The Witness of Usehjiki

Osa didn’t think about it when she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was the unmistakable form of the witness. She simply got up, made her way through the oily, chunky grass, and snapped the woman’s neck.

Except, instead of her neck only snapping, the whole head came off. As the body fell away, Osa turned the head around and looked at it. Seneseba was nothing. The witness was nothing but a dead head, now, with dead eyes and an agape mouth. Her sisters were avenged but that didn’t bring Osa any peace. All she felt was a warring carnage within her.

A burning need to destroy everything and everyone.

“He restored my soul,” Osa heard the pastor say, from under the witness’ body. She tossed the head and dragged the body away from him.

“You hypocrite,” she said, taking him up by the neck. He didn’t fight her or protect himself. She wondered why until she saw the gash in his stomach, from where he was bleeding. “What happened?”

“Enechi… stabbed me.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Because I… because I didn’t want to do the… ritual,” he coughed up a few sprinkles of blood.

“You want me to believe that you changed your mind.”

“What they were doing to you wasn’t right, Osa.”

“I begged you to stop,” she cried, shaking him. “I asked you-”

“And I…” he coughed up blood. “I was wrong,” he said, his voice shaking with effort and pain.

She didn’t want to believe him. He’d had his chance and he’d chosen to kill her and lock her up. It was too convenient that now she was free, he was suddenly on her side.

“I pulled the lever.” He pointed into the truck.

Osa’s eyes followed his hand till she saw the trail of blood leading up to where the lever was. He’d truly done it. He’d freed her from the container of blood and awoken her before Enechi could lock her up.

“Where is Enechi?”

“He’s gone. He and Ahimad… they… left.”

Osa flinched as a gun rang out and the bullet hit the truck behind Kuwin. She turned around to find guards gathering around. Two trucks drove up and barricaded themselves against her as more guards emerged, guns pointed at her.

That angry fire that had been burning ever since she awoke, roared to life again. The arrogance of Enechi and Ahimad to think that they could do this and get away with it.

“Don’t do it, Osa,” the pastor said, holding her hand as he continued to bleed onto the ground. “You can just run away. Don’t risk it by fighting these people.”

He was trying to save her. Even with his wounds, he was worried about her.

Gently, Osa put him down. He cried out, still holding onto her.

“Osa-”

“This doesn’t concern you anymore, Pastor.”

“Osa Oseki, turn around with your hands behind your head.”

They turned on a floodlight causing her to cover her eyes from the bright glare. She couldn’t see beyond the first line of guards, but she knew for a fact that Enechi wouldn’t be there. He’d probably gotten in a car and was heading out so that his men could capture and subdue Osa.

Just like he’d run away from Pastor Kuwin’s apartment, leaving Osa and her sisters to face the witness.

She dragged the container where she’d drowned in blood, a few feet to the left, using it to block the pastor before she climbed up on the fallen container. It wasn’t perfect, but she got a better view of the compound. Her eyes zeroed in on a bunch of cars that were headed toward the gate.

Enechi.

When she leaped into the air, the guards opened fire. It took two bullets for Osa to register that her hand was hanging off her wrist. She’d felt the bullets when they hit, but the pain had been nothing but an echo. A feeling that was filtered through too long a tunnel to translate. An inconvenience to ignore.

She landed in front of the car, just before it disappeared into the trees that narrowed towards the gate. The driver rode right into her, pushing her back. Disoriented, Osa held her ground, using her elbow to support her only good hand since the other one was still healing.

She dug her heels in, forced the car up, and stood back. It flipped once in the air and crashed into the car that was following it. This then cascaded into multiple collisions as subsequent cars tried to swerve out of the way. Out of all the unlucky cars, one of them slipped through and was about to pass by Osa.

“No way,” she said, punching into the side of the moving vehicle as it slammed into the trees.

Cars honked in distress and people began to alight from them. Osa walked up to Enechi’s car and ripped the backdoor from its hinges. With no key to protect them, Ahimad lay dead, unmoving, but Enechi was alive, crushed between the back of his seat and the seat in front of him as he gobbled blood up and down his throat.

“P-ple-ease,” he begged.

But Osa was in no mood for mercy.