Tiit for tat - S02 E48

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Tiit for tat - S02 E48

Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 48

The Shadows And The Reality

<Third Person Narration >

I OBJECT TO THIS MARRIAGE!!!, a strong voice reverberated through the confused and rather shocked crowd.

The scene hit Cassandra like a thunderbolt. Her joints got weaken and the modelling hall incident crept into her mind. Her brain seemed to malfunctioned. She felt she was in a dreamland and would wake up only to realise it was all a figment of her own imagination.

Cassandra saw thousands of eyes gazing at her in shock.

The next moment, she felt all the eyes were obliterated from her line of vision. The man who entered the chapel looked at her with an air of confidence, contrary to her fragile state, caused by the man’s shock which reached the core of her bones. The atmosphere changed into an evil-filled realm. It hanged in the church like curtains and drapes.

As the clouds of confusion gathered , the officiating pastor looked dazed.Suddenly, there was a heavy thud on the pulpit. The bridegroom had collapsed. The confused pastor stood there like an Egyptian zombie mummified and encased in a sarcophagus.

The bridegroom’s parents went to carry their son, highly embarrassed by the sudden turn of events.

Cassandra struggled to utter a word as she gazed at him like an apparition. The sight sent shock waves through every joint in her body. She quaked violently, a spasm which could be equiparated to the crumbling of Japanese cities; Hiroshima and Nagasaki when those atomic bombs were dropped on them in August 1945.

She was surprised she didn’t crumble to the ground in the same style.

” Cassandra,” it’s me, he said.

She was still stunned. She brushed her face to see if she was dreaming or fully awake.”

“Am I in a trance?” She managed to ask.

“No, Cassandra. This is the reality,” he said.

“where have you been all these months?”

He didn’t answer.

“No, you are not real.”

“Please it’s me, Cassandra, don’t run away.”

She broke into a run even before he finished tbe statement. He started running after her. She ran faster admist her heavy panting. It looked more like a baton race.

Then she felt a strong hand grabbed her by the waist. She tried to extricate herself from him but he was too strong for her. In the course of the scuffle, they fell on the ground,closed to a gutter in the full glare of onlookers. They made a huge scene.

Hundreds of Ghanaians, mostly the sellers, head porters, and taxi drivers, stopped to gaze at them in amazement.

Cassandra could feel his body very close to him. Feeling his fleshy components somehow assured her that he’s not a spirit.

In that shocked moment, filled with indescribably joy, he hugged her while still on the ground. They rolled and rolled quite oblivious of the huge gathering. They stood up from the ground and began to cry.

As the crowd gathered, Cassandra realised the pressmen had already arrived and were taking photographs and videos of them.

“C’mon, let’s get going before the whole of Ghana come here. Entering into the car with him, he drove off, as the pressmen rushed on the car.

“Why did you make me pass through all that psychological trauma?”

He smiled and say, ” don’t worry. When we reach our destination,

I will explain everything to you.

***

After ten minutes of driving,he reached his house. He alighted from the car and opened the door for Cassandra like a true gentleman.

“Today is the beginning of another chapter in our lives. I felt it was a dream. I never thought for a moment in the past six months that a day will come where I will be here with you but what is destined to happen will happen.”

“You sounded very philosophical. Just tell me what happened to you. He got up and sat closer to her but she was still afraid of him, doubting if she was really seeing a normal person or a ghost.

*******

[Mike Point Of View]

Clearing my throat, I told her,

” Babe,let’s pray first..

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven…”

I then began my narration.

” After the judge sentence us to death. We were taken to a condemned prison for three days. After which we were moved towards the execution point.

On our way to the firing squad, the car suddenly stopped and the police escorting us alighted.

The incident occurred near a bushy area.Because the police van was tinted, I couldn’t see what was going on outside.

Few minutes later the car started moving again. We arrived at the park where we were tied up to a pole and shot!!

Later, we woke up in a helicopter still alive. We scanned our eyes over our bodies and realized there was no wounds or blood in our clothes. The blood in our clothes was a fake blood. I turned around and saw my gang members.

