THE TEACHER (6)
VENGEANCE’S CHALICE
Obafemi Awolowo University
Ile-Ife, Osun State
2015
He heard the frantic shout before he saw the panic stricken face of Dare, the second year Mass Communication student that squatted with his friend in the room next door.
“Tomi! Tomi!! Come out! They’ve shot someone near Moremi! Someone there said it is your cousin.”
Tomide bolted from his room, heart slamming against his ribs before his feet even hit the corridor. The words hit like a slap. He didn’t ask questions. He ran.
Students scattered as he sprinted past the quadrangle and down the familiar paths toward Moremi Hall. His breath came in ragged gasps, slippers slapping hard against the ground.
He reached Moremi Hall in no time. The low rise rectangular two storey building, elegant despite poor maintenance, stood as the scene of horror. A small crowd had gathered at the steps, phones out, voices murmuring in shock. In the middle of it all, his cousin who had just come to see his girlfriend after writing his final exams, lay slumped against the concrete floor, blood pooling dark beneath him and soaking his white shirt. Tomide dropped to his knees, sliding in the warm blood as he pulled his cousin into his arms.
“No, no, no! Open your eyes, open your eyes bro!”
His cousin’s eyelids fluttered open.
“Tomi, they got me.” He groaned and grabbed at the stab wound in his side. “It’s really painful. Please don’t let me die, Tomide. What will Mummy do? Please…”
Tomide’s world narrowed to the fading pulse under his fingers. Panic clawed up his throat. He screamed at the frozen onlookers that gathered around them.
“Somebody help! He is bleeding, help me! Can you please help me?”
He pressed his hands hard against the wound, blood seeping between his fingers.
“Stay awake, Look at me. Stay with me, okay? Help is coming. Just stay awake.”
“I’m sleepy, Tomide,” his cousin whispered, voice weak and slurred. “And thirsty…I am so thirsty, man.”
“No! Keep your eyes open!” Tomide shook him gently, voice cracking. “Don’t close them. Stay awake!”
Strong hands eventually pulled them apart, fellow students and a porter who had finally arrived. They lifted his cousin into the backseat of a rickety Toyota and rushed him toward the school clinic. Tomide squeezed into the car with the other occupants, never letting go of his cousin’s cold hand.
At the clinic, they wheeled Seyi behind closed doors. Tomide was left in the dimly lit waiting area, blood still staining his clothes. He paced, then sank onto a plastic chair, head in his hands.
“God,” he whispered, voice trembling. “Please. Spare him. Don’t take him too. It’s been four years since Mummy… I begged You didn’t answer. I am begging You now. Don’t let him die.”
As the minutes stretched into an eternity, memories flooded back unbidden.
“They’re not a cult, Tomide. It’s a fraternity. Brotherhood. Protection. Connections. You know how hard it is out here after school.”
Tomide had leaned back against the pillar, jaw tight. “I’ve heard the stories, Blood oaths. Night clashes. People dropped all over campus. You think they hand out protection like pure water sachets?”
His cousin had laughed. “Please relax. It’s just campus politics. Come with me if you’re worried. We will meet them together.”
Now, sitting in the clinic with blood drying on his hands, regret burned like acid in his chest and revenge coiled into focused purpose, mapping every name, face and weakness.
The doctor finally emerged, face grim. He gestured at Tomide.
“His brother, right?”
Tomide began to say ‘cousin,” but nodded instead, his stomach already heaving.
“I am sorry but he didn’t make it.”
Tomide stared, the world tilting. He lowered his face into his hands and groaned.
“God why? Why?”
His voice cracked and he collapsed to the ground and sat there in absolute stillness, uncertain how to break the news to his aunt.
In the days that followed, sleep abandoned him. He lay awake through the long nights in his room at the house in Surulere, staring at the ceiling as his cousin’s final words replayed endlessly in his mind. Only on the second day, when they finally took his body to the mortuary, did exhaustion pull him under for a few fragile hours.
It was that night he dreamed of the Teacher for the first time. In the dream, he stood frozen on the steps of the library, his cousin’s blood still warm on his hands. A hooded figure approached through the gathering dusk, radiating an unsettling presence. Tomide searched for eyes but was greeted by the impenetrable darkness of the hood. Fear locked Tomide’s limbs so that he could not move. The Teacher had drawn nearer, a deep, steady voice cutting through the terror of the moment.
