Christmas is Red Part 1
By Benjamin Paul (blackinker)

When he told them that he was a writer, an expected sort of awkwardness hung in the atmosphere.

It was always that way around him really, something oozed out of him constantly to break camaraderie, to make people self-conscious, uncomfortable, to take an unwarranted sip from their tumblers, and in extreme cases, mildly afraid. It was not something Jidechukwu —Jide for short — could control, not yet at least, but he had a plan.

Kelechi, Kechi for short, coughed — a made up sort of cough, Jide was sure and it caused an uproar of nervous laughter amongst them, amending the broken festivity in the air. Kechi was good at this, making life work around him and that was why even though they were seated round a table of drinks, everyone's posture slightly shifted from the center, angling towards him. It was best that way so that they could easily turn their heads to see him. For this guy, Kechi was fine, in his physique, charisma, words and lifestyle. Every breath he took excited the people around him, but that was not the case for Jidechukwu. Sitting opposite Kechi, with everyone angling away from him, he was barely noticed even in his bright red Christmas themed hoodie. Even his bright enchanting eyes —the only absolutely fine, exciting thing about him — were hidden behind partial shade pair of glasses and that did not help. Which was why they couldn't wait for him to savor his turn to talk about himself. They wanted to go through everyone quickly so that they'd return to Kechi. He had promised to finally tell them about his old uncle who recently married a twenty year-old girl, after everyone took their turn to talk about themselves for a change.

At that, Chioma had exclaimed; "aw!" placing a manicured hand tenderly on her plump cleavage in exaggerated emotion. She added; "That is so mature of you." Kechi had beamed with a huge grin in response.

"What about you, Paul." Juliana, Jul for short, asked the guy next to Jide, who hadn't taken a sip since from his tumbler placed on the center table. He was not exactly one of them, he was a visitor. He was fine also, tall too, but unlike Kechi he was quiet and polite. Jide thought he was cool. "Do you not drink at all, or..."

Paul let out a beautiful laugh that expressed slight nervousness. He might not be used to being put in this sort of situation. He smiled.

"I am Paul"

"And cute" Mmesoma said with a mischievous smile, while still texting seemingly absent mindedly on her phone. She giggled.

"And very brilliant." Chinedu added, he had invited Paul to this reunion meant for only their school mates and supposedly had practically bounded him up and carried him here against his will. "Go on, tell everyone about your big invention and the latest gist."

Paul blushed in modesty as everyone turned their attention to him. Jide stole a glance at Kechi to study his mien in attempt to ascertain his reaction towards the shift in attention. He wore a cool façade, but Jide could see in those eyes, that he felt a sting, it was neither obvious nor convincing.

"I am Paul Agunta, was...um, invited by this fool here." He nodded at Chinedu who laughed in response. "I am from LASU where we met and I am a physicists."

"Physics?" Mmesoma asked. "That's like...a course in University or all these education courses or what?"

"Shush!" Juli ordered, and all Paul did was smile.

"Go on," Chinedu ordered.

Paul chuckled softly. "em...I do physics and I designed something that like...how do I explain it?"

"Well, he designed something that can be used to make devices like drones or cars to never have crash into each other objects or people. Like, guy...it's really cool." Chinedu helped, and Paul seemed relieved.

"Wow!" echoed.

"And now, the CIA has called him to America to come work for them."

"What?" "how?" "serious?"

Paul waved a hand in dismissal, laughing. "It's not true o. I already told you that the guy is a fool, don't listen to him. It's just, one particular man that needs the device that is inviting me."

"But he's military." Chinedu insisted.

"Yes, but it has nothing to do with the government."

"Too modest joor." Chinedu shook his head, seeming annoyed.

Amara, a quieter, married colleague among them who had been quiet for most of the time became particularly interested in Paul's story and began to throw a round of questions his way, a round Jide did not care to participate anymore in. He was paying attention now, he was more attentive to everything and everyone, and in that moment he was lost in timeless trance, in a trance awakened by his sixth sense. Hidden behind his glasses, he could study anyone and his environment without making anyone actively uncomfortable.

