17 Pulling Chloe out of The Set
When he entered the estate, Nosa, with his gun drawn, was soon accosted by clues that pointed him to the house he was supposed to meet the people that kidnapped Moriah and Shayla. The streets were empty and silent. The only noise he heard came from the rustling leaves, which were everywhere. Air blew them from the roofs of houses that had no curtains, and doors that were kept ajar. He proceeded through the silence without making any noise. The fog of the harmattan still hung in the air and made the place ominous than it would have been. His footsteps resounded in the empty houses.
The houses were built in the same styles, but their colors had faded off. The buildings' colors looked as if they used to be cream and light blue. However, the paints were peeling off the building to the ground and were beginning to look like townsmen standing at the bottom of a monument. He paused and looked around to be sure he was in the right place.
Then, he remembered that he had acted recklessly: he didn't inform any other person for back-up. So, hurriedly he sent his address and certain instructions to his computer analysts but discovered too late that he had included Mr. Johnson's among those he sent the message to. That was a big mess.
'We have our contract', he muttered, assuring himself that he wouldn't send police again.
The empty street seemed to be closing in on him and had presences that made him turn from side to side. Something moved to his left, he turned and saw an arrow pointing him towards another street that was bereft of humanity. Nosa, taking deliberate and careful steps, walked towards the place he was directed to. He looked to his left and right but saw nothing of importance.
Suddenly, something stung him. He turned hurriedly, hoping to shoot someone, but he saw no one. He felt weak. Upon looking down, he saw the feathery tail of a tranquilizer. Groaning as he removed it, he yanked it off his body. At this point, the street began to look as if it was a ghost town because shadows began to come from different places. He fell on one knee, groaning, and his gun clattering to the floor. Everything suddenly became blurry. Then, he crashed to the ground and lost consciousness.
When he woke again, he met himself chained to the wall. The people that chained him did so as if they had been practicing it their whole life. He yelled and pulled the chain, but it was a fruitless effort.
'Who dares kidnap me?' He yelled and yanked the chains.
The bulb in the room was dim. Cobwebs served as the aesthetic of the place. The room was plastered like every other normal house he had seen. However, this time, there were a lot of hard remnants of cement on the floor. With the way the chains hanging from the wall, one could easily fathom that they made the chain recently, and should imply that the wall would come off if he continued shaking it.
From the different sides of the room, women cried out their eyes and called on to God to save them. Many of them kept singing chain breaking songs. Many of their voices had degenerated to croaking, and many of them were now husky. Chains were rattling weakly as the women moved forward and backward. If they truly brought Shayla and Moriah there, he would have seen them. Notwithstanding the darkness, he would have recognized them.
However, he saw Joana sprawled in the dirt, and snoring loudly. Her hands were bound but despite that, she was sleeping like a baby, inhaling the dust.
'Where am I?' He shouted.
The question now was that if this person kidnapped Shayla also, who was the person? The only thing that could be the plausible explanation was that Shayla only tried to trick him.
Suddenly, two men came towards him. They had masks on. They wore baggy clothes that would make one unsure of their body structure. Yet, he was sure with a little calculation, he could easily decipher who they were if they ever had an encounter outside their hideout.
One of them waited behind and pointed a gun at him while the other one began to unlock his chain. He decided to hold his calm when one of them shoved him forward. He kept moving in total discomfort and hoped one of those he sent the messages would arrive early to help him. However, the person pushing him overdid it and shoved him harder this time, and this aggravated Nosa's anger. He spun and tried to hit his assailant, but the assailant was ready for him: he gave him a double punch in the rib. Nosa groaned and bent over as he tried to catch his breath, but he wasn't given any time to rest before he was shoved again. The person was lucky they weren't dealing with guns.
'Don't hurt my husband'.
He froze and looked up slowly, hoping his ears were wrong. The person was putting on a mask, but he was sure that was Chloe behind the mask. The person walked away and the ones that had just released him kept pushing him after her. Her body structure was enough to give her away, but he wanted to believe he was dreaming. If he ever got the chance to have revenge, he would make sure he removed the wrist of the one pushing him first. When they got to an empty passage, the person turned and removed her mask. He was right, after all. Chloe was smiling sheepishly at him and was blinking repeatedly like a toy.
