STORY: Continuation Sleeping With The Devil (18 +) Part 5 & 6

As is customary for after-long-swims in pools,streams,rivers,etc,my eyes were pure red as we left that
place.
If I should go back like that to our place,some people might mistake it that I may have taken something…
Something like weed!
I decided to follow Ebenezer to his place so as to come back with the cloak of nightfall and pretend that I
did actually go for evening mass as mum wanted. Everything fitted in…
Around 7:05pm on the same Sunday just as I was on my way back to our house,I got a call.
As is usual of me whenever a line not on my contact calls,I waited for the caller to speak first.
"Odii!" The voice gently called out.
"Yea!" I replied in my usual manner, knowing that the caller knows me well as to call me in my native
name.
"Can we see?" The voice asked.
" You called me with no intro of yourself, and u r still demanding to see me?"
I replied.
"You already know me!" The voice replied and the line went dead immediately!
I was like "you are not serious,when u get serious,call again!"..
………….
******THREE DAYS LATER******
"hello" the same voice bellowed again.
"Yea!" I replied.
"You know who's calling?"
The voice asked.
"You called,and still asking me?" I replied.
"You are rude!" The voice replied.
I ended the call immediately, and she called back and I picked it.
"You know,I just remembered your voice now? U called me on Sunday evening right?" I asked as soon as I
picked the call.
"Yes"..the voice replied.
"So?" I asked.
" I want to see you!"…the voice demanded.
"Seriously, I don't know what part of this earth u r from,but where am from,you don't just go out to see
people on demand!" I retorted.
The caller changed her intonation.
"Okay,its me!" The voice said very sweetly.
I was amazed.I was lost for words. I kept my mouth open not knowing what to utter again.
"So,u r now dumb Odii? U won't speak again abi? I thought you would have changed a bit!" The voice
spoke out,sneering and deriding as well as making a caricature and catching fun at my expense.
"I can't believe this.I just can't believe this.I thought u have….." I didn't finish before she cut me short.
"Forget it.Promise me you will come and see me?" The voice inquired.
"Why not.I think am gonna invent my highest lie ever to come and see you." I jokingly said.
"I will be waiting!" She replied.
Immediately the line went dead,I was full of smiles.
"This one u r smiling like this,she don call you?" Blessing joked.
"Guess who just called me?" I asked her.
"How will I know!" She nonchalantly replied.
"Jane!" I said.
" Jane just called me"….
And all this while,my mind was going places,thinking weird things,I almost thought that it was Pretty still
trying to terrify me even though I just relegated everything about her to mere over-thinking.
But was it? Was it all real?
Am why has Jane chosen this moment to reappear in my life again?
I had many thoughts that weighed heavily on my mind and went to sleep with it….. And I regret ever doing
so !
The thought of Jane occupied my mind for the rest of that day cuz its been long since I last saw
her;especially, the fact that led to our not-seeing-each-other!
I did a lot of digging within me,trying to find a way I was gonna use to travel to Owerri to go and see
her.Our school has closed for the semester,so no-school-lies will bail me out. At some point,my mind just
told me to relax and forget about any thoughts,with the assurance that something better will surely come
up.
I have missed Jane!
**************************
"Finally!" I said.
"Why did you do it?" Pretty replied.
"You mean why I stopped you from unintentionally killing yourself that day?" I inquired.
"Yes!" She replied.
"Is that what we are actually supposed to be discussing?" I asked her.
"You just don't understand, do you?" She asked.
" Am still trying to make sense of everything you know? I close my eyes,the next thing is you. I see you in
everything I now do.Its like am being haunted. And all this started that day I saved you.
Why not make me understand?" I replied her.
I could see a feeling of empathy as well as sympathy written all over her face even in her hallowed
insistence of appearing tough-faced.
"I will come to you later.By then, I will explain certain things to you.Till then,avoid going near anything
water(pools,streams,etc)." She said.
"What?" I shouted,even though it was not my intention to do so.
"Goodbye!" She said and in my amazement, I opened my eyes only to realise I have been dreaming.
Was it really a dream? Or was it made to appear as a dream to me?
I didn't really know the answer to the above questions, but one thing I was certain of is the fact that I'm
being haunted and the reason for the haunting eludes me!
I thought it through,but I found out that there was nothing else I could except sit and wait for Pretty to
come back as she promised she would..And that's that!
The next day, I put a call through to Jane:
"Odii or Michael,which one do you answer now?" Jane said as soon as she picked my call.
"Anyone you choose is okay by me." I said.
And continued:
"I don't think I can come to Owerri and sleep over,but…" I stopped.
"Why not? Have you now forgotten how to conjure up truthful lies as usual?" She said,mocking as well as
seriously concerned.
" Well,I could come,but I would still go back that day;and knowing you fully well,I know u won't like it that
way.You know,I no longer have those my childhood privileges then,things have changed." I ended.
Silence!
"You are not saying anything?" I queried calmly.
"Do u want me to come to Aba?" She said.
"Yes.I would love you to!" I replied.
" Okay.I will come tomorrow then!" She said.
"Tomorrow?" I said out loud.
"Are u going somewhere else tomorrow?" She questioned.
"No. no. Its just that its just all of a sudden. Anyway,what should I keep for you?" I inquired.
"Keep yourself for me!" She replied immediately, and started laughing,ending the call in the process!

