THE ROBBERY - A real life experience

IT WAS LIKE ANY OTHER DAY, I was in my final year in the University and like any other individual in their final year I had a lot of pressure from my project, need to graduate with my class and the euphoria of life after school all came flooding into my daily routine. I 

Anyway back to that day, I hadn’t been feeling too well as I was overly stressed from the final year week activities which had just ended the weekend before plus exams were in a few days. I was home resting when Fred came over at noon, we had been friends for a little over 2 months and he had been awesome. Checking up on me when necessary and calling my phone out and do not over think it, we were just friends or should I say we are just friends considering this is over a year later and we constantly keep in touch. Where was I? Oh yes Fred came over and I complained to him that I needed to go grocery shopping as my house was empty and exams were in a few days but I was too exhausted to go alone. He offered to take me and off we went.

Fast forward to about 2 hours later with grocery shopping done, Fred and I were back home chilling then the evening weather changed as though it wanted to rain so we said our goodbyes and he left. Note that this was the first time he was coming to my house, we always met at public places for reasons best known to me. 😃

Ice Cream: The Environmental Hazard

After Fred left, I started studying then I think I slept off because the next time I woke up it was night already and I could hear one of the musketeers screaming my name. I jumped up out of worry and opened the door for her because I sensed fear in her voice. She had worry written all over her face, apparently she had called me over ten times and there was no response so she packed her bag and came over (to be sure I wasn’t dead)... She’d also come with food stuff to help with cooking. Oh my was I grateful. I mean, being ill and studying is frustrating enough not to talk of being ill, cooking meals and studying. She made dinner, we ate and we began studying together. Suddenly there was this pungent odour coming in through the window and my friend started asking, if the guys (my neighbors) had gone to play soccer as the odour had to be coming from a guy probably using the tap at the back of my window. I recalled that my neighbors who were all guys had earlier gone to play soccer so we took our minds off it.

Anyway a few minutes to 10pm we heard the dustbin being trashed, and I said out loud “this staff quarters dog has resumed duty, today I’ll kill you ooo”. My usual empty threat. The dog had this bad habit of coming to scatter the trash at night and leaving work for me in the morning. My friend and I just laughed it off and continued studying. Say five minutes later, my friend said she needed to use the restroom which was located outside, still within the fenced compound, but she was scared of going outside because she has a phobia for dogs. So she asked if she could use my pee bucket inside and I refused because I only used that when it was really late at night and I reminded her that we walk back home from class as late as 3am so no big deal. She asked that I go with her, I jokingly told her to pick up a knife since she was scared of dogs, and I too playfully picked up another knife (as per musketeer)and care freely strutted outside behind her while putting a call through to Fred.

Next thing I heard was “Debbie there is a man at the gate” my friend ran backwards bumping into me with her knife falling off her hand. I looked up and saw the guy making a dash towards us, I quickly pushed her into the balcony and tried to lock the protector but dude was too fast or I was too slow to register the impending danger. So we dashed into the room and I managed to bolt the door but could not lock my net door which was in front of it.

From my window I looked out and asked the man who he was and what he wanted as I couldn’t recognize his face. He smiled and said “why are you guys running now? Relax I’m just moving around” so I thought he might be one of the guys’ friends and so I relaxed a bit while telling him that he scared us o . He laughed it off and then said “I am security, open the door we are doing routine check” he said. Routine check? We’ve never had such. As he moved away, I literally saw his eyes turn blood shot red as though possessed by a demon and ready to make a kill. All in a second he turned off the central security light in the compound. It registered in my head that he’s not a friend of my neighbors. I refused to open the door as he requested and threw myself against it; my friend joined me to put more weight on the door. He came for the door and kicked hard, and boom the door popped open even with the weight of two people on it. He walked in as though he owned the house and immediately my friend started screaming “Jesus, Jesus, mummy oo“ and lay on the floor while I immediately pulled my knife on him and thrust it at his stomach. He immediately pulled out a gun (I have no clue if it was real or not but I wasn’t willing to let the idiot steal from me that easy) and said to “me drop the knife and lie down or I’ll kill you”. I honestly have no idea where my courage sprung from that night considering I was ill. I refused to drop my knife, calculating how fast I could stab him with the knife and run out to scream for help, but then I remembered my friend lying down on the floor and I thought what if he shot her as I stabbed him or shot me instead would it be worth it? So I looked at him straight in the eye and dropped the knife and went to sit on the bed. He kept saying “lie down and look away”. I could not be bothered I just sat and watched him ransack my room. My friend tried to nudge me to lie down but I would not budge while I watched uncle scatter everywhere looking things for things to steal. He took my iPad, my friend’s phone, money in my purse and was making to leave when my phone rang underneath me! I was mad! Who is that one calling ehn? I assumed Fred! He must have been panicking after he heard the shout before I dropped the call earlier.

He asked me to give him the phone and I bluntly refused , I said “you can’t have all I own, I’m not giving you” he pulled the gun out again, so I thought again “is this worth dying for “? So I handed it over to him. I never knew for sure if it was Fred who called and I will never know as uncle walked out of my house and locked the protector behind him and took the keys .... If you’re wondering were all my macho neighbors were, well you guessed right they had all conveniently gone for night class. You could call it coincidence or whatever, but the truth is that we will never know why they were unavoidably absent. I thought I was over this event, but as I am writing a certain faint fear resounds in my mind as the day seems so fresh in my memory like it was last week, when actually it was almost 2 years ago ....