Tarasha 2 Chapter 5 Part 10 – Oyin Oluwatosin Emmanuel
She got greatly shocked when the curtains of the inner door one metre close to her position opened and Aisha rushed in from there instead of from behind. She looked back to check who could be at the front door but Rex had his gun focused to her body already and had released two immediate shots when she turned.
It was too sudden for Tarasha to act or make any move faster than the speed of the bullets but Aisha who was rushed in from the door beside had covered her body with hers before the bullets got there. The first entered into Aisha’s chest while the other hit her jaw. Her lifeless body dropped on Tarasha who quickly bent for cover behind the three seater and exchanged the gun on the floor for the one with real bullets.
Keeping an eye towards the direction of the door, she placed on the ground Aisha’s lifeless body which was leaning against her shoulder and the backrest of the sofa. She rose up swiftly and released two quick shots, adjusting her position in the process. The shooter was out of sight when she rose to sh00t, she concluded he must have hidden behind the one seater sofa she also hid when she first came in. She took the brief opportunity of no exchange to reload her gun and glanced at Aisha’s lifeless body in the process.
Aisha’s eyes were still open but life had drained out of her already. Tarasha unconsciously drew in a breath and used her palm to close the eyes of the dead body.
Just as she was about to adjust her position, a bullet flew past above her head and she froze after lowering her head and turning. More bullets followed but Tarasha knew better than to quiver or try to return the shots. She was sure the shooter was trying to make her come out of hiding just like she did to Don. Three more bullets followed and then it seized temporarily. Not more than ten seconds after bullets began to pierce into the thick leather sofa she was hiding behind. She then concluded in her heart that her opponent was in a more advantage position than she. She decided to leave through the opening Aisha entered through.
As she made a move with her legs without rising up, something hit her from behind. She looked back and saw blood. It was then she realized that she was facing a well seasoned person as her eyes met with two holes formed behind the seater. The shooter had only been targeting two points in the three seater and wasn’t shooting randomly . The first three bullets each that entered into each points of the sofa had been stopped by obstructions -the wood, foam and makeup behind the surface leather of the sofa- but had cleared space enough for the bullets to pierce through the entire sofa and get behind which explains how she got hit.
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‘Oh!’ Henry exclaimed as he stared in amazement at the neat arrangement of weapons he could see on the screen. He covered his lips with his palm unconsciously, wondering how Omotara smuggled in such weapons into the country and with what money she did. He pressed the right arrow button on the keyboard and the view on the screen moved until it got to a door in the middle of the room leading to another. He navigated past the door to the other side of the room and just like the left side, the right was also filled with arms of different kinds arranged neatly according to their type and heights on the metal shelf.
His hand left the keyboard for a second and he remained motionless, staring blankly over the monitor. He returned back to the computer and used the mouse to switch to the cameras in the next room. There he saw something that was more flabbergasting to him. Neatly arranged on a long drawer were the necks to head of dolls, the necks being the ones in contact with the flat top of the drawer. There were about seven dolls on the table and each doll’s face was covered with a human skin mask which made them look like real human faces. There were three female faces there and four male faces. The male faces were arranged side by side and the female faces also, they were of different skin colours but all dark. All of the male dolls hair except for one had negroid hairs while the females were plaited with different styles of hair attachments. The female mask faces also had different styles of makeup. There was a mirror behind the drawer and the other parts of the room were arranged in form of a makeup studio.
Henry zoomed the video and observe the masks one after the other, he realized that they were kept there to dry which meant they were newly made.
He knew at once what they were made for. Omotara must be planning to use them for disguise. That didn’t really baffle him than the number of the masks he’d seen, seven. To him it meant Tarasha was still planning to do a lot of killing and that automatically means she wasn’t going to ever feel repentant and wasn’t planning to stop the job of killing people. She was instead devising more means to make her assassination and escape after it easier.
He heaved a deep sigh and shut his eyes firmly wondering if there was ever going to be any future with Tara.
