SHORT STORY: WHEN WILL IT END BY ABUBAKAR AUWAL

I woke early in the morning, on one of the black Mondays that I had ever witnessed. After taking my lunch and finishing all preparations, I dressed up in my school uniform then my dad took me to school before the assembly started. I stood outside the gate, reading the name of our school on a signboard as I always do.
_____"Integrity high school "_____
I entered the school and walked directly to the school hall where the school assembly was taking place.
The school principal, Mr. Danjuma Sheriff was already on the stage with the school staff and Prefects that lined up according to their posts.
"National Anthem before the count of Three: 1... 2... 3... " the school head girl, Aisha S Tyabo shouted
All the students and teachers stood straight, singing the National Anthem whilst the band boys supported the Anthem stanza with drum beats.
As usual, after the National Anthem and prayers, Mr. Danjuma briefly address the students and teachers. He began by advising and encouraging the students to be hard-working and prayerful. As the principal stood on the stage addressing his students and teachers, some noise of riding bikes and the roaring of guns startled everybody in the assembly hall. A group of teachers and students ran toward the gate to check the commotion. Then one of the shouted, "We’re under attack!"
Everybody was afraid, especially we the females that were more frightened than the males. Before we knew it, the gate was pushed open, and young men in dirty clothes, ran in, holding guns and knives. Everybody ran in found of succor men and women, boys, and girls started shouting. The kidnappers have surrounded everywhere that someone might escape going out of the school.
I stood, looking around for hidden places to hide. Then I noticed a small cottage where I could hide. Quickly, I ran towards the cottage and opened the door. Suddenly, I heard voices behind me. I turned around and saw two girls and a boy.
"Senior Deborah! Deborah!! Senior!!! "
They stood calling my name. I tried to ignore them because I was looking for help too. But then I recalled my pastor saying:
_______"Other people first and yourself last"_______.
I asked them to enter inside and they did so. I search if I could hide there too but no space. I couldn’t remember the description of the place they hid, Is it a cupboard, desk, or bed? Then I warned them to keep quiet until all the scenery are over and they all replied to me with __"Tooo.. "__ which means __"Okay.. "__ and I walked out.
I ran, peeping over our classroom windows for where to hide, when a man dressed in a brown singlet with red eyes and a strange smile stood before me, pointing a gun in my face.
I have never seen them in real except in American movies. When the kidnappers gathered us in one coral we were arranged in two to three lines. Then they direct us to follow straight lines that will take us to the main road of the forest. We started crying helplessly like baby chickens that lost their mother. It was so loud that it echoed into the wind. But Nobody attempted to help us. Even the police and vigilante officers were just running away.
Unexpectedly when we reach a culvert at the back of our school, I heard two voices hiding and challenging each other. The first one was a policeman whilst the other one was a vigilante officer known as Danbanga who was challenging the policeman to help us:
"Officer go and help them, please "
"Me? Why don’t you go and help them too? I think you are also security... "
The policeman asked and Danbanga immediately replied the policeman ;
"Yes, I am also a security person has the government ever paid me a salary? Or have they given me a gun to secure people? "
"Khaay... Mr. Man, I am too young to die ooo...! "
Said the policeman but Danbanga surprisingly questioned him again:
" You are too young to die? What do you mean? ".
"Yes, I am too young to die! Because if I die now, I don’t know how my family would be... Nobody will help them. Even the government would just push them away and throw away their belongings like trash out of the barrack... And even if they went to collect my pension or gratitude for my good deed they won’t give them... Even if they might give them, they must suffer. So just cool your mind because the God that creates all of them is aware and he would never forget the condition they would be into. " The police officer managed to say.
Without hearing what Danbanga could say next, I continue performing random motions with my fellow students and teachers in order of the Kidnappers’ wishes. We walked queued like cattle directed by their farmers. The rest of that day was spent without a rest. Everybody was tired and hungry but nobody slice his life in the name of complaining. Suddenly we heard a noise from afar. Like happy chatters in an unfamiliar language. When we reached them, I realized that we were in the kidnappers' little village.
One by one, we walked past their houses trembling. I noticed that their houses were built with natural clay soil and dried grasses. All were shaped like granaries where villagers store their goods. They lead us inside a big circular place that was been rounded with sticks and tied with ropes.
