Forbidden love - S01 E27

3 years ago

Forbidden love - S01 E27

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 27

DEADLY PRONOUNCEMENT

{Abena's Narration}

“This is what the gods have said,….” The chief priest turned to the representatives of the chief again, and said , “Abena will be sacrificed to appease the gods on Tiwanak day which is two weeks from now.”

This is because she had defiled our culture and committed a great sacrilege and abomination on our land. The land must be cleansed with her blood.”(Tiwanak day is the day the villagers outdoor their annual festival )

The gods said Fafa was quite innocent because he was compelled to have sex with Abena to save her from killing herself. For that matter, he will not be sacrificed but he will also be imprisoned with Abena for a week after which he will be brought out and whipped at the public place 100 lashes for allowing Abena to manipulate him.

He will remain in the village until the great festival. Then he will be sent off after another ritual is perform for him.The gods also said he had been LIBERATED from the BLOOD COVENANT which he was compelled to make with Abena. The blood Covenant had been broken because he slept with a VIRGIN.The purity of the virgin’s blood had liberated him from that bondage and he is free to choose whoever he wanted to be with.

That is the message from the gods.For the meantime, they will remain in the chief’s prison, admist heavy security until Fafa is released a week from now and Abena is sacrificed the subsequent week.”

The Reps went and relay the information to the chief. He said , ” so be it.”

We were taken off by the guards to the Chief’s Prison and locked up to await our deadly fate. Fafa sat beside me on the only raffia mat in Prison. I placed my head on his chest and asked him , ” are you going to abandoned me to my death now?”

“No, babe”

I said, “You promised to love me till death do us apart, Fafa.”

“I know,” he said.

“Am I really going to be sacrificed?”I asked him.

“No babe, I won’t allow anything to happen to you” he reassured me.

I looked relieved when he said that.

“Smile for me. I missed that beautiful smiles of yours,”Fafa said.

I placed my head on his laps and smiled.

We were told our food and anything we need would be provided for us.

“It all my fault , if i didn’t fall in love with you this wouldn’t have happened to me.” Tears started to gather under my eyes. I cried and screamed and rolled on the ground.

When he noticed my sorrow, he came and held me in his arm and took me from the floor. “I’m Sorry babe, he hugged me and kissed my cheeks.

My father’s words echoed in my head “I wish you a BITTER LOVE.”,

I wish you a BITTER LOVE.”

“I wish you a BITTER LOVE.

BITTER LOVE!! BITTER LOVE!!! BITTER LOVE !!!LOVE!! LOVE !!!LOVE!!! LLLOOOVVEE.

L-L-LO-OO-OOO-VVVEEE!

I screamed like a mad woman, FATHER !!!LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!

I SAY L-L-LEAVE ME ALONE!!!! LLLLLEAVE ME ALOOOONNNE!!!!

Fafa cuddled and consoled me.

Let to me alone I would have attempted something but for once I decided to exercise a little bit of decorum before I die.

Two days later, Fafa was taken out of the prison. I knew he was going to be whipped 100 times .

[Fafa’s Narration ]

Two muscled men , probably the chief’s guards took me from the prison and dragged me to the yard for my punishment. The villagers were gathered to witness the retribution. These punishments may be cruel, inhumane and degrading, and amount to torture but in the village, that unspeakable cruelty in public was a justifiable punishment for incest even if one party is innocent.

I was stripped off my shirt and trousers and made to mount a platform.

I was bound to a pole closer to the platform with both hands tied in front. Then several canes were brought. They looked long and thick. The canes were made of wood. There were also several whips made from the thick hide of animal skin. It’s more like a flagellum. At the edges of the whips were tiny piercy metals and bones with the intention to lacerate my skin when the whip landed on the bare skin. In truth it was more like I was going to be scourged. The flagellum or flagrum was more like the old British cat o’ nine tails, except that the flagellum was not designed merely to bruise or leave welts on its victims. The flagellum was a whip with several (at least three) thongs or strands, each perhaps as much as three feet long, and the strands were weighted with lead balls or pieces of bone. This instrument was designed to lacerate the skin.

A large crowd gathered to watch the event. One of the muscled men took the cane and the other one took the whip. Then I was blind

folded.

Then the lashes began landing on my bare back. At first I absorb the pain and clenched my teeth but after 40 lashes, I knew I will soon collapse. With the painful impact of the lashes on my flesh , I remem

bered the day I promised to love Abena till I die. I was so shocked that even my tears would not drop.

The weighed thongs struck my skin so violently that it broke open.

The bystanders were struck with amazement when they saw them lacerated with scourges even to the innermost veins and arteries, so that the hidden inward parts of the body, both my bowels and their members, were exposed to view.

I was beaten with the flagellum from the shoulders to the loins yet I endured the torture. The pain was becoming too excruciating. I wanted to scream, but I could not even control my voice. When the lashes reached the 60 mark, I began to scream.The villagers laughed. The canes landed unabated, each strike sending painful wave into my body. At a point , the pain became so unbearable that I wish death could be the only escape route for me.

My body was drenched in sweat, the result of excessive canning.

The beating left me bloody and weak, in unimaginable pain, and near the point of death. Soon I collapsed.

When I opened my eyes later, I found myself in a room made with palmfrond. It was at the outskirt if the village. I could feel severe excruciating pains at my back, a sharp reminder of the gruesome and barbaric punishment meted out to me for committing incest.

My mind went to Abena. She had one week more to live. I have to do something about her situation.

It was evening time. Darkness was spreading its thick blanket on the village , the sun went home in her gloomy state, having witnessed the cruelty meted out to me by a fellow human being.

The night was descending heavily and the happy moon was slowly announcing its presence. The natural ambience of the village

was lost, hidden under the thick canvas of darkness. I heard movements and turned round. There she was , carrying food in one hand and herbal medicine in the other hand. Painfully I smiled.

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GLOSSARY

*Decorum

Appropriate social behaviour

* Retribution

Punishment inflicted in the spirit of moral outrage or personal vengeance.

* Flagellum

A whip

*Lacerate

*strands