Jade, 22 years old, was the first born of the successful entrepreneur, Demilade Adenusi, who made his wealth during the bloom of self driving cars, and Ireti Adenusi, a successful digital artist.
He had 2 brothers and 1 sister; he was a successful communications engineer, he worked in a research company owned by the American military and had been given citizenship in the country for his great contributions to the research he was involved in.
His direct younger brother, Tokunbo was an even greater success in the music industry, while the third born, Adeolu, worked with their father ever since he graduated from the university. The last born, Bola, was the only female child and was a student of Engineering in Harvard.
Life was good for the Adenusis, but it wasn’t perfect as their father had developed cancer and the family was going to have to say goodbye to him. The family had come to their home in Lagos for Christmas.
December 20, 2076. “Bola, are you sure you’re even studying, all the pictures I see on your instagram are from parties. I know how pretty girls get free access to clubs and parties and I know it is a major distraction” Tokunbo said to Bola who responded “Do you expect me to post pictures of myself studying on my Instagram? And I’m not going to take criticism from someone whose job is to go to parties and clubs” with sass and an argument ensued between the two of them as the rest of the family watched with various expressions at the dinner table.
Jade watched with amusement, Demilade with weariness, Ireti with a bit of worry and Adeolu with nonchalance.
Jade looked very different from how he was in prison, his hair was well kept, he was lanky and he lacked the murderous vibe he had in the prison. He watched in amusement as the argument progressed with Tokunbo on the losing side.
It was in this atmosphere that their door was broken down with a kick, they all looked toward the entrance of the sitting room as masked and armed men entered the house. They all froze in fear not knowing what to do.
One of the men said upon spotting them, “ALL OF YOU ON THE FLOOR NOW” he said in a loud voice, the family members quickly did as he said. His men used the ropes they brought to tie their hands and feet.
The family members were expecting to be asked for their ATM cards and their pins but the 11 armed men remained silent. Jade noticed from the corner of his vision that most of the men were looking at Bola, he had heard what happens when these armed robbers robbed houses; they almost always end up raping someone, these guys never had morals, with the way their looking at Bola it was going to be her.
He started shaking on the verge of tears; he always loved his sister’s beauty but now he hated it, wishing she were ugly. He thought ‘Why is this happening? What are the estate guards and police doing?’
The leader of the men told some of his men “Bring her and follow me…” he said pointing to Bola “the rest of you watch them” he said before heading toward a guest room on the ground floor.
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4 of his men followed him and one of them pulled Bola. Bola started crying and trying to resist as they pulled her by her legs, the man pulling her stopped pulling and proceeded to slap and punch her so violently that one might assume she had hurt him in the past, causing her face to bleed and she lost her resistance.
They weren’t gagged for a simple reason; they lived in an estate, so for the robbers to gain access to their house that meant that the whole estate was under attack hence their neighbors were probably experiencing the same situation.
The leader and his men entered the room and closed the door, after some seconds the family heard various disturbing sounds; Bola’s pained screams and pleas, accompanied by the sounds of belts hitting her and the men’s angry commanding her to ‘Shut up’ as they raped her.
Jade was already crying; experiencing it was way worse than imagining it when someone told you about it. Tokunbo was not crying but he was vibrating in anger, he thought that he would be able to endure this ordeal but after hearing his sister’s cries for help he snapped.
He violently struggled to stand up amid the restraints, the men who were watching them immediately grew happy as they anticipated beating Tokunbo up. Demilade, their father hurriedly said to “TOKUNBO DON’T FIGHT THEM, THEY WILL KILL YOU, THERE IS NOTHING WE CAN DO” he shouted, but it was too late. Tokunbo’s courage had inspired his brothers, Jade and Adeolu, and their mother as they also began trying to stand up.
The robbers cracked their fists and approached them as they stood up, while Demilade begged them to show mercy. Their attempt to save their sister was punished with an intense beating; the robbers hit them with their gun, fist and knees with so much violence, one would assume the robbers had a vendetta against them.
13 minutes of constant beat up passed before the last of the family member, Adeolu, fell to the floor too beaten to stand like the rest of them. They were all bleeding and bruised some of their bones were broken and they were spent; their attempts were a failure.
At this point the sounds of their sister screaming had stopped completely. One of the men that was watching them took a leave and went to the room were the other robbers were after some minutes he came back with the leader, the men that followed him and a broken Bola, her eyes were filled with tears but they were also lifeless as she had lost all hope.
The robbers put Bola on the floor and the men that were tasked with watching the family began to take their turns with her as she silently shed tears. The weakness that Jade felt from the beating did not suddenly go away at this sight as the beating was very thorough, the same could be said of his family members who tried to resist.
Demilade struggled to get up; he could endure the sounds but he couldn’t bare the sight, his logic died the moment he saw his daughter’s eyes, but he was beaten up by the robbers all the same.
When the robbers were done raping Bola, the leader made her kneel down and face her beaten up family, took a knife from under his coat while two of his men held Bola’s arms and legs down and he held Bola’s head and slowly slit her throat before the rest of the family members.
The pain of the cut was very intense and Bola struggled to free herself but the men holding her didn’t let up. After slitting her throat the men still held her down and let her bleed out in pain, her death was not peaceful at all she still had a pained expression when she was dead.
Jade was filled with despair, but the despair was a drop in the sea of hatred he had towards the robbers, he thought ‘Do they not want our money?! They didn’t even ask for it throughout their time here, did they have to do this to us?! If killing us was their goal they didn’t have to do all this!’ at this moment he wouldn’t have minded destroying the world in order to kill these robbers.
The leader did the same for the other family members; he slowly slit their throat and let them bleed out in pain starting from his father to his mother to Tokunbo and Adeolu.
When it was his turn the leader said “Don’t kill him, he is an American, if you kill him they will investigate”. The robbers then left the house.