Hello!
No, this isn’t an Affairs post.
I had been scrolling through @TheNakedConvos’ time line earlier this week and I came across some posts about a competition titled TWO and I decided to give it a shot. All the words in Italics are by The Naked Convos crew and the rest are by me.
Aigbe smiled callously as he watched Esosa tumble backwards onto the floor. He thought to himself that she quite looked like a fish out of water – flailing about, reaching for support that would not be forthcoming. His smile very quickly evolved into a cruel laugh as he watched the back of her head crash onto the cold, tiled floor with a sickening, wet sound. Leaping astride her semi-conscious body, he rained three solid blows onto her torso, working his way from her lower ribcage to her sternum. She yelped, shook and choked with each blow, unable to fight back.
“You are the one that will die, not me, Stupid Harlot!”
He spat into her face as the last blow landed and she choked violently, jerking with the impact of the blow and recoiling from the glob of projectile spittle that had hit her face.
“You! Are! A! Mad! Dirty! Prostitute!”
Each word was punctuated by a slap that sent waves of pain coursing through Esosa’s head. She could barely speak or shout or scream in protest, much less move. She felt herself start to slip into a numb blackness but she tried to hold on. Aigbe wrapped his hands around her neck and muttered.
“Witch! Harlot! Your plan has failed!”
Esosa closed her eyes and let the numbing darkness take her as her husband choked the remaining life from her, his wedding ring pressing against her carotid artery.
2 HOURS EARLIER…
Esosa smiled to herself as she poured the brown powder into the bottle of Merlot. She re-corked it and shook it violently until the powder began to dissolve. She knew Aigbe was already on his way home…
She knew Aigbe was already on his way home. He is hardly ever late to anything. She looked at the bottle of wine carefully to ensure that not a single grain of the substance could be detected. He had planned dinner with her before he left and he would definitely be here by 9. She had already sent the driver to go pick him up from the airport and was certain that they were already on their way back home. She sat down and poured herself a glass of red wine; lit a cigarette and walked out to the balcony.
Aigbe hates her smoking habits and keeps trying to get her to stop. He even got her those silly, awful tasting nicotine gums, and patches but she keeps forgetting to use them whenever she gets the urge. She forgets a lot of things these days like the cameras her security obsessed husband had placed in almost every corner of their mansion.
She took another puff and watched the smoke disappear into thin air
She quenched it and ran to the room to get a gum as soon as she heard the car horn.
2 DAYS AGO…
‘I’ll miss you, my love!’ said Esosa as she covered her husband’s cheek with kisses and light traces of her lip gloss.
‘I’ll miss you too’, he replied and kissed her softly on the lips. They smiled and stared at each other for a few more seconds until the announcement to board his flight came on over the speaker. She got up from his lap and handed him his luggage which he slung over his shoulder.
‘Dinner at 9?’ he asked.
‘I’ll make your favorite.’
‘We could open that bottle of wine my dad gave us last week.’
‘Even more perfect’ They hugged and kissed goodbye.
‘Run along now! If you miss your flight, you are sleeping in a hotel’
‘Kicked out of my own house?’ he asked jokingly walking towards the boarding gate.
‘By your own wife!’ she yelled after him and waved goodbye.
‘Safe trip, baby’, she murmured to herself and watched on until he was out of sight.
She sat down, opened her purse and brought out the package that Veena had sent her the other week. She opened the box, looked at the brown powdery substance and smelt it.
Her face wrinkled up as the putrid smell filled her nose.
Veena had given her instructions on how to use it. She had said it would work and he would change. Tried and tested.
Esosa placed it back in her purse and walked towards the exit of the airport.
2 MONTHS EARLIER…
‘DON’T YOU DARE WALK OUT ON ME, AIGBE! DON’T YOU DARE!’
‘And what are you going to do about it? Hold me down?! WHAT?!’ He kept walking towards to the door out of their bedroom.
As he held the handle of the lock, she threw the pillow with so much force at him that his head hit the door with a loud bang. He was still for a few seconds; Esosa was quiet. He punched the door so hard that he drilled a hole into the wooden structure.
‘ESOSA!’
He turned and faced his petite wife whose face had turned pale and was filled with regret at what she had done.
He had a temper. She knew about the therapy sessions. What had she been thinking? Oh! LORD! What had she done? She curled up in a ball and waited for the punches to grace her frail body.
She could feel his hot breath on her skin.
‘Esosa?’ he called out calmly with a stern voice. She looked at him from between her arms that she had used to shield her face.
He was angry. The veins on his forehead popped out and his lips were pursed as if he was about to shoot a missile from it.
‘ESOSA! I AM CALLING YOU!’
His saliva and hot breath also joined in passing the message forth.
Tears had begun to flow.
‘Yes. Yes…my love’, she answered with a trembling voice, looking up to face him. Maybe if he sees the tears and how sorry she was he would calm down.
He looked down and away, took a deep breath before he spoke again.
‘What do you want from me?
‘A child. All I… want is…is…for you to…’
Her words her were obviously hitting the wrong spots.
‘BUT YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW ABOUT MY TROUBLES BEFORE WE GOT MARRIED! YOU AGREED TO IT, DIDN’T YOU? DIDN’T YOU, ESOSA? ANSWER ME!’
‘Yes…but…but…we could…we never…tried. There are some …couples…‘
He cut her off when he grabbed her arms tightly.
‘Couples? Couples who do what? Try what? Ehn? Esosa? Try what?’ he whispered into her ears. ‘Who has been feeding you these nonsense hope-filled thoughts?’
‘WHO?’ He shook her violently as if the answer would poop out of her like a fizzy drink but all she could do what shake her head.
‘Veena?Isn’t it? It is that foolish insect! She wants us to try, doesn’t she? Look at me!’ He grabbed her chin and looked into her eyes.
‘Look at me when I am talking to you, Esosa!’
She began sobbing heavily.
‘Please Aigbe. Plee..a.aa.sssee’
‘Tell me! Isn’t it Veena?’
She shook her head again in fear. If he was going to hit he should do it already else he should just let her go because her arms were starting to hurt.
‘She wants us to try, right?’ He pulled her close to him and pushed her thighs apart. ‘Fine! We would try’
‘Ai..gbe…plee…aase…stoop’, she pleaded. Trying to push him off her. He glanced at her and the darkness in his eyes scared her into silence.
‘We are going to make that baby, baby’, he sang to her and smiled at her like a crazed killer as he tore he night gown apart and tried to reach her under wear.
His first touch on her feminine part enraged her so deeply that she found the strength to push him off her and crawl away towards the door. He grabbed her leg and dragged her back to him.
She kicked and screamed but she knew no one would help her.
2 YEARS EARLIER…
She was now Mrs. Aigbe Esorhon.
Fancy. She liked the sound of the name.
She smiled to herself as she signed the wedding certificate with a strong sense of confidence that she could handle whatever would come. She knew the deal and would keep to her end of the bargain. Besides, part of it came with the freedom to cheat. Who wouldn’t want that? Her Chief Bridesmaid, Veena pecked her when she was done and whispered the words “Congratulations” into her ears.
She smiled and turned to kiss her husband when her eyes caught him massaging the crotch of his best man under the table. She smiled and kissed him anyways.