The Witness of Usehjiki

Osa stood outside Pastor Kuwin’s house as they waited for him. Ahimad was nowhere to be found but Enechi was on the phone, a few feet from Ifiso’s truck, and every time he moved, one of the men in suits followed. His car was facing the gate on the North-East side of the compound because it was open. The other gate that was closer to Ifiso’s truck was closed.

Toso sat on the bed of the truck, taking inventory of their stock in the camo trunks.

“I can’t find the case of P-90s,” Toso said, scratching her head as her sisters ignored her.

“Abo muha dung a,” Ifiso said. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. “None of them do. Let’s leave them and go.”

“We need them,” Osa said, leaning on the truck as she bent and straightened her aching knee.

“Seriously, you guys,” Toso said, standing up and looking down at them, on the ground. “There’s only one case of grenades. A whole batch is missing.”

“They want to make a new witness,” Ifiso continued as if Toso hadn’t spoken. “That should tell you that they’re crazy or foolish.”

“We’re not going anywhere, Ifiso.”

“He couldn’t even answer a simple question. How do we know it will work? He didn’t say. Want to know why? Because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“What do you want me to do?” Osa asked Ifiso. “Hmm? We came here to get help. This is the help. We can’t fight the witness and there’s no way we’ll be able to subdue her ourselves.”

“According to him.”

Toso jumped out from the truck.

“We’re missing four cases,” she said.

“We have three pairs of hands, Toso. We don’t need that much ammunition,” Ifiso snapped at her.

“The witness is coming after us. We need all the help we can get,” Toso replied.

“Then borrow from them,” Ifiso nodded in the direction of the men and their guards just as Pastor Kuwin emerged from the building. There was a small bag slung over his shoulders that he adjusted the moment he realized Osa was looking at him.

Maybe she lied. Maybe a little part of her felt guilty for the way things had transpired. Maybe, in another life, Osa would have been lucky to keep the attention of a chastely faithful man such as Pastor Kuwin. But none of that mattered in this particular life. In this one, Osa couldn’t feel too guilty about it. What was done, was done. There were too many mistakes to look back in regret anymore.

He looked like he was about to say something before Enechi walked past him, drawing Kuwin’s attention.

“You’re coming with me, Pastor,” Enechi said, as he entered his car. Before Pastor Kuwin could say anything, the driver opened the other side of the car for him.

Kuwin spared Osa and her sisters one last glance.

“O mi nuoh,” he said. We will see, again.

Osa hadn’t expected that. He’d been hostile towards her in the kitchen. It didn’t seem like he’d ever want to see her again. But if he was extending an olive branch, Osa was going to take it.

“O mi nu Pastor,” Osa promised as she headed for the backseat of Ifiso’s truck. She needed to lie down because her knee wasn’t the only problem. Her shoulder and her back had joined the party.

She was about to enter when the gates were hit by something heavy and strong as they flung off their hinges. One side of the gate landed on one of the cars in the compound, but the other one landed just a few inches from Osa.

When she looked up, the witness was standing at the gate, staring right at her with piercing fury.

Osa hefted herself into the back of Ifiso’s truck. “Ifiso, drive.” Toso got into the bed of the truck with Osa and seconds later, both of them had loaded their guns, and stationed a trunk to position their shots as they fired on the witness.

Their shots broke the quiet night’s peace, but Osa was pleased to note that they weren’t the only ones firing. Even though Enechi’s car had driven off the moment the shooting started, his men had stayed behind to help.

The witness staggered back as the bullets beat into her body, slicing through her flesh and tearing her apart. She fell back and rolled over to the other side of the road as the truck cued in behind the other cars trying to leave the compound.

When the witness got up, she was bleeding from head to toe, and the thin material and loose strings of raffia that had afforded her the barest form of modesty were torn to useless nothingness. As she took a step forward, her body swished like liquid, and her skin dragged itself back into place.

“FIRE!” Ahimad yelled from behind Osa and suddenly, they all began to fire again.

The witness moved, faster than anything Osa had ever seen. She dodged their bullets as her entrails danced outside her body, on their way to rejuvenation. Osa dropped her gun and opened the slim crate that housed the disassembled pieces of an RPG.

The witness was not impervious to bullets, so Osa figured a bazooka would do more damage than a gun. She placed the pistol grip and the launcher together and then snapped them into place as she stood on the bed of the moving truck. Toso took the rocket and slid it into the launcher as Osa braced the bazooka on her shoulder.

The witness grabbed the car that was closest to her and pushed it till it was standing on its bumper and then she shoved it forward, so Osa fired.

The rocket exploded the moment it contacted the car and everything within a fifty-feet radius erupted in an explosion as Ifiso’s truck was flung forward into the car in front of it.

Osa fell off the truck and landed on the ground, but Toso held on as the truck pressed into the back of the other car. As Osa’s head spun and her ears began to sing from the loudness of the explosion, Ifiso got out of the truck, her head covered in blood and a huge cut on the shoulder of her sweater.

Osa could see Ifiso screaming at her, but the ringing in her ears was too loud. Ifiso helped Osa to her feet as Toso swung out from the back of the truck and landed seamlessly.

“…you all right?” Toso’s voice broke through the ringing, bringing Osa back to the present.

“Are you… are you all right?” Osa asked Toso back.

“You guys are bleeding,” Toso said, looking from Osa to Ifiso.

“LET’S GO!” Ahimad called from the other side of the destroyed car. When Osa looked back, apparently, he’d been stationed far enough and outside the compound, so he wasn’t in the radius of the damage.

And oh, the damage was extensive.

The front of the building was rubble and every home that was on that side of the building was suddenly missing a wall. There was a fire inside some houses and the people inside them were attempting to get out or put out the fire.

Two bodyguards arrived by Osa’s side to help her walk. Toso pulled a small crate from the back of the truck as Ifiso took out two grenades from the huge trunk.

As they turned to go, Osa screamed as the bloodied witness was suddenly standing between her sisters. She struggled to go to them, but the bodyguards wouldn’t let her leave. All she could do was watch, as the touch of the witness caused her sisters to freeze on the spot. Seconds later, in unison, their bodies began to shrink, just as their mother’s body had done.

While Osa was forced into Ahimad’s car, the last thing she saw was her sisters’ bodies, as they shriveled out of existence.