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Chapter 45
SHE IS AN OLD HAG—Yeye Omo, Iya Agba called her.
She was so old, withered, and bent that Kudaisi feared she would drop dead anytime soon. The faded brown and red flower patterned blouse and wrapper she wore did nothing to hide her skeleton frame. She tottered on a worn-out wooden cane held tight in her right hand, leading Kudaisi and Iya Agba into her decrepit mud hut with lots of wide yawning cracks in its walls. A lantern hung on the left side of the door casting an iridescent glow about, with its wick fluttering under the soft night breeze.
Kudaisi nearly found himself rushing to assist Yeye Omo as she weaves hard by the door, taking a moment to steady herself and enter into the hut.
“Go in,” Iya Agba commanded as he paused by the entrance.
Kudaisi eyed the walls for a moment, praying it holds still and doesn’t collapse and seal them to their deaths.
“Sit.” Yeye Omo waved a hand t
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CRIMSON SKY Chapter 46
Kudaisi growled, fighting against the invisible shackles that bound him to no avail.Yeye Omo chortled softly as she eased herself away from him and stood to her feet, using her left hand to wipe the blood trailing down her lips.Kudaisi continued his struggles against the invisible shackle to no effect.“To say I had to use this before I could stop you. You should be proud.” There was a horn in Yeye Omo’s right hand which she raised us. The horn was long with spirals like a bull’s horn. It was wrapped in black and red cloth with cowries and dry leaves around it, and it shined dimly even under the soft yellow glow of the lamps, oozing smoke from its top.“Do you know what I had to do to get this five hundred years Áse?” Yeye Omo inquired, looking grim. “It took years and years of service to get something this powerful. Long years of service, and I doubt there are many charms of its caliber around.&
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 47
Our wait continued until late into the night when Iya Agba came back. Yeye omo collected the materials and began to the sacrifice and invocation immediately, chanting incantations. “Why have you called me?” strong pressure descends suddenly in the room as a thick baritone voice asks gruffly, jolting them with its unexpectedness.Yeye Omo quickly comes to her feet, followed by Iya Agba who first founders on the stool nearly falling on the floor before standing.“Welcome my lord.” Yeye Omo etches a bow as a man materializes before them.Iya Agba echoes Yeye Omo’s greetings, also bowing, while Kudaisi stand there and study him.Busari Egiri, the man who has lived centuries. He wears a white top, buba, and short, Sokoto, and he looks middle aged despite the full white hairs on his head and beards. A heavy white shawl lay on his left shoulder, with a small white sack by his hip with its strap across his body
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 48
The sound of hooting precedes Iya Agba’s arrival as she enters as a bird before morphing back into human.“I am sorry for keeping you waiting,” Iya Agba says, etching a low bow. “Let’s get this done quickly, I have somewhere else I must be.” Busari stands to his feet. “Where are the goat and the pigeons?”“They are out at the backyard, let me get them.” Yeye Omo stands to her feet and totters wildly. She is saved by the wall behind her which she leans heavily on. Giving her witch’s bead to Busari for the sacrifice had weakened her a lot.“Yeye Omo!” Iya Agba hurries to her side.“I’m okay.” Yeye Omo wards Iya Agba away with her hand.Busari sighs and points his staff to the floor before him. A midnight black goat and seven pigeons appear out of thin air. “No need, I’ve gotten them.”Kudaisi gawked at Busari, surpris
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 49
I was yanked out of Kudaisi’s body as he came to. He was still in the dungeons, and the red matron stood before him with two of her apprentices.“He is not going to make it” the red matron says, looking him over wistfully. My heart skips a beat hearing her. “Someone has tampered with him or something,” she looks around, frowning.“What do we do no?” one of the apprentices asked.The red matron frowned. “Get me blood. We can’t allow him die like this. We will feed him blood to make him heal and continue.”“Okay,” the girl turned around and left the dungeon.I came awake slowly, taking a moment to get my eyes used to the dim lightning of the room. The thick pungent smell of drug and pills hit me hard, and as I tried to move my right hand a strong warm hand gently, but firmly, stopped me.“Finally you're awake.” It was Mama. She was seated on the bed by my side.
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 1
I HELD NO ILLUSIONS about my bravery. But this whimpering, groveling image of a girl that I watched from behind a deeper, obscure part of my mind could not be me, definitely not.My people used to say that when a child sees a thing of fear then that child must surely get scared, and in my sixteen years I have seen things that would have terrified an average adult into becoming a total mental wreck, but it was until this very moment that I truly understood what that saying meant—that I understood what true fear was—staring death in the eyes as I was.And there was no doubting that these four girls were death!“Please, don’t kill me…” I begged, tears and mucus running down my face and nose in tiny rivers as heavy pressure from their magic coiled around me, tight, like a boa constrictor slowly squeezing the life out of its prey before dooming it to its belly.“You stole my kill and you have to pay the price for doin
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 2
Chapter TwoI WAS DOWN WITH FEVER the next morning, unable to close my eyes a wink as the unseen watcher who had been giving me fitful nights for the past weeks took new faces in my mind. First it was Lara, later it was Ebiye and the three other girls, and then a smattering of the students I saw during the confrontation—the unseen eyes making my skin crawl as I expected its owner to materialize from the shadows at any moment and fall upon me.My whole body hurt like I carried heavy metal weights over the night, with my head banging in an irregular pattern and my body shivering with cold. I was coiled fatally on the bed as any sprightly movement sent spikes of pain arcing through me and increased the staccato beat in my head.The rain was pattering heavily outside, starting since dawn, and I had been too weak to stand up and shut the blinds, making the room as cold as a refrigerator. It was until the others were set and ready for scho
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 3
I KILLED MY MOTHER.And I am told she herself said so before she died.I am an ‘Ige,’ Yoruba connotation for a child who came out from the mother’s womb with its legs. My mother lost a lot of blood during the delivery and all the efforts of the doctors to stop the bleeding was to no avail, and when they handed me over to her she gave me the name, Omotoke, ‘a child which should be cared for’, and then her next words were; “Omo yi ti pa mi—this child has killed me,” and she gave up the ghost.Father wasted no time getting a new wife after her death. But luckily for me, Felicia took me just like her own daughter.Aunty Ope always made sure to impress the fact that I am a murderer upon me anytime we happened to be alone and out of earshot of others, blaming me for the death of her only sister. ‘Murderer, mother killer,’ I was so sure Aunty Ope eyes were saying at that moment as they roved over
CRIMSON SKY Chapter 4
THE SKY LOOKED SOMETHING LIKE the early hours of dawn—not bright, not dark. Red clouds gathered in clusters over the horizon to the left, and a grey outline of the sun and moon hung up high in the sky side by side with a soft sliver glow. Everywhere as far as my eyes could see looked the same, bare and plain under the soft shadow of light, and the ground where we stood was as dark as night and soft, giving off a feeling of standing afloat on air.My heart pounded hard as I was lost between fear and curiosity, but I was simply winging through it out of trust for mama. She had promised me all would be fine.I fingered the eagle pendant and chain resting on my chest as I thought of my mother, trying to permanently imprint the memory of her face and her voice on my mind. Mama had given me the chain to me when she finished talking, and then I saw the message my mother left for me. “My love I am so sorry I will not be there for you, but I believe I
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