Chapter 77

"Well, I can't explain that, mama. All I know is that Kikelomo used to boast that Olori Bukunmi is related to Osun." Abisola answered. "But that's not even the case now; I need help and Kikelomo will kill me if she finds out that I tried to betray her, while Olori Bukunmi might also do the same if I fail to kill the priest. Please, what do I do? I don't want to die!" She frantically pleaded "...and I want this snake out of my body once and for all! I'm tired of this life!"

"Then tell me where I can find my sister and I shall end her terror once and for all." Someone said behind them, startled, they all turned to see Osun standing at the door.

"Grandmother." Ewatomi whispered in awe as her eyes slowly moved down Osun's body to her human legs.

"Ewa." Osun smiled at her and stepped into the room. "I've come to see you."

"You came to see me?" Ewatomi asked, puzzled, not knowing whether to be pleased or angry to see her grandmother after twenty-four years and eleven months.

"Yes, there's something you must do for me."

Ewatomi frowned now. "Something? You finally got off your high throne and came to look for me all because you want something from me?! How typical!" Ewatomi angrily said. "To think that you have abandoned me for years after casting me away! I ALMOST DIED, GRANDMOTHER! I almost died! Yet, what did you do? You refused to come to my aid! Even when I came to you begging for some of my powers, you ignored me! And now, you need my help?! Pfft! I meant it when I said that you are dead to me! I did and I still do! In fact, I like it here, grandma! I'm fine here and I don't want to come back home anymore! You can keep everything you took from me! I do not need them anymore!"

"And you will give up on your family all because of him?!" Osun pointed at Vincent who had been scrutinizing her since he was skeptical that she looked nothing like a goddess in this human form. "You will throw away everything you have ever known just to stay with this human?! Your mother made this decision and where is she now?! Dead and gone! I hold nothing against humans but falling in love with them is a wrong idea, child!"

"You know nothing about humans, Osun! You have a poor judgment of who they really are and living with them for the past twenty-four years has shown me that most of them are also compassionate and loving! Not all of them are heartless! Not all of them are greedy! The good ones exist and Vincent and Sewa are a perfect example."

"What do you know about love, child?" Osun scoffed. "I've been on this Earth longer and I can tell you things that you don't know about them. A human can love you now and then turn around and stab you in the back. They are fickle, shallow and impudent! Do you want to spend the rest of your life with people who might cast you out tomorrow if they really know who you are? Do you have the heart to contain the rejection from whoever you fall in love with when he gets tired of loving you?"

"And are you any different?" Ewatomi hissed.

Osun lifted a puzzled frown.

"Tell me, grandmother, are you any different?" Ewatomi slowly approached Osun. "You did the same thing to a man who loves you! Not caring about his feelings, you dumped him and pretended that he never existed, yet, he never gave up on you. For almost five hundred years, he has been searching for you, even though you denied him a right to be with his father. You did not only shut him out, you left him wandering, unable to move on."

Osun blinked back tears, swallowing hard. "What happened between Oyediran and I had nothing to do with true love. It was just a thing of the moment and nothing else was meant to come out of it."

"Was that all he meant to you? Nothing? You had a child with him and you think he's not worthy of your love? Who turned around and betrayed whom? The goddess or the human!" Ewatomi gritted.

"Enough, child!" Osun barked. "I have made a lot of mistakes that I can never take back but now is not the time for an altercation! First thing first-" She shifted her gaze back to Abisola. "...take me to that evil sister of mine! She has something of mine and I've an old score to settle with her!"

"You needn't look too far, dear sister!" A hoarse voice said from outside the window and they all rushed to look out and found Bukunmi standing in her bent position in the rain with her hand over Oyediran's head whom she had cast under a spell and was completely oblivious to what was going on. He was sitting on the ground at her feet and stared blankly at the wet floor. Bukunmi laughed sinisterly as she slowly caressed his head with her long-wrinkled fingers which had dirty long nails. "I have what you want... Your old-time lover..." Bukunmi leered up at Osun. "It's time for an eye for an eye, Osun. And after ripping his heart out, I'll do the same to that granddaughter whom you cherish so much. Adewale's death will not go unavenged! You shall suffer just like you made me suffer!"

