Chapter 5

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It's been five days since James left Lagos to come to Enugu. It wasn't eventful at all because he spent most of the time sleeping and the remaining time was dedicated to his hygiene and making sure he didn't die of hunger and thirst.

What was he doing in Enugu? Of all places? It had nothing that could excite him. After spending five years there he was so sure he wouldn't be back there ever... But look at him crawling back to Enugu to stay. He felt so alone even when he had just returned from the most adventurous travel to South Africa. But that didn't mean that Enugu was a better choice than just relaxing at home.

Even his family didn't get to see him that long after he got back from South Africa. It was not like they were available anyway. Their house was always empty because everyone had serious office work to do.

But since he was there already he might as well check up on his fair skin giant. There was a young lady called Linda whom he met in his final year of the university. When he first saw her he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met but her beauty slowly grew on him and he kind of got used to it... But her complexion was still as bright as ever and even seemed to glow brighter with each passing day and that was why he called her "my fair skin giant"

He had other people to meet up with but he thought "I wonder how Linda's doing" He was wondering this by midnight after waking up from the longest nap he had ever taken. Then after some time, he decided he was going to check up on her.

There was little chance that she wasn't awake by that time of the night. If he didn't call her fair skin giant it would have been "Linda the night owl" because she was always awake at night.

Most times he'd wake up to find out that he texted her sometime in the night. And during those nights he was always drunk. But this time although he was drunk he still had his senses with him.

"Hey, beautiful" He texted but found it weird... No, he didn't find it weird because it was the truth but he knew what her response was going to be. He was so sure that her upper lip will be curled upwards and her eyebrows slanted to show her disgust at such "corny compliments". At least that was what she called it. She'd also add that people would do much better without such unneeded compliments and even though she normally said little to nothing she'd go on and on about how all such compliments should be phased out of the face of the earth.

He deleted them and tried some other messages but couldn't send them because they were either as corny as the first or even worse.

After so much time "Are you up? " seemed like the most appropriate thing to send someone without seeming like a creep.

Then the wait began. He saw the two lighted blue ticks that suggested that the message was delivered and read. But he knew he wasn't going to be getting any reply anytime soon.

"Ugh, why did I even bother?" he asked as he turned over in his large neatly dressed hotel mattress. He was starting to rethink even chatting with her like he wanted to. She was such a killjoy but sometimes he wasn't in a hurry to think that because there were also other times she was even more spontaneous than he was. And he loved those times so much that he decided to never forget them.

He might've drifted into a light sleep that he didn't know when a reply from his fair-skinned giant came in.

When he finally checked he saw "Yes"

Finally, she decided to reply. Immediately he saw her reply he was so eager to send the next message he didn't have time to think it over and over like he did the first message of the night. "Are you at home? Wanna go out?"

His tummy sank in at the realization that he acted before thinking. Shit! Will Linda of all people go out during the night? Someone that would give the clumsiest excuse not to go out during the day would agree to go out at night?

"Okay," Linda typed okay or was he accidentally texting someone else thinking it was Linda? He had to check the contact again to confirm if it was Linda with a cow emoji attached to it or someone else. It was Linda with a cow emoji attached to it.

Wow!!! 'That's surprising!' He thought

He started to clean up the floor of his place which was littered with bottles. It was a shame that they had little effect on him. He would have loved the effects of those Central nervous system depressants.

When he took his bath he made sure to scrub away all the alcoholic stench from him. He didn't know why he did that but he had never really seen her after an alcohol-binging episode.

He was in front of her house, thinking about what they'd do. What he craved was just to keep on going and going with no destination in mind. Just drive around till it's morning. But that was more fun if he wasn't the driver and Linda knew nothing about driving cars.

He had called her earlier to let her know that he was waiting outside her house. His heart skipped a beat when she came out of the gate. He realized that they hadn't seen each other for months and rarely spoke to each other. But as usual, Linda wasn't phased about it... She acted like they'd been seeing each other every day.

That evening wasn't going exactly as he thought it would. Linda seemed more distant than she normally was. It started to look as if she didn't want to even talk to him. He noticed how she tried to put a distance between them. Was he being creepy and weird? Was he making her uncomfortable?

