*”STRUCK DOWN”*
EPISODES:8 & 9
*_EPISODE EIGHT_*
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Fred woke up the following Saturday morning through a beep from his phone.
“Morning already? Arghh….” He groaned. He obviously wanted to sleep more.
In few minutes a message came in.
“Please do not forget our agreement today. I’m counting on you to convince her to have one more moment with me tonight.
Chief Jubril.” The message read. Fred sighed and dropped his phone, devastated.
Having tried for the past three days to convince Deborah about this but to no avail, he wondered how their agreement was still going to work.
“If only you’d listen to me Deborah. I don’t want to lose this money ehn…..it’ll change my…our lives alot.” He thought to himself and sighed, pacing around his room as a way of thinking of what to do or the next step to take.
“Now I don’t know whether to meet her or not, she’s so angry with me.” He said to himself and exhaled heavily, letting himself crahs on his bed.
“I need wisdom to get this girl to do my bidding.”
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Charity happily wakes up early in the morning and goes straight to the kitchen after her morning prayers. As she set her food on her table and was about to dive into her carefully prepared breakfast that morning, she heard a voice say within her;
“Man shall not live by bread alone.” She thought on the words for sometime as she looked at her food
“Not every night is for sleeping and everyday for eating my dear. Today isn’t a day to be merry. You don’t relax when a battle is going on, do you?” The voice said further. She immediately grabbed what that meant -she was to fast that day.
“Following God ain’t easy. Lord by your grace and mercy, I’d be obedient to you at all times.” She whispered as she cleared her table and food.
💖💖💖💖💖
Mrs. Eunice had just completed her morning prayers. She got dressed and was about heading out when the thought of her daughter crossed her mind. In a jiffy she felt led in her spirit to devote the day into interceding for her. She picked her phone to call her sales girl and instruct her on what to do in her absence, then say down in her room and began intense prayers for her daughter.
💖💖💖💖💖
Fred brought out a plate from the rack and filled it with rice, sufficient stew and fish at the top of it. Having placed it in a tray with a bottle of juice beside it, he carried it and headed for the room.
“Hey, open up please.” Fred said with a gentle knock on the door of the room where Debby was. Slowly opening the door, Debby gave him a long silent stare before giving way for him to enter.
“You’re punishing yourself unnecessarily Debby. Here, I brought something to fill your empty stomach with.” He said, removing the plate he used to cover the plate of rice. Debby looked at the food, stared shortly at him and back at the food. Fred laughed at her reaction.
“Don’t worry it’s not poison; trust my cooking skills, will you?” He assured her. If was then she took three spoons from the food, still quite skeptical. She wore a quite expressionless look, so Fred couldn’t exactly detect what it is she was thinking.
“So…..have you made up your mind concerning our last conversation?”
He asked with a careful tone after she had consumed up to half of the food and juice he brought.
“My decision remains unchanged.” She said without looking at him and kept eating.
Fred sighed with his head bowed.
“It’s been three days Debby, three days…yet you haven’t changed your mind on this issue. I’ve told you, whatever it is you said you felt when you two had s*x is nothing but an illusion, and that’s nothing to worry over. For God’s sake we’re about to lose a large sum of money to your doggedness.” He said and at this point, Debby violently dropped the spoon she was holding.
“You know what? I’m fine having this talk with you. You’ve become so blinded with the financial outcome of this deal that you can’t sense my life in danger here.
Before I assume anything, let me as you:what matters most to you? Like what’s more important to you – the money or my well-being?” She asked. There was an awkward silence in the air for some time as Fred rough handled his hair with his hands.
“Babe what’s this now? Comparing yourself with a non-living material.”
“Or an important asset you mean.” She chipped in quickly.
“No matter how important it might seem to be, it’s nothing comes to human life ”
“You haven’t answered my question Fred. Don’t play smart on me.”
“Babe you’re more important now, don’t you know? Please stop with the comparison game, it’d lead us nowhere.”
“Hmmmm…… now I know I mean nothing, absolutely nothing to you.”