“Evil drinks from its own chalice. Do not repay.”
“Who are you?”
Eyes that remained invisible pinned him down with intense focus.
“Do not repay.”
Tomide had not listened. Pain had structured itself into purposeful blood lust. He breathed in the darkness and allowed it sharpen its sword in the furthermost corners of his mind where the words of this mysterious figure could not reach. He would find every single one of them. He would make them pay.
*************************
PrimeVistas Advisors
Victoria Island
10:20 a.m
John burst into Sonia’s office, barely knocking.
“I have something for you.”
Sonia looked up from her screen, her mind replaying Tomide’s unexpected visit to her house that very moment. She remembered it all. The quiet smile as he placed the box of dark chocolates in her hands. The way his fingers had brushed hers. It was jarring to be reminded about her plot to destroy his chances at the firm.
John didn’t notice her distraction. He dropped printed pages onto her desk, eyes bright with relief. He held on to the careful hope that this was their last time snooping around on Tomide’s past.
“There was another cult clash apart from the one in 2010. This one was in 2015, outside Moremi Hall. Three people died. We don’t know if Seyi Adeyemi was among the victims or the attackers. We tracked down a former girlfriend through old forums and alumni groups. She’s in Lekki now.”
He slid more documents across. Sonia stared at the pages, heart sinking. It should have felt like victory. Instead, it sat heavy and sour in her chest, surprising her.
John leaned backward in his chair, studying her.
“You don’t sound excited or anything.”
“Oh, I am actually,” she said quickly, gathering the papers. “Just processing this new information. Thank you John.”
She returned to her office, closed the door, and sank into her chair. The document lay open before her. Seyi Adeyemi’s name stared back like an accusation. She should have been happy. Her plan to get rid of him was in full gear. And yet she was not.
Her desk phone rang, jolting her.
“Sonia? Mrs Fabiyi’s office. She said you should come.”
Sonia reached for the folder, then pulled her hand back. After a long, agonizing moment, she left the papers on her desk and walked out empty handed.
Mrs Fabiyi’s office smelled of fresh coffee and citrus. The older woman looked up with a warm, knowing smile.
Mrs. Fabiyi looked at her, eyes twinkling.
“I just got off the phone with Tomide. He had nothing but good things to say about you.” She chuckled. “So tell me, my dear, is there something going on between you two?”
Embarrassment warmed Sonia’s face.
“No,” she said quickly through a mouth that tasted metallic with guilt. “There is nothing like that at all ma.”
Mrs Fabiyi raised an eyebrow but smiled.
“Well, whatever you’re doing, keep it up. He has been such a gem. I really like his work with the interns.“
Sonia managed a weak smile. She nodded.
“He has.
She left a few minutes later after a short conversation with Mrs Fabiyi, the praise echoing in her ears and clashing violently with the folder waiting on her desk.
**********************
PrimeVistas Advisors
Victoria Island
Tomide’s Office
11:15 a.m.
Tomide leaned back in his leather chair, the soft creak of the seat the only sound in the quiet room. His long legs stretched out beneath the desk as he absentmindedly flipped the old five kobo coin between his knuckles, his old habit whenever his mind needed to work.
It was his keepsake from his mother’s belongings, the same worn coin he had carried since her passing.
The coin danced across his fingers with practiced ease while his eyes stayed fixed on the computer screen. A family portrait filled the display. It was one of a smiling father, mother and two young sons. He zoomed in slowly on the man’s face. Fully bearded, confident, and almost jovial. Tomide’s jaw tightened. He recognized him instantly.
Shayo Ogunlayo. A Great Ife Alumnus. Tax expert with a popular tax firm in Marina. One of the men who had murdered his cousin in front of Moremi Hall all those years ago.
Without breaking rhythm with the coin, he zoomed out, picked up a pen, and jotted down Shayo’s work details on the notepad in front of him.
He clicked to another open tab that displayed Shayo’s Facebook page. A new photo loaded. The same happy family in coordinated native outfits, posing proudly in front of a sleek Mercedes SUV. Tomide enlarged the image, focusing on the license plate. His pen moved again, neatly recording the plate number.
For a long moment he simply sat back, the five kobo coin still weaving between his knuckles, eyes distant. The calm expression on his face betrayed nothing of the cold fire burning beneath it.