Today was going to be special, tonight was going to teach people a lot of lessons because of what  he had planned out for them. Many, especially those who looked down on and underestimated the likes of him would learn to think differently.

He looked on at them as they were lost in their five senses, staring into Paul's story and basking in emotions of desires and hope and lust for fantasies.

Jide had to admit, he wished they had asked him about his writing career. He had planned to begin his mischief sooner, he had planned to exploit the fact they thought him to be the little creepy weirdo in their midst.

If they had asked him about his writing career, he would have told them that writing was not as it seemed. He would have told them that writers were psychopaths who stayed up all night figuring out the most novel way to kill off each and everyone of their old classmates in revenge. He'd tell them that there is a ridiculously effective way to kill someone with a normal house hold cooking tool — a corkscrew, for example — without anyone suspecting murder.

He had planned to say these with a big smile and chuckles, as if oblivious of how uncomfortable he made them, but they had robbed him of this moment.

It was okay. The sun would set in two hours and he would begin. But first he needed to eliminate Paul and Amara. They would have to be out of the picture before the best night of their lives would begin.

He took a sip from his tumbler, rinsed his mouth and swallowed. He put on a  smile he knew made people shift nervously in their seats and loosen their shirt collars and adjust their belts. It was the most creepy sort of smile which he perfected over years.
His lips curved into a slight smile, but not his eyes. His eyes remained ominous and deep and prying and in the shadows of the partially tinted glasses, disassociatively from the curve of his lips.

He remained this way all through the evening.

***

Towards dusk, Jide stood by a corner, the farthest location from the center he could find. It was not because he feared the center and the heat, passion and desires and competition and insecurity and – ugh! – life. No, he stood there, because rather than participate and wallow in the provoking scenes designed cooperatively by  humans in attempt to indulge in socially accepted and reverenced opium; he would watch.

From his vantage point, which provided a sectoral view of the campus hall floor, he sipped juice and watched the reunion unfold as cliché and as predictable as it could best be – littered with 'old friends' who 'missed' one another and have only come together to 'catch up' and 'not to compare themselves in sense of individual accomplishments'. This is supposedly the only reason they also monitored one another's social media accounts. The music blared louder from the speaker this time and people had to shout over the electronic beats just to hear one another incomprehensibly. But this was no time for talking, this was dancing time as stipulated in the programs plan. But of course, Amara would not dance. Being a fresh bride, she had to be extra careful not to send the wrong messages, to not attract the young boys in the hall who drunkenly humped anything that would let them. She shouted over the music, in a gossip instead to Mmesoma who laughed most times and fixated on her phone the remainder of the time. She was beautiful and had long eye lashes she batted, to –  with the help of a deep scowl – discourage boys who dared contemplate approaching her. It was efficient and she took pride in this, but Jide could see – he could sense beyond her façade to see her insecurity, he could see beyond her defenses in her guarded posture, in her eyes that averted gazes, fixating on her phone – that she felt vulnerable and self-conscious for a fact known only amongst the folks in this town; for she was nothing like the Instagram Twerk Celebrity, Cassandra Clare who supposedly lived in Dubai last summer as claimed in her Instagram and twitter accounts.

People whispered too loudly about this and she knew and it made her feel...naked, hence the urge to cover herself in folded arms and crossed legs, avoiding gazes and conversations by fixating on her phone.

Paul was nowhere in sight which explained why Juliana looked a little lost. While she danced with Chinedu, she kept good distance and would yell at the other 'little boys' that came close. Meanwhile, her eyes roamed the hall continuously, causing her to stretch her small frame and twist her neck to awkward positions to give her a resemblance to a paranoid, featherless, premature chicken.

The hall buzzed with more life and lucky for Kechi, he remained in the center of it, even more so this time that his date had arrived about thirty minutes earlier.

Kechi had a date coming along and it might have been his plan for her to show up late for the sake of making an entrance. And also, he had given the ladies the chance to feel that perhaps they could end up with him for that night at least. If they were lucky, perhaps he would call them afterwards. He had talked about everything fantastic in his life earlier around the table and had avoided this part strategically.
Jide was impressed. It was like going to war and reserving the best weapon hidden and reserved for the final, stunning, knockout blow, and for this Jide had lightly clapped as soon as this girl in a perfect slender body showed up and was being introduced as his girlfriend. Others had been left irritated by this clapping gesture, especially Chioma who frowned deeply at him.

