“you guys should quickly hide under the pews” Joe said quietly, pulled out his pistol, cocked and held it at ready.
“don’t tell me you plan shooting inside a chapel?” Jenifer asked, annoying me with the question.
“for goodness sake, keep quiet. This man is trying his best to save our lives. Do you think what he’s doing is easy?” i quickly cautioned and silenced her. But luckily the thugs moved away after taking a look at the church. We all heaved a sigh of relief.
“thank God they are gone” Tony breathed.
“we wait here till dawn, then I’ll go get help” Joe added softly.
“thank you bro. I owe you a lot” i said to him with all my heart.
“now it’s time we fully settle our quarrels and make peace with each other. God gave us a second chance to live, and there won’t be a problem giving each other a second chance by forgiving and forgetting our past mistakes and fights. We are in the house of God. A very good place to settle everything” Jenifer suddenly said, while i scoffed.
“not again ” i breathed.
She ignored my comment, faced Tony and kept quiet for some seconds.
“i’m sorry for everything i did to you, please forgive me. Erase the bad feelings you have for me from your heart. I beg of you” she pleaded meekly. Tony cleared his throat.
“Jenifer all that happened between us is now a thing of the past. You can’t imagine how happy i’m being alive. You can’t imagine how lucky i’m right now. That guy would have slit my throat over what happened in Europe he never got to understand. Of course i forgive, i also forgive my pig head brother Emeka. I have nothing against anybody. I’m so glad to be alive” he answered seriously, leaving me with guilt which forced me to say something.
“I don’t know what to say Tony, believe me it wasn’t easy being without a friend and brother like you. I won’t apologise right here but will do it in a big way when we get out of this jungle” i said to him with respect. Joe and the chief simply listened, saying nothing to us…
By 6am, we all ran to the parish house where a very shocked priest received and entertained us before driving us back to Benin city with the parish bus.
Oh we were lucky to be alive, lucky to escape from the pit of hell. It was a terrible experience. But we weren’t still safe because our captor knew a lot about us and was still free out there probably looking for a means to get us back….
To be continued
