Drill groaned as he came to, the sharp ache on his face and the ringing sensation in his ear making him wince. His eyes fluttered open to a grimy darkness, lit only by a single, flickering bulb hanging from a rusty chain above.

He sat up slowly, and as his eyes adjusted, he began to pick out shapes in the darkness.

Cracked walls, a pile of broken chairs, and, a few feet away, a pig trough brimming with murky water.

This looked like a dump. A trashy dump. Seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

“Where the hell am I?” he muttered, dragging himself upright.

A voice broke the silence, steady and commanding. “Not where you expected, I’m sure.”

Drill spun toward the sound, his hand instinctively reaching for the knife tucked in his back pocket, but it wasn’t there.

As he tried to figure out where it was, a man stepped out of the shadows, tall and broad, his silhouette cutting an imposing figure.

It was the man he tried to fight at the hospital. The old man.

Drill narrowed his eyes. This elderly guy was really trying to be the bane of his mission in the Garden City.

“Hey! Hey!” he barked. “What the hell is this? Where have you brought me to? If you don’t get me out of this place, eh…”

Remmy ignored the demand, his voice calm and almost conversational. “You know, this is a part of Kumasi most people don’t know exists. Old soldiers do, though. We used to call it the Graveyard. Came here to clear our minds after some crazy missions. The newer recruits don’t come here, though. And that’s fine; I like to have it to myself whenever I come here.”

Drill snorted. “Soldiers? Graveyard? What the f**k are you rambling about?”

Remmy took a step forward. “Do you know who I am?”

“What the f**k do I care about-“

The crack of Sir Remmy’s hand slamming against the trough startled Drill into silence. The dirty water sloshed, spilling over the sides.

“Shut your filthy mouth, fool!” Sir Remmy growled slowly. “If you don’t know me, boy, you’d better learn fast.”

As his eyes bore straight into Drill’s, the young man could feel a tint of his bravado and fierceness dissipate.

“Now lemme ask you a question. Have you ever seen a man take his last breath on the battlefield? Have you ever watched your brothers in arms fall beside you, their blood staining the earth? Have you ever… downed a man in the line of duty?”

There was something unshakable and unyielding about the man before him that made the fight in him wane, second by second.

“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Retired Lieutenant Colonel Remaliah Mills-Odoi. I served my country in the Armed Forces for thirty good years. I’ve been in wars, I’ve spent months on the battlefield. I’ve seen things that would make pathetic little pipsqueaks like you whine and cry for your mommy. I’ve watched men get killed right beside me. And I’ve killed men in the line of duty. “

He paced slowly, his tone low and menacing.

“I’ve been to the lowest of places. Physically and emotionally. I’ve killed many men as a soldier, and trust me, it’s taken me to dangerous places mentally. I nearly became desensitized to violence, nearly tapped into the evil side. It’s only because of that amazing woman I call a wife that I was saved from becoming a psychopath. Went through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for months before I went back to normal, and thank God for that, coz my wife needed her husband, and my girls needed their father. But trust me, I am still dangerous, and you do not make the mistake of messing with me or my people.”

Drill blinked, tension taking over his frame.

“Just look at you. Standing there, acting like you’re some tough guy. I’ve seen real tough guys, you know. Tough guys with a real heart of steel and fists of iron. Tough guys who braved the most terrifying of conditions on the war front. Guys who ran through fields with landmines, damning real danger, for love of country. Those are real tough guys. And you… you’re not even fit to lick their spit off the floor! All you are is a loudmouthed fool with a serious deficiency of wisdom and sense.”

Drill shifted uncomfortably, the weight of Remaliah’s words stripping away his bravado.

“You’ve got the nerve to barge into my home, stab one of my boys, and you think you’d get away with it? No freaking way! I’m not letting the police have you, oh no, not at all. That’s too easy. You need to know who you’re messing with.”

If this was a showdown between boxers, Remaliah had won the psychological battle before a fist had been thrown. The look on Drill’s face had fright all over it, even though he tried to keep a defiant front. He definitely had not imagined this old man was a retired soldier with years of experience on the battlefront. He knew there was little chance of besting him.

Nonetheless, he tried. Through clenched teeth, he muttered, “You let me go right now or I swear-“

“You’ll beat me up?” Remaliah goaded. “Oh, go ahead. Beat me up. Go on. Gimme your best punches. Beat me to a pulp. Then you can get out of here. Please, I’m waiting. Beat me!”

His heart pounding violently, he shivered. This man certainly had the upper hand, and whatever went down in the next couple of seconds was never going to end well for him, bar a sudden heart attack or something.

He closed his eyes, trying his best to motivate himself.

“Come on, you little coward! Beat me! You want to get out of here, don’t you? Beat me up! Waste me! Show me all your toughness! Aren’t you supposed to be a tough guy? Prove it!”

The mockeries from this man’s mouth sent a burst of adrenaline through his veins.

Yes, I am tough! Maybe not like you, but I am! And I’ll show you!

He opened his eyes, and with a roar, lunged toward Remaliah.

As he drew closer, a fist drove right through his stomach, silencing him. The pain that followed was blinding.

“Owwwff!” he moaned, keeling over in agony. That jab to the gut had taken the air out of him.

Before he could recover, a firm hand gripped him by the neck and pulled him over. In a matter of seconds, he was at the pig trough. Still in pain, he offered zero resistance as he was forced to his knees.

Next thing that followed: his face was plunged into the murky, foul-smelling water of the pig trough.

The liquid filled his nostrils, and his eyes burned from the sheer filth.

