K.O!

A tall figure preceded by its shadow walked around the corner of the Form Four class and stepped into the class. The figure looked haggard but that did not diminish his chiseled jaw, bright eyes and thin lips. He had a lean physique, compact chest and just enough muscle evidence of the fact that he works out. The figure although tinged by playfulness commanded respect. However, this time it was shrouded by subtle gloom and anxiety that could only be noticed by those who knew him. To 70% of the young ladies at school, he was their demi-god and their curiosity fueled their advances. He was their handsome Mwalimu Teacher who would rebuff their advances and set them straight. Who would have known that within that layer of integrity lay a man with the desire to conquer the unattainable and the students who showed little to no interest on him?

His collection of the students he blackmailed and eventually left once they seemed to have accepted and even fallen for him was increasing. His latest 2 conquests were yet to yield to him even though a year had passed. That did not stop him from demanding their submission in anyway. The manipulation was worth the wait and the longer the game the better. Even as he played around with Christy and his girlfriend Chiri, he had set his eyes on Khalayi. The cunning student nick-named little terrorist would have made his conquest worth it. To watch the headstrong and controversial student crumple and submit to his wiles made his blood boil with anticipation. His anticipation increased his aggressive advances as he kissed Christy at the field that morning when Khalayi was running. However, his plans were cast down when Khalayi caught them and made a spectacle of this scene which for him he considered passionate yet to Khalayi it was downright despicable and to Christy it was humiliation and an endless nightmare.

The man's steps paused at the door entrance, just avoiding a pen with a paper that flew to the front slightly missing his eyes. He bent down casually and lifted the pen, unfolding the paper as he glared at the person who had thrown it at him. Reigning on his emotions, he proceeded to read the contents of the paper that made his heart drop to his stomach, figuratively. To the class, it looked like the norm where Khalayi had shifted her attention from Nasike to Mwalimu Teacher. A few teachers had been victims of her antics, three-quarter of them had left the teaching profession whereas a quarter had either transferred to another school or stopped teaching their class. They wondered whether Mwalimu Teacher fell on the 1st or 2nd category. Mwalimu Teacher had an inkling that he fell in the 1st category. His lustful misadventures had so far gone unnoticed and rumors were always quashed before they could develop into a scathing disciplinary scenario. However, at this juncture, although no rumors were circulated, his life was a living hell already. His only mistake was to lust at that little terrorist and doing it at a place that made her visible. His calculative mind had stopped working once the little terrorist opened up her mouth on that morning 3 weeks ago.

Every scheme he devised against her to buy her silence and may be submission had been ruthlessly unraveled. After getting caught on that morning three weeks ago, he collected himself and thought of it as an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. If he succeeded, he would buy her silence and moreover attain her submission. That night, one of the influential students whose loyalty and silence he had painstakingly bought updated him on all the dirt she could dig about Khalayi. From the students she bullied or outrightly destroyed to her escapades like sneaking out of school for a night of partying. His training and manipulation was paying well. He thought as he surveyed for potential whistle-blowers and bullies under his control. One girl would not defeat his army of loyalists. The next morning he had called Khalayi in the office and set his cajoling and blackmailing in motion but he was unexpectedly rebuffed. The girl sat on one of the chairs available, reclined back in a relaxing manner and watched him like a scientist would an interesting specimen. The look unsettled him and his thought process but he plucked up his courage and went on with his plan. At the end of his talk which was met with no emotion or reaction. The girl stood up, sighed tiredly, eyed him coldly and left the room, closing the door behind her silently and respectfully. The words 'do your worst' rang continuously like music on repeat mode even 5 minutes after the girl had left. His schemes were rebuffed as the bullies were suppressed and indiscipline reports downplayed by not only fellow teachers but also the school Principal. The fact that he was not the teacher in charge of her class limited his option of contacting her guardians. Fellow teachers warned him from escalating his attacks once they realized that they were deliberate. This was not out of concern for Khalayi as a student but out of concern that he might get humiliated by the little terrorist. It had been three weeks so far, his wife threatened to leave him and his daughter stared at him as if he was non-existent. The previously crushed rumors would begin and be extinguished a few days after they begun. The most unfortunate thing was that he could neither trace the source of rumors nor discover who would make them go away.

'K.O', the paper read. He had a bad premonition as he read the paper. As he kept walking to the center of the class, a clear but stern voice called him out. The Deputy Principle who had called him led him to the boardroom after asking the class to study on their own. In the boardroom, 8 teachers sat parallel to each other including the Principle. He was ushered in to seat in front of them as the Deputy Principle ushered in 7 strangers, that is, 4 men and 3 women who filled in their seats. The Vice Principal took a slightly bulky file from one of the women and passed it over to the Principal. The Vice-Principle took a seat completing the curve even as the Principal read out the contents of the file. Each sentence being read seemed to bury the teacher ahead of them who looked cool and collected, seemingly unaware of the severity of the misdeeds being read out. This irked the disciplinary committee who rushed through the conclusive evidence without extensive deliberations. The seemingly unassuming teacher watched the proceedings go about in a daze and stood up like a robot and held the letter of dismissal lightly even as the police who had been called cuffed him. Accusatory eyes and eyes that spoke of relief and freedom watched him being bundled in the police car. To him, his life as a teacher, father, husband and adventure seeking sex demigod, as he thought himself to be, was over. To the school fraternity, it was a seemingly admirable angel that turned out to be a devil and yet to his victims, it was freedom and justice. But to Khalayi it was a prelude to his end.

Mwalimu Teacher never saw a court nor heard a trial proceeding. He woke up in a mansion, seated on a regal metal chair in the middle of some sort of furnace. His butt and feet bore the brunt of the heat which revved up for 30 minutes. Upon being released he was forced to walk on thin ice towards his 'freedom'. After 50 meters and a fall, he was forked out of the freezing water and into a bathroom for a warm bath after being given some balm to apply to his burns. It was a confusion of being plunged from hell and into comfort without knowing when he will be plunged back again. As he was reveling in the newly found warmth, chains held him in place compressing his body and bones, nearly cutting through his skin. The shower stopped abruptly and giant clippers appeared from nowhere. The clippers begun by cutting off one of his fingers which fell down without a sound and settled singly on the flow,a mixture of blood and water trailing around it as if finding an alternate path to the drainage. Pain seared through his arm and he stilled himself for more as the clippers teased his other fingers. Intense pain traveled through his nether regions to his back and intestines as his testicles and d* fell on the floor. A howl that could only be heard by him shot through the bathroom and his body shook as waves of electricity accentuated by water coarsed through his nerves. A few minutes later, only the sounds of water dripping on the floor could be heard.