Isale Eko : City of dreams and demons Ep 2

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Tunde had always been a sharp guy, he grew up in Lagos island. Not the posh golden streets of ikoyi or LEKKI or Victoria island, no!!! He was a real Lagos island boy, straight out of apongbon who had somehow made his way to banana island.

Being a certified Lagos boy he learnt pretty early that looks can be deceiving and so he invested heavily in his looks, he begged for a job as a sales boy at balogun market and so he got access to better clothes than he could actually afford, he was good looking and articulate and learnt the wonders of social media early enough so that he could stand outside Hard Rock Cafe and snag pictures with celebrities and post them with suggestive captions that made it seem like he was somehow a part of the artists circle. He even made friends with a few of their assistants and security men and that improved his access to the artists. Unfortunately for him he never learnt any actual tricks of the trade and could neither pass as a producer nor a songwriter nor A&R or a promoter, but because of his looks and charisma he became very popular in the Lagos music scene.

Fortune smiled his way when Don jazzy mistakenly followed him on Instagram after he reposted a picture he literally begged for outside the wheat baker's hotel Lagos, Tunde thanked him so much that Don jazzy couldn’t unfollow him anymore and unfortunately for all his Prey, more celebrities started to follow him seeing as Don Jazzy had already given his seal of approval by following him.

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Tunde had a lot of clout on social media but in real life he knew he didn’t have the same juice, this did not stop him from making lofty promises to anybody willing to listen in exchange for their hard earned money after which he would disappear into the night like Batman.

He met his match in his girlfriend Nana, their “meet cute” is a long story of both parties trying to scam each other before realizing that they were essentially the same person and falling in love , they worked together and were responsible for a lot of broken hearts and Lagos horror stories including Ziks.

The day Zik flew into Lagos a scam had gone south for Tunde resulting in him needing to lay low for a while, he and Nana had posed as a digital distribution & management company and approached one Ajebor upcoming artist with promises of his song being on the billboard 100 charts and collaborations with top artists. After siphoning over twenty million Naira from the boys father they were unable to deliver on any of their promises and thought they could get away with it by laying low for a while, unfortunately the Ajebor artist “Jay breeze” had real gangster friends who found Tunde outside one of his hideouts and attempted to beat the twenty million Naira out of him, they successfully broke an arm and his right eye and would have carried him away had it not been for the timely intervention of some good samaritans around.

When Ziks call came in he was passed out on Nana’s couch calculating how many other people he owed money and wondering if his luck had finally run out. He was normally able to get away with his scams and had only gotten caught once before, he paid back half of the money he collected and was set free. Where was he going to get twenty million to give that untalented boy and his father now?
“ Zik says to check on you and that he’s coming into Lagos tomorrow babe” Nana said breaking his train of thought.
He was too weak to panic but he knew he was in much bigger trouble with Zik than anyone else, unlike all his other prey he had actually tried to deliver on some of his promises to Zik but it cost money to maintain his public image and so a lot of the money he had received had gone towards giveaways on social media, clothes, club dates with artists and things like that.
“Who is Zik babe? You look worried and you’re mumbling…Na maga?” Nana asked once again interrupting his soliloquy.
“No be maga but I dey owe am plenty money” Tunde responded adjusting slightly and wincing at the pain that followed.
Nana didn’t ask any further questions because she felt bad for his current state, but in her head she wondered how she ended up here, always looking over her shoulders, living off one scam to the next, unable to be truly happy.

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Zik woke up in a strange bed, he couldn’t figure out where he was or what had happened or how he got where he was. He was wearing just his underwear and was covered in a blanket, across from him was a picture of a sports car and above it a crucifix. As he tried to get up and assess his surroundings he heard a familiar voice.
“Ahhh Oga!!! Thank God oooo
I think say you don die oooo!!!
It was the driver who was meant to take him to a hotel.
“What happened, where am I?” He mumbled weakly, the driver burst into tears as he tried to explain how thugs had come out from nowhere and started a fight after the accident, Police and Lastma had arrived on the scene and his car which had suffered severe damage was towed away. He had barely managed to get Zik into a Taxi and brought him to his home but had lost some of his luggage in the hassle.
It all started to slowly come back to Zik, he closed his eyes and felt hot teardrops run down his cheeks, he had not been in Lagos for even 24 hours yet and the city seemed determined to kill him, he let the tears flow wondering what hurt more, his body or his head.