{Story} My onilne love

{Story} My onilne love

MARCH, 2009
7:49pm

I brushed my teeth for the third time, ran out of the bathroom and grabbed my phone. Slowly i scrolled down to a name saved with “NMEKA 2go” and dialled the number with a happy smile on my face.

Nmeka was my 2go girlfriend. The first real friend i was making from 2go after months of endless chatting. She was paying me a visit that very day, something like a return visit because we first met two weeks ago at her school where we met each other for the first time. Of course the visit i paid her solidified our friendship thus making her take the risk of visiting me for a lovely weekend.

“hello Jude, the bus has dropped me at the park. You can now come and get me” Nmeka’s sweet voice announced as she answered my call. I jumped up with joy before rushing out to pick her up.

---

It wasn’t had locating her at the busy bus station. We hugged each other with joy, seriously the love was there.
“i’m so happy” i whispered to her. She blinked her eyes, saying nothing.
Minutes later we arrived at my lodge which impressed her a lot.
“hmmm your lodge is beautiful. It’s so big ooo. Hmmm you go fear three storey building. How much do you pay here?” she asked with admiration.

We had a wonderful night gisting, joking and playing before finally wrapping up the whole fun with a hot super se.x. She really was so good and sweet. Oh what a delicious girl she was.
“i hope you arn’t decieving me?” she asked with love in her eyes.

“of course not my dear” i answered innocently. She smiled and closed her eyes. We went straight to sleep moments after, Unfortunately i never knew a nightmare was coming.

I woke up at exactly 3:15am the next morning, to see my lovely visitor gasping for breathe.

Before i could understand what was happening, she collasped on the bed. I fearfully stared at my unconscious visitor. Confused, nauesous and lost.
“please don’t do this to me” i pleaded seriously. Tears fell from my eyes, my heart pounded furiously.
The poor girl breathed her last, a very heavy breathe it was before keeping still, leaving me all alone to my fate. All alone and hopeless.
I was left with the choice to tell the truth. A freaking truth which no one would buy.

“no no no” i cried with panick, jumped out of the bed and wore my trouser. My mind was set on going out to seek help. To scream, to cry out loud.
“Perhaps my neighbours could be of assistance” I reasoned with a cold shiver. But on second thought i played down my fears and decided not to seek external help. She wasn’t breathing, she already was freaking gone. I felt her pulse over and over again.

Desperately, i tried breathing into her mouth. I pressed on her chest a hundred times over, but nothing worked. I fell back with fear, while the consequencies of my predicament ran through my head. I was in deep s.hit.
I needed no one to tell me that I only had a little time to think out a good explanation or plan. Time was running out fast. Dawn was quickly approaching.
“d.amn” i exclaimed as my head played back our last moment together. I really was ruined, definitely f----d.
“D--n 2go” i hissed, wondering what must have happened to her.

“perhaps she’s asthmatic or something. Perhaps i woke up too late to save her. Jeez” i cursed, reached for her handbag and searched it for drugs or something similar but found nothing.

Slowly my clock struck 4:10am, i had little time left.
“I have to act fast. I have to move her body” i reasoned with a fearful courage.

“Where will i dump her?, how do i cover my tracks?, did anyone see us together the previous evening?” i wondered as i pulled her down from my bed.

I quickly pulled off her night wear and dressed her up with the clothes she wore from her place. A black jean trouser and a pink top. It truly was the most difficult and irritating task i have ever done in my life.

“what next?” i asked myself as i looked out of my room window. The hostel{lodge} gate was still locked. There wasn’t anyway i could carry her out of the lodge without waking the gateman or seen by early morning weed smokers, {Annoying students who were fond of smoking hemp in front of some hostels]. Moreover the hostel lights were equally on and glaring.
I rubbed my face in desperation. I was living at the top-most floor and so had little or nothing to hope on. It was a do or die affair.

I left my room and took a quiet tour round the lodge. Fortunately no one was outside, which really was a very big relief. I went round the lodge searching for a quiet hidden place i could dump Nmeka’s body. Of course i wasn’t thinking of dumping her outside the lodge because their wasn’t a way i could do it without being seen. I couldn’t ask the gateman to open the gate without arousing suspicion nor scale the fence with such a heavy load. I had to look for a spot within the lodge to dump the body.