•••••••••••Part 6••••••••••••••

Ebenezer have earlier told me he was going to travel back to Rivers state on Thursday,but he deferred
it,and travelled instead on Friday morning.
His place of abode was my only hope(if you understand what I mean).
Towards 10:00am,Jane called me:
"Am at Brass junction,where are u?" She inquired.
"Now now? Just wait somewhere,I will be there in a jiffy!" I replied.
"Okay!" She retorted and cut the call.
Damn! Things were happening so fast, faster than ever.
I knew Jane was coming, but hell,this was too sudden. Not really sudden,but too early and as I would love
to say,unexpectedly unexpected!
With many stuffs still going through my mind,I started hearing those thoughts again,thoughts of Pretty
filled my head as the keke I chartered from the road adjoining my street to Brass breezed through Eziukwu
road and joined Aba/owerri road.All throughout my thinking, the only explicitly clear was the fact that "I
was not gonna go home happy after meeting Jane!". I took it that someone must be getting jealous and
unhappy or that someone really didn't want to see me happy… Whichever one,I placed them where they
rightly belonged, in the figment of my imagination, the part where Pretty has vehemently relapsed to
preying on!
****************************
I alighted from the keke as soon as I reached Brass,and is customary for most people,I searched around
first with my eyes before calling her.
She told me she is inside the mtn Customer care center around that place as soon as I called her.
As I walked on to that place,memories began to overcome me,memories of Jane and I.It even made me
remember that it has not really been that long,even though it has been long,that we last saw;and the most
painful part of this pain filled memories is the manner in which we were separated.
Well,one thing is clear,we have a lot to discuss.
I was still having this thoughts in my mind,probably lost to them,when I heard my name:
"Odii!"
As I looked up straight, there was Jane coming out elegantly,and appeared ravishingly with her normal
laugh brimming and shining all over face,and is customary of her,she called me:
"Nwa ojoo!"
Which means "bad boy" when u translate it literally,but whose meaning don't really mean what it appears
to interpret!
I couldn't help but hug her tightly,even though I rarely hug females,to her own bewilderment.
I held her hand very tightly and led the walk as she followed me smiling, walking very close to me and I
could see peeps peeping at us..and I didn't give a damn!
"So where are we going? Are u taking me to your peoples house?" She inquired.
"Do you want me to take you there?" I asked.
"Nope!" She said.
"Okay ooo.we are going to my second place!" I said.
"So,you don't want to take me to a hotel?" She inquired.
"Hian! Hotel kwa? Well,probably as the last choice.But,as at now,nothing really dey!" I replied.
There are people you can lie to and there are people you can't.You just have to say it as it is cuz they
don't mind.They know you,you know them,and nothing can ever go wrong from you saying your
mind…..Just don't lie to them!
"I want us to go to a hotel Odii." She required of me exclusively.
Well,I obliged.Some things are better left unsaid. Since she wanted a hotel, I didn't bother about the
money cuz she was gonna foot the bill.
………
"Wait wait wait." I found myself saying as soon as we entered the hotel room she booked for us in that
City Global hotel.
"Wait what?" She asked.
"We just entered now,we have not even talked and …." I didn't finish before she cut me short:
"We will talk!".
Upon completion of that sentence,I didn't even realise how fast I got myself entangled with Jane's body
as she gently made me lower myself upon the edge of the bed and then gently made me readjust myself
so that she gracefully was relaxed on top of my body as we kissed hungrily like two starved hyenas.
She removed her mouth from mine,and her entire body followed suit.
Before one could say jack-the-ripper,Jane has totally undressed,and she looked at me as I kept smiling
and literally forgotten that I was still in my clothes myself.
She did that thing,yes,that biting of lips thing,and in that moment,I didn't know whether it was that she
was me-starved or s*x-starved.
But whichever one,one thing is clear though, am the one now stalling!