THE RETRIBUTION

CHAPTER 2(COMEBACK)

CHAPTER 2

“Let her go”. Coming from a man who thinks he can just barge in his mansion and interfere in his business.

This moment was his, everyone was at his beck and call. He was controlling this enormous crowd. He was the only source of authority in this hall and even Claribel’s family could not stand against him for molesting their daughter.

Why then would a strange man have the audacity to command him? Does he not know him? Have he not heard of Frederic of the Great Five Family?

Does he not know he can make his life miserable within a twinkle of an eye? Who even gave him the permission to enter the this mansion?

“I said let her go!” the man growled again. Frederic was astonished as to how this man had the nerve to talk to him like that.

“Who are you and how dare you talk to me in that manner?” he decided to question him.

For the past thirty(30) years of his life, he had been the centre of authority in every place he found himself.

His father, the most powerful man in their community had always the committed the most gruesome murders and yet, no one had the power to question him for fear of their dear lives.

Not even the president could stop his atrocious deeds. Anyone who crossed his path ended their lives ultimately. Just like his father, Frederic grown to become fierce as well.

For him, he was filled with hatred. Hatred for his own life. He was exposed to both physical and emotional abuse.

At age five(5), he used to see his father come home drunk and beating his mother mercilessly as a result. He used to see people being buried alive by his father.

He used to see breathing humans burnt to ashes by his own father. Not to talk of the pregnant women whose bumps were cut open and their babies removed from their wombs.

The worst part? All these brutal activities by his father were performed right in front of him. It was like he was undergoing a form of training in which he would graduate soon.

When he grew up, he worked with his father even against his mother’s objections. His mother cried and begged him to stop but it all fell on deaf ears.

He was too invested in these bad deeds and in no time, he took over from his father and became the famous Frederic of the Great Five Family that everyone was afraid and scared of.

In as much as the Great Five Family was swimming in wealth which added to their influential status in the society, their family was full of hidden mysteries which could destroy them within a second.

Each of them had his own share of mystery. For Frederic, he was a compilation of broken pieces of childhood trauma and emotional instability which had formed into one big set of wickedness out from him.

He looked at the figure before him. He was a little above six(6) inches, a fierce look on his face, dark brown eyes, with his chest heaving up and down.

For years since he had known and tortured Claribel, no one had even stood up to him, not even her own family, and the last thing he ever expected was a wild looking man ready to kill for sake.

He looked in the direction of her family, and he realisedthey were shocked and clueless just as he was.

This is not something he could not handle. He will not be disgraced by a total stranger. After a silent answer from the young man,

he beckoned his guards to attack him and when they were being hesitant he said angrily “Are you standing there watching a nobody destroy my party? Do you all want to breath your last?”

The guards hurriedly went in the direction of Alfie and just like the swift flash of lightning, four of them were sprawled on the floor in pain.

The other five stepped back, and the silence in the room was loud enough for a person to hear a pin drop.

Frederic, though terrified, still held his posture and shouted to the guards

“What are you waiting for? Go!”.

The other five(5) reluctantly obeyed, went towards Alfie again, armed. This time around, after beating all of them simultaneously, he took one of their guns and the one closest to him. He fell hard on the cold floor, dead.

At this juncture Frederic was genuinely scared. Whoever this man was, and for whatever reason why he had come for nobody but Claribel was his major confusion.

For him, Claribel was just a nobody who was least respected by everyone and even her own family.

Amidst his thoughts, he saw the weird man push away Claribel in her wheelchair out of the building.

He could not stop him. It seemed he was glued to where he was standing, and so was everyone.

Everyone in the room was shocked to the bone as they all watched silently the scene that was unravelling in front of them.

Alfie came back without Claribel, went directly to Frederic and faced him.

“This is the last time you are laying your hands on her or any of her family members. I do not want to see you anywhere around her.

The rule is simple, and failure to abide by it will lead you to your death”. With this , he stormed out of the building leaving everyone present totally dumbfounded.

Patrick was waiting in the Mercedes as his boss went to do his business in the mansion. His prayer was just one : that his boss will go soft as he promised.

Other than that, the mansion would go ablaze within the shortest possible time. He watched as Alfie helped the girl into the car as he placed her wheelchair at the boot.

