Early in the morning I got off my bed and rushed to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and stood in front of the mirror for some time, “how am I going to get through so much pressure” I thought to myself. I had an argument with my aunt last night and I guess she had to get the fact that she was tired of taking care of me out of her lungs. Another thought hit my mind about my aunt, “she has got a point, am 26 years old but I’m still being taken care of.” Stood still in front of that mirror, I was in deep thought.

I heard a knock at the kitchen door, I then went to open it. When I opened the door there was standing a very cute lady. She was slim, she had big beautiful eyes, with long hair and her skin was so clear, you’d swear that she had no pimples at all.

“Hello” she greeted me with a sincere smile. her smile though, it was so mesmerizing and her voice just made my stomach feel like it was full of butterflies.

“Hi” I replied, I kept a straight face as if her voice and smile her smile had no effect on me.

“I am new around here, am actually a first-year student at TUT.” She explained, with her sweet voice ringing in my eyes. She looked around out of curiosity or interest.

“Okay…” I replied still with a straight face trying to hide how much she had an effect on me, that was love at first sight.

“I am looking for a room to rent so I thought I should ask here because I saw these backrooms.” She said while looking around, I thought she wanted one of the rooms at my yard.

“Uhm, unfortunately those have already been taken but you can ask around I’m sure you will find one.” I explained while I glanced at the direction of the vacant rooms that were in my yard.

“Okay, thanks.” She said with that mesmerizing smile and her angelic voice then she walked away.

I smile at her and stood at the door, watching her walking away. Deep down, I was very charmed. I watched her get out the gate I then closed the door. I went to my room and turned on my laptop and as I was trying to figure out which movie I could watch, my phone rang. It was an unknown number, I just thought that maybe it was one of the companies where I dropped off my CVs.

“Hello” I answered the phone call and I pause the movie on my laptop.

“Hey Kat” a familiar female voice replied. It was shaky, the person who was talking on the other end of the phone sounded terrified.

“Who is this?” I asked with a more concerned tone.

“It’s Kate, please don’t hang up” she replied as I was about to hang up “I know you don’t want to talk to me” she added.

Kate is my ex-girlfriend; we were high school sweethearts. But unfortunately, she got impregnated by her ex the time we were dating and I was forced to break up with her. It’s been two years since we broke up and we’ve never spoke until now.

“What do you want?” I asked with a sigh, my mood got ruined at that moment but I just decided to give her a chance to speak.

“Kat you have to get out of there now.” She said with a very concerned voice.

“Get out of where?” I asked with a laughter.

“Get out of your place, Les…” she said, but I interrupted her as she was trying to explain.

“No Kate, I’ve heard enough of your drama” I said “You know for the last two years I thought you left my life for good but here you are. Disturbing my peace, what do you want from me?” raised my voice.

“Kat you have to listen to me…” she tried explaining but I interrupted her again.

“No, you listen to me” I yelled “Please leave me alone, go back to your gangster boyfriend” I added and then hung up the phone before she could say any other word.

Immediately after I got off the phone with Kate, there was a knock at the door. As I was opening the door someone pushed it from, it hit me and fell on the floor. As I was getting up, Kate’s boyfriend, Lesly and his two of his gang members entered the house. Flashbacks started hitting me and I remembered everything that happened two years ago and I understood that he was fulfilling a promise he made two years back. Two years ago, he found out that I was dating his girlfriend which is Kate, the same year I helped the police to catch him for his drug operation. I am wondering why he got out of prison so early, he was supposed to do 15 years.

“Listen man, I can explain” I pleaded with him, I tried getting up from the floor but one of his gang members pushed me back down. Lesly just stared at my terrified face and stretched out his hand and one of his gang members handed him a short gun.

He slowly turned his attention to me, “you’re so hard to find” he said with a sinister smile on his face.

“I can explain man you have to hear me out” I pleaded with him but he just stared at me without saying a single word and I just lied on the floor with my back, sweating.

That day I prayed for the first time ever in my heart. Hoping God would do one of those biblical miracles and make me disappear. Maybe God doesn’t work that way, maybe I was a stranger to him or maybe he forgot about me so he was going to let this psychopath named Lesly kill me, my silent prayer wasn’t working.

“You know Kat, you are one of those dudes that I admire around here. You are not like us; you are focused and you’ve got a bright future” he explained as he was waving his short gun across my face.

One of his gang members pulled a chair, then violently picked me up and put me on the chair. I was sweating and shaking out of fear and I declared myself dead because Lesly was always known for killing everyone who crosses him and. And this time he was about to kill me for a something that happened two years ago, sleeping with his girlfriend and snitching on his drug business.

