PRINCESS AMARACHI Episode 13 by Okafor Erasmus Ugochukwu

PRINCESS AMARACHI Episode 13 by Okafor Erasmus Ugochukwu

Amarachi in-camera, instructed Chisimdi not to allow Olaedo to meet Adaoma, her mom but she never disclosed the reasons to Chisimdi promising to do that once she comes home for the weekend.
Chisimdi kept the secret from Mkpulumma, even the secret of her divine powers were all kept away from her mom, in a bid to disclose everything when Amarachi comes home. She also warned Olaedo never to disclose anything about her lineage to anyone even though the girl was eager to know the real story which Amarachi and her mom could give the full story of.
Olaedo’s eagerness to know the truth blotted out the ecstasy that was meant to encompass her whole being for hearing that she’s the daughter of the same man she loves so much as a father, making that expected tinge of happiness to elude her.
Chisimdi even became harsher to Olaedo than she used to be just to keep the secret, and to instil some fears in the newly discovered younger sister so that she wouldn’t be driven my gladness to disclose it to another maid; especially Asamma who was her close friend and roommate.
Chisimdi made Olaedo be passing the night in her chamber; on her bed, as a sister, so that she won’t be tempted to divulge the secret that was waiting for Amarachi’s return before being disclosed to the queen mother and everybody in the palace.

That early morning, Amarachi was awoken by the euphoria that was caused by the news she heard about a couple of days back. She couldn’t comprehend too because she failed to even understand how Chisimdi heard about the entire thing. She believed that Adaoma must have hinted her twin sister just as she did to her, but on a second thought, she knew it wasn’t true because Adaoma compelled her to take an oath of secrecy just to keep the secret buried, especially to keep the repercussion of Olaedo’s mindreading method a secret. She couldn’t just wait to go home and disclose the news to Mkpulumma, even though they weren’t too sure of how Mkpulumma would take the news because it’s natural for a lady to feel jealous whenever she sets her eyes on the lady that has tasted the fruit of her hubby, but she still believed that Mkpulumma’s reaction of jealousy wouldn’t be much because a man whose wife is believed to be dead would go for another wife, especially after mourning the late wife for some years.
It was a Friday, and Amarachi had no lecture for the day, so she got up from the bed, showered and prepared to meet Dave.
Osisioma and Uremma were best of friends, even though Uremma wasn’t the slay queen anymore or the girl that was drowning in the affluence of her dad. The situation had changed for Uremma but she was still not poor because Chisimdi, Amarachi, and Dave were taking good care of her education, finance and anything she’d ever need. Even Prof Nwoko never allowed her to suffer because her dad handed her over to the lecturer to be her dad and ensure that life was good for her.
There were lots of legacies that Uremma inherited running into millions of Naira but the professor didn’t want to make the girl lose her focus on education, waiting until her graduation so that she’d have had a discerning mind, maturity and ability to handle such enormous wealth.
Uremma had grown into a girl full of wisdom and humanity. She was even nicknamed Asa Umu Ogbenye (the beautiful girl for the less privileged) because she’s always visiting destitute homes, motherless babies and homes of the poor. She’d given out most of her decent wears as alms, and even ready to do more. Even though she’d hated her dad for who she was and his role in her life and that of Amy and family, she still kept praying for his punishment not to be much so that the man would one day come home to be a responsible dad. Uremma never stopped visiting him at Abuja, not just to come and see her dad she’d started missing but to keep talking into his conscience to make him change because the man, even though he was undergoing humiliation, loss of freedom and pains, he was still a hardened man in terms of repentance. His repentance was selective depending on the situation and the people he offended.
Osisioma had been clamouring to visit Ubulu but Amarachi never wanted to grant her request because her dad wasn’t there and the reception wouldn’t be as grand as she would want it to be.
