dial episode 22

DIAL
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Sequence 22
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Nana Bosomba put my laptop down on the seat, and sat down beside it.
“Don’t be a cad!” he said calmly. “Believe me, you don’t want to make me angry. I’m not Nana Wowo! I’m Nana Bosomba!”
I was so furious that I just wanted to kill him at that particular instant.
Indeed, I hated him that much!
There was a huge, tall bottle of vodka still standing beside the chair, and I picked it up in my incensed rage, hefted it, and then I threw it at his head with all the force of my power behind it.
Nana Bosomba didn’t move an inch. He just sat in the chair and looked at me. The gigantic bottle travelled the short distance between us, but just at the point it was going to smash into his head, it just stopped in the air and hung there, suspended as if by some anti-gravity element, just hanging in the air!
I grabbed a side-table with a heavy metallic base and hurled it at him with all my strength, intending to smash that hateful face to pulp, but this time round the table didn’t travel at Nana Bosomba with the speed I had hurled it.
It moved lethargically, in slow-up motion, as if it was a tired table…and then it just stopped behind the bottle of vodka, and they hung in the air, lined up like some school children on parade!
That didn’t deter me, though.
The fear was there, but my anger and bitterness was stronger, so I screamed in anguish and dashed forward, my hands balled into fists, ready to smash his disgusting face to pulp, but just then I felt creepy hands crawling all over me!
I looked around me with great terror!
In truth, I screamed with horror because I could feel hands on me!
Creepy hands crawling all over my body…but I couldn’t see them!
They were invisible hands!
They were many hands, small hands that crawled over me, grabbing my legs and hands and pulling them down. I tried to move, but the invisible small hands were holding me tightly, making it impossible to move! I screamed with a mixture of terror and emotional pain, fighting to be free to beat that man to pulp, but I couldn’t move a muscle!
My hands were now held down tightly, and so were my legs, and I could feel them passing their tiny evil hands across my face.
“Leave me alone, leave me!” I screamed, but I was immobilized to the spot. “Get your hands away from me this instant! Who the hell are you?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to see them,” Nana Bosomba said, and the he smiled as he bit into the apple he had conjured from the air. He flicked his hand lazily downward, and immediately the vodka bottle and the heavy side-table fell down harmlessly on the thick rug carpet.
The hands were all over me, and they were creepy and absolutely terrifying because I could feel them, and yet I could not see them. I stayed like that, rendered immobile by the invisible hands, and watched him eating his apple slowly.
I had never felt so helpless in my life ever!
Here I was, the wealthy heir of my father’s multi-billion company. There was no doubt that I was the wealthiest man in the country, probably on the whole of the African continent, and yet my money could not help me in the face of such terrible horror!
This strange man had reduced me to the level of a helpless baby, and in that instant, I hated him more than my heart could accept.
“I hate you so much! ” I whispered with impotent fury. “Yes, I hate you with a passion!”
He reached out and put the pith of the apple on the expensive and beautiful glass-topped central table.
He waved his forefinger at me then.
“Oh, but I don’t hate you, Mr. Biko, not one bit!” he said calmly.
“Kill me now!” I screamed. “Go ahead and kill me, you bastard, and stop terrorizing my life! Kill me!”
He took a white handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wiped his hands and then his lips, all the while fixing his black eyes on me.
“So be it, Mr. Biko,” he said, and his voice had frosted over and become very cold as he glared at me. “If you want to die, I’ll oblige you! Say it again, let me know that you’re angry enough and ready enough! Tell me I should kill you one more time and I promise you it will be so…you will die in a second! Say it again, if you dare, Mr. Biko!”
And I knew he meant it because I could suddenly feel a coldness in the air, an eerie coldness as if some evil things were just around me, waiting and ready to tear into me.
And, like most human beings, I trembled at the thought of death now that it was imminent. Suddenly, I didn’t want to die like this. Suddenly I wanted to live, to get better and move on with my life.
I blinked at him, and much against my will, the tears of anguish came to my eyes again.
