Odugbemi took the news of his son’s death stoically. When he was told the mysterious circumstances under which he died and the corpses of the two women found beside him, he knew at once that his son had outlived his usefulness to the fallen angels…it always eventually came to this…it was what he had been afraid of when Ade refused to take his place as an Elder…from that moment on he was regarded as a nonconformist as far as the fallen angels were concerned…it was only a matter of time before they got all they needed from him and disposed of him.
He didn’t dare mourn…it was forbidden in the cult to mourn the death of a son or the death of an Elder. He welcomed sympathizers to his home, and assured them that he had come to terms with it. None of his colleagues in the cult put in an appearance…it was forbidden.
The funeral took place only a few days after, then he was left all alone…but Odugbemi wasn’t sad…years of being a cult member and seeing countless of human sacrifices had killed whatever emotion or conscience remained in him.
The important thing now was that he was free to take over his son’s entire business empire. He had stopped by at the office and introduced himself and watched with a little amusement how everyone fell over to please him.
He had sat down in Ade’s office, waiting for the lawyers to come and do the paper work with him.
“Can I get you anything sir?” asked Rhoda, Ade’s PA; knocking discreetly before coming into the office. She had earlier introduced herself and the entire office staff to him when he had introduced himself.
“A bottle of cold beer perhaps and some fried rice,” replied Odugbemi, feasting his eyes slowly on her voluptuous body. Rhoda waited till she felt he had satisfied himself and then curtsied deeply before leaving. Ade had taught her well and Odugbemi liked what he had seen.
Odugbemi switched on the TV and switched channels absentmindedly…there was nothing that interested him…nevertheless he left it on because the background noise kept him company…he was used to being alone…but no one could ever get used to loneliness…not like that.
In the outer office, Rhoda and Titi chatted in low tones.
“I knew he was playing with fire the day you told me about his penchant for charms and rituals. Nobody dines with the devil and goes away empty,” said Rhoda, still in shock at the gruesome deaths of her boss and the two women.
“I too am having a rethink. I mean, suppose it is going to be ‘like father like son’…suppose the father too is into this ritual thing?” asked Titi, walking Rhoda to the door on her way to buy the things the new boss ordered for.
“So are you going to resign?” asked Rhoda looking for a taxi to wave down.
“No not just yet. I need to find another job first, but in the meantime I mustn’t make myself too conspicuous to the boss so he doesn’t take an interest in me. I don’t envy you Rhoda,” said Titi.
“You should have seen the way he kept looking at me…lusting after me with his eyes is more like it,” said Rhoda as a taxi slowed down beside her.
“Just be careful okay?” said Titi, shutting the door and watching the taxi drive away. The nearest Eatery was on the next street much further down the road.
Odugbemi retrieved his Consciousness…out of sheer boredom he had followed Rhoda with his mind to the outer office with the intention of continuing to feast on her body…his Familiars had made that possible…but she hadn’t gone directly; instead she had engaged in a conversation with a receptionist and he had listened in on the entire conversation till Titi saw her off in a taxi.
He frowned as his consciousness realigned with his physical senses. Obviously the two women were destabilized by the death of their former boss…if he didn’t do something to secure their loyalty once and for all; they may leak out secrets that would not be in the best interests of the cult.
Replace those weak Familiars within the two of them with Egnat and Vairog at once!
Putrak his Familiar Servant sped off immediately to perform the task.
Odugbemi relaxed a little…by this time tonight, both women will be in his bed and he will teach them a lesson in humility and loyalty that they would never forget!
Titi knocked on the door and came in to announce the arrival of the lawyers.
“About time too, bring them in,” said Odugbemi.
A little while later, Rhoda came in with the food and beer. Odugbemi looked at her briefly and noticed that her eyes appeared a little dull…it was the tell-tale mark of possession…he wondered why Ade had sent some weak Familiar into her…possibly because he had taken a liking to her and wanted more of her personality to show than the subservience of the Familiar…
The lawyers concluded their business speedily…the company now belonged to Mr Odugbemi. As they left his office, he called for Rhoda and Titi.
Without a word, they knelt before him in the office…
“Do you realize I am your god?” asked Odugbemi.
Instantly the two young women bowed their faces to the ground in abject worship…the Familiars were in there all right…they now belonged to him; spirit, body and soul.
They had been stuck in traffic for almost half an hour now, on a road that was usually very quiet and peaceful. It was the road that led to their church premises. Someone approached them from the front and knocked lightly on the window. Muyiwa rolled down the glass ever so slightly.
