25/07/2024
DYING SOUL 🥀 ❤️
CHAPTER TWO
He paced left and right continuously his heart racing in anger, his head throbbing in bad heat. Arghh! He screamed and hit his fist against the wall in confirmed anger. His panting doubled. His angry eye brows dropped doubled time. He paced even harder running his hands to and fro his high hair. He was so confused! He was so faustrated! So sad! The anger in him swooped up on controllably; he reached for the spare on the stool and rushed towards Aizonofe seizing him in a hard grab.
"What do you call this level of stupidity your... majesty?"
He asked as he stared hard at him, his hold choking him.
"What is the name of your land again? Otoweisi? The land that bears good thing? So what have you come to bare to me?" He asked smashing his head on the wallclose by. Blood seeped out running down his weary face through his aging wrinkles. The old man was weak, he was struggling to catch his breath, just remaining silent and never saying anything.
"King Aizonofe the third. I scoff! You are worst than anything I can even imagine. Evil , the devil himself. You thought you could defeat me in this war? Well my father but not me!" The last was with another hard smash. Aizonofe shrieked and coughed. He, with his last strength, looked up at him and managed to say;
"Please let me see my daughter if you'll have to kill me"
Ogbeide frowned. How dare him?
"Please let me see Ese if you'll be so ready to end me on this journey of mortality. I'm not scared of dying in your rotten arms...dear cursed prince..."
A terrific slap landed on his face.
"You sure are not scared of death Aizonofe. Believe me, I'm going to make you die very slow and painfully. Your death is going to be my responsibility. And as you cry and beg for death I'm going to torture Ese the worst way ever that you're going to regret marrying her off to me. I never really like her anyway "he added the last one low pitched.
"Your ugly daughter was in there in her chamber with tear filled eyes, her fragile being shaking about to break, she wants to see you buy she's never going to do that. What she's going to see is your co**se."
And at that point he raised the spear ready to Peirce him real hard when...
"Ogbeide!".. Ese's voice shrilled out. What was she doing here? How did she get past the guards? Ogbeide looked back almost immediately and his sight went blank.
*********
I knew...I looked like the worst and poorest person he could have ever seen in his life. I took my royal beads off...my royal regalia , my crown and everything that said royalty about me. I fell on my knees and then tears gushed out from my eyes. The sight of my father was terrible.
"My Lord, please let my father be...I beg of you...I renounce my royal rights. Make me the worst of servants, make me worst than an outcast, do whatever you wish with me. Just spare him."
At that, Ogeide let go of my father's clothes and stood up. He stared at this doom maker laying in front of him, at me , and then he dashed out without a word. As soon as he left, I rushed towards my father and scooped him up into my arms. He was all soaked up in blood. His dress was ripped out like hell and his breathing was hard and terrible. I started to cry all over again raising my hands to his face.
"Father why have you done this to me? To us? To your people? Why have you brought woe and evil upon your self and your people? Why this wicked act of foolishness? How could you have done this?" The questions continued to come one after the other. This wasn't going to end well. Ogbeide did this to my father?? Oh mighty heavens! What was I going to do?
*********
Ogbeide's thoughts was more than the sands at the sea shore. Aizonofe's main aim of staging this war was to dominate his kingdom and nothing more. What kind of idiot stages a war against his daughter's husband's kingdom? Perhaps he was mad, crazy or something but whatever he was was none of his business. There was no quarrel between the kingdoms so what led to this action of his? 'Aizonofe killed my father' he screamed in his head.
Just when he thought he had fallen in love with Ese!
He didn't care now. He couldn't think straight. Walking back to his chamber, he began to struggle to get calm before he ruined something or killed someone.
Poor Ese! Innocent her and her sweet heart. She didn't deserve anything she was going through. The last three moons have been nice to him but now all that was gone. But he really didn't want to care anymore, It was dangerous to his revenge plan. His hatred for her father had grown more than the waters of the earth. It just worsened his thoughts to start thinking that he could hurt Ese and he was hurting her already. His thoughts trailed back to the way she looked like in there. His head suddenly throbbed painfully. He groaned. 'my Ese ', he said in his head. How he really wanted to see her and fall back into her arms. But that would never happen. Ese hated him. He knew it. The more he wanted to think about his father the more she came into the picture. He tried to cam down and relax. The night was drawing closer. He dropped all royal business and walked over to his chamber to cool off but upon shifting the curtain aside... Ese! What was she doing here?
