SEVENTY-THREE

EVANGELISTA'S POV

My stomach seemed to tighten up more with each step I took. Zuri had strongly instructed that I use the stairs. The staircase was a bit dark, and almost deserted. Three men from Zuri's camp accompanied me. I walked, taking one step slowly at a time, feeling my breathing getting heavier and heavier. The staircase was not that difficult to climb, but the assignment that I had on my hands was the most painful of them all. It was obvious to me that there was no way I was ever going to administer the injection; but I was still not sure how I was going to avoid it. I needed to avoid injecting Israel, and at the same time making sure that Zuri's men believed that I had injected him. Israel was my brother, and there was no way I was going to be the one to cause his death. He had his very dark life, that much I knew, but he remained my brother. I loved him. My parents were both gone; Vice, my brother was also gone. How on earth could I have killed my own brother? No way!

A thought just crossed my mind….why hadn't anyone looked for me? How come when others go missing, there will be news about them on TV, on the radio and all over social media? What about me? I stopped halfway up the staircase and felt deep pain in my heart. I slowly began to understand it. The university had closed for the vacation, meaning that even if my classmates would have wanted to look for me, they were on vacation and enjoying their lives. They were not even aware that I was missing. I suddenly felt very insignificant. To think that if I were to vanish off the face of the earth, no one would notice? No one would care! My few friends probably tried my number and when it did not go through, they must have just given up. Even if Zuri would have decided to sell me off as a sex worker, or to sell my body parts like she always used to mention to me; the world would have gone ahead in peace, with no one noticing the gap left by me. The pain was too deep. No one had really missed me. Dan would have looked for me, my dear Dan. Oh yes he would have looked for me, but he was dead already. And besides Israel, who was lying unconscious in the hospital, I had no other family. Israel was the only person who would have looked for me, yet here I was, walking up the stairs of a hospital, on my way to end my own brother's life. I hated myself for that.

Suddenly a man appeared from up the stairs and glared down at me. It was one of the men from Zuri's camp.

"What are we waiting for?", he looked sideways and made his fingers into the shape of a gun, then waved them in my direction. Without responding, I resumed my journey up the stairs. When I passed by him, he whispered into my ear, "no mistakes!".

Israel was in the sixth floor, and it took me forever to get to that floor. After I had told the receptionist that I was there to see Bassard, there was surprise written all over the girl's face. She made a few calls, and I was asked to produce an ID. I handed over my fake ID.

"So it's true, Israel does have a sister!" the receptionist seemed very much amazed. Two officers came through and scanned my ID with their eyes, handed it over to me and told me I could go through. One of them told me that I was supposed to be prepared to answer a few questions after I had seen Israel. I just answered, OK, and I proceeded to the room. I had imagined that many security guards would accompany me, but none did. There were three of them standing near the door. I entered the private ward and walked towards my brother.

"Israel," I whispered. My voice came out at the same time as my tears. Zuri had strictly instructed me to fake some tears; she had not known that I did not need to fake them. Real tears came on their own. Israel was my brother. The son of my mother and my father. Why would I have to fake tears for him? I loved him! He was a thug, that much I knew. Probably a member of some mafia syndicate; that much I had guessed several times before. Israel had never openly told me what he did, but I knew that whatever it was, it was bad. And until that day, I had never gotten closure on how my other brother Vice died. My heart told me that Israel had a lot, if not everything, to do with Vice's death. But somehow I still had a soft spot for him. It could have been because he was the only sibling I had.

I slowly took Israel's hand in mine. It was very weak, and there was a deep scar on the hand. That was Israel, he had a lot of scars. Some of them were not even real, because I had seen him at one point with a scar running from his temple down to his collarbone, and when I had screamed and asked what had happened, he just laughed and said it was a mask which he could easily take off at any time. It looked very real.

"If you leave me now, I will be all alone. Israel, you will have to hang in there. My life is all messed up, I have no idea how I will get myself out of this mess." I sobbed.

There was no movement from my brother; he did not move an inch. I checked his eyes, trying to see if I could see any sign of blinking. It seemed like he was unconscious, or maybe in deep sleep.

I held his hand to my chest and I cried my heart out. I let out all the pain that I had. From the day that Israel had asked me to go and dump that Mercedes Benz, my life had never been the same again, and often I had wondered if it was ever going to return to normal.