When they were being taken to their cinema room he couldn't help but notice how she only talked to the lady. Did he do something wrong?

"I could've just stayed back at the hotel," He thought at different intervals as he tried to get the large-screen TV to work. He didn't know what he was expecting but he was a bit disappointed.

Maybe that was why he was trying to act out? To appear strong and bold by taking on this monstrosity existing in front of him. So, he'd impress her?

But that thought vanished as soon as he stepped outside the room and into the corridor.

Standing halfway through the corridor was a man in white (or what was supposed to be white)... His clothes were almost ripped all through giving way for his bulging limbs and torso.

James was seriously rethinking going back to his room and locking it with extra padlocks and if it was possible he would even disappear.

But he couldn't. Linda had already locked the door and the lady that ushered them to the room was in danger.

This human being... He was starting to doubt if it was even a human being because it was so freakishly tall that it had to hunch his back at the ceiling because it couldn't contain him. The exposed bits of his body was pulsating and filled with bulging lines. If he could remember his secondary school biology those were supposed to be called veins... But they looked so odd and unlike the usual green lines he often appreciated on his anterior forearm.

The lady was squirming for help but she could do next to nothing pinned to the wall by the literal giant. The giant was held by the wall because he couldn't fit in the corridor. How was she still alive?

Slimy goo was being oozed out of the giant's body.

'What's all this craziness?' James wondered. He had lost all the courage he mustered a while ago. And his brain was failing him because he just stood there watching the lady as she struggled to get free.

After a few moments of shock and trying to make sense of the situation he suddenly got filled with a burst of energy. It was different from what he felt earlier... It was the "act now and reason later" kind of feeling. He immediately dashed towards the woman and the man that was slowly lowering his head to reach for the woman. Something in his mind figured that things would be bad if he got to the lady.

He ran so he could gain enough force to push the thing backward so it could let go of the lady but it didn't work. He just landed on the man's huge belly like a piece of paper.

Then he started punching the man's belly... He saw the ripples it created on the surface of the belly... They resembled water waves... And his belly looked so thin like the abdominal contents would burst out any time soon.

A dangerous idea came to his mind. He thought that what if he tore open this belly ... But that's a crime! There must be other options... Nothing made sense because he wasn't really trying hard to make sense of it... Every question had to do with "Will this save her? Or not?"

Then he started punching and punching and punching... Half hoping that this foul-smelling person would explode or worse still notice his existence.

And that was what happened. It turned to him and stretched his left arm a little. The lady was caught between the left arm and the wall.

"Watch out" the lady yelled. James was so focused on punching that he didn't notice the hands coming to grab him. But luckily for him, the thing was too slow and bulky for them. Swinging like that made it slip a little leaving a little space in between its legs.

The lady had somehow freed herself and was standing with him, only a few inches away from the giant human.

"You guys should get out" James looked beyond the little space between the giant's legs to see people slowly coming towards them. "There's something wrong with the huge guy!" he yelled. They behaved oddly ... But at least they weren't giants that oozed off goo and smelled like the most disgusting thing he had ever smelt in his life. He was making his nostrils suffer by staying there. But he had to alert these three people about what was literally in front of them. How could they not see it?

" Mba, mba, mba (no, no, no)" The lady screamed while dragging him backward " Those ones are the worst. Let's run!"

What? Those ones?

"What the fuck?" James thought as he saw those three dash toward the giant. Why are they rushing toward the giant instead of away from it? Are they crazy?

"Yo!! This ..." But he was cut short when he noticed how oddly these people ran. He was scared for a moment.

All these things seemed like they happened for a long time but they happened in a matter of seconds. The lady left him to run towards his cinema room.

Nothing made sense to James but his instincts told him to run like hell back to his room. Those three people were running toward the giant and the giant was more pissed off that he shook his body more aggressively than he did before. To think that he could get more aggressive than earlier... He had to run away... Since those three couldn't see the danger they'd soon be in he didn't wanna see it either.

He ran as fast as his legs could in such a scary situation and found himself banging on the last door to the left. The last door to the left was his cinema room "Linda!!! Linda!!! Linda!!!" He screamed out severally but the door was still locked. Linda was doing as she said earlier; she refused to open the door.