MEDUSA

“I still don’t understand what this campus is turning into!” Morgan cried. “I mean, it’s bad enough that there are countless male cultic groups roaming about the university, but when the females are also involved, it redefines the whole fabric of social convention.”

Morgan loved to visit the university’s news page. He was nicknamed ‘internet’ as a result of his knack for obtaining and providing information. As his best friend on campus, I had to bear the burden of listening to him every time he was on his news updating frenzy. His endless outpour of the latest gist on campus could gouge out one’s ear drums.

On the bright side, having a friend like Morgan meant one would virtually never be at the receiving end when it came to unforeseen circumstances. Usually it was always myself, Morgan and his notepad which I found contrary to its alleged mobile feature. It was so big that it reminded me of Jesus Christ carrying the Cross to Calvary. A thought I kept to myself.

“Okay Morgan, what are you reading on that screen of yours this time?”  I asked feigning interest.

“Haven’t you heard of the murder last night?” He asked placing down his device to ease my view. Without waiting for my response he continued.  “Well, I’m more than happy to inform you.”At this juncture, I could almost hear glee breaking through his heartbeat. The joy he felt having to tell me about his find was so conspicuous.

“There was another attack on a hostel yesterday.” He nodded in dismay. “Medusa struck again and this time three ladies were decapitated.” He tilted his head as if to make clear what was too small to be visible on the screen of his device. “It says here that some anonymous source claimed that Medusa and her gang tortured the ladies before their death because she was frustrated. Her real target was not around at the time of their visit.”

“I still don’t understand why she hasn’t been reprimanded till date. It’s been two semesters since the rise of her shenanigans and …”

“Dele! Culprits are not as stupid as you think.”  He retorted: “The school’s anti-cultism unit is finding it hard to track her down because she conceals her identity with a mask anytime she marauds.”

As though he had been warned by the poking eyes of an alert invigilator in an examination hall, Morgan suddenly jerked back his gaze to his notepad.

“And here comes the devil,” he muttered.

There was only one person on the campus that fitted Morgan’s description of the devil. Of course, I suddenly became aware that her perfume was the answer to the question my subconscious mind had been battling with. She knew her onions when it came to quality. She was always very particular about what she wore and had an incredible expensive taste at that.

She would always say her Uncle, a successful business man in Lagos served as her guardian for her parents had died in an alleged road accident. I felt my neck enveloped by very succulent skin and arms. Like a psychic, I could predict the next move. There it was, a kiss on my earlobes! This was habitual yet I never got tired of it. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I could have sworn I loved her than I did my mother.

“Double D, I am sorry I kept you waiting. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” Stella said rubbing her hands on my thighs in the mildest way possible.

Most ladies would have chosen to be as discrete as possible considering the fact that we were in the most public terrains on the entire campus, the motion ground. It was a place where students from various faculties stayed whenever they had classes to wait for or avoid. Stella was obviously, virtually the opposite of most ladies. She was never shy, rather she was bold.

My first testament to her boldness came the first time we spoke. I had answered a very tough question in class on that faithful day. The lecturer claimed he gave the question to students every year to test their level of proficiency. It was his way to welcome the new intakes to know how tough his classes were. He had taken so much pride in the fact that he always had to provide the solution to the question himself as proof that they were not as bright as they should.

Immediately the lecturer left, I became the topic on everyone’s tongue. Some called me Einstein, some called me Aristotle and the names went on and on. I had not left the building when she approached me and asked me to be her partner. At first I thought she was talking to someone behind me for she was too attractive to even notice me. Ladies like her only approached me in my head anytime I masturbated; an act I had to stop for it was detrimental to my health, my spiritual wellbeing, my dignity and like my Mother will say, “how will Jesus feel, watching you.”

She repeated her proposal and it became clear to me she was aware of my existence. She had left before I realized I had said yes on the basis of shock and infatuation for I could not keep my eyes off her intentionally exposed cleavage.

“I…, I still don’t know why you keep apologising for things that don’t matter. I am not bothered at all, we chose to wait …it’s nothing…”

“He chose to wait, I didn’t!” Morgan interrupted.

I had forgotten he opposed the idea initially, I felt no remorse for her hands were still on my thighs and a bulge emerged.

“Well I am glad you are happy and I love you too much that it’s dangerous.” She said, with an alluring smile just at the corner of her lips.

Morgan had never liked Stella. He on countless occasions had berated my relationship with her. He believed Stella’s love for me was with an ulterior motive. He had once told me she was just into me because she could sit next to me in examination halls. He tagged me as her ticket to pass her examinations, that once she was done, I would find out he was right in the wrong way. I found his allegations ridiculous.

