PART 3 (concluding part)
Thanks for all
comments and commendations what an encouragement! Much appreciation to Abby the
author I hope to see more of your articles!
According to the
Longman English Dictionary, karma can be defined as that force produced by our
actions in life which invariably influences one’s future. Like gravity, it’s so
basic that we almost don’t notice it. The fun part about karma is that it comes
after everyone eventually. You can’t get away with screwing people over all
your life, it doesn’t matter who you are or how aware you are of your mistakes;
what goes around must come around, that’s just how it works. I got my fair
share of karma soon enough.
Three days to my sixteenth birthday, I went
shopping at a local mall very close to my area. I discovered that even though
these malls were not as exquisite as the normal multi sized ones, one could
still get good quality for so much less. My aunt’s birthday gift to me was an
early credit card-loaded with cash of course. However, I decided to shop wisely
and in no time, I was done. I flagged down a cab; I still had to make one more
stop before heading back home (I lived with my aunt Nana). A yellow taxi pulled
up and I got in the back seat with my two heavy shopping bags. I was very
tired. It had been a really exhausting week with all the birthday preparation and
the effect soon got to me. I dozed off.
I woke up some minutes later feeling very hot (don’t start getting ideas
though). It took me 3 seconds to adjust to my surroundings and 5 seconds to
realize that I was sitting on a bare floor and I couldn’t see a thing. There
was something over my head, like a small sack which blinded me temporarily and
deprived me of some oxygen that explained
the darkness... My hands were tied to my back on a pole in a very clever
manner and I struggled to break free. I tried to scream but the sack over my
head made me barely audible. I was perplexed and my mind was in complete
turmoil as I slowly and sadly came to terms with my present predicament-I had
been kidnapped!
A door opened and someone came inside. I
stiffened as the person came closer and stared at me. Yeah, I could feel the eyes. “Who are you? What do you want? Where
am I? How did I get here? What have I done?” I asked simultaneously, still
trying to break free.
“Shush now,
don’t be in such a hurry; one question at a time.” A female voice spoke. I was
a little relieved to find out that my abductor was a female; all the same I had
to find a way to get out. I had no idea of my current location but all I wanted
to do was run. “I am not your enemy Abby,” she spoke again. I strained my eyes to see if I could make out
anything from the room but that didn’t yield anything. “How do you know my
name? What do you want from me?” I muffled through the covering. “I know how
you must feel right now.” She said to me “You feel trapped, confused, and
afraid but most importantly, alone…and that’s exactly how I want you to feel.” What kind of person would want another human
being to feel like this? I thought “Just tell me what you want and I’ll
give it to you if I can. I have to be home soon.” I said. I wondered what Aunty
Nana would think if I didn’t get back on time.
“I don’t
intend to chitchat with you Abby so I’m going to leave you here to think about
why I brought you. Try to think of anyone that you’ve hurt that would want to
make you pay for your actions and when you do, you are going to tell me why you
did what you did... Till then, you would be in that hood; depriving yourself of
oxygen.” She left the room. Oh my God, I
can’t believe this is happening, what does this freak want from me? I don’t
even know what she is talking about. I mean. I am not perfect but there is no
way I can be capable of causing potential harm to anyone. This had to be a case
of mistaken identity. She came back soon after and tapped my head.
“Anything yet sister?” Did this psycho
just call me sister? Hell would
freeze over before I become her sister.” “I guess not.” She said. “I think
I may have something that just might juggle your memory.” She left the room one
more time. I was already soaked in my sweat by this time and I knew it was only
a matter of time before I went into respiratory acidosis. How did I let this happen to me? How could I have been so careless?
I knew she didn’t intend to kill me. She needed to get a reaction out of me. If
I guessed right, her motive was to make feel the way she felt in whatever
situation she had found herself so that I would be sorry. Problem was, I was so sure I didn’t know her. Her voice was
nothing close to familiar. I didn’t know how much of this I could take anymore.
This was fast becoming the worst day of my life.
Just then, she came in and I heard
something roll towards me. It stopped on my feet. I bent forward to tilt it
within my reach. My hands were tied so I had to grab it with my mouth; it was a
bottle, a drug bottle- I could smell it. “What is this?” I asked her. For a moment, I thought she wanted me to
drug myself. “Olanzapine.” She said. “Does that ring a bell?” olanzapine? That is
a drug for people with mental disorders (like her). What has this got to do
with anything? I don’t use these kind of drugs, how is this even supposed to
ring a bell, I mean the only time I saw this drug was wh--- oh… my God! Oh my
God…it can’t be true. It was a long time ago. Could that be what she wanted me
to remember? No, no, no, no. A cold sweat broke off from my arms and I
closed my eyes even in the midst of the darkness as the events unfolded in my
head.
It was in ninth grade and I was moving into
the hostel for the first time. I had been living with my aunt Nana ever since
my parents’ divorce and I was used to having my own space. Unfortunately for
me, she got promoted at work and had to relocate to Abuja. I couldn’t go with her
then because I was due to sit for the junior waec examinations and that
demanded more school hours so, I was left with no other option but the hostel.
