David, much like his biblical namesake, was a strikingly handsome young man with an infectious zest for life. Cheerful by nature and slow to anger, he possessed an easy charm that drew people to him wherever he went. He lived boldly, embracing each day as though tomorrow were never guaranteed.
Unlike the David of Scripture, however, he had never danced naked through the streets. Yet he shared one weakness with the ancient king—a profound admiration for beautiful women.
An attractive face was often enough to cloud his judgment. If a woman captured his interest, he pursued her with remarkable determination, rarely pausing to consider the consequences. His friends often joked that, given the chance, he would rival the biblical David himself, who sent Uriah to the front lines of battle in order to claim Bathsheba.
David laughed at the comparison. Whether deserved or not, his reputation preceded him.
Almost everyone in the neighborhood knew him, and many knew exactly why. It seemed there was always a different young woman by his side. Few stayed longer than two or three nights before another took her place, fueling the endless gossip that followed him wherever he went.
Despite his reputation, David carried himself with such warmth and effortless charisma that people found it difficult to dislike him. Even those who shook their heads at his choices often did so with reluctant amusement, knowing that his greatest flaw was not cruelty or malice, but an undisciplined heart forever chasing the next beautiful face.
Like many young men his age, David came to Lagos with dreams larger than the city itself. Finding work and making money were certainly among them, but there was another ambition he rarely admitted aloud.
He intended to seduce as many beautiful women as he could.
To David, every successful affair was another victory, another story to tell himself. Over the past four years, he had meticulously documented each one in a small notebook he guarded more carefully than most people guarded their bank records.
By his latest count, there had been seventy-three women.
Beside each entry, he had recorded the woman's name, the date, the location where they had met, and, with almost comical seriousness, his personal assessment of the encounter. Every name ended with one of four verdicts: Bad. Good. Great. Or, in the exceedingly rare category he was still waiting to use—Divine.
Despite his optimism, that final column remained empty. Seventy-three names. Not one had earned what David considered the highest distinction. He often joked that somewhere in Lagos there had to be a woman worthy of the word divine. Until he found her, the list would remain unfinished.
One day, tragedy struck as it does for everyone once in a while. His shop at the main market, where he sold female clothes, underwear, and accessories, was engulfed in strange flames, with the origin of the fire unknown till this very moment. In a matter of seconds, his whole life was reduced to dust and ashes.
David was left with no other option than to look for a job, and he found one in the strangest of places. The pay was good; he could still foot his bills and keep up with his expensive lifestyle, but no one has to know he now works in a mortuary.
The first day on the job, the corpse of a young lady was brought in. She died from a terrible car accident. Inexperienced, he quickly laid her on the table and carefully removed her clothes till she was naked like God made her. He cleaned her face and other orifices with a strong disinfectant.
While working on her nude body, he admired her, not in a sexual manner but out of sympathy. A few hours ago, she was a beauty with such a great body that caused men, even important men, to fawn all over her. She must have cared, covered, and spent most of her time beautifying this body that now repelled him. All she once covered carefully and must have been very proud of now stared at him, and he could do whatever with it.
Next, with a shaving stick, he shaved the hair off every part of her body. He massaged the major muscles to relieve tension and move stiff joints to loosen them up. With a special cream, he closed up her mouth and set it naturally.
Close to her thigh, he made an incision and inserted the drain tube towards the heart. With the embalming machine, he distributed the embalmment fluid throughout the body, and then he made another incision, from which blood came out from the body. He washed the body thoroughly using a powerful disinfectant. After which he transferred her body to the cold room, locker 3, and closed for that very day, leaving the place at about some minutes before 9 pm.
On the bus ride home, David found himself seated beside a young woman with an Amazonian figure. She carried herself with a quiet confidence that made her difficult to ignore.
There was a melancholy about her beauty. Her face was both lovely and sorrowful, framed by bright, expressive eyes that seemed to conceal more than they revealed. Her full lips, naturally shaped into the faintest downward curve, hinted at burdens she had carried for far too long.
She wasn't the sort of woman whose beauty announced itself the moment she entered a room. She was the kind who grew more captivating the longer you looked at her. David caught himself stealing occasional glances in her direction.
Not out of rudeness, but because there was something quietly compelling about her face. It possessed the rare quality of seeming ordinary at first, only to linger in the mind long after one looked away. So, every now and then, he looked again, committing her features to memory before the bus reached its destination.
Out of habit, his eyes fell on her hand in search of a ring. Married women were now a no-go-area for him. After numerous brutal encounters from their husbands, which leave him worse than before he met them. Even if this one were married, he would be willing to risk it for this goddess, but there was no shining ring on her finger, so he was saved.
His eyes slowly moved from her fingers through her hand to her chest; her two shining watermelons were trying furiously to escape from her gown. The thought of his tongue tip on those hard dark nipples was already sending blood to his dick. Done salivating and wishing, he took the bull by the tits, pulling closer and said
"Hi." No response came back.
Maybe she didn't hear him. He pulled closer and this time said it a little louder
"Hi, beautiful…"
She turned to face him, her languid eyelashes of velvet-black blinked once slowly, simultaneously with his heartbeat as she returned his
"Hi…"
"My God, I can't stop myself from staring at your beautiful face," he said with a deep, calm voice.
She broke into a broad, sexy smile; her oyster-white teeth lit up the bus. So beautiful, it was like the stars themselves decided to rest against the soft cushion of her lips.
"Thanks…"
The smile jolted David like an electric current.
"Your smile is warm, brighter than the moon," he whispered softly into her ears.
She flashed him another smile in response to his heartfelt compliment. Right there he made up his mind that there is no way he is leaving this bus without her digits. He brought out his phone and took it to his ear.
"Hello! God…" he whispered, looking away from her. "It is I, David, your beloved son. Yes… all is fine," he nodded. "I just wanted to let you know, I saw that missing angel today. I'm seated next to her right now."
She smiled once again, pulling nearer to him, and asked in a voice sweet as a bird song, "Who is the angel?"
"You," he said without thinking.
Her warm oxbow lips still near his ear, she mouthed, "I am not that beautiful."
As the words escaped from her lips, he could feel her warm breath and caught a whiff of her sweet perfume. He knew that scent; he perceived it today but just can't place when or where.
"Yes, you are. But there is a unique thing about you that makes my heart jump inside my chest," he said with his hands on his chest, wearing an expression like the heart really jumped.
"What?" A sudden curious look hinted at her eyes.
"My heart took another skip at the sound of your voice."
She giggled softly and asked in a more seductive tone, "What do you want from his angel?"