MISSING Episode 3 – Necelly Newton
Once the old woman was done answering the call, she dipped the voodoo doll into one of the calabashes placed strategically and simultaneously, a cold fuzzy feeling serenaded me. While I battled with this feeling I heard her say
“A cat and mouse game never ends well for the mouse”
She dropped the voodoo doll into the calabash with worms where other voodoo dolls have been. She sat on the wheelchair and quickly morphed back into her vegetative state. Then the wheelchair rolled her out of the room. I emerged from the behind the curtain feeling groggy and pleading “Blood of Jesus” for a while after which I felt a bit better. I then proceeded to go have a better look at ‘The Moon’. It was a large beautiful crystal ball standing at one end of the room, looking into it I myself was almost hypnotised by its splendour. The more you kept gazing at the crystal, the more you become hypnotised so I took down one of the curtains and covered the devilish thing. Then, there were noises coming from behind the crystal ball. They were scratching noises as if rodents infested the back of the crystal ball. I decided to check it out and behold, I found a doorway behind the crystal. The crystal ball was actually concealing the doorway so I managed to move the crystal and accessed the door. Inside of it, I saw men and women looking so malnourished and almost dead; some were eating the sand off the floor, others were talking gibberish. In a nutshell, there were all behaving like lunatics. There were so many of them: men, women and even children. Most of these people, I could recognise their faces from the ‘missing persons’ adverts that were shown on National News numerous times.
As I walked through the room, I saw a particular girl. She was in her early twenties. Her appearance haven’t deteriorated to the extent of the others in the room and she coiled herself in one corner, whimpering with her face buried in her forearms. I came close to her, she startled and tried to shift away from me
“Don’t touch me! Don’t touch me” she said amidst whimpers
“You’re safe. I’m not one of them” I assured her as she raised her face and looked at me, she heaved a sigh of relief
“You’re truly not one of them. Who are you?” she asked me as her face brightened
“I’m Valentino. Who are you? What are you doing in this godforsaken place?”
I saw tear drops come out from her eyes as she gathered her emotions together to talk and then,
“My name is Abibat, an NYSC corper. I was on my way back home after NYSC camp when some masked men attacked our vehicle and took us. They used chloroform on us, we woke up here. Did they raid your vehicle too?”
I looked away from her, knowing fully well that I got myself into this and then, I replied her
” No, I came looking for my fiancé who’s been lost for over 4 months. I finally found her here with this wild lunatic family but she’s not herself anymore. Like…. I can’t explain. What is Nigeria turning into” I answered Abibat.
“Did you inform anyone that you were coming here? Because every person you see in this room are missing persons cases that were never solved. If no one knows you’re here, you will never be found. Myself, if I’m correct I should’ve been missing for six months now” Abiba told me.
While we were still talking, we heard footsteps approaching. I quickly hid at one dark corner while Abibat coiled herself again. The footsteps entered the room and it was the wife,
“Which one of you ungrateful cretins left this door open? I want you to know nobody can save you from me. Since you rejected my hand to be part of my family, this will forever be your hell” the wife threatened as she cackled.
She went further in, looking at each of the malnourished humans in the room. She smelt each of them like a dog searching for something before moving unto the next. She did this till she got to Abibat’s turn. She looked at her suspiciously
“You smell like that man who came looking for his fiancé. Is he here?” She asked Abibat but Abibat kept mute, only moping at her.
She muttered something in a local dialect I couldn’t understand then screamed “Answer me!” but Abibat reciprocated by spitting at her face.
She gave Abibat a hot slap that flattened her. She wanted to mount Abibat but I immediately intervened by hitting her at the base of the neck with a punch. The punch distabilized for just a moment as I pulled Abibat to safety. The wife stood back up, her eyes widened in shock, almost popping out of its socket as she started backing out to the wall of the room. The next thing I saw gave me the creeps, as soon as the wife got the wall. She started walking on the wall
“Oluwa, egba mi ooo” Abibat screamed as she scurried out followed by me. I sprinted out of the inner room back to the room that housed ‘The Moon’ and to our utter surprise, the wife was already there. Adrenaline pumping, heart pacing fast, Abibat mistakenly knocked off the calabash in the centre of the bloody pentagram. All the contents spilt on the floor and we heard someone scream “No!” from outside the room. Simultaneously, the wife who have been dreadfully walking on the wall, suddenly fell from it and became unconscious. Abibat and I were confounded as we looked at each other and back to the Wife lying on the floor.
To be continued
