It was a dead town. There was hardly any life as people stayed locked up in their houses for fear of their lives. No one knew anyone. There were no mothers, no fathers, no brothers, no sisters, and no friends because push had come to shove. No one wanted to be left behind, it was everyone’s desire to make it to the other side alive forgetting that the sacrifice of a life was the only way by which another could crossover.
I was sick and tired of waiting in the dark house all alone because everything had been taken and there was nothing left. They took me from paradise against my will away from the ones I love. They are inhumane; they have no love for their fellow man and they have treated us like animals just because they can. It’s been a tough pill to swallow because I wasn’t given a chance for what I was given was no ordinary choice – a choice of two deaths before life. Life of freedom once again with the ones I love and yearn desperately to see.
I had taken the first step. I had dared to come out of the lonely house. Dared to come out for the battle I needed to fight. The fear of death had left me; if I perish then so be it. I would rather die trying to take back the life that I was snatched from than continue to live like this.
Like in a trance, I did everything not thinking about the danger ahead but focusing only on the prize to be received thereafter. I had made it known that I was ready for my battle and all I needed was a contender. I hoped my contender would be easily defeated. I don’t want a tale of the ant and the elephant, but one that has the trappings of the two great big elephants. I needed to fight with an equal in event I win the battle, I would like to live my days in paradise without any feeling of guilt but one of great accomplishment. If everyone had lost every sense of humanity, I had not.
Then I saw him on the grassy shore. His face was a mixture of emotion as he stared out into the calm waters. He was just a little boy. I walked up to him and he looked up at me. Then he told me how he missed his parents and his little brother. I was sad. Sad that his innocent childhood had been taken from his family and he had to battle to get it back. He had to fight me, a young agile man who did not want to fight a little boy. This is not what I had planned or hoped for. Then I thought about the other side and instantly my humanity turned into a blood thirsty craving. I was out for blood. I did not care anymore that my opponent was a child because he was a hurdle I was determined to cross to get to my destination.
It was time. Time for the battle and there was no turning back. I looked at my side to see my little opponent but he was no longer there. A wave of fear passed through my body for the first time. I was confused; nobody had ever lived to tell the tale. One party always saw their end while the other had a triumphant entry to the other world, or so we thought. I closed my eyes willing the boy back and when I opened them, instead of the grassy shore of calm waters, I was at the raging shallow end of the sea.
In panic, I tried to retreat but then I was stuck. I looked down and saw the hand which held me captive at my ankle. The hand belonged to the little boy who was no longer a little boy. His eyes were blood-shot red as he yanked me into the water. The waves came crashing into us. I struggled for air, but the little boy was more concerned about finishing the battle – finishing me. Then I had a change of heart. I wanted to call out a truce because I was scared. Scared not for myself but for the little boy because he had his whole life ahead of him and did not deserve to die. I tried to free myself to safety but he did not relent. Then it hit me, there was no love just blood to be shed. As I gasped for breath I reached out my hands, grabbed hold of the little devil by the neck and tried to used what little strength I had left to squeeze but my hands were not squeezing, then I slipped. Slipped into an abyss…
I had fought to live but in the process fell into limbo…a state of loneliness which was greater than that which I first felt. Nobody told me, no one warned me, then I was given two options; to live or die but now I have only one. I have no choice but to remain in a state of nothingness forever.
‘’Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all [was] vanity and vexation of spirit, and [there was] no profit under the sun’’-Ecclesiastes 2:11
Oluwaseyi Lawal