Still dressing up, Amarachi heard a knock at the door. She needed to go and meet them so that they’d leave for Okporo together to meet Dave’s dad, and from there, head to Ubulu to formerly disclose Olaedo’s identity and know about the way forward as regards finding her missing dad.
“Just wait a minute, I’ll be there shortly,” Amy echoed from the threshold of the bathroom as she continued towelling fast to meet up, “just give me sec okay,” she shouted to the knocker’s hearing and rushed it, dressed up casually and came to the door.
Opening the door, Amarachi saw Uremma, Osisioma, Akunna, and Chibunna. She was so excited about seeing them because, since the resumption of school, they hadn’t the time and leisure to spend with each other. After all, everybody had been busy and concentrating on their studies. After all, the semester was short and it was the final one that would make them become graduates.
“I feel so surprised,” Amy said as she watched the faces of her close friends, “What do I owe this visit?” she asked rhetorically and blushed as she observed the way they admire her as if they hadn’t seen her before. “Someone should talk, please. You guys are making me shy…”
“You shouldn’t be,” Osisioma said and nudged Uremma.
“Yes, you shouldn’t be shy because we have decided to come and see you because we overheard your plans of travelling this weekend and that would make us miss you like we’ve been accustomed to recently,” Uremma.
“Life seemed to be paused since you travelled,” Akunna entered, “my brain is now dumb because you’ve not awoken it from the holiday slumber, even this Chibunna who claims to be the most intelligent guy has been acting as if we need to worship him like a god before he teaches us. The hour to whip his ass has come,” she jested, making every other person to laugh.
“The last time you said we’d go for night reading, didn’t you end up sleeping off on arrival, making me read alone while you snored like a bear beside me,”
Chibunna jeered.
“I was there,” Osisioma yelled, “Akunna didn’t wake up until morning,”
They all laughed and entered the house and started making themselves comfortable with anything they could find.
The entire edibles in the house were ransacked and munched by the voracious visitors that always come to Amy’s house prepared for eating because they know that she’d always be ready.
Amarachi was actually in haste to go but her unplanned visitors that stormed her house wouldn’t allow her to go, especially when she knew that Dave would be waiting.
They all settled in the sitting room and started having fun.
At a point, Amarachi decided to just relax because she suddenly began to feel the need to just relax and attend to her friends she’d missed for a long time, other than just going to Okporo to see Dave’s dad. She knew she’d still go to Okporo but being that it was still morning, she didn’t need to rush but just relax and wait until her visitors were all gone.
Standing up and tapping on the glass cup thrice with her house key, Uremma made every other person to be calm, signifying that she needed an audience and had something to say.
“You can now talk,” Amarachi said and admired Uremma’s beautiful prom gown, “seriously you’re dressed to the nines like always,” she flattered.
“Wasn’t that what caused me pains in the past?” Uremma asked Amy, “I sometimes wish I could journey into my past and right so many wrongs,”
“Say no more,” Osisioma interrupted courteously, “you were simply under the influence of your dad and every one of us would have done the same or even more,”
“Well, I take that as a compliment, but I’m still not happy, that’s why I’m standing here before you guys,” Uremma said and quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, “Everyone here has a dad but I have none,” she said forcefully and burst into tears.
The three girls rushed at her and cuddled her to take solace in that soothing embrace. They couldn’t talk but reminisce on Uremma’s rosy but sordid past that ended up in bitterness; even losing the person she thought was her sister without knowing that she was just alone.
Tears stole the moment; occupying a better position among the ladies while Chibunna whose heart was heavy too tried as much as he could to stifle his tears because he was trying to be a man about it.
