My Instagram Love

Episode 23

I shot her a quick glance and smirked, already knowing what she was driving at. “Thank you so much, Tonia, but that wouldn’t be necessary for now.”

“So, in other words, you won’t accept my offer?”
I nodded affirmatively.

“Not even a bite?”
“I’m afraid not.” I declined it politely. “My stomach is full to the brim. Maybe next time.”

She looked sad the moment she heard the words I said, and her sudden silence worsened matters. Antonia simply sighed, covered the pancakes again and placed them back into the nylon, staring out of the window in order to avoid making eye contact with me.
“As a matter of fact, I think I’d really love to have some pancakes.” I said, wearing a genuine smile this time around just to make her happy. There was absolutely no point in giving her the ‘tough guy attitude’ when all she wanted to do was to be a nice, caring lady to me.

The smile on Antonia’s face was indescribable. As she grinned and opened the nylon to remove the pancakes again, a sudden deafening gunshot was what we both heard next and it seemed like everything was starting to slow up as time literally froze right then and there. We had barely even blinked our eyes when we heard another gunshot that sounded like the Lord’s trumpet in Heaven—so loud and powerful that the whole streets soon fell into commotion as several cars started to reverse speedily and pedestrians took to their heels, running helter-skelter in order to save their lives.

“What’s happening?” Antonia’s voice suddenly changed from a sweet and alluring voice to something I couldn’t even recognize at all, due to how frightened she was. “What’s going on out there?”
“I really have no idea!” I said, attempting to reverse my car as well so we could turn back and leave the dangerous environment in time, but before I could even hit the pedals and place my hand on the gear lever, about seven men appeared out of nowhere and surrounded my car—all armed and dressed in black outfits.

“Step out of the car.” One of them said, glaring at me. I looked at Tonia’s face and she nodded fearfully for me to obey him, but I didn’t do it.

“Are you both deaf?” Another one who stood close to Tonia’s side of the window yelled at us, and I could’ve sworn I saw Antonia’s heart jump out of her chest because of nothing but immense fear. I was scared too, but I wasn’t willing to give in easily, even if it would cost me my last drop of blood.

When they noticed no positive action from me, they all shared knowing glances between each other, cocked their pistols and tried to open the doors forcefully, but their efforts were all to no avail. The glasses were closed and the doors were securely shut just the way I wanted them to be. There was no way for them to get in unless I opened it from inside. Or so I thought.

“Are you nuts?” The first guy who had ordered us to get down was the one speaking again. “Are you mad? Do we look like clowns to you people?”

“Or maybe they think there are no bullets in these guns.” Another man added, pointing his pistol to the sky. All it took was one pull of the trigger for him to convince me that I was basically toying with death.

Antonia was trembling already, pulling my right hand and begging me in hushed whispers. “Tundechukwu please, let’s obey them. Open the doors!”
“No! I won’t.” I disagreed. “They can’t do us any harm in here. Stay strong!”
“But they’ll kill us if they find a way in!” Antonia yelled at me, slapping my shoulder out of frustration. “I don’t want to die like this! Do something reasonable.”
“Are you both mad?” The man was gradually losing his temper as he b@nged his elbow against the car’s window. “Open this door now before I count from one to three, or else!”

“Or else what?” I shot back at him, frowning my face. “What will you do?”

My words seemed to piss him off completely. The next thing I knew, he and the others stepped back a bit from the car until they had obtained some distance that was safe enough for them to shoot at my glasses.
“One…”

At first, I assumed he was joking about doing something insane, but I never thought he would actually keep to his word! I thought they were all making empty threats until they started aiming at my car’s windows. This time around, Antonia lost her cool. She pinched me, bit me on the shoulder and scratched my face like a psychopath while begging me to let her out of the car, but I paid deaf ears to everything she was saying and I ignored everything she was doing because she wasn’t in her right state of mind. She wasn’t seeing things from my perspective at all, so I couldn’t argue with her or open the door for her to leave because it would surely affect me if I did so. Instead, I tolerated her attitude as I contemplated on what to do about the issue at hand.

Should I just give up—just like that? I shook my head, confused.
“Two…”

This wasn’t going to end too well if he finally counted up to three. I knew that for sure! I remembered a particular adage which says: “A word to the wise is enough.”
I also recalled another adage which emphasizes on taking precautions against bad situations. The saying goes this way: “Forewarned is forearmed.”