Dispossesion

It is easy, terribly easy to shake a man's faith in himself. To take advantage of that and to break a man's spirit, is the devil's work. – George Bernard Shaw

June 6th, 6.00 pm: Day Six of the attempted exorcism of Maria Concha.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

     Today the priest asked for the first time its name, and he asked it at least four times before it answered. It responded by screaming, shut up! Shut up! Then it uttered a barrage or the vilest obscenities, curses, blasphemies and ribald songs, all in a high falsetto and unnatural voice, then later in a loud shrill and evil voice that rented the air, and i was struck by a terrible fear that penetrated the very marrow of my bones. For hours the priest continued to pray, sprinkle holy water on her and asked for its name till it finally screamed, I am "BEELZEBUB", I am "BAAL", I am the "LORD OF FLIES", I am the "PRINCE OF DEMONS", then suddenly she freed herself from the chair with lightning speed and sprang through the air, landing high above the door of the room and clung to the wall with a tenacious grip. I and the other priest were struck with a trembling fear while Father Thomas alone kept his calm and continued to pray, then she sprang on Father Thomas and attacked him, then i and the other priest sprang into action and dragged her from his person and we tied her to the chair again,. 

   It's been six days of spiritual warfare like never before, but today I sense the end is near because she is beginning to look subdued. What my eyes have seen this last week has changed my perspective about life in general, for had I known before hand what to expect, I would have declined to participate. I was a man of science but now I am a man of religion, it is said that the Devil is proof that God exists and I have seen the Devil first hand and looked it in the eyes in this little coastal town of Port-Salut in the Sud Department of Haiti. I am a foreigner and a medical doctor and after this ends I am going straight to the nearest church, for I must seek absolution from God. 

   Her name is Maria and she was a sweet looking, sixteen year old that couldn't hurt a fly, she had been so full of life until about six weeks ago when she began to experience repeated nightmares at night. In the nightmares, she heard voices sexually teasing and tempting her to do the most obscene and horrible things, she then lost her appetite for food and began to look hollow and haunted. She also suddenly developed an indefinable and unexplained rage toward religious objects and symbols, to the point that she attacked her father once when he was reciting the morning prayers. When it became too much, her parents brought her to me for medical advice, but I couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her so I referred them to a psychiatrist who in turn reported that she was normal but somewhat high-strung, and then it grew worse and developed into seizures. The seizures occurred randomly and would last for six hours intermittently, after which it would stop and she would go off into an unnatural deep slumber for another six hours again. During these seizures as many as eight people were required to hold her because despite that she was just a girl, she possessed incredible inhuman strength. Whenever she comes out of the seizures, she would complain of feeling severe heat and would ask for a large jug of drinking water. She claimed that during the seizures something always carried her down into a bottomless pit where there was intense heat, the foulest of odor and vile demons.

   Her parents then visited the local parish to ask their priest for advice. The priest followed them home with bottle of holy water, blessed candles, and his bible for prayers. When they got home and the priest tried to sprinkle the holy water around her room, a force hit his hand and the holy water fell to the floor and broke, when he tried to light up the candles the flames shot up to the ceiling then melted completely, and when he prayed, it only seemed to make her matter worse. In fear he left the house and reported the case to the chancellor of the arch diocese. Who after listening to the priest, authorized the exorcism and contacted Father Thomas, a very experienced priest in exorcism for assistance.

EXORCISM & DELIVERANCE

   I was asked to witness the exorcism, so I came over to their place and met Father Thomas and another priest asking Maria for her permission to be exorcised, for it is believed a possessed cannot be exorcised of their demons if consent isn't given. She agreed to the exorcism and was tied to a chair as he began to sanctify the house. He made me confess my sins and warned me not to enter into dialogue with the Maria during the exorcism, but only to give the required responses to the ritual words he spoke, then we began the exorcism and almost immediately a hair-raising scene occurred, loose items in the room crashed to the floor and the bed shook uncontrollably as strange words came forth from her mouth, supposedly Aramaic. She growled like an animal and taunted the priest by making sexual advances to him in a language that sounded like Latin, then she screamed and moaned for hours in unearthly voices that no human could reproduce. An unnatural stench filled the room, and though Maria ate little, she vomited dozens of times, urinated excessively, and discharged a rather large amount of spittle which she continually spat directly at the priests face with an uncanny accuracy. Her face became so distorted that we didn't recognize her and she preyed on our fears, searched into our souls and uncovered any weakness we had and then used it against us, in one of the exorcisms she pointed at the other priest and said in Latin, “Of what use are you here when you lust for the flesh and will eventually be with me in hell”? And this went on for days with all three of us sustaining injuries inflicted by her physiologically, mentally and physically.

