“As I opened the door, I met my favourite aunty. My father’s younger sister. She was the one that my father locked inside the room. One of her legs was rotten, just as mine. Immediately she saw me, she shouted: ‘Bob please save me. Your father want to kill me.

I rushed in and carried her. But some unknown forces were preventing me from carrying her out. I never knew that my father had noticed that something was going wrong.”

“Are you serious about this?” Nnenna asked.

“Yes. He quickly left his office and started coming home. By the time I managed to drag my aunty outside my father came back. The first thing he did was to point one small stick to my aunt and she felled down. Then he turned to me and asked”

“Bob who is your father?” he shouted at me but I didn’t talk to him. My heart was filled with anger. If I had a gun, I would have shot him dead.

“Bob you a bastard. If I am your father, you wouldn’t have done what you did. Anyway, you choice is clear, you will replace her. I thought that it was a joke, but my father started making incantations. I felt a very strong biting pain on my leg and I felled down and collapse. I don’t know how long it took me to regain consciousness. My mother told me that it was 2 weeks. I later saw myself in this room with this wound.”

” Bob tell me that it is a lie,” Nnenna cried out.
Bob let out a painful smile.

“What of you aunty? You didn’t hear about her again?”

“My aunty is gone. She died on that day.

“Bob please I have to go now,” Nnenna told him. She practically ran out because the odour in the room have become unbearable.

Joyce woke up from sleep but she couldn’t find Nnenna, she was shivering in fear, wondering what could have happened when Nnenna opened the door.

“Nnenna where have you been? I have been scared about your safety.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, I am fine.”

“Nnenna let’s not pretend about this. I know that I have gotten you into trouble, what do we do?”

“You are right. We are in trouble but there is nothing we can do about it,” Nnenna told her and smiled bitterly.

“How did I get myself into this? You warned me, my uncle warned me too but I did not listen. Now see the trouble I have gotten myself into. The worst is that I have landed you into trouble.” Joyce continued to lament.

“Joyce you have to calm down. There is no need blaming yourself.”

They didn’t know that Kate was at the door, eavesdropping. The door suddenly opened and she stepped in.

“What do you mean by she should not blame herself. I’m I the one she should blame? It is her covetousness that put us in this condition,” Kate said. Her voice was filled with anger.

“Aunty Kate it is okay,” Nnenna pleaded.

“It is not okay. I will not pamper evil at all. My anger is that you should have left her inside that room. I don’t know why you brought her out.”

It was more than Joyce could take so she broke down in tears.

“Aunty Kate, what do you intend to achieve by what you are doing now. You have made her to start crying. I don’t like this,” Nnenna told Kate.

“I have not started with her. This is a preamble. Let her just pray that nothing happens to you.”

“No evil will befall me,” Nnenna assured Kate.

“But why is oga always doing this. This was exactly what he did to you the first time you came here,” Kate asked.

“Nnenna sighed. Something just occurred to me now and it is really making me afraid.”

“What is it?” Kate asked. She was curious to know.

“The first night he took me to that room, he manipulated Bob to rape me.”

“What! So his son is a devil too” Joyce shouted.

“No! Bob is a complete gentleman. He was manipulated by his father. All these are the things giving him money. Afterwards, I became pregnant. When they discovered that I was pregnant, his wife wanted me to keep the pregnancy. Mr. Smith would not hear of it. He invited that native doctor to come and abort the pregnancy. I saw hell. Even if I get married, I don’t know if I will ever give birth again.”

Kate smiled bitterly before she started narrating her own story.

“This was exactly what happened to me. Mr. Smith himself raped me and I become pregnant.

He invited the same evil native doctor to come and take out the pregnancy. Hmm! Lots of evil is going on in this home,”

“Ha! I am finished,” Joyce cried.

“You are really finished. If you manage to leave this place alive, you will always look before you leap,” Kate told her.

“What are we going to do?” Joyce asked in tears.

“My friend stop making noise. You should be asking yourself what you are going to do. Do I have any business with you?” Kate cautioned her.

Meanwhile, Mr. Smith sensed a burning sensation on his wrist. He tried to ignore it because he was weak. The signal persisted so he was forced to get up and enter his temple. He used the mirror to view Bob’s room and discovered that Joyce was no longer there.

He stormed out of his temple and ran to his wife’s room. The door was locked so he started banging on the door.

“Linda open this door before I break it down,” he barked.

His wife got up from the bed but fear did not allow her to open the door.

“Linda, I say open this door now. If I open it by myself, I will kill you,” he continued barking.

Mrs. Smith quickly picked her phone to call his son.

She knew that the only person that could save her that morning was Bob. Whenever Bob was normal, Mr. Smith hardly mistreat his wife. But whenever he manipulated Bob and make him loose his mind, he treats his wife as he wishes. She was so happy when his son picked up the call.

“Son thank God that you are okay. Your dad is threatening to kill me. I don’t know what I have done,” she sputtered in tears.

“Call Nnenna on phone, she and that new girl should put on their nose masks and run to my room. Take the exit door and come here too,” Bob told her.

Mrs. Smith did exactly what his son asked him to do.
Mr. Smith continued roaring. When he discovered that his wife was not willing to open the door, he broke down the door. It was at that point that he remembered that the room has an exit door.

“Linda you are a criminal. I will teach you a lesson,” he vowed.

He ran back to his temple to really view how Joyce left the room. That was when he discovered that Nnenna was the culprit. He could also see from the mirror that both his wife and the girls have ran to Bob’s room. He picked up a pebble of spiritual arrow and threw it at Nnenna but it bounced back to him, and hit his left hand.

Then he remembered the native doctor’s warning, “You won’t be able to hurt this girl again. You have used her womb for sacrifice. She has paid a price!”