THE GHOST IN AFRICA

STORIES WE HOLD DEAR

“Oh Adaeze. No” I feigned surprise. “My mistake... I err... I really err... Maybe I should have looked first before saying anything”

What am I even saying?

“But you just called me Suliyat earlier.” She didn’t seem convinced at all. I had always been a terrible liar and this was not an exception. Mother always told me that I would make a terrible lawyer if ever I decided to venture into the field. But what gives, for now my concern was the skinny little child in front of me.

“Yes. Slip of the tongue maybe.” I managed a smile.

She should fall for that right?

My parents were halfway up the stairs now, right next to the two headed axe. I still remember the day Daddy had bought that axe home. I had just returned from my summer vacation at Uncle Desmond’s place and was still preparing for school when Daddy received a call from his ‘rare supplies agent’ from Lagos.

He was told that he was lucky to have the axe available at a giveaway price of two thousand dollars, a price that was subject to change in the next couple of hours were he to delay in making the payment.

Mummy had taunted him for going ahead with the deal even after she had told him that her gut screamed at her that the deal was not a genuine one. On my part though, I still don’t blame Daddy for not giving in to Mummy’s hunch because she always had these negative hunches about any sort of deal that didn’t involve things she liked.

But eventually, when the Grecian axe had turned out to be a fake copy, Daddy had no choice but to hide his disappointment in mock admiration every time he saw the axe. Eventually, he had fallen in love with the axe, sitting beautifully at the top of the stairs. 

Daddy reached out with his left hand and pulled the axe off the wall, the sheer weight of the weapon causing it to swing heavily downward.

“Daddy!” I screamed on instinct. I looked away, shouting my eyes as much as I could. But, I wasn’t human anymore, I heard bone break and I yelped in horror.

The axe easily lodged itself into Daddy’s shin. Blood spluttered from the gash though the axe handle stood out like an unwelcome trophy from his leg. I darted toward him unable to think of anything else to do that would help the situation. My mind kicked into panic mode.

What happens if Daddy so designs to use this axes and hews Mummy to death?

I shrugged at the thought. I couldn’t interfere at all because I was, well… a ghost! But hadn’t I seen Suliyat handle paper a few moments ago? Speaking of Suliyat, where had she disappeared to?

“Adaeze! Help me out here” I floated towards her in panic, desperate for any sort of help that she could offer. If there was anyone that would have any idea on how to escape this cabbage thing, then I would be Adaeze, after all, she had been here the longest.

“Adaeze, you’re not saying anything at all” I floated through Daddy, half hoping that he would somehow snap out of the weird state he was in.

“There’s nothing any of us can right now, Elias. We can’t interfere at all”

“But this is my father, Adaeze. I need to find a way to save him”

“You should be happy you still have a father, and a mother you can see”

“What’s that supposed to mean? That I should let them die simply because IO want to be as unlucky as everyone else?” I half glared at her.

She floated away from where we were, heading for the cupboard.

“Adaeze!” I screamed at her.

“What is it?” she fired back. I have never seen her angry before. Her eyes seemed to glow red and her size seemed a bit bigger. I backed down a bit, resisting the urge to scream her too.

“Your parents would never be back to who they were if you don’t find a way back to your body and survive this dawn everyone in this madhouse speaks of.”

I threw a worried in Daddy’s direction. He stared at it like it meant nothing to him. Mummy didn’t even seem fazed at all that Daddy was seriously injured to the point that he could bleed to death from this accident. Whatever hold the house had over them must be strong for Mother to be able to stand the sight of blood.

“Daddy!” I screamed again as he moved again, wrapping his hands about the handle of the axe. No! He really wasn’t going to… In one movement, Daddy pulled the axe out, totally oblivious of the large gash on his shin was the axe head had lodged.

He and mom still had their scary smile on. They both walked on now, down the stairs, dangling from side to side, Daddy streaming a pool of blood as he hobbled.

“Adaeze...” I was sobbing already, though it felt different, sobbing as a ghost. It hurt all over, soothing as it did. With the tears came a feeling for power and a longing for revenge. I felt anger towards nobody in particular, yet towards everything. I just wanted an outlet so bad.

Was this not how vengeful sprits were formed? Worrying too much about those because you would not w

I screamed.

The sound of my voice, more of a screech than a scream, mingled with the noise of increasing downpour, caused a shiver to run down my spine till it felt better. Mummy and Daddy were at the foot of the stairs, now unmoving, with both their eyes slouched to a side and that same smile on their lips.

