“Hide inside this deep freezer. Your mummy is coming to beat you with a cane. Don’t come out until I open the door,” Aunty Chidera, the housemaid, whispered to Junior

Chidera fell to her knees, crying, holding the bag of gold up.

“Take it! Take the gold! Take everything! Just let me go!”

The leader of the ritualists kicked the bag away.

“We don’t eat gold here,” he said, sharpening his machete. “We need fresh bl00d.”

Chidera screamed. She remembered Gloria. She remembered Junior.

“I am sorry!” she wailed. “God, I am sorry! I k|ll£d my Madam’s son! Please don’t let me die like this!”

The man raised the machete high.
Chidera closed her eyes, waiting for the end.

VROOOOM!

Suddenly, blinding lights cut through the darkness.

WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!

A Police Patrol Van jumped out of the bush path, sirens blaring.

“POLICE! NO MOVE!”

Gunshots rang out. KPOW! KPOW!

The ritualists dropped their machetes and ran into the thick forest. The driver abandoned his car and fled.

The police officers jumped down, guns ready. They saw Chidera kneeling on the ground, shaking, with the bag of stolen gold beside her.

An officer walked up to her and shone his torch in her face.

“You are lucky, young girl,” he said. “We have been tracking this gang for weeks.”

He looked at the bag. He opened it and saw the gold. He looked back at Chidera.

“But wait… where did a young girl like you get this kind of gold?”

Chidera looked at the officer. She looked at the gold. She looked at the handcuffs on his belt.

She realized she had been saved from death, only to fall into judgment.

*

While Chidera was being handcuffed in the bush, death was knocking at Gloria’s door.

Chief Philip, Gloria’s husband had returned but could not find his wife.

He noticed that the kitchen was strange because it was locked. Gloria never locks the kitchen.

He stood at the kitchen door. He had his key in the keyhole.

GRITY-GRITY.

Inside the kitchen, Gloria squeezed Junior tight, waiting for the explosion.

Philip turned the key.

CLICK.

The lock opened.
But Philip paused. He didn’t push the door.
He sniffed the air near the doorframe.

Sniff. Sniff.

“Gas?”

His eyes widened in horror. He dropped the box of pizza he had bought for his wife.

“GLORIA!” he roared.

He knew that if he pushed that door open, the friction of the hinges or the rush of fresh oxygen mixing with the gas could cause a spark.

He left the door. He ran to the main switchboard outside the house.

PAM.

He killed the electricity. The house went dark. The deep freezer motor died completely. No spark.

He ran back to the kitchen door. He took a deep breath, covered his nose with his shirt, and kicked the door open with one powerful blow.

GBAM!

He rushed into the poisonous fog.
He saw his wife and son slumped on the floor.
“Jesus!”

He grabbed Gloria with one hand and Junior with the other. He dragged them out into the compound, away from the gas

They collapsed on the grass.

“Gloria! Junior! Talk to me!” Philip shouted, shaking them.

Gloria coughed. Cough! Cough!
She took a deep breath of fresh air. “Junior…” she gasped.

Junior coughed too. He started crying.
“Thank you, Jesus,” Philip whispered, tears rolling down his face. “Thank you.”

THE NEXT MORNING – THE POLICE STATION

It was a day of reckoning.
Mrs. Gloria and Junior had been treated at the hospital and discharged. They walked into the police station with Chief Philip.

Behind the counter, sitting on the cold floor of the cell, was Chidera.

When she saw Gloria, she burst into tears.
“Madam! I am sorry! Please forgive me!” Chidera begged, clutching the iron bars.

“It was the devil! I don’t know what came over me!”

The DPO (Divisional Police Officer) placed the bag of gold on the counter.

“We found this with her,” the officer said. “She confessed everything. How she broke your safe. How she locked you inside.”

Philip looked at Chidera with fire in his eyes.

“You ate my food,” Philip said, his voice shaking with anger. “We paid your school fees. We treated you like a daughter. And this is how you pay us? By trying to k!|| my wife and son?”

“I am sorry, Sir! Please don’t send me to prison!” Chidera cried. “I will serve you forever! Just forgive me!”

Gloria looked at Chidera. She looked at the tears.

Then she looked at Junior, who was holding her leg, afraid of “Aunty Chidera.”

Gloria stepped forward.

“I forgive you, Chidera,” Gloria said softly.
Chidera’s eyes lit up. “Thank you, Ma! Thank you!”

“I forgive you,” Gloria continued, “so that God will not hold anger in my heart. But forgiveness does not mean freedom from consequences.”

She turned to the DPO.

“Officer.”

“Yes, Madam.”

“She tried to commit murd£r. She stole millions. Let the law take its full course.”

“NO! MADAM PLEASE!” Chidera screamed as the officers unlocked the cell to take her to the Black Maria van.

“I AM SORRY! JUNIOR TELL YOUR MUMMY TO FORGIVE ME!”

But Junior just looked away.

They dragged her out. The heavy iron door of the prison van slammed shut.

GBAM.

As the van drove away to the maximum security prison, Gloria hugged her husband and her son.

They were alive. They were together. And the evil in their home had been swept away.