It was with great restraint that Jide did not burst into a mocking round of laughter, pointing at her and clutching his belly to say; "The thing pain her o!" But he would not risk damaging his plans for the night. He had to keep wearing that smile and be nice enough to convince them to follow him to the abandoned building ten blocks away. He wanted this badly, and it was far more interesting now that Andrea, Kechi's 'girlfriend' was in the mix. He had cooked up something very special just for her and the sun was setting.

This glowing girl, Andrea, was somewhat foreign in her accent, mien and gait. In her really short gold laced dress and on those silver heels and short bob hair, she induced lust in the souls of anyone, male and female, who beheld her. And this lust was not just the mere lust for the sexual indulgences, but also she aroused greed and covetousness – the desire to despise that which is owned, to seek that which is beyond reach.

Even Jide wanted a piece of her, but only a piece for she was like salt for his dinner. Too little of her was not enough, too much of her would put him off.

He took another sip from his tumbler, allowing the small sting of the wine to massage his taste buds each time before he swallowed. Like Andrea's hips on the dance floor, he twirled his tumbler so that the drink in it copied the sensual flow of her around the walls of the tumbler. He smiled. Time to get to work.

***

Chioma was confused. Jide almost pitied her, it must really hurt to hold such a wide smile for this long just to appear glee and unperturbed by anything, especially the obvious fact that her short dress and flaunted cleavage was meant to pull all the attention, but here was Andrea with a way shorter dress and long slender legs.

Dancing was difficult to continue while having to glance at Andrea, to eye the 'bitch' in her spot. On her mind must have run plenty contemplations and each much have been more desperate than the last, Jide thought, Amused. Her last move was to put on a show of twerk, it had worked but only for as long as the hiphop track lasted. Jide had a record of it in his phone and was sure he would laugh really hard whenever he takes a look at it to remember this moment, this moment that would soon become an unfamiliar memory, for after tonight, nothing that ever was would remain as once was.

Chioma was weary, Jide could guess by her dampened steps and loosening ostentatious grin. She was going to stop dancing, but she didn't want to stand by a corner and look like a pariah, so her eyes roamed, and twice it had darted towards him, with indecision. He still had his dark shades on and so their gazes did not exactly meet, for Chioma could not see his faint green/brown eyes and neither could anyone else. But he could see, he could tell that she wanted to come to his corner and settle for him, but she needed an incentive, a noble reason for such a unicorn like her to be found talking to a farm horse, a creepy farm horse. Jide sighed – he would give her one.

"Ah!" He cried in pretense as he stubbed his toe lightly on one foot of a wooden chair. This was done on purpose, and so the squeeze of his face exaggerated immense pain and the frantic gesture of his arm did more for emphasis. And Chioma came tearing through the crowed toward him where he leaned over the chair, supposedly breathing through the pain.

"Sorry o." Chioma said, placing a hand softly at the small of his back.

Jide stood straight and nodded. "Thank you."

"You need to sit down. We should go somewhere quiet."

Even that admittedly stunned Jide and he snickered, first in disbelief and then he began to actually laugh in amusement.

"What?"

"Just say you don't want people to see us hanging out together."

"Ah ah!" she expressed disbelief, placing a hand on her cleavage pulling Jide's attention to it. Very dramatic, he thought. "Why would you think that way, ehn?" She placed a hand on his bicep, pulling closer. "I don't think like that. And by the way, who told you that someone should be ashamed to be seen with you. You are adorable in your own way."

She caressed his bicep and squeezed softly so expertly that the surge of feeling that traveled through Jide's body shocked him. But on the surface he remained completely unfazed, still and lifeless, with that grin like an emoji.

"so," he started with a smile. "You don't care now that Kechi is looking over here with a look of disgust?" He lied.