Adaeze moved ahead, “Come on, Elias”. I followed.

“Go where, Adaeze?”

“Back to the wardrobe, of course” she replied with a smile, already heading for the stairs. I folded my arms across my chest, at the bottom of the stairs, watching her glide up, wondering how long it’ll take her to realize I wasn’t coming along. She didn’t.

“I’m not going anywhere” I said anyway.

“Excuse me?” I expected her to say, turning slowly. She disappointed me. I continued speaking nonetheless.

“Don’t you get it? I barely know what’s really going on here. My parents have just gone…” I waved my hands in her exasperation. “… bonkers. Nuts. They’re raving at the moment. And me, us, I don’t even know if we’re dead or alive.” I was shouting now but I didn’t mind.

“Worse still, you all act like you could care less! You and Usman keep acting like it’s all about you both. Wait. It just might be you both after all. The perfect horror movie. Sadistic juvenile couple haunting a house, killing nine-year olds and feeding on their fears while pretending to be one of them”

“Elias!” She exclaimed. Somehow, I felt the house vibrate, but I wasn’t going to be interrupted.

But then, I remembered the lady in white. Maybe she was the villain in all this. That doesn’t exonerate Adaeze does it? For all I know Adaeze might plan on trading us all for her own life. No wonder she is so interested in gathering us all in a place. So I took a gamble.

“Like you’ve never come across that lady in white that... that…” I asked, acing sure she heard the suspicion in my tone.

“Elias!” Another vibration. She was gesturing towards my parents and this time, I looked.

“No. no .no “ I kept repeating, not really understanding what was happening nor why, as the next vibration came with the thud of Daddy’s bloodied axe crashing on the tiled floor. A mini red pool had formed next to Daddy’s leg from the gash on his shin. How was he still alive? He had lost so much blood I expected him to have passed out by now.

Mum still stood next to him, till death did them part I guess. They both had that weird smile plastered on their faces, like some force was compelling them to. Whatever it was compelling them, it wanted them to get something for it. Something that would require smashing. My first thought If only I could end all this. If only… I turned to Adaeze.

“Tell me about the box”

“Suliyat has filled your head with nonsense”

“I never said I had been with Suliyat, Adaeze” she wasn’t going to throw me off balance. Not yet. “The box”

“There is no box. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along. Nothing”

“But Usman seems so confident.” I looked at her warily before continuing. “And so does Suliyat, not that I’ve met her though.”

All along, Adaeze hadn’t moved from her position at the stop of the stairs. Now, she glided slowly toward me.

“Believe me, Elias. If there were a box I would have found it by now” her hands were stretched pleadingly in front of her. “I have scoured this entire building for years, boy. There is not box, Period”

“But what if …”

“The Suliyat you have grown to trust in so little time” she raised her hand as I attempted to defend myself. “Don’t bother. You’re a terrible lair.” I paused and watched her talk, now going round my parents with her hands behind her back like some wicked headmaster.

“I don’t think she told you she was once taken by the darkness.” “What?”

“Yes. How else do you think we lost her? I figured you had disappeared and came looking for you, before the darkness tries to claim you again.”

Before someone else tells me the truth about you I thought.

“Suliyat and her brother are two sides of the same coin. Manipulative”. I almost chuckled. She was one to speak of manipulative. “I’ve been here much longer than anyone else. I know so much you all can barely wrap your heads around. The book you all revere,”

She paused and looked me in the eye, not making any attempt to conceal the humor in her eyes. Her ploy worked. My curiosity was piqued.

“What about it”

“I found it.” She looked like she was telling the truth. “If only we could wait out the countdown, then we all get back to our bodies”

This was getting even weirder by the second.

“You know of the countdown?”

“I know everything, Boy. Let’s get going already.” This time it didn’t sound like a suggestion. The Adaeze before me was somewhere between the scary freak I had first met and the scrawny hothead Usman hated. She broke into a smile, a half-lipped villainous grin that curved up a side of her thin witchy lips.

The rain was gradually increasing outside as the wind howled ominously through the windows. Either they were applauding my cluelessness, or laughing at my apparent end.

“Lead the way” I said.

She was already on it, floating past me up the stairs as though her life depended on it. I caught her half suppressing a smile and chided myself for being too trusting.

“Adaeze?” I called out.

“Yeah” she neither slowed down nor faced me.

“What happens to my parents after all this?”

Silence. She shrugged. Finally came, “I don’t know, Elias. I really don’t “