I met my roommate on the first day I moved in, Sarah. Her name was Sarah. We
became friends all too quickly as she seemed very amiable. Sarah was the only
child of her parents so she was used to getting everything she wanted-including
me (I soon got to find out).
After a month of living together,
I started to think that maybe she was becoming a little too intruding. She
always wanted to hang out with me (we did hang out most of the time though) but
this, this was different. She hated all my friends and got upset whenever I
spent more time with any of them than I did with her. It was like she wanted me
all to herself. It wasn’t much longer when she started monitoring my every
movements; who I hung out with, who I spoke to on the phone, who I even sat
with in class (we were in different arms). It was becoming a real problem and
people started to notice. The
last straw was on my 13th birthday. My classmates had planned a surprise
birthday party for me in class and I had serious fun! After the party, I
obtained a permit to leave the hostel; my best friend wanted to treat me out
specially. Demy and I had been best friends since 7th grade and we
were both day students at that time. It took a little adjustment to get used to
our minimal separation and so on that day; she wanted to make up for the lost
time.
I returned to the hostel the next morning
after having a blast. I got to my room very tired and I needed to get some
sleep. The moment I entered the room, Sarah opened her eyes, got up from the
bed and advanced towards me like a giant about to pounce on its prey.
“Where have
you been?” she inquired authoritatively. “Erm… I went to demy’s ho-” I started
to say when she interrupted. “I called your cell phone like a hundred times.
Your classmates didn’t know where you were and you had me worried me sick! You
didn’t call me back and you never deemed it fit to tell me where you were going
and now you come back this morning only to tell me you went to Demy’s house; My
God! You need to stay away from that girl. Don’t you see what she is doing to
you? Why can’t you just see that I am enough for you? How else do you want me to prove myself? ’’ She
yelled and then got back on her bed. I stood still frozen on the spot, gawking
in complete disbelief. Two things came to my mind at that instant; 1) Major
psycho 2) Out of control lesbian. I wasn’t so sure which of them was true but I
had no doubt about one thing--I was changing my room. Well, that didn’t seem to
go down well with her and that’s when she really began to scare me. She
threatened all my friends, meddled in my activities and tried every day to make
my life miserable. I was torn for many weeks and our exams were fast
approaching. Soon enough I got tired of ‘playing good’, it was time to fight
back and that required some leverage. I got lucky one day when Demy needed a
material I had left in my old room (I didn’t think I was going to need it
again). Luckily for us, Sarah wasn’t around so we had ample time to search for
it. Tucked in the corner of her bed was a bottle with pale yellow cover. The
tablets were still many insinuating that the owner wasn’t taking the
medication. “Olan…z-z...ap-p…ine.” Demy spelt the name written on the bottle. “Do
you think she is the owner?” she asked. “Of course she is, it doesn’t even matter who
owns the drug, it’s who uses it or who it’s meant for.” I replied. I knew what
the drug was. My dad is a pharmacist so I recognize certain drugs by just
looking at them. This one was used to treat schizophrenics and people with
mental disorders. “Well that explains the compulsive obsession, she is
definitely sick.” I said very worried. “So
what are you going to do now? She is obviously psychotic and she sure hasn’t
been using her meds” demy asked me. I told her I would talk to Sarah and try to
make her get help but deep down; I knew that was a total lie! I hadn’t expected
to get leverage so quickly and I knew I needed to act fast. The only way I
could help her and myself was to make sure she was taken far away to where she
belonged- the mental asylum. I rejoiced secretly at my success and I couldn’t
wait to be rid of her. In less than two months, I had reported to the
authorities with concrete evidence of course including statements from people
she had threatened; people who also wanted her out. After the final exams, she
was taken away to someplace- I didn’t know where and I didn’t care. I was just
so happy to get my life back. The relief was magnanimous. I didn’t think I
would ever hear from her again…- well except that now she could just be 10ft
away from where I was sited.
I blinked my eyes as my mind was brought
back to my present situation. I felt very dizzy and the heat was unbearable.
The thought of Sarah being in the same room with me at that time gave me cold
feet. Once again, she walked up to me and whispered in my ear. “Does that ring
a bell?”
“Sarah?” I
called, “Sarah is that you?” I asked her “Oh Sarah, words cannot express how
sorry I am for what I did to you but I swear down, I didn’t mean to hurt you. I
was only trying to protect myself. You were ruining my life and I had to do
something to stop it. I’m so, so sorry about everything. Please forgive me.” I
said almost in tears. That was when she removed the sack from my head. I took
in a gulp of fresh air, it felt so good and I was thankful. I glanced around
quickly; the room was almost empty except for me, her and the chair that was
positioned near the door. My abductor was masked. Really? Was she masked this entire time? Why did she make me go through all of this if she was masked? “I see you’ve done some thinking, that’s
good. I’m happy you can connect with your emotions so now you can tell me what
I want to hear.” She said. “Sarah, I
don’t know what else to say to you, I’ve already told you why I had to do it. I
didn’t mean for you to get hurt. Please, just let me go.” I pleaded with her.
