(Late that night. The sisters' room. A single oil lamp flickers.)
OGUNWEMI: She knows. She will tell the whole village. We will be the raped ones, the unclean. No one will ever touch us.
OGUNSHOLA: (Her face contorted in a mask of hate) She won't tell anyone. Because she won't have a tongue. Or a breath.
OGUNWEMI: (Gasping) Shola... you mean...?
OGUNSHOLA: If she dies, the secret dies with her. And we will blame the "Stranger." We will tell Father that Ajaka grew angry when she refused to leave with him. We will say he struck her down in a divine rage. The village will rise against him. They will chase him into the bush.
OGUNWEMI: But he is... he is powerful.
OGUNSHOLA: He is one man. We are the daughters of the master blacksmith. The village loves us. They will believe the Beauties over the Outsider.
(The Great Tree at the edge of the compound. OGUNWUMI sits waiting for Ajaka. The sisters approach from behind, carrying a heavy bronze ceremonial mace from their father's forge.)
OGUNWUMI: (Turning) Shola? Wemi? Is that you? I knew you would come. I wanted to tell you I'm sorry, but I couldn't let the lie
(OGUNSHOLA raises the mace. The moonlight glints off the bronze.)
OGUNSHOLA: Goodbye, little sister. Thank you for making this so easy.
(The mace falls. A sickening thud. OGUNWUMI collapses without a cry. The sisters immediately begin screaming, tearing their own clothes and scratching their faces.)
OGUNSHOLA & OGUNWEMI: (Screaming together) MURDER! MURDER! THE STRANGER HAS KILLED OUR SISTER! HELP! THE WAR GOD HAS DRUNK THE BLOOD OF OUR HOUSE!
(The village assembles. Torches everywhere. AJAKA enters, looking at the body of his beloved. He does not weep; his face turns to stone. The villagers, led by the grieving OGUNLANA, surround him with pitchforks and iron spears.)
OGUNLANA: (Broken-hearted) You... I trusted you! You took her life because you could not have her?
AJAKA: (Looking at the sisters, who are "weeping" hysterically) You believe these shells of women? You choose the lie over the God?
STRANGER 2 (from the forest, now a villager): Kill him! Drive the demon out!
(They pelt AJAKA with stones. They spit on him. He does not fight back. He absorbs the humiliation, his eyes fixed on Ogunwumi's cold form.)
AJAKA: (A voice that shakes the ground) You have offered me shame. I accept it. But know this: Iron remembers. And when 33 years have passed, and you think the earth has forgotten her blood... I will return. Not as a suitor. But as the Harvest.
(AJAKA turns and walks into the dark forest. The spears thrown at his back shatter into dust. He disappears. The sisters share a secret, triumphant glance over their sister's corpse.)