The Last Customer

THE LAST CUSTOMER - EPISODE 1: My name is Echefula, and I run the only bamboo bar in Ekewa Kingdom. Four stools. One table. Two lanterns that never go out. My father gave me three rules before he died: 1. Close by 11 PM. 2. Never drink with customers. 3. Never, ever serve the last customer. Last night, I broke all three. It was 11:59 PM. The rain had just stopped. The kind of rain that makes the whole village smell like cold earth. I was counting my small money when I heard it — _Knock. Knock. Knock._ Not on the door. On my counter. I looked up, and my blood turned to water. He was too tall. His black agbada dripped with water, but his dusty feet left no wet prints on my floor. He stood in front of stool number four. The cursed stool. "Sir, we are closed," I managed to say. He didn't answer with his mouth. Because where his head should have been, there was only thick, black smoke twisting in the air. And inside that smoke, two red lights blinked. Like eyes. Then he spoke. His voice came from everywhere and nowhere. "I am the last customer. Give me what you don't have." My hands shook. I wanted to run. But then he dropped something on my counter. It was my father's cap. The same cap we buried him with three years ago. Still with the dried mud of the grave on it. How did he get it? He sat down. The bamboo stool creaked under weight that wasn't there. And the lantern above him... went out.... Continue......