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“ND I found it! I found it!” An excited voice beamed through Nnamdi's phone as soon as he picked it, Nnamdi had been in a business
meeting when his phone rang, irritated he was about to turn it off when he saw
it was his best friend Odibo whom he had not heard from for one whole week. ”Thank
God , Thank God!” Nnamdi shrieked , jumping all over the place,
“Where
have you been, I have been so worried?”
“look I am coming home tomorrow, come
and pick me up from the Air port, and I have great news..guy I am in love, I
have met the woman of my dreams “ and with that Nnamdi’s heart sank.
It was
too late, he had a feeling she had found him and knew exactly who this woman
would be.
Nnamdi prepared himself as he waited for his friend to
arrive at the airport, all night he had not slept, he had no idea what to do,
he looked at his watch impatiently suddenly he saw them, Odibo seemed to be
grinning from ear to ear he had never seen his friend this excited ever, looking
at her he knew exactly why.
Men stared at his friend's companion as they made their way
towards him, she was tall just like the woman in his dreams and had beautiful
legs, a pair of medicated glasses perched on her face did not conceal her
beauty , fair beautiful skin dazzled behind a pair of clear hazel brown eyes, she wore a white blazer which contrasted neatly with the dark pair of shorts she wore, accentuating her tiny waist and revealing long legs that seemed to go on forever.as they got nearer Nnamdi found out that he could not take his eyes off
her, reaching him Odibo embraced him and made way to introduce his female companion.
“This honey is my best friend I have been
telling you about" "Nnamdi he paused a boyish light in his eyes, " meet my fiancée Lolita” “Fiancee?” Nnamdi queried
shocked to his bones,
“yes your friend has asked me to marry him and I said
yes, don’t worry I am not taking your best friend away from you I know how
close you are.’ She responded in a cold distant voice, she smiled shaking his hand, her eyes were dark and penetrating .
Nnamdi
tried not to stare too much at her , his friend was gone he looked into his friend’s eyes and
all he saw was a love sick man, this was going to be a difficult union to
break.
Nnamdi decided to take it
one step at a time, “so how did you two meet?” Nnamdi finally asked .
”you wont
believe this just on the outskirts of my villa, I was driving back to PH when I
saw her stranded on the road..i mean I almost lost control of my car” Odibo responded his hands wrapped around Lolita as if she may disappear at any minute , Odibo went on to tell him the story of how on
his way back from the village he had seen her stranded on the
express with her car refusing to start, he had given a ride and one thing led
to another now they were engaged,
Biting his tongue, Nnamdi continued asking questions out of curiousity,
“hmnn.. ok
so are you from his village?” He asked her, she was staring at him with an unexplained emotion from the back seat of his car, she paused for a while before responding.
“I had no idea this was an interrogation
session.” She lashed out curtly, her voice was cold and steely, he caught his friend winking at him
from the back seat to keep quiet so he decided not to push it, all through the
journey to Odibo’s flat he felt her icy stares piercing through his back, he
began to suspect she knew, he knew what she was , this was going to be more
difficult than he imagined.
Odibo came straight to his place after they had settled in.
“what
do you think mehn..isnt she the most beautiful woman you have ever seen??” he
was excited walking round Nnamdi’s flat.
“She is beautiful my friend but
engaged ..aren’t you moving too fast?” Odibo stopped pacing immediately and
gave him a look he had never seen before, clearly he had to tip toe about this
issue , his friend was gone. “so long as you are happy ..tell me about the
egg.” Odibo’s eyes changed back to normal and he began to narrate how he had
found the other half of the golden egg, going into the shrine he had searched
through several carvings , stones and dirt for hours and found nothing just as
he was about to leave he brushed across the statue by the entrance and he felt
something smooth, following a hunch he took a hammer and began knocking down part of
the statue , after several minutes with stones and dust covering his whole body
there it was placed firmly within the walls of the statue, the egg.
Odibo handed
it over to him from the bag where he had placed it, anxiously they brought the
other half and placed them together, as expected it was a match, there was a
large chunk missing from the sides obviously the parts where their grandfathers
had melted for use but other than that
the egg was intact, the bright yellow gold lighted up the whole room, changing the atmosphere immediately it was magical.
.