WHEN WILL YOU DEPART?

   I was suddenly jarred back to the present when Father asked the demon its intent and when it will depart, it answered: “She is a means to a greater end" and I will depart after I have brought her enough pain and despair then she will kill herself, for she must die and must come to hell with me, unless, it paused and grinned evilly, you are willing to take your own life right here in place of hers, it said in a teasing and evil voice.

  Father Thomas replied by yelled, “Get behind me for you shall not tempt me into taking my life and damning my soul for all eternity”. 

   It replied in an unearthly voice, the only unforgivable sin is blasphemy for it is said in the book of (Mark 3:28-29): “Verily I say unto you, all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies where with so ever they shall blaspheme: But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation”.

   Father Thomas countered by saying, and the lord said "Do not be a fool why die before your time?" (Ecclesiastes 7:17b)

   All this while I and the other priest stood transfixed on one spot, for the fact that the devil was quoting the bible word for word was hard for us to comprehend.

   Then it let out a heart curling laugh and replied, your lord also said in the book of 1 (Corinthians 6:19-20) “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body”

   But also remember it said, Samson committed suicide, and he asked the Lord to help him.

(Judges 16:28)  Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived

  Your life for hers is a fair exchange it said, ask your God for help like Samson did, or are you so much of a coward? For you are going to fail like you failed to save that young woman several years ago when I possessed her. I will make this little girl suffer. I will twist and crush her legs before your very eyes, then kill her.

 Father Thomas replied, I am not the first of them to be tempted into suicide and I shall not be the last to prevail, for King David in (Psalm 13:2-4), the prophet Jeremiah in (Jeremiah 20:14-18), and Job in  (Job 7:15-16) among others, all reached low points where they despaired of their very lives. Job said in (Job 7:15-16) "So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days is vanity". And that is the stand I take today for I command you in the blood of Jesus, take leave from this vessel of the lord.

   She let out another blood curling scream before laughing and answering back, you will have her blood in your hands today for I shall prove to you like before that my power is greater than yours, then her face contorted till it lost all human touch, her back arched unnaturally, legs started twisting and we heard bones crack as she screamed her soul out. At this point Father Thomas was rebuking and yelling for it to stop with tears in his eyes, and when I felt I couldn't watch the macabre events unfolding before me, her body froze at its unnatural angle and it aimed a smile at Father Thomas, then she said “Father please come and fuck me” I know you want to, then she burst out laughing and the screaming continued again till when Father Thomas could take it no longer and screamed, possess my body in exchange of her's. 

  “A vessel for a vessel",  for I cant kill myself because its a mortal sin and I cant stand to see another person suffer on my own account. Her body paused in mid air and she smiled in victory, then spoke, haven't you been warned about dealing with the devil? I have been warned he replied but I will rather suffer and hope to be exorcised by another priest than stand aside and watch you take another persons soul on my own account. It grinned evilly and replied in its unearthly voices, I am in a good mood to do well it said, and immediately her body slumped into heap of broken bones and ligament and Father Thomas's body was all of a sudden struck by a force and he stood stuck still with his eyes closed, after about six seconds he opened his eyes, and I saw the devil in it, his face had transformed and it was filled with evil. Then Father Thomas Spoke out in that horrible skin crawling voice, how I have dreamt of this day, “She was a means to a greater end”, for it was this soul I always craved but couldn't get, unless of course, he invited me in. Then he suddenly rushed towards the adjacent wall and seconds before impact the real Father Thomas screamed before his body was impaled by the metal protruding from the wall.

  I was out of the house in a shot like the devil was at my heel. I change my mind, I am not going to the church again, I am going back to my country Nigeria this very moment for God has forsaken this country and the devil resides here unchallenged. When I touch down in Lagos, I can then lock myself up in a church, but for now I have to be faraway from this country as possible or I stand a chance of losing my last vestibule of sanity.

