The Devil

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 12

We were almost at the junction that leads to my town when we heard the ruckus. Some young men ran past us,shouting at us to turn back the bike rider asked me to come down and he drove off leaving behind a trail of black smoke. I ran towards my town my heart pounding in my ears.

” Young Man dont go there” An old homeless man called out to me ” Trouble, i tell you, trouble is there” He walked away.

I ignored him and kept running, i could see smokes from afar, God please let my family be alright i prayed as i ran further.

” Young man!” a woman hiding in the bushes called out” They are shooting over there”

” Who is shooting at whom”

” Come, come and hide here”

I had to look for my family, i ran further towards the town, i saw some group of armies coming and i dived into the bushes until their van had rolled by. I came out of the bushes and kept running. I was almost at the market place, when some group of boys in shorts with red bandanas round their necks marched towards me singing at the top of their voice, they were burning tyres and marching in cycles. I got under one of the market stalls until i could hear their voices from afar. I crept through the empty market until i could see the street where the march was to be held. Thousands of dead students were on the ground, i could see some little children in uniform among them too. I heaved up my breakfast and puked till i got dizzy.

Someone touched my shoulder from behind and i screamed.

” Shhh.. Its me Kojo” Lyon one of the God sent said.

” Where is my brother!?”

” He’s fine come i will take you to him ”

We crept through the market till we got to the mission catholique church, Lyon opened the gate glancing over his shoulder to make sure we weren’t followed. He closed the gate after us.

” What happened? Why is my brother involved in this? ”

” Its a long story”

” Make it short!”

” We were recruited by Seyram,to bring the president down, besides each of us had a personal vendetta against the bastard anyway. We knew he is a powerful man so we were fortified against his charms or so we thought! Only the overall best student could get close enough to him, to stab him in the chest with the ‘ Special charm’ knife and that’s where your brother comes in”

” How could he drag my brother into something like this?”

” Albert was assured that his family won’t lack for anything and he’s also doing it for his country.”

” So what went wrong?”

” Seyram was the right hand man of the president, he also convinced him to come visit our town. When the president’ s plane touched down, he ( Seyram) told him he got information that the students planned a coup. He betrayed us! but he payed dearly for it, the president knew he was in on it too and ordered him beheaded at once before he gave orders that fire should be opened on all the students while he watched from his helicopter in the sky”

” How…how did the president know that he was in on it?”

“He gave him our full names and he was the one who advised him to come to our town in the first place. The soldiers were screaming our names as they opened fire”

” Where are the others?” Where is my brother?”

” The others has been dragged off to God knows where, i managed to escape and i have to leave town tonight. I entered into this thinking i could rescue my family…he ( President) married both my sister and my mother, he made my father his slave too.”

Lyon took me to the back of the church where there were tall grasses, he whistled to let them know it was us. Albert was in Mensah’ s arms, Mensah was trying to stop the blood rushing out from his chest with his shirt. I knelt beside them.

” Albert ” i cried. He had been shot in the shoulder and he was losing blood quickly.” We have to take him to the hospital! ”

” Its too risky, we have to wait and sneak him to the hospital at night.” Mensah said.

I started crying. ” We have to take him to the hospital now!”

Albert reached out and held me with his blood soaked hand. ” Don’t cry Kojo, don’t cry, i will be fine”

” Hang in there Charley” Cousin Mensah said.

” Am not..going anywhere” Albert whispered with blood gushing out of his mouth.

I put his head on my thighs while i wiped the blood from his mouth ” Lyon..Lyon..please can you go look for Father Flavi? he might be able to help ”

Lyon looked stricken ” We can’t let anyone know we are here!”

” Please, please ” I cried.

” its better if no one knows we are here Kojo. If i can get a knife i will try to dig out the bullets” Mensah said.

” No am fine” Albert whispered.

Father Flavi won’t tell anyone i tried to convince them.

Albert suddenly went into a fit, Mensah held him down while Lyon kept pressure on the wound. I held him and cried, i cried till he stopped jerking and laid still in my arms. Mensah started crying too, while Lyon sat down staring into space. Albert won’t go the university, he wont see little Pam grow into a woman, he won’t see me become the big man i wanted to be. I cradled his head and cried into the night.