After a long while, I touched my sleeve. I was wearing a shirt with long sleeves. The sleeves were tight at the wrist; tight enough to be able to hold the injection in place. Slowly I pulled out the injection. When I managed to slide it out, I quickly uncapped it. My hands started to shake uncontrollably, and no matter how hard I tried to calm myself down, they shook all the more. I held the injection firmly in my right hand, and I hugged Israel and cried a lot. Real crying, not the fake tears.

Carefully, I injected all the poison, or whatever it was, right into the pillow, on the area just below Israel's neck.

"You have to get well soon. Zuri wants you dead. They have held me there, and they may kill me any day. You have to fight for your life, Israel" I whispered into his ear, while at the same time emptying the injection into the pillow. And immediately I heard a voice from behind me, "don't lift him up. He is still not stable, don't disturb him please."

I froze in my tracks and pulled out my left hand from the hug, while my right hand, the one which was holding the injection, remained there under Israel's neck. There was no blanket or anything nearby for me to cover the injection. The plan was, I was supposed to put back the cap, and tuck it back into my sleeve before leaving. I remained in my place, praying with my whole heart for the nurse to just leave me alone.

"Excuse me my dear, let me fix his pillow," the nurse moved closer. When I remained standing in my spot, she looked at me and smiled, "he's your brother? Don't worry he will be fine. Now let me fix his head. This pillow seems too high anyway."

"I will fix it myself!" I said. Sweat broke on my forehead, and I suddenly started to feel cold.

"What are you holding?", she asked me, her eyes on my right hand. A part of the injection, unfortunately, was showing.

Seeing that I was already caught out, I started to explain myself, "I have been forced to do this! Zuri wants my brother dead! I would never hurt him, he is my brother! You have to believe me!"

She rang the alarm and the guards hurried in, while she pointed at me, looking very scared.

"She has something! Look at her right hand!" the nurse looked seriously terrified.

"What is she holding?", one of the security guards asked, and pulled my hand to expose the injection.

Immediately more staff came in to attend to Israel, for they believed that I had given him the poisonous shot.

"He is my brother, I wouldn't kill him! Zuri made me do this! Shut down all exits now, there are three men here with me …"

"Arrest her!"one of the officers gave a command.

"No please listen to me!! Shut down all the hospital exits now. There are three men with me here. Or better still, if you let me go, you may follow us secretly; the men will lead you to Zuri!" I cried, praying that at least one of them was going to believe me and then convince the team to do as I was saying.

"Where is Zuri? Who is he?"

"I don't know! I was blindfolded when I came here! You have to believe me please! You're wasting time. Let me go, and then you can follow me! I didn't inject him, I injected the pillow, you can check for yourself! Israel is my brother, please believe me!!"

One of the security guards pulled out handcuffs and cuffed one of my hands. In desperation I pulled out the fake ID from my pocket and shoved it into his hands, "Look! They even made me a fake ID! It's not me, its Zuri! It's her and her man, please just believe me!" I cried.

The guard scrutinized the ID and said, "what's your name?"

"Evangelista Bassard!"

"They made for you a fake ID, you said?" he frowned.

"Yes, yes they did!" I violently nodded my head.

"So what is your real name?" the man looked confused.

"Evangelista Bassard! Look, when I was there I lied that my name was Leah. Please believe me. Somehow they found out that Israel has a sister named Evangelista. Now they wanted me to act as Evangelista! They kidnapped me...please, we're wasting time! Lock down all exits, the men are here in this hospital now! Please just do it!"

"Your story doesn't make sense", the man handcuffed both my hands and led me down the wide hospital corridor.

I struggled and kept trying to explain myself, but no one listened to me.

"If you are Evangelista, then why are you saying this ID fake?", the man sneered.

"Zuri made it for me because she didn't know that I am indeed Evangelista! She thought I was Leah, please believe me!! You have to believe me, please!"

"Who is Leah?'

"Leah is the fake name I used while I was kidnapped by Zuri. But my real name is Evangelista Bassard. So this ID, Zuri thinks it's fake…Ok, I mean it is fake, but then, only because they don't know that I am in reality Evangelista."

"Are you understanding her?" the officer asked his colleague.

"Not at all. Let's take her with us," the man responded and led the way.