 

Love Crime

    As I put my pen to paper for the sake of posterity, I began to hyper-ventilate and my hand began to quiver as the never forgotten terror befell me and the rushing faintness and horror consumed me completely. How many a weary and teary years has dragged by since that day when the horrible incident threw a blanketing shadow over my life. Those sweet long-departed days when my beauty was said to be so enchanting that it could hurt the eyes of the unworthy, them good old days when I couldn’t walk the streets without turning the heads of man and woman alike, now I look at myself to only but see a haggard old woman with ashen lips, a wrinkled skin and with a face of deadly pallor. Do not fancy that you are listening to a mere pathetic lamentation of one who had lost it all due to the flight of years, for it is not the flight of years that has brought me to be this caricature of my former self but the influence of the unknown and the forceful severing of link that bound my heart to another. My shoulder has gone slack for my burden has been too heavy and my heart is already empty for I long for the time I will embrace death that comes so slowly especially to those who earnestly pray for it. I will write it exactly as it happened, I will tell to all the circumstances which blighted my life and forever doomed me to an abyss of sadness.

My name is Elena McGuire and this is my story:

    I was an only child and daughter to a very wealthy squire who had no son of his alive to inherit after him. I cared little for such riches for I was indeed so rich then in health and youth and love that I felt myself quite indifferent to all else. I had fallen head over in love with Damien who I knew beyond all doubt of reason was in love with me and did not court me for my wealth. For He proved it when he shrank from my side in horror, grief and anger after the change, and for that I am most grateful, at the very least he spared me that, for that I know I was loved and the knowledge has kept me from going crazy through many a weary days and sleepless nights. We have lived alone with the house helps since mama and my brothers died when I was but only I tiny babe. I grew barely seeing papa for though a kind father, he was always much absorbed in affairs of various kinds, as an active landlord and sailor. 

     It was during this period of my youth I fell in love with my Damian, a love that was later forbidden by papa because he was but the son of our cook and because he wanted me married away for his own political gains. I remember still before it all started to fall apart, how tall, manly and handsome Damien looked, taller by a head than any other, and full of high spirits and gaiety. I too was always in the highest spirits especially when with him and never had my bosom felt lighter! What a blithe, joyous company we seemed. I remember still when all was rosy, how we stole kisses in the pantry when we were but kids, then how we stole out at night to be in each others hands after dark as we matured in body and age. And most memorable, I remember still the first night I offered myself to him, the painful but sweet feeling, his caress, the feel of his muscular chest borne out of logging, his strong manly smell that incited the beast and hunger in me, what a day ordained by the gods it was.

   Rufus for who papa wanted me married to, was born of royalty and for that reason only, I shall be forcefully betrothed to him. Rufus I remember still, a short, stout, brutish and mean tempered man, he who permanently had a scowl etched on his face and who never failed to make me soul devoid of all joy whenever he came around. Rufus for who was madly in love with me that an almost uncontrollable anger aroused in him if he but saw me with any other man, he who I vowed to never marry, he who I had told that my heart lay elsewhere and nothing in this world would make me marry him unless if the love of my life rejects me or the ill fate of death separates us. He who watched Damian's every move like a hawk and with jealous murderous intent in his eyes, he who grew up in the old ways of superstitious belief and witchcraft. 

    Papa I hold responsible for what befell me, if he hadn't but forced a betrothal, publicly renounced I and Damian's love and then banished him from the grounds of our mansion, we probably wouldn't have considered elopement. We agreed to forsake our families and go away so we could forever live happy and content and we decided to leave on the night before my betrothal. When the day came I was very merry and gay that my father who was but visiting a neighboring town and wouldn’t come back till the morn of the next day suspiciously wondered at my ever ready mirth which was almost wild in its excess.  I have heard since then of a belief that those doomed to some great calamity become fey, and am never as disposed for merriment and laughter as just before the blow falls.  If ever mortal was fey, then I was so on that day and when night came and the clock struck an hour before midnight, I woke up to the sound of the raging storm and stole out of the house in the rain with a bundle of some of my belongings, then hurried to Damian's place. I got to his place and met his absence and my heart almost burst in trepidation for I believed he had but left without me, until I saw his note telling me to wait for him for he had to make some last minute preparation. I was so relieved that I lay on his bed in exhaustion to wait for him, and then I fell asleep.

