Damien opened his eyes.

Aargh! My arms! My tummy! My head!

He winced at the pain pulsating through his system. Every cell in his body was crying out in agony.

He was on the ground. As he sat up, he felt a thickness around his neck. He touched and found a thick rope tied around him.

Wincing again at the aches running through his arms, he whispered to himself, “Where am I?”

“See am! He giddup! Herh, wo yɛ aboa paaa, wa ti?”

“Kwasia boy!”

“See ein f**king face!”

“Stupid monkey!”

“Wo maame t**, wati! Sia boy!”

It had been quiet just a moment ago. Now insults were being rained upon him with the intensity of a hurricane. He looked up, and realized he was in some open space with a small building nearby. No idea whether he was near home or as far as could be.

And he saw faces.

The angry faces of all those shatta guys that accosted him and Kazuka as they showered him with the vilest abuse.

His face contorted in sorrow. At this point, he did not know what else to do. He had already seen the error of his ways in getting aggressive with them. But the fact remained: why were they after him? What had he done to them?

“Please, what is my wrong?” he asked mournfully. “What have I done to deserve this? I don’t understand. I just don’t. please, what have I done for you people to come after me like this?”

The shattas were too busy yelling their abusive words to even pay attention to his pleas.

“Odwan!”

“Useless fool!”

“F**king fool!”

He was ready to cry at this point. Why wouldn’t they listen to him? Did they just want to torment him for the sake of it? This just wasn’t fair!

Suddenly, a voice called out. “Chale, Nico dey come!”

The noise came to a grinding halt; all the shattas suddenly went silent.

Nico? Who’s that? Damien wondered, marveling at how they all suddenly grew quiet upon the mention of that name.

A few seconds passed, and a dark guy dressed in a black T shirt with the picture of a skull and black jeans walked in between them and up to Damien.

Damien looked up at him. He had the coldest of looks on his face. He could tell this was their boss.

“So, you be the kwasia them dey call Damien McCarthy, eh?”

Damien trembled. Whoever this Nico guy was, he was giving off an extremely scary aura. He nodded nervously.

“Kwasia, ibi my head I take biz you the question? Gbele your mouth then answer! Aboa ba!”

“Yes! Yes, please. I’m Damien!” Damien quickly responded, terrified to the bone. Yep, this Nico guy certainly was scary.

“You be very foolish boy, you hear? Aboa! Wo maame t**! Stupid fool!”

Damien flinched. Those insults were as good as slaps, the way they were spat out.

“B-b-but boss,” he started tearfully, “w-w-wh-what have I done? I-I-I’ve never met you before. I-I don’t know what I’ve done…”

“Oh, you no know, eh? Okay, wait for me. I dey come.”

Shivers of fear ran through Damien’s system as Nico walked back to where he came from. What the hell was he gonna bring up?

Less than a minute, and Nico returned.

With another person.

Damien’s pupils dilated and his jaw dropped in awestruck horror.

What the f**k?

The last time he saw that person clad in the brown dress she wore, it was for the very first time, and he had been extremely excited by the ridiculously juicy curves he saw. Now he saw her, and nothing but fright coursed through his veins.

It was Lily.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth! She knows this guy? Is that her boyfriend or something?

“So, you this insignificant little nigga,” Nico began, “got the opportunity to come to Donkorkrom. You saw this lovely young girl, who happens to be my cousin. Your eye come dey ein top, wey you move to am, tell am chaw lies so sey you go fit f**k. You manage deceive am finish, you f**k aaa, six months straight, wey suddenly you just jemi. Wey she call you dey biz where you dey aa, you tell am sey you return, na the f**king wey you dey f**k, na ibi just entertainment give you. You get the f**king nerve tell my kiddie cousin sey ein body be toy give you? Kyɛrɛsɛ, she just be sex object give you? You be very stupid goat, you dey hear?”

To say Damien was perplexed would be an understatement. Not in a million years would he have expected that this would pop up any time soon. As far as he had known, Lily barely knew people outside her hometown. He thought all those steamy liaisons with her would follow him to his grave.

But here he was, getting an earful from her scary gangster cousin, in the midst of proper killas.

What to do, what to do… what the hell do I do?

Damien shook his head vigorously. “No-no-no-no-no-no, you’ve got it all wrong. Look, look, yes, I did sleep with her… but, but, I never said those things. It-it-it, it was just a small misunderstanding that broke us up. I swear. I’d never do anything to hurt her. I-I-I still really like her. H-h-honestly. I have nothing but love and respect for Lily, I swear-“

Nico’s laughter cut him short. He watched on as the leader of this army let out loud, scornful laughs. Whatever convinced him to tell that lie did not do him any favours; he was nowhere near convincing.

“Love and respect? You say you dey love and respect am? Okay, so tell me. If you really dey love and respect Lily like you dey talk, then tell me why just this gbɛkɛ, you make hype you dey take sextape of the two of you show those your useless niggas for Gels Bridge?”

Damien doubled over in shock. That took him by surprise. That was supposed to be for the consumption of him and his boys alone. How in the world was this guy in the know about it?

“What?? How did you know about that?” he blurted out in disbelief, before realizing he had pretty much admitted to it. He looked at Lily.

