Chapter 12

A scream rent the air as Uncle Joe lay on his bed earlier that morning. It was about 5:00 AM. It was Amanda screaming in her room. Whenever he heard her scream, it meant she had had a nightmare.

He had left the meeting with Nem Taseng and Uncle David at 2:30 AM. Trekking back to his house at that hour his mind was clouded with many thoughts. This was the last night before the festival and Priscilla had not yet sent him the money she had promised. He was tired of her stinginess and fake promises.

The cold air beat his almost half-nude body as he trekked home. He had wanted Nem Taseng to be more severe with Priscilla but the old man would not hear of it. Nem Taseng could never understand. After all, Nem Taseng's children sent him money regularly why would he have money problems?

He wanted Nem Taseng to invoke the Mukenge and send them on Priscilla; if she would not give him money, then he saw no reason for her to stay alive. Nem Taseng had refused and Uncle David had sided with Nem.

Nem Taseng and Uncle David said all they needed was a priestess; it did not matter to them whether it was Priscilla or Emily. He had abhorred the idea but he managed to conceal his feelings. He had pretended to agree with the other two men when they decided to send a message to Otafion to bring Emily back to the village but as he walked home, a rancorous feeling rose up in his abdomen and started to strangulate him with each step he took towards his house.

The feeling was so stifling that he paused in his tracks unable to breathe. Anger mixed with hatred oozed out of his nostrils and ears. He gritted his teeth so hard that blood leaked from his gums to his tongue. He spun around and headed back to Nem Taseng's house.

He moved so fast that his feet seemed not to touch the ground. His body tensed and relaxed repeatedly as he thought about what he would do when he got there.

The house was quiet. He stood a short distance away looking at the house thinking. Nem Taseng lived with his wife and according to the Mukenge principle they slept in separate rooms. He needed to get Nem first then he would deal with Agatha later.

He walked warily around the house to the back and found a piece of wood that had an excellent grip and a good weight. There was a good supply of wood at the back because Nem Taseng was constructing a five-bedroom house – with money his children had sent. Uncle Joe fumed even more and went back to the front door and knocked.

He could hear Nem Taseng's footfalls as he approached the door. He steeled himself and waited.

"Who that?" Nem Taseng's voice came from the other side of the door.

Uncle Joe acknowledged that it was he. There was a clicking of metals as Nem Taseng pulled back the bolts to release the door.

Uncle Joe stepped away from the door into the darkness. He stood just beside the door but far enough not to be seen immediately if someone came out. Nem Taseng pulled the door open and peeked outside.

"Joe."

No answer.

"Joe" he called again poking his head out of the door a bit further to see…

That was all Uncle Joe needed. He brought down the wood on the side of Nem Taseng's head with all the force he could muster. The wood connected Nem Taseng's head with a cracking sound and split in two. Uncle Joe hoped he had dealt enough damage.

He hoped in vain. Nem Taseng staggered backward into the house clutching the side of his head with both hands. Uncle Joe realizing his vain hope rushed at him with the piece of wood he had in hand.

Nem Taseng sensed him coming and tried to avoid him but he was not fast enough. Uncle Joe dealt him two more blows to the head with the lath.

Nem Taseng fell to the floor, groaning. Uncle Joe moved in to deal him more blows but before he could do so he felt a sharp pain behind his head. He had been hit by a metallic object but he was lucky the hitter was not strong enough to break his head. He turned around to see.

Agatha stood there with a frying pan in her hand. Her face was an ugly mask of horror. Uncle Joe thanked his stars that she had not found a machete.

"You will regret this," he said and lurched towards her swinging the wood. He aimed for her head but she countered it with the frying pan. He swung it again at her ribs but she sidestepped allowing the lath to pass harmlessly. She struck with the pan. Uncle Joe used his free hand to grab it and snatch it out of her hand. He then used the lath and the pan to drive blows on the woman. She instinctively covered her head with her arms but Joe did not care. He beat her arms until blood came and then continued until she lay helpless on the floor.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and then looked at the blood-stained objects in his hands.

Nem Taseng still groaned weakly on the ground. Uncle Joe walked to the wall beside the door and sat on the floor to catch his breath.

*

Asanga heard a scream. She was standing at the counter in front of the laboratory to hand in the receipt of the payment she made for the test the doctor had prescribed. Ruth was beside her, waiting patiently for her to finish so that they could go back to the ward together and see Emily

"Who could be screaming like that?" Asanga muttered

"This is a hospital. People are in all types of pain" Ruth replied

Another scream came from a different direction and then another.

"It seems as if…" Asanga started saying but left it hanging as more screams came

"Mais….qu'est qu'il ce passé dehors?" the laboratory attendant, a thin dark-skinned man, asked.

Asanga handed him the piece of paper and turned around. "Let's go and check on Emily"

As they hurried back across the corridor that led away from the laboratory, more and more screams came from different angles of the hospital premises. The two women looked at each other but neither said anything.

Asanga was about to open the door that led to the reception area when the door opened. People rushed past her and headed for the laboratory. Everyone was in a panic. Asanga managed to keep her balance as people rushed past her and Ruth.

"What is happening?" Ruth asked but no one cared to answer

A woman tripped and fell. The people coming behind her trampled her but no one stopped or noticed.