    How long I slept I never knew, for I awoke at once with that abrupt start which we all know well, and which carries us in a second from utter unconsciousness to the full use of our faculties. I felt that some thing was in the room so I listened intently and no sound was audible except for the sound of persistent beating of the rain on the roof. I knew that I had not been deceived by a dream, and felt certain that I was not alone so I waited and my heart beat on quicker and more sudden grew its pulsations as a bird in a cage might flutter in presence of the hawk, then I saw something dark hover above the bed where I lay and when I strove to cry aloud I couldn’t not utter a word, and though I strained my eyes, they could not penetrate the obscurity that shrouded the ceiling over me. And before I knew it, it began to drift lower to the bed, again I tried to scream wildly for help but my mouth was parched and my tongue refused to obey. Since I could not utter a cry, I strove to pray for Damien to come and rescue me from this nightmare. Then it was over me in a second and I felt the worst of feelings for I was transported to the abyss of hell. My heart labored as I was crushed beneath its vast weight, whatever that was on me had no form of palpable physical mass and it pulsated fiercely and hurriedly as my breath came short and with extreme difficulty, and I shivered as if with cold, I felt like my very soul was completely being sucked out of me. I was in the very grip of something whose touch sickened the soul with deathly fear and my brain reeled, the blood boiled in my ears, and my body began to lose all strength as I struggled to be free of its deathly embrace. Hours may have passed nay, though the tumult I was in could never have allowed me account for it, but it seemed ages to me as hideous visions passed before my aching eyes that I dared not close even if I could as I gazed up into the dumb darkness dying. 

   And when all hope seemed lost I heard the sound of heavy footstep on the landing which paused as it got to the door, then the clanging of keys as it was inserted in the keyhole and then the door opened to reveal the love of my life Damien. Whatever happened after that I cannot tell, but when I woke from my delirious trance it was already the morn of the day of my betrothal and I was in my bed at home with Damien looking down at me in horror and when I whispered his name and tried to hold his hand he pulled away, the others were also around the bed looked at me with pity and terror in their eyes. And when I turned to the looking glass beside my bed I saw that my youth was gone at one fell swoop and the glass showed me a livid and haggard face, blanched and bloodless as of one who sees a specter, with an ashen lip, wrinkled brow and dim eyes. My hair which was once jetty and rich before was now sickly and as white as snow, in one night the ravages of half a century had passed over my face

    The sight was too heavy for my eyes that I let out a terrible scream just as my father came in and when he saw me he stopped on his tracks and a look of revulsion crossed over his face and then he fainted. When he was revived, he listened to the circumstance that led to my demise and he broke down in tears claiming the fault was but from him alone and asked for forgiveness. He admitted to a have plotted with Rufus to do away with Damien on the eve of my engagement, Rufus paid a witch a visit but they never but knew I would be at Damian's room and take his stead. Damien blind with rage and driven by grief rushed out of the room despite my calls and went to seek out Rufus. I shall never know the details of what happened after, but it was said a fierce brawl ensued between Damien and Rufus, a brawl that none came off alive. How I wept my soul out when I held his bloodied head as he lay dead beside Rufus on the street, so sad a wreck was I for months that there were days where I contemplated taking my life and ending my misery, days I thought I couldn’t live without Damien. The only thing that kept me from taking it was that Damian's sacrifice would have been in vain, I wanted to celebrate his life and I also wanted papa always see me as a reminder of what he lost, and that he will live his life in horror, shame, revulsion and guilt because of his greed and folly, and for those reasons alone I lived in pain. Papa has been dead this many years of a guilty and broken heart and I never ceased to curse him as I never ceased to bless the memory of Damien, a memory I cherished and guarded in the deepest of crevices in my heart. My wait is over as my wishful end is almost upon me and I embrace it wholeheartedly for I dream of his kiss and being in his arms again but this time it will last forever.