'Are you-'
'He's my husband or have you tasted another world and believed that I'm no longer your wife? I'm still your wife. I love you than the world would ever know. You know, right?'
Nosa glanced at the men. Then at Chloe. ' Chloe... That's impossible'.
He spun round to the men. 'What technology are you using?'
'It's me, baby'.
'You? No. That's impossible. I just spoke to you. You were with Papa and Pastor's wife'.
'Yes. I was with them and now I'm here. How does that smell? Nice, right?'
'What...What are you doing here?'
'Are you that dumb or do you just need a confirmation? Well, if you need a taste of reality, I will bring it so near that you would even smell its body odor. I'm your mole and also the one that called for the kidnapping of everyone here, including you'.
'That's not true'.
'Take him to meet the rest'.
They pushed him away. But he spun and struggled with them. There was definitely no way he would allow himself to be fooled and be pushed away from the one that did so.
'What rest? Why are you doing this?'
'Take him away. I hope these people would be kind enough to do what we want', Chloe said and whistled as she walked away.
When he entered the room, he met a groaning Shayla, a silent Raphael, and a yelling Moriah. They all were surprised to see him. They all stared at those pushing into the room.
'Nosy'.
'Nosa'.
They dragged him to the last chain in the room and locked him down there. They were all looking tattered. Raphael's head, as well as some other parts of his body, was bandaged. Shayla and Moriah's body had a lot plasters on various injuries.
'Why did you bring him here?' Shayla yelled.
Chloe entered after them. 'I thought I told you to gag her'.
'I thought it was just…. Okay, I'll get it', one of them said and turned to get the object to gag her.
Chloe turned toward him with a grim face, then beckoned at his back as if he had eyes at the back of his head. 'Come. Come. Bring a whip, a chair, and a rope too. Okay, you, follow him'.
She pointed to the other assailant, and he followed the first one. Chloe placed her hands on her head as she paced the room.
'Chloe, what happened to you?' Nosa asked after trying unfailingly to release himself from the lock.
'She won't talk', Raphael said dejectedly. 'I kept asking her why she had to kidnap me. I don't see visions. Chloe, I came to your place to make you happy; instead, you kidnapped me. You kidnapped me. You've always paid evil for our good because of what? One mistake. Why?'
She glanced at him, smiled sheepishly as if he said something she should have paid attention to if she wasn't strategizing. The whole silent treatment was unnerving and making Nosa angry.
'Talk', Nosa shouted. This time, his anger was getting to its peak. 'Tell me something. There is no reason for my kidnap. I've lost all the necessary clue. You could have gone on pretending about all these and I would still not know'.
Chloe glanced at him and opened her mouth to talk, but hissed and gave the air a back-hand slap. Her face was creased as she seemed focused on something. Her acne had reduced to just one. If he only he could get through to her, to draw her out of the zone she had wrapped herself in. He wanted to know what he did wrong or what the others did wrong. She couldn't have just brought them there without a good reason.
The men, who went for the things she itemized, returned with them. They stood near the door as she continually paced the arena. Moriah returned to her wailing, while Shayla returned to her groaning. Chloe looked at them for sometimes and resumed her pacing.
'Talk! Say something and snap out of this field of war that you've entrenched yourself in. When things happen, we crawl out of it', Nosa barked at her. He was probably at fault and stupid for letting himself believe that their love had finally healed Chloe. When he first heard how she killed her mother, he made them all promise to never discuss it but to always show her love. Now, she had made their love look useless.
'Take her', Chloe said, pointing at Shayla, 'tie the meddling idiots to that chair, and for God's sake, gag her well. I don't need any interruption in this little reunion'.
The guys marched off to Shayla's side after they've dropped the things she asked them to bring. However, they didn't get near her before she jumped and kicked the first one that came near her. He growled and tried to confront her again. Yet, she gave him another kick, this time in his groin. He hollered and fell. The other one, being assured that she got the first one because of his lack of judgment, moved nearer with careful steps and the look of an owl.
