Edikan felt very miserable. He felt like unhanging the dead man who dangled from the ceiling.
All these years of being a hangman, Edikan had never put himself in the shoes of either the hanged or the family of the hanged.
He gave a loud cry and fell to the ground. He was carried away by security officials. Father Clement had never seen such a drama since he started praying for those to be executed.
The dark room smelled of sadness and deep sorrow.
Just 30 minutes back, Eno, who was to be executed was brought into the room. Some other persons followed him; his family members. One woman was wailing uncontrollably. She was in black. She covered herself in black from up to down. Her scarf covered her face as she kept jumping and screaming loudly.
"Madam, control yourself or we go send you comot for here.", a policeman warned. But his warning fell on deaf ears.
Edikan, the hangman, giggled and stood to perform just another duty. He has been in this business for almost 7 years. He had seen sorrow. He had seen pain on display.
Yeah, he felt sorry for the people he executed but he had to do his job. After a year, he no longer felt anything. He saw every criminal brought to him as another job to fix. 'They deserve it', he thought.
Soon, he started making some comments before he pulled the chair away from their feet and allow them dangle. He first detested them and expressed his disgust before he killed them.
''Dead meat. In your next life, respect the laws of the land." , whispered to Eno. He put the rope to his neck and pulled the stool away from his feet.
Eno wanted to talk but his words were transformed into a choking moan. Eno struggled with his life.
His mother who was in the room shouted.
"Alice..." , Edikan called her. He knew her. Very well. The love of his life. His long lost love. "Alice...", he called again.
Alice looked up with her red eyes. Edikan moved towards her. There was an awkward stare.
" Edikan... " , she rushed into his arms and they wept.
A policeman cleared his throat and brought them back to reality.
"My love. Where is he?", Edikan asked.
" Over there. Dangling over there.", Alice pointed to the hanged man of about 20 years old.
"My son!", Edikan screamed and fell to his face.
He had met 'dead meat' but this dead meat had his blood...
Good night. I think I'll write more on this. I've entered the world of the public