Just then Kikelomo walked out of the bush to stand beside her grandmother, her viper, partially coiled around her neck. As she folded her arms and glared up at Ewatomi, snakes began to pour out of the bush around them to surround the house.

"I have been patient with you, Vincent, but I can wait no more. You'll either follow me here to the palace and ask for my father's blessings concerning my hand in marriage or Ige dies. Even if you marry me, she dies all the same, but I'll make it less agonizing." Kikelomo said to Vincent.

"You'll not harm her!" Fisayo said as she and her friends stepped out of the bush from the side.

Kikelomo turned to look at them then scoffed. "What is this? What are you girls doing?"

"This is a revolution!" Ifede stated. "We want out!"

"Yes, and you must leave Ige alone!" Ronke stated.

Kikelomo lifted an amused brow. "You all are joking, right? You'll fight against me to save her?!" She asked in disbelief. "We are all friends! We grew up together and if not for me, you won't be what you are today! Every one of you ungrateful fools owe me your lives!"

"Yes, we have been fools for years by doing your bidding but now, we have decided to stand for what is right!" Fisayo said.

"Yes! Enough is enough, Kike! We shall not fight for or with you anymore! Ige has done you no wrong and we would rather die than watch you harm her again!" Ronke stated.

"Do you know you all can just die at the snap of my fingers!" Kikelomo said coldly. "How dare you forget where your loyalty lies! I'm your mistress! You are bound to do as I say and not otherwise! To forgive this foolishness, I'll only spare your miserable lives if you go up there and bring Ige to me!" She pointed up at the window.

"We won't!" They said in unison.

"Grandma!" Kikelomo exclaimed, turning to Bukunmi for help.

"I have no business with them! I'm here for Osun!" Bukunmi stated. "You'll have to fight your own battles, child!"

"And you all shall suffer agonizing deaths for betraying me this way!" Kikelomo hissed at her friends and ordered her snake after them. As the snake quickly slithered down her body, maneuvering its way through the mass of snakes on the floor and making its way towards the frightened girls, a foot suddenly stomped on its head while another foot stomped on the stomach, making the snake writhe in pain as both feet crushed it against the ground.

Kikelomo gasped in shock as she stared at two women whom she had never seen before. "Noooooo!!!!" She cried out in horror, her hands flying to the sides of her head as she sunk down to her knees.

"Labake and Adunni!" Ewatomi whispered in surprise, recognizing both mermaids.

                                                                                      ★★★

"So, after two centuries in hiding, you finally developed the nerve to show your face again, Bukunmi." Osun said with a snort. "Look around, dear sister, the odds are against you. Do you really want to suffer a severe defeat, because unlike two centuries ago, I shall not spare your life this time!" 

"The odds might be against me but I'm less concerned about the others!" Bukunmi replied. "What do you say that you and I one or one? Just the two of us."

"And you think that I'd trust you? You never fight fair, Bukunmi. You are a sly Fox!" Osun said. "You have something up your sleeve this time, don't you?"

Bukunmi smiled slyly as she ran a fingernail across the center of Oyediran's head. "What does it matter? You aren't afraid now, are you? What matters is who prevails, whether fair or not."

"I shall not give you the chance you seek." Osun hissed. "People like you should be bound and done away with!"

Bukunmi was about to reply when Kikelomo who was still groaning on her knees for the death of her snake, interrupted her.

"Grandmother, these accursed beings have just trampled my alter-ego!" Kikelomo cried out, cupping her breasts in both hands and bending forward a bit as she grimaced. "I feel severe pain in my breasts."

"Do not bother me, child!" Bukunmi snapped in irritation, without taking her eyes off Osun. "I have no time for such trivialities! Carry your cross and let me be!"

