The Ghost

Chapter 4: Madness

While I was standing, I saw this woman.

She was dressed in rags, which exposed her breast. Her n*****s were pierced with two tiny rounded rings. Same as her navel.

Her feet were bonded with heavy rusted chains, which she dragged along in pain as she approached me.

She had a short rag around her waist which she tied to cover her private part. But her laps were still very visible.

She looked mad, but the way she walked and the smile she carried on her face portrayed her as a typical African model.

I stared at her, paying attention to her curves, her waist, her legs, and her eyes.

She had straight legs and a curvy shape like the letter "8", which was exposed by her torn crop top.

Her long braided hair, which dangled from side to side as she walked, carried three cowries. One on the center and two on the sides.

As she got closer, her smile broadened.

"Welcome, Praises."

I gulped down saliva.

"Welcome to where?"

She looked around still smiling.

I glanced around also.

We were in the center of an open space that looked like a desert. It was filled with heaps of sand. No water, no trees, just sand.

She returned her focus to me and took two steps forward.

"I will meet with you soon."

I wondered who this woman was and where she was going to meet me. This is a woman I've never seen or met before.

I glanced around, wondering what I was doing in a desert.

"Who are you?" I asked inquisitively.

"You are here for a reason, Praises?"

"I am here because a ghost brought me here. Who are you and what do you want from me?"

"You are my helper?"

"How?"

"You will find out soon."

She bent her head to kiss my lips. I tried to turn my face away from her lips but I couldn't. My face was fixed. It felt like someone was holding my head.

Her lips touched mine, and in reality, I could feel something soft touch my lips. It was then I realized I was locked in a dream. Everything was not real. Not even the woman or the kiss. And so I relaxed.

She fondled my ears and placed my hands on her soft breast. I allowed myself to flow.

"Caress my breast." She whispered sweetly.

"What do you want from me? Are you Sandra? Or are you the devil sent to tempt me?"

"I am Vanessa."

"Vanessa."

She kissed my lips softly and I kissed her back with no hesitation. My subconscious could feel myself kissing the lips of a woman in reality. But I couldn't tell what it was.

I paid attention to the feel while I tried to wake up. I noticed the lips I was kissing was thicker than a woman's lips. This one was a little bit harder and felt rounder and wider.

Vanessa slapped my cheeks and I jolted up from sleep.

In reality, It was a slap from a man.

I was lying on a hospital bed in a psychiatric ward.

I looked around and counted the men standing in front of me.

They were seven mad men dressed in blue cloth. They held their trousers in their hands, stood naked with their p***s dangling from side to side, and giggled happily.

One of the madmen pointed at me.

"You can lick nyansh o. Sleep again. Please sleep again. Uche Uche, go let him lick your nyansh. Go let him lick your own. After Uche is Peter. After Peter is Daniel then me."

I wiped my mouth and glanced around the room in fear.

I couldn't believe that my once sweet and perfect life had suddenly been taken away from me. The freedom I enjoyed was gone just like that.

I was like a goat amongst lions.

A kitten in the midst of snakes.

The madmen were still staring at me and laughing. Some of them were talking gibberish and scratching their skin

"Sleep. You will not sleep? Lick nyansh as you were licking you will not lick." One of the men spoke.

This one had no hair on his head. Yet he seemed to be the happiest of the men.

"Get away from him."

A firm voice sounded from a corner.

I turned to the voice and sat up.

I noticed a man sitting on the bed and staring at the ceiling. He was just sitting there silently without saying a word. He seemed to be less concerned about the drama happening.

"Leave him alone. All of you. Get lost now." He roared.

The madmen went back to their beds and sat down the moment his feet touched the floor.

Slowly, he stood up, stretched, and turned to me.

He was a tall muscular man with an old unkempt dreadlock which he carried on his head. He had a long scar from his eyes to his jaw.

He was the only one wearing slippers and socks in the room.

"Good afternoon, sir." I greeted.

He took a few steps closer and halted.

He tilted his head and stared at me piercingly.

"You don't look mad."

"Neither do you, sir."

He let out a soft chuckle.

"I look mad. I just don't sound mad."

"But are you?" I asked inquisitively.

"I am not like them. I am not and that is what I have been trying to explain to them all this while. But they've refused to listen to me."

"That is the same thing I am facing. I have been trying to let them know that I am not a mad person. But they've refused to listen to me. Is this how they do here? What kind of hospital is this? I only came here because I was led here."

"Led here? By who?"

"If I talk, you will say I am mad."

"If you don't talk, you will still be regarded as a madman. So talk."

"I was led here by a ghost."

"A ghost?"

"Yes."

He walked closer and stood in front of me.

"You came here because a ghost led you here."

"Yes sir."

"Isn't that the sign of being mad? You were living your life and a ghost asked you to follow her to a psychiatric home and you followed. Is that not madness?"

"She wants me to help her."

"So what are you doing here?"

"She disappeared as we got here."

"She disappeared?"

The young man busted into laughter while I watched helplessly. When he had laughed to his fill, he turned to me.

"Now I see why you are here. The sad thing is that you will never leave this place until someone comes for you. They never let you go. They'll keep you, feed you, and treat you for a madness you never had until someone comes and pays all your bills. It is business to them."

"How long have you been here?"

He turned and sat beside me.

Inhaled and exhaled deeply.

"Fifteen years. Fifteen years of my life, I have lived, slept, and dwelled in this room with mad people."

"What! If you have been here for fifteen solid years, what is my fate?"