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THE MISTAKE.
I sit in an armchair in my living room. The table in front of me is stuffed with countless bottles of beer. Some full, some half full, and some empty. I hold a half-burnt roll of weed in my right hand taking little puffs of smoke from time to time. I have been in this state of anarchy for the last 48 hours, doing nothing else other than intoxicating my body with alcohol and getting stoned. I have been only leaving my seat at the call of my running stomach to run to the toilet. The full blast volume on my woofer playing hard Hip-hop music continues to shake the walls of this rented apartment sending tremors to the iron sheet roof. Suddenly, a sharp stabbing pain runs through my growling stomach. It is that time again, I pull myself up and huskily find my way to the toilet.
While crouching on the toilet bowl, a lot of thoughts flash through my head in a quick succession. I fail to concentrate on particular thoughts that I desired to get more clarity on. Many things had happened in a very short time that I felt utterly overwrought. Am now walking on a tightrope, my heart in my mouth, my mind unstable, each step ahead proving to be more dangerous, I may just fall off anytime, fear has taken over my world.
A hard knock is hard on the door. My body jumps into panic mode. My hands are shaking and my nose producing burbles of sweat. " I didn't kill her, am not a killer, soon I'll prove to you that am innocent and... and.. all of you will be ashamed!" I scream out angrily with an unsteady trembling voice from the toilet. The knocking guy does not seem to have heard my defense oration, he knocks even louder. I creep slowly to my bedroom window to peep through the curtains out of curiosity just to confirm if there are a bunch of police officers waiting for me at the front door. It turns out it is my caretaker. He is probably here for the loud music. I retreat to the living room where I turn down the volume on the woofer and then I proceed to open the door. As soon as my head protrudes out of the door, without even bothering to greet me, he goes ahead with his outburst warning me about disturbing other tenants with my "annoying bad taste loud music ." He stresses that if I feel that the rules of this place are too tough for me to abide by, I should leave the residence and find a house where such kind of behavior can be tolerated. As soon as he turns to go, I slam the door behind him and lock it.
The mental recollection of events starts to flood back as I walk and sit on the edge of the table. I just met Sophie last week in the Garden City mall. She was accompanied by her twin sister Rosie. Sophie, was a little taller than Rosie by at least an inch, just like their name -one alphabet longer for Sophie. Each one of them wore a pair of fitting blue jeans trousers, ripped at the knees, with matching denims and a black crop top with a tied knot just above the navel exposing their sexy flat tummies. Their blown shiny blond hair had been twisted into beautiful ponytails and again Sophie's one, a little longer than Rosie's. They looked strikingly amazing. I had just come out of a photoshoot and I met them in the elevator. Carried out by the beauty of the twin sisters, I found myself complimenting them. Now, I feel like that is when Satan started to play his cards on me. They were easy to engage with, so we hit it off well. We had a great conversation and I even offered to push their shopping trolley to their car. We had exchanged contacts, and so we continued to chat the whole night with Sophie and I got to know much about her. She and her twin sister were law students at Stratmore University. This is properly the most expensive and sophisticated university in the whole country. Kids of only millionaires were the ones who could afford to study here and a few others with scholarships. She told me she was in her third year which means she had four more years to go. She refused completely to talk about her father just mentioning that he is a businessman. After two days of constant chatting back and forth, I asked her for a date and she was down for it, but on one condition, if she could bring Rosie along. I agreed with no hesitation.
The first date did not happen though. We were to meet at a certain coffee shop but she texted to say she would not make it. She refused to give me the reason for that. As I boarded an Uber back to my place, I felt stupid and played. I did not text her that night. I kept thinking about why she turned the date down. Was she just a girl from a rich family feeling lonely and needed someone to chat her up? Or did she feel like I was a boy below her league and she was uncomfortable to be seen with me in town by her college mates? Did she feel like I might have been a conman that she just ran into while shopping but my real intentions were hidden? Many thoughts flicked through my mind and I felt bad but also appreciated the fact that she cared to tell me that she could not make it.
