CLAIMED
CLAIMED
It all began with a cup of tea.
I could sense something was amiss the moment I entered my room. My laptop was exactly where I had left it, on my bed right next to my pillow. I checked the closet; everything seemed to be in place. The money I kept under my mattress hadn’t been touched either. But I still felt like somebody had been in my room. It was an unsettling feeling.
“Well, if someone has in fact been here, I am glad they didn’t take anything,” I thought. I dismissed it as mere wariness as I’d had a gruesome test earlier that morning. I slumped over my bed and dosed off.
I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. It was Joy my girlfriend calling.
“Hello,” I yawned.
“Hey baby. Have you been sleeping?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh. Anyway, I’m on my way to your place, I was wondering if you need anything.”
“Ah, I don’t know, I’m hungry.”
“Let me get you some food. See you in a few.”
“Thanks baby.”
I dropped the phone over my side, stood up and stretched. That is when I saw it. And I was sure it was not there before, a blue plastic cup on my reading table. I was confused and unnerved. I owned no plastic cups and when I’d come in earlier except for my books, nothing else was on the reading table.
The cup contained what seemed to be tea. Steam was coming out of it and when I touched it, it was hot.
“What the fuck!” I exclaimed.
I scanned the room… the windows were closed. I nudged the door and it was closed too. I knelt down and looked under the bed, nothing was there either. I was infuriated; I was convinced someone was playing a prank on me. As it was the norm among the boys in my hostel.
A knock at the door roused me and I jumped up.
“Jude, babe, are you there!”
I opened the door to find Joy leaning against the corridor wall, in her hands a huge brown KFC paper bag.
“Hey,” I sighed.
“What took you so long?” She stomped in and placed the paper bag on the reading table.
“What! C’mon, I opened as soon as I heard you knock.”
“No, you didn’t.”
In her eyes I could see an argument brewing, she was mad.
“Okay, I am sorry.” I pulled her to me and kissed her. “I’ve missed you.” I moaned into her mouth.
“I’ve missed you too,” she replied, reaching into my pants.
I carried her to the bed; my tongue travelled the length of her neck, her chest, and circled her nipple. She moaned and pulled my face back to her. I looked into her eyes and she smiled. I licked her ear as I found my way into her.
“I love you,” she breathed. “I’ll always love,” she shouted as I thrust into her. “You are mine.”
*
As Joy slept next to me, my eyes drifted over to the reading table, and I remembered the weird occurrences in my room.
The blue plastic cup of tea had disappeared and so had the brown KFC paper bag. My heart thumped wildly at the realization. I searched the table but there was clearly nothing there. Suddenly my phone rang, I picked it up.
“Hello,” an unfamiliar female voice sounded from the other end.
“Hello,” I replied.
“Is this Jude?”
“Yes.”
“This is Flo, Joy’s sister. I wanted to let you know that Joy had an accident on her way to work… She’s dead.”
“What! No way. She’s here with me.”
“She’s dead Jude.”
“Whoever this is….”
The phone went off.
“Joy someone’s playing a stupid prank on me,” I jeered.
“Joy.” I pulled the blanket off her…
Mouth wide open, the phone slid through my hands and crushed on the tile. There was no Joy in my bed. I sprinted out of the room.
…
