3.1 | Undead

13

February 24, 2020
bariga, lagos, nigeria.

Before now, I'd never been to a shrine in my life. Ever.

The mud walls were decorated with ancient-looking drawings: some weird eye drawings here, a drawing of a skull even one of a palm tree there, a dead bull's head hanging off the wall…

I had to admit though, whoever drew these was pretty good at giving off that spooky, creepy effect. Because I was creeped out.

What worsened the fear in me was the picture of a woman that was drawn on the left wall. Though it had been drawn with white chalk, it still looked alive. Her lips were painted red with what I hoped was not blood.

At the opposite side of the room, the juju priestess sat on a chair that had been covered with a red and white cloth. In her right hand she held her rod in place beside her. Her left hand was held above her head. From her position, I gathered that she was meditating or praying to her gods.

A part of me wanted to dart out of this place. She was probably busy anyways.

Stephan, however, did not care. Not about my scared demeanor, or the undisturbed state the priestess was in. With a mischievous grin and a flat tone, he said, "stop consulting useless images, Dami."

My eyes went wide at his audacity. Wasn't he supposed to be respectful towards the woman and her gods? He was the one who'd told me that she'd turn us down if she got angry.

I turned and glared at him while he chuckled. What did he think he was doing?

On glancing towards the woman, Dami, however, I noticed that she didn't seem affected by his insult. She remained as motionless as she was before. Only when she spoke did I confirm that she wasn't a statue or something.

"Shut up, Stephie." Stephie? She brought down her hand and turned around to face us, slowly. I felt my body tense up and instinctively inched towards Stephan. Just in case she decided to unleash her anger. "Those "useless images" saved you from unimaginable doom."

Imagine my shock when she suddenly grinned at the both of us, flashing us shockingly white and straight teeth.

Dami nodded in my direction still looking at Stephan. "I think your friend is going to run away if you don't hold him."

Stephan glanced in my direction with a lifted brow and even though I tried smiling to play it cool, he noticed my uneasiness. A low laugh left his lips as he turned back to the woman, approaching her when she stood up. He paused when he wasn't too far from her.

"He's not going anywhere," he declared throwing me a look over his shoulder. "He doesn't have anywhere to go anyways."

He was not wrong. I mean, I was in between a ghost and a creepy old lady with disturbingly white teeth who was meant to be the solution to my problems. I swallowed, holding my hands together behind me.

The woman touched Stephan's shoulder in what I thought was a silent greeting but soon discovered was a rough shove. Stephan stumbled to the side with a shocked expression while to woman advanced towards me.

I sucked in a breath when she was a few centimeters from me. Too close for comfort. Next thing I knew, she was all up in my face, studying me. From my head down to my toes, she sized me up while I struggled to ignore the pungent smell coming off the leaves on her head.

She stepped back, letting me breathe normally again, but her gaze didn't leave me. She frowned.

"I knew I sensed a shift in the spirit. Another ghost has returned and the fact by that I can sense it means she's within this state."

Oh wow, she was a seer.

Dami turned to Stephan who was now seated on the red seat she'd been before. He looked at one of the sculpted heads hanging off the wall, lifting his finger to poke it in the nose.

"Stephie!" He jumped on hearing the nickname, flying out the seat and posing in a funny way. If she was angry, she didn't show it. Rather, she had a worried look on her face when she neared him. "The ghost that returned came for him." She pointed her staff to me without removing her gaze from Stephan. "Right?"

He nodded. "She's his ex who died three years ago."

Her eyes went wide. She turned away from him to the image of the chalk woman drawn on the wall. As she walked to it, her lips moved, forming inaudible words. Her hand touched the lips of the diagram and her incantations became a little audible, though I still couldn't understand.

At a point, she froze. Eyes wide. Grip on her staff tighter than before. She tilted her head back and arched her spine, letting out a gutteral scream that seemed to shake the roof. Stephan came beside me and grabbed my wrist.

"Looks like your case is worse that I thought," he said under his breath. Just when I was going to ask what the heck he meant by that, he spoke again. "Her scream wasn't this loud in my time."

She suddenly stopped screaming and turned to me, eyes wide and fresh tears in them. Her stare was so piecing that I had to step back. If my for Stephan who held on to me, I might just have ran away.

The woman practically ran to me and grabbed my shoulder in the most painful way. "Your ghost is getting stronger by the minute. You must either bind or cast her by the spoon and you must do it quickly. Her rage burns fiercer than you mortal mind can imagine and if she is not stopped—"

A single teardrop rolled down the scaly skin of her cheek.

"—she'll strip you of everything. Including your life."