Devil's Passage I

No one knows...No one comes...

My bare chest, stomach, thighs and bruised knees were in direct contact with the granite ground. My head was faced down and my exiled breath raised dust into my nostrils. I didn't cough, I just chocked silently.

Around me dotted about seventy other men lying partially naked on their stomach with one instruction surrounding us all. Silence.

I didn't know where I was, but I knew I was deep, deep in the heart of a forest.

When I aired my interest to Charles of being part of his brotherhood, he got me prepared and on the seventh day, he showed up at my door.

"Are you ready?" Charles asked.

I looked at the two virile men standing behind him. "I guess..." paranoia crept into me. "So do...do I need to get anything?"

"You can come with us now if you are ready."

I followed them and we hopped into a black van.

"You would have to put this on." Charles handed me a hood. "It's going to be fine." He assured.

I took the hood and slid it over my head. With my sight gone, my other senses heightened and when the van roared to life, it sounded louder.

I tried to keep track of the van but it seemed as if we rode around my block. The van was dead silent but we were enveloped by noise; honking of horns here and there and mixed voices.

I knew the process had begun because Charles told me that I would be blindfolded in a van that would drive to an unknown location.

The van rolled to a stop. "Are we there y—"

"No it's the light," Charles interjected calmly.

We rode for some minutes and I noticed that the enthusiasm of the night faded and it seemed that we rode through a deserted area. The van was so quiet that I could hear my heartthrob against my rib cage. My pores oozed sweat, even my arid palm became clammy.

"Charles," I called softly.

He answered immediately. "We are almost there." He patted my shoulder.

I wished I could dig into my chest and engulf my heart in my palm to manually reduce its drunken pulsing.

The van stopped again and I heard voices outside the van. "Are we there yet?" I asked. There was no response. "Charles?" No response.

The van began to move but slowly—like the tires rolled. I felt the van stir right...then left...then it suddenly accelerated. I gripped the snag that had torn out from the leather seat.

For four long minutes, the van sped straight and didn't make a turn. My collar drenched in sweat. Although I had prepared for this moment for six days; watching and reading large pdfs on the process of initiation into a brotherhood. Even the mysterious hints from Charles, nothing matched the terrified feeling tightening at the pits of my stomach.

I felt light movement towards me then the calm voice of Charles whispered to my ear.

"Remember everything I told you?"

"Bro..." my voice hooked. "This is starting to get creepy."

"Don't forget any."

I felt the chill of something encircling my wrist. I jolted.

"Charles!" I made to stand but Charles' powerful hands waged my shoulders.

"What are you doing..Don't handcuff me!"

"Don't forget what I told you." I barely heard it but I knew that was what he said. The van rode over a pothole and I jerked.

"But you didn't tell me about—"

"If you keep disturbing I would kill you." One of the other men cut in and it sent chills through my body, erupting my hairs on ends. I propped tight against the chair, my heart throbbing with a drunken rhythm.

Apparently, the man that spoke sat opposite with Charles and the other; probably pointing a gun at me.

I have never been so scared in my life. For the minutes the van sped until now it rolled to a stop, all I did was breath. My bladder refilled rapidly but my tongue was bloated and I couldn't utter a word.

The van clicked and the slide-door roared open. Are we there yet? I could only ponder.

At least six heavy foot entered the van. One began to speak but I wasn't familiar with the dialect. I felt someone slide in beside me, then another and by my left. They compressed my lanky body like Sardine and I instantly felt their warm aura. It was like being inches away from hot iron. The one still standing spoke again, the voice tuned up, becoming more persistent.

"He said," the ghastly voice that threatened to kill me spoke. "You should put that on...look at the boy beside you!"

"Nobody told me anything—"

There was silence...I guess the man saw something...yes, that was a logical explanation for such a mid-sentence freeze. I wanted nothing else than to tear this hood off my head.

The van began to move again. I motioned to grip the snag but I felt flesh. I diverted my trembling hands to my trouser and began to squeeze on it.

Charles had told me some nights ago that it was all a process and I shouldn't be scared. Although he didn't tell me about the cuffs, I had come to admit that it was the process.

I shut my eyes and inhaled deeply; sucking in air until my lungs could no longer accommodate then exhaled slowly. I began to control my aching heart and extended breath, only to hear the ones beside me.

The van rolled to a stop.

"We are here." Charles yanked the hood off my head.

Momentary distorted by the rush of light—also forgetting my hands were cuffed—I raised my right hand but my left trailed along. And with such instinctive speed, my fingers bruised Charles' eyes. "Fuck!" Charles cursed. In an attempt to stand erect, his head slammed the roof of the van. "Shit!" he stumped. "I am fine...I am fine." He turned to me, standing directly under the roof light, "Like a said, we are here." He smiled and when he motioned to un-cuff me, I saw his blood clothed eye.

