Chapter 5 The key bearers

Kuwin had hoped that surviving a curse was enough to strengthen his faith in God. He'd been so wrong about that. Everywhere he turned, his heart raced with uncertainty and the thought that this... or that... would be the thing that got to him.

Yes, he was a miracle.

The Usop numbered in the thousands around Usehjiki. So many branches of a clan that shared a name and common ancestry, but nothing else. Kuwin's immediate family was very different from the rest. Because, while other members of the Usop clan lived comfortable lives, his own was laden with a curse that killed them before they turned forty.

Everyone except Kuwin.

He'd made the connection between the key and the premature deaths ever since he was a boy. His family had groomed him to take up the mantel after his brother. His initiation had included a celibacy pact, a cleaning and a full study on the lives of every Usop who had ever borne the key.

There were families in the Usop clan who'd never even heard if the key, much less the part it played on the clan's prosperity. But this was a responsibility that they held dear to their heart. Even Kuwin, even after he gave his life to Christ. It wasn't a triviality and he wasn't one to bash fellow Christians who held on to ancient family values.

A part of him had hoped he would survive because he was a child of God. He'd known the unity of the clans kept him safe, but God had to have a hand in that, right? His ancestors couldn't have prevailed if God Almighty didn't make it so. His Christian faith solidified his ancestral faith and his ancestral faith only served as evidence that God had always had Kuwin's family in mind.

Kuwin believed this. He had to.

Every newspaper in Usehjiki was talking about the Man of God who defied ancient alters and broke the bargain his ancestors had struck with the devil. He was a hero who prayed his way out of the grave. He was Kuwin Usop. The most faithful.

He couldn't understand the need to vilify the ancestors, especially when Kuwin wasn't so sure anymore who was protecting him.

Because he'd prayed to God to protect him. And yet a woman had shown up and taken the key.

The key was why he was alive. His broken vow was why he was alive. He'd engaged in sexual intercourse and unbound the key. He'd sinned against God Almighty and survived.

What did that say about him? What did that say about his faith? Was he a fraud for fearing? Or was he human for wondering? Did he deserve to still be in a constant state of panic? Or should God have soothed that pain away? Did he deserve to be soothed at all Was?

His relationship with God was on shaky ground and Kuwin was two seconds from breaking down and going crazy because he really needed God to talk to him. But there was nothing. God was eerily silent and Kuwin had never felt so alone.

The bell rang, just as he was in the kitchen, putting away the leftovers from dinner. He washed and wiped his hands on the way to the door. Out of habit, he prepared himself for a counselling session. The building was full of church members and they liked to visit at the oddest of hours. Even though he felt empty and far away from God, Kuwin couldn't turn away his parishioners. If they needed a listening ear, Kuwin was going to give it to them.

When he opened the door, Kuwin frowned at the two men standing there. One was a small, frail man with skin as black as shadow and a pair of oversized glasses on his face, while the other was Kuwin's height, light-skinned and much taller and fatter than the other. The tiny man was dressed in casual clothes while the other was wearing a long, grey caftan with a pair of slippers. Behind them, the staircase leading up to Kuwin's apartment was filled with bodyguards in suits and earpieces.

"Can I help you?" Kuwin asked.

"Good evening," the man in the caftan said, offering Kuwin a handshake. "I'm Ahimad Elheji and this is Enechi Izeh. We'd like to discuss a mutual friend we might have."

Elheji? Izeh?

Kuwin wasn't a politician. There was no reason people from other clans to visit him. He also, wasn't interested in getting involved in whatever dummy crusade the other three families were trying to rope him into. He'd grown up seeing them throw fancy parties in the name of charity while they turned around to control the country with the iron fist that generations of power had given them.

It was no secret what Kuwin thought of the government. He'd spoken against a lot of legislation and actions of the Jiki elite for decades. He even refused to go to his own cousin's inauguration into office when he became the Prime Minister, years ago. Kuwin had said it before and he'd be damned if no one understood that he wasn't a part of murky Jiki politics.

"Mutual friend?" Kuwin asked, barring them from entering the house.

"Yeah, she might have borrowed a key from you without permission?"

A memory of Osa above him, looking down at Kuwin with love and dedication flashed through his mind. He flinched away from it, pushing it to the nooks of his mind. He didn't want to think about her and her definitely didn't want to talk about her.

"Can we talk in private?" Ahimad asked, pushing past Kuwin into his home as Enechi followed behind with his hands in his pocket, quiet as a mouse.

Unable to stop them, Kuwon let them in. However, when the bodyguards reached the door, about to enter, Kuwin blocked him.

"I'm sorry," Kuwin said, praying that this didn't end in his death. "Are you armed? I'm sorry. I'm very sorry but no weapons in my house. If you're armed, you can't come into my home."

"It's okay," Ahimad said, behind Kuwin as the bodyguard stopped on the threshold. Kuwin wasn't surprised that they were moving with so many armed men. Ahimad was an Elheji, which meant that he was a younger cousin of the woman who was currently occupying the Prime Minister's office. If anything, he was surprised that the guards had relented so easily.