“But you know what I don’t like?” he said, putting his short gun on the table then he pulled a chair and sat across me “snitches… snitches and people who f*ck people’s girlfriends” he added, his face turned red.

“They gave me no choice man, I…” he cut me by putting his short gun on my chin. At this point I just waited for him to pull the trigger.

“You’re going to pay for this” he said while he got up from the chair and gave the short gun to the second gang member that was standing beside him.

“Listen Les, I can explain” I pleaded with him but he just ignored me as he whispered something to the gang member that was standing beside him. Lesly walked out and left two of his gang members with me. Tears began falling then I closed my eyes waiting for a gun sound and the bullets to squash my head like a watermelon. But instead of pulling the trigger, the gang member hit me so hard at the back of my head with the back of the short gun that I became unconscious for a few hours.

2 hours later….

When I became conscious, I was no longer in the kitchen at home but I was in a cold darkroom, tied on a chair with no clothes on. I looked around, the room was empty and I was placed in the middle. I started panicking tried to get myself off the chair but it was too tight, I couldn’t move.

“Hello, anybody out there? Help!” I yelled, I tried fighting my way out of the chair but I couldn’t move an inch of my body “this must be where Lesly kills all this people” I thought to myself. I continued shouting for help but I got tired, I became quiet after some time.

After a while, the lights were turned on and the door was opened, two of Lesly’s gang members entered the room and stood on each side of the door. The third gang member came in, he was one of the guys that came with Lesly my place. He started punching me, for more than 30 minutes I endured as I took punches from every angle, blood began to drip all over my face, I was bleeding through both my nose and my mouth. Finally, Lesly came into the room pulling Kate by a hand and he violently threw her at my feet, the guy who was punching me stopped.

Kate got up and held my face with both her hands “Are you okay?” she asked, she wiped the blood on my nose with her dress.

“No” I shook my head. I put my head on her shoulder and began to cry, Kate just hugged me and pretended to be strong at that point. One of Lesly’s gang members pulled her away from me.

“What a beautiful love story” Lesly said, his boys began to laugh as he was imitating everything Kate was doing when she was hugging me. After a second, he became serious and looked at me with a disgusted face.

“Just kill me Les, I got nothing to lose anyway” I drug my words out, as I was hurt pretty bad that I couldn’t speak properly.

“No, I don’t want to kill you. I want you to suffer, I want you to…” Lesly got interrupted by Kate as she furiously jumped on him and attacked him. “Get off me, you cheap bitch” he yelled as he pushed her so hard that she fell on the floor and bruised her arm.

Kate began to cry “Les, please don’t do this” she pleaded with him.

Lesly ignored her and one of his gang members brought a briefcase to him. I was weak and couldn’t get a word out at this point, I had no strength to fight for my own life and Kate managed to get up and wiped the blood from her nose with the palm of her hand. Lesly opened the briefcase and took out an injection, he turned his attention to me.

“This here is a special medicine and you’re lucky to be the first one to receive it. The good thing is that it doesn’t kill you but it wipes your memory and you forget who you are. It takes away your identity” he explained, as he prepared the injection.

“Lesly, this is pointless” Kate pleaded with him as she was standing between me and Lesly.

“Shut up” he yelled as he slapped her across the face, one of Lesly’s gang members got her out of the way but she kept on fighting.

I just coughed continuously, blood dripping from my mouth. Lesly held me by the neck and made to look him in the eyes then he held up the injection, I was weak and I had no strength to fight him.

“This will make you forget everything, your name, where you stay, the people around you including this moment right here. But first, it will cause an excruciating pain. It will make you suffer; you will be a stranger in your own body. This is all you get for being stupid Kat” he explained with a sinister laughter.

Kate kept on fighting for me but the gang members we so strong, they just made sure that she watches him stick the injection on my neck. He slowly pushed it inside and then he squeezed the poison inside my neck.

“It will work within 30 minutes” he said while putting the syringe back into the briefcase “this is nothing personal, it’s just keeping a score” he said as he walked out of the room.

His gang members got Kate out of the room right after Lesly got out, the lights were turned off and the door was closed. Once again, I was left alone in a cold empty room with blood all over my face. I fell asleep for a few minutes; the effects of the injection woke me up. I started feeling something like a headache and then it got worse, it was as if someone was cutting my head off. The amount of pain I was feeling was unimaginable, something one wouldn’t stand.

I tried enduring the pain but as time went on it got worse. It now moved from my head to my lungs, at some point I wasn’t able to breath for some time. The pain went on to my stomach. For more than 7 hours, I endured the pain, my vision became blurry, I couldn’t keep myself awake. I started vomiting what seemed like blood. It was as if the chemical in the injection was eating me inside. After long hours of vomiting my own lungs out and groaning for help, I became unconscious.