10 ROSES AND THORNS

Amanda.

I couldn't believe my eyes. She was standing right in front of me but I still couldn't believe it was her. I nearly found myself screaming "ghost! ghost!".

"Oh, it's you" Aisha said to Amanda, "you scared me" Aisha didn't look scared at all. But wait, Aisha wasn't surprised to see Amanda. Why?

"Won't you give your best friend a hug, Rachael?" Amanda said with a wide grin. Aisha was amused seeing the look of terror on my face. I couldn't even find the words to comprehend what I was thinking.

Amanda was my best friend back then. We had been very close before suddenly disappeared one day and we heard she'd been kidnapped. At a point everyone lost hope and assumed she was dead. All manner of things were said then and assumptions were made and I never knew which one to believe or if I should even believe anyone at all.

All these months, I thought Amanda was already dead. I'd already lost hope of ever seeing her beautiful face or hearing her laugh again. In case she didn't know, she had just dropped a big bomb on me and I was dumbfounded.

"I thought you were dead" was the first thing that left my mouth. I didn't know where to start from. I had a lot of questions to ask her.

"She's the person we were coming to see" Aisha replied instead. I looked from Aisha to Amanda and back to Aisha.

"You know she was alive?" I widened my eyes in awe and that made Aisha chuckle lightly.

"Follow me, let's go to my house. In case you haven't realized, we're standing at the middle of the road" Amanda stated the obvious before leading the way to nearby bungalow with a spacious compound.

The house wasn't that modern but it was comfortable and simple.

"This is my grandma's house. I live here with her" Amanda explained.

"Since when?" I asked. Amanda motioned towards the couch for us to sit down and we did.

"Well... It's a long story but I'm gonna cut it short" Amanda let out a sigh and began, "So last year, I was being blackmailed by Derek. Well, I was sending some pictures..."

Derek used to be our classmate. We always suspected him to be a cultist and I guess we were right. He was arrested for drug possession while I'd been away from school. Too bad, he was really good looking.

"Yeah, I saw them. What I want to know is what Derek asked you to do and why you suddenly disappeared" I interrupted Amanda who didn't seem surprised to hear I knew about the pictures.

"He asked me to sleep with him or else those pictures would be all over the internet" Amanda confessed, "I didn't know what to do. So, I went to Henry, he was the senior prefect then. We were friendly and I thought he could help me. But going to him was the biggest mistake I ever made"

"It's not like you had a choice" Aisha said "sleeping with Derek would've been signing your obituary because you would have died after sleeping with him"

"But still, I thought Derek was messed up but when I got involved with The Brothers, I nearly went crazy" Amanda emphasized.

"What happened?" I asked. My curiosity was getting the best of me and I wanted to hear the rest of the story.

"Henry told me that he would take care of Derek but I had to play along and I would do him a favour in return. Little did I know I was making a deal with the devil himself," Amanda shook her head slightly, "so I told Derek I would sleep with him as part of Henry's plan. Derek asked me to meet him outside one hotel like that and I came to the place and waited for him. I had no idea what Henry was planning but I was so desperate to get out of that mess without letting my parents know and you know my dad is a pastor"

"You can imagine how confused I was when Derek didn't show up" Amanda continued, "I was still waiting when someone put a handkerchief on my face. I struggled and struggled but I eventually became unconscious"

"That doesn't make sense. Why would Henry pretend like he was helping you and still kidnap you?" I asked no one in particular

"That's what I asked myself at first but then I realized Henry wasn't the one pulling the strings" Amanda explained.

"Meaning?"

"Do you have anything in the fridge? This story is making me hungry" Aisha interrupted. Amanda and I both gave a warning glare and she raised her hands in surrender "Okay. I'll keep quiet"

"As I was saying, Henry is not the leader" said Amanda "There are other members from other schools, even universities"

"They kept me hostage for weeks but within those weeks, I monitored their activities" said Amanda. "Did you know they initiate little boys? I mean I was marvelled"

"Little boys? Like around the age of eleven, twelve, thirteen?" I asked

"Some of them I'm sure were around eight years old"

"But why did they keep you there for so long?" I asked out of curiosity.

"What else? They wanted money" said Amanda like it was an obvious fact. "They actually contacted my parents after a month and asked for ransom. They kept me in this small room but I suspect the house where they kept me in was big and nice"
"So how were you able to see anything?"

"I could clearly hear them and there was a hole in the door handle. The night they initiated some boys, I think they drank... blood" Amanda narrated with disgust displayed on her face.

"Eww!" that was Aisha "Please don't say that again before I vomit my lunch"

"I'm not sure though but when my parents finally got the money they requested for, they drugged me and left me in a refuse dump where my parents found me" Amanda explained

"How much did your parents give them?" Aisha had to ask.

"Eight million" Amanda said like it wasn't a big deal.

There was a comfortable silence for awhile. I tried processing all the information Amanda had just given me within the past hour. There was still something missing.

"What about Tunde?" I blurted out without thinking it through.

"Who is Tunde?" Amanda asked. I didn't expect her to know who he was anyway.

"You think Tunde is one of them?" Aisha asked me.

"Is Tunde her boyfriend?" Amanda directed the question to Aisha.

"No, he's her husband" Aisha replied with all seriousness, "But they had a little fight today sha"

There was nothing little about our fight.

