Chapter 5: Day has its eyes.

Jss2.

Lola.

As the five-hour drive came to an end and the gates of triple c high became clearer, a mix of anticipation and dread rushed over me. 

Anticipation because I'd finally be able to see my friends after the new year holiday plus the fact that we finally got juniors last term means we'd no longer be the bottom rung on the ladder of seniority. Halleluyah.

Dread because I'd be stuck in this place for months and I'd basically be a glorified servant cause hello, Junior student right here. 

Plus no phones, no laptops, no electronics equals no manga and no anime. Sigh, woe is me.

The drive was just fantastic so we're off to a great start,

I mean, who wouldn't want to spend hours in a car knowing your destination is the purple chasm, while your brother is off to Cameroon with the rest of his set after they already spent the previous term in Togo? Me, that's who. Hmph.

ᴄᴏᴍᴇ ᴏɴ, ʙᴇ ᴏᴘᴛɪᴍɪꜱᴛɪᴄ ʟᴏʟᴀ, ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴛᴇʀᴍ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴀᴡᴇꜱᴏᴍᴇ, ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ɪᴛ. ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴀᴋɪɴɢ ʟᴇᴍᴏɴᴀᴅᴇ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏꜰ ʟᴇᴍᴏɴꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴀᴛ?

First of all that is a really stupid saying, because how many people honestly like plain lemonade? I can assure you that the number will be really small, the value will likely be in the negatives. 

Schweppes, however, would be a much better alternative, so let's go make Schweppes out of those lemons.

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Can I go back in time to 30 minutes ago and slap myself? 

I can feel it? Seriously? I roll my eyes.

Uhh, way to jinx it, Lola. We are not off to a great start, not even off to a good one. MAYDAY MAYDAY!! Permission to abort mission? I repeat, permission to abort mission?

ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ꜱᴜᴄʜ ᴀ ᴅʀᴀᴍᴀ Qᴜᴇᴇɴ ʟᴏʟᴀ.

I'm not a drama queen, this is the response of a rational human being. Anyone who had just heard what I did would surely act the same way.

Can you imagine that after we got through that five-hour drive, this school had the audacity to say that they made a mistake?

That they initially posted the wrong information and that tomorrow is the real resumption date so can we just come back tomorrow? 

Really? REALLY? Sure no problem, we don't mind driving 10 hours in Lagos traffic today and doing it all over again the next day. No, we truly don't mind. Smirk.

 Just hit my skull with a hammer while you're at it because you might as well kill me. And since you want to act like you don't have sense, suggest something equally idiotic, why don't cha .

And when we asked why we were not informed, they said that they sent each parent an email but that it seems that some were undelivered.They 'seemingly' just discovered that fact today when some students showed up.

ᴀᴘᴘᴀʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴍɪꜱᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴏɴʟʏ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ꜰᴇᴍᴀʟᴇ ꜱᴛᴜᴅᴇɴᴛꜱ. ᴛᴀʟᴋ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴡᴇɪʀᴅ.

We were already arguing with them but once my parents confirmed the presence of other girls, they immediately packed up and left. ᴡᴀʏ ᴛᴏ ꜱʜᴏᴡ ʟᴏʏᴀʟᴛʏ ɢᴜʏꜱ. At least show some reluctance, you won't see me for the next 4 months at the bare minimum.

 My mom even tried, she played the role of an emotionally distraught woman exceptionally well as she hugged me, that is if you ignored her dry eyes. I  give her a B+ for effort.

I was on my way to Zulu Sofola hostel with the hostel mistress since that was the only hostel where all the sanitation processes had been fully completed- It's where all 12 of us(10 students and 2 hostel mistresses) were meant to sleep tonight when the night seemed to come alive.

 The night was filled with the chirping of crickets, the movement of leaves and the hooting of owls interspersed with a swooshing sound that really creeped me out.

Was that a fricking howl? My head snapped towards the direction as if I could see past the school walls. 

ᴡʜᴏ ᴋɴᴏᴡꜱ? ʏᴏᴜ ᴍɪɢʜᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ x-ʀᴀʏ ᴠɪꜱɪᴏɴ. ꜱʜʀᴜɢ.

Can you please keep quiet? I wish we could freaking arrive already? 

The journey seemed longer today,like time was constantly being stretched.

 We could have passed through one of those gates that take you to another world, laugh. Or it might have been the desolate surroundings and flickering lights that gave me that impression.

 When we finally reached the common grounds, I sighed in relief and couldn't wait to get into the hostel so that I could finally drop my heavy bags.

 If I knew this was going to happen and that my boxes weren't going to be searched for contrabands, I would have snuck in some provisions. 

I was hungry and tired but dinner time had already passed and I didn't think they would have prepared a nightcap. Besides I wasn't ready to risk going to the kitchen just to turn up empty-handed, especially if the others had already eaten. 