Friday at 9 p.m, we jumped into the elevator taking us to our reserved rooftop spot of the famous Iconic hotel. Had it not been for the silver bracelet encrypted with their names, I would have got a hard time identifying Sophie from Rosie. They looked more identical in their flattering maroon dinner dresses. After the first failed date, she called me out of blue last night to tell me she had a place arranged for our date. Her mellifluous voice was harmonizing to listen to. " Hi dude, I know you're boiling with anger for the date I canceled, but worry not, I have booked a spacious place on the Iconic hotel rooftop, let's meet at the parking lot at 8:30 p.m, I'll be accompanied by Rosie and you should be ready to take the two of us since we are inseparable... bye!" She immediately hanged up without even bothering to hear my response. This must be those girls who are used to running things with their mouth, I thought silently. I will not go. That was my first resolution. I did not want to be a fool standing in the parking lot yet I don't have even my car there. The guards may even think am a thief and arrest me. "This time this psycho lady won't get me!". I muttered inaudibly. But here I was, now ascending to the 36th floor, ten more floors to go. I just changed my mind 20 minutes ago when she called to say they were waiting for me with her sister.
The rooftop had an admirable, magical, and thrilling view of the Konza green city at night, and one had to really dig deep into their pockets to get that spot that offers an unforgettable scenic view of the modern city. You could almost feel like you were in space since there was no other 40-plus-floor taller building nearby. I doubt anyone could miss catching a culture shock being in such a place. It did not take long for the three of us to settle at our table. I sat next to Sophie while Rosie sat on the opposite side. In no time, We had been served our order. Buttermilk chicken with Basmati rice, a juice cocktail along with Chamdor red champagne. I must say I had not eaten Basmati rice before, but the food was magically delicious. I enjoyed every single bite of it.
The conversation was smooth. We talked about life, hobbies, favourite dishes, and hang-out spots in town. It became clear that I was not well-traveled unlike the twins who had been to many Western countries. I still enjoyed listening to them talk about how beautiful and developed those countries were. They even joked about taking me out on their next trip to Switzerland; sharing a room with them and going out walking with them as if I was their brother. There was a lot of humour from everyone at the table and I must admit I enjoyed their company immensely. Rosie talked more than Sophie but I also realised that they sounded so identical. Someone sitting at the next table away from us could easily assume that we were only two people at our table.
Time flew away quickly, at 11.00 p.m, our conversation was centered on our most reserved secrets. With the expensive wine taking over our manners, we talked about our past sexual experiences and body counts. I was not much shocked to hear that the twins had shared most men that approached either of them. You can imagine what went around in my little head when I heard that confession.
The music started to feel good and no one wanted to keep sitting. Everyone on the rooftop got up to show the world their dancing prowess. I had to laugh at Sophie for how she struggled to make her butt shake. She cursed me and took me with her left hand tangled with my right. I was put in the middle between the two. I tried my best to impress each one of them. Rosie took out her iPhone and started taking pictures of us. "Hey, kiss me on the camera, kiss me don't be a buzzkill" she was shouting on top of the loud music. I hesitated but she went ahead to force me into it. We took a couple of photos and I could sense the change of mood in Sophie's demeanor.
Sophie requested that I take her to the other end of the rooftop to see fireworks in a nearby building. " Fireworks !, I haven't heard a sound. Are you sure there are fireworks here?" She did not want to argue with me so she started to walk towards one end of the rooftop, and so I followed her. Another mistake. I did not see any sign of fireworks, but she turned to face me and started to kiss me passionately. "You want some more fireworks?" She asked in a sexy husky voice as she pulled me into her, making us lose balance from our standing spot and move closer to the edge of the rooftop. My heart skipped, as much as I wanted this, we were at an unsafe place at the edge of the rooftop without barricades; I came later to learn that it was a space that allowed the passing of a rollercoaster train that was yet to be installed on the building. As I was still unsure of what to do, I tried to extricate myself, but she pulled me closer to her again, I tried to maintain balance but before I could see it, she was no longer in my arms and totally out of reach from where I stood .
I felt someone pulling me from behind. It was Rosie, she pulled me back and she started to kiss me. "No! No! " I pushed her way and she tripped on her heels and fell shattering into pieces the glass wine she held.
