Spirit of death

 "Did something happen?" She asked him, her eyes narrowing at his calmness, a clean contrast to the aura he oozed. 

 "Of course." He drew out a chair. 

 Her heart drummed inside her chest, she didn't want to be near him. For the first time, fear gripped her in his presence. "You seem too dangerous."

 "You can tell?" He murmured softly. "Even though I'm all smiles, you can tell I'm dangerous, what exactly are you?" He muttered under his breath so she wouldn't hear. 

 "What happened to you?" She gripped the bedsheet by her side, trying to calm herself. 

 He noticed it, not her grip on the bedsheet, but her fear. "I won't hurt you, I was worried about you."

 Distracted, she asked, "You were?"

 "Of course." He smiled. "If something happened to you who would I poke at? The other ones don't react as interesting as you do." 

 She pursed her lips in a mild annoyance, relaxing a bit. Then she asked again, "What happened?"

 "So tragic, we just lost our lovely Sister Omo."

 Was that why he had a killer vibe? Or did he…. "Did you kill her?"

 Father Chibuike's mouth went agape. 

 "I don't mean to—"

 "No, it's alright, I'm just surprised that all of people, you're the only one who have the boldness to ask. Every other person there wanted to ask the same question but none had the guts to do it, only you. Hmm, maybe that's why you're special. And for the record, I did kill her."

 "Father, that's not something to joke with," she hushed him in a whispered voice. 

 "But I'm barely joking."

 She frowned. "I don't understand, why would you kill her? Why would you kill, you're a priest?"

 "She found out something I intend to keep secret for a very long time, if not forever."

 "That's not a good reason to kill somebody."

 "More than enough."

 She studied him consciously. "I don't believe you."

 He shrugged as if to say it didn't matter. "That doesn't make it less true."

 "Let's imagine that you did kill her, are you supposed to be telling me?"

 He smiled. "You won't tell it to a soul."

 She didn't believe him, maybe he was pissed about something, maybe that's why his aura was too repulsive, but to kill someone? It was not something to be treated with levity. 

 "You don't seem like the weak type to me, but just a small struggle with Odion and you fainted. Tsk, boring." Father Chibuike said. 

 Right, the dwarf. "Can I ask you a question, Father?"

 "You've been doing that lot already." But he nodded. "Go ahead."

 Ivie thought of how best to sound passive so she wouldn't give herself away. She cleared her throat. "What would you do if you found out someone was going to die?"

 "Oh boy, the mango and the tree are nothing but brothers and eggs. Do you understand what I just said?"

 Ivie furrowed her brows. "No."

 "Great, because that's exactly how your question sounded, I want specifics, Ivie."

 Sometimes Ivie wondered if she was too open that the priest could tell when she was hiding behind layers of lies. "What I mean is, let's imagine you have a revelation that someone is about to die, what would you do?"

 "Why would I ever do anything?" 

 "You're not going to try and stop the death, prevent it, or stall it?"

 "The spirit of death does not like to be cheated, amongst all the spirits devil created, death doesn't like to be toyed with."

 "The devil created the spirit of death? I thought God created all spirits?"

 "Such a cheerful giver you are, to dash out a spirit so heart rendering as death to the benevolence of God." He was smiling like he had caught on a very big secret. 

 "I..I….didn't mean it like that, you have a way of twisting words to your favour."

 "And as my pupil, you shall learn the act. Now, where were we? Oh yes, I shall tell you a quick story. 

 "Long long ago, in the land of nowhere, it was time for a certain man to die and so the spirit of death came to his doorstep, bearing a placard that told his ineffable love for this man."

 Ivie swore at this knowing smile, if she could go back in time to the day he came, she wouldn't even leave the room. 

 "So the spirit of death came to do what he does best, take the man's life away. And he had this scroll he showed to the man, proving that it was his turn to die. But as with all humans, the man didn't want to die, begged, brawled, groveled, but of course, the spirit of death wouldn't budge.

 "You see, this man was a rich man and so after begging and seeing that the method was doomed to fail in his struggle to escape the clutches of his fate, he invited the spirit of death for a nice treat. He told his cooks to prepare the finest meal, bring the juiciest wine and what not and offered it to the spirit of death. 

 "The spirit of death couldn't just pass such a kind gesture and so he sat down and enjoyed the meal. After stuffing his stomach, he fell into a long sleep. 

 "Now, just what this rich man had planned all along. He took the scroll, cancelled his name from the top and wrote it at the bottom, when the spirit of death would awake, he would see that he was no longer next to die. 

 "At last, the spirit of death did wake up. He was happy, satisfied, no human ever treated him as nice as that. What do you think happened, Ivie?"

 She thought for a while. "The spirit of death decided to save his life?"

 Father Chibuike smiled. "Of course, but not in the way you would think. The spirit of death decided to at least give the man more chance at life and so he decided that instead of going from the top, it would start at the bottom. What then do you think happened?"

 Ivie's jaw dropped. "He found his name at the bottom."

 "Of course he did, and he killed the man." He pursed his lips. "While so many people would say the lesson of this story is to not be sneaky, it goes a long way to say how one can rarely cheat death."

 Ivie nodded absently, her mind recalling her earlier vision. Maybe that was why when she tried to help Odion, she ended up pushing her instead. But how can she do nothing? How can she sit back and watch while somebody loses their life? Why would a priest even give such an advice?

 "You—"

 "What in hell!" Itohan rushed into the room, the food tray barely balancing in her hand. She dropped it on the bed table with a bang. "Sister Omo is dead," she announced with horror. 

 "What?" Ivie quickly shot up to look at Father Chibuike. The Sister was really dead? Did he really— she shook her head, he was a priest, a priest of God.

 He passed the tray of food to her. "So tragic indeed, they said it was a wolf who killed her."

 "A wolf, but you said…." She paused, of course that was the joke! "But how would a wolf be in school, such a wild animal?"

 "Beats me crazy, Sister Gabriel also said she saw a cat." Itohan mulled, she seemed pissed 

 Now, a cat sounds familiar. She looked at Father Chibuike again. 

 "What? You make it look like I have a cat that attacks innocent people. Eat your food and worry about the fine Sister later."

 She cleared her throat awkwardly. If the priest was going to expose himself, he should at least not drag her into it. "But she was so nice, really nice," Ivie muttered. 

 "I also heard, Father, that you were the last person to be seen with her," Itohan said to the priest. 

 "Which is why everybody thinks I killed her, so sad indeed."

 Ivie didn't know what to believe anymore. She couldn't believe that Father Chibuike killed the Sister for starters, but….maybe she could touch him and see if she was dealing with not only a psycho priest, but a murderer. 

 It was the first time she deliberately wanted to touch someone, she wasn't sure it would work. But she held out her hand. "Pray with me, Father."

 Father Chibuike paused. He didn't hurriedly take her hand like he would usually do, he didn't smile, he didn't make a narcissistic statement about how it was her love for him, he only stared at her outstretched hand as if contemplating. 

 Then he stretched his hand and it touched hers. 

 Immediately, Ivie felt a jolt, a strong jolt that threatened to sever their contract, but she held on. 

 The jolt lasted for a few seconds that seemed like forever and when it stopped, Ivie opened her eyes hoping to see the priest with their Sister at her last moment, hoping to discover the truth, but the only thing she saw was darkness, a deep void, an abyss of nothingness, and as she waited with a bleak hope for light, she felt herself falling into the darkness.