The Night
Reading Session Experience
My phone had
just stopped ringing for the third time now and it is evident that the caller
is Sule. I have refused to even pick the phone from the bed. Do you know why?
It is
12:30am and I was supposed to meet Sule at one of the faculty's classroom for
an overnight interactive and reading session but I had long made up my mind
never to move anywhere close to the school premises at an hour such as this.
Neither shall I answer the phone call, period!
Why should I
attend another overnight reading session after what I experienced the last time
I left the comfort of my room at an ungodly hour such as this to join Sule in
the classroom for reading?
"I do
not like reading at nights, why don't we find a quiet place during the day to
read?" I have always told Sule this but he adamantly insists on the fact
that reading is best suited for nights due to the reduction of noisy activities
which encourages easy assimiliation. Well, I have learnt my lesson and a
terrible one it was too. You want to know what I am talking about right? This
was how it all happened...
It was
11:30pm on Tuesday night and since my lodge at the posterior of the university
premises--in fact all houses within that particular domain--had not woken up to
the era of electricity supply, I make it a point of duty to always leave my
lodge for the classrooms to read at nights.
On this
particular night, I quickly got dressed as usual and left home in a hurry after
wishing my lodge mate a good night rest. On the way to the classroom, I noticed
that the night was unusually grosteque and I was wondering why it was
unnaturally dark and quiet too; even the inarticulate sounds of frogs and
crickets seemed to have disappeared into oblivion. The moon; behaving like an
angry husband refusing to eat his wife's food; refused to shine that night. It
was with these deliberations that I approached the junction which marks the
boundary between the school and the exterior domains; very close to Lagos
lodge; and that was where I saw...
I still lack
the perfect words to describe or name it for how does a man describe or name
that which he finds difficult to believe he had himself seen?
The figure I
saw was tall and sturdy as an Iroko tree and white as the moon which had
refused to grace the night with its illuminating presence at that very hour.
The figure was moving as a man would when I saw it and after about five steps,
it turned towards me and stopped!
I was
shivering all over, like a leaf reacting to the continual droppings of rain,
the moment I saw it. My body developed goose pimples and I felt my head
becoming heavy and swollen like an overblown ballon that was about to burst. I
felt like running back home but my legs were fast rooted to the ground and were
as heavy as two giant mortars.
But hey! You
will have to agree that I am not always as afraid as other men--maybe it is
because I look intimidating myself--for immediately after this moment of
trepidation, I concluded that my eyes were playing tricks on me. So, I decided
to advance forward for a closer look but then the figure spoke.
"Eazy."
It said in a deep guttural voice.
"Hmm."
I answered like a man trying to hide an ugly fear.
"Where
are you going?" It asked me.
"Hmm!
..." I answered wanting to say that I was going to read some text books in
the classroom but to my utmost suprise, my lips were suddenly glued together.
"Ha!
Ha! Ha! Ha!" It laughed deeply. "You can not talk now, can you?
ou slime
worm of a human body! This thing has been divided between us; the day belongs
to you while the night has been assigned to us," it went on speaking,
"but you human bodies would not respect this division. You prefer to
disturb us when you should be resting."
"That
was why I slapped a boy the other night at the university's auditorium."
An invisible voice very close to the figure spoke.
"And I
beat up a boy at the Agric faculty last week's Wednesday", said another
unseen presence.
All this
while I had been standing frozen as an iced fish and rooted to the ground like
a statue while listening to the conversations with great trepidation and
confusion. Then the figure addressed me:
"We
shall not harm you tonight but be warned, we shall not tolerate human bodies
infiltrating our privacy henceforth. You may go now!" It finally said
relieving me of the shame of almost urinating on my pair of trousers.
Instantly, I
felt blood rushing back into my frozen body and I ran blindly without a
backward glance, taking another route leading to my lodge.
"Kpo!
Kpo! Kpo!" I knocked on my door. Rasaki; my robust lodge mate with a
peculiar specie of enormous head which made us nicknamed him 'Hediraski'; was
at first afraid to answer till I knocked harder the second time.
"Who be
dat?" he finally answered in a thin voice laced with fear.
"Na
me!" I answered quickly.
He rushed to
the door on recognising my panic striken voice and I rushed inside the room
feeling feverish and shivering all over like a 'Sallah ram.' I looked at him
and tried explaining by pointing a finger towards the junction I had ran from
but before I could even utter a word, everything went blank.
It was in
the morning, waking up very weak, that Rasaki told me that I had fainted and he
had to solicit the neighour's assistance in reviving me. He also mentioned that
if I had not woken up that morning, they might have considered taking me to the
university's clinic.
My four
neighbours barged in all at once asking different question at the same time.
"Wetin
do you?" Asked one.
"Where
you run comot from yesterday?" Asked another.
"Wetin
de pursue you?" Asked the third.
"Wetin
make you faint?" Asked the fourth.
I looked at
them all and just shook my head for where is the credibility of my experience?
They would all burst into an ocean of laughter and clearly judge that I was
hallucinating.
Believe it
or not, that was what I experienced...and yes! About reading in the classrooms
at nights--na lie, for where! Case dismissed! I shall never go again! Amen!
Period!
Copyright
Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 2013
All Rights Reserved
lwkmd. you ran ooo...
ReplyDeletenext time go out to read at night... na wiliwili you go see.
Interesting...
ReplyDeletethis is really thrilling. i enjoyed every bit of it. the pictures are so frightening.
ReplyDeleteits a good thing they spared your life.lol
This is way too scary.... its creepy... the pictures now drove it home ... they look so real and the writer told the story like it really happened to him
ReplyDeleteVery scary this is. A horror story I might say
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed reading this. A different angle to what I've previously read from you Eazy. Enjoyed first person narration and the times when you broke the wall(to speak to the reader). Enjoyed the comical nuances in this Horror Story too!
ReplyDelete