Thormond,the one in charge of Armoury,Smith Oxman and Jack O’neil, my Helicopter pilots, welcome us back to life the moment we opened our eyes.

We were in a Tat helicopter. !!

On the face value, it sounded like a miracle to me.”

“That was what I was about to say,” Cassandra interjected.

Mike smiled and continued.

“I wasn’t exactly unaware of what had happened because it was closed to the contingency plan we put in place should we be caught in the Jungle raid and sent to court .

Nevertheless, things didn’t go exactly according to our initial plan and my sister Rosaline told me she had to use a little bit of ingenuity to ensure our plan materialized so that our lives would be saved as she initially suggested.

This was how she told me she did it…..

“Our initial plan was to teleport or vanish from the courtroom the moment the judgement was read.

Tabuki promised he could help us vanish from the court. But doing so meant every body will know we were not killed or die and would be on the lookout for us.

While interacting with my sister, she suggested she could help us create an ” Illusion of death ” so that if people saw us been physically shot at a firing squad, no one will suspect we were still alive after the shooting.

Then arrangement will be made for our transport out of the country.

Though we like her idea, we were ambivalent about it. We tagged it Plan B because we thought our initial Plan will work.

When the court read the verdict and pronounced us guilty, we decided to utilise our initial idea and vanish from the court but alas , Tabuki had lost his powers!

We looked at his face in astonish

ment. We had one luck on our side. We weren’t taken to the firing squad immediately to be shot. According to Rosaline,that grace period helped her to readjust her rescue plan.

Rosaline called her boyfriend, Gerald to convince his father to help us. The Governor in apprecia

tion of how we rescue him from death during the Boko Haram ambush ordered five of his special escorts to help us. It was a covert operation.

They collaborated with the police and made arrangement with them to help rescue us. After the arrangement was made, the five men from the Governor’s special escort squad called the rest of the tac gang to get ready to transport us to Ghana with a helicopter.The details were given to them.

The special escort squad had an informant among the police service feeding them with information on what was happening. They waited in a bus for the arrival of the police van which was sending us to the firing squad.

When the van reached the agreed spot, it was stopped. When the car stopped the five men from the Governor’s special escort squad exchanged their uniforms with the real police men and took over from the real police who followed us in the Governor’s special escorts’ Squad vehicle.

Before alighting us from the Police van, Rockson, the head of the Governor’s special escort squad

placed the fake blood substance in our clothes, the bullet were mere rubber bullets made with mixture of unconscious substances.

It was even the Governor’s special escort squad who shot us with the fake bullets but nobody knew it was them because they were in police uniforms. The moments they shot us we became unconscious .

While unconscious, I was told by Rockson later that we were placed in a particular room. In the night, we were picked and placed into the

Tat Helicopter and my Helicopter men flew us into Ghana where the Governor had already prepared a residence for us .

It was when we were in the Ghanaian air space that I woke up. My dear, I have been here for the past six months.”

“Wow,whew!!! what a story!!

I never knew your Sister was that intelligent. How did she come by all those ideas and plan everything so expertly, She asked me.

“I don’t know, dear,” I answered.

She said, “Your experience almost sounded like those HOLLYWOOD MOVIES I used to watch. To think these things actually happened to you is quite Unbelievable. By the way, where are the rest of your gang?”

I responded, ” they are in their own apartments not far from here, probably playing with some Ghanaian ladies.”

I laughed and said,” There is a part two to my narration. Will you like to hear it now or later.

Cassandra didn’t respond. I realised she was getting sad again.

“”Mike…” She called me, “Do you have a girlfriend here?”

Her voice was like a music in my ears, like an overpowering spell.

I knew she was jealous when I told her the guys were playing with Ghanaian women.

“No Cassandra. How can I, when you fill every tiny space in my brain?

She smiled. I drew her closer and did what I’ve wanted to do …kissed her.

Even that, I realised she was trying so hard not to betray her emotions.Despite her hesitation, I couldn’t stopped myself from reaching out to her.