Kuwin closed the door and turned back to his visitors. While Ahimad had made himself at home, sitting at the centre of a couch with his legs spread out and his hands on the backrest, Enechi remained standing, as he searched for something in his phone.

"Can I get you something to drink?"

"Is this the woman who took your key?" Enechi asked, offering Kuwin his phone where there was a picture of a young woman. She was asleep and most of her body was covered beneath a duvet, but he could see her face.

A sharp pain stabbed through Kuwin's heart as he recognised the face. Osa. And from the looks of it, she was naked underneath that duvet. Naked in another man's bed. She'd lured another man, the exact same way she'd lured Kuwin into her bed.

He didn't want to dwell, hut the fact that she'd done it to two other men was too painful to ignore. Kuwin had meant nothing. His faith had meant nothing to her. Even his vow of celibacy that she must have known about meant nothing to her.

"Yes," he said, clearing his throat. "Her name is Osa."

Enechi frowned at him.

"She told me her name was Toso."

"Who cares what her name was?" Ahimad asked.

"She said she was doing me a favour," Kuwin said.

"She was," Enechi agreed. "If you'd had that key, you would have died before the clock struck twelve in Usehjiki."

Kuwin snorted. Then he laughed.

"It's not funny," Ahimad said. "That key was the source of all our good fortune, but it would have also been your death. It's what killed your uncle and your brother."

"God saved me," he said, his voice lilting at the end, betraying what little lack of confidence he'd gained over the last few days.

"I understand that you're a man of god-" Enechi began.

"There's nothing to understand. If you want the key back, you're welcome to pursue her to get it. But please leave me out of it."

"To believe in God is to believe in everything supernatural," Enechi said, pushing his glasses up his face. "If you spend all your time casting and binding demons, then surely you must believe those demons exist."

"I didn't say I don't believe in it. I just don't want anything to do with any of it anymore."

Standing on the fence about his Christian faith and his traditional upbringing was what had led him to this moment. If he'd stayed steadfast then maybe God wouldn't have abandoned him. Refostering that relationship would require staying away from funny business such as keys that burrowed into your skin like parasites.

"So you believe," Enechi said. "You just don't want to acknowledge it because it might affect that fallacy of a church that you own."

"We came here because we need to combine our forces," Ahimad said. "Oseki has taken all our keys and I'd very much like to get mine back."

Kuwin scratched his head. Why was nothing ever easy?

"You're saying my key would kill me, but you think I'm going to help you get it back?" He looked at Enechi. "If I'm to follow your logic, I should be rejoicing that the key is far away."

"You might die the moment your skin touches the key again, but at least your entire clan, including your family, will be safe."

"My family." Kuwin moved closer to him. "What does my family have to do with it?"

"You never wondered what separated us from commoners? Pastor, without those keys, our clans lose their influential edge in Usehjiki. Without it, what are we? When the people start to forget why we are in charge, Usehjiki will be in real trouble."

"If we have to resort to such diabolical means to be in power then maybe we don't deserve it."

"What?" both Ahimad and Enechi asked.

"We've had our run. If God says it's time for us to give up power then it's time."

"And when they start killing us, what then?"

"Who will kill us?"

"Kuwin, are you so naive? When commoners start seeing us as equals, they'll ask for equal treatment. Then we'll have a revolution on our hands. I'm sorry, but I'm yet to see a revolution without bloodshed."

"But... they can't... no one can kill us. We're clans-blood," Kuwin said.

"Without the keys, we're not. Without the keys, the people will rise up. Without the keys, the four clans will fall."

Kuwin opened his mouth to speak, to refute his claims with affirmations and God's word, but nothing came out. He had grown up, taking for granted the privilege that being a clans-blood afforded him. Now, here he was, on the cusp of his death, forced to question everything he knew. How could such a small key give them wealth, power and protection from commoners? How could the key pose a threat for doom and hope for salvation, at the same time?

Enechi groaned and slammed his small hands on the couch next to him.

"We don't have time for this, Pastor Kuwin. No one has heard from Oseki ever since the second sister died and now all our keys are gone. If they're trying to do something stupid, it's going to affect all of us, so we need to stop arguing over nonsense."

Before Kuwin could reply, his bell rang again. Sighing in frustration, he went to the door, expecting the bodyguards, but was shocked to find three women standing out there. All of them, with Osa's face.

"Good evening, pastor," the one at the centre said. "Can we come in?"

Two of the women slowly began to raise their hands in surrender as their eyes shifted from Kuwin till they were all looking over his shoulder.

When Kuwin turned back to see why and was shocked to find Ahimad and Enechi standing.

With guns in their hands.

"WHY DO YOU HAVE GUNS IN MY HOUSE?" Kuwin yelled, facing the other two men as Enechi's hand went into his jacket and came out with another gun.

"We need your help," the woman in red said as she stepped forward, limping on an injured leg. "If we don't all work together, we could be dead within days."

That had to be Osa.

Kuwin had spent months thinking about that voice. He couldn't miss it anywhere. It had to be her.

"You're seeing three of them, right? I'm not imagining three of them, abi?" Ahimad asked.

"Give me my key," Enechi said.

"We don't have your keys anymore," the woman in a blue sweater said.