Kikelomo gaped up at her grandmother in shock. "Is that all you are going to say?! I'm dying and all you care about is your stupid vengeance?! Have you forgotten so soon that I'm your grandmother and I am equally important?!" Kikelomo bemoaned.

"Of course, I did not forget that you are my granddaughter, dear child..." Bukunmi slowly turned her head to sneer down at her. "...but I wish you aren't, for you are stupid, irrational and stubborn not to add that you are totally useless too!" Bukunmi spat. "If you had done your task when you ought to, I won't be here right now trying to do it for you! If you had killed the girl years ago like you were supposed to, I would have evened the score, but all you care about is your stupid priest! You little fool! Don’t you know that your kind are not supposed to be emotionally attached to anyone?! Don't you know that you can never live a normal life?! Instead, you went falling head over heels in love like the little foolish princess that you have always been! You are nothing like your grandfather! I loved him more than any of my children and I'll trade your life for his if given the chance!"

Kikelomo couldn't believe her ears. "You have been using me all this time just for your selfish gain?" She whispered. "You mean I meant absolutely nothing to you?! Nothing to you at all?" She sounded hurt.

"No, you meant nothing to me! You were only a weapon to avenge my son, and I didn't care if you died while at it, I still don't care about your worthless life now, you yielded nothing positive with all the powers I gave you! You were too concerned looking seductive than to bother about fighting the right battle!" Bukunmi said icily, then smirked when Kikelomo started to get angry and then tore her hands from her breasts and balled her fists as if ready to attack her. "Oh, don't bother about your powers! I already took them back days ago!" She revealed and Kikelomo gasped in shock. "I noticed that none of your friends were trustworthy anymore after I caught one of them trying to set Oyediran free! Realizing that you all are unreliable, I took back all your powers, so you all are powerless now as I speak! The pain you feel in your breasts is just the snake's venom leaving your body! Now that it's dead, you are totally worthless, Kike!"

"Then why did you ask me to kill the priest if Kike was already powerless!" Abisola asked from above. "You tricked me!" She accused.

"What!" Kikelomo tore her eyes from Abisola to stare at her grandmother in shock. "You were still going to kill the man I love after you gave me your word?!"

Bukunmi only began to laugh out wickedly and Kikelomo grew furious, jumped to her feet and gave the older woman a big shove, making her stagger to the side and fall mightily on the ground. Immediately, she kicked the stick she usually leaned on, far away from her, then tapped Oyediran on the head, restoring his sense and he rose to his feet, looking around him in confusion.

"What have you done?!" Bukunmi cried out in anger from the ground, having great difficulty in rising to her feet without the aid of her stick. "You stupid child of mine!" 

Just then Ewatomi, Osun and Abisola came out of the house and stopped a few feet away from Bukunmi who was still helplessly trying to rise to her feet. 

Osun glared down at Bukunmi now and said, "Bukunmi, the end to your reign of terror has come! Your end is now! You escaped the first time, but you won't this time!"

Just then, the snakes turned and began to slither as quickly as they could back into the bush and Ewatomi and the others glanced around them in surprise and confusion.

"What's happening?" Vincent asked as he stepped back from the window after a gust of wind from the forest hit him.

"Something is coming." Sewa answered, staring far ahead into the bush from the window where she still stood with Vincent.

The others below fixed their eyes on the bush as they saw a mass of shadows approaching, and finally, all the mermaid Queens emerged from the bush in human forms, the Cuban Head Mermaid in the lead. Vincent's jaw practically dropped when he saw different women of different races, each with a trident or staff representing their kingdoms.

Osun stared at them in surprise. "Why have you all come? It's not even two months yet."

The Cuban Mermaid Queen looked around at everyone present and said, "I don't know what this confrontation is all about, but this has to end! Osun, we don't have the time anymore. I was wrong about how much time we still have left. I just got the news that the hunters are on Nigerian waters already and they'll reach your sea in nine days. Where's your granddaughter?" She asked.