Happy Women’s Day to the extraordinary mothers, daughters, sisters, and girls who grace our world. You are truly invaluable, embodying the essence of love.
You are deserving of boundless love, every wonderful thing life has to offer, and the success you aspire to achieve. Remember, you are not defined by weakness, helplessness, or any limitations. Instead, you are a remarkable gift to your generation and those that follow.
Continue to radiate your brilliance, breathe in the strength within you, and inspire others with the light you bring into the world. Your impact is immeasurable, and your journey is a testament to the strength and beauty of women everywhere. Happy Women’s Day!
I blindly stared at my meal, repeatedly stabbing the contents of the plate with my fork.
Everyone else was eating, looking all calm and unbothered, the clinks and clanks of their cutleries hitting the fancy marble plates mixed with their chatters filled the air. Even Ms Boma joined in the idle chat. It was either they weren’t bothered by the events of the recent happenings or they were experts at hiding their fears and worries.
Ms Boma specifically looked at peace. After we reported Kamaria’s fall at the waterfall today, she didn’t believe us. She said it was some misunderstanding. Ezra and a few of us also thought the lot of us that was scared were being unnecessarily hysterical.
According to Ezra, we’ve all gone mad.
“You shouldn’t waste good food, you know,” Enai beamed, tapping his cutlery on the edge of my plate.
I managed a smile back. “You want some?” I didn’t wait for his response before I turned half of my food into his empty plate with shaking hands.
I was terrified. I was a few breaths from cowering against a wall and whimpering.
First, it was a series of weird happenings then I was being strangled. Kamaria had been convinced that Uli had been the one strangling me and Uli after she came back had apologised nonstop. But I had been very sure that it was Tobi. It was my brother’s palm that was wrapped against my neck, squeezing the life out of me. I couldn’t tell them though else they’d think I’d gone mad.
Then earlier today at the waterfall, Kamaria standing close to it and smiling to herself bent to pick something up but instead fell in the water. When she got out she started to accuse me of pushing her.
I had been trying to wrap my head around all of these and make sense of them but I couldn’t. I was sure everyone here knew that this place was strange. It had been humming with that sinister energy ever since our bus drove into this place.
“Gaia,” Ms Boma’s voice threw me out of my thoughts. “Are you okay, dear?”
“I’m fine,” I shook my head and forced a creamy slice of cucumber into my mouth.
“Are you sick?” She pestered me more. By this time the chatter had died down. Everywhere was eerily quiet. “Come on, girl look at me.”
I looked at her and was thrown aback by the distorted thing that stared back at me. It was perched on the table. It looked like a seal with big throbbing boils all over its body, and slimy substance dripped out of them.
“What’s wrong, Gaia? Are you sick?” I heard a tiny voice come from the thing.
I looked around the table and was surprised to see everyone gone, save for Ezra who sat on his seat, his gaze glued to his phone.
“Ezra!” I called but as suspected, he ignored me. The thing left a thick mucoid trail as it slithered toward me. I leapt out of my seat and staggered back.
Behind it, I noticed Ms Boma, her head perched at the edge of the dining table. “Ms Boma!” My voice quivered as I screamed her name.
“Ms Bom- oh my god!” I shrieked and staggered back even more as the thing morphed into Tobi. He jumped down from the table and swaggered toward me, his infectious smile in place.
I could almost hear my heartbeat as I gripped the wall beside me, staring at him. “Tobi?”
“Come on now, baby sis,” he opened his arms. “Don’t be a scaredy cat, bring it in.”
My chest rose and fell as I slowly calmed down. “Is it really you?”
He stopped moving and his smile widened. “I’ve missed you, G.”
I gasped, my throat closing up as I felt verklempt. Without further ado, I ran into his arms.
“Ahh,” I let out a low groan, sharp pain shooting up my body as I hit the obstruction and was knocked back, my back roughly coming in contact with the wall.
I rolled to my side and gazed ahead, my eyes slightly blurry from the oncoming tears. There was nothing there but it had felt like I ran into a wall of porcupines.
Trembling, I tried to get back on my feet but my legs gave and I plonked back down on the tiled floor. I could still see Tobi standing there, his arms opened wide as he smiled at me. He looked frozen.
“Tobi,” my whisper sounded rough, weak.
He started to shake, swaying from side to side and my head started to ache. I clutched onto my head and looked around then I realized that the whole room was spinning, my friends and classmates appearing and disappearing.
I held my head in my palms and squeezed my eyes shut, gladly sinking into the comforting darkness. It was better than this nightmare.
***
“Gaia!” Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw Uli and Dolapo shaking me.
I noticed my head wasn’t banging again and I barely felt any ache. “What is it?”
They both stopped at the same time. “Oh thank God. You’re awake,” Dolapo pulled me into a hug.
Behind her, the rest of us stood there. Some gazed at us while the others scanned around them.
It was then I noticed that we weren’t in the dining hall anymore. We were all in an empty spacious room painted in black. Joshua was slamming his fist on the wall. “Hello?” He called, “Anyone out there?”