Panic noises and screams filled my ears. Yes, it was not a dream, in a flick of a second, Sophie had gravitated from the rooftop of a 46-floor storey building, the rest was unimaginable. Is this a dream? Oh no! no ! no! I felt dizzy and started " seeing stars," my ears blocked not hearing a sound anymore, my legs numb stuck on the floor, my heart bounding heavily on my chest. Things had turned from merely sweet to extremely bad in no time. Everything turned blurry and faded away...
I woke up from where I had passed out, surrounded by the police. Police alarms were blaring continuously from a distançe. Many people formed a circle around trying to get a look at this "monster." I imagined how they felt inside, how they wished I could burn in hell, how they wanted to tear me into pieces, and yet some still had a little pity for me. As soon as I could get on my feet, the policemen handcuffed me, pushed through the crowd, and walked me to the elevator where we descended to the exit and passed a big crowd of people who looked at me baffled and chatting instinctively with each other. I was then pushed into the police car and taken to the police station.
I spent the night in the cold police cell awaiting questioning the next day. There was a heavy downpour throughout the night accompanied by hailstorms and frightening thunderstorms. I squirmed in a corner trying to cover myself from the freezing numbing cold but that did not help much. The shivering tingle ran from my head to my legs and back again. I was in a state of hypothermia but I expected no help from the red-eyed sleepy policeman who patrolled the cells at an interval of about 50 minutes until 6 o'clock in the morning. I felt tired but I did not fall asleep at all. The images on that rooftop kept playing in my head. I wished that I could get a second chance to stop Sophie from going to watch "fireworks." But this was not a movie or a computer game that I could press a restart button and try to play it better making more wiser decisions. I would not also be in the cell if I just said no to that dinner. I had a great chance to say no, why did I change my mind at the last minute? If God really exists and watches people's ways, why did He fail to warn me and even cause a scenario where the dinner would have failed? Many thoughts kept coming into my head, the tragedy was too heavy for me to process. Tears kept running down my cheeks forming unending letter eleven. I hated myself for going to the Garden City mall that evening, meeting these identical twins, falling for their wits, pushing their trolley... did I do all this to end up here? like this! Broken from the inside, the woman I was falling in love with missing in action, gone forever gone, in a most gruesome type of human accidents, dreams that have been truncated, a life that had been earlier ended, a homicide that I remain the prime suspect, scenes that I will never unsee, ...
My head was heavy. The thoughts were many. Chances of escaping jail were slim. As I was taken to be questioned, I felt defeated already. I felt that there was no need to fight. This was a lost course. My heart felt like it was dislodged from its original position. It felt like it was swelling and it could burst anytime. A female police officer took my name, my ID number, fingerprints and she interrogated me for close to 30 minutes after I recounted the events that transpired that night. She had carried the file bearing photos taken from the scene. I told her I had no opportunity to see Sophie's body. I asked that they allow me to go to the autopsy center and take a look at my girlfriend corpse. " Don't you know that her family will be there? What do you think will happen to you?" I had no answer to her rhetorical questions. She passed me two of the photos from the scene. With trembling hands, I took them to take a look. As soon as her body on the ground came to my eyesight, I quickly looked away." Oh my God!" I covered my mouth, rose from my seat, and turned away to giving her my back.
***
Since that day, my phone is still missing, Rosie also went missing, and newspapers and televisions are full of stories and different theories of what might have happened on that Iconic rooftop. Undoubtedly, this will be one of those homicide cases that will go down in history. I do not have even a lawyer on my side, I do not think I can afford one either. I will probably be in the dock alone to defend myself, it seems impossible to escape imprisonment, but for sure, do you think I should be judged?
Am out on bond, waiting to be arraigned in court in a few days. I have hard questions to answer. I cannot think enough of them and I do not know if talking only the truth but the truth as I will be forced to sware in court, will go down well with me. I am also quite sure that the twin's family will behead me as soon as they have my photo and manage to track down my address. The information I have managed to gather from my computer and a good friend of mine who is trying to help, depicts Sophie's father to be one of those drug cartels that have deep connection in the government. Now you have the answer for my running stomach.