Finally an idea quickly struck me. The was a staircase at the extreme end of wing c which was hardly used because the three stairs at the front and middle back of the big hostel was the most preferred by everyone. The staircase was exactly the kind of place i was badly searching for. There wasn’t any bulb underneath it like the other staircases {the bulbs were probably stolen} and so had poor visibilty even in the afternoon. My only fear was that the cleaners who swept the lodge every morning might discover her on time. Perhaps before i could be able to dispose her handbag and other belongings which i intend disposing at a place very far from the lodge later in the morning.

Seriously i never imagined my heart could be as dark as it was that fateful morning, but it got me to realise that the heart of man is very dangerous especially when faced with an unimaginable circumstance.

I quickly inspected the staircase, rushed to my room and carried the poor girl’s body. Discreetly i headed back to the staircase, my heart almost at breaking point.

I quietly carried her to the staircase, my heart beating wildly as i carried the heavy load.
I needed a whole lot of luck to avoid detection. Only a single mistake could destroy everything i had planned.

Luckily i got to my destination without being seen. I calmly dumped and pushed her well underneath the staircase {of the first floor}.
“if things go as planned perhaps it will take a day or two before she’s discovered” i reasoned before another idea came into my head.

I rushed up to my room, grabbed a bucket of water, came down and poured it all over her. I wasn’t a biologist but i felt it could destroy any evidence like my prints which were on her body. Yea it might sound silly but i felt a bit relieved after doing it even though the water quickly spilled out towards the exit door but it wasn’t enough to draw attention.
I grabbed the empty bucket and returned to my room. I knew nobody would investigate a spilled water in a lodge filled with students. Unless of course the cleaners.

As I got to my room, i quickly cleaned up everywhere, packing up all of Nmeka’s things in a big black sack bag including her phone which was the first in the list, but before doing it i first logged into her 2go account{luckily the appilication opened without asking for a password} and deleted everything about me, including my phone numbers and text messages we shared. I knew the police had the means to get me if they were serious but i did everything just as a precaution. I equally washed the bathroom, and changed my bedsheet, made sure everything was in order before sitting down to rest.

I was so terrified and nervous. I needed all the goodluck in the world. I was scared of being caught. My future just stood before me, glaring at my face. I knew i did the worst atrocity by trying to hide the poor girl, but i had no choice than to do it. I wasn’t ready to hang for something i had no hand in.

Nervously i waited for the hostel gate to be opened, the success of my plans depended on it. I had to dispose Nmeka’s things in a place very far away. Precisely in a river.
I cracked my head searching for a good river but couldn’t remember any. In desperation i thought of other alternatives.
“A good bush will do” i concluded as i remembered a very large bush, four hostels behind mine. The bush really was at the end of the street. A yet to be developed plot.

But i was very unsure of the best time to head to the place. I knew there wasn’t a way i could go there without being seen by many students and my movement might draw suspicion due to the sack bag in my possession and if eventually Nmeka’s body is found, tongues may talk and i could be caught. I reasoned.
“The only solution was to head out of the school environs with my load perhaps towards the small mechanic village which was fifty naira bus drop away from my lodge, find a good refuse dump site and dispose everything” .

---

Luckily her body wasn’t discovered that morning and so by 7:45am, i smashed her phone sim and memory card wrapped the debris in a small nylon before flinging it with the phone back into the sack bag. Soon after i left the lodge with my load and headed towards mechanic village, nervous, shaken but determined.

It was very easy to find a burning refuse dump site when i got there. I quickly disposed everything and headed back to my lodge a bit relieved.
All that was left was to sit and wait for the poor girl to be discovered.

I kept to myself, acting cool and trying hard not to behave in a way that could draw suspicion. It wasn’t easy, i couldn’t eat, sleep nor do anything. I was conscious of everything, plus i began seeing things. Strange weird things.
Perhaps it was my imagination, perhaps it was guilt and fear but i truly wasn’t myself anymore. I didn’t kill the girl but i wronged her spirit. I felt she was everywhere i went, staring at me with her dark eyes.

Then she was discovered…………………… An early monday cry from one of the cleaners ripped the whole lodge apart.

The sharp cry shook the entire lodge, frightening me tremendously. My heart furiously pounded. The day of reckoning finally has arrived.
I waited for few minutes in my room as i tried so hard to compose myself. Just like other students, i had to check out the cause of the cry and noise coming from downstairs. I wished i had travelled, but truly it was very bright of me to stay put in the lodge instead of travelling, because i had to be around in order to follow events and plan ahead. Moreover the hostel was a large one but it never stopped students who lived in it from knowing each other’s habit and as i hardly travelled. Who knows i could be suspected.

Yes i was so scared that i felt every step i took could lead anyone to suspect me even though i was far from being one of the hostel terrors nor cultists who could easily be suspected as the hand behind such a deadly act.

