When Lisa Died

By The Vyrus Udensi and Prince Neche

 

Lisa was a third year Engineering student of the Enugu State University of Technology, commonly called ESUT and was with deeply in love with her boyfriend of three years, Eddie. They had met when she was just a freshman and had dated since then. She knew she loved him, she was sure he loved her too and even she knew he was a cultist, even despite the warning of her friends, she had no doubt in her mind she would be loving him for a really long time. Yes, her Eddie was a cultist but they didn’t know him, she did.

You see, Eddie was not your average cultist. He was calm and collected, he was funny, nice and wasn’t a bully like most cultists were. In fact, very few people were actually convinced he was a cultist due to his calm nature. He wasn’t violent and he never bragged about being a member of any cult on campus. Lisa was well aware of Eddie’s membership in a cult but she didn’t mind, after all everyone had their own baggage.

Eze was quite the opposite of Eddie. His involvement with secret cults weren’t hidden. It was as obvious as though he had it stamped on his forehead. He was violent and a bully. What was worse was the well-known fact that he was protected by charms commonly known as “ODESHI’”. Nobody could harm him, no weapon could hurt him, he was even nicknamed “Eze the Cat” because he seemed to have an unending string of lives.

One day, Eze saw Lisa making her way back to her lodge from lectures and decided there and then that she was going to be his girlfriend. He didn’t care that she had a boyfriend, whatever he wanted, he got and to him, Lisa was no exemption. He made advances every chance he got but Lisa kept turning him down. She was too in love with Eddie to have eyes for anyone else. Her constant refusal drove Eze mad, and he swore that if Eddie was the one keeping Lisa from him, Eddie had to die. He was unaware of the fact that Eddie was also a cultist.

A few weeks later, Eddie was murdered. His death raised an alarm because everyone knew Eddie to be calm and his sudden and violent death was a wonder. He had been shot dead in an eatery right on campus.  His fraternity brothers began searching for his killer, revenge was the first thing on their mind, and Lisa quickly provided them with the answer to their questions. EZE. She narrated to them how he had asked her out and when she told him she had a boyfriend who she wouldn’t leave, he had vowed to kill him. The hunt for Eze’s life began and Eze who had never shown fear, began to run. One night Eddie’s comrades stormed into Eze’s lodge and when they couldn’t find him, killed his three best friends.

The death of his friends angered him and he put all the blame on Lisa.  She was in her room recovering from an illness which stopped her from going to school that day. Eze slipped into her room and suffocated her with a pillow. He threatened everybody in the lodge that they would die if they ever tried to report what he had done and there was no doubt that he would do it. And so while investigations went on and the police tried to find Lisa’s killer, none of their lodge mates could say anything to pin the murder on Eze. They were too scared of him. It was obvious that all the police needed was a testimony from a witness implicating Eze but when asked, everybody feigned ignorance.

Three weeks into the murder of Lisa, the police investigation was yielding nothing and her lodge mates were getting restless. Their consciences pricked them and every time they passed her room, they felt like they had betrayed her. Lisa had been a good person. She seldom quarrelled and was always ready to lend a helping hand. She didn’t deserve what she was getting. Late one night, the lodgers decided to meet and discuss what to do. They all expressed shame in their refusal to help the police. Chioma, after heavy thinking, stood up and announced to everyone that she had decided to go to the police and give her version of what had happened. She narrated to the house that Lisa had helped her when she had no money to pay her fees and was almost kicked out of the examination hall. However, by the time the lodgers woke up, Chioma was nowhere to be found and later that day, her dead body was found in a gutter on campus.

This chilled the other lodgers to their bones. Eze had made do his threat and the remaining lodgers were terrified. Questions began to rise among them. It was obvious Eze had killed her but how had he known about her plan to report him to the police? How had he known about their late night meeting? Was he going to come for them too?

That evening, a message from Eze arrived the lodge.  The message said

                “No one should dare try to go to the police. No one should dare try leaving this lodge.       Anyone who dares will be hunted….. And killed.”

He proved his point when Philip, a member of the lodge, went clubbing one night and wasn’t able to come back to the lodge due to lack of transport. Eze saw it as an escape and quickly ordered his death. He had formed another vicious circle of friends after the loss of his three best friends. His new friends, unlike his last, wore charms for protection and this made them stronger and also made it tougher for anyone to get to Eze.

Again, the lodgers decided to meet, they were trapped.  They couldn’t leaving their lodge, they couldn’t go to the police. They were like sitting ducks waiting to die. The meeting turned out to be an effort in futility as everyone was fighting everyone. The house was torn and it ended without a decision taken. The next morning, two of the lodgers went missing; the guy who had called for the meeting and another boy who had suggested that they all go to the police station and pin all the murders on Eze. The disappearance of the boys further weakened the resolve of the lodgers and all the boys went to the station as a group to cause a riot which resulted in their arrest. They had decided that it would be better for them if they were locked up in cells and free from Eze’s wrath. This action of the boys left the girls alone in the lodge. They were eight of them and neither knew what to do. They decided to try for the last time. They were going to go to the police the next day and this time as a group. With their minds made up, they decided to spend the night together in one of the rooms so nobody will become frightened and change their mind. Within minutes of arriving at a conclusion, Eze and his boys stormed into the lodge. How he had gotten there so fast and with full knowledge of their plans, they had no idea but they knew two things for sure. 1, there was a mole among them and 2, Eze wasn’t happy, and when Eze wasn’t happy bad things happened.