“Please, please, please, Bosom Wowo!” I whispered in agony. “Stop this, please! I’ve learnt a lesson, a most bitter one! I’m so sorry Akos died! Please, I beg of you, take this off me! I’m serious about Dede! I’m going to marry her! Please, forgive me!”
He leaned back and regarded me coldly.
“I came here to forgive you, Mr. Biko, but it seems to me that you haven’t learnt the most important lesson in life: for every action there is a consequence! You had money, and so you thought you were invisible. You drugged my daughter, slept with her anyhow, made her pregnant and then you abandoned her so cruelly that death seemed like the only avenue for her. That was your action, and I thought you had learnt your lesson, then you went ahead and put Dede on your list, a true indication that you don’t regret anything you’ve done to my family!”
“I’m sorry!” I whispered helplessly. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to do it! I fought it so hard!”
“Then you should have fought harder, Mr. Biko!” he thundered angrily. “You don’t deserve the love of any of the women in my household! You have not learnt the consequences of your choices, Mr. Biko!”
“So you won’t forgive me?” I asked miserably. “What the hell are you going to do to me now?”
And before he could speak, the elevator doors dinged open, and Dede emerged, fully-dressed now. The sight of her sent real pain through my heart. She looked so forlorn, so miserable, so broken. Her beautiful eyes were swollen, evidence that she had cried a lot.
“Oh, Dede, Dede!” I whispered hoarsely, dejectedly.
She walked slowly toward me, and her face was really shattered and tortured. Her lips trembled as she stopped in front of me.
“Yao!” she whispered with pain. “I have been thinking, whilst I was dressing…I do need you. Yao, my love, I don’t know what happened, or how it happened, but my heart is breaking up. I want to forgive you, because we all sin. Yes, maybe you couldn’t get over your addiction to this list, and I understand that. But if I forgive you, I’m sure you’ll make it right.”
“Oh, Dede!” I said, wanting so much to reach out and take her into my arms, but those evil invisible hands were holding me tightly.
Dede sighed tremulously and gently wiped a tear from her right cheek.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” she said with a catch in her voice. “I’ve been awarded a scholarship to go abroad and further my studies. But my heart is in pain, Yao, because I’m really feeling for you, and I want you by my side.”
Tears of anguish came into my eyes as I looked at her.
She was so dear, and suddenly she was the most important thing in my life.
“Yes, Dede, my love, yes!” I whispered. “I’ll do anything you say! Punish me, beat me, deny me, anything, but don’t leave me alone! Let’s make this work, please!”
“You’re wasting your time, my dearest sister,” Nana Bosomba said gently and smiled. “He doesn’t give one hoot about you. He’s using you! He wants you to marry him so that I release him, and that’s why he’s pretending to care so much about you.”
“I don’t believe that, my dearest brother,” Dede said, and she didn’t look at her brother, but she had only eyes for me. “Yao, if you apologize to my brother about Akos, and promise to delete that horrible list right now, and tell me you’re really sorry, and promise that it is not going to happen again, that we’re going to get married and spend our lives together…if you can promise me that, I swear I’ll go to the end of the world with you, my love. I’ll stay right here by your side forever, Yao.”
I nodded with profound relief, and tears of joy fell down my cheeks.
“Oh, Dede!” I whispered from the very depths of my soul. “Thank you! I love you so much!”
“I’m listening, Yao,” she said and nodded with happiness. “Your apology, your promise, and your oath to me, my darling.”
I nodded and looked at Nana Bosomba triumphantly.
He was smiling calmly and gently as always, and I turned my eyes to Dede and began to speak…
And that was when it happened!
I felt more strange hands on my face, cramming all over my mouth!
And a moment later the invisible hands clamped themselves tightly over my mouth! More hands were holding my chin and pushing it up, whilst some squeezed my lips shut tightly!
And I could not speak!
I could not even utter a word!
I was completely immobilized by those hateful, invisible strange hands!
Speech was not possible, and movement was absolutely not possible!
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To be continued