I drank a glass of water before heading out of my room. I slowly headed downstairs, towards where i dumped Nmeka’s body days ago. You can’t imagine how nervous and scared i was as i slowly made my way to that place.

Hundreds of students were already at the staircase when i got there. Students from the neighbouring hostels alike. I greeted some of my neighbours who told me of the terrific dicovery. I pretended to be shocked and forced my way to the front of the crowd.
After a little struggle, i succeeded in getting close to Nmeka’s body which was already pulled out from the staircase. The poor girl was now lying just some steps away from where she was originally dumped, looking pale as ever. I drew a bit close as if i was very concerned.

“do you know her?” a girl quickly asked me. I turned to see almost everyone staring curiously at me. I swallowed hard with tension. My guilty conscience shook me like an earthquake.

“what?” i stammered.

“do you know her?” the hostel president asked, before the girl could repeat her question.

“hell no. That’s exactly what i came to check” i managed to reply, dashing all their hopes.

“nobody knows her. She has no I.d or anything” the girl who asked the first question explained, while i shrugged, saying nothing.
The relief i felt as i heard the girl’s explanation was quite enormous. I really had feared the question was asked with suspicion.

However i still feared the worst was yet to come. I knew there must surely be a scapegoat. A sacrificial lamb who will be blamed for such a horrible crime.

Who will it be??.

The school SUG president soon showed up with the school authorities and the police, quickly dispersing everyone.

“you can now go on with your various activities, we are here to take charge of the situation. Be rest assured that the person behind this outrageous crime will be caught. If you have any information to share please don’t hesitate to bring it to our knowledge. Mind how you talk to the press or better still leave us to do the talking. You are warned” the Dean of students addressed us before we were dispersed.
I returned to my room extremely scared and afraid. I couldn’t imagine what the outcome of their investigation will be.

I didn’t leave my room all through the rest of that day. I simply stayed indoors with my conscience punishing me. I was ready to do anything for my fears to go away.

Nmeka’s body was taken away later in the afternoon. I couldn’t help but peep through my window as an ambulance carried the poor thing away. Yes the time was precisely 3:15pm. I really couldn’t imagine what caused the delay in moving a body discovered very early in the morning.

However some minutes after her body was taken away. A strange kind of dizziness took over my entire body. It was as if my room was spinning round with me in the center. I lost balance and collasped on my bed, breathing heavily while sweat drenched my body.
I couldn’t believe nor understand what was happening. I never experienced such a thing before, but luckily i regained myself some minutes after.

I tried hard to think what could have happened, but just couldn’t figure out anything. Not only was my eyes now seeing things that never was, the rest of my body has equally joined in the game.
Could Nmeka’s spirit be behind this?” i wondered Miserably.

“but i didn’t kill nobody. It was just an accident. I did what i had to do to save face” i kind of spoke aloud before realising myself.
A sharp knock of my door, quickly notified me of a visitor waiting outside.

“was i heard?. Is it the police?” i nervously asked myself as i slugglishly went to my door.

I nervously opened my door and came face to face with the hostel president, a policeman in uniform and the SUG president. I stared at them with panic.

“please can we come in?. The officer has some important questions to ask you” the SUG president explained while my heart froze. My guilty conscience was at its worst that moment.

I fearfully allowed them into the room, my heart pounding furiously as the policeman took a sharp look round my room before settling down on the only plastic chair i had, while the two students with him stood and stared at me. I knew they all noticed my nervous behaviour.

“I’m here to question you as a result of the body discovered in your lodge. The dead girl found under the stairs” The serious looking officer said to me as he brought out a small notebook which he opened.

“so what’s your name?” he asked. I breathed deeply and looked at the hostel president who nodded to me in agreement. I slowly murmured my name, repeating it twice.

“you saw the girl’s body right?” the officer asked. I swallowed hard and nodded. Nmeka’s image quickly appeared in my head.

“yes i saw her” i answered weakly,

“do you know her?” he asked, sending my heart flying with the question.

“um no, not at all” i replied,

“are you sure?” he asked again,

“yes i’m sure” i answered,

“you mean you have never ran across her even in school premises?” he asked.

“yes i’m sure, i havn’t seen her anywhere” i answered a bit boldly. He marked something in his book, closed it and stood up.

“thanks for your time, but i may be back” he grinned before leaving.

I locked my door, fell on my bed and covered my head with a pillow.
“liar, d--n you liar” i heard Nmeka’s voice scream in my head, sickening me.