My instincts still whisper in my head that Rosie pushed Sophie - she had a motivee, I just have to find a way to proof that. But no! they're inseparable twins. They have been sharing boyfriends before, jealousy alone could not push her to kill her sisters. But it was not me either.... time to turn up the music again. I may be a mess to my landlord and my neighbours but am not a killer. No! I refuse to have done anything wrong here, but the law will not fail to find something "concrete" to frame me with this murder though.
#TheWritingProject
© prinz wahlite
While crouching on the toilet bowl, a lot of thoughts flash through my head in a quick succession. I fail to concentrate on particular thoughts that I desired to get more clarity on. Many things had happened in a very short time that I felt utterly overwrought. Am now walking on a tightrope, my heart in my mouth, my mind unstable, each step ahead proving to be more dangerous, I may just fall off anytime, fear has taken over my world.
A hard knock is hard on the door. My body jumps into panic mode. My hands are shaking and my nose producing burbles of sweat. " I didn't kill her, am not a killer, soon I'll prove to you that am innocent and... and.. all of you will be ashamed!" I scream out angrily with an unsteady trembling voice from the toilet. The knocking guy does not seem to have heard my defense oration, he knocks even louder. I creep slowly to my bedroom window to peep through the curtains out of curiosity just to confirm if there are a bunch of police officers waiting for me at the front door. It turns out it is my caretaker. He is probably here for the loud music. I retreat to the living room where I turn down the volume on the woofer and then I proceed to open the door. As soon as my head protrudes out of the door, without even bothering to greet me, he goes ahead with his outburst warning me about disturbing other tenants with my "annoying bad taste loud music ." He stresses that if I feel that the rules of this place are too tough for me to abide by, I should leave the residence and find a house where such kind of behavior can be tolerated. As soon as he turns to go, I slam the door behind him and lock it.
The mental recollection of events starts to flood back as I walk and sit on the edge of the table. I just met Sophie last week in the Garden City mall. She was accompanied by her twin sister Rosie. Sophie, was a little taller than Rosie by at least an inch, just like their name -one alphabet longer for Sophie. Each one of them wore a pair of fitting blue jeans trousers, ripped at the knees, with matching denims and a black crop top with a tied knot just above the navel exposing their sexy flat tummies. Their blown shiny blond hair had been twisted into beautiful ponytails and again Sophie's one, a little longer than Rosie's. They looked strikingly amazing. I had just come out of a photoshoot and I met them in the elevator. Carried out by the beauty of the twin sisters, I found myself complimenting them. Now, I feel like that is when Satan started to play his cards on me. They were easy to engage with, so we hit it off well. We had a great conversation and I even offered to push their shopping trolley to their car. We had exchanged contacts, and so we continued to chat the whole night with Sophie and I got to know much about her. She and her twin sister were law students at Stratmore University. This is properly the most expensive and sophisticated university in the whole country. Kids of only millionaires were the ones who could afford to study here and a few others with scholarships. She told me she was in her third year which means she had four more years to go. She refused completely to talk about her father just mentioning that he is a businessman. After two days of constant chatting back and forth, I asked her for a date and she was down for it, but on one condition, if she could bring Rosie along. I agreed with no hesitation.
The first date did not happen though. We were to meet at a certain coffee shop but she texted to say she would not make it. She refused to give me the reason for that. As I boarded an Uber back to my place, I felt stupid and played. I did not text her that night. I kept thinking about why she turned the date down. Was she just a girl from a rich family feeling lonely and needed someone to chat her up? Or did she feel like I was a boy below her league and she was uncomfortable to be seen with me in town by her college mates? Did she feel like I might have been a conman that she just ran into while shopping but my real intentions were hidden? Many thoughts flicked through my mind and I felt bad but also appreciated the fact that she cared to tell me that she could not make it.