After what felt like an eternity, he was yanked back up, only to be shoved down again. The second dunk was even worse, the panic setting in as his lungs screamed for oxygen.

Pulled up once more, he barely had time to catch a breath before his head was submerged for the third time. Each second under the water felt like an hour, the terror and the stench overwhelming him.

When he was finally allowed to breathe, he was coughing, and spluttering, his body trembling from shock and trauma. Not even three minutes had passed, but it felt like he had spent an eternity in that awful state.

He was immediately turned, and a fierce-looking Remaliah met him, the most brutal of glares boring down on him.

The next thing he felt: the stinging pain in his right knee as Remaliah’s boot landed on it roughly.

“AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!”

His mind had barely registered the exquisite nature of this pain when another stomp landed on his left knee.

He screamed out loud again.

This was hellish. Absolutely hellish. Any iota of a belief that he could best this man was quenched. This man could easily tear him limb from limb.

“You still think you’re tough?” Remaliah snarled, looking him right in the eyes.

Drill trembled, unable to speak. He had never been in the presence of such a terrifying being before. This man made his granduncle seem like a sweet man who loved cuddles and cupcakes.

S**t, I never should have shown up and stabbed the guy at the house! Why did I do it? Why did I do it?

A thick, steel-like palm whipped him across the face, leaving him wincing in pain.

“I’m talking to you, fool, answer me! You still think you’re tough?”

“No, no, sir!”

“You still think you’re tough!”

“No, sir! No!”

“DO YOU STILL THINK YOU’RE TOUGH?” Remaliah roared.

“NOOO, PLEASE, NOOO!”

A terrifying roar of fury from the old soldier was immediately followed up with the roughest of rustling. The ferocity with which Remaliah shook him was enough to jumble up his skeletal system.

“LISTEN HERE, YOU STUPID, GOOD-FOR-NOTHING PIECE OF S**T! IF YOU DON’T ANSWER ME WELL, I WILL BREAK EVERY F**KING BONE IN YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE BODY RIGHT NOW! DO YOU STILL THINK YOU’RE TOUGH!”

“NOOOO! NOO, I DON’T! I’M NOT TOUGH! I’M NOT! I’M NOT!”

With that, Drill broke down. As Remaliah let him go, he fell to the floor, crying loudly, feeling absolutely broken by this punishment at the hands of a man he had grossly underestimated.

Remaliah straightened himself and sneered at him. “Stupid little boy.”

It felt like an hour as he lay there, just letting out his sorrow. He had been absolutely shattered, and there was nothing he wanted more than to just get out of there. Anything to be far from this beastly man.

He then felt a force pull him up by the back of his neck. Once again, his eyes met with Remaliah’s, which continued to burn with rage.

“Now, you listen to me and you listen good. You will leave this city, go back to Accra with your pathetic tail in between your legs, and you will never, ever try to come back for Akushika and her baby. You will forget they ever existed like you already chose to, and you will live your life accordingly. You do not have a child. You do not have a baby mama. Do you hear me?”

“Yessir, yessir, yessir! I promise, I swear on my grandfather’s life-“

“SHUT UP!”

Drill immediately went mute.

“Now, in the interim, you will walk your useless little butt to some little clinic, tell them you were ambushed by some robbers, and once treated, you will do as I say and never show up again. You are not fit to be a father to that sweet little girl, and you are not going to barge in and cause any more trouble. Do you hear me?”

Drill nodded frantically.

“And I promise you, if you ever, at any point in time, show up in Shika’s life to create any kind of chaos, you will find yourself in this graveyard again. And trust me, it will be the last place you see before you end up in hell. Understand?”

Again, Drill nodded.

He felt the grip on him loosen.

“Get out of here. Now.”

With that order, Drill sped out of the place as fast as he could. As he sped out of the messy shack and along the dark streets of Kumasi, he didn’t know where he was going, but one thing was for sure.

He was never going to bother Akushika again. Ever. 

Forget about the will. Forget what his family would say. None of that mattered.

He was never getting close to her. His life depended on it.

***

Remaliah walked out of the hospital, a sense of relief flooding his system. He had just checked up on Jonny. The wound was pretty bad, but he had been stitched up nicely and was set to stay overnight, with some extra tests and treatment due before he could return home.

“Thank God Jonny’s gonna be okay,” he sighed to himself as he got into his car. As he shut the door, his phone pinged, a WhatsApp message coming through. He decided to answer. After answering, he checked the statuses of some contacts, and for a moment, got distracted, looking through as many as possible.

Then one contact’s status had a poster for a seminar. That caught his attention.

“Hmmm. PTF, Protecting The Family Foundation presents ‘essential principles of effective parenting… mmm, interesting… who are the speakers… let’s see… huh? Brogan and Martina Acolatse? Seriously?”

That was not what he expected to see. Akushika’s parents as speakers at a seminar about effective parenting? These horrible parents were going to advise other parents on how to raise their children?

He shook his head. “This is ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. When is it… it’s tomorrow? Herh! These people paaa. Ei, if PTF knew the kind of people they’re bringing on…”

He trailed off as a thought crossed his mind. He pondered over it for a moment, and then, a sly smile crossed his face.

He closed WhatsApp and immediately moved to call Drusilla.

“Dru, my love… no, no, don’t worry, I’m not killing anyone. I just taught him a little lesson. A much-needed one. Anyways, could you please pack a suitcase for me? I need to go to Accra tomorrow. I have some… impromptu business to take care of… I’ll tell you about it when I come home…”

That was so sweet to witness! Drill deserved every bit of that punishment.

As for the Acolatses, the actual nerve! Sir Remmy better do a madness on them…