5 Where the fuck is Peter?

It was morning, Heaven still lay in bed, sleeping cozily when suddenly she was awakened by a loud banging on the door. She tardily woke up and called out "Peter, someone is at the door!" without looking behind but no response of any kind came back.

"Peter!" she called again yet no reply came. She stretched her hand in the search for him beside her. Her hand met his skin but it was covered in a sticky substance.

Heaven was stunned, her heart began kicking hard. Could it be sweat, but the room was damn cold. To be sure she slowly brought her hand insight and her heart nearly stopped at the sight of it covered in blood. She screamed in horror, jumping out of the bed in freight.

Almost at the door, new terror surged through her. Fear sizzled down every nerve ending; chilling her to the bone. Her heart jammed into her throat. She could barely breathe.

Tardily, she decided to have a look at what has become of her lover. On the bed, lay the remains of Peter covered in dry blood. He has been stabbed multiple times on the chest. His face pale white, lips open, covered in blood; and his pupil gone. The bed sheet messed with blood.

The sight so horrifying, her stomach twisted.The hairs at the back of her hand rose. Terror burrowed deep into her soul. Confused and panic-stricken, she blinked rapidly, trying to think. She has to leave this place before she is accused of murder. She opened the door; to her greatest surprise, Peter was at the door. Not covered in blood but on his pink boxers; and wearing a weird smile.

"You bitch! You murdered me and want to run away" he pushed her back into the room and she collapsed into the bed screaming for her life.

Screaming, she sat bolt upright in the bed; sweating, her heart pounding, and the dream so real that she couldn't breathe. "Oh God", she whispered, pushing her hair from her face. Wasting no time, she scanned the room looking for Peter but he wasn't beside her or anywhere else. Before she could think about the dream or why she was suddenly all alone, there was a bang on the door. Let her answer the door, it could be Peter, so she responded

"Yes… who is that?"

"Room service!" the voice of a lady came from the other side of the door.

"Room fucking service?" She wondered in disappointment moving her thought to the pressing issue. Why was she alone? Where had Peter gone this early morning without informing her? Maybe he was in the bathroom, so she called out

"Peter!" no reply came back. The knock on the door returned, this time louder.

"Am coming…" she shouted in frustration.

She unlocked the door to meet an elderly woman with cleaning materials and a different receptionist behind her.

"Good morning"

"Morning! Why am I being disturbed from this precious sleep this early morning?"

"It is actually past eleven, you have exhausted your stay here and this is the second time we are paying you a visit this morning"

"Really?" she wondered aloud. "It must be the weather then, it doesn't feel like it".

"Yeah, so we will give you about fifteen minutes to pack your things".

"Yeah, thanks. That is perfect".

She shot the door behind, began packing her things, at the same time picked her phone and dialed his number. It didn't connect; the cell provider in a female electronic voice said the number was switched off. She tried again, again and again till it dawned on her that he was gone and had switched off his phone.

How could he bail on her like that? Or is this one of his games? Why is his phone switched off? Did she do anything wrong? But everything went as expected, she had one of the best nights of her entire life and she is sure he did too. What could be his reason then? Or maybe he just hurried to work and his phone is down. Or like most guys he has tasted the forbidden fruit between her legs and has hastily moved on. The thought of it brought hot tears to her eyes. A deep sadness swept through her.

In the spur of the moment, she was jarred to reality, right back at the bus by a soft tap on her shoulders. After a long hiss from frustration, tardily she raised her head up to see a middle-aged lady smiling down at her, asking "Anything for the Lord?"

Heaven was in so much emotional pain having just relieved what transpired between her and Peter. But in the most polite manner, she could bring herself to, she said: "I don't have anything".

Still smiling the woman continued "There is nothing too small for the good Lord. He loves a cheerful giver".

A frown formed on her face, "Madam, I just said I don't have anything for the Lord" she shouted already getting angry. A sudden sadness and disappointment appeared on the woman's face as she pulled away saying "Sorry oh".