“No Debby don’t talk like that, you know that’s not true.” Fred said with a compassionate-filled voice. Debby dropped the spoon and pushed the tray towards him.
“I’m no longer interested, you can go with your food.” Debby said, folding her arms beneath her chest.
Fred looked at the already devoured food and smiled.
“You finally ate to your fill after a long time now…..I’m happy.” He said, trying to change the topic and lighten her mood a little but she didn’t respond.
“Well, I know with time you’d change your mind over the matter. You’ve got few hours to finally decide because he needs you tonight.” Fred said with a suddenly stern voice before leaving the food with the tray of food he had come with.
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Chief Jubril walked into his apartment that evening, totally exhausted.
He was about taking his nap when something occured to him. He immediately rushed to his room and went straight to a particular table in an inner room where he had a strange object kept. He studied the object that looked like a sandtime closely and gasped afterwards.
“There isn’t much time left. Whatever needs to be done has to be done tonight, or I’d live with this pain forever.”
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“Debby what sort of rough play is this one now? Dress up and let’s do to the hotel, Chief is waiting for us already.” Fred said, getting frustrated at her attitude.
“Fred you can’t force me to do something I don’t want to, or go anywhere against my wish. I said I’m not going anywhere and that’s final, pleas.” Debby said to his face and sat on the bed, folding her arms. Fred stormed out of the room in anger.
“If you like be angry with me o, I won’t allow someone to come and waste my life for me. No one would see a real on a path and stubbornly keep walking. I’ve said it before, that man doesn’t have any good intentions. Let him go and find someone else to sleep with, I am not interested.” Debby shouted from the room as Fred walked out.
“Damn in.” Fred said as he hit his hand hard against the wall. Just then,a call came in. He exhaled heavily before picking up
“Hello Sir.”
“Hello young man, how are you?”
“I’m fine thank you Sir.”
“Alright. Uhmmm. I’ve been waiting in the hotel for over 15mins now and you haven’t showed up. Are you stuck in traffic or something?”
“Hmmm….no Sir. Actually we… I mean I….”
“What is the matter Fred? Has something gone wrong? Tell me.”
“Sir we have a problem Sir.”
“Problem? What problem?”
“It’s the lady, she…..she’s refused to come meet you.”
“I don’t get you. Didn’t you tell her the amount of money involved?”
“I did Sir, but she remains adamant still.” Fred said and there was a brief silence from the other end.
“This isn’t the agreement we had Fred. I mean you assured me you have things taken care of.” Chief said with a disappointed tone.
” I thought I did Sir. I’m very sorry Sir.”
“Oh that’s fine. So what’s the way forward? How do we go about this new development?” Chief asked
“Where is she? I mean so you know where she is at the moment?” He asked further.
“Oh yes, yes Sir. She’s here with me in my apartment.”
“Good. Okay just send you address to me, I’ll be there in a jiffy .” Chief said and Feed became dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe his ears. A highly respected Christ asking for his address just so he could have things go his way? Unbelievable!
“Hello? Young Man, did you hear what I said at all?”
“Sir?”
“Good. Please do send your address to me, I’d be there in a jiffy.”
“O…okay Sir. No problem Sir.” Fred said with uncertainty in his voice before Chief cut the call.
“Am I sure Chief is in his right senses at this moment? What would he want to be doing in the house of a low-class like me? All because of a woman? Is this a joke or something?” Fred thought to himself and for the first time, all of Debby’s predictions concerning Chief were beginning to make sense now.
“Probably there’s something more he’s looking for than just s*x.” Fred thought to himself
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Charity kept tossing around on her bed uncomfortably until she woke up. She checked the time and discovered it was 9pm.
“Jesus! I overslept.” She whispered to herself.
She recalled she had just finished observing her quiet time and was too tired to do any other thing as the stress she experienced at work that day was second to none.
So she reasoned and concluded she’d sleep for an hour and then attend to other aspects of her life, but her body acted otherwise and added an extra hour to her short nap.