In the mid-evening, the kingpin of the kidnappers came. He was accompanied by dozens of other kidnappers who look so malnourished. Though the rest a white-skinned but the kingpin named Dogon Yaro is a physically black-skinned man. He watches over us, over and over, and burst into loquacious giggles. Dogon Yaro ordered his men to boys to pull out our clothes and left us naked. They did as he said but only the principal and his deputy were left with their clothes. They bring out their camera making a video coverage of us, using a cane to force us to cry. Those who close their paces in order not to be shown naked were treated until they all give up. This is just for the government to watch over the condition we’re in. After this bad act, they left. Later, some of them came back and start sharing one piece of pure water with each of us without food until later around 08. pm to 09. pm in the night. We slept on the ground naked, with many insect bites which make me like to cry.
The next day after taking a little food and drinking water in many quantities, Kingpin, and his gang came back and video us with their camera, the same as they did the other day. Is there that I learned they posted those videos direct to social media? It was at that point that I remember the condition my Mom and Dad might be in. How are they? /Have they eaten their lunch ?/What condition are they in now? /Do they sleep last night? /My questions were just endless. I silently prayed within my mind and after praying, all my worries were wiped out from my heart as I pushed such thoughts into the departed hole of my mind. I was feeling disheartened and nasty pain but I disgust my feelings and shows my courage.
Unexpectedly, in the night as some of us have already slept and those who haven’t were about to do so; some kidnappers came back. They start picking the females and put them at their back like a mother carrying her baby. One of them came to me. He lift me to his back and took me to his hut. We met nobody inside. Little by little he starts caressing my body, from my shoulders down to my breast as he keeps pressing my bottoms like a loaf of bread. He covers me with kisses and tumbles unto my body in a passionate romance. I tried to run away but I can’t because he holds me tight. Then he cast his clothes aside and gradually lay upon my clothes body and he remove his overalls. He then starts performing sexual activities in my company like the way a lizard usually does frog jumps. It’s a painful but new experience. I screamed out loud but nobody come to help me. The next day, they bring us back to our cage early in the morning. This comes to be their new plan for us to the fact that sometimes they use to come and carry us in the afternoon or mid-evening. It was that way they learned to threaten the females whilst the men were punished with 30 strokes of cane every day with no consideration of age or height.
The first shock came two weeks after leaving home when the kidnappers' kingpin came from our cage.
"Who is Deborah? " Dogon Yaro asked.
Numerous students answered and raised their hands, shouting "Me/yes me/no isn’t you is me/I am the one" The place went crowded with inclusive voices of students claiming the name.
"Shut up" He roared which make everyone freeze down
"Who’s Deborah Williams? " He asked again then I immediately raise my hand and walked toward him. It was at that point he shows me the dead body of my mother.
"Do you know her? " He asked me and I replied
"Yes, is my mother what happened to her? "
"Are you blind? " he shouted. Then he gave me the phone and I saw the deal pic of my mother who died at home because of high blood pressure. I feel really bad as I cried and cried and cried. Our teachers and students felt sorry for me whilst the kingpin reported that we are closer to our graves. This is because the government refused to give them even a Kobo out of the ransom they demanded.
Before I recover from the first shock a few weeks after the death of my mother, my father also died because of a heart attack on his way to the office. Oh, God!! oh, God!! oh, God!!! were just the endless words I kept on reciting. I am now an orphan, I have nobody to secure me nor a person to take care of my life. I neither have a brother nor a sister and I don’t know where my father’s or my mother’s family reside. I prayed for their souls to rest in peace whilst I await my death soon the government won’t pay the kidnappers to bail us. I can say that even if we were bailed out there will be many of us to commit suicide whilst the life of some of us have already gone to where the future couldn’t be unveiled.
When it is ending?

Author’s Biography

Abubakar Auwal is a teen poet, playwright, essayist, storyteller, and also spoken word artist born in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. He is a member of The Poetic Collective (TPC VIII) and a founding member of The Young Nigerlite Spoken Word Artist (TYNSWA_1_). Abubakar’s works have been published or are forthcoming in Teen Lit Journal, Synchronized Chaos magazine, Hello Poetry, LILAC Journal, Poetry.com, Words Rhymes & Rhythm, Art news.com.ng (poetry), Al-fijir MSSN magazine and elsewhere. Furthermore, he is an NDLEA WADA ambassador, former vice president at Hill–Top Drug-Free Club, Sectary General of Muslims Students Society of Nigeria; Hill–Top Model School Branch. And proudly a member of Hill–Top Creative Arts Foundation National Head Quarter Minna and the president of the prestigious Hill-Top Model School Literary, Cultural, Social Sciences and Art Club.

He won the 2021 NYSC CDS Minna Axis Poetry Contest on War against Corruption and the 2022 NYSC CDS Minna Axis Editorial and Publicity Department; Spoken Word Poetry Contest which held in Hill-Top Model School Minna between students. Auwal can be reach on his social media handles through;

@Abusaddiq89 on Twitter

@saddiq700 on Instagram.