Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 40

Episode 5 years ago

Tarasha - Season 1 - Episode 40

She clenched her fists and opened her eyes, it
was bloodshot. A phone call distracted her.
‘Good morning Miss Evelyn’ came Jubril Lawal’s
cheerful voice.

‘Good morning sir’ Tarasha managed to sound
calm.

‘How are you?’ Jubril asked.
‘I’m fine sir, how about you?’
‘I’m doing great Miss. I spoke with your father
this morning and we had a pleasant
conversation. I’ll like for us to meet and conclude the deal terms’


‘Oh! Okay. When can I come to meet with you?’


‘Let’s make it tomorrow morning, 9am prompt’


‘That’s okay sir’
‘Good, we’ll see tomorrow. Take care’
‘You too.’ With that the line went off.
Tarasha got up and wiped off the sweat forming
on her forehead. She began to take off her
ruffled gown slowly. Henry’s calm voice sounded in her head again.


** Flashback**
~~ December 20, 2020 ~~
‘Tarasha, Tarasha’ A voice sounded in whispers through the window. Tarasha’s eyes popped open, it was Marvin calling her.
She rolled down from the hardwood quietly and
buckled her bra well. She sniffed and began to
tiptoe carefully in a bid not to wake the other
occupants of the room.

She shivered as the door creaked while she tried
to open it. She turned to see if anyone was
woken by the noise but no was awake, only a
few itchings and turns, she proceeded outside
slowly, careful not to make any other sound.
Marvin had turned from the window side to the
door.

‘Come’ she grabbed Marvin’s hand and they ran behind the lodge to a hidden place.
‘Tara’ Marvin who was bare chested and was
covered with a torn towel-like material called her
name softly.


‘Yes?’ Tarasha urged him, already getting
impatient, staring around from time to time to
see if anyone was coming.
‘Tarasha’ he called again.


Tarasha stopped to stare into his eyes. He never
called her full name except that was something
really very serious. ‘What happened?’
‘I’ve come to say goodbye to you’ Marvin began.


‘I may not have the opportunity to say it
anymore’

‘What? Goodbye? Where are you going to?’
Tarasha bombarded him with questions.
‘I’m not going anywhere. I may die tomorrow’ He said in a sad tone. ‘I overheard our Tent Lord saying that there would be a zonal bloodbath tomorrow and they plan to eliminate fifteen weak ones’


Tara stretched out her hand and touched his
face. ‘Fifteen weak ones? But that has nothing to do with you, with us’


‘Tarasha’ he removed her hand from his face.
‘Let us be real, don’t let us pretend as if I’m
strong’

‘You’re strong Marvin, you can scale through’

‘No, I’m not strong’ Marvin argued. ‘We all know that I only managed to escape death the last time. Now it’s here’ Marvin said as he turned his back on Tarasha.


‘No, you won the battle, you didn’t manage’
Tarasha turned back his body to face her. ‘And
you are stronger now’

Marvin stared into the darkness for a moment,
tears formed in his eyes. ‘Tara, I’m not scared to die.

I’m scared of leaving you. Ain’t we even
dead already. I think it’s better we die before
these people finally turn us to animals who kill
without thinking’


‘Don’t we kill without thinking already?’ Tarasha asked him.

‘I kill on orders and I feel remorse for every time I had to do it’ a tear dropped off his eyes as he spoke. ‘But the Nefary clan is not comfortable with that, they are taking us to the level of killing without feeling any remorse. Imagine, they made you kill your friend, the cook.’


Tarasha sighed and turned away. ‘I had no
choice, I had to do that. He was already changed
into a beast too’


‘I know but they’re going to make us do more. I heard that they do send some inmates to
murder their families’

‘Do we have families?’ Tarasha turned suddenly to ask him.

Marvin was about to answer her when they
heard a noise coming towards their direction.
‘We have to go now’ Marvin’s eyes shone in panic as he peeped to see who was coming. He quickly grabbed Tarasha’s hand and they hurriedly tiptoed away.



* Next day
Tarasha could hear the loud chants of male as
thirty of them girls were led into the “Hardness
hall”. The boys were already been lectured in the hall.

The hall was a very large one, it was made of
thick brick high walls. It had no widows in it but
was unroofed. The floor was made of natural
rock, hard, cold during evening and early
mornings but hot in the afternoon.

‘Love is a sin committed by weak people and it
makes them weaker. Any object of love that is
found beside you has to be eliminated’ the voice in the thick Russian accent continued to shout.

‘The day you start to love someone is the day
you start to die’

Tarasha could spot Marvin where he stood,
blindfolded. He was number two on the line in
his group. That meant that he was the second
person to battle. Tarasha looked around trying to
locate Marvin’s likely contender but before she
could, the tent lord had already returned to
blindfold her and the other girls. The girls were
later arranged on two line but none of them
knew their position on the line.

The battle was to take place in a cage and the
enemy was not known until they got into the
cage.

