Èṣù X - The Scream

Finally! A continuation of the Esu series. I know it is late but if you want to catch up on the previous episode, click here.

…

My skin smelled like overripe plantains. The tip of my fingers carried the scent of smoke, onions and charred flesh. That’s when it occurred to me that I had forgotten the plantains I was roasting but going back meant death. 

So I kept running.

“Aremo!”

The voice behind me rang through the air again, thick with tears. For a few seconds, the night would go silent before another scream escaped and tore through the night air. 

"Aremo!"

The same name was repeated over and over again as my legs continued to push me away from the scene. Somewhere in my head, I knew I had heard that voice before but I couldn’t tell who it belonged to. 

While I darted through the trees, Ajiun sauntered through his farm, believing he was coming to me. He hummed and spiritedly threw his cane into the air as he approached the clearing where I was to wait for him. 

We both heard the high-pitched scream and halted. I stopped to decide at an intersection while he paused because he recognised that voice. I ran left and he walked forward.

Ajiun inched closer to the clearing to see a female figure bent over a body, howling. Her Adire fabric was tied around her chest and her gele, askew and untied, was drooping past her shoulders. Her black hair, partly exposed, was plaited down her head and decorated with red beads. The small fire I had used to roast my plantains lay by her feet. Her small body shook and trembled as she repeated the name over the body on the ground.

The celebratory gongs from the palace drowned some of her cries but when the gongs went silent, her wails rose. Slowly, Ajiun walked around the woman and his eyes expanded. He saw the mutilated body on the ground and the gaping hole in his gut. It was the crown prince. 

The one whose wedding was currently being celebrated. Torches were being blown by guards into the night, singing his praises while his vacant eyes stared unblinkingly at the night sky, almost like he was watching it being lit for his wedding.

Ajiun stared at the woman cradling the prince’s body to her chest as she continued to scream. She eventually saw the shoes before her and slowly followed the Agabada up to Ajiun’s face. Her shock was apparent. Her eyes were bloodshot and the tiro that ran down her round face, mixed with mucus slipped through her lips. The three horizontal tribal marks on each side of her face did nothing to stop the flow of tears coming down her face.

She looked at Ajiun and tears started to well up in her eyes again. She hiccupped and coughed, looking from a horrified Ajiun to a deathly still Aremo.

“Baba Mi!”, she sputtered. “Baba Mi. He’s dead! I met him like this!”

Aremo’s family was planning his wedding but he wanted them to spend one last night together before he officially became another woman’s husband. She was already with child, and he promised to bring her into the palace when he became king. 

“Baba Mi! Help Me!”, she screamed again, the cords in her neck jutting out.

Ajiun was brought back. 

His life as a respected chief would be ruined the minute the palace guards find his daughter holding the dead son of Kabiyesi. He knew it was just a few minutes until the prince is discovered missing at his wedding and a search party is sent out. He also knew his name would be soiled if the body of the prince was found buried on his farm. He could grab his daughter’s arm and escape to another village but that meant starting again from nothing. Ajiun knew he couldn’t go back to where he started from. He had built an empire in this village and he intended to keep it that way.

“Ashake!”, he whispered and his daughter looked up at him again.

She was one of his favourites. He had boasted repeatedly about the lavish wedding he intended to throw for her. He knew she had suitors but he had no idea the prince was one of them. He wish she had told him. He knew how to work Kabiyesi. His daughter would have been the next Olori, giving him even more power. But now, it was a shame. 

Her chest heaved. Her face was turned up to him in plea. The gele had completely fallen off her head exposing her intricately plated hair. He simply stared and she buried her face into her lover’s body again, crying and begging. 

In one swift moment, Ajiun crouched behind her and twisted her neck. She fell limp on top of her lover and he disappeared into the shadows. He intended to be as surprised as the rest of us when the news came out. He intended to mourn his daughter.

I was not the only one with breath in my body who knew I had killed the prince. 

Now, we were three.