Multiverse

The initial terror that led to me fainting hadn't passed yet, but the journalist in me was rearing up its ugly head and urging me to gather information and do something about my predicament. The only reason I am still alive is probably due to my fainting spell, which must have been misinterpreted for death because I have now been placed amongst the dead in the corner. They were all outfitted with Hazmat suits, like the types worn in laboratories that handle dangerous viruses in movies. Whatever they were doing to the other victims must have been horrible because their screams can be heard a mile away and when the bodies are returned, none came back alive or complete. My guess is that it’s an advanced secret government laboratory where illegal human experiments are performed and we the captive's are the test subjects or worse guinea pigs. As more screams rent the room and the other caged captives whimpered and pleaded I frantically looked around the room in the hope of finding an escape. The last I remember was going back home from jack's place after the usual nightly "no strings attached" sex, and the next is of waking up on gurney surrounded by people holding syringe, stethoscope, scissors, scalpels and other instruments that I didn’t recognize, that picture reminded me of my first ever surgery that developed for me my childish terror for hospitals.        

  I had an appendectomy at a tender age of twelve and a nephrectomy two years later after I was involved in a fatal accident. That first experience with excruciating pain coupled with the injections, the forever present choking smell of drugs and the ever lingering hospital odor that reminds one of death caused me to develop a phobia for hospitals and thus led to my fainting when I woke to and thought I was in a hospital surrounded by doctors. My escape and  survival is the topmost on my mind, how I would come back here later for a reconnoiter and investigation if I succeed, then write a book about it to expose the government's evil actions for all to see and eventually every journalist dream, win the prestigious Pulitzer award. I was still weaving a portion of my unformulated plan when six men in protective suits walked in and started carrying away the dead bodies which were in different stages and level of mutilation, some had their skulls sawed open and brains removed, others had their eyes removed, one man's body had a gaping hole in his chest region where the heart was supposed to be, another woman was disemboweled and so on. When it got to my turn i was lifted up and carried passed a doorway where I caught a glimpse of a lady lying down on a bed with a what looked like a life support machine connected to her, and my heart almost stopped beating because I thought the face looked like…..... But before I could take a closer look I was carried away through a network of corridors till we found our way outside. It was dark and I was dumped in the back of a big odd military looking vehicle, when they left I looked around hoping to find any means of escape but discovered to my disappointment that the vehicle was guarded. Twenty minutes later after more bodies had been loaded up, the automobile started up and another identical vehicle rolled up behind us and followed as we began our ascent up a rocky terrain, it was thirty minutes of the worst ride in my life because  the road was steeply  and I kept on getting tossed around with the dead.

    We arrived at the edge of a big rocky cave and the men in the two vehicles alighted, some took defensive stances around our perimeter with weapons raised and guarded as the others began to lift our body from the vehicle to the cold rocky ground. When the bodies had been deposited they all entered the vehicles and drove away, but before they left my imagination played yet another tricks on me again but I brushed it aside and concluded that it must be the side effect of the drugs administered to me when I was abducted. First, for a moment back at the lab I thought the girl I saw lying on the bed was me and now I though the face of one of my captors that I had briefly glimpsed was that of Sean Carter. I was still pondering this when I heard a growl from inside the cave, then I heard another from behind me, then another and another till the growling was coming from all around me and it began to sound like the screaming of a banshee. I was scared shitless that I could not move and when a scream threatened to escape my mouth I stifled it quickly when i heard a lot of struggles, cries, snapping, bone crunching and flesh tearing. I was by now in panic and ready to bolt when I looked up. Right in front of me and out of nowhere stood a monstrosity of unimaginable dimension. It defied the very laws of nature and it stank of rotten flesh and sweat. It was about 6ft 4, it had a broad shoulder and it had this uncanny resemblance with man but with a slightly hunched back and a mighty head that had a bloody snout with fangs. It was also scarred and naked with an impossibly large manhood that drooped in between its legs. When I looked around me and discovered that there were many more like it feeding on the dead I let out a heart wrenching scream that reverberated all over the mountain and forced the sleeping birds around to take flight. 