“Oga they are burning churches in front o, so everyone is reversing quickly. You need to turn back so I can move my car please,” said the man, walking away quickly to the car behind theirs to deliver the same message.
“They are burning churches…oh my God, Wunmi and Kola are in there!” exclaimed Mary in shock.
Muyiwa was already trying to reverse the car within the small space available as were several cars trying to do simultaneously.
Mary instinctively picked up her phone and dialled Wunmi’s number but there was no response…even Kola wasn’t picking up…something was very wrong!
“Turn around, there is a dirt road somewhere around here, we might be able to pass through the neighbouring compound into the church premises,” said Mary.
“But we would have to jump over the fence,” said Muyiwa, a little confused.
Something was happening up in front…people were running back towards them furiously…abandoning their cars. They heard sounds of people screaming as thudding sounds pervaded the air…people were being slaughtered!
“Get out of the car and run!” said Muyiwa, getting out of his car and going over to Mary’s side. They ran in the general direction the crowd was going, till Mary tugged at Muyiwa’s arm and steered him into a dirt road, well hidden by a refuse heap and bushy undergrowth. No one else followed them.
They paused to catch their breath after going a distance from the main road.
“So where does this lead to?” asked Muyiwa who had recovered slightly.
“”To the back of the church; I have to warn them that they are burning all churches along the road. It won’t take them much time to get to the church,” said Mary, pulling herself together and taking Muyiwa by the hand again.
The dirt road got even narrower until it burst out through some intertwined bushes on to a deserted road…they had already burnt a small church here…several cars were parked by the road, most of them had been badly damaged and there was broken glass scattered everywhere.
Far in the distance they saw police vehicles parked and several police men running around. There was a Black Maria and several men were being shoved into it at gun point.
It was Muyiwa who first spotted Wunmi’s dark blue Camry…he pointed in its direction unable to speak, and began running towards it. Mary followed closely behind him.
Several police officers were gathered around two dead bodies on the ground…Mary ran faster…as they approached the dead bodies the police officers looked up.
“Do you know them?”
Mary moved closer and covered her mouth in shock even as she began to cry…
“It is the Ogbunikes, they are members of our church!” she cried.
Muyiwa held her close to him and tried to comfort her…he hadn’t known them very well.
“Did you see anyone else?” he asked the officer.
“There is another woman over there…she was lucky, she has just regained consciousness…they beat her almost to a pulp. She needs medical attention but we are still looking for a vehicle for her.”
Mary didn’t wait to hear the rest of it as she raced madly to the figure she now saw lying on the ground in the distance, surrounded by two more police officers. The entire area was being cordoned off, but they let her through when she began screaming Wunmi’s name.
“She is my cousin, my car is just down the road there, please tell them to allow me to bring it so I can take her to the hospital please!” begged Mary as Muyiwa began running back towards the car.
The police officer called out to one of his colleagues in the distance, shouting instructions to allow the car to pass through.
Mary sat in the back seat with Wunmi’s head propped up on her knees while Muyiwa drove to the nearest hospital…
Chapter 38
Pastor Adewusi had been trying to reach the Fifteen all morning but couldn’t seem to get through. He had received the news of the burning of churches rather late from a pastor friend of his who called to warn him.
Pastor Adewusi therefore decided to go to the church premises to wait for people who might not have heard the news and came to church. The first unusual thing he saw was that the gate was ajar…the gateman was nowhere to be found.
He went into the gatehouse but the gateman wasn’t there…so he entered the church…everything seemed normal as he walked towards the stage…that was where he saw the gateman…he had been murdered on the altar! He had been stretched out on the floor in the sign of the cross and the knife that had been used to kill him was still stuck in his chest!
He called his wife and told her what had happened…she panicked and told him to come home at once…but Pastor Adewusi had other plans…first he called the police to report it…then he walked around the church premises, praying in the spirit…hoping that the Spirit would give him a revelation of what was going on.
As he walked through the church slowly, he noticed a black feather lying under a chair…he picked it up and continued walking till he came to another one…then another…by the time he went around the church thrice, he had found twenty feathers in different places…so this was how the attack was going to be.
He began to pray earnestly in the spirit till his wife called again…
“Darling, sometimes an under shepherd has to lay his life on the line for God’s sheep. If it pleases the Lord to spare my life after today, I will certainly be home before nightfall, but I cannot come home now till I am sure that all the sheep are safe…that means I will stay here to see if any will turn up and then take them to safety…the attack has begun, but not in the form we anticipated. I have reported the murder to the police and they should be on their way here now,” he said to his wife, and waited till she had finished her heart rending prayers for him amidst her tears before cutting the call.
