Alfreda had taken a seat at the edge of the bed while still laughing hysterically, she felt like punching David in the guts, maybe watching him double over and groan in pain would have eased the pain she felt at that moment. She touched her chest, and moved her hand up and down her chest in a bid to calm herself. David stood there looking so confused and lost. The realization that she had been coupling with a kid who could not make sane decisions for himself and was easily pushed about like a wheelbarrow hit her like a wave. He has never made good decisions for them, she has always been the one looking out for them. How couldn’t she have known all this while? Is love truly, blind?
He just stood there scratching his brows, saying nothing.
“David? What game brought this ruin upon you? What silly game did you squander all our money on?.”
She was looking directly into his eyes and was at the brim of bursting into tears. Several minutes passed and David still had not said anything in response to the question. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she stood up abruptly and said,
“Don’t Tell me you gambled with all that money?” She got no response.
“Answer me David before I pluck your eyes out!” She cried.
His shoulders dropped, he sighed and said, “Something like that. It’s not really gambling, it’s just a sophisticated game of the rich. That is the name for it”
“Sophisticated game of the rich? Interesting. Tell me about it, Dav.”
“See Al, I thought I would be able to do it once, get a whole lot of money off it, and never indulge again according to how the leader of the group described it to me, it was supposed to be easy. I never knew it would turn out this way.”
“It’s no use crying over spilled milk Dav, and I have been patient enough with you at the moment, what the hell was the game you played?!”
“I’m not supposed to breathe a word of this to anyone who is not a member, for all I know there might be a monitoring bug on me, in my phone, or even in this house but since I am totally ruined, I have to tell you. It is called ‘the game of lords.’ It’s a large network of people and all the members are rich, I mean stinkingly rich but there are different categories of the rich there…those still looking for more money, those looking for pleasure, and the ones who make money off the other two. Ermm… we made big money offers on…on…peo…people’s life.”
He went silent, she saw his worried look and his eyes frantically searched her face for any reaction. What should she have done? Cry? Scream? All she felt like doing at that moment was laugh, laugh at the misfortune David had tabled before her and how unbelievable it seems. Isn’t this the kind of occurrence that one only see in movies? Maybe she has been jilted by David. Maybe he was a jigolo who had planned to ruin her alongside his scammer friends all this while? Has she become a victim of scam or?… Her thoughts were interrupted when David asked,
“Are you okay Al?”
“Of course I am, at least your head is still intact and not on the floor in pieces. A very good evidence that I am still very okay.”
There was a long pause and she had to scream at him to continue.
“Calm down Al, I will” Another agonizing silence then he continued.
“We gather at THE NIGHT’s galore, you know that big apartment at the east side of Johnsbuggert City. At first, we were placing hefty sums on animal fights. Each night, we get to pick sturdy animals of choice to fight against opponents for the night, I noticed they were fed substances, I don’t know what it is but it seems like drugs, they said it is meant to energize them. The winning animal takes home the prize, and the other one ends up dead or gets shot dead if injured. I wanted to opt out because the sights of this were too horrific for me. But the anchor persuaded me that it takes getting used to and I was going to lose the money I have invested without a dime returned to me if I opted out that early, so I stayed and kept losing each game. I won on my fifth trip to the club but several games later, here I am about to be a destitute.”
He paused, searching her face, she noticed the genuine look of concern on his face and she just shook her head and glared at him.
She had wasted years loving a foolish man.
He sighed and continued,
“It got worse Al, after my first month there they started bringing in human beings and we started betting on humans, able-bodied men. I wondered why they were taking such a risk, my guess was they were sweet-talked and promised heaven and earth and a truckload of profit like they did to me. The GOATS, we call them GOATS, they also ingest the powdery substance before they wrestle. It was no ordinary wrestling, they wrestled one another until death. The rule of the game was ‘You kill or you die’ It was as if everything was programmed. They let you get comfortable and they show you their true colors… the bets on the animals were like an initiation into their group and there is no turning back…it’s like…like crossing the Rubicon bridge. I tried hard to escape, to opt out but I was completely damned.”
He coughed, took a glance at my face, and continued.
“All I could do was keep playing, watch the gruesome game take place, loose and lend more and more money from other members and keep watching all over again as they wrestle relentlessly with one another, clawing blindly and breaking bones with each blow, none of the two fighters must rest, any slight attempt to rest from your GOAT is inviting death from the opponent and you, the GAME LORD losing money and the profits. It became a routine. Believe me, I tried but I was threatened, they threatened to falsely accuse me of all sorts of crimes so, I had to give in.”
The sound of Alfreda’s phone ringing had jolted the both of them. She looked across the bed at her phone and saw that it was the alarm she had set for 4 pm. The time had passed so quickly and David was still telling her what seemed like rubbish and seemed like the truth at the same time.
“You gave in to empty threats? Just like that?” Alfreda asked, she was about to reach the limit of her patience at that moment.
“I wish they were empty ones!” He cried.
STAY TUNED FOR EPISODE 4