Countdown to the Crazy Hour

Wayne appeared lost for some seconds, and Frank knew that he was making lots of calculations in his head.

As if reading his thoughts, Frank said, "If you dare to act in a funny way, if you raise alarm or tell anyone about me, just know you're dead already. I'll burn down this little, beautiful shop of yours and then break your skull."

Wayne shivered. "I should ask her where Jenna has gone to? She might not tell me, sir. She's a quick-tempered, nonsense woman. She will definitely want to know my reason for asking. What would I tell her?"

"Lie to her. Tell her anything— anything! Look, I have no time to waste. Get going. You can tell her you want to give Jenna something. Just tell her anything that could convince her and make her tell you where Jenna has gone to. That's all. Do that or be dead. What's your choice?"

"I'll do that."

"Great. Now go. I'll be waiting for you here. Hurry so that you won't miss the next customer."

Wayne began to trot away to the the house where Jenna lived, without looking back. Frank sat down on the wooden tripod stool and waited for Wayne. To him, Wayne had been sufficiently frightened and Frank had every reason to believe that Wayne would as he had been instructed. He estimated that Wayne shouldn't take more than five minutes to be back, no matter his exchange with Eva, since he had a business to attend to. And then he started the countdown.

THE FIRST MINUTE.

His eyes were fixed on his wristwatch. When the red hand of the clock completed a cycle, moving 360° in 60 seconds from point 12 back to point 12, Frank began to plan what he was going to do with the information that Wayne would bring to him. He had no doubts that Eva would know where Jenna had gone to. There were close now. He only hoped that Wayne would be smart enough to extract a positive answer from the her. If it's a positive, Frank decided that he would vanish instantly to where she could possibly be. There was that thing inside of him that always had its rest disturbed when Frank knew that Jenna was in danger. He couldn't explain it. It was what he had felt three months ago when he had come back from this same Lagos— that he come to hunt down the evil immortal man who once paraded himself as a man of God— only to go find his enemies waiting for him in his apartment, when he came back after in a disappointing search for the evil man. When he kmew that Jenna had been kidnapped, something had snapped inside of him. Again, it was love. It was something he could not explain. And he had stopped looking for answers in that regard. He had accepted that aspect of immortal. All he needed to know that was to satisfy his inexplicable hankering to save Jenna's life. What would happen after that was not his concern. He would disappear as always. He knew the apathy would return as soon as Jenna was safe.

"This life I'm living is a borrowed life," he said as the red hand of his watch hurried to the second minute, "I don't get to decide how I used it. It's not mine. Someone else has this life and is controlling how I use it, and what I do minute by minute. Goddammit."

THE SECOND MINUTE

Frank began to think how he would be able to get Jenna to live in another place. She would die if she continued living there. It wasn't safe for her anymore. Nowhere in the country was safe. Not Lagos, not Port Harcourt, not even the north. Those evil immortals would try to find her. Frank knew the best thing was to hide her somewhere first and then get her out of the country. But how would he be able to do that? Jenna had known him a murderous beast now. He knew there was nothing he could do to change that perception of him now. It was set in stone. And frankly, he could not care less about that. The opinions of mere mortals did not bother him in the least. Yes, Jenna was "mere" now. But he knew that if she died or if he actually believed that she had died, that emotion of love would come again, and that it would haunt him.

"Someone is playing games with my existence. What a pathetic life I'm living!"

THE THIRD MINUTE

Frank stood up from the stool. Wayne would be here in two minutes and he would spring to action. Incensed, he said aloud:

"Control me now all you want, you cowardly fool playing games with my head. One day, you'll be dead. I don't know how, but I'll kill you. I'll kill you!"

He resolved that that day would not pass without his getting Jenna to a place where she would be safe. He didn't care what would happen and what Jenna's reaction would be. He would get her to safety. And no man, dead or alive, would stop him.

THE FOURTH MINUTE

Frank fixed his eyes on the compound gate that was 20 metres away from where he stood. Wayne would be out in a minute. Nothing could keep him beyond 5 minutes there. If he did not come out in a minute, that meant that he had fun away, or had informed others. "If that happens," he said to himself, "blood will flow in this street today. I don't suffer mortals gladly!"

Frank removed his eyes from the gate and brought it down his wrist. The red hand had gotten to 6 now— 180°— halfway through the cycle. In thirty seconds, his waiting would be over. It would mean that Wayne was not coming; that he had run away. Frank decided that he was going to storm that compound and forcibly get the information from Eva. He didn't care what would happen because nothing could possibly happen to him. He was undead.

He had decided against going the violent one at initially because he didn't want to kill today. He didn't want to harm anyone. But, if push came to shove, he would have to do it. What was supremely important was he must get Jenna to a safe place, and nothing would stand in his way to get that done. Anyone who dared to stand on his way would be met with beastlike violent.

THE FIFTH MINUTE

"Goddamn! The coward has run away!" Frank said, gritting his teeth. "Well, the human way has not worked. Let me go the beast way."

And then he started walking to the compound. He would get the information from Eva. He would give it to him or she would die!