"Kechi can go jump into river Niger for all I care." She said and pulled closer to Jide, closing the distance between them. He had to admit, he didn't see this coming. "I'm just focused...interested in you...right now."

Jide snickered and pulled away. For one thing, the scent of alcohol oozing from her mouth was not endearing. He walked over to the table of drinks two steps by the left and got his tumbler refilled by a makeshift bartender.

Chioma followed promptly and got a refill also, in a red plastic cup. She continued. "Perhaps the problem with you is not people, but you."

Jide's brows furrowed and he turned to her. "I have a problem?" it was this such thing that irked him about people. They barely understood themselves but easily felt they understood him, label him and go ahead to narrate their diagnosis of him. It was for this such thing that he began to lose his mind and turn to writing, and more recently, snapped.

"Well, yes. You always pull away from people when they try to get close to you and then act like it's their fault."

"I do?" he egged her on, sipping from his cup in quick paces to keep the mad man in him at bay. He wouldn't snap here, he shouldn't. "What if to me...people stink?" He shrugged.

"Exactly. The problem is you and not us. Everyone stinks but we develop social skills in the developmental stages of our lives to accommodate and even love this...stink. See eeh, have you considered seeing a professional? No offence."

Jide stopped for a second and smiled with a null expression. It was the only thing to do. The other one was to tear someone's head off. Fortunately, Ifunanya thought him better and held him at bay for as long as she lived. But she lived no more so...

"If you will let me. I can help you. I study psychology, you know?"

Jide really smiled this time. This part really amused him. "I know."

"Wow! How did you know?"

"Have you not heard that I'm a...seer?" He said in a monotone and sipped his drink.

"There is no such thing as a seer, dummy." She chuckled lightly and touched his arm, squeezing again. It didn't have the same effect as earlier. "Humans and even some animals have developed some hyper sensation to detect information that may or may not have been sent off by a similar specie. It's more of empathy, an evolutionary thing. And there is a way our brains piece broken pieces of information together, especially those that are observant. You may have caught something like vibes or heard something or I did something that triggered your brain to detect pattern of behavior." She laughed and shook her head. "So my dear, you're not a seer. You get?"

She reached out again to touch him, and Jide swallowed the urge to yell; 'Keep your stupid hands to your stupid self.' But instead he smiled and replied; "No one asked you shaa. It was only a joke, being a seer – I mean."

She laughed. "I know, it's just talk naa. I had to keep conversation going one way or the other."

"Or you just found an opportunity to be condescending. Wait!" He squinted. "I don't even remember saying that I am a seer."

"But you did, by implication at least."

"Gosh, you're really annoying."

She laughed out really hard. The reaction was not expected and it threw Jide off a little for a second. "I know, I'm so sorry. People are always telling me that, but I can't help it. I guess it's how I'm wired."

"And you think it's adorable." He mumbled and shook his head. And if only she stopped for a second to take in his expression, she would know that he felt pity for her.

Her laughter quieted and jide imagined that it was with great struggle. "But you have to learn to let a lady have her moment. Let her talk about what she's interested in or proud of. Something like her career."

"you don't say." He sipped.

"It's an advice. Write it down." She started, cleared her throat and stood straight. Pointing, she said; "Soon you will be married. So note these things. When a lady is free with you and want to talk about her interests, it means she cares about you. You're special to her add she trusts you and want to connect with you. You should listen to her at that moment, because that moment is precious. Every other thing can wait." She smiled satisfactorily.

"So...you're no longer a psychologist but a lady and potential wife? Because psychologists listen more than they talk."

"Touché," she chuckled. "but I am all three right now, in actuality."

"In essence, you are everything I didn't ask for with every right to impose opinions and talk and talk without listening to me."

"Ah ahn!" She frowned and whined. "You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Pushing people away."

Jide sighed. He could feel the energy sipping out of him, he was promptly reminded why he needed to end it all tonight. She, Kechi and the whisperers with subtly loud opinions of him — they wouldn't be able to develop opinions after tonight. The sun was fully set. It was time. He sighed.