She did as if she wanted to hit him, he paused and shifted backward. She gave him a kick in his right ear. He groaned, became dizzy and turned from side to side with his hand clasped on his ear. She gave him another one that made him fall flat on the floor. This time, the one on the floor was struggling to get up. She pulled nearer to him, the chain was long enough to allow her. The chain rattled from its position as if it would break out of the wall. With a strong aim for his chin, she kicked the one struggling to get up. He groaned and staggered back, tending to his injured jaw.
'What? This team… You people are nincompoops', Chloe shouted, and stormed off to the door, and called from outside. 'Four guys from there'.
She strutted back into the room.
'Raphael, do something', Nosa yelled. 'Talk to her'.
'Raphael? The only person that can talk to me here is probably, you, Nosa. He is the only one that still has the right to talk to me. Well, in some sense. He is a womanizer, and that's still acceptable. But you two, Raphael and our wild Moriah, have no right to talk to me'.
Loosen her and tie her to the chair', Chloe said to the four men that rushed into the room. 'Your people are proving to be useless. I should have used your competition'.
'See me, I took down two of their men while being chained. Gragus Team is the worst set of assassins in the world. You should have come for us, F.A.L.T. With Rachael, everything would have gone on smoothly', Shayla said from her side.
Chloe moved to her in surprise. She stared at Nosa and the others for a while. Then, she walked to Nosa and slapped him twice.
'You brought a snake into our midst. I should have known, but I wanted to believe the front she brought. I thought she was truly a police that had gone rogue. God, you people are good', Chloe said and turned to the Gragus Team. 'Can you see? This is just a member of F.A.L.T, those guys are good'.
Nosa shook his head as if it would peel off the pain from Chloe's slaps, and was soon fuming as he turned to Shayla. 'What are you? What are you people?'
Shayla gritted, stared at her feet, and allowed the four men to take her away. They dragged her to the seats, and soon two of them began to tie her to the chair, while the other two helped the two injured people up.
'Gag her'.
One of them picked a handkerchief and gagged her. Chloe waved and the room was soon cleared, leaving only the five of them. Raphael was still muttering about how he made a simple mistake.
'Calm down. You want me to talk, right? I will talk', Chloe said and picked the whip from the floor. She raised it and with a great force brought it down on Shayla's laps. Shayla winced and Nosa gaped. 'That's for disappointing us all'.
She whipped her again.
'Stop', Moriah shouted.
'Shush. I know Nosa is disappointed in me. At least, he would realize that people are better than him. Yes, you should be disappointed. We are all disappointments to one another. But…'
Chloe whipped Shayla again.
'C'mon stop this nuisance', Moriah shouted.
'Shush that rubbish wild mouth. Snake, that's for trying to kill our baby'.
She strolled to the front. 'You see these three and I are friends, and no one can easily break into our midst. We had our issues, but four years…' She said and began to sing their favorite song.
Nosa felt like rushing at her, but being constrained by the chain, he was forced to listen to her sweet voice. She used to have the best voice among them all.
Moriah stared at her and nodded as tears poured down her face. Raphael stared up at the roof and smiled, shaking his head in a sort of regretful way that made Nosa wonder what was happening to everyone. Her voice was louder than those of the women wailing within the compound.
When she finished, she clapped repeatedly and flogged Shayla again, who winced this time.
'Leave her be', Nosa grumbled.
Chloe raised her hands, moved back, dropped the whip and sat on a stool opposite them.
'Nosa is the one pained here. Moriah and I met because of Nosa. Do you remember those days?'
'Why are we here?' Nosa grumbled.
'Nosa made me meet Raphael too. They were all friends. Those days were heavenly. Then, one by one we all disappointed Nosa'.
Nosa glanced at Moriah. She hadn’t disappointed him in any way. She only ran away from him when his desire for her was skyrocketing despite all her attempt to bury it, especially when Chloe was pregnant for him.
