Greetings people!🙌
I grew up in one of the most peaceful villages in Delta State, where we did not really have causes for alarm such as wars and robbery. There were robberies though; maybe it's because we had little; that's why armed robbers didn't approach our house any day.
However, my story changed when I got admission to a higher institution (a polytechnic). The community was known for cultism and robbery due to the fact that students were the most frequent residents of the city, and as such, these acts became a means of survival for a lot of students.
I had a series of terrifying encounters with armed robbers. Let me share one.
All through my first two years in school, I lived in a big room (a very big one-room apartment) with two guys as roommates. Sometimes, because my roommates have their girlfriends away from the area, they spend the night there, allowing me to sleep alone, which I enjoyed so much.
On one of the nights that they left to spend the night outside, I was asleep when I heard a loud bang on my door, and as I woke up, I saw three guys rush in and pinned me down on the bed.
"Where is your laptop?" The guy that seems to their leader asked, he was standing and was swinging the battle axe in his hand.
"Laptop? I don't have a laptop," I shakingly said in my pinned-down position on the bed. Then, one of them used the flat side of Cutlass and wiped me, and I screamed, "Jesus!"
"It's true I don't have a laptop; you can search everywhere."
What I heard next was them speaking the dialect of the community, which got me confused because I don't understand it.
At that moment, I was so scared and hoping they wouldn't cut me with a cutlass or battle axe. I knew I wouldn't be killed;* yeah, I just had that confidence, and I was so scared of getting cut by those weapons.*
They searched around, scattered all the clothes inside the wardrobe, and didn't see any laptop.
"You're in civil engineering, and you don't have a laptop. Guy, don't let up massacre you," their leader threatened, and I began to shiver because it's obvious that they know me very well. But still, I responded that I don't have any laptop, and it was true; I didn't have one then.
A DVD player was on the table,(a DVD player that one of my roommates brought from home, and we were planning to buy a TV to use it). The guy carried the DVD player, looked at it from both sides, and dropped it. I was hoping they would collect it in place of the laptop, but they dropped it.
My Nokia X2 was in bed, and I couldn't hide it before I was rushed to bed. They collected the phone, and as they were leaving the room, the spirit of bravery filled me, and I pleaded they should drop the SIM for me. As soon as I said them, one of them rushed back and wiped Cutlass again on my back.
They left.
The night was still dark, and I didn't know what time it was, so I closed my door and sat on the bed, thinking about my life.
Do you know the funny thing?
The compound is totally occupied by indigenes of the community, and all through the night and the noises, none of them came out. It is well with their souls. Amen.
Thanks for reading.