I felt considerable weight lift off the van and moments later the slide-door roared open. A fat bald man in black polo materialized. But I was more concerned with what I saw over his shoulders. A forest?

"Okay that's it," the fat man clapped. "Hop off!"

I looked at Charles and he nodded.

Behind the fat man, a narrow path trailing into the forest became visible. The fat man walked around the van and hopped in. one of the men escorting Charles rode shotgun and the van zoomed off.

"Charles! How are-"

"He would be back," Charles said. "Meanwhile, this is Joshua and Nonso," he didn't introduce the two men standing behind him.

I quickly brushed my gaze on them; Nonso was short and built while Joshua was plumped with a childlike face.

"They would be joining your milli." milli was slang for initiation. I stretched and shook them briefly.

Charles switched on a flash and I hoped on hope that we wouldn't walk through the path, but Charles was already paving his way through, bending and breaking protruding branches.

I was the last on the train. While the flashlight dangled in front, held by Charles, I trailed behind Joshua, blindly following his footsteps. Whenever I notice a squirm in his movement—like he kicked something—only then did I redirect my steps.

In anxious anticipation of our destination, probably the place, "Some men would materialize out of the night and ask you to lose your clothes." When Charles told me that, I wondered...materialize...out of the night...it sounded off and I was thinking voodoo, but walking this narrow path with the thoughts of virile men obscured in the bushes made me quiver.

"Walk up!" I whispered to Joshua. He was slow and we were losing the train. I overtook him and closed the gap.

I strode behind one of the unnamed men and he seemed to walk with a kind of intuitive recognition; knowing when to duck and hop. I couldn't keep up with him and I had begun to kick stumps here and there.

There was a loud rhythmic whistle, then a reply from one of us. I couldn't tell who, but Charles told me it was a kind of password. And if done wrongly; say under pressure; a shaky voice; a tone that warrants suspicion, protocol follows. I could only imagine the protocol that was observed in a location like this.

Cobwebs and stuff had stuck to my face and it was impossible to fend off the branches while guiding my face from the cobweb and insects at the same time.

I instinctively craned when I heard a rustle behind—but it was Joshua catching up. It was my first time looking back since the journey began and it was literary midnight dark.

"Bro," Joshua called. I didn't crane nor respond.

"Bro...I am too scared...I am turning back!" he held my shoulder.

"Leave me the fuck alone!" I yelled.

"Bring it down."

"They can shout all they want," Charles chuckled. "no one would hear them."

The man in front of me wasn't breaking the branches like Joshua did; he meandered them with little or no branch touching him. With the intense eagerness I used to follow him, I had branches slapping my face. I bent the ones I could, but most of it scuffed me.

I heard a quick shuffle behind me. I craned and saw Joshua running backward; disappearing into the night. I swallowed. "Charles!" I called and my voice hooked as I tried to speak. I cleared my throat "Joshua ran off."

The train stopped. Charles meandered the line to me. "Where?" I pointed and he flashed the torch to the path decorated with broken branches. There was no sign of him. Charles craned to me. "Do you remember all I told you?"

"Yea?" He handed the flash to me, "I can't leave Joshua out here alone," said Charles. "Asika, Tom and I would go after him."

"All three of you?" Nonso's tiny voice cut in. "we...we can't wait here." I momentary gazed at his muscular body.

"You would have to continue without us," said Charles. "David knows the way."

"I do?"

"Yes, continue straight ahead and you would see the talking light."

"Talking light?! But-"

"Just remember not to be scared...and hold the torch here." He pressed my hand firmly to the barrel.

I wanted to say something but they were already in motion. Nonso and I stood still until their footsteps faded into the night.

Dead silence.

"Let's keep moving," I said.

"I...I think we should wait for them." Nonso's tiny voice aggravated me. How can such a muscular body produce such a soft voice?

I ignored him and strode on. My heart ached with every nibble and determined step I took. The torch became slippery in my clammy hands and fell. The lights went off. I motioned to pick it but my eyes got hooked with a tongue of fire.

"Switch on the-"

"Look!" I pointed to the tongue of fire.

"That can't be the light, it's too small."

"Who would come out here, in the middle of the freaking night and light a candle?" My voice as low as whispers. "I am heading for it." I switched on the torch and the virgin path before me shone in the unsteady flash.

As slowly as possible, I approached the light. The background around the fire became more pronounced with every step. The light was held by a red-clad person; a kind of menorah. Some feet away from the human-menorah: the candle, some men tore out of the bushes. I didn't tremble like Nonso but I was equally stricken. I never knew the heart literary ached

*

The story continues in the next part.