Before you continue, read how it all started Her Dreams (Part I) and Her Dreams (Part II)
He advanced towards her, step by step. With each step he took towards her, she took a step backwards. Till she felt her back pressed to the wall. She looked around the room and wondered if this was how she was going to lose something she had held on to so tightly.
She spotted something shine in the light of the passing moon beside her. It was a table knife she realized as she reached for it. It was a bit dull but she would use pressure if she had to. She pointed the knife in his direction. The gleam in his eyes died as his smile faded.
“Wetin you wan use that knife do? You wan kill me?” He laughed anxiously.
“Just lemme, make I waka commot. I no wan do” she said as she inched toward him with the knife pointed at his chest.
He stepped back and reached for his towel which still lay on the floor without taking his eyes off her.
“Oya waka commot from my room” he hissed at her.
She made her way out without turning her back to him, keeping the knife pointed at his chest. She dropped the knife on the floor as soon as she crossed the threshold of his room and ran back to Sade’s room. She knocked as hard as she could without alerting the whole compound to her presence.
Sade opened it groggy-eyed. Biola jumped in as fast as she could. The customer was gone now. Biola explained everything that had happened as fast as she could. Sade stood there and listened to her and as soon as she was done, she burst into laughter.
“Sha sleep.” she said as soon as she was done laughing. “But tomorrow morning you go pack your load commot from my house, I no like this your kind wahala.”
Biola was speechless. She just took her usual sleeping position beside Sade and drifted off to sleep.
As soon as it was bright out, she rushed out of the house to seek a business center. She dialed the number she had memorized for no reason thinking she would never need it, but here she was calling someone she never thought she would.
He picked it on the third ring.
“Hello, who is this?”
“Good morning sir.” She said, her voice timid and seeking another way out. “it’s biola”.
“Ah, biola. I was expecting your call sooner. Have you thought about what I said?”
“Yes sir. Yes”
“Stop calling me sir, we are friends. Meet me by 12 at the address I gave you. Take a taxi. I’ll pay for it”
And with that she knew her fate was sealed. She went back to Sade’s place and packed the single bag she had come with. Sade was apparently surprised. Perhaps she had wanted her to beg. She took her bath, thinking about her choice every single moment.
She wore her only black skirt and one of the blouses she had been saving for her first audition. Sade just keeping staring at her while she moved about, dressing up and picking up her stuff.
“But girl, you sabi say I dey joke?” She said. “How I go chase you commot? Hehn? Where you go stay?”
“You never sabi say you dey joke before? Na when I don pack my load commot finish na in you sabi say you dey joke. I don commot”
And with that she picked up her bag and she left the house. It was a few minutes to 12 when she stepped out, she didn’t want to get there too early and at the same time she wanted a chance to back out if she could. Once she was inside the cab there was no going back. She couldn’t afford a taxi. Or even a bus to where she was going.
This is it she thought. She hailed a taxi and gave him the address. She didn’t bother to barter over the price. She wouldn’t know how much it cost anyways.
He was waiting for her outside the place. It looked like a hotel. Nothing too fancy but it would be better than any where she had stayed. He paid for the taxi as arranged, he didn’t even complained that the driver had charged too much.
He ushered her in with such speed and anticipation that her heart skipped several beats. The man at the reception didn’t even bat an eyelash at them. Meaning he was a regular.
As soon as they were inside his room, he locked the door, signaling a lack of an escape route. She was really going to do this. He started taking off his shirt, smiling as he looked at her. She thought of her mother as tears flowed from her eyes.
She didn’t know how much time passed but he gave a satisfied grin when he was done with her. The tears kept flowing.
“Biola, Biola, you have done me well. Sorry about the pain hehn. Oya take paracetamol and order anything you want from the hotel. You can even sleep here. Just come for the movie audition tomorrow. The part don sure you.” He said with another grin.
He went into the bathroom, came out a while later and dropped some Naira notes and was gone.
She got up and cleaned herself. She still felt filthy afterwards. She tried to eat but she had no appetite. She fell asleep thinking that at least her dreams would come true.
She barely slept at night and was up early for her first movie audition. No one else had considered her, saying she was an unknown face. And she had met Mr. Gbenga at one of the auditions. He said he had come to scout out potential talent for the movie he was producing and she looked like she belonged on billboards and in movies but first she had to give him what he wanted from her. After that she would be a super star. He would make sure of it.
She spotted the throngs of girls there also auditioning for the same role. She had the upper hand but she wouldn’t stop herself from acting her heart out. She had been the female lead in all the dramas acted in the village festivals for as long as she could remember.
Soon she was the one facing the panel. Mr Gbenga sat at the centre like the chairman that he was. She channelled her inner actress, picturing the world of the character, living her life and speaking her words. She opened her eyes as soon as she was done. The other two judges looked impressed but Mr. Gbenga’s had the same bored expression he had had on with all the other mediocre girls.
“I’m sorry but you’re not good enough for this role. Try your luck somewhere else.” Mr. Gbenga said with the same bored expression.
Her head exploded with the words she had just heard. She couldn’t move or talk. Her heart just kept beating, almost like it would shut down any time from now. She didn’t recall how she had moved off the center stage but she recalled looking back and seeing a woman walk in and greet mr. Gbenga. She recognized her, she was of those actresses she used to see on posters, but whom she had always thought she was better than.
Mr. Gbenga’s voice rang saying he had found the actress playing his lead role. She looked at them and their body language suggested intimacy. And with that she collapsed to the floor.
Rewa opened her eyes. She didn’t believe it had been five years from that day. The events of that day had changed her. She had changed her name to rewa. Sade had died on the floor that day. She had decided to use what she had to get what wanted, after all she had lost her dignity and everything that day. She did get her revenge on the producer and his precious actress. Sade had wanted back in her good books once she learnt her friend was famous. It hadn’t taken long to convince her to seduce the producer and then tape him. What she didn’t know was that she had planned to switch the tape with the movie he had produced. She had paid one of crew handsomely to switch it up and the movie had gone straight to the market. The producer had been ruined and bankrupted. Of course she had relocated Sade and paid her off. She had made it her personal mission to ensure that the actress never got another role, it didn’t matter who she had to sleep with. She could be very persuasive, she had picked up some tricks from Sade.
And now she was standing in front of all these people to accept the most prestigious award an actress in her shoes could ask for, all in five years. Hate was a powerful motivator. She straighten her crisp white dress and she turned to accept her award and give her speech. Out of the corner of her eye someone stood up in the audience, she thought it was just another adoring fan. She smiled, as he raised his hand and pointed his gun at her and fired two bullets into her chest before anyone could stop him. She hit the ground as her white gown became red in the hue of her blood.
Security held on to Mr. Gbenga as he dropped in the gun in his hand. Someone held some cloth to her bleeding wounds shouting words she couldn’t be bothered to listen to.
She smiled again. She had after all achieved her dreams.
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