1 Chapter 1

I heard her screams before her rapid breathing reached my ears. I could tell that she was raped before it started. Her breathing was what woke me up that night. I knew she was dragged across the floor. Her voice was loud enough to wake an entire community. But on one heed to her cries. They are known to as menace to the community. they have been caught time without number by the community security and yet no suitable punishment has stopped them. This occurs almost every night. They mostly take in females but neither of the gender is ignored.

Her slow gasping for breath drew my attention to the fact that she was dying. I felt nothing for her. None of the villagers ever did. All I thought about was how the mess at my backyard would be taken care of. We had prepared jellof rice that evening; something we usually do everyday in preparation for breakfast the next morning. But I doubt that food would be available. I thought about what would happen come morning. The villagers would wake up as usual, including me, my grandmother and younger brother. We would go about our chores with tight lips, not even a whisper, pretending that all was well. Then, I would go to the kitchen to warm our breakfast and I then scream like I never heard what happened the night before. I would scream cause the next victim is still a mystery. Nothing mattered to them at all. Those bastard ritualists.

Calling the police was not an option. They not capable of doing anything. We all knew the killers but nothing could be done about that. I had to get involved in a relationship with one of the killer to keep my family safe. Because all that mattered was that my family was safe and protected.

I couldn't hear her screams anymore. She's gone. I tried to picture how they made this one. Were her organs taken for rituals? Or were her eyes removed? Will her lips be parted with her last unvoiced scream or would her fingers be spaced an inch from the other like someone trying to scratch somebody?. I imagined her lying naked on the floor, her thighs wide apart and her feet spaced from the other. Her eyes would be wide open and her lips would be spaced revealing her teeth and tongue in an invoiced scream. Her body would be tensed like somebody waiting for something and she would be likely cursing her attackers in her thoughts while staring at them. the walls and floor of the room would be blood coated. She would probably be lying supine on the floor but her eyes would be wide open and an invoiced scream within her throat would make her lips spaced widely.

I thought about the blood that would be splat on the wall, painting our cement coated wall red. It would probably never wash off reminding me of her murder. The whole village was as quiet as a graveyard and I could hear the ritualists still at work. I remembered the advert that was going on for a while a year back before the ritual killings got worst. An elderly woman had advertised her breast for ritual. She was the Nwanyi ada of our community and also a priest of our deity. It was more like an invite than an advert. No one knew the why she advertised her breast. Before long, a rumor surfaced that she sacrificed her breast to prevent further killing of the community's youth. Many ritualist didn't believe it and they resulted to Amaeze's ways. The dibia(native doctor) preferred the killings to a more peaceful ritual like Eze Nwanyi's own. Ever since then, no one heard from Eze Nwanyi. She's distant herself from the community and no one have seen her ever since then.

I sat up and raised my legs to my chin. Her screams had jerked me up from sleep but my body had other plans. I have been holding the urine that have been threatening to spill from my already pained bladder but her screams distracted me. Now that I can't hear her screams, I could feel the pee spilling from my bladder. Rather than urinate on myself, I squat on the floor, removed my panties and peed there. I think Ebuka got up at a point and saw me but he quickly laid back. It's a shameful thing really but life crisis calls for life solutions. After a while, the ritualist left while muttering about whatever it is they thought of her.

That night, I didn't go back to sleep. I mopped the urine and sat on my threadbare mattress, moping at the wall, waiting for morning and what I would do when morning came. But the scene I imagined wasn't what happened. That morning, residents trooped to our house. No one wanted to pretend like the pretentious villagers that we are. I was the first person that reached the crime scene. Our grandma held Ebuka from going even if I knew that he wanted to have a peek on what happened to her. She was lying in a supine position but all her digestive organs were spilled on the floor and most of them were clearly missing. I was gripped by the fear in my heart. It's clear that this could be an organ harvest not just for rituals but for medical purposes. No one screamed. One of the residents called the police and as usual they put the blame on my family but they didn't arrest us. I am sure that they know who the ritualist are.