  The leader of the troop that dumped the bodies was deep in troubled thoughts when he was interrupted by her screams. He let out a little chuckle, shook his head and wondered how the human girl could think she had fooled them into believing she was dead, considering her fate at the hands of their mutated brothers she would have been better off dead. They were the genetic anomaly of their race; They could never live normal lives and therefore lived in caves on the mountains. The mutation has been unexplained for a millennial and till this day they still dedicate a large amount of resources to the research. Their cannibalistic relative were a very vicious sort who hated their guts because they are a constant reminder of what they should have been. So to prevent attacks from them they are appeased with raw flesh and the occasional human women to satisfy their insatiable carnal desires, the woman would then be passed around and raped repeatedly for days to no end by the whole pack then eaten after she dies. Half a century ago we made a scientific serendipitous breakthrough that bridged a lot of gaps in our medical field. We discovered that we were not alone, another plane almost identical to ours existed and it was called earth by its inhabitant, they were ignorant of our existence and we all had a double in this opposite plane although with slight differences. The happiest news was that their internal organs were a perfect fit for our anatomy. So a harvest committee was set up to deal with the discreet abduction of humans and sales of an organ whenever their double on our own plane needed a transplant. It's unfortunate that the girl screaming already had a simple nephrectomy where all of one of her kidney was surgically removed years ago and the remaining part is now cancerous, so her double who happened to be the Secretary General of the federation’s only daughter can’t get a replacement for her kidney that was completely damaged in a ghastly accident yesterday.

Voodoo

   What started as a celebration with a road trip filled with adventures and healing for we all became a series of macabre and sinister experience in the long run. It seemed like the perfect holiday till our gifts became a curse, it was a classical example of the devil giving with his left hand only for him to collect back with his right. They all accepted the gifts when it was offered, all he asked from us was a drop of our blood on the alter as an offering to his god and our one wish would be granted, one wish and our life would forever be transformed, I refused out rightly and when he asked me why, I told him I do not believe in God, the devil or voodoo. Back then it felt so ethereal, like I was in an Arabian story where we had to rub a lamp, a genie pops out and we make three wishes. I was born a skeptic, I was skeptic then but I have been made a believer. I still remember his parting shot to me as I walked out of his shrine when I refused to indulge in his antics like it was yesterday.

   Wendy was my best friend and she was the last straw for when I saw what happened to her I believed and for that I suffer. Right before my very eyes she transformed from an obese and unsure teenager to a perfectly fit and trim beauty then to a caricature of her former self. I remembered the last time I saw her and how horrible she looked, how she wept and begged me to help her and how I was grovelling in shame and horror at how she had emaciated, my friend Yewande was diminishing into nothingness right in front of me and I could do nothing about it. Even when it happened to the others I held on to my resolve and belief that there was no God or Devil talk less of the existence of Voodoo because if God existed why did he take away my father, mother and siblings in one clean sweep? Why did he take away all the joy in my life and then leave me alone in this cold and wicked world? But seeing young and vibrant Yewande waste away opened my eyes to the grey part of life, a life I thought was only in black and white.

   We were all childhood friends and we were the social outcast throughout our primary and secondary school days, so it was because of the social stigma placed upon us that we decided to go outside the country for our tertiary education. We decided on Ghana, because it gave us a fresh new start, we heard a lot about it and it wasn’t far from our country Nigeria. We all agreed to travel together to check out our school of choice which happened to be the university of Ghana in Legon, a suburb part of the state capital Accra and also explore some part of West Africa since we had some free time and money in our hands, so we opted for a road trip that would take us from Nigeria through Benin Republic to Togo then eventually Ghana. We spent two nights in Benin republic, a night each in the village of Wasare and Nafa and also a night each in the village of Adangbe and Adele in Togo before entering Ghana. We ate all kind of local dishes, went sightseeing, explored some of their historical monuments, made friends with the locals, heard their folklore's under the bright star at night, we each had our first drunken experience and some of us our first sexual experience. For the love of God, we were eighteen, free and having so much fun that by the time we were ready to leave for Ghana we all shed tears.

   Ghana proved to be everything we imagined, definitely not as big as Nigeria but had better organisation and a sounder economy. They were the Jamaicans of Africa, the people were a lot friendlier and didn’t seem to notice our shortcomings. After spending a couple of days making enquiries concerning academics and accommodation in the university premises in Legon and sightseeing in Accra we took a trip to Kumasi the capital city of the Ashanti region, a very important and historical centre for Ghana where we visited the Manhyia Palace, the seat of the King of Ashanti and members of the royal family, we also visited their national cultural center which is a sprawling complex that encompasses a fascinating museum of Ashanti history, a popular library, an excellent crafts shop, and an exhibition hall. We also visited their zoological garden before we finally visited the lake Bosumtwi, the largest natural lake in Ghana and it is where the Ashantis believe that the souls of their dead come to the lake to say goodbye to god called Twi.  

