A luxurious home is the pride of its owner, but for Tunde Adebowale, it was his dissipating mask.
His home stood two stories tall, a white semi-mansion with an elaborate compound, its contrasting black and white marble tiles reflected the sun's glory, but it was as empty.
A dark young man sat on a stool by the window on the second floor. Like a black dot on paper, his gray hoodie stood out in the empty white room.
"Thank you so much, my son, how did you raise the money? The doctor said if you brought it any later I would have diedddd" Her sobbing echoed across the room.
The young man kept silent, biting his finger furiously while gazing at his phone with fear and contempt.
"Tunde? Are you there?" she called out again.
"M- Ma? Ehn? What were you saying?" he stammered, his words felt anchored to his quivering heart
"Tunde? Is everything ok?"
"Yes, yes, everything is ok? I, i have to go Ma "
"Wait, how did you get that amount of money?"
"Why are you asking that now?? Aren't you healed? What else do you want?" His voice turned defensive.
"Is that why you're talking to your mother like that? because-"
Boom!
Suddenly a large boom was heard from the gate, it's vibration still shaking its handle like a bell
"Oga! Open this gate! If you no like yourself, no open am!" An unknown voice bellowed from outside along with the scrapping of metal on the ground
Tunde swallowed his spit, his caramel eyes lit up when the shock of realization hit him. Immediately, he fled from the window to the right side of the floor, his phone's screen shattering as it cushioned his fall.
With shaking hands he picked it, he attended to his mother while oblivious to its cracks.
"I'll call you back, I'll call you back! Just stay at home and don't open the door for anyone!"
He cut the call before his mother could question him, then he noticed the spider web of cracks on the screen.
Ignoring it, he refreshed his bank app one last time, as if begging God to help him.
He unconsciously held his breathe.
In Vain
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The banging of the gate resumed with full force, the scraping of metal increased.
"TUNDE! Open! This! Door! We know you are there, and we don't care about your excuses! Today! You will pay by cash or Blood!"
Tunde's heart dropped, and a tear streamed down his goatee.
A familiar cold chill ran down his spine as he thought, "This is it for me." Quickly, he wiped his face with the back of his hand.
"Omo! I don die! I should have just paid half the money, but fuck!"
Desperation took over.
"Let me just pretend I'm not here. Maybe they'll go back."
Clinging to a sliver of hope, he knelt on the cold tiles and peeped through the window.
But no one was there.
A deafening silence filled the air, and his labored breathing echoed through the room. It seemed they had left the gates.
Or so he thought.
In horror, Tunde watched as men cut the barbwire on top of his walls and vaulted over it like zombies. His eyebrows shot up like rockets, and he swallowed hard, but it went down the wrong way. This sent him into a violent coughing fit, his veiny neck straining as his throat rejected the swallowed spit.
Before he could regain his senses, he heard the familiar sound of scraping metal again, accompanied by the slosh of liquid in a bottle.
"Smoke him out!"
Still coughing, Tunde's location was unmistakably clear. His mind raced, unable to get a grip on himself. "These people are mad! Fuck!"
Accompanying that thought.
A flaming Molotov cocktail sailed through the air, landing with a crash. Smoke filled the room, and a horrific scream pierced the air.
"Ahhhhhhhh!"
He hadn't even said goodbye to her.