“ND its over” Odibo whispered , “we have ended this, it ends here right.” His best friend's smile was almost infectious, he stared into his friends eyes and could not bear to tell him that it was far
from over, he had just let in death into their lives.
Two weeks later Nnamdi took a deep breath as he headed into
Odibo’s flat, he had avoided coming down here for weeks, his friend who he
always spent his evenings with after work didn’t seem to mind, all he could
think about was his new love, he had not even asked him what they were going to
do with the egg they had found, all their friends had the same reaction when they
saw Odibo’s fiancee, they went from extreme surprise, to admiration to envy..and
Nnamdi was ashamed to admit that he was also enamored with her, he could not
push her beautiful face out of his thoughts and those legs..
Helping her out of
the car when he dropped them off from the air port, he had caught a flash of her cleavage, he had
immediately gone home and taken a cold shower, now he was heading in to their
engagement party, a part of him wished he was wrong and she was just an extra
ordinary beautiful woman, but another part of him told him she was no human and
was out to draw blood.
The party seemed to be going into full swing when he walked
through the doors, the flat was filled with all their friends and a few faces
he didn’t recognize, music was blasting from the speakers and a few people were
moving to the beats at the center of the flat.
“ND!!” he heard his friends
voice call out, he looked and almost swallowed his tongue, Lolita stood at the
side of the flat with Odibo, she looked breath taking in a short red dress, cut
so low he could see her breasts glistening in the dark, her long black hair
looked immaculate pinned up in a bun, they were right in the middle surrounded
by their closest friends he could not escape saying hi, as he made his way
across to them her gaze seemed fixed on him like a lion watching its prey, he
hoped the thick jeans he was wearing would hide the bulge in between his legs
as he felt himself stiffening.
“look at this man ,,,guys"Odibo announced as soon as he was near the crowd , " my best friend ....my
brother” Odibo seemed to be drunk he held him tight and drained another glass
of whisky,
“my best friend and my future wife the two of you together makes my
heart complete” holding them both by the sides Nnamdi blinked as camera lights
went on everywhere
It was 2.00 am and the last person had finally left the
party, Odibo lay sprawled at the center of the flat passed out, he was worried
he had never seen him like this, through
out the night all Odibo did was drink
and stare at Lolita, it was as if he had lost all his senses, some of their
friends had even begun to notice, he tried to avoid all the “what is the deal
with your friend ?” questions and concentrated on what Lolita was doing,
shortly after his arrival she had slipped quietly away and Nnamdi had not laid
eyes on her, he wondered what she was up to. Tenminutes later after arranging
the seats in the living room, Nnamdi was wondering what to do with his drunk
friend snoring loudly in the middle of the living room when he suddenly felt
eyes boring into him, he knew without looking that she had come in.
“your
friend drinks too much” she whispered in a soft yet cold voice, he turned and
almost fell down to his feet, she looked like an image from heaven, she had
loosened her hair and it lay jet black cascading down to her shoulders, she was
wearing a transparent nightie and he could see all her beautiful curves, she
stared at him for a good two minutes before she began to walk towards him and he
felt the blood rush to his head, “you know you're not what I expected.” He watched,
as her fingers caressed the edge of the seats as she came closer, “you have
strong character, smart and you care
deeply about your friend.”
Nnamdi could not seem to find his voice, she stood
right in front of him and he could smell her scent,
“but the thing is no matter
how strong you are you are still a man and you still have needs, the need for
power and satisfaction” Nnamdi knew it was time for him to take a step back but
all he thought about were those lips, red soft lips so near him right now.
”do you
want to kiss me Nnamdi?” she asked softly and he quivered , he stared into her
eyes and it seemed to be drawing him near, this was no spirit, this was pure
flesh and blood that drove his blood wild , this was his best friends Fiancee.
suddenly he stepped back he could never do this to Odibo.
“I need to get
home..you take care of him” he muttered running from the flat, he almost swore
he saw her eyes turn to slits but he was too afraid to look back he had never
felt this kind of desire in his life. Accelerating fast and speeding out of
there he decided he would go and see his sister tomorrow, he needed her advise.
Mary sat staring at her brother, finally she was relieved,
they had found the other part of the egg and she had faith that her brother
would complete this vicious circle, but this second story she did not quite
understand. “ND so what you're saying is that Odibo’s fiancée might be the
person..ok the thing that killed Chudi”
“why because you saw someone with hair
like hers in your dream.”