Friday at 9 p.m, we jumped into the elevator taking us to our reserved rooftop spot of the famous Iconic hotel. Had it not been for the silver bracelet encrypted with their names, I would have got a hard time identifying Sophie from Rosie. They looked more identical in their flattering maroon dinner dresses. After the first failed date, she called me out of blue last night to tell me she had a place arranged for our date. Her mellifluous voice was harmonizing to listen to. " Hi dude, I know you're boiling with anger for the date I canceled, but worry not, I have booked a spacious place on the Iconic hotel rooftop, let's meet at the parking lot at 8:30 p.m, I'll be accompanied by Rosie and you should be ready to take the two of us since we are inseparable... bye!" She immediately hanged up without even bothering to hear my response. This must be those girls who are used to running things with their mouth, I thought silently. I will not go. That was my first resolution. I did not want to be a fool standing in the parking lot yet I don't have even my car there. The guards may even think am a thief and arrest me. "This time this psycho lady won't get me!". I muttered inaudibly. But here I was, now ascending to the 36th floor, ten more floors to go. I just changed my mind 20 minutes ago when she called to say they were waiting for me with her sister.
The rooftop had an admirable, magical, and thrilling view of the Konza green city at night, and one had to really dig deep into their pockets to get that spot that offers an unforgettable scenic view of the modern city. You could almost feel like you were in space since there was no other 40-plus-floor taller building nearby. I doubt anyone could miss catching a culture shock being in such a place. It did not take long for the three of us to settle at our table. I sat next to Sophie while Rosie sat on the opposite side. In no time, We had been served our order. Buttermilk chicken with Basmati rice, a juice cocktail along with Chamdor red champagne. I must say I had not eaten Basmati rice before, but the food was magically delicious. I enjoyed every single bite of it.
The conversation was smooth. We talked about life, hobbies, favourite dishes, and hang-out spots in town. It became clear that I was not well-traveled unlike the twins who had been to many Western countries. I still enjoyed listening to them talk about how beautiful and developed those countries were. They even joked about taking me out on their next trip to Switzerland; sharing a room with them and going out walking with them as if I was their brother. There was a lot of humour from everyone at the table and I must admit I enjoyed their company immensely. Rosie talked more than Sophie but I also realised that they sounded so identical. Someone sitting at the next table away from us could easily assume that we were only two people at our table.
Time flew away quickly, at 11.00 p.m, our conversation was centered on our most reserved secrets. With the expensive wine taking over our manners, we talked about our past sexual experiences and body counts. I was not much shocked to hear that the twins had shared most men that approached either of them. You can imagine what went around in my little head when I heard that confession.
The music started to feel good and no one wanted to keep sitting. Everyone on the rooftop got up to show the world their dancing prowess. I had to laugh at Sophie for how she struggled to make her butt shake. She cursed me and took me with her left hand tangled with my right. I was put in the middle between the two. I tried my best to impress each one of them. Rosie took out her iPhone and started taking pictures of us. "Hey, kiss me on the camera, kiss me don't be a buzzkill" she was shouting on top of the loud music. I hesitated but she went ahead to force me into it. We took a couple of photos and I could sense the change of mood in Sophie's demeanor.
Sophie requested that I take her to the other end of the rooftop to see fireworks in a nearby building. " Fireworks !, I haven't heard a sound. Are you sure there are fireworks here?" She did not want to argue with me so she started to walk towards one end of the rooftop, and so I followed her. Another mistake. I did not see any sign of fireworks, but she turned to face me and started to kiss me passionately. "You want some more fireworks?" She asked in a sexy husky voice as she pulled me into her, making us lose balance from our standing spot and move closer to the edge of the rooftop. My heart skipped, as much as I wanted this, we were at an unsafe place at the edge of the rooftop without barricades; I came later to learn that it was a space that allowed the passing of a rollercoaster train that was yet to be installed on the building. As I was still unsure of what to do, I tried to extricate myself, but she pulled me closer to her again, I tried to maintain balance but before I could see it, she was no longer in my arms and totally out of reach from where I stood .
I felt someone pulling me from behind. It was Rosie, she pulled me back and she started to kiss me. "No! No! " I pushed her way and she tripped on her heels and fell shattering into pieces the glass wine she held.
Panic noises and screams filled my ears. Yes, it was not a dream, in a flick of a second, Sophie had gravitated from the rooftop of a 46-floor storey building, the rest was unimaginable. Is this a dream? Oh no! no ! no! I felt dizzy and started " seeing stars," my ears blocked not hearing a sound anymore, my legs numb stuck on the floor, my heart bounding heavily on my chest. Things had turned from merely sweet to extremely bad in no time. Everything turned blurry and faded away...