“Where are we?”
“We don’t know, we all just found ourselves here,” Uli answered. “Where’s Ezra?”
They both looked at me expectantly. I frowned. “Ezra? I don’t know.”
Dolapo slightly pulled away. “You should. You’re the last one to get here.”
“How did I get here?”
Instead of answering my question, they both turned to face each other.
Uli suggested we went to see the waterfall at the other side of adventure land. Since Gaia and almost everyone else was cool with the idea, I decided to tag along. Although I honestly wanted to sleep a little more, I didn’t want to be the only one not outside enjoying the morning breeze and sight seeing.
The waterfall was beautiful, not as beautiful as the Farin Ruwa waterfall, but pretty to the eyes, you understand? We were all outside, except for Ms Boma.
Uli told Joshua, Joshua dragged Enai and Ezra, Dolapo dragged Jesam, and Uli and Gaia basically dragged me too. We were all in our comfort clothes, either sitting underneath a tall tree, on a rock or standing close to the waterfall. People like Ezra and Jesam didn’t look like they were slightly interested. Ezra practically ignored us all, sitting alone on a rock far away from everyone else, while Jesam was scrolling through her phone, her eyes refusing to lift from the screen.
Joshua sat with Dolapo and the rest of the girls, while I moved closer to the waterfall. I stood there, enjoying the gentle breeze and the calmness I got from it. So much tension, drama and confusion these past few days, it felt nice to finally get a break from it all and have a moment of peace.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I turned my head to look at who had spoken to me. I smiled at Gaia and nodded, turning to look at a tree across the waterfall with beautiful, colorful leaves.
“Definitely picture worthy,” She chuckled next to me and searched for her phone. “Oh no.” I looked down to see her phone on the floor. It must’ve fallen from her hand. I bent down to pick it up when suddenly, I feel a force and I’m pushed into the waterfall. My eyes were burning, my heart pounding, and my chest heavy.
I couldn’t swim. Oh God!
“Help! You guys, anyone!” I cried out, coughing violently as some water got into my mouth forcibly.
“Kamaria!” I wasn’t sure who called out to me, the voice was more than one. My eyes hurt to open. I tried to move my body but it felt like the water had more control than me.
“Haew!”
“How the hell did this happen?” I heard Joshua’s voice.
“Just get me out, please!” I cried out again. I heard someone jump into the water and I felt a hand on my arm, pulling me out. I sat on the floor, soaked and out of breath as I coughed out all the water that got into my mouth. I wrapped my arms around my savior, Joshua, my heart still pounding violently in my chest, so loud that I could literally hear it.
“Thank you.” I muttered and I heard someone scoff.
“The water wasn’t that deep and you weren’t that far from the ground. Stop being dramatic.” She said with an eyeroll.
Excuse me??
I was going to talk back at her , but Joshua beat me to it.
“Jesam, please.” He pressed firmly, hie eyes narrowed, then he turned to look at me. “How did you fall in?”
I turned my head searching for the girl who caused this. I narrowed my eyes at her, eyes burning in anger.
“Gaia pushed me.”
“What?”
“WHAT?!”
They all exclaimed simultaneously. What irritated me was how Gaia was pretending to be surprised.
“You pushed her, why?” Enai turned to her to ask. Everyone else also turned their heads to look at her, watching her open and shut her mouth, looking for what to say.
“I didn’t push her-”
“Yes, you did.” What the hell was she trying to do?
“Why did you push her, Gaia?” Joshua sighed, asking.
“I did NOT push Kamaria into the waterfall, Okay?!” Gaia growled.
“Are you saying I’m blind? You were standing there with me and then I bent down to pick your phone and suddenly I was in the water Was I imagining it, hmm?”I rose an eyebrow at her.
Gaia frowned, “What are you talking about? I was with Uli!”
Wait. What?
“Unless I have some type of telekinetic power, I wasn’t anywhere close to you or the waterfall, Kamaria!”
“What is going on?!” Dolapo voiced out my exact thoughts. Enai’s mouth were parted, but no words came out. Jesam’s facial expression gave off confused, Joshua’s gave off confused and lost.
Ezra hissed suddenly. “You’ve all gone mad.” Was all he said before turning and leaving us all there.
I have been over this trip ever since my confrontation with Ezra.
And the creepy vibes were not helping my anxiety.
I have been on edge, my anxiety rising, I could feel the black ink creeping up my skin whenever I concentrated too hard.
I was on the verge of having a full-blown panic attack and that was the last thing anyone needed.
I wasn’t really in tune with Dolapo’s story, I don’t do horror. But I could feel goosebumps rise on my skin and the temperature drop as she spoke but it was probably all in my head.
Kamaria’s soft snores were the only sound in the room.
I was uncomfortable and hot for some reason, I was slowly regretting not taking a bath and just jumping in bed. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time, fear had gripped my heart after Gaia’s claims and Maria’s attempts at De-escalating the situation were not working.