The first battle began and the first two fighters
were sent in. Shouts and groans were what
notified the other young assassins that the battle
had begun.

After about ten minutes, the first battle ended
and a winner with a bruised face emerged. Then
the first set of girl fighters were sent into the
cage. After another ten minutes, another winner
emerged.

Then it was Marvin’s turn. Tarasha knew it, she
had seen him stand in the second position on
the line. But she didn’t know his contender until
she felt a hand on her shoulder. She was then
dragged and pushed into another section. Her
blindfold was taken off and she found herself in
the cage with Marvin. Several fighting weapons
la!d on the floor for their use. The bell rang for
the battle to begin.

The lovers stared at each other for a while
without making any move. The whole hall
became as silent as a graveyard.

‘Come on, attack’ Vladimir, the zone lord
shouted angrily.

Tarasha just couldn’t move. Just few months
ago, she had been made to slaughter a dear
friend of hers, Stanley Bob. Now she was being
asked to fight Marvin whom she loved.
She sniffed and rubbed her nose with the back
of her hand. ‘Love is for the weak ones, the
stupid ones without a strong heart. Kill him
before he kills you’ she could hear a voice say
to her.

‘No, don’t kill him. If you do, you’ll be totally
losing your good heart’ another voice argued.
‘Who needs a good heart?’ The first voice
laughed. ‘It would only make one become a
fool who can be manipulated by feelings’
‘There’s nothing wrong in letting good feelings take control over you’ the good voice began but was interrupted.

‘Shut up! Remember who you are, nothing
should take control over you. You were made
to kill and nothing should stop you from killing.
Nothing including love or any feeling you have’
Tarasha was awoken to reality when she heard
a clang sound, Marvin had picked up a sword.
It seemed he had finally made up his mind on
what to do.

Tarasha picked up a sword too and positioned
herself for the fight. The duo began to move in
a circle, each one trying to set a trap for the
other.

Marvin was the first to strike, his sword went
in direction of Tarasha’s forehead but was
stopped by her sword. The battle continued
and the murmurings among the other trainees
increased as the sound of continued clanging of
swords filled the air.


After about four minutes of the sword battle.
The two warriors spaced themselves. Both of
them already had sweat dripping from their
body. Marvin threw his sword away and
clenched his fists. Tarasha understood the
message and dropped her sword too. It was
time for a battle without weapons. They moved
close to each other.


Marvin sent a blow to her but she ducked
down and he missed her face. She stepped
aside without returning his attack. They stared
into each other’s eyes as they vibrated their
bodies from side to side, moving in a circle.
Marvin launched the same attack again and
Tarasha ducked again but this time sent a
heavy blow into his belly. He winced as he
grabbed his belly and staggered forward.
He recovered quickly and stood straight again.
He stared again into Tarasha’s eyes, she
seemed to be less interested in the battle. He
remembered saying to her that he wasn’t
afraid of death, but he really was. Now, he
was desperate to live even if it meant taking
her life.


Marvin was an handsome boy, two year older
than Tarasha. He stayed with his parents in
Ghana until the day he was kidnapped
alongside with four other boys and brought to
the clan. The reason for his kidnap was not
known to him until he spent two months in the
clan.


Marvin was a soft person in nature but the
four other boys which he walked and played
with were bullies. Due to their big stature and
strength, they maltreated everyone they could.
Marvin was close to them because of one the
leader of the boys happened to be his next-
door neighbor. The kidnappers had observed
the boys’ cruelty for sometime and concluded
that they had the tendency to become great
assassins. Marvin was only unlucky to be with
the bullies on the fateful day.


Back to the battle. Marvin carefully observed
where Tarasha was standing, the weapons
were out of her reach. He seized the
opportunity and he picked up his sword again.
He smiled at her wickedly as she looked at him
in surprise. Maybe she thought her love was
still in his head, he thought. But this was a
matter of death or life, he still wanted to live
for some more years and probably get out of
the Nefary City alive. He shouted on top of his
voice as he raced towards her, targeting her
belly.

Tarasha was scared and undecided for a
second but the adrenalin rush in her body
made her react. She turned back immediately
and made a short run to the wall where she
took three steps on and projected herself over
the attackers head, she landed at his back and
he almost fell as a result.


A blow hit Marvin’s face before he turned to
her with the sword. Another hit his jaw when
he tried to raise up the sword, it fell from his
hand. Tarasha continued to deal him more
blows on his face until he was bleeding
profusely. He was too weak to defend himself.
She held his neck and tightened her grip on it
until he was he was out of breath. She was
breathing heavily as she let his body fall to the
ground. She stared at him on the floor for
some seconds, murmuring inaudible words to
herself.


‘Bring his head’ someone shouted as she
turned, reminding her that her job wasn’t
completed until she presented his head as her
trophy. She motioned towards where the sword
was and picked it up. Then she went back to
Marvin and detached his head in few seconds.