CHAPTER 3 — THE WHISPERS UNDER THE OLD Earth
889 Words
The morning in Budu Town arrived with a suspicious kind of silence—the sort that made goats stop chewing, elders pause mid‑gossip, and even the clouds hesitate as if reconsidering their entire schedule. It was the type of silence that suggested something dramatic, unnecessary, and highly chaotic was about to happen.
Right in the center of this calm stood Chike, staring at the gate of Budu Graveyard with the kind of dread a student feels when the teacher says, *“Bring out your test papers.”*
He wasn’t alone.
Beside him stood Adaora—bright‑eyed, curious, fearless, and entirely unaware that she had just stepped into the spiritual centre of drama.
“Are you ready?” she asked, tightening her backpack straps.
“No,” Chike replied honestly. “But let’s go before I change my mind.”
They stepped through the gate.
The tombstones didn’t shift immediately. They didn’t wiggle. They didn’t complain. For the first time since Chike started the job, the graveyard was actually… quiet.
Too quiet.
Adaora scanned the surroundings. “It feels like everyone is watching.”
Chike whispered, “Because they are watching.”
A light *hmmph* echoed from the far corner.
Adaora’s eyes widened. “Was that—?”
“Yes,” Chike said. “Please don’t ask questions. They like answering.”
Before Adaora could respond, the earth beneath the oldest section of graves trembled—lightly at first, then with the enthusiasm of a drum performance.
A glowing crack tore across the soil.
Adaora stepped forward.
Chike grabbed her wrist. “Please! Can we not touch the mysterious glowing ground today?”
But Adaora moved calmly, kneeling to study the widening crack. Orange light seeped from its depths, swirling like living flame.
“Something is trying to come out,” she whispered.
Chike stepped back until his spine met a tombstone.
“Oh, wonderful,” the tombstone whispered. “Use me as a shield.”
“Sorry,” Chike murmured.
Another tremor.
A skeletal hand shot out from the glowing fissure.
Adaora did not scream.
Chike screamed enough for both of them.
The hand gripped the soil, pulling up a tall figure draped in ancient tattered robes—robes so old they looked like they’d been fighting termites since before Budu Town was founded.
When the figure stood fully above ground, blue flames flickered in its eye sockets.
Adaora’s jaw dropped.
Chike’s soul nearly left him.
The skeletal figure straightened dramatically.
“I am—” it thundered.
“—Ojadike the Restless,” a nearby tombstone interrupted. “Yes, yes, we know.”
Ojadike glared at it. “Must you ruin my entrance every time?!”
“You have only one entrance,” the tombstone snapped. “It gets old.”
Adaora stepped forward. “Um… hello. Are you a guardian?”
Ojadike lifted his bony chin proudly. “I was the first spirit guardian of this land. The protector of Budu Town. The bridge between realms. The—”
“Man who snores loudly,” another tombstone muttered.
Ojadike ignored it.
“You two,” he said, pointing at Chike and Adaora, “have disrupted the balance between the living and the dead.”
Adaora blinked. “Us? How?”
Ojadike turned dramatically toward Chike. “Because of *him*.”
Chike froze. “Me?! What did I do? I pay my taxes—sometimes.”
“The emotions in your heart,” Ojadike boomed, “are too loud.”
Adaora tilted her head. “Emotions?”
Ojadike folded his arms. “The boy is falling in love.”
Adaora’s eyes widened.
Chike turned red. “Please! Let the ground swallow me!”
“It almost did,” Ojadike said. “That’s the problem.”
The tombstones giggled.
Adaora looked at Chike strangely.
“Is it true?” she asked.
Chike opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again but no words came out because love had taken his tongue and refused to return it.
“Enough,” Ojadike said. “The emotional chaos is weakening the barrier between worlds. The crack will widen… unless both of you go to the forgotten shrine.”
Adaora straightened. “Where is it?”
Ojadike pointed toward the thick, dark stretch of forest beyond the cemetery.
Chike’s stomach dropped. “No. Absolutely not. I refuse. I—”
The crack widened.
Chike panicked.
“Okay! I’m going!”
Adaora grabbed his hand.
This time, he didn’t pull away.
“Good,” Ojadike said. “The two of you must go together. Only then can the realms be healed.”
The tombstones hummed in excitement.
“Adventure!”
“Love quest!”
“He might faint!”
Ojadike raised his skeletal hand.
“Go. And whatever you do… do not look back once you pass the forest gate.”
Chike paled. “Why?”
Adaora nodded calmly. “We’ll be careful.”
Hand in hand, they stepped out of the graveyard.
Toward the forest.
Toward danger.
Toward answers.
Toward each other.
Behind them, the glowing crack pulsed once more, waiting.
The journey had begun.**UNDER THE OLD EARTH**
The morning in Budu Town arrived with a suspicious kind of silence—the sort that made goats stop chewing, elders pause mid‑gossip, and even the
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