I laid awake all night, scared and afraid. I was scared of Nmeka’s ghost, scared of the police and scared of being discovered.
A very terrible wind equally blew that night as if rain was about to pour, but there came no rain, instead the wind kept making strange noises on my window which seriously terrified me.

Early tuesday morning i packed some of my clothes in a small bag and headed to my friend Gideon’s lodge. I just couldn’t stay all alone in my room anymore.

Unfortunately Gideon and his neighbours were all too eager to hear the dead girl’s story, especially how she looked, who was being suspected and so on. They wanted to hear everything without knowing that they were upsetting me with their questions.
The more i managed to answer, the more questions they asked to the extent that i almost lost the remaining part of my mind.

Early wednesday morning i headed home to be with my surprised parents who were very astonished to see me return home in the middle of the week. I managed to mutter some lousy explanation which i believed they never truly bought.

But then it was as if the devil had so much interest in my case, because by 8:15am the next day, the hostel president called me on phone, asking me to show up at the lodge.

“The police needs to search your room”. He ended up saying.

“what?, what’s the reason for that?. Why will the police want to search my room?” i asked desperately.
“they just want to search all the rooms in the lodge. According to them it’s the procedure. You are not the only person, so you have to come as fast as you can or else they might break into your room when it gets to your turn” he explained patiently.

“fine i’ll be there” i murmured half-heartedly, breathing deeply.
__
It really took me about two hours to make up my mind on returning to the lodge, because i was so scared that the police might find something in my room. A lipstick, lock of hair anything incriminating. I feared.
Though I was so sure that i wiped my room clean before travelling, but they were experts and i was scared something could be found somehow.

However I finally returned to my lodge very late in the afternoon with the hope that my room has been broken into. But on the contrary it was as i left it {still locked}.

I quickly met the hostel president with questions in my heart and Immediately he saw me he smiled, offering his hand for a handshake.
“it’s very fine you showed up today. All the rooms that are yet to be searched will be searched tomorrow. Some students travelled like you did which is very bad and as a result the cops decided to search the rooms of available students today while the locked ones will be searched tomorrow whether the owners return or not” he explained, settling my curiousity.

I returned to my room a bit relieved and satisfied, quickly cleaned up everything in it one more time, washing the bedsheet Nmeka laid on over and over. Infact i made sure my room was very much in order before resting that day.
My room was so clean that the three policemen who searched it early the next day commented on it.

“seems like you are the cleanest student in this lodge. Your room is so clean” one of them said to me as he tossed around my properties, without suspecting a thing. I smiled nervously.

Unknown to them the room they were searching was the main crime scene and they left without finding anything, leaving me a bit relaxed.

“What next?” i asked myself as i watched them leave.

Two known cultists who lived in my lodge were finally arrested by the police that fateful day, leaving me very surprised. I couldn’t imagine what the police had on them.
But they were however freed two days later probably due to lack of evidence. The school authorities though came out to claim that the police has gotten a lead and that the suspect will be revealed soon.
I was very speechless and stunned after hearing the announcement because i was still free without any form of harassment from the police nor authorities.

Nmeka’s case slowly died without the police solving it nor saying anything new to us. My fellow Students were then left with theories and assumptions on what could have happened. Many believed that the two previously arrested cult boys drugged and raped the dead girl while others simply kept sealed lips.
The crime remained a big mystery, most especially because no student could identify nor claim to know her. We also never got to know what happened to her body soon after because the authorities suddenly decided not to share anything to us.
I felt they discreetly managed to locate her family or just buried the case in order to save face.

I was finally left with my conscience and God to judge me and i knew a permanent seat was already waiting for me in hell.
I struggled to finish the rest of the semester with Nmeka’s image haunting me in everything i did. I saw her everywhere. She kept whispering in my head, playing with my mind. I lost focus. I did poorly in my exams. I was a shadow of myself.

My parents soon noticed the change in me during the short vacation i came home to spend, but couldn’t do anything at first, probably because they were stunned. Finally mum was forced to take me to a pastor who fired some serious prayers on my behalf.

“A strong spirit is overshadowing your son, but i just can’t see the reason. All i can do is just to pray for him” he told my poor mother who broke down in tears.
I really could have confessed that very moment but i just couldn’t, and perhaps all Nmeka simply wanted was a decent confession to everyone and to her family. There wasn’t any doubt i treated the poor girl like a fowl by dumping her body under a staircase….

Now how do i continue living with her image still haunting my mind??
I have to live with it until i confess and find her family..

THE END