After a while, as the four girls wept in each other’s arms, Osisioma said: “There is a reason for everything. If you lack anything, I can provide it as I’ve been doing. Dave helps too, and the princess isn’t left out because she’d been the one taking care of your wears and many more. We’re your family,”
“No matter the way you see it,” Akunna entered in a muttering tone, “the man in question is malicious and felonious, so I suggest you try as much as you can to move on in life than be entangled with this situation that can destroy your emotions,”
“But no matter his shortcomings and bad records, he’s still my dad, my blood and the man who groomed me into the lady I am today,” Uremma said tearfully, “Every other person is happy having a dad and family…”
“But I have none,” Akunna entered with a broken heart that welcomed rain of tears on her cheek, making everyone, even Uremma to be surprised, “we’ve all been friends for many years but no one had ever asked to know where I come from, if I have a home, how my school fees are paid and how I survive,” she complained with great acuity.
Guilt overtook the moment, making them all have the prick of conscience that confirmed that Akunna was right. They just realised that the lowly girl never talked about her home, and no one ever asked.
“I…I wanted…” Amy just hung her statement there because she had no strong excuse to give to exonerate herself from the ongoing guilt, so she heaved a sigh, held Akunna by the shoulder and made her sit.
Everyone’s attention left Uremma to Akunna. Even Uremma that needed comfort was swept off her feet with that development, making her tears dry abruptly welcoming guilt, dispiritedness, and disheartenment.
“I think this is negligence,” Osisioma said and they all mobbed Akunna the weeping girl who couldn’t utter a word anymore, “especially me that is always with you, feed you and even take care of your tuition sometimes. This is so selfish of me…”
“Me too,” Amy concurred.
“Me too,” Uremma muttered sorrowfully.
“I have a big share too but was uneasy to meet her,” Chibunna who was standing and leaning on the glossy wall said, “yes, I have the lion’s share of the blames and guilt because I’m always with her, teach her and even had a hint of what has been going on in her life but I never asked to know more,”
Amarachi was perplexed by that, so she looked tearfully at Chibunna and asked: “Did you know anything at all that we don’t?”
“Yes, I do but Akunna never knew that I did,” he replied and came closer to the girls, “Akunna was born into a rich home but unexplainable inferno gutted the house at midnight, destroying the entire house before the firefighters could arrive to quench the fire. When the debris was being cleared, the remains of the burnt mom being the skeletal part was seen cuddling tightly to a blanket that was burnt too but not completely burnt. They were curious, so they tried hard to break the skeletal part remaining of the woman to unwrap the blanket.
They discovered a girl child, and that the child had few burns but not completely burnt.
Evening though the child was lifeless; her pulse was sound, so they knew she was still alive and rushed her to the hospital where she was revived…”
“How did you know all these?” Akunna asked looking so surprised as her teary eyes were affixed at Chibunna the storyteller, “No one has ever told me this except that I’m an evil child that murdered the parents.
How did you know all these because I know nothing about this, other than what I just said?”
“An old man told me this but until date I can’t find him, even if I see him, I won’t recognise him,” Chibunna answered, “he said I shouldn’t tell you anything about how you were abandoned in the hospital before ending up at the orphanage; even though you have outgrown the age of adoption that made you leave the orphanage. I know about the odd jobs you do to survive but I found it hard to confront you and tell you what I know or even ask questions. I’m so sorry about this and…”
“But why haven’t you shared with any of us even if you were reluctant to meet the distressed girl?” Uremma asked weeping without stopping; the entire girls were crying, together with Akunna who was shocked gravely by that heavy revelation.
“All attention has been on Amarachi,” Chibunna replied sorrowfully, “Amarachi drew so much pity and love to herself; not that she did that deliberately but it’s a charisma embedded in her like the nectareous flower attracting the butterfly…”
“Stop, please,” Amarachi said but Chibunna continued.
“I have the lion’s share for not talking to my good friend,”
“I’d have asked Akunna all these when she was in my house after waking up from a coma,”
Amarachi said tearfully, “but amid the regrets, Akunna,” she added and pulled Akunna closer, “you’re a gift because the love of your parents, especially your mom protected you. Nothing kept her from covering herself with the blanket and dashing out of the fire, but she chose to wrap you up, sacrificed her life just to ensure that you were saved,”
“But I wonder how people think,” Osisioma entered and shrugged, “something like this happened, instead of them to be reasonable and realise that the baby in question is a great child protected by the love of her parents…”
“Her mom,” Uremma emphasized as an argument.
