Toke went close to her foster father and shook him violently.

“Please wake up, don’t die like this. Wake up please!” she kept on saying as she shook him.

She felt his pulse and saw that he was still alive and so she took cold water and sprinkled on him and he jerked up holding on to his forehead where she had hit him with the pestle.

Baba Gift: “you wanted to kill me right? I brought you into this house, I feed and clothe you and yet you want to kill me simply because I want ordinary sex from you. Don’t you know that if not for me, my wife would have you thrown you out of the house long ago? You will see what I will do to you today” he said and descended on her and began to beat her. She ran out of the house and he followed her outside and gave her the beating of her life. Outside, neighbors intervened and tried to stop him but he refused and chased them all away.

So serious was the beating that mama Gift had to come out to intervene but her husband stopped her.

Baba Gift: “don’t come closer, let me teach this girl the lesson of her life I think I am being too lenient with her” he said.

Mama Gift: “it is enough, don’t come and kill this girl o, I told you that we should send her off long ago but you refused”

Neighbours: “baba Gift, it is okay now, you have injured her so much, if she were your own daughter, would you do this to her?”

Baba Gift: “I have told you people to mind your business. She is my brother’s daughter and I can do whatever I want to her”

“But what exactly is her offence?” the curious neighbors asked”

Baba Gift: “I don’t have to tell you people what she did, you all should mind your businesses” he fired back at them.

That night, Toke went to bed as the saddest girl in the universe.

While she was weeping and nursing her pain in the middle of the night at the store where her foster parents had forced her to pass the night, she felt the door open gently and someone sneak in. She got up immediately and strained her eyes to see who it was but the darkness in that room was so thick that she could not make out anyone.

When her eyes were used to the darkness, she saw though faintly the image of her uncle who had always been her assaulter. She sat up.

Toke: “what are you doing here?” she dared to ask.

Baba Gift: “I am here to take what is mine”

Toke: “God knows that I will never allow you rape me again. Today you gave me the beating of my life and by that you unleashed the demon in me, I will do everything to ensure that I don’t get raped by you again. You have been warned, don’t you dare come closer” she threatened.

Baba Gift: “you are just bluffing, you are too weak to do anything”

“Don’t you dare touch me, I will scream” she said.

Baba Gift: “I will stifle down that scream down your neck like I have always done. Besides, nobody will ever believe you, my family members will think you want to set me up because I gave you a beating this afternoon” he boasted and drew close to her with the intention of placing his hands over her mouth thereby shutting down her scream but she was faster. She let out a loud shrill and when he came close to her, she grabbed the kitchen knife in the store and stabbed him several times.

Her husband’s scream woke up mama Gift who jumped up from her sleep and ran towards the direction where she had heard the scream come from.

She was shocked when she saw her husband lying in the pool of his own blood and Toke kneeling beside him and pleading with him to wake up.

Mama Gift: “Ah, mo gbe, what is happening here?” she screamed as she drew close.

Toke: “I..I..err” she stuttered, terribly frightened by the blood on her hands.

Mama Gift: “will you open your mouth and talk? What happened to my husband? What is he doing here in the first place? When did he leave the bed that I didn’t know?”

Toke: “I think we should take him to the hospital first, please ma” she said shivering.

Mama Gift: “What happened to him?” she screamed so loudly that Toke startled.

Toke: “I was sleeping here when baba came to rape me like he had always done that I have been telling you. I didn’t know when I grabbed the knife, I didn’t want to harm him, I only wanted to frighten him but he kept coming close and I didn’t know when I stabbed him with the knife” she explained fearfully.

Mama Gift: “what! What is this girl saying? You stabbed my husband and you are here saying he wanted to rape you? What do you have that my husband will want to have sex with you? Why do you like lying so much?” she said and charged at the girl but her husband’s grunts stopped her.

Baba Gift: “ta…tak…take me to the hospital, I don’t want to die” he said and went limp.

Mama Gift: “yaay! Egba mi o, my husband, somebody help me, you will rot in jail Toke, I have always known that you are a witch. So, this is your mission in this house right? Neighbors come o, Toke has killed my husband” she screamed.

Toke’s heart began to beat wildly when she saw that baba Gift had stopped breathing.

Afraid of what may happen to her if he dies and she gets arrested for murder, she took a step backwards, and another and another and so she bolted out of the house and out of the village forever.
====
Toke thanked the lady who had helped bring her to Abuja from the neighboring village where she had run on foot to the previous night after she had ran away from home.

She expressed her appreciation to the lady whom she had never met until that day and made to alight from her car but the lady stopped her.

Lady B: “what exactly happened that you ran away from home? I have been asking you that question ever since you asked me for a ride and all that you have been doing is crying. What exactly happened?”

Toke: “I killed someone and ran away from home. I am a murderer” she said.

Lady B: “What! You killed someone and ran away from home?” she asked with alarm.

Toke: “yes, I killed my father, no my uncle, I stabbed him with a knife yesterday and I have no regrets” she said.

Lady B: “but when I saw you, you told me that you were from the neighboring village and wanted to come to Abuja to look for your parents who were banished, that is why I gave you the lift in the first place” she said.

Toke: “I lied. When I stabbed him last night, his wife came around and threatened to have me arrested and jailed for murder. Afraid of spending the rest of my life in jail, I ran away because I was afraid. I ran all night and only stopping to rest when I get tired. That was how I was able to get to your village. I had to tell you that lie when I saw you in the morning and then pretended to ask for my missing parents. Luckily for me, you said you were coming to Abuja and I was happy because I wanted to run far away from my village and I remembered how my mother always told me that we will move to Abuja whenever we saved enough money. She had always loved to live in this city even though she has never been here before. I promised her that I will buy a house for her here when I finish schooling and get a good job but it never happened” she explained.

Lady B: “so, who is the man you killed?”

Toke: “his name is mr Debo but he is popularly known as baba Gift” she said looking down on her feet.

Lady B: “what! You killed my enemy, wow! I love you already” she said and hugged Toke.

To be continued.