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After ten minutes drive in total silence, Dave and Jumoke finally arrived at her residence. Dave drove his car into the compound and parked behind another car. They both dropped from the car at the same time but Jumoke picked up her bags and rushed towards her apartment without saying a word to Dave. He walked hastily after her but she had entered and locked the door from behind before he got there.
‘Jummy please open the door,’ he pleaded placing his palms on either side of the door frame.
‘Just go Dave, I don’t want to see you anymore. Leave the explanations to yourself and never return to my life anymore,’ she blurted out.
Dave sighed. ‘Come on babe, I can explain. Things are not the way you think they are…’ he paused to lower his voice as he was already attracting attention from the neighbours in the other apartments. ‘Things are not the way you see them, if you’ll only let me explain myself, you’ll get to understand what I went to do and why I left that way.’ he said and paused to listen for a response. He didn’t hear anything from her, so he placed his ear to the door to listen if she was still in the living room. He could hear sounds of her movement inside the house but couldn’t ascertain what exactly she was doing. He decided to go to the back of the house and peep through the window of her bedroom but the window blinds covered his view of the room. As he was about turn away from the window, the blind was pulled and his eyes met with Jumoke’s eyes. She quickly closed back the blinds and hurried away.
‘Jummy, come on, why don’t you give me a chance to talk to you?’ he pleaded again in front of the window but got no response from her. He walked back to the front door and kept on knocking but she didn’t answer. After five minutes, he decided to try something else. He stepped back a bit and carefully observed the lock, it was the same as the one being used eighteen months ago. He turned and looked down the balcony to see if he could find any metal which he could use to unlock the door.
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‘She’s deep asleep now, when she wakes she won’t remember what brought her here.’ The young doctor explained to Inspector Mac. ‘But there are side effects too,’ he added in a sad tone.
‘What side effects?’ the Inspector asked facing the doctor with a raised eyebrow and his two hands on the waist.
‘She might forget more than the last three weeks, it might extend to three months,’ the doctor answered.
‘But why should it work that way? I thought the drug was only meant to induce memory loss of three weeks events.’ the Inspector questioned.
‘Yes, but sometimes because of the difference in composition of human bodies, it tends to have different effects on different people.’
‘Well, three months is even okay,’ the inspector said, returning his gaze to the girl in the bed. ‘Even if she lost her memory completely, it’s for her good and safety.’ he added.
The doctor sighed and kept his gaze also on Stephanie. He could feel the insincerity in the Inspector’s words but he had no choice. The Inspector’s words and actions were being backed by the police commissioner’s authority and the Inspector General’s.
‘How long will she sleep for?’ Inspector Mac turned to her again.
‘Well, it depends. She could sleep for three to four hours.’
‘That means we’ll be back tomorrow morning to see the progress,’ he stated, folding his arms across his chest.
‘Yes, tomorrow morning is a good time.’
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Jumoke sat at the edge of the bed solemnly with her face buried in her palms. She made up her mind during the drive home to shut Dave totally out of her life forever, there was no need for him to let him in to complicate things again.
For some minutes she had not heard his knock or his voice and she thought for a second that he must have left but then she remembered the kind of person he was and knew he must still be lurking somewhere around.
She was still in her gloomy mood when she felt someone’s presence by her side and a hand wrapped her body as she tried to look off.
‘Get away,’ she screamed and he refrained immediately. ‘How did you get in?’ she asked looking towards the door. It was closed and her keys were still in the hole.
‘Please allow me talk,’ he pleaded and knelt in front of her.
‘We don’t have anything to talk about, just get out.’ she ordered, pointing towards the door.
‘Just listen to me and I promise that you’ll understand,’ he continued with his plea.
‘No get out, or I’ll scream and alert the neighbours that you’re a thief and rapist.’ she insisted.
‘No, you can’t do that.’ he said in a calm tone and placed his hands gently on her knees.
‘Somebody…’ she opened her mouth to scream but overpowered her with his so strong arms and covered her mouth with his.
She was shocked for a brief moment as his mouth met hers but she was too weakened by it too push him away. He gradually pushed her to lay on the bed and in a matter of seconds, she was responding to him.
