THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 THE SERIAL MASK BY MORUFAT AJANI

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

As Akin is preparing tea, his jaw tightens and he's gritting his teeth with a frown deep and brooding.

He is feeling a storm grumbling in his stomach but once the tea is ready, he smooths his face again, picks up the tray, and walks to the table.

“Sit,” he says to Badru who stands at a corner like a rain be-at chicken, hesitates, then drags himself to the chair and sits down.

Akin places the cup in front of Badru, then walks around behind him. His hand is on his body and he is moving it around his neck, slowly,  controlled and then gently massages his neck. Badru’s whole body is trembling.

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Suddenly, Akin grips the back of Badru's neck and tightens his hand around it with all his might.

Badru jolts in fear, panicking seriously. Akin stares coldly into space… then releases him.

Badru jumps to his feet, spinning around.

“Please…Please don’t k!ll me. I beg you in the name of God.” he stammers, his voice shaking. “

Hearing that, Akin bursts into a sharp howling laughter. “God?” he repeats mockingly.

“You’re calling God? You…Badru…are begging me in God's name?” His voice is full of venomous amusement.

He leans forward to Badru and says,

“What exactly do you mean by ‘don’t k!ll me’? If I don’t k!ll you, what do I gain? Even you, be honest, don’t you think you deserve to d!e for what you did to me?”

Badru shakes his head violently. “No! No, I didn’t do anything to you. I just told the truth. I only said what I saw. I only said what you did. Please don’t k!ll me.”

Akin narrows his eyes.

“Of course,” he says, straightening up slowly.

“I’m not even surprised you’re saying that. You’ve always been delusional. It's not new to me.”

“Okay, okay! Let me apologize. I’ll apologize right now. Please. I’m sorry, so sorry. Please forgive me.” He clasps his hands together, rubbing them desperately. He is sweating all over his body profusely now.

Akin’s facial expression darkens with the anger in his belly gassing up uncontrollably.

“You’re Sorry? Forgive you? Really?” he echoes.

And without waiting for Badru's answer to his questions, he walks to the window and checks the blinds if it is tightly shut. Then he turns up the volume on the office radio until the sound fills the entire room. Even if he doesn't turn on the radio, no one can hear what is happening there. The wall is sound proof.

Badru begins to panic even more.

“I’m sorry,” He repeats, shaking and Akin shakes his head aggressively.

He steps towards Badru and then suddenly throws a hard punch into his jaw. Badru cries out and stumbles to the floor, tasting blood in his mouth. He scrambles to a corner, dabbing his lips, trembling. And now anger has mixed with the fear him. He is so angry now.

“My jaw…My jaw is broken.,” Badru says through pain, touching his jaw area. He continues talking,

“This is why I reported you to the police. I knew you’d k!ll me too one day. I knew it!” His voice is slightly angry but one can still hear fear in it.

Akin laughs creepily for a second and says,

“Really? That's why you reported me? Because you fear I will eventually k!ll you. Oh God.” Akin puts his hand on his forehead fatigue and then continue talking,

“Say whatever you want and believe anything  you want, that's your problem. But don't blame me for whatever that happens to you here today. Whether dead or alive, it's your fault, Badru.”

Hearing what Akin says just now, Badru’s anger vanishes, replaced by a fear even bigger than before

He’s speaking so fast now, “Please… Please…spare me. Please, I beg you. I promise to leave you alone. I promise I won't interfere in your business again.” Badru is talking so fast and  barely realizes he’s wetting himself down there. A slow stream trickles to the floor from his trouser. It's urine.

Akin hears the liquid sound and looks down. Seeing that Badru is wetting himself with his urine, he chuckles amusely.

“I can't believe you fear de-ath this much. Shaking, peeing and scared like a child. You of all people? I mean you? Badru?”  he says, almost gleeful.

Badru looks down, seeing urine on the floor, he feels anger boiling in his mind towards himself. He also can't believe it. He detest how weak he is, so much. He is utmostly feeling ashamed of himself but he swallows it and says,

“Yes, I fear de-ath. Who doesn’t? Except someone who’s a k!ller… like you.”

“A k!ller?” Akin repeats, tilting his head.

“Yes! Aren’t you one? You’ve k!lled many people. And you still have more on your list. Isn't the reason you hired Hanan, is to k!ll her? Isn't it?”

Akin laughs again, then nods slowly.

“Yes, say whatever that comes to your mouth. It's a free world. If that’s the game you want to play… fine. But you know no k!ller never lets someone who knows their secret live.”

Badru drops to his knees again immediately after he hears that.

“Please… please don’t k!ll me.”

Akin squats down in front of him, his eyes burning into Badru’s.

“I might spare you… if you do something for me.”

