Episode 18

Trying to do the right thing and now I have to pay for my deeds.

My own sibling led me to ruin now I know what hate truly feels

I should have taken the time to gaze at the immaterial things around me

I should have chosen to be who I was destined to be

My greed has led me thus far

Lust lingered through my soul and it left me a scar

What mistakes I cannot undo

A gate is opened now do I walk through

Will I end up in a place of tranquillity

Or when I pass, will I end up in deaths vicinity

Wish I could go back

Wish I could start afresh

Then maybe on my greed I'll turn my back

And don't give in to the cravings of my flesh

Fate knows the future

I wish I could see the picture

Poem by nightcrawler

Dear friends if you are a movie lover then you'd know that reading that poem, there'll be a soft mournful beat playing in the background. The faces of each individual involved in this melody and twist called life and choices that we make flashes through repeatedly - The sorrow that grips their faces, the tears in their eyes, the pain in their spirits, the anger in their minds and the hate in their hearts.

Alice lying on the floor - crying her eyes out. She's known pain and misery and she wishes that all would just fade away and that as the tears flow down her cheek, the pain and misery will flow with it - following the current.

Veronica and Nkechi, beneath the ground screaming silently for help. Their voices amounts to nothing but a whisper, blood for tears. They try to reach out of that thicket but something closes up on them and they are drowned to the bottom with the flow of greed. They are snatched and etched into the abyss of life.

Cyril and Nonso siting with their faces buried in their hands, overwhelmed by the choices they'd made this past few weeks. Fear grips them, the fear of being looked down upon and considered to be nothing. The fear that they never might amount to anything unless they made grave choices.

But does the story end here? No it doesn't, for the hardest thing in a man's life is, stopping the bad thing he does and enjoys doing and now sees it as a necessary good.

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The detective and his team started the search at 1pm. It was a sunny day, the wind was dry and the sun was fierce. The ground was hot from the scorching of the sun, probably the universe had sensed the peculiar approach the detective had taken to catch the fugitive - Cyril.

To clear a 36 kilometre radius on foot will take about 7 to 8 hours and to be thorough in the process could take longer but he was willing to do anything to get a trail on his target.

He was a hunter hunting a hunter and therefore would have to take rash decisions. The police and their SAR's stretched the search about 50 metres apart from one policeman to the other and about 250 metres into the bush from the start of the road into the thicket.

Each policeman had a walkie across his shoulders, if anything unusual pops up they were to alert anyone close by. The detective joined a group and went along.

The search had gone for about 4 hours and the men began to weary but the detective ordered that they continued the search until something was found or the radius covered.

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Two days before, Nonso's mom had reported Nkechi's mysterious disappearance to the police. Her case was transferred to the police headquarters should it have any relevance or connection to the ongoing missing case of Veronica.

The detective read through her statement, there were no patterns that matched Veronica's case but one thing was obvious to the detective - Nkechi disappeared few hours after her brother arrived at the home and has since not been seen.

Many people in the community knew Nonso was a rascal but not hardened enough to take a life and none less his sister but few suspected that he may know what happened to her. His mother would not have that idea buried in her heart, her boy - her son - could not harm his own sister.

She was told to call the station should Nonso return.

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At around 6:00 pm that evening, the detective and his team hit 'a gold buzzer.'

It had been seven hours of strenuous rummaging and scrabbling about in the bush. The weather had become severe as the wind blew frantically, the clouds had covered the sky too early and it rained.

The detective had refused to call off the search. They searched, rummaged and clawed through the thickets, it was not an easy search but they managed.

They had worked for hours when suddenly, one of the SAR dogs caught a scent. It howled to the other dogs announcing the presence of something. The policeman who had been assigned to that SAR called the other team from his walkie. In about 10 minutes the whole team had gathered round. They had brought with them some tools should they need it, they got a shovel and started to dig through the soil.

After about 6 minutes of digging one of the policeman who was digging hit something soft and so they stopped digging with the shovels and started using their hands. After pushing out a handful of dirt, they reached something - it was a head - they dug around the head and traced the whole to find that it was a body that had been buried not too deep into the ground.

It took about 20 minutes to complete digging and exhuming the body from the ground, there was a strong stench. The body had started decaying, the stench came from the belly of the individual. They took the body to the hospital for analysis and autopsy.