She had covered her mouth in horror. She had always been particular about not wanting to record their sessions. To hear that he had breached that agreement was a shocker, to say the least.

“What! Damien!” she cried out. “So even after we agreed to not record any of the times we had sex, you went ahead and recorded one without my knowledge? Ei! And you’ve gone to show it to your friends? Ei, Damien! How could you?”

Damien’s heart rate was quadruple the normal rate as he sat there, watching as Nico was handed a bicycle tyre chain, which he began to wrap around his fist.

This was worse than he thought.

“N-no-no-no-no-no-no-no! See, it was a fake video. I swear,” he tried to explain, with the same unconvincing nature. “Lily, Lily, I swear, it’s not a video of us. I-I-I’d never do that. I-“

“AAAARRGGHHHH!”

The next thing he knew, Nico descended upon him, pinning him roughly to the floor.

“PLEASE! PLEASE-“

That fist wrapped in the tyre chain silenced his terrified plea, as Nico went hard on him.

“FOOL! ABOA BA! STUPID BOY! NEXT TIME, YOU GO THINK TWICE BEFORE F**KING ANY GIRL JUST COZ YOUR BODY COME! YOUR MORDA!”

The army surrounding them roared with approval as Nico Blaze pummeled Damien with furious punches. It was like a crowd watching a UFC match, except that this was more of a beatdown than a fight.

Even Lily, who didn’t enjoy watching violence unfold, looked on with approval. The knowledge that Damien had done such a despicable thing to her stripped away any bit of sympathy she would have had for him.

Every punch was a bone-jarring thud that sent shockwave after shockwave of agony through Damien’s entire frame. It was an absolute avalanche of fury he was at the mercy of, and there was no one to step in for him.

Nico Blaze got off him after a bit, and roared angrily. Damien, flat on the floor, could barely feel his face. He was absolutely battered.

“Kwasia boy! Your morda, you hear? Herh, chale, make somebody give me bottle. Make I give am Rawlings haircut! Next time, he go learn sense! Gyimifuo!”

Damien weakly lifted his head as he heard that. He had never heard that term before, but he knew damn well what that was all about. Thanks to sweet Mama Doris and her love for stories.

“Please, please, I beg you-“

Nico barely heard his pleas as he moved to one of his goons, who handed him an empty Star Beer bottle.

The urgency in his voice increased. “Please, boss, please, don’t-“

Nico, with another blazing roar, brought the bottle down to the ground.

Its bottom smashed into pieces, with shards flying everywhere. Lily jumped back and was led to safety by Lamidi, while the others cheered at the action.

Whether the panic endued him with some extra strength, nobody knew. But that action had Damien pulling himself up, his eyes filled with terror as Nico turned toward him.

Their eyes met. Dread meeting rage.

Nico charged towards him, ready to make use of that broken bottle piece in his hand. The sheer fury with which he moved made it very obvious that this haircut would take off more than just hair.

And Damien knew that too well.

“NO, NO, PLEASE! I BEG YOU, DON’T DO IT!” he screamed hysterically, his hand raised. “I’LL DO ANYTHING, BOSS, ANYTHING! I SWEAR ON MY MAMA’S LIFE, I’LL DO ANYTHING YOU TELL ME TO! PLEASE, DON’T DO THIS TO ME!”

Nico stopped.

And looked at him, the broken bottle still in his hand.

Damien trembled violently, his tear filled eyes begging for mercy as the shattas surrounding them continued baying for blood.

“I SWEAR, BOSS! I’LL DO WHATEVER YOU TELL ME TO! IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT IT IS, I’LL DO IT! PLEASE!” Damien pleaded loudly.

“Comot for there! Gyimi!”

“Nico, forget am! Slay the motherf**ker!”

The tears standing in his eyes ran down as the shattas roared for Nico to go ahead with the ‘haircut’.

Seconds passed, then Nico held up his hand.

The rowdiness came to a halt.

“Chale, niggas, relax, make I hear this little s**tbag,” he said calmly before turning back to Damien. “So you go do anything?”

There was something unsettling about the tone in which that question was asked. But Damien was not going to do anything that would put him at risk of getting a bloody shave. He nodded. “Yes, yes, anything, boss. I swear, walahi!”

Nico Blaze laughed heartily, then turned to his boys. “Niggas! You dey hear what he dey talk? He say he go do anything ooo! Wey he take walahi add. So anything I say make he do, he dey promise sey he go do. Wey you all be witnesses.”

The impact of Damien’s frightened promise dawning on them, a chorus of Aaaaahs rang among the squad, as they began to guffaw and snicker.

Nico seemed to have accepted his offer, but the dread in Damien’s bowels did not dissolve. He knew he was not getting out of this in a favourable position.

Nico looked at Lily, who had called his name, then walked over to her and whispered in her ear. She whispered back into his. They continued to do this for a few minutes.

He then paused for a moment, looking deep in thought. Then he nodded and walked over to Damien.

Damien trembled as he approached, wondering what demand was gonna be made of him.

“So listen. So this be what you go do…”

Maximum punishment, without a doubt! Damien should be very grateful Nico didn’t give him that ‘haircut’. I wonder what his orders are, though…