Pretty Snake
I crept towards the door and placed my ears on the door. There was nothing except the sound of steel banging against each other. I reached behind me and got out my gun. With my gun in my right hand, I held the door knob with my left, took a deep breath, and slowly turned it. I pushed the door open slowly so it doesn’t make a sound. I slowly walked in, closed the door the same way, and crept in like a cat, not making any sound. The only sound I could hear myself making was my breath and my heart beating out of my chest. I tried to steady my breath but it wasn’t working so I went on with it.
The room was small in a way and smelt of tomato stew. I could still hear the sound of steel coming from the kitchen. It was a single room with a toilet to its extreme right and a kitchen to the extreme left. The room was neatly arranged, everything looked in place except for a red shirt that lay carelessly on the bed. A locked shelf stood at the right of the door. I kept creeping towards the kitchen until I heard whistling coming from the kitchen. It seemed like whoever it was in the kitchen was about to step out. I felt my heart jump through my mouth as I made a quiet run for the shelf. I ran behind the shelf and I heard footsteps enter the room. The whistling continued and then stopped abruptly, along with the footsteps. I suspected that I’ve been found out so I readied myself. I was taught to expect physical combat always in the field, and I excelled at it, but I had never been in one since I left training. It felt weird coming over here to arrest someone for the first time, and doing it alone, but it was a direct order and I couldn’t say no.
The whistling continued and the footsteps receded back into the kitchen. I exhaled and slowly stepped out of hiding as I made my way to the kitchen creeping. I got to the kitchen door and steadied myself.
“Show me your hands” I said as I pointed my gun at her.
“You’re not as good as you think you are.” She said without even turning around. She kept washing her plates. She had apparently made stew and was boiling rice. “Your nice perfume gave you away. You smell good by the way. If not for the nature of your visit, I would have initiated something else.”
I stood there, taken back a bit. She caught me off-guard. I was a sitting duck. I thought I had everything under control but I had given myself away thanks to my perfume. A very stupid thing to do.
“I want to see your hands.” I said as I steadied myself for a fight in case it came to that. She didn’t even flinch. She didn’t even act like I was there with a gun to her head. She walked to her sink and turned on the tap. She started scrubbing the plates in the sink. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to go close because I’ve heard that she was good in physical combat. Most guys won’t even engage her in a fight. Surprisingly, she looked like she was in her thirties and was very attractive, well built, and had a great figure, a body men will give a lot to have in their beds. But she was as dangerous as she was beautiful. She stood at the kitchen sink and there was a cup of utensils close to her. That cup of utensils had knives in it as well so I didn’t want to take any chances.
“I’m not joking. Trust me, I’m not playing here. I want to see your hands up.” I said as I took one more step into the kitchen. At this point, I was trying so hard to be on top of the situation, to be in control and it seemed like I was doing a terrible job at it.
“I know who you are” she said while still backing me and washing.
“Yes. Everyone knows me. So what makes you think you are special?” I snapped back.
She stopped and slowly turned around. I braced myself for a fight while she took a towel and dried her hands. She folded her hands across her chest and looked sternly at me before breaking into a smile. At this point, I wasn’t seeing any beauty. I was only seeing how dangerous she was.
“I know how you joined the police. I know the things you had to endure at the academy. I know about Mr. Pio or whatever he was called. All the time I spent observing that man and I never really learnt the true pronunciation of his name.” She paused and smiled again. “I know the things he did to you. You didn’t want anyone to know because maybe, you didn’t want to be the snitch or the mummy’s boy or the boy who couldn’t handle being toughened up. But you knew that the things you endured weren’t things that the academy needed you to learn. Mr. Pio used you the way he wanted. I bet you’re not the first boy he did it to. Maybe you’re going to need me to correct whatever he did to you.”
“Shut up!” I shouted. I could feel my temper rising and I was vibrating at this point. She had a smirk on her face and I couldn’t stand it.
“Do you know why you’re here?” She asked while maintaining the smirk on her face. I knew it was a trick question so I didn’t answer. She stared at me and walked back to her pot of rice. She raised the lid and used a spoon to check the water level of the rice.
“You’re like this meal.” She continued. “You were bought, filtered, prepared, and now you’re being dished out to fulfil responsibilities of your masters regardless of what it is…”
“I was not bought.” I snapped again. At this point, my shoulders were beginning to ache from holding up that gun to her and I was fighting the urge to move my hands a bit because she may strike or lunge at me.
“What did you say?” she asked as she burst into laughter. I knew that she was in control but I needed to take back control in any way necessary.
“I said I was not bought,” I said calmly. “And I’m not interested in listening...”
“What do you think your salary is for?” She asked again while turning to look at me. “Huh? Why are you getting paid? You’re selling yourself to the police. I bet you are going to ask for a raise next year but of course, you’re not bought.” she was beginning to taunt me and it was working.
“I don’t do this for the money. I do it because I love putting bad people like you behind bars and out of the society.”
