Somewhere, 987Blackwheel wasn’t sure of what to say when Alberto told him that a young maiden who he loved was about to get married. There was obviously something going on in Alberto's mind that he couldn't figure out. Before the wedding began, the young maiden came close to them and told Alberto of her decision to avoid him."I am going to get married," she said. "And I won't be seeing you any longer.""Is there anything you want us to do for your marriage?" Alberto asked."Yes!" The young maiden replied. "I want both of you to kill some animals with your sword." 

Pennsylvania, 2020Maria saw what she was looking for as she stepped out from the prison gate. With the clothes she used to enter prison back on her body, she felt a certain reassurance that she was innocent, that she was free. Through the scattered people surrounding the prison, she found joy as she noticed Uju and Abby standing close to a man she didn't see during all the visits she encountered in prison.Uju apparently saw it too in her eyes. From the movements of Maria's hands, she felt the tension that was rising in her."Calm down," Uju whispered as Maria approached her. "How was your time in prison?""I don't want to talk about it," Maria said. "It was a terrible time where I had to tolerate real criminals messing around with me.""Real criminals?" Abby laughed.Maria loosened her grip on Uju's shoulders and backed Abby. "Who is the young man standing beside Abby?" She asked."The young handsome man?" Uju raised her voice.

Pennsylvania, 2020Everywhere was cold when Bessie arrived with Maria. They pulled their coats and dusted their feet on the floor, removing the little snowflakes that had gotten attached to their feet. It was December and almost three months now since Maria was granted her freedom which she thoroughly deserved because she was innocent in the murder of her student, John. "How are you doing?" Maria said to Clark.Clark raised his head and smiled. He was making a cup of coffee with his eyes focused on the television. There was a popular show going on that he loved to watch despite the situation surrounding them."I am slowly coming along," He said. "What about you? How did your trip with Bessie go? Did you see where my friend, Michael, used to live when he was still alive?""Yes, I did!" Maria said with delight. "I am truly sorry for your loss. From what the folks who live there said about him, I am definitely sure he was a good man when he was

Madrid, 2020Betrayals were tiny voluminous black insects that Blackwheel had gotten used to seeing around. They stuck at him with a quick glare while waiting for the appropriate time to bite. The void he felt within him pressed down like a starless night, and all he could do as he felt the emptiness spread out around his body like a desolate retarded parasite was to embrace it. He embraced every sense of pain he could feel and made them a part of him. He embraced every sense of friendship he had lost and made them his past. He embraced every sense of hope he felt within him and turned it into his future. It was the second night in a row when he had woken up from a terrible nightmare with the image of Alberto stretching across his mind. He could see Alberto's face in an innocent light, staring widely at the Pacific Ocean as if he would take a dive once the opportunity presented itself to him.Perfecto!And then, in a flash, Alberto was gone like the thick wind c

 Owerri, 2020Ifenna fanned through the pages quickly as he searched for the missing necklace his friend had told him about. Over seven hundred in all and yet, he was unable to make sense of it. The author of the book he was looking at must have been a busy man throughout his career and the entries he had apparently written were joined together in no chronologically order, one by one, they all told stories of different civilization that had been buried during mankind's quest for power.As Ifenna stared at the book again, feeling confused and tired, another disheartening thought occurred to him. It was one of the pages of the book that had been written with the title of a man who shared the surname with a woman he met about two years ago. The title of the page he was looking at was written in bold capital letters.JAMES BLACKWHEELHe attempted to look deeper when his partner, Kainene entered his room and t