“I looked her in the eyes and began feeling the vortex of energy growing within me.Then I saw streaks of tears coming freely from her eyes.

But why are you crying?

“I never thought I would see you again.

“Hmmm”.

” Do you know the psychological trauma I passed through thinking you are indeed dead?

I didn’t reply her question. She looked deeply into her eyes…

For a moment neither of us spoke, we were just looking at each other….the emotions were so overwhelming.

“I missed you so much Mike.” I badly.. badly badly missed you, she said.

“Me too.”

I couldn’t find the exact words to describe how I felt right then .

It’s so magical, yet mysterious.

“Have you ever been in a situation where you are in the crowd and you just became naked all of a sudden and you had no place to hide-well, that’s probably stupid but that was how I felt back then in the chapel ” she added.

“Why?”

“Your coming exposed my weakness and what I was trying hard to hide ”

” which is…”

“The fact that I don’t love Mark..”

And who do you love? I asked.

Cassandra smiled, ” don’t be silly, you know it’s you.

*****

“Who else knew you are alive apart from your sister?” She asked me.

” No one knew. Only Rosaline.” I responded.

” Why didn’t you call me then?”

” Because I knew Zolabin’s men will be tailing you and you could have innocently led them to my hideout. Besides , I promised the Governor I won’t tell anyone and I won’t return to Nigeria until the case is reopened.”

“when the thought of missing you became too unbearable for me, I ask Rosaline to tell you I’m in Ghana. She objected to it at first because if the governor got to know about it, he would see it as a betrayal of trust.”

“Rosaline complained you don’t pick her calls again. She said you were mourning me terribly and that made her change her mind and decided to tell you I’m alive.

She said she planned to pay you a visit but Gerald told her Zolabin’s men might have put you under surveillance and she may be kidnapped if she stepped out.

Her explanation didn’t sound logical to me but I decided to let it be.”

It was then that I decided to call Nixon your brother and told him what happened. He was equally shocked but promised to tactically invite you to Ghana for a tour so that I will meet you.

“Nixon and I waited for you to come but you never turned up.

“Yes, I was coming but my bus left me midway on the journey when I went to toilet,” recounted Cassandra.

“What a wicked act!!!! That bus driver must be sued.!!” I shouted, getting quite angry.

Cassandra laughed and continued, “at first, I was sad. It was raining then and I was “beaten” by the rain.

I have to hide inside a car boot all the way to Accra.”

“Coincidentally, I saw the Model Audition Advert and decided to give it a try and that was how I strived to become a global super model.”

I was really enjoying Cassandra’s adventurous story. She came to Accra in a car boot and ended up a celebrity. I was about to ask her another question when………

BREAKING NEWS

HELL BROKE LOOSE AS THE NIGERIAN-BORN GHANAIAN SUPER- MODEL CASSANDRA ADEWOLE ELOPES WITH HER LOVER ON HER WEDDING DAY.

Wonders they say shall never end. The popular Supermodel Cassandra Adewole also known as “Sandy the Catwalker” eloped with her lover whose name was not known. Cassandra was the Top African Model who contested in the International Modelling Competition in Europe and came as the Second runner up in the world. She is the most sort-after model in Africa now. She met Mark, a Ghanaian Business Tycoon and they planned to tie the knot today. During the wedding ceremony, the mysterious lover popped up and eloped with Her. They were last seen entering a car. Their whereabouts is not known for now.

We will keep you updated with this story. …..

GhOne Journalist Serwaa Amihere broadcast the news.

…….

“Elope with my lover?” Cassandra reiterated, laughing.

I wasn’t really shocked at the reportage. I knew journalist can be exaggerative.”

Now that Cassandra was a celebrity, it was apparent Zolabin might have heard of her fame.

My worry is what the journalist said about me. “A mysterious guy.” Zolabin may be suspicious. He may ask, ” Who could that mysterious guy be.”

I hope he wouldn’t suspect it’s me.

Cassandra asked me, ” are you the one I saw at the Modelling Hall that Evening?”