I woke up from where I had passed out, surrounded by the police. Police alarms were blaring continuously from a distançe. Many people formed a circle around trying to get a look at this "monster." I imagined how they felt inside, how they wished I could burn in hell, how they wanted to tear me into pieces, and yet some still had a little pity for me. As soon as I could get on my feet, the policemen handcuffed me, pushed through the crowd, and walked me to the elevator where we descended to the exit and passed a big crowd of people who looked at me baffled and chatting instinctively with each other. I was then pushed into the police car and taken to the police station.
I spent the night in the cold police cell awaiting questioning the next day. There was a heavy downpour throughout the night accompanied by hailstorms and frightening thunderstorms. I squirmed in a corner trying to cover myself from the freezing numbing cold but that did not help much. The shivering tingle ran from my head to my legs and back again. I was in a state of hypothermia but I expected no help from the red-eyed sleepy policeman who patrolled the cells at an interval of about 50 minutes until 6 o'clock in the morning. I felt tired but I did not fall asleep at all. The images on that rooftop kept playing in my head. I wished that I could get a second chance to stop Sophie from going to watch "fireworks." But this was not a movie or a computer game that I could press a restart button and try to play it better making more wiser decisions. I would not also be in the cell if I just said no to that dinner. I had a great chance to say no, why did I change my mind at the last minute? If God really exists and watches people's ways, why did He fail to warn me and even cause a scenario where the dinner would have failed? Many thoughts kept coming into my head, the tragedy was too heavy for me to process. Tears kept running down my cheeks forming unending letter eleven. I hated myself for going to the Garden City mall that evening, meeting these identical twins, falling for their wits, pushing their trolley... did I do all this to end up here? like this! Broken from the inside, the woman I was falling in love with missing in action, gone forever gone, in a most gruesome type of human accidents, dreams that have been truncated, a life that had been earlier ended, a homicide that I remain the prime suspect, scenes that I will never unsee, ...
My head was heavy. The thoughts were many. Chances of escaping jail were slim. As I was taken to be questioned, I felt defeated already. I felt that there was no need to fight. This was a lost course. My heart felt like it was dislodged from its original position. It felt like it was swelling and it could burst anytime. A female police officer took my name, my ID number, fingerprints and she interrogated me for close to 30 minutes after I recounted the events that transpired that night. She had carried the file bearing photos taken from the scene. I told her I had no opportunity to see Sophie's body. I asked that they allow me to go to the autopsy center and take a look at my girlfriend corpse. " Don't you know that her family will be there? What do you think will happen to you?" I had no answer to her rhetorical questions. She passed me two of the photos from the scene. With trembling hands, I took them to take a look. As soon as her body on the ground came to my eyesight, I quickly looked away." Oh my God!" I covered my mouth, rose from my seat, and turned away to giving her my back.
***
Since that day, my phone is still missing, Rosie also went missing, and newspapers and televisions are full of stories and different theories of what might have happened on that Iconic rooftop. Undoubtedly, this will be one of those homicide cases that will go down in history. I do not have even a lawyer on my side, I do not think I can afford one either. I will probably be in the dock alone to defend myself, it seems impossible to escape imprisonment, but for sure, do you think I should be judged?
Am out on bond, waiting to be arraigned in court in a few days. I have hard questions to answer. I cannot think enough of them and I do not know if talking only the truth but the truth as I will be forced to sware in court, will go down well with me. I am also quite sure that the twin's family will behead me as soon as they have my photo and manage to track down my address. The information I have managed to gather from my computer and a good friend of mine who is trying to help, depicts Sophie's father to be one of those drug cartels that have deep connection in the government. Now you have the answer for my running stomach.
My instincts still whisper in my head that Rosie pushed Sophie - she had a motivee, I just have to find a way to proof that. But no! they're inseparable twins. They have been sharing boyfriends before, jealousy alone could not push her to kill her sisters. But it was not me either.... time to turn up the music again. I may be a mess to my landlord and my neighbours but am not a killer. No! I refuse to have done anything wrong here, but the law will not fail to find something "concrete" to frame me with this murder though.
#TheWritingProject
© prinz wahlite