    We were still revelling at what we had experienced in Kumasi when we heard about a dance festival called “Agbadza” and that it was one of the musical types performed by the Southern Ewe of Ghana. Agbadza is derived from an older war dance known as “Atrikpui”. As a social and recreational music and dance, its performance is open to everybody in the community, irrespective of class, age, sex, and religion, so we decided to attend the festival before returning to Nigeria and it was during this festival we met a “Bokor” [black magic priest]. He claimed he could solve any problem for us and he wouldn’t charge, all he needed was a drop of our blood on his alter. My friends with their eagerness to be accepted amongst our peer quickly jumped at the chance but I ever a sceptic openly called him a hoax, he then smiles and tell me that my heart is bitter and I should stop walking away from the truth. They all agreed to go ahead with it even when I adamantly refused, because they claim that there was no harm in trying, it would be fun and moreover they weren’t going part with their money but I held on steadfast to my decision and watched as they spilled their bloods on the alter and made their wish while the Bokor recited some incantations and told them all was well with an evil grin plastered on his face.

THE GIFTS

    The first signs of the changes to come manifested first on Dayo weeks later when we returned back to Lagos. Dayo is a terrible stutterer who couldn’t construct one statement clearly and we all noticed that he started speaking fluently, the changes were slow and subtle that at first we didn’t notice it but eventually we noticed that he could make conversations to no end without stuttering, Yewande had serious weight problems but suddenly blossomed from an ugly duckling to a runway model, Temi was excessively thin because she was anorexic and she all of a sudden started eating well and added weight, while Yomi had a weak heart and thus couldn’t do anything strenuous but the boy started playing football and participated in athletics. For the first time they all felt like normal youths, Dayo could now toasts girls without shame, Yewande could now wear cloths that she was restricted from due to her former size, Temi now could eat anything she like now and even started looking like a human being for once while Yomi couldn’t sit in one place any longer, it was like he wanted to make up for all the activities he missed out on in the past. I looked at them all in envy and wished that I could have changed my own defect which was a mangled left leg that that made me walk awkwardly, it came as a result of the accident I was involved in as a kid, an accident that took away all my family members, so I watched from the sidelines as my friends revelled in this new found life for months before the problems started.

THE CURSE 

   It started with Temi who couldn’t stop eating, till she got obese and ate herself to death.

Dayo shattered his teeth’s, bit off his tongue and almost bled to death because he couldn’t stop talking and has had his mouth held open by a device because he still tries to talk even without a tongue, Yomi has suffered two cardiac arrest within months and is now in a coma because his heart was overworking itself and finally Yewande just got thinner and thinner like a cancer patient no matter how much she ate, my friends were wasting away right before my very eyes, that was when I believed and that was when it began.

   Now his softly spoken words has doomed me to a nomadic existence of no pause, I have continually walked for months to no end, my shoe is worn out, in fact I have no shoes any longer, my legs are bloodied, I cannot eat because my legs are forward ever moving, my lips are calloused, my eyes are not just bloodshot but hollow, my face has permanently adopted the look of a skeleton and I have scars all over. I have had only flies and the occasional stray dogs that leak at my sore's for companions since the inception of my sojourn, although this last week I have seen buzzards and vultures hovering and following me patiently and I laughed for they may as well be wasting their time for my corpse and bones would elude them even in death because I fear i would even continue to walk then. The horrible thing about it is that I can't even turn around and go back to find him and beg, he made sure that when it all began I wouldn't be able to come back and make atonement, lord help me for now although too late, I now believe in your existence, the devil’s and that of Voodoo. I have been walking away from the truth all this years and now I cant stop walking, will I ever get salvation? Will I see the kingdom of heaven now that I have accepted him? Will I ever stop walking? All this I asked myself as I remember the Bokor’s parting shot when I walked out of his shrine “a person without believe and faith is a lost soul for the taking, your soul is for the taking, there is no in-between, you are either in the light or in the dark, you will believe and when you do you will never be able to walk away from the truth again because you will forever walk”, I wish I understood what he meant then, I really wish I did.