She gazed at me sternly. I responded, “YES.” I am the one you saw at the Modelling Hall. I left when you collapse because I didn’t want to be arrested for causing your fall. Besides, the camera is on you and I fear it might capture me and splash me on the newspapers for everyone to read. You know what that means.”

“Yea, I know. Zolabin will know you are alive and I’m living with you in Ghana.

“That’s correct,” I said.

“How did you know about my wedding?” Cassandra asked.

I smiled and asked her, “Have you forgotten you are now a celebrity? It’s all over in the news…”

“I see,” Cassandra said.

Now the part 2 of the story…

My Sister Rosaline convinced the Governor to help her appeal the decision of the court that condermed me to a firing squad.”

Cassandra responded, “was she successful?”

“Somehow. The court identified some anomalies and injustices in the judges’ decision, I said.

Cassandra was quite happy. She said, ” there is a glimmer of hope for you to reclaim your father’s property.”

I said, ” Well, we live to see.

Three days later

Cassandra stayed with me for three days. It was the happiest three days of my life. The long separation had tightened our bond of ecstasy.

Life was beginning to get normal. Nixon came to me. To my Surprise, he was accompanied by Tife!!!!.

At first, I wanted to fight with Tife but Nixon restrained me.

“Listen to what he had to say,Mike.”

After an uneasy silence, Tife began to narrate his side of the story.

He said, “I know you see me as a traitor but listen to me. I always thought Lucas was my father. Two days to your operation in the jungle, Lucas called me and told me he wasn’t my father. He confessed to me my father was Zolabin. I was so shocked that I felt weak immediately.

I asked him “how?”

” what did he say? I asked Tife curiously.

He said, ” According to Lucas, Zolabin came to work for his half brother Thompson. They were all in the Military then because their father was a military man too.

According to him, his brother Thompson never suspected his daughter Joanita was in love with Zolabin. Zolabin eventually impregnated her. When Thompson who became aware of the situation, he tried to shoot Zolabin but he run away by the skin of his teeth.

“So where is your mother?” Mike asked.

Lucas said my mother Joanita

died when giving birth to me so he had no choice than to take care of me as his own child since his half brother Thompson rejected me.

Lucas claimed my mother’s brother Johnson was also not working by then to share in the responsibility.

“Why didn’t he send you to Zolabin?” I asked.

Tife answered, “He claimed he’s afraid Zolabin will reject me since he wasn’t rich by then.”

” …. and after he stole my father’s wealth?..”

“He’s too wicked to get close to,” Tife claimed Lucas said.

I sighed, “so that is why you stopped me from killing him.”

Tife Nodded, “Yes, I couldn’t have allowed you to kill my father, despite the fact that I knew he’s a wicked man. It’s just a natural instinct. ”

I shouted, ” but he killed my father, mother little brother Charles.”

Tife said, “I strongly believe in Karma and avoid taking revenge or giving back on someone. Don’t avenge your parents death by kiling him. Karma will deal with him.”

“That will take time,” I retorted.

“Mike, if you kill a murderer, you become a murderer too.”

I knew Tife was right but my desire for revenge burnt like a fire within me. Given the chance, I knew I would have killed Zolabin.

Cassandra came in, “he stopped me from shooting that rascal, Morrison who rape me when you are “dead.”

I gazed at him in amazement. Letting go of my pride, I hugged him and said, I knew you are a good and loyal man. I never realised you were preventing me from self recrimination and guilt.

Only God knows how long I can contain it.

Tife smiled and said, don’t worry, I will provide a pillar of support for you. You can always count on me.

I smiled and said, I’m sorry for doubting your loyalty. I thought you have switched sides.”

“Never, I will always be on the side of righteousness regardless of any family bond.”

Then I asked him ,” is Zolabin aware you are his son?”

“Not Yet,” Mike, but he will soon know. Don’t panic, my loyalty stays with you. I won’t tell him you are alive and in Ghana.”

” Are you sure?” I asked.

” Mark my words” Tife responded.

Without uttering another word , he left.