“Hide inside this deep freezer. Your mummy is coming to beat you with a cane. Don’t come out until I open the door,” Aunty Chidera, the housemaid, whispered to Junior
While Mrs. Gloria was fighting for her son’s life inside the gas-filled kitchen, Chidera was outside, breathing fresh air.
She stood by the gate, her heart beating fast, but not out of guilt. It was out of excitement.
She clutched her Ghana-Must-Go bag tight.
Inside was the jewelry box she had stolen from the safe. Gold chains. Diamond rings.
Wristwatches. Millions of Naira.
“Finally,” she whispered, looking back at the house one last time. “Bye-bye to poverty. Bye-bye to housemaid work.”
She didn’t care that she had locked a mother and child in a death trap. She didn’t care about the gas. She only cared about Lagos.
She ran to the express road and waved down a taxi.
A dark Toyota Camry stopped. The glass was tinted.
“Where?” the driver asked. He was a bald man with a deep scar on his neck.
“Lagos Park. Be fast,” Chidera said, jumping into the back seat.
The car zoomed off.
Chidera relaxed. She opened her bag slightly to peek at the gold. It was shining. She smiled a wicked smile.
“I am a big girl now,” she thought.
But she forgot one thing: Wickedness is like a boomerang. It always comes back.
*
Ten minutes later, the journey changed.
The driver suddenly slowed down near a thick forest area that they kept calling the “Evil Forest.”
He turned the steering wheel sharply to the left, driving off the tarred road into a rough, sandy path.
Gidigbo. Gidigba. The car bounced.
Chidera sat up. “Driver? Why are you passing here? This is not the way to the park.”
The driver did not answer. He just kept looking forward, his eyes cold.
“I am talking to you!” Chidera shouted, her arrogance turning to fear. “Turn back! I don’t like this road!”
The driver remained silent. His hand moved to the door control panel.
CLICK.
The sound of the central lock echoed in the silent car.
Chidera’s blood ran cold. She grabbed the door handle and pulled. It was locked.
“Jesus!” she screamed. “Open this door! One Chance! Help!”
The driver laughed. “Madam, keep quiet. We have arrived.”
The car stopped in a dark clearing in the middle of the bush.
Two men emerged from the trees. They were shirtless, wearing red charms around their waists and holding sharp machetes.
The driver turned to Chidera with a demonic grin.
” Immediately I sight you our long Juju just they signal us”
They dragged her out of the car.
“Welcome to your final bus stop. You wanted to run away with all that money, but you have landed in the land here.”
Chidera was frantic and wee-wee on herself.
Meanwhile, Gloria and Junior were still trapped.
To be continued