"Be serious Aisha" I said to her, "In that letter, they said Tunde is one of them but I didn't confront him about it though"

"I don't think so" said Aisha "Just because he's now friends with Peter doesn't mean they've initiated him"

"Hold on," Amanda said before I could speak, "if someone told you that this Tunde boy is one of them and he's already friends with them then it means he's probably about to get initiated"

"You're just adding fuel to the fire" Aisha stated.

"While I was there, I heard that they initiate new members every November 12th and June 25th" Amanda added.

"June 25th... That's —"

"Three days away" I completed the statement for Aisha.

"That's not even the worse part." Amanda announced looking at us both.

"There's a worse part?!" Aisha asked, "What could be worse than this?"

"You don't get." said Amanda, "Some days before the initiation, they offer a human sacrifice"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait." Aisha interrupted, "Are you saying that they kill people?"

"Duh?" said Amanda, "Do you know another definition for human sacrifice?"

"How does this sacrifice work?" I asked Amanda.

"I don't know. I've told you everything I know" Amanda replied, "you have to be careful with whatever you're planning on doing"

"What do you mean?" Aisha asked Amanda, "We are not getting involved in this. We learnt our lesson last year"

"This is not like last year Aisha. We're talking about a lot of lives here. We should at least call anti-cult or something" Amanda said

"You don't understand do you?" asked Aisha, "These people won't rest until they have your head if you dare implicate them"

"Just because I'm hiding and everyone thinks I'm dead doesn't make me coward" Amanda pointed out. "Those people are going to do to someone else what they did to me and it's up to us to do something"

"Rachael say something!" Aisha commanded with both of them looking at me like I had the solution to our problem.

"What do you want me to say?" I asked instead, "Why were you even following us Amanda when we were coming to see you?"

"I wanted to speak with you and I had no idea Aisha planned on bringing you. Sorry if I scared you though. I couldn't risk Henry seeing me" Amanda explained.

"The only thing we can do is inform the police" I finally said

"What about Mr. Francis? We can go to him first" Aisha suggested

"You can't trust anyone. You have to go straight to the police yourselves" Amanda replied.

I left Amanda's house with a lot on my mind. I stayed up late thinking about everything. I couldn't even blink thinking of what Amanda must've gone through for months. It only made sense that her parents would want her to lay low and not attract unnecessary attention to herself after everything that happened.

I left my room because I was thirsty. There was no electricity so the house was a little dark. I slowly went down the stairs until I realized someone was sitting on the last step.

"Jesus!" was the first thing I exclaimed before I realized it was aunt Thelma. She was putting on her night wear. She just sat there in the darkness looking at nothing in particular.

She was crying too.

My heart melted instantly. I felt so sorry for her. She had lost everything just like that. Before she knew it, both her daughters were gone without her not being able to do anything.

"Cynthia wanted to become a fashion designer" she muttered while sobbing quietly. "Patricia wanted to be a lawyer"

"My girls... I couldn't do anything to save them" she was breaking into tears once more, "I didn't the chance to tell them how much I loved them"

I hadn't realized that I'd started crying until I was holding aunt Thelma and giving her my shoulder to cry on. Deep down, I didn't think any parent deserved to bury their kids. It was meant to be the other way around.

After aunt Thelma had finished crying, I helped her upstairs and to her room. Uncle Harry wasn't home. He was probably in a bar trying to drink away his sorrows thinking alcohol was the solution. But maybe, just maybe, alcohol was a temporary solution since he'd get drunk and pass out.

Life indeed wasn't a bed of roses. Life can be as beautiful as a rose but every rose has its thorns. Everyone has their fair share of life's trouble. Sometimes I just wished I could disappear from the face of the earth. I guess those are the same thing everyone who committed suicide had in mind.

I actually never slept till 5am the following day which was a Saturday.

When I woke up around 11am, aunt Thelma and Uncle Harry were still sound asleep. I was so tired and hungry so I dragged myself down the stairs to make breakfast.

"Where did you go to yesterday?" Sebastian questioned me as soon as I entered the kitchen.

"Good morning to you too Sebastian. I'm doing very well, thank you for asking" I said sarcastically.

"Sorry." he murmured, "I was just looking for you yesterday"

"I went to see someone" I said before opening the fridge to see what was in it.

"Oh. Okay"

"You wanted to tell me something?" I asked Sebastian who seemed to have something bothering him.

"No. It's not important anymore" he shook his head.

I shrugged and said; "If you say so". I was too famished to interrogate anyone so I decided to let Sebastian go for the moment.

Before we knew it, it was already Monday morning. The initiation day. I'd planned to go to the police station after school. What bothered me was that I didn't have proof, or even any lead. I couldn't point to a particular place where I could say the police would catch them.

Little did I know that something else awaited me at school.

On entering the school compound, you could perceive the fowl smell everywhere. It was horrible. I could see students running up and down. I didn't know what was going on but everyone was holding their noses for sure.

The smell was rotten.

"Why is there an ambulance here?" Sebastian asked standing next to me. He was right. There was an ambulance and some police cars.

"Rachael!" Aisha walked up to me from behind. She was crying and her eyes had turned red and her face puffy. I became worried.

"Aisha! What is happening?"

"Rachael it's Mr. Francis" she screamed in tears, "They found his body in the teachers' toilet. It's been there since Friday"

"Oh my God!" I immediately broke down. I wanted to scream so loud.

"Rachael they cut his tongue" Aisha said while trying to hold me up.

I went closer to the scene and just in time, I saw them carrying Mr. Francis's already decaying body into the ambulance.

I couldn't believe it.

Where had he gone wrong?

What had he done to deserve this?

I knew I was definitely at the verge of going crazy.