'Who should I start with? Whose bottle of urine should I open? I think Raphael would do. He was accused of raping Moriah thereby disappointing Nosa. Unknown to Nosa, Moriah was the nymphomaniac, who tortured Raphael's virgin state and made him have a longing for anything in a skirt. Nosa, you saw her as holy, right? She wasn't. She always loved to have sex, but because you were daddy's child and a true child of God, she didn't want to defile you before time. However, since Raphael was the son of a drunk, it would be easy to manipulate him to her own desire. To the extent that the day he now had the urge, she refused'.
'What are you talking about?'
'Oh! Yes, you didn't know. That's a serious case'.
Raphael looked up dejectedly and said, 'when Moriah said that…'
'Shut up, manhood. This is my story. So, Raphael so much had the urge that I stumbled on them, but not before I heard what Moriah had done'.
Nosa glanced at Raphael, who stared at the wall. Then, he glanced at Moriah, who sniffed and glanced away.
'What did Moriah do?'
'So all I've been saying since is of no use'.
'It is… I mean why did she now tell me he raped her? How did you know?'
'How did I not know? Remember that day you couldn't make it to the tree-house, and you begged me to take something to them, which I refused blatantly. I wanted to surprise them all. But I guess they knew you weren't coming…'
'We didn't know he wasn't coming', Raphael said.
Chloe picked the whip and pointed it at Raphael. 'I hate that place. I always do. I hate what it had done to us all', she said and moved about.
'I'm tired of all this', Nosa grumbled. 'Why are you telling me now?'
'I'm telling you because we all disappointed you. Oh! I almost forgot. I entered the house and saw Raphael stack naked begging Moriah to have sex with him. Before that, he had ferociously recanted all the things they've done together while I was outside. When they saw me, they begged me not to tell you. That was when I know that Moriah couldn't be around any of you, especially you, Nosa'.
'But I want to be', Nosa growled. 'I wanted her to be my first'.
'I know. I always smelt such desire in you, and that was why I gave you a child out of wedlock, that night. That was why my daughter died. That's why we are all here, you know. That's why I made sure Moriah lied about Raphael, and I told Raphael he was my slave or dog from that day. And I made sure Moriah left us alone, but still regularly informed me of my welfare. I like her a lot as much as I like Raphael. Even when I told Raphael he was my dog, I didn't really use it against him until the day he came to visit me and I already heard your conversation with him. I told him to tell me what he knew about the investigation, but he was adamant and was trying to talk about Irene. Who talks about the dead? I wanted him to go free. However, we needed the information, so my guys had to bring him here to get the details from him'.
'It was you all along', Nosa said.
'It was me all along. I…' She said and brought out a pocket knife from the band of her long skirt, which was sweeping the floor. Nosa held his breath as she came towards him, brandishing her ominous smile.
'Get away from me'.
'Hey! Calm down, baby', she said and unbuckled the belt.
In a few minutes, she was battling with his belt. Soon, Nosa was faced with a microphone. That was his bug. He was rattled and might have fallen backward if he wasn't chained to a wall. Yet, his mouth was opened in surprise.
'I know', she said eagerly. 'I know you would be surprised'.
'You placed…'
'Placed the microphone in your belt'.
'The bug was from you?' Raphael said. 'I should have known'.
'Known? You know how to be innovative. Seeing evil in people isn't in you. You always knew what I was capable of, but you assured yourself it was all a lie. You knew how I must have done something to that lady that abused me that I was born out of wedlock when she was sending Moriah out, but you were refused to accept it. I saw the way you looked at me suspiciously the day we heard the girl committed suicide, and how you shook it away. You knew what I could have done but you didn't talk. You didn't believe it could be me. You knew even before Nosa that I used to see a psychiatrist. You knew I had it in me, but you wanted to see the good in me'.
Raphael sighed, and Nosa stared at Raphael. Raphael stared at her and sighed again.
'What do you want from us? Why are we here?' Raphael finally said.' Why are you opening this bottle?'
'Reunion'.
'What's your mission by bringing us here?' Raphael shouted.
