the building with a gun in his hand, smiling mischievously at me. But inside of me, I was enraged, irritated, and desirous of escaping from my body.

“I told you I would come for you. I told you not to play with a lion because they are very dangerous. Today I am here to give you the last tribute. Today, I am here to suck the sweetness out of your body since you claimed to be too holy. Jack, untie her mouth,” Alfonso said, and the short, dark-skinned muscular man walked up to me and quickly untied my mouth.

I started breathing heavily like a hungry dog. Immediately, my mouth got loose. I stared blankly into Alfonso’s eyes and all I could see was danger darting here and there. In my mind, I knew I had messed up; I’d come to the end of my life, the end of my friendship with a city boy in regret.

“Alfonso, tell me why you would do this to me. Did I make a wrong decision knowing you in the first place? Why do you want to endanger my dream? Why do you want to do this to me?” I sobbed tears like a newborn baby as Alfonso laughed sarcastically.

“Yes, you made a very great mistake knowing me. All this time I’ve been watching you with one eye, but you are claiming to be too righteous and holistic. I want to show you that here in the city, there is nothing of such nature. I just laughed at you because only a fool would do what you did to me. You can not step into the lion’s den and go back the same way.” He muttered

“What do I owe you? What do you really want from me?”

“You owe me a lot; you said you love me; help me with 10 million naira, but you refused. Why are you so heartless? Is that the love you promised to share with me?”

“For God’s sake, can you spare me those words? I am not heartless. You are the one who is heartless. How do you expect me to take such an amount of money from my brother’s business? How do you expect me to take from what does not belong to me?”

“That is an act of stealing and I was not ready to commit such a crime. I know how my brother struggles to make his wealth, so you don’t expect me to cause him a downfall. If you truly love me the way you claimed to, I am sure you wouldn’t ask me to commit such a deadly crime. You just want to” I spat out angrily.

“I told you I was going to refund you the money. Didn’t I tell you?”

“Of course you did. To me, that was a risky task. I wasn’t ready to take such a risk. If you know my brother, you wouldn’t even tempt me to do that because it is like trying to put your finger inside the fire.” I was challenging him with every question he came up with.

“Well, I am not here to exchange words with you. All I want from you is to make love to me. The money we took from you is non-refundable. One thing you need to know is that I am not going to kill you because you have a bright future and a lot of dreams to attain. I wanted to tempt you to see if you have a big heart,” he paused.

“I don’t get you. What do you mean by that?” I probed.

“I wanted to see if you had the big heart to do what I asked you to do, but you couldn’t deliver. I had every plan tabled out for us to leave the country. If you had given me the money, I will convince you to come along with me so we can leave the country. There you can continue with your studies. But that is too late for you.” He muttered the last words, pulled out a very sharp knife from his waist, and cut off the rope in my hand.

Then he ordered the two guys to leave the apartment, and they heeded his order.

“Do you know one thing I like about you? I swear you are too beautiful. No girl has ever entered my eyes as you do. I will only call myself a fool if I did not taste a beauty like you.” He whispered into my ears and kissed my lips just the moment he grabbed my hair and turned it towards him.

He moved his hands around my bosom. He grabbed my breast so tight and gave it a squeeze. He started romancing my body. I started feeling the sensation running all over my body. It was sweet and rough, but I didn’t deserve this to happen to me at this point in my age.

I thought of what to do to make him weak and powerless now that his men were far away from us, but nothing came to mind.

“Stop it!” I blurted.

“KEEP QUIET.” He thundered and slapped my cheek. He had just aroused my anger, so I quickly locked my fist and gave him a very hot blow on his manhood and stomach. I gave him a second hot blow; he stumbled to the ground and started wincing out in pain. I reached out for the knife he used to cut off the rope. I cut off the rope tied to my legs.

I wanted to take his gun and shoot him, but I said no, I didn’t want to involve my hand in a person’s blood. I took the gun and pointed it at him so he wouldn’t attack me. I rushed out of the apartment, trying every means possible to find a way out, and as I did so, I heard a ringing tone. That was his phone ringing, so I returned back to the apartment and found him still in pain.

He was struggling to take the phone, but I quickly took it from him. Now I could hear the steps of his gang approaching because he was shouting out loud for help. I already knew his phone code, so I unlocked it and quickly Googled the location of the place. I didn’t have my brother’s phone number offhand. I thought of who to call or text, but I never had anybody’s phone number offhand.

At that moment, I remembered the number Chioma gave to me. Yes, the number was still inside my pocket and it was the same trouser I wore the previous day that I put on today. I checked my backpack and found a piece of paper with the number written on it. I felt contemporary joy dancing in my heart. I dialed the phone number right away and texted her the location of the place and also the dilemma that I was in.

After I had texted her, I called to inform her so she could act quickly and find a way to help me, but she wasn’t picking up at the moment. I was furious. Then I decided I must have to find my way out and escape before his men came back. Unfortunately, I turned my face and saw the two men standing behind me.

My heart leapt out in great terror. I couldn’t defend myself with the gun in my hand because they were very close. They held me very tight, took the phone from me, slapped the hell out of me, and pushed me to the ground. At this time, I knew I was finished; I knew I was going to be a lump of dead roasted meat; there was no way to escape again.