He realised how his boss was trying to mask his tears with his usual fierce look, and how the girl seemed confused and scared at the same time.

He started the car thinking Alfie would hop in for them to move, until he told him he needed to go back and finish up the business.

He hesitantly turned off the engine as he watched him go again. After a short period of time, he came back, sat in the car and told him to drive off.

When Patrick inquired about what he later went to do, he just replied “I needed to make things clear to him”.

Patrick sighed and felt lucky for this Frederic man. Whoever his god is, has really helped him out. After all, he is still alive and breathing.

His thoughts were interrupted by the girl whimpering voice of the girl in the back seat.

“Please let me go. I have suffered enough to go through another phase of torture. Kindly let me go”. Patrick was touched but tried as much as possible not to show it.

Just then, Alfie told him to park the car as he joined Claribel in the back seat, after which he told his assistant to continue driving.

Patrick could just feel the tension lingering in the atmosphere but he ignored it and focused on getting them to the villa.

For Claribel, she was having a feeling of nostalgia. She had no idea whether to be happy or not.

One part of her was telling her to accept the fact that she was finally free and released from captivity whiles the overthinking part of her was telling her to scream for help from these strange and weird men.

To make matters worse, the one who entered the mansion to save her came to sit beside her in the back seat after she had cried for help. Maybe they were finally going to kill her.

Maybe this was Frederic’s plan all along to finally end her life through these men.

She looked at the man beside her and for some strange reason, she could not ignore the unsettling feeling that she had met him before.

She felt drawn to him despite how fierce he looked. She felt safe around him even though she doesn’t remember meeting him anywhere in her life.

Just then, the man opened his mouth to speak, and it was the most calming voice she had heard in a while.

“What did they do to you?” he said whiles he took her hands and massaged her arms. When she gave no answer, he started massaging her joints.

It was like he was hoping she could walk, and this forced a tear out of her eyes. “Take off your dress”.

This caused her heart to skip a beat. Was she going to be raped again? She looked at her scars, her deframed figure and she realised no man would even want her in this state.

So she slowly took off her dress and she realised the man swallow a lump in her throat as she slowly unravelled each imperfection in front of him.

He rubbed his hands over her body and repeated the question; “Who did this to you?”.  

~ ~

In his villa, Frederic was about to explode. He was angry, afraid and terrified. He had abruptly closed the party and sacked everyone.

His fame and respect was at stake. This man had taken his glory away from him. Everyone was talking about him and what he did.

No one had ever stood up to Frederic that way and everyone was mesmerized by the power that he carried.

He had even asked and threatened Claribel’s family whether they knew anything about the man or him rescuing their daughter, but they were all lost as he was at the momentand they claimed they haven’t even seen him before.

He then sacked them and told them never to step foot at his mansion again. Something was telling him that whatever they were saying was right.

There was more to that man than what everybody was seeing. Whoever this man was, was clearly after his prestige.

He had given his guards twenty-four (24) hours to conduct an investigation about him and to find every little information about him, yet he couldn’t wait.

He shouted and called one of them, the leader for that matter.

“What have you gotten so far” he asked.

“Boss there is little information about him, but from our investigations we have been able to establish that he’s a soldier, but as to where he’s from or his connection to Claribel, we have no idea” the guard said without looking up.

Frederic looked like he was about to explode.

“What good are you?!” he shouted at the guard. “You can’t simply look for a person’s identity? It is obvious to everyone that he’s a soldier.

Listen here,” he continued angrily “if by the next two(2) hours, you come back here to give me this same piece of information, you are going back home without your head. Understand?”

“Yes boss” the guard said shakily and walked away.

Frederic was mad beyond control. He smashed his television and portraits on the wall and shouted. Something had to be done. Just then his phone rang, and it was his father.

He smiled to himself. In as much as his father has warned him to reduce his killings, he knew his father would greatly support him on this one. Probably, he had even caught the guy.

“You got him father” he asked.

“I won’t, and you shouldn’t too” his father replied. The man’s response shocked him.

“But why father? I want him to die. He ruined everything and…..”

“If you don’t want to die, then stop. Otherwise we will kick you out of our family” he still objected.

Frederic was beyond surprised. “But father…..” his father cut him off.

“Dragon General is coming”