“Anything. Just tell me. As long as you promise to spare me, I will do anything.” Badru says, trembling and Akin nods, saying,

“I’ll give you a script. You’ll go on camera and say your testimony at the police station back then was a lie. That all the allegations you reported against me were false. That the reason you reported me for was a lie. Then I will let you leave.”

Badru’s face twists in horror.

“No,” he says, shaking his head. “Never. I’ll never say that. I’d rather d!e.”

Akin shrugs.

“Then you should d!e.”

He lunges, but before he can grab him, Badru bites himself down hard on his own wrist, shaking like a madman.

“What are you doing?!” Akin shouts, trying to stop him.

“I won’t let you k!ll me! That will mean you won.  That means you dominate. I’ll do it myself! I’ll k!ll myself by myself.  I owe no one my life.”

As Badru bites down harder, Akin panics for a second, realizing he might actually be serious about k!lling himself for real. In a quick flash of rage and desperation, Akin delivers a loud, dirty slap across his face.

“Are you mad?! You want to d!e? Here?!” he roars.

“Here or not. You can't even d!e now. I won't let you d!e. Your life can't end just like that. I will be the one to end it. For everything you have done to me, you must d!e by my hands.” Akin says, breathing heavily.

But Badru, now trembling like a wet leaf, tries to crawl away instead of answering, saying,

“No. Leave me alone. Leave me…”

Akin gives him another slap, then another, and a third. Badru lets out a shaky cry, holding his cheek as he crawls backward toward the wall.

“Please stop. Stop be-ating me like a baby. That's belittling and rude. The scar from the be-ating from the other day is still on my tummy. Please.”

Now Akin knows the reason he is so scared of him and looks traumatized at his first sight of him. He gave him the best be-ating of his life that day and Badru was traumatized about it.

Then there is a knock at the door.

Akin freezes.

Badru freezes too.

The knock comes again. Akin’s face twists in frustration. Without thinking twice, he drags Badru by his shirt collar, pulls him up, and shoves him into the inner room. There’s a small storage area connected to the office. Akin locks him in and quickly adjusts himself, checks his face, smooths his shirt, wipes sweat off his forehead.

He already knows who it is because he isn't expecting anyone except her.

Hanan.

After a few seconds he breathes in slowly, opens the door and just as expected, Hanan is standing there, holding the book he sent her to buy.

But the moment Hanan sees him, her eyes narrow slightly.

Akin’s breathing is a little too fast. His face is straight, but his energy is scattered. So being a detective, she senses he is unsettled immediately.

“Are you okay?” Hanan asks, concerned.

“You look a bit…” Hanan adds and Akin interrupts her.

“I’m fine. Just a bit tired. Thank you for the book.” Akin says quickly, forcing a smile.

Hanan is not convinced but she hands the books over. He nods again, thanks her, and gently closes the door.

Inside, Akin exhales deeply and works into the inner room. But when he opens the door, he sees that he’s gone.

The inner room’s window is open and the room is empty.

Akin’s chest tightens. His eyes dart wildly across the room, searching for Badru. He rushes to the window to see if he is hanging on the handy-guard iron there. He peeks to see and when Badru is not there, Akin looks far below, on the ground and sees Badru running down the street.

Akin clenches his jaw so tightly his teeth almost crack. He looks down again and sees where he passed. He used the water pipe beside the window to slide down and escape.

Akin grips the window frame, fuming with rage.

He escaped. Why the hell didn't I think of the possibility that he could escape like that? How?

Akin is pacing back and forth, his shoes tapping hard against the tiled floor. His fists are clenched. His face is twisted in rage and panic.

After a while, Akin sits down, thinking about how to handle Badru. Thirty minutes later, a client arrives for therapy. Then another and another till it is three hours.

***

As Akin is talking to Hanan at the entrance, he is looking around the inner office to see how to escape. And then jumping out the window comes to his mind. He embraces the thought immediately but when he looks down the window and sees how far the ground is, he tuck his head back in, frightened. But when he remembers how brutal Akin is and what he did for him in the past, he chooses to jump through the window. He prefers dying that way than dying in Akin's hand. Not that both are not dying but he prefers not to d!e on anybody's hand. He believes no one owns his life except him. So no one has the right to take it.

He climbs the window and jumps into the small space at the side and holds on to the pipe. His life flashes in his eyes as he slides through the pipe to the floor. His hands almost slipped over but he was fast enough to hold the pipe back.

The moment he got to the floor, he didn't even think about his car at all. He beckons at the cab man and rushes inside the cab. He tells the cab man to drive him to a certain place.

Throughout the journey, he was breathing heavily. He keeps rewinding his conversation with Akin and the way he be-ats him like a baby, again. He is feeling so belittled, humiliated and sad.