THE STRANGERS IN MY HOME (PART 2)

DAY OF ARRIVAL....

“Where is Badmus?” Chief Okafor asked Josiah in the car after he had revealed his true identity, “Who are you? And how did you get inside my car?”

Josiah ignored him and came down from the car. Angrily, Chief Okafor got down from the car too and slammed the door, ready to beat up this impostor in the middle of the forest.

As Chief Okafor was about to throw a punch at Josiah, a hand came behind him and covered his nose with a red handkerchief. Chief Okafor struggled to fight but his eyes began to get dizzy as his body began to feel numb from the substance in the handkerchief. It didn’t take too long before he was passed out on the floor.

Josiah turned to the car to see Madam Okafor and her three children also passed out in the backseat. Josiah’s real twin sons, Peter and Paul, had blown the substance from their handkerchiefs into the backseat to cause Madam Okafor and her children to fall into deep sleep.

“Josiah, what do we do next?” Uchenna Umeh asked him while removing her hand away from Chief Okafor’s nose.

“We change.” He ordered.

Right in the middle of the forest, the Umehs swapped clothes with the Okafors in order to impersonate them outside this forest.

The Mbeze Okafors were now dressed in the tattered clothes worn by the Umehs, while the Umehs were dressed in the Okafors’ luxurious clothes, adorning themselves with every piece of item the Okafors arrived Anambra with.

“I cannot see well with these glasses.” Uchenna complained to Josiah in the car while adjusting Madam Okafor’s medicated glasses on her face.

They had just finished changing their clothes and locking up the Okafors inside the long boot of the Sienna Car, leaving only Chidinma with them inside the car.

Chidinma was sleeping in between ejima (twins) in the backseat, while Uchenna and Josiah sat in front.

“Commot am. No dey stress yourself, nne.” Josiah responded.

“Call me Madam Okafor.”

They looked at each other for a second and burst out laughing.

“And I, be Chief Mbeze Okafor!” Josiah slapped his chest proudly.

“Honey, no. No pidgin. Speak like an Mbeze Okafor.”

“That one no concern me.” He hissed and started the engine.

As they drove back to the Mbeze Okafor family home, Uchenna could not help but wonder,

“What are we going to do about Chidinma?” She asked, while glancing at the little girl in the backseat, “How are we going to convince her that we are her parents?”

“She’s a child. Children believe anything you tell them.”

“Let’s hope this one does not fall our hand.”

*****

PRESENT DAY...

“Daddy?” Chidinma called from the corner.

“Yes.” Josiah and Chief Okafor answered at the same time.

She stared at both of them before her eyes stopped at Josiah.

“Daddy, why are you holding a knife?”

“Chidinma, he is not your father!” Chief Okafor shouted while struggling to stand up, “Daddy is here. Come to daddy.”

He tried to reach for her, but she screamed and ran to Josiah’s side instead.

“My daddy does not wear ugly clothes.” She pouted.

“They’ve brainwashed her, honey.” Madam Okafor said to her husband.

“No, we did.”

Chief Okafor stared down at Josiah’s hand locked around Chidinma’s hand. He became more furious. He could not take their bullshit anymore.

“Look here! You will never inherit my clothes, my house, my name... and not especially my daughter!” Chief Okafor growled and dashed for Josiah.

But as he got to his front, Josiah yanked the knife to his throat. He stabbed Chief Okafor right on the spot.

“Honey!!!” Madam Okafor screamed but winced in pain on the floor.

Chidinma screamed and ran away from Josiah to meet her brothers. He surely wasn’t her father.

“Oga, abeg. No kill me. Na gateman wey I be, I no kill person.” Emeka the gateman begged Josiah, knowing that this man right here was very dangerous.

Josiah laughed hysterically at his statement and bent over to squat in front of Emeka that was also tied down on the floor.

“You remember wetin I talk before?” Josiah asked him, pointing to the ground. “Inside this room.”

“’You dey craze?’” He quoted Josiah’s words from earlier.

Josiah chuckled and shook his head. He moved closer to his ear and whispered, “I say ‘Nobody is leaving this room alive’.”

With that, he stabbed the gateman’s chest multiple times, causing the other children to scream.

Josiah stood up, blood stains all over his face and clothes. He stared at everyone alive in the room. From an injured Madam Okafor to Chidinma to Chima to Chike to Peter and Paul. One by one, he debated what he was going to do to them next. No one was family anymore.

He wanted to begin this newfound life alone.

And he had only one thing to do.

******