Towards the Sapphire Light.

3 a.m

Day 1 - After the Memorial service.

I plopped down onto my bed and felt like my soul was leaving my body and sinking into the bed. It's these moments where I find the bed the most comfortable thing to ever exist. It had been a long day, all I could think of was finally getting some sleep. A whole week had passed without me getting proper sleep preparing for my travels Monday, taking three different flights and two bus rides from Tuesday to Friday, trying to convince drivers to drop me at the compound all of Saturday and only getting a ride around 7 in the evening from the lady that drops of supplies at the compound arriving Sunday morning straight into the memorial this place is already draining me. My grandma had been 97 years old and she'd looked healthier than an ox, but I suppose old age finally caught up with her.

I let out a small sigh and rose from the bed when the discomfort of the white tight pencil skirt dress that I'd been wearing all day finally got to my head. I rose onto my elbows and looked at my semi-unpacked luggage sitting next to the wooden armchair in the corner. I groaned as I got up and walked over to it. I hurriedly carried my massive suitcase over to the bed. The weight of the suitcase just reminded me that I was going to be in this little old village for a while.

"Damn it, Alaine, why didn't you book a guest room in town or some- ah right no guest houses." I said to myself as I dropped the case onto the bed. I typed in the code to unlock the case and flipped it open. I irritatedly rummaged through the clothes to find my pyjamas but couldn't find them anywhere. Then I remembered packing them in the backpack with all my daily required stuff because of this particular to be able to access them easily when I needed them. Damn it. I forcedly attempted to close the case and after seven tries I triumphed and placed the stubborn thing on the floor.

I stripped down to my underwear and slowly removed my bra savoring the relief my breast felt from being released before walking to the backpack. Placing it on the chair I went through and found my pajamas underneath everything else. I hurriedly put on the two-piece silky PJs and the Bonet. I grabbed my toothbrush, toothpaste, and slippers from the backpack and walked out of the room. I was met by an untimely darkness and chills flushed through my entire body. Out of fear, I checked the time on my smart watch it read 3:01 a.m., great grandma's infamous witching hour "when the barrier between the living world and the other side is at its weakest." Her raspy old voice said in my head. Damn, I miss my apartment, yes the neighbours aren't exactly an ideal bunch but at least I had motion sensor lights and I didn't have to walk through a long, dark, and quiet hallway to get to the bathroom.

I quickly turned back into the room and went to look for my phone. When I finally found it I pressed the home button and the screen remained dark meaning the battery was dead. I walked back to the door. I closed my eyes and walked down the hallway hoping I don't trip on anything. As I walked down the hallway even with my eyes closed it felt like there were eyes from all directions burning into my skin. I decided to move closer to the wall to feel around where I was, not so long I reached the end of the hallway. With my eyes still closed I felt around for the light switch to the Hallway lights. My heart raced when it took me a while to find it, my paranoia kept insisting something was closing up on me from behind. In panic, my eyes flew open as if I was going to be able to see in the dark. The crawly feeling of an eery presence behind me grew stronger and my breath grew shorter and more frequent. Suddenly my hands stumbled across the light switch and I instantly flipped it and ran to the bathroom door as the the devil himself was chasing me. Once inside the bathroom I switched the lights on and closed the door behind me. I sat on the toilet pot for a few minutes to catch my breath and calm down.

I loudly exhaled one last time and stood up to look at myself in the mirror above the sink. One side of me was amused by how scared of the dark I was and the other was still shaken up a bit and the fact that I had to do it all over again to return wasn't helping. I splashed some water on my face twice to try and ignore the thoughts but it didn't help I was still thinking about it. I got my toothbrush ready and started brushing my teeth. The taste of the Colgate toothpaste reminded me of my childhood. There were a lot of things I had changed about my lifestyle after I left this place for college in the city. We used to live like those shrine maidens you'd see in Nigerian movies, being told what to eat, what to wear, what water to bath with and literally everything about us was controlled, all fourteen of us.

Flashback_______

"Grandma why do we have so many rules?" ten-year-old me asked as I waited for my grandma to give me my toothbrush to brush my teeth.

"Because sweet child it is the only way we can assure ourselves of the correct fate. When we control all we do now in the same way the elders before us did, we are assured to have the same futures as them. The correct futures." She said handing me the small toothbrush with a pea-sized toothpaste on it.

"But what if I don't want to have the same future as that of the elders?" I asked after spitting out the first batch of paste.

"*Curses in mother tongue and spits into the sink* Never say that again Zahara it's an abomination!" She scolded. Scarring little me into a halt

"The Old ways are the one true and correct path. They assure us protection and bright futures, say for example this toothpaste, it is the only one we use and it works well so imagine tomorrow you get a new toothpaste, not this one and you get a reaction to it and die that wouldn't be nice would it?" She asked calmer now I shook my head scared to squeal anything else.

"Exactly, it's the same with the ways, we stick to what we know that way we have no room for any nasty surprises. If you leave the ways you will become food for the creatures that lurk in the shadows the most ruthless of them all being the Nocturnal creatures damned to an eternity of hunger for souls and to take over your body for their trickery and nasty deeds. Beware of its cry for once it's heard an easy target you become."

Flashback ends______

I could still hear her voice echoing in the back of my head. No wonder I was scared of the dark I was raised to fear all that is not light. Even black clothes scared me at some point in my life even if they are all I wear now. The people in this house were so superstitious they once hung a girl we were supposed to be raised within "The Tree of Life" by her hands because she accidentally touched coal without notice and got black smudges on her white robes they called it cleansing back then. She had to repeat the sentence "Mother Cefry, I beg the, cleanse me of all impurities for I have been tainted." Ten times each day for three days at noon when the sun was at its brightest and its highest. She was only seven and didn't make it to the third day from dehydration and starvation. But of course, they said she was too far gone consumed by the darkness.

My childhood was traumatizing. I thought to myself as I finished brushing my teeth. I left the bathroom with my heart in my throat and raced down the hallway as fast as I could as soon as I switched the lights off. I closed my door and quickly put my phone on the charger. I then switched off the lights and hopped into my bed and under my covers. How I fell asleep that night, I don't remember.

Mother Cefry - The deity of purity. Read and pronounced as Sefree, means she who is all that is pure and she who purifies all 

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