The Ghost

Chapter 2: Torments

For weeks Sandra's spirit kept tormenting my sleep after I turned down her request to visit her boyfriend Jerry.

I felt she was lying to me especially as she told me about the lock used for the covenant and about Jerry's stepmother who advised her to force Jerry into a blood covenant with her.

For over a month now, I tried to avoid Sandra by paying deaf ears to her. It is one way to send a ghost packing.

Ghosts get excited the moment they know someone can stand as a link between them and the living. They will keep coming once they notice you can see and communicate with them. This is because they want you to communicate with their loved ones who are alive.

I wanted to be useless to Sandra and so I pretended. I was doing all well and not sharing any more stories of her on f*******:, until last night when Sandra appeared in my room and stood behind me.

I felt her presence when the room suddenly became cold.

I literarily smell death around me.

I stood up and turned.

My eyes met Sandra's eyes.

She was standing naked yet again.

Her face was even more beautiful than it was the last time I saw her. Although she carried a face that was sad and angry.

"It is a new year Praises. Are you going to keep pretending you don't feel my presence?"

I turned my face away, pretending not to have noticed her.

"Stop that, Praises. Face me. Look at my face. I know you can see and hear me."

I walked out of the room and walked into the kitchen. Even though I had s**t the door close, Sandra melted into the door and appeared in the kitchen with me.

"Praises, my boyfriend is in a psychiatric home as we speak. He has been mad for ten years now because of me. Unmarried, childless, and penniless. You are the only hope I have now to get to him. My spirit will not rest until I set him free from the bondage I have put him in. Please, I beg you, answer me. Stop the pretense."

I picked up a cup and spoon and approached the door, still paying deaf ears to Sandra.

When I turned the doorknob, the door didn't open. It looked like it was stuck with glue.

I halted as Sandra's voice sounded.

"Praises, I beg you. Go and see him. Give him the key."

"Why... Why Sandra? Why do you come to me naked? With your breast pointing at me like the horns of a bull. Knowing I am mortal and not a spirit like you?"

I thought about everything the moment Sandra disappeared.

Apart from just having money and fame, one thing vital to any man is peace. A lack of peace could tamper with a man's health.

For the last one month, Sandra has denied me peace. She has appeared in every part of my house unwelcomed. She has tried to get my attention at all costs, not until last night when she eventually succeeded.

Today I decided to go do her bidding. She was present when I stepped out of my gate determined to put an end to my torment.

"Once this is done with, I do not want to see you around me any longer. I do not want to see your shadow or hear your voice. Leave my life alone. Let me go."

"I will and it is a promise I make."

Sandra's spirit led me to Macwebster psychiatric health care. In the outskirts of the city. It is a mental home where mad people who roam the city are kept.

As I got to the gate, I halted and turned to Sandra.

"Why bring me here?"

"This is where he is?"

"Your boyfriend? Is he mad?"

"Mad is not the right word to use, Praises. He only has some psychological issues going on in his life."

"Why? Because of the covenant?"

"It affected him, Praises. Jerry has suffered. I just want you to set him free."

I looked at the padlock in my hands, sighed, and walked into the gate.

I walked into the reception and met a tall slender nurse who was punching on her phone.

"Good afternoon."

"Afternoon, sir."

"I came to see an old friend of mine who was admitted here."

"What is his name?"

"Jerry."

"Jerry who?"

I turned to Sandra who was standing naked beside me.

"Jerry Abaga." She whispered

"I want to see Jerry Abaga."

The nurse flipped through a register. She stopped and looked at me suspiciously.

"Is there a problem ma?"

"Are you his brother?"

"I am his friend. He is an old friend."

She walked to a cabinet and brought out a file and walked back to me.

"Jerry has been kept here with us for 7 years now. Since 2016. No one has come for him. All effort to reach his family has proven abortive. Why are people so wicked? Huh? You bring a patient to the hospital, abandon him for seven years and move on. Do you know his family?"

"I do not ma."

"But you are aware he has been here?"

"Yes... I mean no. I just found out."

"From who?"

I turned to Sandra.

"Tell her... Tell her someone told you he ran mad."

I turned back to the nurse.

"Someone told me he ran mad and was taken here for treatment. I have not been around."

"What is your name, sir?"

"Praises. Praises Chidera Obiora."

"How close are you to this man? Because we would only allow people who are close to him to see him."

"I... I am very close to him ma."

"I see. Thank God you came. A nurse will take you to his ward to see him. When you are out, you will settle his outstanding bills. "

"Bills?"

"Yes, who do you think will pay the bills for seven years."

"How... How much?"

"I will have to calculate. He is one person who has been owing the hospital a huge amount of money. Last I checked his bills were running into 50 million naira. Thank God we found someone related to him."

She turned to a nurse at a corner.

"Take him to see his friend and call the accountant for me. Our prayers have been answered"

I turned round to search for Sandra, but she was nowhere to be found.