The Wake 7 (Finale)
THE WAKE
Mayowa Ojo
6/10/20265 min read
“Whoa!” Ferdinand screamed when he saw the henchman on the floor. He looked up and took in more of his environment. “Who is he?” he asked referring to Sam’s body.
“Nobody,” Paloma said dismissively.
“Hey sister or should I say stranger and…” Ferdinand started.
“That’s enough,” Paloma ordered. “Take his body to the SUV,” she instructed, referring to her henchman. “I’m sure his wife would at least be happy to see his body.”
“And what about the other guy?”
“On your way back up bring the ropes. We will be taking her with us to finish her up,” she said, ignoring his question.
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Ferdinand came back upstairs with the ropes in hand and headed toward Vera who struggled with the tying process.
“Mom can you ask her to be still so I can tie her up?”
“‘Mom can you ask her to be still so I can tie her up?’ What kind of a wimp are you? Do you ask a wild animal for permission before you subdue it? Hit her damn it. She will get the message.”
Ferdinand sighed, exasperated already.
“She’s my sister and you know how I feel about hitting women after all I saw growing up.”
“Awww. Aren’t I glad I raised such a fine young man!” she cooed. “You see, you fool. I did something right after all,” she said to Vera. “If only you weren’t such a useless, needy child who stole my Dennis from me. I could have…”
“MOM!” Ferdinand shouted. “Stop talking so much. It’s almost morning.”
Paloma muttered something unintelligible, took the gun with her and went over to help restrain Vera. The moment she squatted beside her daughter, Vera began to laugh. It started out small and then grew, crawling under Paloma’s skin.
“I won’t do you the honours of asking what is so funny,” Paloma said.
Vera laughed even harder.
“Aren’t you both cute together. Mother and son, murderers in your little mafia minds,” and she laughed much harder.
Paloma dropped the gun in anger and grabbed one end of the rope, tying it furiously around Vera’s ankles but Vera did not stop laughing.
“Give me your handkerchief. I need to gag her NOW.”
Ferdinand reached into his pocket to produce his handkerchief. As Paloma stretched out her hand to collect it, he head-butted her so strongly that she fell over backwards while he reached for the gun and took it.
Paloma held her head with her eyes closed trying to understand what happened.
“You fool. What was that for?” she said with her eyes closed.
Vera was still laughing in the background and the sound of her laughter was really starting to irritate Paloma who struggled to open her eyes.
When she finally got on her feet she saw Ferdinand and Vera standing side-by-side, each with a gun in hand pointed toward her. Vera was no longer laughing.
“Ferdinand what are you…”
“Shut up mum. You’ve said enough for one night.”
“So I would tell you how this night will end but that’s what they do in the movies. This is not a movie. Now, on your knees woman!” Vera ordered.
Paloma grudgingly knelt down, all the while not taking her eyes off her son, hatred and betrayal oozing from every pore on her skin.
Vera walked over to her, gun still in hand and whacked her hard across the face.
“That is for thinking you can walk into my life and try to take control like you used to.”
Vera walked backwards towards Ferdinand who started walking toward his mum.
“I should hit you for all the horrible things you said about my father. He was imperfect but telling me those things from an early age really affected me mom. But you’re human. I get it,” he stopped talking and took two steps backwards before lashing out his hand harder than Vera did against his mom’s face, knocking her to the ground. “That is for killing my dad. Surely you must have imagined that I would piece it together somehow.”
Paloma held her face. Her fingers touched the blood seeping from her mouth as she herself was sprawled out on the floor.
Vera walked up to her. “I will say, that was genius of you. You must have gone to great lengths to stage his accident but I’m sure it wasn’t all you. Your buddy in the SUV must have been instrumental too.”
“Kill me now.”
“You’re in no position to make demands or even pleas,” Ferdinand said.
Vera walked back, grabbed the rope and tied Paloma while Ferdinand held the gun to her head.
“I promise to come and visit you at some point,” Vera said. “For now I hope you enjoy what’s coming your way. Please take her away and send the guys in to clean up this mess,” she said to her brother.
“Sure thing sis.”
Ferdinand bundled his mom and left the apartment.
Vera waited a couple of minutes and peeped out of her apartment to be sure no one was there. She walked back to the kitchen counter, picked up her phone and made a call.
“Yes, the package is en route. Remember, I want her alive for a long time but she must not be able to talk or write.” Nothing will kill her faster than not being able to abuse anyone even if verbally, she thought.
“What about the guy bringing her?” the voice on the other end of the line asked.
“Waste him. He’s broken too and a disaster going somewhere to happen. The world can use one less person of his kind,” she said and ended the call.
Vera sighed. Everything was working out just as she planned it. She thought about her two other younger siblings and paused. She grabbed her phone and redialled the number.
“Keep him. I’ll keep tabs on him from now on,” she said and ended the call.
She looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 6 am. She knew James would be sleeping because it was a Saturday but she wanted to go out. She did not want to be alone. He was the only person she could think of who would jump off a bridge for her even though she knew she would dump him in a few weeks.
“Hey V,” James’ groggy voice called out on the phone.
“I’m sorry for waking you up so early but…”
“No, no, no. It’s fine. What’s up?”
Vera smiled. She knew he would cancel his life to accommodate her plans.
I am not my mother. I am not an abusive person, she chanted in her head as she scheduled a hangout with James.
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THE WAKE: BACK STORY
So this story was written with the aim of exploring the subject of abuse without going into detail or focusing on one type of abuse only. There are many kinds of abuse like sexual, emotional, psychological, physical etc. Reading through this story you will find that abuse was a common thread among most of the characters.
The truth is, abused people usually end up being abusive even when they try to run from it. If you know someone who is being abused, please get them help. If you’ve been abused, please get some help. And if you’re the abusive person (probably because you were abused too) you need to forgive yourself, forgive whoever abused you and get some help too.
Getting someone help is an act of love. The month of February is often dedicated to love but some people are too broken to accept the concept of love.
Here’s my act of love to you in addition to this piece I’ve written. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I know first-hand that there’s nothing too hard for Him to do. So if you’re too shy to talk to someone or have tried professional help but didn’t get results, turn to Jesus.
See you guys.