The Chronicles X - Dead Men 2

Three young men had been waiting for her in her room.

It wasn’t a new thing for a man to wait for Tola in her room since she had male acquaintances who were always informed ahead of time of where she kept the extra key. It was nothing new yet something about these guys was not right. They were positioned about the room as if they had been expecting her and their faces were half covered in handkerchiefs or bandanas. Two of them looked familiar but she couldn’t be sure. The third guy was the scariest of them all because of his huge and muscular size, he had to be a body builder, probably a Physical Ed student.

The men said nothing and watched her with glee as she cringed on seeing them. She began to retrace her steps. She just might have the opportunity to make it out through the door before they got to her.

Her right heel hit the fallen knife and quickly she swooped down, grabbed it and made to get out through the door. It was then she saw why the bushes outside had been rustling.

Ike, Jide and Emma with their faces half covered in bandanas emerged from the bushes and quickly blocked her way out. Ike and Jide moved forward steadily. Emma thrust forward ahead of them, enthusiastic about getting down to business.

If he had been steady like the others he probably would have seen that she had a knife in her hand but he was too blinded by the desire to do some collateral damage.

Tola moved swiftly to the side, the knife deftly held downwards.

Emma crashed into the door post and felt a sharp pain on his right arm. He grabbed it and felt his ripped shirt sleeve and the warmth of his blood trickle in between his fingers. He cursed filled with intense rage and pain, turned to attack her again but Ike stopped him.

‘Enough!’ Ike barked jerking him aside and facing Tola himself.
He looked at her from head to toe and smiled.

‘You shouldn’t do that, you know’ He said in a calm tone.

Tola said nothing but just waved the knife maniacally at him.
Ike reached behind his back and drew out a small black pistol. He waved it before her.

‘See? I’m in command here. And you’ll do as I say.’

Tola’s confidence suddenly ebbed away as quickly as a cube of sugar would dissolve in a glass of water. Ike pointed the gun at her and instructed her to drop the knife.
As soon as she did, Jide grabbed her from behind and shoved her inside the apartment.

The other three guys waiting in the room were at alert and obviously awaiting Ike’s orders.
This indicated clearly that Ike was the leader of the group.

‘What do you want with me?’ Tola said, fighting hard to resurrect the confidence that had died within.

‘They say you’re a hard nut to crack.’ Ike began.

‘Yeah. That you never give in to any guy on campus.’ Jide put in.

‘It’s like no dude on campus is ever good enough for you, if he’s not some loaded aristo*.’ The muscular jock added.

‘And we’ve come here to prove you’re nothing but just another statistic’, Ike said checking the safety catch on the gun.

Tola looked astonished rather than scared.

‘And how in the world do you intend to do that?’ she asked in neutral tone. She was doing a good job of hiding the little bit of fear that was creeping into her voice.

‘Oh, you’ll find out soon enough’, Emma said with a wicked snicker playing on his face.

‘Take off your clothes.’ Ike said in a cool yet deadly tone.

‘Never!’ Tola snarled back viciously.

Ike looked at her, his eyes narrowed as his brow knitted together in an angry frown above the sweat soaked bandana covering half his face.

‘Guys…take her clothes off!’ He suddenly barked.
In that instant they advanced towards menacingly her.

Tola broke into cold sweat as she watched them draw closer to her. Then all of a sudden she remembered what had happened earlier in the day and brightened up.

‘Okay. I’ll do it.’ She said.

Ike wasn’t sure he heard right. She repeated herself, and immediately he ordered the boys to stop.

Tola straightened herself up and walked into their centre. The fear was suddenly gone; the confidence that always synchronized with her catwalk was back in her and so alive that for an instant, Ike nearly had a rethink about what they were about to do.

‘You!’ she barked at Emma, ‘Go and bolt the door.’

Emma found himself scurrying to do her bidding. He cursed underneath his breath. He couldn’t believe he was taking orders from a woman.

She looked at all of them and started chuckling. Then she burst into laughter.

The guys all suddenly became uneasy. What was she up to?

To be continued...