Chapter 1
“I'm trying you know! I've sacrificed a lot for you to get better! I've forfeited a lot of things just for you! But you," she pointed at him “you just throw it all away!"
A tear drop escaped. Harshly, she wiped it off. Chukwudi hated making Amara cry. He hated making her angry, but it had to be done - she had to leave.
“I use my resources, my time, my love, my.....my everything, to make sure you overcome this." She waved her hands at the wraps of white powder on the floor, and the ones that had spilled around the room. Unconsciously, Chukwudi wiped off the speck on his nose.
Amara's tears fell freely now, and she tried vainly to stop them. The more she cleaned off, the more they fell.
“Then leave." Chukwudi boomed. “Leave me alone, so that I can continue the way I want to. I won't be a burden to you any more."
Ever since he lost his job, he'd been floating. Chukwudi and Amara met long before things went south, and they had been dating since then. After he lost his job, he thought she would abandon him, just like women usually did to men when they felt they were no longer satisfactory. However, months later, Amara was still taking care of his bills, his needs. But even she could not save him from the state he was in now. He hated himself, hated not being able to care for her, hated the feeling that he was leeching off her, and that drove him further into the welcoming arms of hard drugs. The day she had stumbled upon him inhaling the powder like that day was his last, he had felt guilty, but he was already throat - deep. It had taken a while for the euphoria of the drugs to finally let him see the toll it was taking on her.
Amara was shocked at Chukwudi's words. Her big dull eyes widened. Chukwudi concluded that his words had finally got through to her. It pained that Amara would finally leave, but he knew it was for the best.
Slowly, she narrowed her eyes at him, which made her eye bags more prominent. She stalked over and stopped a few inches from his face. Her paused lips gradually lifted into an acrid smile:
“You want to go to hell? Fine, I'll come with you.”
“You want to fall into the lowest depths, of the deepest pits, of darkness?" Her voice rose. “I'll follow you, every single step of the way." She bit out, and took a few steps away from him. “It's all on you." She stomped out of the house, banging the door close in the process.
Chukwudi heavily slid down the wall to the floor, and held his head in his hands. She was not supposed to want to join him. He did not want to drag her down any further, but how could he avoid not doing so when she had bluntly refused to let him go?
A while passed and he crawled over to his wraps of cocaine. Sluggishly, he brushed them into a heap with the side of his palms, and packed them into a metal trash can. At his backyard, he set the contents of the can on fire and watched the fire eat up the powder, watched smoke escape into the atmosphere, watched the powder reduce to nothing but char and ash. Then he noted his next appointment with the rehabilitation centre down town.
Amara sure had a way of confessing her love for him.