*********
He turned his back on me immediately he saw me. He couldn't even stand looking at my eyes for one second and I felt my heart heavy with anguish. I just stood at loss of words not knowing what to say.
"You should leave and now" he broke the silence but still I was tongue tied. I didn't even know how to lay my request.
" You shouldn't dare to disobey my orders Ese. I do not want to lays eyes on you. Leave right now."
"I'm not leaving!" I suddenly blurted. He raised his head at my yell still not looking kind of like 'such guts'.
"I'm not going anywhere. You were never unforgiven. You've always taught and made me believe the fact that I am your wife. Why do you drive me to exile?"
"I do not drive you to exile wife. You just need to stay away..."
"For what reason?" I asked depressed than ever. Silence lasted for a donkey minutes before he finally turned to face me. Instead of feeling relieved, I dealt my heart beat race faster and fear saddled me intensely. I saw him walk closer to me. The room was locked up in complete darkness save for the fire that lot the room in a yellowish glow. I could hardly see him face.
"Because..." He started walking even more closer to me.
"...I still love you and...I don't want to hurt you" he completed.
Love me? Where did that come from?
"No no no no that's not loving me. Don't send me away husband. Why? Let go."
"Let go? So easy for you to say." He chuckled and walked past me to his war spaer hanging on the wall. He drew out one spear and walked back towards me again. I looked at him belwidered wondering what his intentions were.
"Look Ese," he said piercing the sharp point of the spear into his palm. Immediately, blood seeped out and I took my eyes away. For a maiden who couldn't stand the sight of blood, it was one thing I hated the most. But I was more shocked about the fact that he could do that to himself and feel no pain, no cry not even a single sign of distress in his face.
"Why did you do thatm" I asked him disgusted.
"You're feeling my pain?" He asked me then I got to look at him in the eyes at his question.
" I felt it." I replied staring at the bleeding palm. He looked at his palm and then rubbed the blood on the mouth of the spear.
"It hurts to get a cut on on the skin, how about when the entire body is dead?" He questioned again rather rhetorically.
"Your father did more than this. He took my father's most precious possession–his life! Do you understand how I feel now?" He asked me once again meeting my eyes with his.
Heavens!
I could see some hurted life in those eyes. A teary soul, and an injured heart; bartered pleasures crowned with sorrows. I couldn't look away. I kept staring at his eyes until tears began to stream down my face. I began to feel the regret I neither caused nor was supposed to feel. I felt Ogbeide's pain. I looked even more deep into those eyes. My eyes balls shaking uncontrollably looking for what I couldn't tell. That was when I heard it— I heard everythingb like a deserted place, I heard the echoes of swords clinging in the air the sounds of flying arrows that was when I heard the sound of a screwed male voice screaming in angony ' Father!' and then the sound of swords cutting through the skin covered my ears. Blood! Blood! Blood! Tears just came afresh again. I began to sob that I couldn't even realize when I let my head fall on his chest and buried my eyes trying to wash away the permanent stains of sorrow from his heart but they seemed not to wash away and it hurt me badly. I suddenly felt covered, one hand on my hair and another drawing me closer to himself. This man...he still cared.
"It's okay" I heard him say.
"It's a war. You kill or you get killed." He added further.
"It's very much okay. Don't cry no more wife, you didn't do anything to me. I've promised not to hurt and I'll stand by it."
"You just don't understand what..." I broke off not knowing what to say. I was afraid of loosing my own father. He had sworn not to bury his father except mine was dead.
"Ese..." He called me and I raised my head to look at him but unexpectedly, he drew his face closer and laced a soft kiss on my lips. I got devastated. Why was he being nice to me when there was s strong watered for my people? My father will die in a couple of days. Had he changed his mind? I was scared of at his action. I just kept calm looking another way. He just kept holding on to me.
He just kept holding on...