*************************
Conference Room 2
1:15 p.m.
A buzz of light hearted conversation filled the conference room as staff settled in for Mrs Fabiyi’s mid-year appreciation meeting. Colleagues chatted animatedly, cracking jokes about who might end up paired with the most difficult partner and teasing one another about the gifts they’d have to buy the following week. The atmosphere was relaxed and collegial, with occasional bursts of laughter.
This year, Mrs Fabiyi had changed the format. Traditionally, names were drawn from a bowl, but today staff were given the freedom to pick anyone they wanted themselves.
Sonia sat poised, hyper aware of Tomide across the room. She felt quite obvious in her skin tight maroon skirt that hugged her curves and the soft, trendy white chiffon blouse with delicate layered ruffles cascading down the front and billowy sleeves that fluttered gently with every movement. It was a departure from her usual fashion. The niggling feeling that she had done it for her nemesis ate her up inside.
Across the room and directly in her line of sight, Tomide stood casually near the window, engaged in conversation with Timi, the intern. He nodded and smiled at something she said, but his eyes kept drifting over to her. She caught his steady, deliberate glances and felt her pulse quicken every time.
Why does he keep looking at me like that?
The activity kicked off with Chukwuma picking Mrs. Fabiyi’s secretary as partner. Tomide was next. Every eye in the room followed him as he stepped forward with calm confidence. Sonia’s breath caught. Their eyes met, and he gave her faint knowing smile. She stiffened, expecting to hear her name.
“I pick John.”
The room seemed to pause for a second. Sonia’s brows dipped and she quickly lowered her gaze to the pointy tips of her black stiletto heel shoes.
John?
“Wait… me?” John blurted, eyes widening in genuine shock. He then let out an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of his neck. “Alright… cool. Thanks, man,” he added quickly, nodding harder than necessary.
Sonia watched Timi’s shoulders drop slightly, her bright smile beginning to lose some kilowatts, but then Tomide turned his attention back to her and her face lit up again.
Her mind cartwheeled through the same three thoughts as she watched them.
He knows.
No he doesn’t.
Maybe.
She forced a small, neutral smile as the room moved on, but inside her thoughts churned.
What game is he playing?
*****************************
Tomide’s Apartment
Sinari Daranijo Street
Victoria Island
11:47 p.m.
Tomide stepped out onto the unlit balcony. The cool night air brushed against his skin, carrying the faint salty tang of the nearby lagoon mixed with the earthy scent of damp leaves. For a brief moment, he let his gaze drift over the line of trees on the street below.
Palm fronds swayed gently in the breeze, tall and graceful silhouettes against the sky. Beneath them stood neat rows of mango and almond trees, their broad leaves catching a silvery sheen from the sparse streetlights. A few neem trees added their own feathery texture to the canopy, releasing a faint medicinal aroma that always reminded him of childhood rains in Ibadan.
The road was quiet tonight, no okada horns, no generators coughing to life, just the occasional distant hum of a car on Ligali Ayorinde and the soft rustle of leaves.
He called Bolu, his old friend at FRSC and waited until he picked up the phone.
“I received the information Tomi. The plate number is in the system now. I will run the full trace and revert with everything. Just give me forty eight hours max.”
“Good. Thank you,” Tomide replied quietly, ending the call.
He watched the night again, his thoughts drifting away.
All those days at Abule Ijesha. Carrying the weight of the past and waiting for the resources to fuel his revenge. Now he was right where he needed to be and everything was going according to plan.
Somewhere inside him, the Teacher’s gentle voice preached caution. Tomide answered him.
You said I am God.
That, you are.
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
The voice said nothing after that, and Tomide nurtured the resolve that burned in his soul.
A life for a life.
Headlights swept across the street. A familiar silver car glided in and parked directly opposite his building. He squinted.
Recognition hit him a moment later.
Sonia’s car.
He watched as she killed the engine but didn’t get out. Through the windscreen, he could see her clearly under the streetlamp, hands still on the wheel, eyes fixed on his apartment, searching the dark windows and balcony. She had no idea he was standing there, motionless in the shadows, watching her watch him.
His face remained expressionless, the faint night breeze stirring the collar of his shirt. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink.
Just watched.
© Umari Ayim.
2026