Like Ezra wasn’t creepy enough, he had to go and multiply, no matter what anyone said I know Ezra never left the room, my body and mind were painfully attuned to his every movement, expecting him to attack since his outburst.
I stared up at the ceiling, trying to make patterns, I could feel Gaia’s hand resting comfortably on my tummy, and Kamaria’s snores like a gentle whisper, it lured me to sleep as I counted in my head, eyelids feeling heavy.
The sound became distorted and I opened my eyes to look, her snores grew louder and deeper like a growl.
I tried looking at her but all my joints were locked in place, I could not move, the walls and ceilings darkened, black ink dripped down from them and I watched in horror as Gaia drowned in the pull of ink swirling in the room.
I wanted to scream, I tried but no sound came out.
The hand on my tummy was now that of a man, I recognized the 1976 vintage watch he used to wear, his hands crawled up my body, my joints were still locked in place and all I could do was watch with shaky lips just like before.
The face of my mum’s boyfriend appeared, his sinister grin and decayed teeth from the narcotics he used to take were unmistakable, and goosebumps coated my skin as he crawled up my body.
I was not letting this happen again, over my dead body.
My limbs loosened and my hands shot out to wrap around his throat, I squeezed and didn’t stop even when his lips became blue, I kept squeezing, his flying hands and manicured fingers left a cut in my hands as he scratched at me with them.
I concentrated on the crimson liquid trickling out of the wound and blinked my eyes.
The ink had disappeared, and Kamaria’s screams were loud as she tried to pry me away from a struggling Gaia.
My hands wrapped firmly around her throat as she tried to fend me off.
I pushed off her and clambered down the bed on shaky legs, my hands were shaky and my entire body vibrated.
Kamaria rushed to Gaia’s aid, as she coughed and tried to get air back in her lungs with watery eyes.
I looked at my friends in horror as they stared back at me.
Like a monster, I am a monster and I almost choked Gaia till she passed out.
I turned and fled the room, ignoring Maria’s call of my name. I needed to get out of Adventure Land.
I ran till the hallways of the hotel blurred in my vision, no staff stopped me or questioned me.
One minute I was in the lobby and the next I was in my childhood bedroom.
I wanted to scream and so I did, a gut wrenching scream tore out of me as I felt dizzy and everything went black.
“Finally,” I muttered as I slammed the door shut behind me, locking out the pandemonium. I wasn’t really bothered about the chaos caused by Dolapo’s dramatic story but it was quite unnerving to watch all our friends freak out over a stupid little horror tale.
*What a day, eh?” Dolapo chuckled from her spot on the lower bunk. “Are you sure you’re not just a teensy bit terrified, Jesam?”
I scoffed in response. “You wish.” All that story did was stir up unnecessary drama. Now, everyone’s walking around scared out of their minds.
I crossed the room to our shared bathroom. “Well, they were a fun bunch today,” I muttered, echoing my sentiments into the small space as I stripped down for a quick shower.
I could feel the water washing away the grime of the day, relaxing me a little. The white tiles were comfortingly solid, the reflection from the dim light forming abstract patterns. There was a silence I relished. Then, abruptly, a feeling took root that felt like ice against the hot skin.
Something was off. It wasn’t an errant noise, or a whisper of movement that signified an unwanted intrusion, it was simply…a sensation. Like being in an empty room but sensing someone standing right behind you. Like a gaze settled upon me that made my skin tingle.
“Nonsense,” I murmured aloud, to break the chilling silence, even though it echoed awkwardly.
But a glance around, swivelling to inspect each corner revealed nothing, no phantom menace. Of course, there wasn’t anything. No horror lurking behind the curtain, or creature nesting in the overhead vent. Just me. The only horror, I realized, was my own runaway imagination, stoked by Dolapo’s ghoulish tales.
With a stern sigh, I sternly told myself, It’s just a bathroom, Jesam. There’s no bogeyman here. Yet, despite my confident declaration, a prickle ran down my spine, causing me to rinse hurriedly.
Shaking my head, I told myself it was just the aftershock of the day. Dolapo’s words were still echoing in my head. Perhaps she had managed to frighten me a bit after all.
“Just focus on the hot shower, Jesam. All of it is just a mind trick,” I muttered to myself.
As I made my way out of the bathroom, with a towel wrapped around me, a quick movement at the edge of my vision startled me. Then I felt it – a spiky sensation moving upward, ascending along my leg. My eyes shot downward and what I saw next elicited a shriek from my mouth. There it was. A roach. A huge, dark brown, repugnant roach. Crawling leisurely up my calf.
I froze for a second before an ear-piercing scream filled the room, bouncing off the walls. A roach! There was a freaking roach crawling up my leg!
This was the reality – the actual, disgusting monster.
“And to think you were mocking everyone for getting scared!” Dolapo’s teasing voice came through as I freaked out, trying to shake the damn thing off. My face flushed hot in the cold room and the horror of it made me yell out one more time, this time filled with frustration