He gathered them together and began to say how disappointed he was in their actions. As he spoke, he noticed one lodger hurdled in a corner and shaking like a leaf. He noticed that she was pretty and asked her for name, it was was Linda, he liked it. Eze had an instant crush he could barely contain. He began flirting with her, he couldn’t seem to help himself even as he could feel the jealous eyes of his mole and secret girlfriend, Chinelo, burning into his back. After a while, he left the room, locking the girls inside.

Chinelo had seen the look on Eze’s face when he spoke to Linda. She had noticed how he flirted shamelessly with her. He couldn’t even respect her enough to hold in his excitement. She was pissed beyond compare and she knew just what to do. They had been dating secretly for a year and she knew just how to bring him down. She knew his weakness and not even his armour of charms was going to save Eze from her. First it had been Lisa, she had been hurt when her beloved Eze had started chasing her like a dog to a bone but Eze had taken care of that problem himself. Lisa’s death had given her a little hope that maybe. Just maybe. Eze loved only her but this stunt with Linda had proven her wrong. She had managed to survive with his infidelity but not anymore. This time she would kill Eze and she knew just how.

The next day she went to Eze’s lodge and pretended she hadn’t noticed his flirtation with Linda. She seduced him into having sex with her and at the point where he was weak and completely lost in the throes of passion, she took out the dagger she had subtly put beside his bed, rubbed some palm oil on his necked and stabbed him until he died. His dying screams had brought other students into the lodge and they held Chinelo down until the police came and took her away.

Adindu was in his room playing video games with his friends when the news of Eze’s death and Chinelo’s subsequent arrest got to him. He was a cultist just like Eze but was deemed more powerful because not only did he use charms as well, but his charms were personally made by his father who was a very popular native doctor called “arusi ogwugu” which earned him the nickname “Arusi”. He was considered a boss in the underworld. He wasn’t just a cultist, he was also an armed robber, assassin and a kidnapper.

When Adindu heard of Chinelo’s arrest, he swore on his life to make sure he did something about it. Adindu was in love with Chinelo, in fact they had been dating secretly until he had asked her to begin dating Eze as a means of infiltrating his Fraternity. However, unknown to Adindu, Chinelo had fallen in love with Eze. He was happy to hear about Eze’s death and was proud of Chinelo, now was his chance to show her just how much he loved her, he planned on breaking her out of jail.

Meanwhile, Eze’s boys were unhappy with Chinelo. They made their own plan to kill her and it had to be done soon. She dared to kill their boss.

Adindu got wind of the plot against Chinelo’s life and went into action neutralizing it. He began his research on how to save Chinelo from both the police and Eze’s boys and in his search discovered that Chinelo had been in love with Eze and had kept his (Eze’s) weakness from him. He was sad and disappointed but was still determined to save her. He selected four of his most vicious boys and headed to his father for fortification. He had made up his mind, he had his plan drawn out, and he was going to raid the police station where Chinelo was being held. Done with the fortification process, he decide to strike on a Friday evening.

On the set day, Adindu and his boys drove into Ozalla police station and opened fire. Eight policemen were killed and all the cell doors were forced open, every single prisoner escaped and Chinelo was taken home.  Eze’s boys heard about the break and Chinelo’s freedom and decided to take her life then.  On sighting them entering her lodge, she knew she was in trouble and escaped using a window. She was shot in her leg but managed to make it to Adindu’s apartment, the only place she was safe at the moment.

The lodge was empty when the police arrived the next morning so no arrests could be made. Adindu nursed Chinelo’s gun wound and kept her safely in his father’s shrine. He was also out to deal with those who had tried to kill her and so with the help of his four friends he went after Eze’s boys. He succeeded in killing two of them while they were in a beer parlour drinking while the other two went into hiding.

Eze’s fraternity declared war on Adindu’s fraternity. It was a massacre as dead bodies seemed to pile up every day. In two days fourteen boys and six girls had been found dead already. ESUT Agbani campus became deserted. Students fled for dear life and the killing spree spilled into Enugu and the residents of the Coal City lived in fear. The police wasn’t left out, for they too were being killed in their large numbers by the cultists. Meanwhile, Chinelo was safely tucked away in Adindu’s hide out while he was at the warfront wasting lives.

Soon the government was involved and soldiers from the Nigerian Army as well as SARS were inviting to help the police. Cultists fled the city and a state of emergency was declared. Streets became deserted once it was 7:00 pm. Chinelo and Adindu were declared wanted and their posters were put up everywhere. Every cultist was in fear and whoever was arrested by the Army was forced to point out other cultists. But the SARS weren’t as patient. They shot on sight anyone who was of questionable behaviour or who looked to be a cultist.

One fateful evening, following a tip off by one of Adindu’s boys who had surrendered himself to the Army out of fear, Adindu’s hideout was found and the Army raided the place. All of Adindu’s boys were killed but because of his charms, Adindu seemed indestructible. Because no bullet could harm him, Adindu didn’t run. He faced the Army head on and succeeded in killing six of them before he was caught by hand. Every torture meted out to him to give away Chinelo’s where about proved to be futile. He couldn’t be broken. The Army then decided to torture him by dipping his fingers in acid, one after the other. The pain was more than he could bear and he eventually succumbed to the torture and gave away her hideout. The army went after her and she was arrested and tortured to a point where she died. Adindu was tied to a car and dragged on the tarred road as every other form of torture seemed useless. Lots of other cultist were shot dead and those who escaped death were arrested and brought to face trial.

Thus ended the war in ESUT and peace was brought back to the Coal City.