TERO MANDEM Subtitle: From Street Boss to Saved Soul

Chapter 7: Ruby Red

Sometimes, in the thick of street wars and studio sessions, life throws you something soft. Something unexpected. And that’s exactly what happened when Ruby stepped into my world.

It was a sunny Thursday afternoon, just after we finished performing at a school event in Achimota. The crowd had been mad—students chanting “MMS” like we were gods. Girls screaming, phones flashing, and vibes thick like smoke. But my eyes? They caught her—quiet, distant, not like the rest. She wasn’t screaming. She wasn’t chasing autographs. She just stood there, arms crossed, looking… interested. Not impressed. Not like a fan. Like she was studying me.

That alone shook me.

I walked up to her later when the crowd had cleared out and the boys were backstage popping bottles. She was standing near a mango tree, scrolling on her phone.

“Yo, you no like our performance?” I asked, half-smiling.

She looked up slowly, eyes sharp. “You were loud. But good.”

I laughed. “Loud but good? That’s fair.”

She smiled faintly. “I’m Ruby.”

Just like that, Ruby entered my life — not with fireworks, but like a gentle wind that slowly pulls your mind in a different direction. That night, I didn’t join the gang back at the hideout. I stayed on the road with her. We talked for hours. About music, life, dreams. She didn’t care about gangs or street clout. She didn’t even know I was Tero Mandem, the name that made grown men tense up.

To her, I was just Terrell.

And for some reason, I liked that.

Back at the base, the boys noticed the change.

Problem raised his brow. “You dey move strange lately.”

“Me?” I acted dumb.

“Yeah, you. You disappear after shows. You no dey smoke much again. You dey soft.”

Biggie laughed. “Man catch feelings.”

I didn’t answer. I just smiled. They weren’t wrong.

Ruby had that effect on me.

She wasn’t trying to change me, but she made me think. About the blood we shed. The beefs we entertained. The truths we hid behind bangers and bars.

One night, she told me, “You’re too smart to be just a gang leader.”

That sentence stuck with me. Played in my head over and over like a hook from a track.

But you know how life works. The more you start changing, the more life tests you.

I was in love.

Not the type you flex with in the streets, not the kind you post on W******p statuses with a Drake song playing in the background. This was different. Ruby had me wide open — emotionally raw in a way I didn’t even know I was capable of.

She didn’t just listen to me. She heard me. And that scared me more than bullets.

We’d sneak out late, walk through Mataheko backroads, just talking. She’d rest her head on my shoulder while we shared meat pie and FanIce under streetlights that flickered like my doubts. I told her things I hadn’t even told Problem — about my mother leaving, about my fear of dying before anyone really knew who I was inside.

And Ruby? She never judged me.

She just held my hand tighter.

But love comes with a cost when you’re running in shadows.

One night, during a meeting with the gang at our Lapaz hideout, I was absent-minded, scrolling through old pictures of her on my phone. Biggie noticed first.

“Yo, Tero,” he snapped, “you here or you dey dreamland?”

Problem was less playful. “You wan make we go show, you dey dey think about girl?”

“I fit think about both,” I said, brushing it off.

“No, bro,” Problem said firmly. “This thing go kill you. Love go blind you. You no fit lead MMS and fall in love like schoolboy.”

The room went quiet.

Problem was my brother in blood, but that night, I could feel something cold in his tone — fear. Maybe fear of losing me. Or fear of the unknown, of something softer than revenge and money.

But I didn’t care.

That night, I left the hideout early and went straight to Ruby’s house in Dansoman.

When she opened the door and hugged me, I knew I had made my choice.

Weeks passed. I was still with the gang, still doing shows, still making music. But my heart was in a different place. Ruby started showing up at small gigs. She’d wait backstage, sit quietly, then walk me out like she was my peace in the chaos.

But peace doesn’t mix well with the street.

One night after a University of Ghana show, we were walking out hand in hand when some boys from the Steel Fire Gang spotted us. They didn’t attack, not yet. But the looks they gave? Threats without words.

The next morning, I got a call from Problem.

“We need to talk,” he said.

We met at the old container spot near Hansonik station. Just me and him.

“She go get you killed,” he said coldly. “You dey carry love into a battlefield.”

I lit a cigarette, more out of habit than need. “I need something real, Problem. This life, it no go last forever.”

“Exactly why you no fit waste time with emotions. When bullets start flying, Ruby no go save you.”

I looked him in the eye. “Maybe she already has.”

But it didn’t end there.

Problem started holding meetings without me.

Moves were made that I didn’t know about.

Whispers began. Some of the young boys we recruited from UCC and Clean Tabs started drifting. Loyalty was cracking.

And Ruby?

She felt it too.

“You’re different when you’re with them,” she said one night. “Like you’re split in two.”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.

Because she was right.