EPISODE EIGHT
“May people do to your sisters and your unborn female children what you are planning to do to us,” Thelma cursed, spitting toward the door.
“We are finished o. God please help us,” Magdalene, our other colleague lamented with her hands on her head.
“Why did I accept this job offer in the first place? Shebi, my friend warned me about this job, but I failed to listen to her. Now see where I am now.” Mary cried out, sitting at one corner of the room.
“Now, that witch has locked us up here, and there is no chance to escape out of here, and we can’t go through the windows either because they are securely barred. I wonder why without notice that earlier,” Thelma said looking really angry, as she paced the room restlessly.
I just sat on the back brooding. I wanted a job, I got the job, and now I wanted out of the job. My thoughts went to Laide, my friend, wondering if she knew that the ushering agency was only there in disguise, but was actually an agency that recruits prostitutes for big men.
I was very sad, as I stared at the ceiling. Tears rolled from my eyes, as I remembered stories of young girls who had slept with rich alhajis only to run mad or die mysteriously. I was scared for my life. I kept staring at the ceiling, until something popped in my head.
I got up immediately from the bed and asked the girls to gather around that I had a plan for us to escape. They all gathered around me to hear what I had to say. I pointed at the ceiling, and they all looked up at the ceiling, then back at me looking really confused.
“We will break the ceiling, and from there we will crawl up the ceiling vents and hopefully land in an empty room, and try to escape the hotel,” I said, and all the girls smiled hopefully at the escape plan.
“Then, how are we to transport ourselves out of Abuja back to Lagos with no money then?” Their smiles vanished and they all had wearied looks on their faces as realization dawned on them.
“I have like N15,000 here with me. I didn’t spend my money much. I don’t know of you girls, but I think we should contribute all our money together if we hope to escape from this place.”
EPISODE NINE
“I have 7,000 naira with me,” Jennifer announced
“I have 2,000 naira here with me,” Thelma responded
“I also have 10,000 naira,” Magdalene replied back
“I am with 8,000 naira,” Mary added
“So, if we calculate all of that money together, that will be 42,000 naira. We can manage that for the meantime. Let us just pray to God to help us with the rest, and also lead us to a Good Samaritan.”
We all gathered together and knelt down together, as we bowed our head and prayed. When we were done praying, and we felt in our hearts that our prayers were answered, we got up and moved into action.
We were lucky that the hotel room we were in was not made with cement, but woods. So, Thelma knelt on the bed, while Mary and Magdalene steadied her from falling apart. I climbed Thelma’s back to be able to reach the ceiling. Jenifer handed me a metal stool, which I used to smash the ceiling continuously till I saw a crack, I kept on hitting, till the hole becomes big enough for a human to crawl through it.
Another problem was how to climb through the hall. We had to shift the bed away from the center, and we dragged the high dressing table and placed a stool on it for one to reach the ceiling to be able to climb through it. I entered the dark ceiling first, followed by others. Before climbing into the ceiling hole, each of us was armed with heavy objects, which we were to use to break through the ceiling of another room.
Luckily for us, there was no need for that, as we saw a gaping hall, which was obviously where the electricians and fixers passed through to connect and fix wires. It wasn’t covered yet, and a ladder was there, which showed that somebody had recently passed through there.
One by one, we climbed down the ladder and saw ourselves in the hotel’s storage room. We had finally escaped from that room. The next plan was how to get out of the hotel.
… NEXT EPISODE TO BE CONTINUED