Reality or Nightmare

"I thought you love me" Brenda yelled as he pulled her by the hair towards the engine where humans are being grounded for rituals. If someone had told her that Bobby is a ritualist, she definitely wouldn't have believed and right now, everything seems like a dream where she's struggling to wake from.

She and Bobby had been dating for three months and he's the sweetest guy she has ever met although sometimes he would vanish for a week then return with lots of gifts to cheer her then make mad love to her that would make her forget all her premeditated grudges towards him.

He pushed her into the boot then pressed a button that suddenly made the boot close in an awkward manner. "I'm sorry" Bobby grinned and she could see in his eyes that a part of him wants to save her yet he watched the machine roll the boot into the section where she would be grounded into chunks of meat for their rituals.

Life has been so perfect and rosey that she never imagined something like this was actually real. She couldn't believe her eyes when she noticed chunks of human flesh covered in blood and if they were to be measured or scaled, it's probably up to a hundred human beings that had been grounded into pieces of meat. "Why are you doing this to me? She wailed still hoping he would change his mind and save her from this hell.

"I tried to warn you" he whined though still unable to look at her. His feets are fidgeting while sweats dripped through his armpit down to his ribs. He's wearing only a white short with nothing else to cover his tattoos all over his chest and biceps. "Is this how you want to end my life after...." She hasn't finished her statement when he pulled a lever which sounded an alarm before the engine started yet nothing was happening except the blaring of the engine.

Brenda can see herself being scattered into chunks of meat while her innocent blood spilled all over the boot. "Is this about me or you? By now she has given up the thought of hope and the only thing that's left in her is her soul which is in a reverie where she's in an open space and for a minute, she smiled knowing there's life after death and she'll certainly be in heaven where her soul will be free from this pain and fear her body is feeling.

"Trust me, I'll always love you" he moans like he has no power over what he's doing, he sounds like a demon is controlling him or he's forced to do it or lose his own life, Brenda's thoughts wavered. "Bob! We can fight whoever is behind this" her voice is fading, her body can feel the heat from the blaring engine while her soul for a moment has reached negotiations with the Creator and justified for heaven.

Bobby plods closer to the engine, for the first time since he dragged her in here; he shares eye contact with her and believe me, his eyes are going red while his forehead appears like something wants to pull out from it. "B..renda" he stutters her name, "I'm a ritualist and everything we shared was nothing but a plan to get you here" he continues.

Her eyes sparkles in doubt and for a moment, her thoughts are convincing her that this man standing right here isn't her Bob. "This isn't you, Bob" she strectched her right hand to the glass between them then moans, "I still believe in you, Bob" she paused for a second then cried "What happened to you?" Millions of questions scaled through her thoughts yet her lips seems sealed while the voice, her voice appears to be her thoughts that Bobby wasn't hearing.

For the first time in her life, she gave up the struggle to save herself. "If the man I love can do this to me then what's life" although she's known for her strong will and faith but this moment is different because right now, faith seems like an illusion.

Bobby cocks his head upwards then closes his eyes like he's communing with something then untied the red bandana on his head. "A man becomes a man when he faces survival and wins" those were the last words from Bobby before pulling the lever which caused the engine to rewind then tear Brenda to pieces.

Brenda's phone chimes, it's her alarm for 5am and she has been dreaming all these while. "Good God!" She squeaks, "It was a dream, nightmare" she bellows. Her bedsheets is soaked with sweat while her whole body shivers in fever. She has never seen something like that before and it still scares her to think or conclude whether or not something like that can actually happen in this world of ours.

Brenda clutches her teddy bear, closes her eyes to pray then finds her feet to call her mother. She's about to dial her mother's line when someone knocks on the front door. It's Bobby and trust me, she can never trust him again. Although what happened wasn't real except a mare nightmare caused by severe typhoid but to her, it's a call for carefulness. A warning to kick Bobby out of her life for good.

It's sad because she really wants to spend the rest of her life with him and all that yet the memories of that dream stays fresh in her mind and she can't help but feel uneasy with Bobby. She knows her life will never be the same because she's about to lose the one man she loves yet that dream or nightmare has made her to see the world differently especially when she remembers the words of her bestie "Men are unpredictable, today they can be a sheep then suddenly turn into a beast".

She never used to believe a thing about the existence of rituals with human beings and other stories she used to hear about how the world can be a dangerous place out there but today, she had woken a different being far from being skeptical as she used to be.

She reached for her Samsung tablet then surfs the net about rituals and stuffs related to it. A video catches her attention, a video where some masked men are buttering a lady after stripping her naked. She couldn't watch the video till the end as she immediately rushed to the restroom to puke in fear and irritation.

It's sad to say this but the country where I was born and raised seems unsafe these days. It's like a dog eat dog society where humans eat their fellow humans, behead a living being without remorse and do all sorts of evil to their fellow beings for blood money and fame.

Now she understands that there are things out there which sounds impossible and uninteresting yet our perception or believes whether or not they exist doesn't stop them from existing. She understands better that the world, Nigeria is far dangerous than she used to think and now it even scares her to leave the house and as for Bobby, she broke up with him then relocated to England.