Èṣù VIII - Death In The Dark

This is a continuation of the Esu series.

“My father will have your head”, Aremo sputtered as he painfully dragged his body away from where I stood in the dark.

“Your head will be used as a ragged doll”, his breath got shorter with every word but he continued to threaten as I inched closer. My smile only got wider.

“Your body will be burnt in the market square and eaten by…”, he winced and coughed up some blood. “... by the vultures of the land!”, he finished.

Fire, my brain registered. The smile disappeared and I stopped. Aremo watched as my face softened and I dropped the dagger. I bent and tore my wrapper from the edge before I closed the space between us. He shifted back like a wounded cat as but I crouched and raised both my hands in defeat. I showed him the piece of cloth with which I planned to nurse the wound I had inflicted.

He watched me cautiously as I raised his wedding agbada and pressed the cloth to the area where blood still oozed. Aremo had begun to breathe rapidly and his face had started to lose colour.

“Take me....”, he paused to breathe, “... Take me to the palace, now!”, I could hear the commanding tone, the tone I had heard from every man around me. My father, my suitors, Ajiun and now him. I raised my eyes to look into Aremo’s eyes but they were squeezed shut in pain. 

“My husband”, I said softly. His eyes opened and he looked into my black, khol-stained eyes wondering if I was delirious. My eyes guided his own to my wrist and he saw that I was wearing the wedding amulet he was to give his wife tonight after they had consummated their marriage. My wrist was also adorned with the royal rings that were in his pockets. 

Aremo looked back at me like a crazy person, trying to understand why the amulet was so important to me but a second later, realisation dawned. If I killed him here and dumped his body in another village, nobody was likely to know he was the crown prince and he would remain unfound.

As reality dawned, he attempted to yank himself from my grip but I shoved my fist deep into the wound and yanked out his intestines or something long and rope-like. Aremo screamed at the heavens just as the sky lit up with his wedding guns. He continued to scream and with his intestines out of his stomach, he got up and lunged for me. His bloodied hands grabbed my throat and with a strength I didn’t know nearly dead men could have, he tightened his fists around my neck. I staggered backwards and fell to my knees. I could have tugged on the organs dangling out of his body but I let him hold on to my neck and choke me. Spittle dripped from the side of his lips as I smiled before I reached for one of the cocoa pods that Iya Oni Cocoa had given to me and swung.

Aremo fell back. I crawled on top of him and swung again and again. Aremo quieted but I did not stop. I didn’t stop hitting until I had tired myself out. 

In the quiet darkness, I looked at the man under me. With his face bashed in and bloodied agbada and realised I had never been on top of a man. All the men I had been with thought themselves too important and had egos bigger than their penis, They always insisted that no woman could ever climb them.

It was funny now that I was on top of the crown prince of the village. Or the former crown prince. The farm was quiet save the loud gongs that still came from the wedding of a dead groom.

I remembered where I was and quickly got off him. I grabbed his legs and dragged him to a small tree stump. I pulled his large body to mine and deposited it on a stump. I gathered dry leaves and twigs beneath his body before I lit a fire.

As I watched the fire burn beneath his body and ate my blood-stained plantain, I cursed Esu for the inability to tell voices apart. Ajiun should be here now. Not Aremo.

I frowned as I tasted the cold plantain. I sighed angrily and looked around for a stick. I found one and pushed it into the plantain before raising it above the fire burning Aremo’s body. After a few minutes, I removed the plantain from the fire and brought it to my lips. The heat caused me to smile and I tore into it. 

My mind was going back to why I liked plantains when I heard the footsteps. I knew Ajiun was here. I grabbed my basket and ran through the bushes.

I had not gotten far when I heard a feminine scream. I knew it was not Ajiun but I did not wait to find out who it was. 

This is the 8th episode of the Esu series, if you liked this, please subscribe to my newsletter here.