Looking up into the crowd holding some of the people that would soon be at his mercies, he saw Kechi and Andrea. They were lost in each other's arms and in a deep French kiss. Their bodies grinded against each other's. It was inappropriate for the location, but it was of course, perfect for the moment for Jide, to speed up his plans. He turned to Chioma and she had followed his gaze, and her gleeful demeanor had fully darkened at the sight. It was perfect, for him. For her? Not so much.

He pulled off his glasses. "Hey,"

"mmh?" Chioma was jolted and instantly wore that smile again. She had turned to get caught and lost in his eyes. They were enchanting and were his unfailing secret weapons.

Holding her gaze in mild hypnosis, he held her waist and pulled her hip close so that their bodies touched. Her breath quickened and their eyes remained widened and unblinking as if in disbelief of the moment.

"What are you doing?" she asked, out of breath. Her heartbeat, marching the beats of the speaker.

"What does it look like?" He replied in a whisper.

"I don't kn–"

He interrupted her with a kiss that also interrupted her breath and the rhythm of her heartbeat for they all ceased in the moment. The kiss deepened and lasted long enough to become real, but then Jide pulled away just before it was enough, to leave Chioma thirsty for oxygen and him, a combination of hurricane of two natural desires that could superpose and mess up the wiring of the mind.

"You were wrong," He said as she breathed, her bosom rising and falling. "I have no intention of pushing you away."

"Wow!" she managed to say.

"If you will come with me. I will give you a night you will never forget."

"Okay?"

He leaned in again, slowly this time, and Chioma shut her eyes, but he did not meet her lips; instead he pushed her hair back, parted his lips, took her ear lobe within and suckled a little. A sizzling sensation of pleasure traveled through her body in response, quaking her core. She moaned a little too loudly with a surprise gasp that came off like a squeak, leaving her embarrassed in a good way. She reflexively covered her face with both hands, hiding a very pleased smile.

He had everyone attention now, so he stopped, pulled away and ran off towards the DJ. Getting on the podium beside the DJ, he took the microphone. On cue, the DJ turned down the volume of the blaring rap music.

"If you are here and you're class of 2013, We will be going off in five minutes for the secret after party. If you have responsibilities, curfew, or are satisfied or a coward, or married, please do not come with us. Thank you."

He dropped the mic and jumped off the podium with a smirk; his eyes beaming, bright dusty green, and hypnotic.

"When you said, 'we are going off'; you and who was 'we'?" Juli asked thoughtfully, out of the blue.

Jide smirked. "To make everyone of you feel that everyone else knew about the party except you. Which suggests you were invited, like 'everyone else' which means it's highly exclusive and supposedly excludes boring responsible people, so you automatically feel insecure and feel the urge to prove yourself worthy of being in the social circle. Which makes you decide without a second thought to definitely attend this party no matter what."

"I didn't feel insecure." Mmesoma was sure to state.

"Me neither." Juli sounded unsure and Chioma snickered.

Jide shrugged. "If you say so."

"Why can't you just do things like normal human beings?" Mmesoma queried on provocation.

"One, normal is boring. Two, you guys have already labeled me the weird one. So I have a reputation to uphold. Three, I've always been insane, but on losing some of the most precious people in my life, I've completely lost my mind."

Silence followed his words for a moment and the wind howled an eulogy.

Chioma put an arm around his waist and, breaking the silence, she said; "I heard about your mom. I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you."

Kechi breathed, swallowing haughty words in respect of the dead. He felt a hostage by this and imagined it a stunt of some pathetic sort.

The wind outside was chilling, but it would be Christmas in a couple of hours and so it was expected. In an off-road path, between a long fence by the left, securing a farm and the wall of a plastic manufacturing factory, they walked, gripped in mild trepidation, curiosity and also the thirst for adventure. Amongst this group was the former that had rounded a table, omitting Amara who had run off without explanations after receiving a text from an unknown number, Paul who simply had to go and adding Andrea who was more than welcomed.

At the moment, Jide and Chioma was the most interesting thing in the scene, leaving people to shiver in wonder how that happened, how it seemed as if Jide was now something more and extra interesting, oozing a lot of charisma. Four years was long enough for people to morph, they supposed.