“No, her parents’ love,” Amy objected, “Osisioma could be right because no one was there when they planned to protect the child. The mom being a mother would now choose to cuddle the wrapped baby, so let’s not credit the mom and discredit the dad because men are sharp and could have bolted and escaped but he died too,”
Akunna reminiscing on the entire story and analysis burst into a loud cry that made the girls feel like forcing her to stop because it was a pathetic and contagious sadness that caught up with everyone there including Chibunna who was already shedding silent tears.
“What pains me most is not that I lost my parents as a child but the fact that the people who were meant to protect me rejected me,” Akunna said sobbingly.
“If they did or do, we don’t, and we’re here for you as we’ve always been,” Amarachi assured her resting her forehead on Akunna’s.
With faint cheers being announced on her face, Akunna smiled and said: “I thank you all for being there for me, especially the princess that has been taking care of me since I recovered from the coma that almost took my life. Her advice has been keeping me going, making me feel like a princess too,”
“Of course, we’re all princesses in our little ways,” Amy said and pulled Akunna, together with Osisioma and Uremma into a prolonged hug.
After a while, Chibunna cleared his throat in a bid to get their attention.
“Can I join in the hug?”
Smilingly Amarachi said: “this one that can’t even talk to a lady is asking to join in the hug,”
Everyone started laughing at Chibunna but he didn’t care but started dancing his funny dance that made the girl’s laughter prolonged and teary.
Akunna’s happiness returned in full, so they all started having fun.
Amarachi and Uremma entered the kitchen. The cousins had good culinary art running in their family, so they prepared a nice dish for all, served the drinks and the merriment continued.
As the merriment continued, Amarachi’s phone kept buzzing but she didn’t take the call because it was loud and the music was deafening. When she saw it was Chisimdi calling, she smiled and said: “This sister of mine eh. You won’t rest today because you’re expecting me home,” she simply smiled and ignored the call but it kept coming.
She didn’t take the call because she knew that Chisimdi wouldn’t allow her rest until she comes back to Ubulu.
They were all happy and having fun until Amarachi began to feel a slight headache. It was then that she realised that her phone was in the room where she left it so that Chisimdi’s call wouldn’t be a perturbation to her merriment with her friends.
Getting into the room amid the towering sound of the music they enjoyed, she fell on the bed, took her phone and dialled Chisimdi’s number.
Without hesitation, Chisimdi took the call and shouted in fear: “Amarachi, where are you, please?”
Amarachi was appalled, especially for Chisimdi addressing her by her first name. It was strange because her twin sister always addresses her as twiney or any endearing pet name.
“Calm your nerves, baby,” Amy said feeling tense, “what’s the matter with you. Hope mom is okay,” she added fearfully.
“I’ve been calling you to leave that place now because all I kept seeing…”
Before Chisimdi could finish talking gunshots began to sound everywhere; even inside the room, exactly in the parlour, making Amy lay prostrate on the floor with fear.
“What’s happening?” Amy asked with great fear, “I think armed robbers just attacked and my friends are in the room shouting for help,”
“Stay there and do not go out because they came for you,” Chisimdi wailed crying so loud, “baby please stay there or find a way to escape,”
Still holding the phone close to her ear, Amarachi crawled out through the rear door and jumped the fence; having her cloth tore by the security wire and her body bruised and pierced as she ran for safety.
Her friends in the room all scampered for safety as this happened but Amarachi was already out into the bush and kept running as the phone line remained open. Chisimdi’s voice kept directing her as she ran further into the bush until she was told to stop to avoid running into the hands of the same people that were after her.
“How did you know this?” Amarachi asked panting heavily as if she’d collapse.
