IJEOMA

The entire room smelled of pride. Strong, concentrated, lucid pride. Like that of a strong warrior who just returned from war with the head of an archenemy.

Then there was also this stench emanating from him. Of alcohol and snuff. His teeth were brown and a few of them were broken. His brows, hard with beads of sweat decorating his wrinkled face. His smile, mischievous, dirty and broken.
"Get out and shut the door behind you", he said mildly.

"Ahhh.... but you promised to give me the money after this", Ijeoma looked up in shock still trying to do her buttons.
"Promises are made to be broken". He said with more pride in his eyes. "I don't have the money today, maybe if you come again tomorrow, I might give you".

Ijeoma tapped herself to be sure it wasn't a dream. She knew her uncle could be ruthless, but this, this was the apex of it. He was unthinkable.

"Haba Baba Vero, this is not fair o. You know we have not eaten since yesterday. I can't go back home again with nothing, please, I beg you". She said rubbing her hands against each other, trying to hide her frustration.
"Well, you should have thought of that when you refused me the first time".

"But I finally agreed, have you not had your way already?" The frustration was obvious now and it obviously made Baba Vero excited.

"But I don't have the money anymore, are you dumb? He roared aggressively. "Just go, I want to sleep. Come back tomorrow, and if I am happy with your services, I might give you what you asked for", he concluded and pulled the wrapper up his pot belly to his neck region.

Ijeoma swallowed hard and let the tears flow freely down her cheeks. Baba Vero, her father's elder brother just took advantage of her. Since the demise of her father a few months back, there's been no help from anywhere at all.
Her feeble mum was too shocked from the news of husband's death and as a result, she suffered a stroke that paralyzed one part of her body.

Ijeoma had 3 younger siblings, all of which had to drop out of school because there was no money to feed, let alone pay their fees.

In addition, their father had left a huge debt from a loan he took for his building project and the loaners were breathing fire.

Ijeoma looked at the man and wished he was dead. Yes, dead. The thoughts started dancing towards her. Then they became stronger, nudging at her heart. She was scared. She'd never killed anyone before, but if this man could sleep with his brother's only daughter and still not give her something to feed on, then there was no need having such devil roaming the earth in human form.

The thoughts lingered. She inhaled deeply, picked her bag and walked into the kitchen.
The knives were beckoning on her and the voices in her head were telling her to be fast about it.
She examined the knives closely and picked the one she considered sharpest, the one used to slice Afang, and dashed back into the room.

She eyed him, lifted it, and with the last bit of gut, drove it twice into his thigh in quick succession.
He screamed. His red eyes almost popping out of their sockets. The red fluid gushed out like a tap that just got damaged and in a minute, everywhere was bloody.

A wicked, fearful smile curved at the corner of Ijeoma's lips. Everything felt strange and nauseating, but mostly, strange. She felt fear coldly running down her spines and scaring life out of her, but it was too late to stop.

"Can I have the money now? Because the next one will not miss your heart". She said in a haste, surprised at where the courage came from.

Baba Vero pointed to the drawer besides his bed, still wringing in pains. Ijeoma rushed to it and without a second thought took out every dime she could find, to the last penny.

"I'll be waiting for your wife, that's if you'll have the courage to tell her the truth". She said, throwing the knife at him and running as fast as her legs could carry.