𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐆𝐄 - super random

Identity Interview: Storytelling

Laughs, sweet, joy-filled laughs danced about myself and my three friends. Today, I knew it would be a marvellous day, a wonderful day!

Smiles adorned our melanated faces, and even the taxi driver knew to let the sonata run free. Singing along to the lyrics of Uka-Dina-Obi by the one and only King Obulu, his latest single. Joy was sufficient to describe the scene as the taxi driver chauffered to the Ikeja City Mall.

Our silver-painted vehicle turned left, the sun glistening off the car's hood and boot. And oh, the sun!

I leaned my head slowly out to look at the sea of swirling blues, soft whites, and the odd tint of orange. Stood above it all, grinning than the River Niger's length, was the sun. Its light was a radiating beam of hope, hope, and assurance that today would be okay. That today would be good. And that today, we'd be safe.

I sat adequately in my darkened leather seat, glancing back at my friends who were feasting on the pounded yam and pepper soup we'd picked up.

That breathtaking aroma of freshly made pounded yam and, ooh, I couldn't get enough of the bristling piquant scent of the pepper soup in all its spicy glory

My stomach stood up and yelled for sustenance, and I couldn't do anything but oblige, so looking at my oldest and dearest friend, Dolapo, I said, "I know you would love to share with me, ah."

The grin that found its way to his lips was wide and unending, fuelled by mischief.

"Toyin, you know me o. You know I am not giving you any of my food, so turn your head and face de' front," was his reply.

I raised my hands innocently, mimicking his quokka-like smile with ease and turned to face the front of the car. But I shouldn't have. I really shouldn't have.

The road was like a desolate desert in the early mornings, burning haze with an added tinge of terror. There was a car, another automated vehicle glittering like gold, while basking in the misleading rays of the sun, speeding up the road directly towards us. That should have been normal. That should have been okay.

But that car, that glimmering gold car, was in our lane!

Everything happened in a flash, and my eyes seared a blinding white pain.

Screech!

The screams of pure trepidation were putting the air to its limit.

Screech!

A blur of greying bricks flashed, and the road and its golden car ran away.

Screech-WHAM!

Everything went black. Blacker than the midnight sky of a fish's view at the bottom of the deepest trench. The screams ran cold down your spine, blood-curdling, all while deteriorating your eardrums.

It was like you could see them. See the wisps twisting and turning, sharp edges all around, and a deep scarlet like the blood in my eyes. What is happening? What had even happened?

A white light blinded me; a familiar searing pain erupted from my eyeballs as my eyes shot open. I looked around in silence, the sounds of a wheel slowly stopping and the swishes of my body going left-to-right and right-to-left the only comfort.

I could see one-two-three people in the backseats whose figures were knives in your eyes.

Their limbs snapped horrifically out of place, dislocated and oozing with that sour metallic aroma. But why? Tears streaked their contorted faces, a flood overpowering all others as it drowned all cries in its wake.

It was... This was bad. This was really, really bad. The world was a whirlwind of blurry figures before my eyes, and I felt a terrible aching pang go smack-smack-smack against my head. It hurt so bad...

Gingerly, I raised my hand to feel the pain, feel what sent me reeling, but though my hands quivered in trepidation, there was no stain. My hand sustained no marks to reason for my pain.

But them...

I turned right. I screamed then. I screamed long and hard and cried longer and harder. That man. That driver. No... that couldn't be called a driver any longer, nor could it be referred to as human.

It was a bloody mess. Deep maroon gashes all over what should have been limbs. The legs were as good as paper in a high-voltage shredder. The flesh was peeled back in streaks about the driver's ankle, running far below and out of sight beneath the leather-clad boots.

But his face?... Oh God. No. It was worse than anything I had ever been forced to witness. That twisted mop of deep gashes and cuts was a horror to view.

But this nightmare... the very nightmare I had been forced to endure, had to end. All nightmares end at some point. I know they do. And now it was.

Blaring horns like a volcano forced out of slumber fired up from somewhere to my left, and my head swivelled on its own accord.

A racing blur of platinum white and ruby red was coming to our aid, coming to rescue our withering souls from this mess.

And here I was, sitting beside a concerned masked man while other masked figures carted off my friends and the driver. Here I was, unharmed and uninjured, except for my mind. And there they were, harmed and injured, in body, mind, heart, and soul. But I was protected.

"Thank you, Lord."