“Take a deep breath and remain where you’re,” Chisimdi directed without having the time to explain herself to Amy, “These are assassins and not thieves. They came t kill you. I saw everything vividly and that was why I’ve been calling you but you didn’t take my calls. Now you’re safe, but I’m afraid for your friends because they may all have been killed in the house,” on hearing that, Amarachi lost her sense of reasoning because she couldn’t just see any of her friends hurt in her house let alone being killed, so she sprang up to rush back to the house and then saw some cars zooming off with loud screech; speeding along the streets without stopping. It was then she realised that the assassins that came for her just left. “I’m going back into the house,” Amy said with a mixture of fury and fear.
“Don’t think of it,” Chisimdi warned ”because they’re not gone yet and may come back. Call Dave and seek for security backup before going back into the house. This is dicey and you may not be out of the loop yet. Act wisely and avoid losing your life too because if you do, I have no reason to live, even mom too. If you love us, keep yourself alive. In anything you do in life, always keep yourself alive because there is nothing more important than that. Call Dave now!” she urged and hung up.
Amarachi called Dave on the phone without delay and alerted him of the situation. Dave and Onyedika called the attention of the police as well as took some of his boys and stormed the area.
Dave had to come to the bush to rescue Amarachi who was so eager to meet her friends and know if they were safe at all.
Getting to the house, she was greeted by the siren of an ambulance, making her confused because she couldn’t understand why an ambulance would be in her compound.
Dave held her firmly to avoid rushing into the apartment.
Amarachi struggled to enter the apartment but Dave didn’t allow her to go so that the police and the emergency unit would do their job.
Amarachi was surprised seeing Osisioma with blood all over her but limped as she was taken to the ambulance; Uremma was also shot at the arm; the pool of her blood being controlled by the medical unit to avoid losing her life. Akunna had blood all over her but it seemed she wasn’t shot. Her yells then revealed that the blood on her body was that of Chibunna who was brought out lifeless using a stretcher.
Amarachi forced herself out and rushed to Chibunna whose eyes were closed and body cold.
The rescuers who were all scattered in the compound didn’t allow her to go into the apartment but she forced herself in and looked everywhere with tearful eyes and then saw a golden pistol.
Seeing the revolver, she fell on the blood scattered in her room and began to weep profusely. Her mind went straight to the dream she had when Uremma shot them all with a golden gun. She then realised that it was the incident that just took place that she saw many months back thinking it was Dave that would be murdered.
The policemen picked the gun for forensic examination as the wounded and the lifeless were all rushed to the hospital.
Amarachi was mad at this point, so she rushed after the ambulance on barefoot with blood all over her body. If not for Onyedika and Dave that rushed after her and stopped her, she’d have stabbed herself with a broken glass she picked from the floor. She kept weeping and wishing to die but they never allowed her to act impulsively.
Chisimdi’s call kept coming but no one took the call, but she kept calling.
After a while, Dave heard the phone ringing and forced the cell phone out of Amarachi’s pocket and took the call.
“Chisimdi, Amarachi is safe!” Dave said to the weeping princess.
“Please, can I hear her voice?” she demanded as she cried aloud.
“She can’t talk right now but you can hear her voice as she cries on,” Dave replied and still kept fighting to hold Amarachi who defied restraints. Even some of the rescuers and policemen had to help in calming Amarachi down but it was as if they couldn’t even stop the girl.
“Oh my God, my heart is so heavy because I can feel her cry from here and I can hear what’s happening over there. My sister is so hurt,” Chisimdi said weeping loudly over the phone, “but what of her friends…Please, don’t tell me anything happened to them,” the princess asked feeling so restive and afraid of the reply that Dave would give.
“I think you need to hang up now,” Dave said, “They’re all safe…”
“Oh, thank God!” Chisimdi said.
“But seems one of them is gone, the only male with them, Chibunna” Dave said with tears and gloom and hung up.

PRINCESS AMARACHI episode 13
#OpraDre

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