Pastor Adewusi soon lost track of time as he poured out his anguish in prayer…till his phone rang…it was Mary.
“Pastor, Wunmi was attacked on her way to church and was beaten up very badly. We are with her in the hospital but she is yet to regain consciousness. Pastor…the Ogbunikes are dead…they were beaten to death while on their way to church around the new Mall,” Mary cut the call quickly because she knew she was very close to tears…
Muyiwa had tried severally to get in touch with Kola, but he wasn’t picking up the calls…so he had decided to drive over to their house.
“Please be careful my darling,” pleaded Mary, tears shining through her eyes.
Adebajo had dismissed the Elders of the cult with promises of huge sums of money for each of them. They had accepted him as their leader and had followed him willingly to the church premises…yes indeed he was so pleased with them that he had asked them to return the next day for their reward.
He recalled how easy it had all been…the Afose (Leaf of Authority) that he had placed under his tongue had done the job. He had smiled sweetly at the gateman at half past four in the morning upon their arrival at the church premises, and asked him nicely to open the gate…the gateman had smiled sweetly back at him and had opened the gates and taken them on a tour of the church facility.
Afterwards, Adebajo had told him nicely to lie down on the altar, which the gateman did very eagerly…then after a long incantation by Adebajo with interjections of responses from the Elders, he had plunged the knife directly into the gateman’s heart…a sacrifice to the Lord of Darkness right on the altar of God…it was the highest form of blasphemy and he knew that with it, he would catch the attention of the Lord of Darkness…there would be a series of rapid promotions for him after this was over…the world would fall at his feet!
He swallowed half a glass of whisky in one gulp to celebrate this first victory…as he walked to his private bedroom, he was mindful of the last ritual he had to perform before turning in for a long rest.
He turned down a long corridor and stopped at the end of it…there were no doors on this corridor, but the moment he arrived at the end of the corridor, he uttered a few words in a low tone…a segment of the wall slid back and he entered in.
The wall shut itself as he walked towards the raised dais in the centre of the large room where a young virgin knelt with a large pot on her head.
All around the room were littered currency in every denomination of the world…they lay thicker than a carpet around his feet.
Adebajo opened a wooden cabinet installed into the wall on the left side of the dais and brought out a large calabash…it contained the blood of the murdered gateman…he spoke in a guttural language to the girl and she instantly raised the pot high above her head…then Adebajo poured the contents of the calabash all over her head, and she returned the pot to her head…to all intents and purposes, the girl was unconscious…or dead…
Adebajo waited a few moments and then smiled as the pot began to fill up and bubble over with money…like an overflowing river it kept flowing ceaselessly. He picked up several hundred dollar bills and stashed them into a bag he kept handy around the room for that purpose and strode out the same way he had come…he would give the Elders the money…their reward…but it also came with its own repercussions…for whoever spent the money had to repay it sooner or later with a life.
When Muyiwa arrived at Kola’s house, Kola was still lying unconscious on the floor. Muyiwa started lifting him up to take him into the car…
Leave him be, he will come round soon…
He stared wildly around him…Janut had returned! He backed himself against a wall and looked around for the source of the voice…
“I know you are here Janut, I heard your voice,” he said as an old fear began to seep into his heart. At that moment, Kola groaned and began to stir. Muyiwa went to him, uneasily watching his back for the appearance of Janut.
He helped Kola sit up and he groaned even more…
“I feel like I’ve been beaten and battered…what happened, did I get knocked down by a car? I don’t remember anything,” Kola said, groaning in pain.
“Take it easy Kola; it will come back to you presently”.
“Where is my wife?”
“I’m afraid she is in the hospital,”
“What happened?” asked Kola, standing to his feet suddenly in alarm and then collapsing on a nearby sofa.
“You need to take it easy right now Kola, your wife is safe. She was the victim of a bad beating by thugs, but Mary is with her now at the hospital.”
“Is she really okay?” asked Kola again, attempting to stand up but this time a little slower.
“She was still unconscious when I left the hospital,”
“That was why I suddenly felt like praying so strongly and so suddenly, she was in trouble and the Spirit wanted me to pray!” said Kola, as his memory slowly returned.
“Listen man, Janut is here…he told me to leave you be, and that you will come round soon,” whispered Muyiwa into Kola’s ear.
“That wasn’t Janut, that was the Spirit of God Muyiwa,” said Kola, leaning heavily on Muyiwa as they walked out of the house into the car.
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