“Mary you don’t understand this woman is beautiful I
mean unnaturally beautiful and.”
“listen nnamdi” Mary continued cutting him
off,
“do not focus on Odibo’s fiancée no matter how beautiful she is, you
should focus on that egg you have and how to return it, forget about your best
friend’s love life, if you are feeling bad that he is getting married before
you.”
“Mary how can you say that?” Nnamdi burst out angrily,
“You and your
friend have always competed against each other, you just might be upset that
finally he gets something better than you.” Mary quietly responded,
Nnamdi
stared at her for several seconds and walked out angrily
“don’t be distracted
Nnamdi, return that gold and end this.” She screamed after him as he sped off.
Business was bad, he had just lost his fourth contract and
his major business partner had just informed him that he was no longer
interested in doing business with him, he remembered the look of satisfaction
on that snake Irabor as he opened the door of his limo to let his business
partner in, the signs were clear he needed to turn things round first or his
advertisement company would go under, he was blank, all he had been thinking of
these past weeks was finding some blasted golden egg and now that he had found
it things had gone from bad to worse, finishing another bottle of cold stout in
his flat he began to feel tempted to melt some of the gold, I mean technically
it belonged to him, he found it and all this ancient story stuff might all be
BS, Nnamdi could feel himself drowning, he needed money but had pure solid gold
right in his hands, he ached for female company and remembered his friends
fiancée, warm beautiful and willing , the phone woke him up from his drunken
sleep.
“Listen ND can you go over to my place?” he couldn’t even tell who was
speaking.
“mehn are you drunk? Its Odibo the company just called me I have to
be in Benin short notice I need you to help me take Lolita to the wedding shop,
she doesn’t like entering cabs and she cant drive.”
“Lolita” Nnamdi whispered
desire rushing through him “yes yes I will go.” Nnamdi set off to his friends
place with one woman only on his mind, his friend was out of town and she was
available, he would take her, he deserved some peace from all the darkness
surrounding him and her body would give it to him.
Nnamdi sped to Odibo’s
place, as he got nearer he almost hit a little boy who suddenly appeared in the
middle of the road, swerving sharply to avoid him he stopped suddenly and
stared at the figure , who stood unhurt and unmoving at the middle of an express road, he was either still drunk or dreaming because he swore the little boy
looked just like the dwarf he saw in the village, the boy/man pointed to him
and shook his head and was gone.
He blinked in shock for some minutes, gathered himself and continued to his Friend's place, he was surprised to find the door
of Odibo's flat was wide open, everywhere was dark he looked at the time it was just six p.m
surely there should be lights on as he was about to switch on the light he
heard her voice
“leave the light off Nnamdi and close the door.” He froze ,
“what are you doing in the dark lolita?’
“does it matter, all that matters is
Odibo is not here and I am, I know you want me” peering in the darkness he saw
her, she lay on the floor stark naked, her eyes shining in the dark,
“come
Nnamdi” she called out stretching out her hands and he swore he heard a
snake hiss ln the background, Desire surged through his veins , he almost raced across the room to take her willing , beautiful body into his arms when he remembered the old man in the cave, steeling himself and muttering incoherently he turned and walked off, as he was
about to drive off he saw a man approaching the flat.
”do you live here sir?”
the man asked, curious he replied “who are you?”
“I am the photographer , I
took pictures during the engagement ceremony” suddenly an idea came into his
mind. ”let me have them.”
He waited till the man left before tearing open the
envelopes, he gasped as he looked at the pictures , Lolita's Image did not appear in
the pictures instead the pictures showed everyone else and a woman with a painted
face as if wearing a mask with the same red dress Lolita had on, The figure was grotesque to look at and his mind could not comprehend if he was looking at a human or an animal, the eyes that stared through the creature were the same in each picture with the
same emotion burning through “hate” .
He looked up and saw Lolita staring at him through the
windows, her eyes sparkled with that same emotion , now he could see her for
who she really was , everything evil as their eyes met he almost heard her
speak in low tones.
“your blood will , not escape me.”
Armed with the pictures as evidence he rushed home to wait
for his friend to return, even if his friend did not believe him this pictures
would tell the truth.
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