'I needed Moriah to bring you, Nosa, here. Shayla was just a mistake that we never saw coming. I would have killed her too, but our baby is in her'.
'My baby', Nosa said and glanced at the pleading eyes of Shayla. 'The baby is for me and Shayla'.
'I should have killed her to take another child out of the misery of being called a child born out of wedlock. But she is a life, and we need all lives to go to heaven'.
'Then, why were you keen on my finding the missing women?' Moriah said.
She turned and pointed at Moriah. 'I totally forgot you, my woman crush. I always loved you. You were the perfect brainy girl, child of a pastor, and beautiful. Well, until you decided that disfiguring yourself was the best thing to do in life. I loved and love you'.
'What do you want from her?' Nosa asked.
'Nothing. Just to make me wonder how she could sacrifice anything for her sweet Nosa. We all did. You know we all sacrificed things for ourselves. It's high time', Chloe said and turned to Nosa. She moved to him and tapped his cheek. 'You should sacrifice for the good of the world, and for the sake of our child. I want to know if my baby went to heaven or hell. If she went to hell that means, we should start putting women that got pregnant out of wedlock out of their troubles by making sure their children return to heaven from whence it came'.
Nosa stared at her for a while, and at Raphael. 'You are joking? Are you seriously having that foolish thought?'
'Why do you think we are carrying out this project? Its mission is to save lives'.
'But what about their dying parents?' Moriah asked dejectedly.
'We save their lives too. I know it sounds absurd, but everything in life sounds absurd, but it is better to lose the eyes than to lose the whole body to perdition'.
'All these women had been induced into coma many times to see heaven or hell again and to get information about heaven, but they didn't get anything. So, I have been looking for someone with a neutral opinion, and who else than you? That was why we used Moriah to drag you down here. She had to be the bait for you to be brought down here'.
'What about me?' Raphael said. 'Why am I here?'
'I've told you before. You had the information about where Joana was'.
'No. Don't give me that. I suspected but I just felt… You were good and traumatized by many things. In fact, you called me before I even called Joana'.
'That was almost coincidental, and it made sense immediately Nosa called you and informed you about how he needed your help. I was elated. So, I had to make my men bring you here to ask you questions. I told you already. Meanwhile, Mummy Church and Papa are dead'.
'What? My father?'
'I thought you would be happy. One to the head and one to the chest'.
She walked to the door and shouted for the guys to come, and she directed them to take Nosa to the research room. Within a few seconds, two men came for Nosa.
'Chloe don't do this. I swear. I would come for you', Moriah shouted.
Chloe raised her head and mimicked Moriah. That was when it occurred to Nosa that she was the one that mimicked Shayla the previous day. Nosa struggled with the men.
Moriah screamed. 'I will kill you. Okay. I'll leave and not return, ever. Leave him'.
Shayla kept groaning from her seat. Nosa struggled with them and wished he got the same training that Shayla got that made her use her kicks judiciously. If he was to deal with guns he might have overpowered them, but right now all he had was his beastly strength, which wasn't like that of the men dragging him away.
When they got to the room she directed them to a male doctor, who directed them to place him on a bed. He still struggled with them and was soon hit on the back of the head. He groaned as his eyes caught a CVR machine, which was placed in a corner. The men strapped him to the bed amidst his weary groans and withdrew to leave him to battle with the belts used in strapping him.
'This is what will happen', Chloe said as the doctor wrapped his body with something that helped the CVR machine read his heartbeat. 'When we wake you, you would be so weak and wish to die. That means you have to tell us the truth about whatever you see. If you lie. You see that lie detector, it would know. And we would kill you like we did the others. I thought I would set all these women free, but the presence of a lot of known people have made me change my decisions. I can't let you jeopardize the plan I have for later'.
He groaned to tell her he would come for her, but she held his lips together and shook her head as if she was telling a whining baby to stop crying.
'But for you, you will go as many time as you can until you get me my information'.
She turned to the doctor and gestured for him to carry on. The doctor tapped the syringe repeatedly and injected Nosa. He groaned loudly as the pain surged through his body. Then, he yelled with the hope that it would reduce the pain, but the pain wasn't reduced instead it made him dizzy.
