GHOST RUN (Part 19&20) – OPEYEMI AKINTUNDE

PART 19
“GHOST RUN!”
©️Opeyemi Akintunde

The next two days were worse than the first day in terms of the slaps I got from Captain. Whenever I told him I was still interested in going to Mororo, he would give me a hot slap. I wasn’t given food to eat. By the third day, I started screaming for God’s Help… I was at the brink of saying the wrong words to God, but whenever I was at that point, different scriptures will rise up within me, which made the scripture Psm 119:11 very real to me…

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee”

God’s Word I had eaten in the past three months was a defense in my Spirit.

On the third day, The lady who takes me to the makeshift rest room came to the tent where I was lying on the floor…

“ Hello…” She said but I did not have the strength to give a reply…

“ Your father will be here soon, Captain has not received your father’s money so he went to the bank in the city to confirm if your father has made the transfer.” She said

I still maintained my silence…

“ He told me I should take you to where you will take your bath in case you have decided to go back on your stand.”

I refused to say anything..,

“ Adenike or whatever your name is, you are only punishing yourself, be smart about this, Keep this Mororo vision for a later time, maybe Five years from now. Tell your father you are no more interested and Captain will release you. Return home, stay with them for a year or so and then relocate to another state, pretend like you want to start a new life. Let your parents visit you in the new place and after another two years or so, you go to this Mororo you are passionate about… This is the wisdom you need!”

“Ok…” I managed to say!

Her idea was a good one. It was a good compromise and I felt I could deceive my parents for a while and later when I gain my independence, return to Mororo.

“ You will do what I just said?” She asked very excited and I nodded…

“ Oh thank Goodness, at least you can have something to eat soon! My Goodness ! You are one tough girl though! She removed the handcuff from the iron rod but did not remove it from my hand as usual. She helped me get up and together we walked toward the makeshift toilet/bathroom.

“ Let me get you water and soap” she said compassionately..

“ Thanks, But can you take this hand cuff off, so I can wash my body well…” I said to her…

“ I am sorry, Captain did not give me the instruction to that, you just have to bear the discomfort till your father comes around. Since you have agreed to go back home, the discomfort you are feeling will soon be over.”

“ Ok thank you! “ I said as I stood waiting for her to get me water…

On bringing the water, she realized the soap was in her tent!

She rushed off to her tent and I heard …

“ Run!” I turned around to see who spoke, but there was no one…

I heard the voice again saying with all urgency. I looked and saw a pathway to my right. I didn’t know where the Strength came from, I raced off…

**********
I know I was running through bushes but I didn’t know where I was headed….It was getting late and I had not yet seen a main road.

“ God lead me out of here please!” I screamed out loud with tears pouring out of eyes. I was hungry and tired. The hand cuff on my hand was hurting me terribly..

I decided to take a short rest by sitting on the floor. The moment I sat, something heavy dropped on me. On impulse I had closed my eyes, so on opening them I realized I was trapped in a big net.

“ What?” I literally screamed… “Where was I and whose net was this?”

PART 20
“ GHOST RUN!”
©️Opeyemi O. Akintunde

I tried getting out of the net but all to no avail…

“ Who is there?” I heard a voice say from the distance…

“ Please help! My name is Adenike and I missed my way!” I said

The person shone the torch on me…

“ The Peleta’s net!” The man said

“ What?”

“ You have been trapped by the Peleta’s net…”

“ Yes sir! I don’t know the name of the net, but I am in it!”’I said to the strange man…

” If you stay in that net for the next 2 hours, you will be dead. The Peleta net is a strangulating net, it will be keep shrinking till it strangulates you!” He said

“ Ok!” I said hoping he would come closer and help me out…”Are you not going to help me?”

“ I have to be sure of my safety first before trying to save you, that’s how it should work!” He said as I saw him shining his torch around himself.

“ The Peleta people do not come out to fight their invaders, they made these nets as a way of defending themselves…It is a shrinking net soaked in poison.” He said as he carefully walked towards me…

“ There could be 1000 nets scattered around here, but to escape them, you need to walk in circles” He said and that made me understand why he walking in circles towards me. On getting close to me, I thought he would help cut the net, but instead he stretched a short knife towards me.

“ Once you cut through, walk in circles towards where I am …” He said as he walked back in circles forming the infinity sign till he got to a far distance…

I cut the net successfully and the moment the net fell off…I noticed another one was about to drop on me, I jumped from the net and landed on a new surface, and as swift as a deer, I walked in circles till I got to where the stranger was…

“ A very good one I must say….!” The stranger said

“ Thank you! But I don’t how I did that! That must have been God!” I said

“ Hmmm… !” He said

“ So what are you doing here? And are a Peleta person! Besides, who are the Peleta people… Never heard of them!” I said

“ Come this way!” He said

I followed him towards the right and as we kept walking , I started hearing drum sounds… A certain amount of illumination was coming from under ground…By the time we moved further, I realized we were on top of a hill and a large expanse of land laid on the ground below. A strange looking people in hundreds filled up the land!

“ That would have been you tomorrow morning if I had not rescued you tonight!” He said to me as he pointed to a roasted looking animal.

Like the stranger heard my thought, He said….

“It’s not an animal, but a very unwise human like you!”

“ What?”

“ His name was Robert Schwartz!”

“ Robert Schwartz!” The name rang a bell, but I couldn’t tell from where I heard the name…

“ Yes, an unwise missionary!” With that he looked straight into my eyes with a terrifying hurting look…

“ The painful thing is that, he didn’t die alone, he wasted the lives of his wife and children.” I saw another set of people roasting two children and a woman and they ate their bodies like barbecue.

“ Oh My God! I thought God was meant to protect His missionaries, why this?” I said in pain. A pain I felt so dearly, because of what I had just faced recently in the hands of Captain…

“ God will never stop a stupid man from going to a mission field, but God will empower and Encourage a wise man on the mission field!”

“ What differentiates a wise man or a foolish one on the mission field”

“ Get back to Captain and he will tell you more!”

“Captain?” I asked and on looking intently at the stranger, he fizzled away like a feather….

I stood shocked on the same spot! I just saw An angel? I looked down and the Peleta people were no longer there… The night had turned to day like a passage of time happened right in front of me…

“Captain?” The Stranger was asking me to go back to Captain.

Everything was looking all complicated and I went blank!