Cheers to 2025
January 5, 2025
Every New Year holds promise, as though it is any different from the turn of
3.27am Saturday
Chapter Five
“If you dare move!”
It was the voice of a soldier armed to the teeth with one of his colleagues. They were not joking when they popped out of the dark fringes of the bush nearby. It was as though they were in the battlefield that appeared to be anything but, the players unknowing of their roles and every one of them was the enemy.
Panic stricken and gripped with intense fear Princewill let go of the urine that he had locked into his bladder. The torrents wet his jeans and dissolved into the fine thread leaving a huge patch that one of the soldiers didn’t miss.
“This one has wet himself already” his voice sounded irritated.
All four of them lined behind the car with their hands raised above their heads even when they hadn’t been asked to do so. Collins started to speak first but Bilkiss was faster.
“Excuse me sir, they ganged up to beat me and harass me when…….”
“Shut up my friend! Did I ask you to speak?”
Bilkiss winced like a scared cat. She had assumed wrongly about the mission of the soldiers. She wasn’t the damsel in distress and this was real life and not the movies.
“We have been watching all of you for some time behind that bush there and we know everything that has transpired in the last 30mins. Now since the two of you are hell bent on fighting, you will show me how much fight you still have in you. Bunch of nonentities disturbing the peace of the neighborhood”
Collins was suddenly glad he didn’t have to speak.
“Now both of you move to this side” The taller soldier pointed his weapon at the two ladies beckoning that they move to the other side away from the car.
The two girls reluctantly moved through the line of boys still with their arms up in the air.
“You will both fight until you are tired. Useless prostitutes. When I say “go”, you start!” Even while he spoke the seriousness was not in doubt.
This was no joke.
The two boys didn’t dare turn their heads. They silently wished they could watch the animated fight. But Princewill was having difficulties breathing, fear had permeated every cell in his body and he was frightened to death. He had never stayed within 2meters to a gun wielding man and he feared for his life.
“Please sir” the words escaped Princewill’s mouth without his consent. It came out labored so much that the girls who were on standby to start another round of fight were surprised to hear it.
“Will you shut up there? Do you think by peeing and pretending to have ulcer, we will cut you some slack?”
Time ticked by as time does, neither accelerating nor flinching, for the allotted moment when fight would commence.
A thunderous “Go!” from the other soldier was accompanied by a round of incessant barking from dogs in the nearby properties. The girls lunged at each other again, only this time, it looked more of an embrace than a scuffle. They were already spent and struggling to fight. Bilkiss threw a lame punch into Tolani’s abdomen but was rewarded with an instant slap and kick to the jaw.
Tolani still had a score to settle and she sure wasn’t done. Another quick slap from Tolani caused the boys to turn their heads in wonder. They were hoping that Bilkiss was on the receiving end of that slap. They sincerely hoped.
Bilkiss cried out in pain and refused to continue the fight. She was hurt and drained of energy. The pain from the previous encounters had left her physically disadvantaged. It wasn’t going to be a fair fight. It was beginning to be a scuffle about nothing but the temporary squabble of egos.
“Please sir” she begged.
“Common my friend continue” Thundered the soldier.
Tolani was going to have a field day. Her energy was fueled by her grouse with Bilkiss cursing her mother. She wasn’t prepared to stand back without defending the pride of her dearest mother who was probably in bed somewhere in Ilesha sleeping peacefully. She wore the scars from the fight proudly on her face. She would do it again if she had to.
The soldiers could see the anger etched in her stance as she prepared to throw another kick at Bilkiss who was now on her knees.
“Enough” The soldiers had seen enough and then beckoned to Collins to approach them.
“You and your friends should leave here immediately. Go settle your squabble elsewhere, but leave this vicinity. Is that clear?”
Collins nodded in affirmative.
“Good. Find us something fast” he demanded.
Collins dipped his hand into his pocket and handed over wads of clean naira notes into the open palm of the soldier. But the soldier did not move instead he shoved the crumbled notes into his fatigue and opened his palm for more.
Collins thrust out the remaining cash into his open palm again but this time also showing him that his pocket was now completely empty. That was their cue as they walked away disappearing into the dark quietly like they were never at the scene.
Collins attention was drawn to a crying Bilkiss. Muffled cries soon turned to wailing and open cry for help.
“Get in the car lets go” Collins motioned to her softly.
“Go where? We are staying here till morning” she blurted out
Collins looked at his watch – it read 4.03am. His heart skipped a beat. If the DSS agent arrived at the scene he would be in a lot of trouble. And his life would be at risk.
He squatted next to Bilkiss and helped her into the passenger seat. But she won’t allow him shut the door. She stuck her leg right outside to stop him.
Collins walked over to the driver’s seat to continue pacifying Bilkiss who was now crying unabated. The alcohol was starting to wear off and the burning pain from the bruises and several blows she had received throughout the night had taken its toll on her.
Bilkiss was not ready to leave the scene until her DSS friend made good his commitment to send his boys over. All she had to do was to stall for the next one hour. Collins on the other hand had just one hour to convince Bilkiss to leave the scene.
When he tried to put the car key in the ignition, Bilkiss sprang from her seat to hold his wrist in a firm grip leaving him in no doubt that she meant business.
He looked at her and saw nothing but pure rage. This was tougher than he had thought.
On his side, he heard the rumble of a motorcycle engine right beside his car and to his amazement the occupants were Princewill and Tolani. Both of them seated comfortably on the pillion behind the rider as it revved into the empty street.
As the bike sped away, Princewill promised to call his dear friend whom he had now left in a lurch.
“I’ll call you” he said as his voice was lost in the wind.
