| be careful what you stir, for you may not be able to calm the beast that emerges |
“Where is the money?” one of the men demanded, shoving him from side to side.
“That’s all the cash I have with me!” Remi cried, raising his arms in surrender. “
“Bullshit!” spat one of the three men. “We have reliable information that you’ve got at least fourteen million naira in an account.”
“Fourteen million?” Remi tried to laugh, hoping to ease the tension. “I get that kin money nai i never japa". The only money I have is in a networking platform called Skyway, and it’s just thirty dollars. Besides, before I can even access it, I’d have to trade it for the naira equivalent—”
A sharp, burning pain erupted on the left side of his face as he received a thunderous slap from the same member who had made the inquiry of him, he consider this man the most violent in the group and soon learnt that his name was sly, He was tall and lanky and his dark complexion made his face hidden in the darkness,
"You think say we dey play with you abi you no wan see tomorrow" ? Sly hissed
Remi instinctively raised his left hand to his face, turning slightly away from the group. He noticed that Sly was being held back by another man from exacting more violence and to prevent things from getting out of control.
In that moment, Remi’s mind raced. He knew there was no reasoning with them. As panic gave way to an odd calm, he felt it—that familiar surge and swell of energy deep inside him.
Remi had always known he was different. He had discovered that when he was angry, portals would open in his mind. These gateways led to other dimensions, places he couldn’t explain but that gave him power. This realization had made him more reserved and antisocial, driving him to a life of self-employment and solitude. He avoided serious relationships and conflict whenever possible.
Yet this self-imposed isolation hadn’t stopped him from working hard. His dedication had paid off and within a few months of starting his digital service business, he had saved a small fortune. He kept these funds in a bank account that doubled as his business account—a necessary arrangement that sometimes revealed his balance to customers trying to verify transactions. He realized now that someone must have seen the balance in his account—and that had brought him to this dangerous point. These men had probably been following him for some time.
While he was absorbed by these thoughts he noticed the changes occuring in his body and didn't try to stop it, his hands began to vibrate and his fingers lengthened, transforming into claws. The darkness and the noise from passing vehicles on the highway a few kilometers away hid this changes from his attackers,
A sudden grip on his collar snapped him out of his thoughts.
“Open your bank app,” the voice commanded.
A weapon pressed against his cheek.
“Use your head, and don’t try anything stupid.” It was Sly again.
But it was too late. A sharp claw had already replaced three fingers on Remi’s right hand, hidden behind his back. His face, too, had transformed, though the darkness and his lowered head concealed it.
As Remi raised his head, one of the men to the right of sly quickly grabbed his neck with both hands as something fast and sharp seem to have passed through it, this however did not stop the spray of blood gushing from the man’s throat like a shaken soda bottle, the spill brought the attention of sly to him and as that was on going, Sly had turned his weapon on his other accomplice placing it under his jaw and pulling the trigger, sending him staggering backwards and collapsing to the ground a few meters away
Sly’s gaze darted to Remi, who now looked like a beast, his monstrous form staring back at him with glowing eyes
“Blood of Jesus!” Sly screamed, leaving his weapon in the hand of the creature before him and stumbling backward as the reality of what had just happened sank in—his two accomplices had been killed in a matter of seconds.
Remi, now transformed into a beastly figure, glared at the fleeing man, his monstrous form still seething with rage. Sly’s fate, Remi knew, would be far worse than that of the others. It was an unspoken understanding between predators.
With grim determination, Remi in his new form began to prowl in the shadows. A dark, tailed figure moved with eerie grace, shifting from one shadowy corner to another, locked on its target following by some distance.
Sly eventually reached the expressway, its lanes busy with a steady flow of vehicles. Desperately, he waited for a gap to cross, glancing left and right. but before an opportunity will avail itself, he was engulfed and dragged under the body of a moving truck. Pinned just inches above the racing asphalt, he let out a strangled scream. But no one heard him. Above him, perched on a support beam beneath the vehicle, the creature that had once been Remi loomed—its eyes cold, its claws ready.
“Where’s the money, Sly?” Remi hissed, his voice a low growl that vibrated in the dark space. “Where’s all the money ?
Sly’s screams were muffled by the roar of the engine and the rush of the wind.
The vehicle rumbled on for a few minutes before Remi—his claws hooked deep into the metal—shifted and yanked Sly forward, so that half his face was taken by the racing asphalt. “I should kill you.
But I’m feeling merciful tonight.” He pressed his clawed thumb to the center of Sly’s forehead and leaned in closer, letting his breath tickle Sly’s trembling lips "i will equally like to know your account of this encounter and with a quick jerk, he sent Sly flying from beneath the truck on to a stoney grove by the roadside.
Standing in the shadows, his monstrous form slowly receding and his face returned to its human shape. Remi crouched by the side of the road, the rage that had driven him now gone, replaced by a hollow emptiness.
The memory of Sly’s broken stare would haunt him. He had wanted justice, but what he delivered was terror—a terror that would leave Sly’s body alive but his mind a ruined shell.
“How much of me is left?” he whispered, staring at his hands, now human once again.
The darkness swallowed him as he walked away, his thoughts heavy with the burden of his own power.
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