Of course, any jealous party who had never enjoyed the bounties of being in a relationship wouldn’t say otherwise. Stella on the other hand was in no way ready to reach a truce with him. She knew of his hostilities because it was one of the after sex topics I had in my arsenal. She would usually brush him aside on every mention. To her, it was like Morgan never existed. This should have bothered me but somehow I kept lying to myself that time would make her come around.

“I hope you remember we have a test to sit for tomorrow?” I asked inquisitively.

“Yes…, about that, you know how difficult it is to read with my …” She paused, probably because she remembered Morgan was nearby. She whispered softly into my ears. ‘My menstrual cramps have started and you know how difficult it is for me to read in this state.”

I was smart, but I wasn’t when it came to how the human body worked. It was part of the relics for hating biology. To my understanding, Stella had the most menstrual cramps I had ever heard of. I had never been curious enough to make enquiries on how it worked or when it occurred in the life of a woman but one thing I knew was that Stella’s had a knack for coming up weeks, days, and even hours to examinations or tests which always placed me in a position of risking my reputation by helping her during examinations.

All his course mates know Dele is intelligent, but only one person notices his naivety when he falls in love with an enchanting lady.

The school had a very rigid reputation for not condoning any form of examination malpractices. These included seeing lecturers after examinations to increase marks. The policy was based on ‘You get what you write’ as it was popularly called. The only chance unserious students had was to sit next to students whom they could get answers from either by asking or stealing glances. I convinced myself that Stella was not an unserious Student. She was just battling with abnormal menstrual issues and that was all. I had rendered a lot of assistance to her in the past and we weren’t caught. I thought to myself, it won’t hurt to help her in her time of need, as usual.

“Make sure you come early to the venue so that we can avoid any unforeseen circumstance.” I said with a grin.

“Thanks a lot Double D, I knew I could always count on my baby” mounting ample kisses on every part of my face. “I guess I’ll be leaving now, I have something urgent to attend to.”

As she sped off, I couldn’t help but think that she was very agile for someone with menstrual cramps.

“How typical!” I lamented to Morgan.”Just when…” I paused to give an exhale of bitter disappointment. “Just when I am prepared to read, they decide to cut out the lights. The test is tomorrow and I only covered fifteen chapters of the textbook!”

I hated failure and any harbinger it brought. The feeling of a potential disappointment always frustrated me. I had been told by my mother it had been my nature since birth. At a point, she relayed to me how aggressive I used to be whenever she wanted to put a stop to my feeding from her bosoms.

“Well, there’s still enough time to read in the general hall,” Morgan said with his hands hovering above his copy of The Nigerian law Archives waiting to see if I would give an approval.

He knew how much I despised reading with people around. As a matter of fact, everyone in my department knew of my disgust for the general hall. Someone always had a dumb question to ask, which I saw as a means of distraction. I mean, we all were given the library access cards. But tonight, desperate times called for desperate measures. I weighed my options and I concluded that enduring a night of discomfort was in every respect better than failing Dr. Olaitan’s test.

“Alright, let’s move as fast as possible” I responded.

I could see the shock Morgan got from my reply flash on his face. He immediately changed his grimace probably in an attempt to make sure his surprise did not change my decision. He stuffed our laptops into his backpack in the fastest way I had ever seen. Of course, his notepad was included. Morgan was a very loyal lad. He must have been thinking he was graced to have me as his friend. The real truth was that, I was the lucky one.

“You know you can’t go there in these shorts, at least try to be decent bro” he giggled as he threw me my black suede pantaloons.

After the rigorous hike, we finally arrived at our destination. As expected, the general hall was crowded with life. I would have loved nothing more than being left alone to complete my reading but my august visit made my presence very conspicuous. My name became the noise. It took almost half an hour to break away from the unwanted greetings and for the hall to regain its serenity.

We managed to pick a spot close to the entrance of the hall. It wasn’t the best of places but it would suffice for a determined mind. To my surprise, we were not perturbed by fellow students who had the knack of asking questions in their DNA. It gladdened my soul. We read and read for some hours and the joy of potentially covering the entire textbook rejuvenated my spirit for I was in the penultimate chapter. In my moment of elation, I felt a cold metallic object creep up to my right cheek.

The next sound I heard was the quick paced bouncy footsteps of people rushing into the hall, positioning themselves at well calculated angles. Now it became obvious, it was a raid and they picked the perfect time and place for the hall was flooded with some of the most sophisticated devices and gadgets of the century which students generally rampaged for. They were all with guns including matching masks on their faces.  The Idea that they had the decency to pick matching items for diabolical aims was so ridiculous. All of a sudden, the words ‘Cult’ and ‘Medusa’ capitalised themselves in my thoughts.

