3.1 | Undead

17

February 26, 2021.
Victoria island, Lagos, Nigeria

If looks could kill, I'd have been a dead man ever since Stephan stepped into my sitting room. At first, the glares were subtle, but after Lara had told him about last night's experience, he was making it very obvious. I had an intuition that he was blaming what happened on me in his heart, but not until he said the words did I confirm it.

"This is all your fault." He wagged an index finger at me, scowling profusely. "If you'd just listen to what I was saying at the start, we wouldn't be here now. Now, she's gone and killed someone."

Even though his words tugged at my conscience, I wasn't going to make their effects visible. At least not to him. Weren't we here to find a solution?

"We don't know if it's a person she killed, Stephan. And you're blowing this out of proportion. I've listened to you now, right? We're here to exorcise Bukola and you don't see me complaining, do you?" I retorted.

In the seconds that followed, it was a glaring contest between the two of us.

I got it. The tension in the air right now was high. It had been high since Bukola showed up. But he had no right to put all the blame on me like I wasn't being affected at all by this.

"What's your deal even? Why are you so attached to my ghost case?"

He stepped forward, seemingly ready to deliver a good slap, however, Dami's hand on his shoulder stopped him. He brought his hand back to his side and glared at me for the last time before facing her.

Dami had a sullen look on her by now. She took her hand off his shoulder and, with her eyes, told him to exhale. He obeyed without complain.

"I need you to light the candles at the altar." She pointed her wooden staff towards the arrangement of grass, wood and stone that she'd set up. "You know I always burn my fingers with those damned matches."

Her words caused a smile to creep upon Stephan, making me raise my eyebrows at the two of them. There was certainly a connection here.

He scoffed, going back to his normal nature now. "You're a witch who's scared of lighting matches."

"I'm not a witch," Dami corrected. "I'm a mouthpiece. A messenger for divinity! Someone who—"Her tone rose with each word, passion for her 'job' showing in her intonation. If Stephan hadn't interrupted her, I was sure we would have gotten a nice long lecture.

"Blah blah," he said, starting to walk away. "The matches await."

Immediately Stephan was out of earshot, Dami turned to give me the stink eye. I eyed her carefully.

"Stephie is a good person. You should count yourself lucky he's willing to help you," she sneered, hitting the floor with the end of her staff.

I rolled my eyes. "He's painted a bad image of me in your eyes," I told her. Great, I thought. Next, she'll probably poof me away.

"I don't need him to show me anything, Jacob. You're stubborn and you don't know it. You refuse to listen when you're warned about a threat because you used to know the said threat."

"I've accepted it!" I raised my voice high enough for Lara to hear from where she sat next to Yemi. The smile on her face instantly died as she locked gazes with me. In that one second, I could feel her warmth reaching for me, promising that it was going to be fine in the end. It was what she'd have said if she was closer to me.

I broke our stare to focus on Dami.

"Bukola is gone, she's evil now that she's undead, and she's obsessed with me. Anything else?"

The tension around me was high, my breaths were coming fast and I knew I might have stirred Dami's anger. All I wanted to do now was sleep, wake up and realise that all this was just a terrible nightmare.

That Bukola was still dead. That there was no such thing as ghosts. That my marriage was still going to hold in a few weeks. That everything was fine.

But I knew that would be me lying to myself. This was realer than I wanted and I had to accept it. I had to hope for everything to go well.

My eyes went slightly wider when a warm smile graced Dami's face. Despite all the wrinkles caused by her age, despite the grass crown she was wearing, she looked leeds eerie with the smile on.

I flinched when she held on to my bicep. "She's not evil, Jacob. I think you have it all wrong. Her determination has made her almost unstoppable and she's become a threat because of it. And her love for you, if not properly handled will  wreak havoc, so this is important."

I wanted to ask her what exactly this was. The only thing I knew was that she wanted to handle my ghost problem. Sure, at first she was going to sentence Bukola to eternal punishment, but after I'd told her not to, she said she had another option. She hadn't told me what it was.

Technically, I was being kept in the dark here.

But before I could step in to question her, she exhaled sharply and tightened her grip on my hand. Panic seized me immediately and I grabbed her by the shoulder.

"What's happening?"

Dami let go of me and slipped out of my hold, hurrying to the altar and shoving and open-mouthed Stephan out of the way like her butt was on fire. She dropped her stick to the floor and grabbed some things off the altar: a calabash, a handful of lemon grass, some charcoal, and something else she'd tied in a black polythene bag.

In a hurry, she shoved everything else into the calabash, chanting incoherent words. Then she hurried to the carved face she'd brought and hit its forehead thrice.

I didn't know Lara had gotten close to me until I felt her tug on my hand. Immediately I put an arm around her waist and held her close to me.

Yemi and Stephan stepped forward with stephan in the lead. He tapped Dami and as soon as she spun around with wide eyes, he asked, "what is it, Dami?"

She hugged the calabash tightly to her chest and let out a gasp. "She's coming. I don't know how I got distracted, but her energy is getting stronger and—"

An all too familiar voice cut her off, sending a chill up my spine and making lara freeze in my hold. I swallowed when Bukola appeared in the middle of our circle, that terrifying smirk on her lipstick coated lips.

The lightbulbs over my head exploded. Lara screamed. Stephan cursed. Bukola smirked harder.

"I'm back. And I'm not here for anymore games."