After the pretentious investigation, I got a call from Chima, my boyfriend and it said that I should come over to his house. I was scared by the implications. It could be that my organs would be harvested by him. My grandma was scared. She thought that I would die like Nkechi, the girl laying naked at our backyard. But at the same time, she was scared of the possibility if I didn't go. Looking at it both ways, I didn't have a choice. I wore my best seductive clothes and left my house by 11:30am. I reached Chima's exclusive palace by 12:00pm. He had his gang with him and I waited until he called me to the bedroom. His friends hailed me and my choice of clothing and some even squeezed my ass or prodded my breast and I did nothing to stop them. It was humiliating and all Chima could say was,

"You need to create more attention. Your ass is too flat."

I didn't think it was. I was endowed and I know he knew that but that's his way of telling me that he's tired of me. He's my first and only boyfriend. Particularly, I am only in this relationship to save myself and family from their harm. I laid on the bed after taking off my clothes as usual and he started it. It continued for hours with me wincing in pain while he kept on going, climaxing, resting for like few seconds and then, everything will continue over again. Sometimes I would get a little misty eyed then i would reassure myself that it was for the safety of the family. The first time I cried, he laughed and kept on it for hours. Then half way through, he stopped and told me to leave. I was grateful but I wasn't fast enough. I was pushed out into the cold weather in nothing but a flimsy underwear. My legs were weak like overcooked noodles and I was in pain. I kept on wincing as I got home and grandma cried that night. We only had sex on days he thought I had recovered from the previous encounter.

When he was done, he told me to wait in another room. I laid there staring at the ceiling. I heard noises outside the room but I was too tired and hurt to get up and check what was happening. At a point, the noise stopped all of a sudden and I closed my eyes to the peace around the house. Suddenly, the door opened and a group of men in black masks came into the room. I wanted to shout but the weakness was over whelming. Before i knew what was happening, they surrounded the bed on which I laid machetes in hand. Then a voiced boomed

"Boss, should we do it here?"

I recognized the voice. Chima's right hand man and the man I refused sex. But he was granted sex after I was slapped by Chima for refusing him. Then, I heard Chima's booming voice,

"Yes, we will throw her into the river like the "ashawo" ( prostitute) she is."

"What about her brother?" another person asked.

I held my breath before bursting into silent prayers. How could he? After everything I gave him? I shut my eyes so hard to wake me from the trance. I shut my mouth so hard to wake me from this nightmare. Is this how Nkechi felt? Is this how the other girls felt? It felt like their free will was taken away from them and no one would care. No one would come to there rescue because to everyone, they were a distant memory. It felt horrible. It didn't feel good. My eyes tried to betrayed me. A memory of Chima's painful words to me came flooding into my mind. The first time I cried, Chima had bent down and kept on pounding on me while tactlessly saying,

"Cry! I like the tears of a virgin. It feeds to the pleasure. Cry! Cry!! Cry!!!"

And even if I tried to stop crying, the tears wouldn't stop coming and Chima wouldn't stop pounding. It went on like that until I had the strength to stop the tears. I guess he knew because he suddenly stopped and told me to leave. This time, I have gotten good at holding my tears and Chima never insulted me after that. He demeans me from time to time and his friends constantly assault me from time to time. This time, it's threatening to spill and I tried my best to hold it. I really did but one drop released everything. I didn't sob but the tears kept on coming. Surprisingly, Chima didn't comment on the tears neither did his gang. They laid me in a supine position with my head hanging from the edge of the bed. I could see the clock as they prepared to dissect my body. It was twelve midnight and I wondered how I had stayed all day in his house without noticing it. Grandma would be panicked but there's not much I can do to ease her. I am being killed in my lover's house, in a guest room while my brother will be used for money rituals as well. I remembered what I did during Nkechi's death. She didn't deserve death neither did I. I remembered all I wanted to do when I would leave the village. I remembered how I thought that I could change Chima and make him propose to me. I chuckled within me and said in my thoughts, if I never thought I was naïve then, I will admit that I am naïve now.

The ritualist raised his arm up and I begged God to accept me into heaven. I prayed within me and begged because with death comes an eye opening salvation. He raised his machete and I just knew that I was put in place of Nkechi to be used as a ritual. The tears came out faster than before and just five minutes after twelve, my head was separated from my body.