Episode 21

Evil is a meal best not served, for whomever partakes of it will be consumed.

Michael Isaac

Cyril got to Alice's house but it was empty, the whole house had been scattered as if a thief had broken in looking for a loot. He asked around the house and was told that she had been arrested for kidnapping someone. Without a doubt he knew what it meant - she had been arrested for kidnapping Abiola.

Fear crept up his spine "the police are finally getting pretty close" he thought.

He had to escape as soon as possible and head for the shrine, he must see the Oracle at once, perhaps something can be done to change his task. He called Nonso's phone to tell him the situation on ground but instead someone else answered the phone.

"Nonso is not around who am I speaking with?"

"Tell him Cyril called and that he should meet me at the shack." He replied.

He immediately cut the line and was headed straight for the village.

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The detective looked at the paper and he knew that he had finally hit a great milestone. He looked up at Nonso and asked.

"So who is this Cyril Adebola?"

"He is my friend. " Nonso replied.

"Was he also part of your ritual group?"

"Yes he was but why do you ask about him sir?" Nonso asked.

"Cyril Adebola is a suspect for murder and kidnapping. From what you have said i believe one of his task was to kill his girlfriend - Veronica Olumide."

Whiles the detective gathered information from Nonso, a policeman ran into the interrogation room and announced to him that Cyril had called Nonso's phone and had given the address to where he'd be.

It took the detective and his team about nine hours to reach the village of Ekpene - Obo. It was still noon, the sun was high in the sky. The first thing the detective did was to report the ongoing operation to the Akwa Ibom police headquarters and get the permission to operate in that district.

With Nonso leading the way, they got to the shack at 1:00 pm, they searched the whole area and asked around the neighbours but no one knew where he was or where he could have gone to.

The detective and his team asked Nonso to take them to Akpara Ekpe's shrine but when they got there the place was empty.

The whole place had been brought down low, as if someone was in a hurry to flee. The only thing that stood were the two sticks at the entrance that had the skull and light, but even the skull was gone.

They searched through out the entire forest but found no trace of a living person around. So they returned to the shack, the detective stationed four policemen at the house in case Cyril showed up.

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Abiola sat in his wheelchair sobbing, his eyeballs had shrunk into their sockets. His skin had gone from bright dark to pale black, his cheek bones and shoulder blades popped out through the epidermis. His bones had grown weaker because he had refused any meal whatsoever. He would sit with his hand to his chin staring into an unknown realm. A realm were he was not invalid and would have the strength to help Alice

She had been kind and loving to him but now she suffers. He thought about her every now and then, he wondered if she felt hate towards him for what she was going through. He knew the truth that she had no hand in what had happened to him but he was unable to speak nor move.

His father was always worried, numerous pastors and prophets had come to his aid but nothing seemed to change. It was as if there would be no deliverance for him.

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Cyril reached the shack at around 11:30 pm, the road that led to the house was a cul-de-sac - it had one way in and one way out. He had noticed movements in the house and the flash of light as he moved towards the house. He crawled towards one of the windows and heard men talking - so much for the Nigerian police, they don't know a thing about incognito - immediately he started out running. The policemen inside heard rapid footsteps outside, they ran out of the room and chased him but he was too fast for them and it was too late. He had headed straight for the shrine.

The next day the detective and his team brought Nonso back to his family home, they asked him to lead them to where Nkechi had been buried. He led them to the bush just about 5 minutes away from the family home. They got to the scene were he had committed the vicious act. Youth of the community followed behind, they helped in digging up the body. It did not take very long to dig up, it was a shallow grave. Her body had started decaying, the stench was unbearable. His mother refused to follow the crowd, she did not want to see what had become of her child. The body was sent to the morgue and Nonso was taken back to the lockup pending his day in court.