Related Posts
The Constructive Generalist: How Akin Akingbogun is Engineering Africa’s Future and Writing Its Stories
May 8, 2026
In an era that increasingly demands hyper-specialization, Akin Akingbogun stands out as a refreshing anomaly. He is a man who refuses to be confined to a single box.
I Parked My Car Five Minutes Away: So the Kids Wouldn’t See It.
May 5, 2026
There is a particular kind of silence that falls on a man when the phone stops ringing, the proposals go unanswered, and the diary that once groaned under the weight of appointments sits quietly — almost mockingly — open. If you have ever been there, you know it.
Wired for Me
May 5, 2026
Let me tell you something uncomfortable: the most generous person you know — the one who volunteers every weekend, donates quietly, never asks for anything in return — is probably getting something out of it. Not money. Maybe not even recognition. But something.
When the Burnt Toast Saves Your Life
May 1, 2026
Adaeze had been awake since 4 a.m.
Not because she was anxious — though she was — but because this trip felt different. After eighteen months of follow-ups, phone calls, and PowerPoint presentations polished to a mirror shine, the deal was finally ready to close. An investor meeting in Abuja. A partnership that would change the trajectory of her small but gutsy consulting firm. She had triple-checked her flight, her documents, her outfit. She had prayed. She was ready.
The Loudest Person in Every Room Is Often the Most Afraid
April 28, 2026
When he told his father, Dare’s first response was a sigh. Then: “I told you to practice more. I told you months ago. You don’t listen. You never listen.”
There was no “I’m sorry, son.” No pause to let the boy simply feel the loss of the thing he wanted. Just a swift, seamless pivot to what Temi had done wrong — and, by extension, how Temi’s failure was evidence of Temi’s failure to take his father’s wisdom seriously.
You Only Heard One Side. That’s the Problem
April 28, 2026
I want to tell you something that took me embarrassingly long to learn. Not because the idea is complicated — it is not. But because it cuts against something deeply wired in us, something we are rarely honest enough to admit.
Everything You Were Too Embarrassed to Google About Mid-Life Crisis
April 28, 2026
You are somewhere between forty and fifty-five. You looked in the mirror recently and had a thought you immediately dismissed. Maybe you googled something at 2am that you would never say out loud. Maybe you bought something expensive and impractical and told everyone it was an investment. Or maybe you just feel — quietly, persistently — like the life you built was supposed to feel better than this by now.
Chekhov’s Gun
April 28, 2026
Anton Chekhov was a Russian physician and playwright — a man trained in the discipline of diagnosis before he became one of the most precise storytellers in the history of world literature. That combination of sensibilities matters, because the principle he articulated in the late nineteenth century was not merely a rule of dramatic craft. It was an observation about the nature of significance itself. About what it means for something to be present. About the relationship between introduction and consequence.
Fear Is a Prison with Invisible Walls
April 28, 2026
There is a prison that has no concrete walls, no iron bars, no guards posted at the gate. Nobody built it for you. Nobody sentenced you to it. And yet, for many people, it is the place they spend the better part of their lives — circling its perimeter, brushing their fingers against its invisible boundaries, and quietly retreating each time they feel the edge of something that might require more of them than they believe they can give.
The Closed Fist
April 25, 2026
Picture a hand holding sand. The tighter the grip, the faster the grains escape between the fingers. Ease the grip — open the palm, allow the hand to become a vessel rather than a vice — and the sand stays. This is one of the oldest paradoxes of leadership, and one of the least learned: that control, pursued too aggressively, produces the very loss of control it was designed to prevent.
The Growth Trap
April 25, 2026
There is a version of ambition that builds. And there is a version of ambition that consumes. From a distance — and especially from inside it — they look almost identical. Both are energetic. Both are forward-moving. Both speak the language of vision and possibility. The difference only becomes visible later, usually at the point of fracture, when what was built begins to come apart under the weight of what was promised.
The Frontline Disconnect
April 25, 2026
There is a particular kind of organisational absurdity that most people who have ever worked in a company will recognise immediately. It is the policy that was clearly designed by someone who has never had to implement it. The restructuring that looked elegant on a slide deck and chaotic on the ground. The customer-facing process that was overhauled by a committee that has not spoken to a customer in years. The directive that arrives from above, fully formed and non-negotiable, that causes the people closest to the work to exchange a look — the kind of look that says, without words: they have no idea what we actually do here.
Burnout Is a Leadership Failure
April 23, 2026
We have built an entire mythology around exhaustion. In boardrooms and business culture — perhaps nowhere more so than in the high-pressure, always-on professional culture many of us inhabit — busyness has become a currency. To be tired is to be serious. To be overwhelmed is to be important. To be burning out, quietly, is somehow proof that you are fully committed.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Discover more from Akin Akingbogun
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
10 thoughts on “Blood in the Water – Chapter 5”
Pingback: Blood in the Water – Chapter 4 – Akin Akingbogun
Collins is dulling himself o.. he should leave her and go. She’s bad news. I feel like teleporting into this scene and pushing her out of the car.
Please we need you to do some magic
Am quite disappointed in Princewill for peeing on himself at the sight of the battle ready soldiers,I thought being an internet wire fraud student,it meant that you’re a tough guy and tough guys don’t wet their pants.. Lol
Me too!!
Princewill ran away to fight sometimes again in the future. The end is yet to come.
Princewill is all about himself
Collins in it DEEP!!!!
Hmn! So, Collins is now left to whatever fate hands him from Bilkiss. Na wa o!
Na waa ooo. One night stand wahala. I have to see how all these ends. Bilkiss na correct torment.