“I need to eat, handle some office documents and hold joint prayers with Chinelo, all before midnight. I wonder if there’d be enough time to cover all these.” She said as she ran through her to-do lists for the night.
As she thought of how to properly manage her time in order to finish up her task for the day, the thought of Deborah crossed her mind.
“Intercede for her now? Haa nooo…… Lord I have dozens of things to do this night. I’ll start my intercession for her at midnight please.” She replied to the urge she felt within her.
As the urge grew stronger, she resisted vehemently until it eventually fizzled out and she went about her own business
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“O God! What kind of a deal is this now?” Fred reasoned within as he paced up and down his room in confusion. Just then, a call came in.
“Hello, I’m in your street now. I was stuck in traffic that was why it took me time to get here.” Chief said immediately Fred picked his call.
“Hello, can you hear me? What is the issue with this network people sef.” Chief asked pissed off thinking there was a network problem as Fred just held the phone to his ear, totally speechless.
For Chief to really take the pain to come around, he meant serious business!”
Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
“Who’s there?” Fred asked with his husky voice as he walked towards the door.
“Chief…..you’re ….. you’re here.”
“Yess, I managed to locate the house from the address you sent to me.” He said. Fred became lost in thoughts as to whether to let him in or not.
“Can I come in please?” Fred heard Chief’s calm voice say. He nodded and made space for him to come in.
“Where is she?” He asked as soon as he walked in. Fred gave a light knock on the door of Debby’s room and it opened itself. Debby turned to look up few minutes after she sensed someone walk into her room, and was surprised to see Chief standing beside Fred.
” Chief? How….how come? What are you doing here?” Debby stammered and turned to Fred. From her facial expression alone you could tell she was demanding serious explanation from him.
“I didn’t ask him to come here.” Fred said in defence immediately she got the message. Chief gave a smirk at the confused look on Debby’s face when she turned towards his direction.
“Give us some privacy please.” Chief requested.
“And…..check your account balance, half of your reward is in already.” He said further and that lifted Fred’s mood as he left the room without much anymore, his mind on his phone and the possible alert waiting for him.
“No! Don’t you dare come close to me, you’re evil. You can fool Fred with your money but not me.” Debby said with a raised voice that indicated dear as Chief quietly locked the door of the room.
“I don’t want to do this the hard way Debby, so please remain calm.” Chief said calmly as he approached her. Debby’s eyes widened the moment she heard her name from his mouth.
“Who told you my name? Fred right? Jesus Christ, I am finished. That man practically sold me out to you, all because of the huge amount of money you promised him. Men are wicked! Men are scum!”
“You talk too much Debby.” Chief said and blew a substance to her face that made her pass out instantly.
Haa! Debby is in trouble🙆
Charity o😭😭
Hmmmm……honestly the devil can be tricky ehn…..it’s that time your body is like “rest small, nothing would happen if you skip only today and continue tomorrow”, that’s when something out o the ordinary would just happen.
I can’t count (or maybe I can, iono🤷) the number of times I’ve skipped vigil prayers or fasts, knkf go regret later.
Abeg who else has had this kind of experience before, abi na only me?
*”STRUCK DOWN”*
*_EPISODE NINE_*
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“Wont you get up and pray? You’ve been awake for half an hour now and it’s past your prayer time already.” A voice said to Charity as she lay on her bed.
“But I feel sleepy.” She protested.
“Yet you even surfing the net endlessly for over half an hour now?”
“Ehn, you know the vibe is different. Immediately I say ‘In Jesus name’ now, sleep would just walk into this room like an invited guest and take over.”
“You don’t think it’s by your power or strength you’re able to pray, do you? Besides, there’s a stage you get to in your walk with God where prayer now becomes a necessity and no longer an option; that’s the level you’re presently at. It’s better you get up and pray now before something your prayer tonight is meant to avert happens and blood would be on your neck.” The still voice within her said authoritatively. Charity immediately dropped her phone on hearing of blood being on her neck.
“God forbid! Blood would be on my neck because I refused to be diligent with my spiritual responsibilities, in Jesus name.” Charity said in a form of prayer and sprang up from her bed immediately.