Asanga looked to see if she could see what was chasing the people, but nothing. She had to get to Emily. Emily could be in danger. She forced her way through the people that were coming toward her.

Ruth followed her.

"Emily is in the children's ward," Asanga said, pointing in the direction.

The hospital was housed in 3 four-floor buildings. The cash collection area was on the ground floor of the first building that also housed the laboratory and the pharmacy, which was on the third floor. The other two buildings were opposite the first one and housed the wards and doctor's offices. There was a distance of about a hundred meters between the building where Asanga was and the buildings that contained the wards.

The children's ward was on the second floor of the second building. As Asanga and Ruth ran towards it, someone fell out of a window to the ground before them causing them to pause in their tracks. If they had been just one step ahead of where they were, the person would have fallen on them.

Asanga's eyes almost popped out of their sockets when she realized what had fallen before her.

"Jesus!" Ruth cried

The person was covered in black soldier ants. Asanga could not see the person's face but it had to be a man because of the shoes he was wearing. His body writhed as the ants rapidly gnawed and devoured every shred of flesh.

The glass doors of the building they were standing in front burst open and five people covered with black soldier ants tumbled out, screaming.

Asanga leaped over the body before her and made her way into the building. The walls were covered with black soldier ants, Mukenge. On the ground floor, there was a series of glass boxes that were supposed to be occupied by doctors consulting patients. On one of the chairs in the boxes, she saw a heap of ants. The door of another box was open and a skeleton, picked clean of all flesh lay in the doorway. Asanga hesitated just for a split second before dashing up the stairs that led to the wards.

"Priscilla wait," Ruth said grabbing her arm "I don't think it's a good idea to go up there"

"My daughter is in one of the wards." Asanga said almost out of breath, "I have to"

"The ants are everywhere," Ruth said

"I know and I fear my daughter is the cause." Then she gave Ruth a brief recount of the events that had taken place in her life and Emily's since big mammy died. "My uncles want to destroy my career and my life"

"Do not fear those who can only destroy the body but not the soul but fear Jehovah because he can destroy the body and also the soul in Hell. Uncle Joe can only destroy your body but because of your sin God will destroy you in Hell."

"I am a good person; I pay my tithes and I attend church service every Sunday and I hate occultism," Asanga said

"Yes but you also go to nightclubs and have sex with men you aren't married to. That is sexual immorality and God considers you a child of wrath because you have broken his rules. If you go up those stirs the ants will eat you alive and you soul would end up in Hell and your uncle would have won" Ruth replied

"My daughter…"

"The only way to make yourself immune to your uncle's evil is to obtain a higher power from the one who is the head of all principalities and powers that is the Lord Yahusha Hamashiach whom we call in English Jesus Christ. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him. He is the only one who can set you free from the evil of the Mukenge because at his name every knee must bow and every tongue must acknowledge that he is Master."

"Jesus, help me, help my daughter" Asanga cried

"Repent and forsake your sin. Tell him you were ignorant before but now you know fornicating is evil and you would never go back to it. Even if your sin is as red as crimson he is able to wipe it away if only you repent and turn from it"

As they were talking, thousands of ants scurried towards them from the stairs. It gave Asanga the impression that a black liquid was moving toward her. They turned and ran out of the building. A window shattered above them and a body covered in ants fell out. Asanga looked in horror as she realized it was the girl with the swollen limb that had been in Emily's ward.

Asanga screamed. More and more ants came out from the ground.

*

"Do you have the sugar?" Otafion asked Jessica when he brought Emily to the car

"Here it is," Jessica said opening her palm to expose two cubes of sugar. Otafion grabbed them and went out of the car again.

"Hey, where are you going?" Jessica asked "I thought we had to get just the daughter"

"If we allow her to remain alive she will always disturb us. It is better to finish with her once and for all"

"Okay but hurry up," Emily said "We need to get to the village before the festival time"

Otafion just needed to put the sugar cubes into Asanga's mouth. The cubes would attract the ants into her body but since the ants would not live in a host they had been sent out from once, they would destroy it by reducing it to bones. He rushed towards the buildings where Asanga was.

Otafion could not believe what he was about to do. He was going to put bait in Asanga to bring the ants to destroy her, but he had no choice Nem Taseng or David or whoever it was kept shouting in his mind. The voice was driving him crazy. Sometimes it shouted commands to his mind other times it just cackled.

The strangest thing was that Jessica had vomited the sugar cubes he was to use. This Mukenge of a thing was really scaring him. As he approached the buildings, he hoped he would easily find Asanga. He was in luck, he saw Asanga and another lady come out of the building he had brought Emily out of. He saw an ant-ridden body fall before them.

Asanga stood facing the body, her back away from him while the other lady stood opposite her. The other lady had a chance of seeing him as he came towards them but he thought it did not matter much if he got close enough before they could see him.

As he got closer he realized that the other woman was Ruth. How was he to explain later why he wanted to shove the cubes into Asanga's mouth? He paused in his tracks for a minute to decide if he should proceed. You have already meddled with the witchcraft, why are you contemplating? You are like the proverbial man that walks down the streets and grabs a dog by its ears.

He saw streams of ants flowing up and down the walls of the buildings. The ants were so many that he could not see a single spot on the wall where there were no ants. He braced himself and rushed towards where Asanga stood.