As they walked, taking lead with Chioma's arm around his waist and his hand over her buttock below the small of her back; people wondered what other drama this night held and how this one could end. Others like Kechi could not go home ending the reunion with being outshined. It was improper not being the one people will talk about the following day.

How dare Jide?

In six minutes through this lonely dirt road, they managed to distract themselves, almost completely, from the fact that there was something eerie about this environment. Christmas always held the greatest of tales – good and bad tales – many of which often included a group  of people being lead to a lonely place where they got murdered and their body parts sold or used for rituals in exchange for riches from a dark deity.

In the distance, people could be heard being celebratory, firecrackers and fireworks broke the silence to color the night with festivity. People were jolly at the distance, but for these brave young adults who quite possibly walked towards their dreadful deaths, to a place where SOS screams could not be heard and bodies could not be found until maybe after the celebration of the season when people returned home and to work and decided to check on their neighbors; their hearts skipped with every boom that tore the wind.

Finally, they were in a building they usually only saw from a distance, shrouded in the morning sunlight glares and mist. It had been abandoned and possibly haunted ever since they were children and it looked abandoned still, judging from the pilling paints, plants sprouting from the concrete ground and walls, cobwebs at doorways over rusted creaking doors; but Jide had claimed that this was only a façade, preserved for a movie he co-ghost-wrote that was supposed to be shot in that one building, as he turned the rusted key in its hole.

"Cool." They said but refused to enter when he opened the large steel entrance door.

They stood there skeptically, using their phones' lights to attempt to see the building. It was monstrous in design, cut from stone, painted dull with grey, having a façade that seemed to bend in such a way that leaned forward over the porch as a stone thirty foot giant would bend over to look at people at its foot. Their light did not do enough to let them see the building and so shadows, eerie shadows, abound in wide crevices and anything could be hiding in those shadows, tarantulas at least.

"come in naa." Jide said at the door.

"The lights nko?" Juliana said, visibly uncomfortable.

"Yes, the lights. There are lights here, right?" Chioma said, more supportively.

"There is light inside." Jide replied impatiently and shook his head. "Remember, they built this place to look abandoned. Lights will show that there are people here. You get?"

"Oh!"

"Okay–"

"I don't understand. Are you guys scared?" he said and began to laugh hoping to rile them up. "Even you, Kechi. Hard man, hard man and you're scared of the dark."

Stepping up, Kechi went in pulling Andrea behind him. His phone's flashlight showing him the way, he disappeared into the darkness with her.

"come on, Come on!" Jide gestured them to go in, standing aside by the door. Chinedu followed, then Mmesoma, Juliana and then, he put out his hand for Chioma. She placed her hand in his and they went in.

Inside, they found themselves in a hollow place and could make out few details. It was like walking into Hogwarts, the façade of the building gave no hint at how large the building was inside. They were in a lobby or a hall of some sort, it smelled of dust and age and thick darkness hung in the atmosphere. They–
Boom! A loud bang came and they jumped. They turned around to find Jide who slammed the door shot with a loud bang, turning the key over and over again, sealing their fate.

"What is wrong with you?" Mmesoma yelled. "can't you just close door like normal human being"

"Sorry," Jide replied absent mindedly, walked past them in a hurry as he finished. "If you don't slam it, it won't lock well. Come with me."

"Nawa o."

He turned left, passed a staircase at his right and opened a twin door by the left and entered. "Welcome to the red lady's home."

"what red lady?" Chioma asked following him as they entered a large room.

Before they could take in the environment and remove the cobwebs that caught them on their way in, a light switch clicked and bright fluorescent light washed the room, blinding them for a second. They should have been relieved, but as soon their visions returned, they were anything but relieved.

A piercing scream escaped the throats of them, as they scurried together in instinctive response at the sight of them, the sight of the couple, woman dressed in white and heels with a slithered throat. Her blood had washed her white outfit completely red. And a man with skin unnaturally black and red, peeling like that of a burn victim. In the right hand of the man was a small knife, dripping with blood. They held each other in lovely embrace and unperturbed by the intruders.