In a few minutes, he began to fade off into oblivion and soon lost consciousness. Suddenly, he had to open his eyes when a blinding light reflected into eyes. He was mesmerized by that. Gradually, he opened his eyes and saw himself in the hospital bed. That was curious. How was he two? He looked at himself and soon began to move about.
Suddenly, a wind came from nowhere and blew him away into an utter darkness. He kept yelling as he was being plummeted into the hole. After a while, he was being pulled out. He sighed in relief and held on to the hands. The turbulence he had just faced was enough. He allowed the hands pull him out of the darkness, and was very sure he wouldn't release it until he was sure of his own safety. However, when they came to light, he didn't see a regular human being. He was being pulled by what had been numerously portrayed in movies as a beast.
Nosa yelled, and pulled back, but the beast seemed prepared. With firm grips, it pulled him away, and he shouted. Yet, the beast held him still and dragged him upward. Immediately he landed on a ground, and was being loosened a bit, he ran forward, and soon stumbled upon a lot of people walking hurriedly towards a path. The heat that emitted from the place was enough to kill anyone, but he still felt drawn to the path. Along with the others, he was crying as he was being pulled. Soon, they were drawn to a lake. Smoke steamed from the lake in such a way that he had never seen. He screamed.
The more they moved nearer, the more the heat melted the hair on his body. He cried, and yelled and had the desire to turn back, but he just couldn't do anything to save himself. Just as he got to the edge of the lake, he screamed, 'Jesus'.
Immediately, someone like an angel came to carry him out of the place. Everything was looking a movie to him. Someone was definitely playing with his mind. To make matters worse, unlike what he had been seeing and been taught, he was saved by a dark female angel.
'Angels are not black', he muttered after some seconds of being sure that he was away from the heat. He shook his head, closed his eyes and was sure he would soon wake from whatever place he was.
'That's what you been trained to believe. The Bible says we have a God of all flesh. Have you ever reasoned that God too can be black?'
'That's bottle of milk. We all know that God is fair in complexion. No doubt'.
'So, who created you?'
'God'.
'Then, are you saying God is foolish?'
'How dare I talk to the almighty God in such manner?'
'That's what you mean when you say a fair God is creating a dark person'.
That rattled Nosa for a while. He had never for once assumed that God in his holiness would be dark. He stared at the dark angel again and hoped he wasn't in hell already. There wasn't a thing that could prove her right. God isn't dark.
'Who created the reds? Who created albinos? The Bible is not lying when it says that God created humans in His image. It is written also that on the last day when you see him you shall see yourselves as him. Does that mean your skin color would change? No. It means that when you look at your God you would see yourself and when you look at your neighbors, and at God, you would see both yourself and God'.
'Calm down. Everything is fuzzy. I'm dreaming. Where are your wings? Why are you a woman…? A female angel?'
The angel laughed. 'You have grown with a bad tradition. The human culture had trained themselves to believe that anything that moves at a fast speed must be propelled by something. We are of the heavenlies. We're propelled by our desire to go to where we are going. Our transportation is our desire. That was why the prince of Persia could stop us because they have allowed their desire mix with their spiritual being, and that stopped the angel sent to Daniel. Angels have no wings'.
'But the drawings of angel…'
'Are of a man. I know your father makes you read the Bible very well. Did you ever see any place in the bible where angels were said to have wings? Only the Cherubim and Seraphim. The angels are not winged'
'I still am not convinced. Why are you a lady?'
'There are female angels too. The Bible says male and female did God create when he was creating man. He also did that for angels'.
Nosa was totally confused. Who should he believe? The angel was disproving things he had learnt from childhood that nobody even cared to ask questions about; instead, they all grew accepting the notions as part of the Bible.
'Thank you for saving me?'
'I didn't save you'.
'God did'.
'Indirectly, yes. But you saved yourself. All these are in your mind. These are the answers your mind had been looking for, for years, that made you hate going to church. I only came to project the answers your mind had been unraveling, which you