Thirty minutes later, the two adults lay unclad side by side in the bed, their clothes scattered carelessly on the floor. Both were totally lost in thoughts and in astonishment of the moment they had just shared. Jumoke never really believed it could happen again, she had decided against it and made up her mind not to allow him touch her body anymore but here she was again after minutes of screaming and groaning under his pleasant torture which she appeared to enjoy. She felt foolish as she realized she only made a fool out of herself by thinking locking the door would have stopped him. It wasn’t the first or second time he had entered into her room without having the key. She had surprisingly met him inside on several occasions during the few months of their relationship. Now that he was back and she hadn’t been able to resist him, she wondered what would become of them. Their relationship had been undefined from the start; none had professed love to another before the first night they made out. Since then their relationship had been characterized of constant intense sexual intercourse.
Dave on his own fought with guilt in his heart. Not the guilt of having left her before but knowing he was going to leave her again soon and that she was only being used as his instrument. He felt nothing for her and had no plans for a future with her. All he needed her for was his work and nothing else. That day he rushed into the hospital with the bullet wound, he had seen the reaction on her face and knew she’ll be vulnerable and easy to use. Thus, he used her in several ways to help his operations and also medically when he was wounded and paid her with good sexual intercourse in return.
She unconsciously made a slight movement and her elbow touched his chest bringing both of them back to the consciousness of each other’s presence. She quickly retrieved her arm and maintained the space between them but he moved closer and climbed over her, his bare body fully in contact with hers. She groaned and vibrated all over but he only placed a light kiss on her lips and rolled over to his previous position.
‘I’m sorry for all I did to you, I’m sorry for abandoning you,’ he said in low tones, staring blankly at the ceiling. He knew he had been able to appease her with the sex and he expected to be forgiven without stress. She turned and faced the window side, her back towards him and remained in silence. He moved closer and placed his hand over her body, using the second hand to play with her hair.
‘So now that you’re back, what happens? Is it business as usual?’ she asked in soft tones but still depicting seriousness in her voice.
Dave had no response to the question but began to try to cook up a lie, he couldn’t use the several lines he had used before and had to come up with something more reasonable this time to convince her.
The loud ringing tone of a phone came to Dave’s rescue. He jumped out of the bed immediately and began to put on his trousers hurriedly. Jumoke rose up from the bed and stared at him for an explanation.
‘Baby, I can’t believe we’ve totally forgotten the unfinished job at the hospital. I have to go there right now to see Stephanie,’ he explained as he dragged up his trousers.
Jumoke sighed and laid back into the bed. This was one of the reasons she didn’t want him back. There were always no explanations for his actions and they were always unreasonable.
‘I’ll be back as soon as I finish what I’m supposed to do,’ he said as he put on his shirt. He straightened his clothes and took out of his pocket the phone which had began to ring again. He stared at the screen and paused in surprise at the caller’s ID. He then shrugged and silenced it. He rushed to Jumoke and placed a kiss on her cheek before rushing out through the door.
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Tarasha rushed into the corridor through the near entrance and stopped behind the wall and peeped briefly. The bullet had entered into her back at the right close to her shoulder. The shooting at the sofa only stopped a bit and continued not long after, the shooter was now targeting another point on the sofa. From that Tarasha could deduce that he did not know that she was hit neither did he know she had left the place, but he was going to discover both soon.
She looked back and came up with the conclusion that it was better for her to escape as she had been hit already instead of facing the enemy. She turned and took two steps forward and then turned back again to the entrance. She peeped and saw the shooter already standing up. He had discovered her absence behind the sofa quicker than she thought he would but luckily for her, he didn’t see her when she peeped. She had only returned for one thing; she cocked her gun and in a swift motion sent a bullet into Don’s body. Then she followed it up with a bullet towards Rex but he was quick to hide behind the sofa, also sending an untargeted shot towards her. She turned back and began to run towards the escape, covering her bleeding back with her left palm. She was bleeding badly and could become very weak soon if she didn’t get immediate care.
Rex rose up immediately he sensed from the sound of her footsteps that she was moving away already, he proceeded towards the entrance immediately, determined to meet up with her and do all it take her life.