"Are you crazy?" Kuwin asked, standing between the men and the women. "You're not going to shoot anyone here. Put the guns down, now!"

"No!" Ahimad said, holding his gun with both hands. "You don't know what she's-you don't know what they're capable of."

Osa had handled Kuwin very easily that night, tossing him to the ground with a suspicious lack of delicacy that she'd used when they just minutes earlier. It had almost seemed like Osa was a different person.

"I've seen what she can do, but you're not going to shoot anyone."

"Please excuse me, Pastor," Osa said as she pushed Kuwin down on the couch and rolled him to the floor. By the time Kuwin understood what was happening, Ahimad's gun was in a woman's hand as she pointed it at Ahimad. The third woman wearing purple, seemed to be in a tussle with Enechi, who slipped out of the woman's grasp, turned her arms around and caught her in a headlock before he placed his gun on her temple. For someone so small, Kuwin was incredibly impressed by how easily Enechi handled the woman.

Meanwhile, presently, Kuwin was on his back, on the ground, while Osa remained on top of him. When he tried to push her off, she resisted.

"Stay down, Pastor. You're safe here."

"Give me my key or I will shoot your sister," Enechi said.

"We're all clans blood, here. You can't actually kill any of us," the woman in Enechi's hold said.

It was common knowledge that members from the four clans couldn't be killed. It was a common belief in Usehjiki. One that was held up by the fact that there was no record of a clans blood dying from murder or suicide. They either grew old or died in accidents, or went to sleep and never woke up.

Some people said it was because they were descendants of the gods. Others said it was because of a unification ritual from centuries ago. And yet, there were those who tied their protection to the keys. The possibility of their safety lying in the keys was incredibly viable. That had to be the only reason.

However, they didn't have the keys anymore. These women had taken the keys. And from what Enechi had said, without those keys, they were all vulnerable. One of them could die if someone decided to test fate and Kuwin didn't want that sort of experimentation happening in his home.

Enechi pressed the gun to Purple's head.

"I bet a bullet in her head will still hurt, regardless."

Oh God!

"NO BULLET. NO HEAD. NOT HERE!"

"Let my sister go and I'll let your friend go," Blue said, pressing the nuzzle of Ahimad's gun into Ahimad's head.

"He's not my friend."

"Guy, really?" Ahimad asked Enechi.

"I just want my key."

"We don't have it anymore," Red said.

"Then where is it?"

The three women shared a look.

"Drop your gun and we'll tell you," Blue said.

"No," Enechi shook his head. "Drop your gun first."

"How do I know-"

"Ifiso drop your gun," Osa said, looking up at her sister.

The one called Ifiso looked at Osa as if she was crazy.

"He's not going to-"

"Drop your gun right now," Osa insisted as Ifiso hesitated. Eventually, she let go of Ahimad and unloaded the gun before she tossed it across the room. "Your turn," Osa said to Enechi. "She's dropped hers now drop yours so that we can have a civilised conversation."

"You stole from me," he said. "I don't owe you a civilised conversation."

Kuwin sat up as Osa knelt and stood, using the couch. She held out her hands as she faced Enechi.

"Shoot me, then," she said. "Shoot all of us if you want, but we're not telling you anything until you drop that gun."

Enechi narrowed his eyes at her, as if about to argue. He looked from one sister to the other, gauging them. Kuwin wondered what there was to think about.

"Just drop the gun. It's not like they're refusing to talk," Kuwin said.

Finally, after a long wait, Enechi dropped the gun and let go of the woman. As he stepped away, the sister he'd held hostage kicked the gun out of reach, rubbing her neck in discomfort.

"Now where's my key?" Enechi asked.

"It's in Osekoni."

"Are we supposed to believe that?" Ahimad asked.

"We used it to wake Seneseba and she wasn't too happy about that, so we had to run."

"I'm sorry, you did what?" Enechi asked furiously as Kuwin rushed to hold him back from the woman who just stood there, unwilling to defend herself.

"Calm down."

"YOU FOOLS!" Enechi shouted. "What were you thinking? She's going to come after all of us now."

And the tale of horror just kept growing and growing. Because it wasn't enough for Kuwin's life to be upturned by a magical key. That complocation had to come with another complication in the village of the witness of Usehjiki.

With the way Jiki history tended to be, it was often hard to distinguish between myth and reality. A lot of the things in history were too fantastical to believe, but there were still events that could be track by actual evidence. A prime example was the present of the keys and clans-blood kept dying before they turned forty years old.

Which was why Kuwin was a little worried about the actuality of a supernatural, super-strong, super-wise enforcer who was somewhere out there, looking to kill him.

"Jesus," he muttered under his breath.

"Your family..." Enechi breathed angrily, hands clenching in Osa's direction. "We should have kept a closer look on your mother. You people never listen to anything. After your father died, we thought we were safe. Your FILTHY, WRETCHED CLAN!"

Enechi kicked a couch and walked away.

"Did you get that out of your system?"

Enechi shot Osa a sharp stare as she looked right back at him, unafraid.

"I haven't even begun to vent," he said.

"Yell and do whatever you have to do because sooner or later," Osa said. "We're all going to have to face the witness."