Cracked Sources – B02E12

Andrew walked into his home with an uneasy kind of feel. He walked
upstairs and made certain Mother wasn’t around. He was very hungry and grabbed
something to eat from the refrigerator in the dining room. He sunk into his
extra soft cushion that lay at one corner of his wide living room to relieve
himself a little off stress and worried thoughts.

***

Mother kept a lazy gaze at Dimeji as he spoke. He was the chick and
she was the hawk, yet he continued to defy her magnificence with his lies; How
could he say her son raped her goddaughter? Did he not realize who he was
talking to? Even with his insinuated video evidence, Mother never appreciated
been threatened, it never ends well for whoever threatens her.

“Fifty million or the police get to know,” Dimeji
maintained. This was a haphazardly thought plan because his original with
Imelda went to naught the moment she was murdered; he couldn’t defraud Andrew
alone, but he could defraud his mother through blackmail. As he tried to make
her understand the level of his seriousness he couldn’t help but think about
his planned escape to Singapore: The implied-ransom would still go into the
illegal deal he still wanted to achieve if his plan for Andrew and Imelda had
come through. He gave Mother two days to make the money available to the
offshore account detail he wrote down on the paper he offered to her.

***

 “Let’s toast,” Ramon wore
a huge smile: Malik made her happy.

Spending the past three days behind closed doors with him reminded her
the reason she fell in love with him years ago, he was still loving as she
remembered and she couldn’t help but fall for him again. He slept over at her
place three days ago because the rain wouldn’t let him go after their meeting
of revenge against everyone at Lewis Chamber. She knew it was a bad idea
letting him sleep over, but she couldn’t send him out into the rain, no matter
their quarrel, and when inhibitions went dead under the serene weather for two
that night, she felt happy in his arms. It happened again the next day, more
times than the day before, and also today. They’d just finished making love and
they wanted to toast to their reignited love.

“A toast,” Malik asked with concern, he wasn’t really a wine guy.
Ramon remembered but she wanted him to drink to the health of their renewed
love. She ran to the bar, her bare skin shone in the dim light of the night and
the dim light of the mini coloured bulb Malik had fitted specially for tonight.
Tonight was the anniversary of the day they met and he remembered, he wanted to
make it special in every way, extra spiced sex and all that. Ramon had a choice
problem, she stared at her two most expensive drinks at her bar, Andrew’s
seemed more appealing, probably because she welcomed the naughty idea of
drinking what he bought for her with her ex. Everything Andrew pissed her off,
he betrayed her and she was going to betray him in every form possible. She
grabbed The Brut-rose.

“Cheers!”

“Cheers,”

They clinked their glasses. Ramon drained her glass at a go and went
for another, she watched Malik struggle with the pungent odour the drink gave
off, it made her laugh. She had drained three glasses and he was still deciding
whether or not to take his first. He finally decided to not. He rushed to kiss
her neck, he wanted to go again but she wanted to drink more than she wanted to
touch body. She placed her middle finger on his intruding lips till she
finished her fourth glass.

Malik withdrew a bit, her admired her again, this was the umpteenth
time, her body held no blemish. He agreed to wait till she drained the glass,
it’d increase his chance of the marathon sex he desperately craved for with her
tonight. He kept on admiring her, encouraging he to drink up. Out of the blues
he yelled for her to stop.

Ramon could taste the blood on her lip, she tried cleaning up but more
drained from her nose, and as Malik just pointed out her ears had started to
bleed too. Ramon stared desperately at the wall mirror located at her bar, her
reflection showed her eyes had also started crying blood just like her nose and
ears. She turned in horror, her tears had mixed with the blood, and she could
still taste it on her lips, she felt the metallic taste of blood as perfect as
she could feel her own strength failing her, she had begun to gasp for breath.

Malik didn’t know what to do to cool her down. He held her by the hand
to prevent her from clawing her own face out in horror. He let her rest down at
the base of the bar. He wondered what started the bleeding, at that moment he
turned around, and saw the empty bottle of “The Brut-rose Armand de
Brignac Midas.’ He immediately asked where she got the drink from, her mouth
opened but the words coming out weren’t audible enough. He placed his ear close
to her mouth to listen better but what came out was more blood that stained his
skin. She was desperately gasping for breath and he was crying begging her to
stay alive.

Ramon kept her eyes fixed on Malik, she could feel her life force
fleeing her body but couldn’t do anything to help herself. She could feel the
light of life dimming from her eyes but she struggled to focus on her love. She
could read his lips, his “I love you,” came through, but she couldn’t
return them, she immediately regretted all the years she was estranged from
him, she desperately wanted to tell him she loved him too but she couldn’t. Her
neck tightened and all she could do was rest in the warmth of his arm for the
moment she had left and ask the Almighty for his forgiveness if he would listen
to her now.

***

Sleep still refused to come, even as the hour of Mother drew closer,
he prayer to the god of sleep that he slumbers before she returned. For the
better part of today he had been thinking about his life, and all he had done
to be where he was today. From the police custody when he thought of Ramon till
now, he hadn’t been able to get her out of his head. This was a woman who had
done so much good for him, a woman he sincerely and deeply loved, but like all
women who loved his cursed self she got bitten by the vicious viper in him.

The 24th of December, 2004 came to mind: The day he met Ms. Ramon.

He was in the police cell for being the only suspect in a case of
stolen money in the compound where he lived. Without anyone to pay his bail he
rotted away till she saw him. She claimed to have seen him for the three days
he had slept there: She also claimed to be a consultant for the police, but he
later learnt that she was dating the DPO then. She took him in when his Mother
was away in the white man’s land raising funds to strike her enemy, she saved
him from himself and his demons, his agoraphobia was at its pick then and she
helped him put it under check, she made him use it as a weapon to always strike
first at people’s comfort before they could take a strike at his unease and
make him uncomfortable, she helped his life have purpose, she helped him to
take a career in law to help further his plot against the elusive Akin he had
described to her then, she made him promise to grant her whatever she wanted
when their plan worked, she taught him to love and he loved her for that. His
eyes began to shrink, his thoughts were getting much for his head to comprehend
any longer, he wanted to sleep now. The entrance door keyhole turned twice and
its knob followed once: Mother was back.