Stay awake! Stay awake Peter!.......

The last words I heard as I choked in the back seat of the car that was set on fire to burn with me in it; he banged the door over and over asking me to keep breathing, but the smoke had taken over, I couldn't even feel a thing. And then I saw her.... That precious woman, She laying down on the ground with blood spilling from her head, I remembered as I panted fighting for air to breathe..... That she was the reason I'm in this story, the reason I'm in here choking; but you see, this was not how it was supposed to be; it's different, the way the story begins...
Eight years ago when I was twelve, I moved with my mother and sister from surulere to Bariga, I wasn't happy about that, I had a great life back in surulere, had a best friend named Frank but my mother didn't like him, said he loved trouble too much; never wanted me with him, said he was a bad influence. Well I couldn't do anything about that, we had a new life over here ; my sister Priss was my twin, we always played around, walked and talked together, we attended a new school, I met new friends; Ray, Temi, Nonso and Jamal but I was closer to Jamal, there has to be that one person right? Who gets you more than the rest. We all loved football, we played in school every day; Priss comes around too. And then six years later, we're teenagers in our final year of high school, we boys had gotten closer than before and my sister, she had become the queen of the school, she was beautiful, talented and smart and I knew Jamal had a crush on her, he wouldn't tell me even if I asked. But you see, this town is weird; two streets had been at rival for generations and they had their gangs too, they always attacked each other, none must cross each other's lane, there was bound to be blood shed. And it's even more weird that Jamal and I are from these different streets, my side was called the ghetto, his side was called the graylands, we didn't know about any of these attacks at least I thought he didn't. He comes over to my house every weekend, my mother prepares our favorite meal, him, Priss and I would sit in front of the television watching latest episodes of Money Heist, later on, we'd play music and begin to dance, throwing pillows at ourselves like little children, Jamal would always make excuses to get Priss alone with him, told you he liked her, still wouldn't tell me though. So then where did it all go wrong? I bet that's what you're wondering, trust me, I'm wondering it too....
A few weeks to graduation, Jamal's brother came back to town; he was quite an uptight man when I met him, had a feeling he didn't like me at all, probably cause I was from the other side. One day Priss, Jamal and I went shopping for her friend's birthday party the coming day, I left her for a minute to check out the latest sport shoes with Jamal at the other side of the mall, we came back to find a bunch of guys bullying her, touching her, I got mad, I wanted to punch one in the face, Jamal stopped me, looked at them instead, and they all bowed their heads like they knew him or something; they began to apologise saying they didn't know they were in Jamal's territory and then they left, I asked him what it was about but he just told me nothing and turned to Priss, started asking if she was okay and all. The next day, it was a big party at Tolu's, Priss's best friend; my guys, they went all drunk and crazy, I just sat there watching a girl I liked dance with other guys instead of me, my friends even made fun of me for that. An hour later, there's gun shots, men with masks raid the party ordering everyone to go out if they didn't want to die, and so we all ran; my boys and I with Priss, we took the first cab we saw, yeah I know, six people in a tiny car is quite a squeeze, but it's certainly better than being dead. Some days after, Jamal skips school for a while, says he's hanging with his brother, that he's teaching him some new stuff. Later I meet my old friend Frank, turns out he moved too, crazy right? We start hanging out since Jamal's busy all the time with his brother, and that's when Frank told me about the Ghetto gang, the full story, how their rivals with the graylands gang, told me he was in it and that I should join, but of course I said no. One time, both of them met, it didn't go so well, Jamal threw a punch in Frank's face cause he was making fun of his haircut, I cut in to stop Frank from hitting Jamal back and he said he'd get back. One night there was a raid as usual, I decided to check it out, I knew it was dangerous but I saw him, Jamal, it was him right? I could recognize him yet I wasn't sure, I mean someone could just look like him, Jamal would never hold a gun and point it in someone's face, right? I just went back to sleep
Next day I was walking into school with Priss only to find the guys on the field talking about something, we went over and we saw him, Jamal, he had scars on his face; he saw me and frowned, started throwing words at me that I let him down, sooner he got to the point, saying that my friend Frank came to his house last night to beat him up; I began to apologize that I wasn't there, he said he left me like ten missed calls and I wouldn't know cause I gave my phone to my mother to use to pray last night. He didn't accept the apology, told me that I was in on it, that I told Frank where he was and that his brother was right about me, that I was a traitor; Priss tried to cut in telling him to chill but he got mad at her and called her a whore and so I got mad and so did she, she walked up to him and hit him in the chest and before I knew it, I couldn't believe it, he slapped her; I got furious and I punched him in his face, told him to never come around Priss and I again and so we left, I lost my best friend that day with my mind wondering about what his brother said about me and even more, why he believed him.
As if things couldn't get worse, I walked on the streets at night trying to text Priss to get my location, we had a movie we wanted to go watch, and then a gang attacked me, started beating me up, I began to bleed; sooner Priss found me, she rushed to the fight, jumped on one of them screaming to leave me alone, she managed to pull off his mask and there he was, Jamal, he pushed her away, too hard, she hit and smashed her head on the ground. Boy I got so pissed I threw a punch at every one of them, and then he took a brick, yes Jamal, he hit it on my head knocking me to the ground and then they fled as they began to hear sirens, I laid down there side by side with my sister who bled at the spot and died right there, in front of my eyes and I couldn't do anything.... I swore I was going to get back at him, he was going to pay with his own blood and just then, I went unconscious.....

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