Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold

I grew up in a home that may as well have been a prison where the only chance we got to experience the world outside was when we went to school or church. My siblings and I weren’t even allowed to play with or chat with the neighbours. This kind of guarded upbringing, I believe, attributed to the kind of person I would later become. Always indoors – in fact, my apartment is like a country that I need a visa to step out of.

I grew up liking women and even had a few girlfriends. I never knew anything like homosexuals existed. I only got to know about it in the year 2006, when I was in 200 level in the university and a guy I was queued up with in the bank told me that my butt was rubbing against his dick. He asked me if we could meet after the bank, and I didn’t even understand what he meant.

Fast forward to 2010, just after my youth service, and I had started developing this interest in guys. It was like a fire flickering to life inside me, this desire for men, and then gradually growing. I didn’t know how to go about cultivating any friendships for the purpose of exploring these feelings. Then in 2011, I got to know about 2go. While navigating through the app, I stumbled into a gay chat room and lo and behold, that was where I discovered a truth: that men who like men were quite numerous in this country.

I was on 2go for about a year. And then 2012 rolled around. While on the app, I saw a lot of people advertising their locations for an add-up and a possible meet. I joined in this trend and added someone who I met with for this first time in Port Harcourt where I reside. After hooking up with this guy, I waited some weeks, to let the fact that I’d finally known a man carnally settle in. And then, I decided to indulge again and returned to 2go.

It was during this time that I added up this guy named Amadi who indicated that he lived in Ogbunabali.

I was a guy still discovering his homosexuality, and I was very naïve. I didn’t even know there were such things as kito. All I knew was that when Amadi invited me to his place on a fateful Friday afternoon, I said yes and went off to meet him, not knowing that I was on my way to one of the ugliest experiences I’d ever had. I was going to set out from work with my friend’s laptop and my two phones, but changed my mind because of the cumbersomeness of the laptop, deciding to leave it at work.

I got to CFC bus stop, as directed by Amadi. And he came there to pick me up, taking me to his house. We went in. There appeared to be privacy. He brought out some condoms and undressed himself totally. I undressed also for what I thought was about to happen. But then he got up, as though suddenly remembering to lock the door.

This was when my nightmare began.

Someone just then walked into the room. Feeling a little irritated, I began asking Amadi why he hadn’t told me that there was someone in the house. But my irritation was choked off when the guy produced a cutlass and some whips. Amadi also suddenly seemed to have a cutlass and whips with him as well. And they pounced on me. I wanted to fight back, but I was held back by the thought of them lashing out at me with their cutlasses. So far, they were only striking me with the whips. Then they proceeded to divest me of my phones, cash, gold necklace, wristwatch, belt and even socks.

Amadi took his phone and called for more guys to come over. I started pleading for mercy. What more did they want? My pleading seemed to anger his accomplice, who began lashing mercilessly at me with his whip.

It wasn’t long before three other guys joined the party, and with them came my saving grace. The one who appeared to be their leader took one look at me and said that my face looked familiar. I didn’t know whether he was serious about finding me familiar or if he was just saying. Recognising a chance however, I focused my pleading on him and got the empathy I needed. He stopped his friends from assaulting me and began talking to me about quitting “this gay life.” He said they’d planned to march me naked to the town hall, but because he likes me, he was going to let me go. This decision didn’t go down well with the others. One of them wanted to recommence flogging me, but this saviour of mine blocked him off. He maintained that I was to be let go. And so, I was allowed to put my clothes back on, but not until they had videoed me naked.

The house was apparently Amadi’s family house, because they were walking me to the front door when the door was opened and a woman walked in. from the swift change in the attitude of my captors and their polite greetings, it quickly became apparent to me that she was Amadi’s mother. However, I didn’t act on this; I didn’t want any further embarrassment, so I acted like I was one of the boys and moved on downstairs.

The guy who had beaten me the most followed me outside, and obviously still smarting from their leader’s decision, wanted to draw more blood. He announced to the people seated outside that I had come to look for my fellow man with a condom. I felt very mortified, willing the ground to open up and swallow me. one of those people, a man, called me over to him. He had seen the bruises on my body and took pity on me. He consoled me some, and then instructed my captors to return my sim cards to me. then he gave me some money for my transportation back home.

When I got home, I had to cook up a story of robbery to my roommate who is straight, and also to our neighbor. They both believed my story and the neighbor gave me one of his phones to use until I get another.

The following week, these guys started calling my MTN line to blackmail me. Immediately after their first call and demand, I got rid of the sim card and began using another number.

That was my brutal introduction into the wicked world of kito. I learnt my lesson and began staying firmly away from hooking up with anybody from 2go. I later learnt of Manjam and then Badoo and all the internet media that serve as a means for hooking up. But I remembered Amadi and I stayed away. The only way I trust to get to know guys is via recommendations. The one guy I met after Amadi happened to be someone who’s been around the block, and so, through him, I was able to get my hookup on. And that has been fine for me.

One mistake Amadi made is that he did this to me in his house where his family lives. I’m just not ready for him yet. When I am, when this meal of revenge is suitably cold, I will make sure I serve it to him with as much satisfaction as I can get.

Written by Papilo