23:54hrs
Who’s there?!
WHO’S THERE?!
Am I being followed or am I just scared?
I couldn’t be followed, not at this time of the night. The road’s clear and I’ve seen no one, only heard footsteps. I guess I’m just making all these up as a result of fear.
But wait, he can’t make me feel this threatened. No he can’t! … he was just joking when he told me to spend it all in an hour – the next hour. Who does he think he is? I’ve being at this gambling biz for almost 11 years and now I swore to Sylvia that this would be my last that’s when I’m seeing this shit! BASTARD! I’m not going to let him intimidate me.
Its just unfortunate that tomorrow, Sylvia’s birthday is a public holiday lest I’d just have placed most of the money in the bank and showered the rest on her – at least then my mind would be in less fear of losing the money. Now I have to live in fear! Fear! Who cares, he definately won’t be able to get anything out of me just like the rest who have tried and still failed. I’ve dealt with a lot more fierce bastards, but I still can’t understand why he gives me the creeps. This is my biggest win, I guess its just the insecurity that comes with money along with the more money more problem syndrome.
23:55hrs
Home!
And now a little bit of security should be setting in any moment from now. Gosh! I need a hot water shower but first I need to discuss this win with my cousin and probably help me calm this unsettled mind a bit.
Friends tell me not to trust anyone if I’m to live long as a gambler. But I can’t ‘cannot’ trust my cousin. He’s my cousin! As in, father’s-brother’s-child cousin! Its just he & Sylvia I’ve got left and nobody’s taking them away from me. Besides he truly appreciates my Sylvia, and with a heart he does.
As I approach his room, he steps out dressed and with a bag; to where I never knew for he leaves most nights like this and doesn’t return in days. This was the one secret he kept from me. I take care of him like the brother I never had and so I believe he’ll let me know about his movements when he feels the time is right or if he were ever in trouble, he probably would have asked for my help at a point in time, but nothing like that has ever happened so I always let him be. He never was much of a talker though.
“Did you make it?” he asked not taking a look at me as he left the house.
“Yep!” I replied like I was trying to use my answer to call him back to the house. I ignored and quickly made for the man-hole in his room. I hid the stacks of cash there. My only worries now should be those rabbit-sized rodents – rats. Just as I stepped down, I heard voices whispering at the back-yard. This time, I knew for sure that I wasn’t making those voices up in my head and if I was, I most definately was starting my next working day with a psychiatric evaluation. I thought I recognised one of the voices. It must belong to that beast at the gambling table – a guard. SHIT! THE DOOR’S STILL OPEN!
23:56hrs
Right before my eyes and in ways my brain could neither understand nor explain, everything began seeming like a hollywood movie on slow-motion.
Before the next pump of blood from my heart into the nearest of arteries, I realised I had being followed all this while and definately by same people I won the stash from. They were presently outside my house and unfortunately, I forgot to shut the door after my cousin left.
As I made my way towards the still opened door, I knocked down my favourite three legged black wrought iron stool with my right leg’s tibia. I couldn’t care less about the pain or blood slowly osmosizing out from the now semi-permeable portion of the skin. I hit the lights off in the inner room as my defense mechanism finally starts to set in. Going my fastest to get to the front door, avoiding tripping over a snow-white leather couch in the sitting room and trying to turn off the volume of the black 45-inch finger width Samsung L.E.D tv playing the Implication video by Mr. Idibia at 85% of its volume, I made my way for the door first. Just as I grabbed the handle of the 2.1 metre height steel brown bullet proof door in an attempt to slam it, I noticed a sudden resistance from the door. Just like the slow mo’ pictures of ‘The Matrix’, the door made its way towards me despite the force I exerted on it and BAM! It shot right into my face with a speed I had no time to comprehend for before I could think, my nose was broken and my lips torn. Blood splattered off my mouth, eyes closed themselves in self-defense and I had being set in flight backwards across the room. It seemed I wasn’t going to be understanding a lot of happenings tonight.
It was the loud thud I heard previously that sent the door backwards and it came from him. He the black-skinned 6feet 7inches club bouncer built full grown man with blood shot eyes and a size 50 red-wings-steel-toed safety boot now walking into the room followed by 5 other average sized men.
Ending my brief flight, I landed into my well cherished black wrought iron table with a 2.5inch glass top, shattered it and was now stuck in its frame. As I landed, I realised the greatest of my fears were finally materialising.