“My name is
not Sarah and you have not told me what I want to hear” she said flatly and
left the room one more time. I could hear my own heartbeat at that point and I
thought it was going to jump out of my chest. I was more confused than ever.
How on earth could she not be Sarah? I had no other confessions to make, if she
wasn’t Sarah then who is she? My
wrists were blistered from my constant failed attempt to untie myself. I was
weak, dizzy and perplexed. There was no way out for me in this and I just
thought that maybe it was my time to die or something. She returned soon after
with a drink and sat on the chair gulping it down. I was extremely thirsty and
my throat was warty. “If you are not Sarah, who are you?”I asked weakly.
“You did this
to her! You took away everything from her!” she shouted at me. I had no idea what she was talking about again.
If only I could figure out who she was. I studied her figure trying to guess
who she could be, her hands, her legs, her shape, her hair ugh! This was going to be
difficult especially with the mask over her hea—you’ve got to be kidding me. It was right there in front of me and
I didn’t notice. She had two piercings on her right ear and just beneath it was
a tattooed butterfly. I was relieved. There was only one person who she could
be now. “I know who you are” I said confidently “I know why you brought me
here. You are Rebecca Simmons, Sarah’s cousin. I met you that day at the
bonfire party in Sarah’s house. You didn’t seem to like very much and it’s only
natural for you to make me pay for what I did to Sarah but you know what, I’m
not sorry I did it. If this is how you want to go about it then fine, do your
worse. I don’t owe you any apology, I owe Sarah an apology and I’m going to
give it to her myself so take me to her! ’’
I couldn’t
see her facial expression but I could read her body movement. She went from
surprise, to grief, to anger and back to grief again then she finally settled on
one emotion-HATE! “You want to see Sarah, I’ll take you to
Sarah.” She said and put the sack over my head and once more, I was back to my
momentary blindness. I held my breath as she untied me from the pole; she was
no doubt stronger than me. She handcuffed and dragged me out of the room and
then tossed me into a vehicle. Okay, so she was really taking me to Sarah, I wonder where they took her. I hadn’t
bothered to find out; it was a long time ago. After a while, the car came to a
halt. She turned off the engine and dragged me out again. What is this place? I felt very chilly as the wind blew across. I
could tell we were in an open space judging by the squashing of grass under my
feet. Did she bring me here to kill me?
Where is Sarah? She took off the sack for the last time and pushed me
forward. “There, go and tell her yourself” she said sounding very upset. The
dizziness stopped and I glanced round briefly. We were in an open field, in what
seemed to be like—I couldn’t finish my thought. No! I moved closer, no! This
can’t be possible I finally understood why Becca was so angry. Sarah was
dead!
“No, no, no, no,
no!” I screamed, breaking down in tears. I collapsed on the pavement near the
tombstone and wept bitterly. From the date engraved on it, Sarah had died three
days to my 15th birthday, which was approximately a year ago and 2
years after I got rid of her. “Go on, talk to her, and see if you can bring her
back.”Rebecca said “I didn’t kill her!
I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” I retorted, still in tears.
“Yes you did. After you reported her, she was taken to an
asylum very close to your school and everyday she watched as you and your
friends enjoyed life, had fun and remained happier every day. She didn’t have that anymore because of you.
You made her feel trapped, unhappy and alone. She couldn’t take it anymore, the
pain of rejection was too much and even if she got better, she would never be
seen as a normal person. She couldn’t afford to live that way; she ended her
life right there in her room. You did this to her; you killed her. Maybe not
physically but mentally and emotionally. You say you were helping her, we both
know that’s a lie because you didn’t show up at any time to check on her. You
never even bothered to find out where she was taken. To you, she was a problem
gotten rid off… I don’t intend to kill you; that wouldn’t do me any good. Let’s
be clear about one thing though, just because I’m not killing you now does not
mean I still can’t get through to you later- that is, if you tell anyone about
this. Your bags and items are in the back seat of that vehicle, I have called a
driver to come pick you up and take you to your destination. You are of no use
to me. But I want you to know that Sarah would have been alive today if only
you’ve cared or shown her love and now you are going to live the rest of your
life knowing that you could have saved her life, but you chose not to; that
Abby is your karma! She said and walked away. I remained where I was thinking
about what Becca had said; going home was the last thing on my mind then.
I didn’t kill
Sarah, but my actions directly or indirectly contributed to her death. I could
have made a difference but I chose not to. I was so bent on paying her back
that I completely forgot how young we were at that time. The moment I
remembered the incident, I wanted to apologize to her but then, she was long
dead. On the bright side, I had learnt a very important lesson and my perspective
was changed for life.
Like I said “Karma comes after everyone eventually, it
doesn’t matter who you are or whether you are aware of your mistakes or not;
what goes around must come around. That’s just how it works.”
Author: ABBY
picture from goggle images
No comments:
Post a Comment
We would appreciate your comments, suggestions and advice