Fiends

By Keu Dinku

Was my troubled head to be the frequent theater of horrors for a malicious being?
The absurdity of it all went clean through me like a draft emanating from the beating wings of Lucifer.
In response I laughed out aloud. An insane chuckle that burrowed into the night with demonic urgency.
My lament was purely comical. I was shaking my fist at the skies, imploring a deaf deity to dance to my song. "How so you fool?" I queried myself laughing some more.
By the end of it, I was in a mood to receive more outlandish transmissions. Rot, vultures, open sewers, crucified thief's beside Christ, Delilah's frightful kiss... I was open for any message. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Keu Dinku
• Release date: Jan 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224535545

Book preview

Chapter 1.

My thoughts were frantic monkeys breaking out of a zoo, they scattered in various directions chained to logic too complicated for me to perceive. I attended the funeral of friends still alive and breathing, I lounged on the surface of Mars  reminiscing of earth.

It was chaos in my head and I loved every bit of it. Mind high off this state, even if my father summoned me to his deathbed, he would have to wait ! But my son am dying he would plead and I would laugh the Hyena's laugh as I replied Die old man and abandon life for the living . He wouldn't understand me and I wouldn't care.

I didn't mind those who emphasized about living in the moment. I would never experience Paris nor Rome unless the devil himself carried me there on his dark wings, why then shouldn't I teleport by thought? The mind was capable of taking one absolutely anywhere.

You didn't necessarily need drugs but imagine a wild imagination topped off by a hallucinogen! It was infinite power. I jerked about trying to avoid a phantom arrow aimed at me and disloged sleeping July from my chest.  She stirred from the abyss really pissed. Sleep was a dose of death at the right bloody frequency. What's wrong with you ? She spat in protest. Just because you think my chest is your pillow doesn't mean I have to act like one! I fired back.

She rose to go to the toilet and the stench of my shit punched her smack  in the face as she cracked the  door. She turned back banging it closed immediately. I smiled diabolically as she retreated from it.

why don't you spray air freshener when you're done with the washroom ? She asked annoyed.

That's humanities fragrance you want me to mask I blurted out without delay.

She flung open all the windows and stood outside. The smell flooded the house and tried to choke me but found a man not immune to it but one with it.

––––––––

I lay on the bed quite at peace save for the fact that it was only twenty minutes to my first class of the day. I was in no mood and shape to drink from the fountain of knowledge today. The lecturer in charge was a bore beyond measure. Well it's education and not entertainment that inner persecutor reminde me.

That lecturer always droned on with the steadiness of a faithful old camel  and halted abruptly to look at his audience, at this juncture,  the daydreamers  and slumbering fellas  would be pulled back into his universe. It was a pause that sucked in darkness in itself, however as soon as he resumed our minds would soar once again,free beautiful helium filled balloons.

Lord knows I had drawn my most beautiful pieces of art during his lectures. Some artists loved to put the paint brush to canvass with classical musical in the background, for me mr kiarie's voice served just fine.

Babe are we going in for that lesson ? Julie inquired from  outside.

Depends if josto is going

josto was a classmate of ours. We had a special arrangement where we wouldn't both ever miss a lesson. If one simply wasn't in the mood, the other had to attend. Julie and I though attended and missed classes together , Bonnie and Clyde stupid type of way.

I called josto's phone and it just rang four times without reply. The bastard was probably hang overed considering it was a Monday. Never let the looming week make you blind to the fact that Sunday is a part of the weekend if you ever heard him say this on a Friday,it meant a drinking spree that stretched from Friday evening to late night Sunday or even early monday morning.

On such occasions, Mondays simply didn't exist for my royal friend. To class it was then. Julie would be beside me taking notes as I let roam the Picasso in me . I never outrightly started sketching at the start of the class, no! I kicked off with a self deceiving manoeuver.

I would pretend to be interested in mr  kiarie's words, then a few sentences in I would raise my hands in defeat.  I had tried my best but the currents were too strong.

Julie's attention would at times wander too and it would be my duty to lead her back to shore before I drifted back to la la Land myself . It wasn't a scenario I would have imagined before joining campus but one had to survive one way or another.

In the middle of the lecture who almost breaks down the door rushing in if not my buddy josto . He spots me and frowns. He's disheveled from head to toe. He drags a chair noisily towards me and Mr kiarie drones on none the less disturbed.

If I'd known you were attending this class I'd be drunk and with a whore right now he croaked, settling beside me.

You're already drunk I observed gazing at his flaming red eyes, to which he simply smiled.

He merely glanced at Julie sitted on my right and she shot a hateful look at him in response. They both hated each other's guts. I had long given up trying to make them see eye to eye. Julie swore josto wasn't good for me and josto too thought Julie was bad news for me. I trusted neithers judgement.

Chapter 2.

I stirred from my sleep quite radarless. I had no inkling about time and space. Were the birds singing outside ? I wasn't sure because there was a humming in my ears that wouldn't go away. Julie was nowhere in sight either. I pulled the curtains back to reveal a night sky heavily adorned with it's precious jewelry.

It was 12 am and something about the time made me not want to be alone. Josto lived nearby and I could bet my soul he was awake, what he was up doing was a wild guess though.

Aaah .. silence, serenity, cold breeze  ..this were among the many reasons I picked the night over day. The moon provided light lovingly unlike the sun that burned with a fury when it was midday.

Josto had his curtain poorly drawn and I could see him inside. He had the lights off and the only illumination was from the television.

––––––––

He sat there on his couch  bug eyed, really focused on whatever he was watching.

––––––––

Then all of a sudden a lone tear trickled from his left eye. Seconds later, his right eye  followed suit. I was completely stunned, the air punched out of me by this display of emotion. The light from the TV set made him look like a primitive animal caught in the headlights. Had something onscreen unearthed a past trauma or was he simply running from something in the present.

A certain degree of sadness demanded company but this melancholy fog about him needed solitude, that's the way I saw it, or maybe I was just scared.

What would I say to him if I were to intrude? Would I be able to help in any way?  We had always shared our joys whilst dealing with our sorrows privately.

I felt like a trespasser even though he hadn't yet noticed my presence at the window.  I decided to stick around in the shadows, just in case he had a mind to do something stupid.

An abrupt laughter took hold of him and I was jolted violently, had he gone mad? Apparently no, he simply had been amused by something on the television and a smile persisted on his face even with the wet tear tracks still present on his cheeks.

––––––––

I hastily left the place, unable to make head or tail of what I had seen. It was  two weeks later before I saw the poor fella again. I had before that started to worry that perhaps he had done away with himself in a secret location, never to be found.

Where have you been ? I asked him right away, he just gave me a fiendish grin as if he had been on the road doing the devil's bidding.

Just here and there he answered not ready to divulge anything.

Chapter 3.

It was a crucial cat and josto was high as a kite. We only had ten minutes and he was dragging me to the chemist for who knows what .

Do eye drops really work ? He whispered to the chemist attendant who had to cup his ears.

What ? He enquired puzzled.

When you're high, mingling with the gods and your eyes are  redder than a baboons ass this was his idea of explaining further. The attendant just shrugged and went back to scrolling on his iPhone.

Josto unperturbed, moved off to the shelf's in the