“Everybody freeze!” One of them commanded.

The instruction reminded me of my gunpoint predicament which in turn released a rivulet of urine down my trousers. I could literarily see the word ‘scared’ spelled out on Morgan’s face. I thought about the night watch security men who the school had hired to avoid situations synonymous to the scenario we were in. I lost hope when I remembered we attended a meeting three days after the school’s resumptions about how the night watchmen were seen on different occasions drinking to stupor during night watch hours.

“Make sure you take everything and if anyone grows wings, let he or she know that not all birds can fly” Another of them instructed.

I liked and hated the position I was. I could see everything from where I was but it made me so vulnerable I had to be unfortunately selected among the random few who had guns pointed to different parts on their faces. It was a way to intimidate us. They started lifting items from hands and tables. From the protrusion of some chests and the flatness of some, it was clear their gender was mixed.

“Medusa!” A male voice cried. “It’s almost time, we need to move, quickly.”

I scanned the room to see who responded, it was a wrong time to be curious but fear was not enough to suppress my urge for an answer. I noticed the figure at the left flank of the hall twist in response to the warning.

“You heard him, hurry up.” She let out hand gestures to corroborate her command.

Medusa was one of the few culprits who couldn’t see me. It gave me the opportunity to scrutinise her comfortably. There was something about her that whetted my appetite for her identity. The items collector approached my table; they were almost through with collecting. I felt bad when they yanked Morgan’s notepad from his hands into their already filled sack.

He tried to hold onto it, but was no match against the thought of the gun being used. I watched as the figure with the gun to my head slide my laptop from my desk into the sack. By the time I saw the rigid arrangement of hair strands on the wrists, I could tell he was male.

I was the last candidate and they were ready to leave. In the midst of my anxiety, I was disturbed with a severe level of curiosity. Again the thoughts came to me. There was something about the so called Medusa. Was it the fact that she had been the leader or was it the fact that even in my uncomfortable position, I could tell that she would have been adorable without her mask.

They started to hop out of the hall as if they had practised the scheme before the raid. My eyes were glued to Medusa’s figure. I knew something very stupid was about to happen. I had a pretty clear idea of what it was but I chose to be dogmatic. I was going to do it anyway. I just could not know if I was being brave or stupid. I waited strategically, trying to weigh my options. Three left to hop out, everyone with their guns intact.

My mind did the countdown and when Medusa was near enough, it was like my hands had minds of their own. I leapt from my sitting position with acute precision and speed I never thought I had, my right hand was placed on her neck while my left did the mask pulling. It could not be. The world paused for hours even in reality’s split second.  I tried to make out her name but I lost the ability to shock. Her face had been visible to half of the population in the hall, thanks to my stupidity. The next thing I heard was a loud bang accompanied with a deep sting from behind.

My eyes were closed; it was difficult to move. The pain was very intense and I could feel the strong hold of mild hands on my wrist. From the softness, I knew it belonged to a woman’s. I had never used such ounce of energy to open my eyes in my life. My mother’s face intruded my gaze. I felt nauseous; the smell of tablets was the culprit. This helped me with the knowledge of where I was, a hospital yet it didn’t stop me from asking.

“Where… am I?” I muttered.

“Doctor, he is awake, doctor he is awake, my son is awake!” She cried.

The door flung open to present Morgan rushing to embrace me but stopped when he realized he was hurting me instead.

“Double D! You are back. Thank goodness.” He jerked back his head to take another look at me as if to check if I was the real owner of my face. “How are you feeling?” he asked, with concern masking his face.

I tried to respond to his question but my memory of what had brought me to the hospital hijacked my answer.  I had been shot. The knowledge of my predicament exacerbated my discomfort. Now I remembered. I thought of my wonderful Stella, how beautiful she had been as my girlfriend in contrast to her unveiled identity as Medusa. She had been the infamous marauder the School had wanted desperately. Now the question of how she was always gifted with expensive items from a mysterious uncle whom I never saw in her family photo album answered itself.

“The school is in a frantic search for her whereabouts now that her identity as been revealed” Morgan said as if he could read my mind. “You need to remain in bed for now; the doctor is on his way.”

The migraine increased, and my eyes shut themselves. My best friend was right, and I felt a sensation of shame, guilt and helplessness envelop me. The lady he preached against, my loving girlfriend, the only lady I could die for turned out to be the Medusa whose hands countless students had died from.