“That makes you more stupid Charles.” She said immediately. I felt the tone of her voice change. “I’m going to clear you on this. This has never been about putting bad people in prison. It runs deeper than that. You take orders because you love taking orders. You never ask questions and you just execute your orders. No wonder you couldn’t do anything about Mr. Pio. I guess it’s what turns you on. Taking orders huh? You want to put bad people behind bars but Mr. Pio walks free. He is still out there wrecking the lives of undergrads in the academy. The people you work with extort innocent individuals every day and get away with it. So tell me, what the fuck do you mean when you say you want to put bad people behind bars?”
“Shut up.” I said. She made a good argument but I wasn’t in the mood to listen to her, neither did I have the time, but she continued anyway.
“I’ll save you the stress and the time, and save myself time too because you bore me with your Boy Scout shit. You have two options. I’m not moving from this place. I can see you shaking in your boots and your hands are definitely beginning to hurt, so yeah, you are here to arrest me, but I want you to get something first before you decide if you still want to arrest me or not.
“You think you can play me?”
“You’ve already been played, but not by me. You were played by your bosses. I ask you again, why do you think you’re here? I’m supposed to be a dangerous criminal, hacking sensitive files and all, yet you are the only one they sent. Are you a fool? Or like I said before, is following orders like an idiot your kink? Don’t you ask questions?”
“I wasn’t trained to ask questions” At this point, my shoulders were hurting badly and all I wanted was to bring down my hands.
“Yes. They made you a robot. Quick question, you are a devout Christian. Do you think that god will dismiss your cases of perpetrating evil simply because it’s an order you were given?” she stopped and turned back to her pot which she set down from the gas cooker. She then turned around to face me fully. “You are here because you are disposable. Your bosses want me gone. They know I won’t let you arrest me so they’re hoping I kill you so they can have a solid reason to kill me. Your bosses want me gone because I have information that they won’t like to see the light of day. I’ve never been a criminal. I’m just a lady who wants to do the right thing and expose bad people. “
“I’m not buying your story. You’ve killed people.”
“Then why are you still alive?
“Because if you know me too well like you said, you will know I’m good and any attempt to kill me will result in your death.” I replied and she smiled. Of course I was good with guns. But I’ve never been in the field. I didn’t want her to know I was afraid of her because she was going to attack me if she knew. I’ve heard stories about how dangerous she is, so I didn’t want to take chances.
“I knew when you walked into this room and when you stood behind that shelf hiding. You will be dead if I want you dead. I want to give you a chance to actually do what you want to do. You said you want to put bad people behind bars. Well, inside that shelf is a file showing you everything you need to know about me and why I killed those people you mentioned. Just open it, read it, and decide if you still want to arrest me or not.”
“I don’t want to read any bloody file. I came here to arrest you”
“How would you feel when I get arrested and probably killed and you later realize that I was right and you were wrong? How will your conscience accept it?”
A little silence filled the room. It gave me a little time to think about what she said. Maybe she was right. Maybe she had something that proves that my bosses were dirty. I mean, why send me alone to arrest her? Trusting her was beginning to make sense so I was willing to give it a shot.
“Don’t move”. I said and she raised her hands in surrender. With my gun still pointed at her, and with my eyes still fixed on her, I took few steps out of the kitchen and into the room, then I held the knob. I tried opening it but it seemed stuck.
“Do you want me to help?” she asked with a smile.
“No”, I replied. I wanted to tell her to come over and open it, but I didn’t want her moving. That way, I can be able to watch what she does from a distance. I dragged the knob this time and it opened up. I didn’t expect what followed. I heard a loud bang followed by a sharp pain on my chest. The impact sent me to the floor before I could figure out what was going on. The pain was unbearable and I was struggling to breathe. I tried lifting my hands but was struggling to do it. A drop of tear escaped the corner of my right eye while everything became a blur. I noticed a movement beside me. I squinted my eyes and she was standing over me. She looked at me with some sort of concern and then reached into the shelf. She pulled out a gun that had some kind of thread in the trigger. I slowly traced the rope and found out that it was attached to the knob. I realized that I was played. I tried one more time to lift my hand but she kicked the gun off my hand.
“Like I said, you are disposable. They know this. They know that I know it. I don’t want to kill you but you give me no choice. It’s nothing personal. It just had to be done. By the way, if I’m as dangerous as they say I am, and I’m an information whore, you would’ve known that I will be anticipating your arrival”
With that, she took the thread off the trigger of the gun and pointed it to my head. At the sight of that, a lot of thoughts started running through my head. I wondered if this is how I die. I thought of all the things I wanted to achieve in life and the fact that all that doesn’t matter anymore if she pulled the trigger. I thought of what she said, maybe I wouldn’t be here if I had rebelled or disobeyed the order I received. But all of it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m on the floor writhing in pain, struggling to breathe because of the heaviness I felt in my chest. These thoughts went through my head until I heard another bang.
I saw nothing but a dark empty space.