After an hour of intense prayer of intercession for Debby, she settled to read the Word as is her custom. She recalled a particular chapter that dropped in her heart during prayers and opened to read it.
“Ezekiel 22, Ezekiel 22, Ezekiel 22.” She kept whispering as she searched for the passage in her MSG version Bible.
“So what do you understand from this passage?” A still small voice she’s familiar with asked her.
“Well, from the passage, I understand that God in His anger had passed judgement upon the people of Israel because of the numerous sins they had committed.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes! I mean, who doesn’t know Ezekiel is just all about the judgements God was about passing on Israel because of their numerous idolatry acts against Him?”
“You were given a specific chapter Charity, not the whole book. Read that chapter again and study it closely.” The gentle voice instructed and Charity obeyed, carefully studying Ezekiel 22 once more.
“Wait ……wait, wait, wait, wait. God was looking for someone to intercede for Isreal in order to aert the punishment meted out to her but he found none so…….wait.” She began interpreting and just then the thought of Debby came to her.
“Just as you’ve read, judgement has been passed upon Deborah but you’ve been too complacent about your responsibilities over her that there isn’t much intercession made for her. So since there’s no intercessor, God has no choice other than to punish her without holding anything back.” The gentle voice explained.
“Ah God nooo…….don’t let judgement come upon her please. There’s an Intercessor Lord, there’s an Intercessor. Please have mercy 😭🙏. Forgive me for being lazy over her case. I’m here to stand in the gap for her. I’m here Lord, please have mercy.” Charity pleaded earnestly on her knees.
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Chief got up from Debby who was still very much unconscious. He brought out of his pocket three strange-looking substances he had come with. Recalling the instructions his priest gave to him, he placed his handkerchief on her face and left it there, while rubbing an oily substance all over her body. He then removed the handkerchief and sprinkled a powdery substance, first on her face, and then on the rest of her body. He was about leaving when it seemed something struck him and he turned to look at her, staring at her womb area. He pulled out his handkerchief once more and placed it on her womb. He left it there until the watch he was wearing made a strange beep and he knew it was time to leave. He took the handkerchief and put it back into his pocket, hit his chest three times and was out of sight, a strange bird cry announcing his departure.
Fred who had slept off on the couch sprang up to his feet immediately he heard the loud cry.
“That’s strange. Birds don’t cry at night.” He reasoned and just then, his mind travelled back to few hours ago.
“Wait…….Chief, Debby.” He said and rushed to the room only to find the door locked.
“Debby! Debby! Debby open the door. Chief!” He called out to anyone who could answer him, banging the door loudly.
“Chief! Chief open up.” He said but there wasn’t any response and that frightened him. He had immediately wanted to break the door open, but on a second thought hurried to his room to get a master key.
“Debby! Debby……baby.” He called out immediately he opened the door and rushed to her. He took a two back in fear on noticing substances on her body, and the position in which she laid.
“Oh no, what have I done?” He thought regrettably as he gently checked her pulse to see if there was still life in her
“What did he do to you? How could he do this to you?” Fred asked the unconscious Debby and just then his phone beeped, indicating a message had just come in. He picked up the phone to check it out and it an alert- a credit alert of the balance Chief had promised.
Shortly after seeing the alert, a message came in.
“The transaction was a success! I’m highly appreciative for your cooperation. By the time you get this message, your balance should’ve bee sent to you.
Chief. ”
“Transaction? What transaction?” Fred asked himself, confused at what Chief meant by that.
Just then, he recalled all that Debby had said about Chief and her strange experiences with him.
“Could it….could it be he has used her for ritual?” He whispered in fright and turned to face Debby. He checked her pulse and gasped in fear.
“Oh God no, Oh God no! What have I done? What have I done?!”
Hmmmm…….I honestly don’t know what to say. Finally the hole Charity had been incessantly seeing in her dream and talking about has swallowed our Debby😭😭😭. What a pity🤧
*_To be Continued…_*
©Princess Stories
