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Heavenwood

By Ernest Kiyah Yungsi

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Prologue

The white dove on the telephone wire sang a mournful message down at the dwarf. The dwarf stood outside the closed door of the church, waiting for the right moment. He wanted to inform Father Albert that Jack Mann should be buried face-down, to purge out the evil committed during his career.
Inside the church, unaware of the interruption waiting outside, friends and family members wept and speculated in silence.
Where is his soul going? They wondered.
How will his wife cope without him?
Behind the coffin sat the tallest man in the room. His name was Dickson and he was Jack’s best friend.
He sat next to Jack’s wife, the tallest woman in the church.
Nikka was gazing at her husband’s coffin and thinking:
Jack’s gone! What will happen when my time comes?
If only she could hear the dove’s song outside!
Women are more intuitive than men. She might not have understood the bird, but she might have felt goose bumps on her skin.
Alas, tears blinded her vision.
She wiped her eyes, looked up and noticed the clock on the wall behind Father Albert’s altar.
4 PM!
Everyone had turned towards the church door.
The dwarf was coming in slowly, like a man with a terrible secret.
The hairs on the back of Nikka’s neck stood upright.
She stared at the clock, not daring to face the sudden interruption. Every tick of the second hand seemed to bring her closer, just like it brings everyone closer…closer to your turn. .. to die.

Chapter 1


Nikka suddenly grabbed Dickson’s arm and in a gripping voice, squealed, “Look out!”
Dickson jumped away from his Mercedes. Through the driver’s window, he saw the newspaper on the seat. A ripped page in the foreign news section said;
Two albinos killed and body parts sold!
Dickson had not bought the newspaper to read it. He had used the torn page to wrap the ring. The bulge of the box in his tuxedo’s pocket would have betrayed his plans to Nikka.
Moving quickly towards Nikka in the parking lot, lights clung to the whiteness of Dickson’s bared teeth. In a strapless black evening gown, Nikka, with long black hair flowing past her shoulders, stood almost as tall as Dickson.
The diamond ring in Dickson’s hand flashed in the air but he put it inside his pocket.
“What’s wrong Nikka?” he demanded.
“Behind you!” Nikka screamed, pointing.
A bony-faced teenager, dressed in black stood in the shadows, waving a pistol.
Dickson saw the firearm and burst into laughter. It was pink and green, probably one of those toys that squirt water.
“Listen,” he yelled at the youth. “Put that thing away and go home!”
“Take one more step and I’ll shoot!” cried the jittery young man, pointing the gun at Dickson.
Dickson swallowed his laughter. He glanced at Nikka.
There was a glint of annoyance in her eyes, the same look she had given him after the embarrassing cliché with the champagne glass in the restaurant.
“Dickson, don’t!” she warned. “We give him what he wants.” “No way Nikka, he’s bluffing,” he assured her.
Dickson took a nonchalant step forward.
“Hey!” Yelled the young man. “I say stop!”
But Dickson didn’t.
Moving quickly, he reached for the young man.
The gun went off with a loud bang.
A single projectile floated like lightening through the air. Dickson tumbled, with a loud thump.
As Nikka stared in shock, a soft unblemished voice interrupted the strange silence.
“Sorry…” It sounded like a felon confessing his sins to a priest. “…no witnesses.”
He aimed at Nikka and fired.
When Nikka’s lifeless body hit the pavement, the teenager was already going through Dickson’s pockets.
As he tugged on Nikka’s wedding ring, he noticed an inscription: J and N till death do us part.
He pulled harder, but the ring seemed stuck. Looking at the inscription, he cursed loudly.
“Religious nonsense!” the young man muttered to himself, bringing out a knife from his pocket. “They’re dead and parted… what next?”
But the growing sound of sirens interrupted him.
He dashed into the darkness without cutting off Nikka’s finger; the sound of fluttering wings followed him, a flock of doves carrying the message for people too deaf to hear.

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