It was on a Saturday morning when Promise or rather, Maprosper, as he was known by his friends, heard a whistle from outside. He looked through his bedroom window which was facing the gate. It was Prince, one of his friends. Maprosper went out and opened the gate for Prince. It was early and they went to sit in Maprosper’s bedroom.

Prince had not just visited Promise but had some news for him. Just as they entered the bedroom, Prince ordered Promise to close the door so he could tell him the reason for his early visit. Promise closed the door and sat on the bed and attentively listened. Prince told him he had just seen a “TeamFaith” poster saying there was a Christmas bash at the community hall. Prince had always made it a must to attend all “TeamFaith” bashes. He always took Martin with him but unfortunately he was not around and hence he came to see Promise. He was not there to tell him about the bash but to also ask him if they could go together.

“Good idea,” Maprosper said.

His parents were going to a church party that night so it was his chance to go enjoy. Promise insisted they meet at his place since his parents would be gone. They agreed on the time and were both satisfied. So the plan was that Promise would play sick until it was time to go to church so they would leave him behind.

Their plan worked out perfect and his parents left him.

Later, Prince came over and jumped over the locked gate and proceeded to Promise’s room. Promise explained their plan had worked out and they needed to be back home before midnight. Before they left, Promise brought his plate of supper and they shared.

The whole plan took a twist when they heard the gate opening. It was Promise’s parents. They were back from the cancelled church party. Prince slipped under the bed and made no sound while Promise jumped into bed and pretended to be asleep. His mother came straight into his room to check on him and found him sleeping. She did not want to disturb him and switched the lights off and retired to bed. She hardly noticed Prince under the bed.

As the door closed, they both jumped from their positions and asked each other, “What’s next?”

Prince was forever full of ideas. He decided they must use the window so that nobody could hear them or see them leaving. Promise knew his parents would never come to his bedroom till the next morning.

At the bash, everyone was there and very much enjoying themselves. Even the boys from Olando East were there too.

The Olando East boys were Promise’s enemies. They had a quarrel about a very useless matter back at school and the boys told Promise that it was not over until it was over. Since it was a Christmas bash, everyone saw it as an opportunity to drink alcohol. Prince had brought with him a bottle of whisky which they were now drinking as soon as they arrived. It didn’t take long for Promise to be drunk and dancing all over. The Olando boys noticed him.

Promise left the hall to go and pee. The toilets at the hall were, for some weird reason, locked and people were all going outside to relieve themselves. Since there were police all over, Promise decided to go to a dark corner so they would not notice him. When the Olando boys saw him, they saw it as an opportunity to pounce on him.

As he unzipped his trouser, he heard a sharp pain on the side of his stomach which was followed by a very rare pain. He tightly pressed where the pain was and stumbled his way back home. Upon arrival, he jumped through his window and fell down. He was too weak to stand and so he slept.

Back at the bash, Prince bought a bottle of beer and went back to his seat. After a short while, he noticed that Promise was no longer around. He lifted his beer and went out to look for him. When he could not see him outside, he realised that he might have left. He followed him just to make sure. He got there and it was all dark but luckily the window was still open so he jumped through.

It was too dark for him to see in Prince’s room and so he tried to reach for the light switch. With the beer bottle still in his hand, he slowly moved towards the switch. Something tripped him and he fell. A loud sound was heard. It was the beer bottle hitting the floor and breaking.

He was left carrying the top half of the broken bottle. Promise’s parents jumped out of their beds and ran towards Maprosper’s bedroom. The father forcefully opened the door and switched the light on.

To both their amazement, Promise was lying in a pool of blood while Prince was on top of him, still holding the top half of the broken bottle.

The father pulled Prince aside and started shaking Promise, to try and wake him up. But he never did. He felt his pulse and raised his head and looked at Prince. Promise was dead. With the curtains dancing to the wind, it showed the window was open. So it was clear to them that Prince gained access into the room through the window before stabbing Promise with the broken bottle.

They called the police who responded very quickly. Prince was arrested and his mother was informed.

On Monday morning, Prince attended court and had a story cooked up. He thought telling the truth was not an option as he thought the story was not convincing enough. Since he too did not really know what had happened, he decided to add a little lie to the whole scenario.

He confessed that they had both gone to the bash and when they were coming back, a group of guys approached them asking for money. Because Promise was drunk, he decided to fight them and that is how he got stabbed and the guys ran. So he carried him to his home. As he was putting him down, that is when he fell and the bottle broke. Since they were both drunk, he couldn’t stand up and that is when Promise’s parents walked in.

His story sounded very much convincing to the judge. Before the judge could say a thing, Promise’s mother stood up and asked him how he carried him over the gate since it was locked. At this point, Prince was dumbfounded. That’s when the judge started to doubt him.

The last witness took to the stand. It was Mr Mashazi from across the road.

He saw Prince jumping over the gate but he was alone. After his dogs barked noisily, he woke up and peeped through the window and that’s when he saw Prince jumping over the locked gate.

The judged gathered his facts and had a verdict. Prince was sentenced to 25 years for murdering his friend.

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Tell us: Do you think Prince should have just told the truth from the beginning?