I was alone at home that afternoon when Michelle ran into our room in the campus with a big smile on her face. I almost thought she had won a lottery. Out of the excitement and despite the hunger, I asked,
‘Babe you win lottery and you don jam mugu?’
She was still thanking God for deciding to turn her life around after all these years of suffering and penniless lifestyle? I was amazed as I stared at her in shock. I have never seen Michelle in that excited mood since we became roommates. She called me by the name we usually addressed ourselves with.
My rommie, guess what happen on my way back from school. I replied that I am poor guesser . Let me break the bombshell to you babe. I am now a very rich girl. She announced. I burst out with a loud laugh and dismissed her excitement with a wave of the hand.
She insisted that she was not dreaming. I told her to go straight to the point before I lose my patience. She begin to narrate how she met this very rich Chief who gave her a ride back home where she stood under the scorching sun.
According to her, the Chief happens to be a multimillionaire with businesses all over the country and abroad. She she said the chief had invited her to have dinner with her at a hotel somewhere in town. She said the chief said she could bring her friend along with her. I was becoming excited too at the thought of making some cool cash from the mugu chief.
She pleaded with me to accompany her to see the chief, After much persuasion, I gave in to her request and accompanied her that night. As at 7:45pm, the Chief’s driver was already waiting outside the campus with the latest Range Rover Sports. We got to coded hotel. The chief was already waiting for us. He had also placed a reservation for us.
We had a very nice time with the chief. The man had plenty of cash to throw around. The man was simply swimming in money. He was also so friendly and very generous. While going home that night, he gave us a brand new notes totaling N200, 000 naira each. Imagine making 200k one night. It was a jackpot. Soon I was becoming jealous of my friend.
I was asking myself why I wasn’t th one in her position. A week later, Chief bought a Mercedes jeep for Michelle and actually gave her the keys to a flat in Lekki Peninsula. Being her closest friend and roomie, she begged me to move in with her which I quickly agreed without much conviction.
We started living large. Chief was just so kind and generous to us. We had everything at our beck and call. Just like a whirlwind, we became the happening babes on campus and within the Lekki axis.
I got so carried away that I was enjoying the money without knowing where it was coming from. Chief even took my friend to Paris for shopping. Deep down I was so sad and filled with jealousy for her. She noticed I didn’t take the news kindly to the news. But she promised to buy me stuff from Paris.
A few days later, she left with Chief. That was the last time I set my eyes on Michelle. Her journey was supposed to last for two weeks but a month later, I did not hear from her. I became scared because I was left alone in the house. She never communicated with me right from the first day she left the house.
I came home from school one evening and met Chief at home, out of excitement I rushed into Michelle’s room thinking that she has finally returned but to my utmost astonishment, Michelle was nowhere to be found.
I rushed out immediately to ask Chief, he explained that she will come back later that her trip was a bit extended and immediately changed his countenance towards me by telling me that he actually made a mistake by going out with my friend earlier on.
He promised me heaven and earth if only I could date him secretly without Michelle’s knowledge. I told him that I wouldn’t be able to stab my friend behind her back, that she has been very good to me. He asked the driver to bring his briefcase, he brought out N500, 000, kept it on the table and asked me to think about his request and left.
I was tempted to give in to what Chief had said but I kept worrying about Michelle. One night I became curious and decide to check one of the rooms in the flat that was always kept open. There was a wardrobe inside the room.
Still out of curiosity, I forced the wardrobe open and I shouted. There was my friend sitting on a stool. Her eyes fixed in a daze with a pot on her head.
Her body seem glued to the stool. Was she dead? She was not moving.I shout Jesus and ran out of the house. How could chief have killed my friend in the same house without my knowledge?
Some weeks after, Michell was reported missing. I assisted the police to locate the house. On getting there, the address had changed. The new occupants said there was never a chief there and threatened the police for embarrassing them. But I was sure of what I saw. What had happened.
Given the position I met my friend, I am very convinced that Chief used her for rituals. A search of the house did not produce anything.I am still in shock.
That is why I have become a born again Christian in memory of my friend.
I will never do runs again.