Heaven laid back her head and continued in her thoughts "Where was the Lord when Peter gave me HIV? Like that wasn't bad enough, he bailed on me, threw away his sim card and hasn't spoken to me for over six months now. All she wanted was to break free from the claws of Pastor Alex and feel like a real woman, even if it was for just one night. Peter was to be the hero that will sweep her off her feet and she will fall in love with him. Instead, Peter gave her the virus.

Why did he even give her the virus? Was he just sharing it to people and she just happens to be one of his victims? It could be possible he doesn't even know he has the virus? But why then did he run away from her?

For the first time since last week, the doctor told her she was now living with HIV; she was so distraught and grief-stricken, her face awash in hot tears. Fury and pain tore through her soul. Peter has denied her forever not just three times.

She remembered the sentence of the woman and hissed again. Where was Jesus when her life first fell apart three years ago? Where was the Lord that very sad evening when robbers killed her father right in front of her, her sister and mother simply because he tried preventing one of them from raping her sister? The trauma of that very day still hunts her sister. She now sees people and things that aren't really there; claiming to have conversations with spirits and ghosts of dead people. Why hasn't God healed her for the past three years they have been fasting and praying? How will the sister ever have a normal life? Who will fall in love with her? Who will marry her? It was all just fucked up; her life is a complete mess.

After the sad passing of her father, she took the burden of catering for her family while her mother recovered from the shock of his death. That was why she agreed to date Alex, her family Pastor. He was there for them; bringing in the money, care, and concern. She felt like she owed him and will occasionally reward him with sex. Not like she loved him or anything. If only she knew, she would have stayed with him, the sex was bad, the money was good and he didn't have HIV. How is she going to face him when she gets home? She thought as fresh hot tears of regret stream down her eyes.

She boarded this bus going back home to her mother. She will be taken care of and some advice dished out to her. That's the only option she has now or one of these days she might actually go through with suicide. But she has already made a mistake and suicide was yet another one. She is already going through hell, it is better to keep going.

Out of the blue, a voice on the bus screamed "That's her! Driver that's her! Stop the bus! Driver stop the bus…!" The driver probably lost in his own thoughts responded to the sudden panic by applying brakes while the bus was on full speed, which resulted in a quick and swift tumble of the bus.

Inside, everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Heaven felt herself departing from her body. Emanating from the bus through the roof as though no frame of metal walls were there, angling upward, outward until she stood about three stories high above the ground. She was looking down, at the scene below, existing independent of time and matter. There, above, she watched her body still in the bus while it toppled further at great speed into the forest till it came to a halt in front of a huge tree.

Confused as to what is happening, fearing for her body, she flew effortlessly to the scene, went right through the bus like a hot knife through butter only to find blood dripping from the nostrils and mouth of her body. She lay half way between this world and the next; upside down and stuck on her seat. She tried pulling her body down but her hands went through like sun ray through a glass, she tried screaming but no one heard her. Left with no other option, she had to wait for rescue and soon it came. People came pulling out the victims from what was left of the wreckage.

She watched as they carried her body from the bus into the rescue car and rushed her to the closest hospital. She flew after the bus, worried for her body if it dies, where will she go to? What will happen to her? Will she become a sad ugly ghost on white wondering the earth hopelessly, causing mayhem and terror? Will she take a golden ladder to heaven? Or a long rope down to the pit of hell? Will she reincarnate into a wealthy princess? Maybe become one with the stars? Or just sleep forever in a dark cold grave? Will the Grim Ripper take her soul?

She doesn't know what to face when her body dies, and it scares her. All her life she had feared death, suppressed dealing with it, never ready to depart. For her, there would always be another tomorrow and the day after.

At the hospital, she was still at an elevated angle, from where she watched the doctors trying their possible best to keep her in this world but death came for her with a slow rattling gasp, her breathing would stop for a time only to reemerge like a drowning victim coming up for one last breath. In few moments she passed on, her earthly tether separated and it was lights out.