As we stepped into the hostel, I realised that I hadn't even thought to ask about the names of the girls that were around. God, I hope that even 1 of my friends will be present but it seems highly unlikely. We're only 10 so what are the odds? 

Please let my friends be here, please, pleaseeeee.

All the hostels in Triple C High have the same structure. In front of the entrance is a long corridor, on the left side of the corridor are the rooms for students, there are 11 in total. Each room contains 5 wooden bunks with a compartment underneath for shoes, 2 long cabinets with 8 lockers each, 1 short one with 4 lockers and a standing cabinet for hanging clothes.

 Each student gets to have 2 lockers, one for books and the other for toiletries and clothes. The standing cabinets are used by all the students in the room. On the right side of the corridor are the toilets and bathrooms,15 stalls each with an open space in front of all the stalls.

At the end of the corridor are 2 rooms: the hostel mistresses' room and the laundry room. The hostel's width is greater than its length, causing the rooms to be arranged in a maze-like format. All the hostels share a field which is used to spread clothes, though the laundry rooms are usually used at night.

We manoeuvred ourselves through the passages and it turned out that my odds were not too bad, I spotted my friend Mayowa immediately we turned the corner, along with 2 other girls in my set: Amina and Tade. The other girls were in SS1 going by the colour of their hostel wear.* 

I greeted everyone, especially my seniors as I set my box down and tried to figure out our sleeping arrangements for that night. I turned around to ask the hostel mistress a question but she was no longer there.

 I guess she went to meet her fellow hostel mistress.

"We're 10 and it isn't possible for all of us to sleep in one room. Unless 5 people don't mind sleeping on the lower bunk?" asked one of the SS1 girls.

"Isn't that better than sleeping in 2 separate rooms? Haven't you watched horror movies woman? They always start dying when they separate." Replied senior Isioma.

"That's why it's just a movie. For me sha, it's better if we sleep in 2 rooms so we can all stay on the top bunks, that way it's easier for us to see each other." Countered the first girl.

"Who wants to stay on up bunk with you? So that when the bunk shaker comes I will now die? Count me out oo, it is only lower bunk me I stay, after all the hostel mistresses will be in their own room." Retorted senior Isioma.

"All this argument is not necessary, let's just vote, the majority carries the vote." Suggested senior Princess.

The vote was 7 to 3 and it was in favour of those who wanted to sleep in the same room so we chose the room closest to the hostel mistresses' room. The juniors were elected to stay on the top bunk while the seniors stayed on the lower bunk.Since we juniors were only four in number, a senior would have to take the top bunk. Senior Princess said she didn't care either way and stayed on the fifth top bunk.

The room became rowdy as everyone tried to wash up and change into their pyjamas. It wasn't until like an hour later that the room became tranquil.

"Everybody come let's gist, this room is too boring abeg. What did you do during Christmas and New Year?" Senior Amaka asked.

"Amaka, you don start with all these your questions. Wetin they go do? Shey no be to travel go village or abroad and if them no fit travel na to go church and go party. Na normal normal now, no they bring up this dry topic again jare.Ehen, shey you don hear about wetin dey happen for queen's college?" Senior Chimdi inquired.

"Ahan,something don happen for that school again! Shoo,everytime na new new story we go dey hear. Sha tell us wetin be the new matter." Replied one of the SS1 girls.

Everyone settled down on 2 adjacent bunks, the seniors on the lower bunks and the juniors on the top bunks. We all huddled closer to hear Senior Chimdi better.

"I hear say for their school they don get new visitor oo but the guy visit no regular. Everytime he come he go always visit the first bunk. Whether na from the front oo or from the back, na sha always the first bunk in a row. Them talk say he go hold the girl, take off her pant and disappear. 

Nobody know wetin he wan use am do and anytime they try see him face,they no fit see am cause he for don hold the girl down and the other girls go just dey sleep like say they drink sleeping potion, they no go even shake. Immediately the guy don collect am like this and commot finish, na so people go dey wake up." Senior Chimdi finished with a flourish.

"Nawa oo, God go keep us oo." Declared senior Amaka.

 "AMEN OOO!!!" Everyone replied.

"Which kind nonsense thing be this now. Na for person hostel all these things dey happen, kai, Devil na bastard." One senior lamented angrily.

"See forget that one, atleast e no dey happen for our school. You no go believe wetin I use my own eyes see this new year. We dey church oo dey do deliverance service one tuesday like this,naso one woman just dey begin shout 'FIRE! FIRE!', she come dey roll on the ground like earthworm. 

Pastor come meet her and begin to talk say 'sister confess, confess and your sins will be forgiven', as prayer warriors now wan come hold am, say make them fire prayers for her head. Naso she just stand up and japa*, she still dey shout 'FIRE!' as she dey run. Trust naija now, everybody just stop to dey pray, now begin dey chase this woman, make them see where she dey go. 

This woman dey run scatter but some people manage catch up, they come dey hold her,naso pastor come talk say make nobody hold am, that God wan show us something. We follow this woman ehn! We follow this woman sotey my slippers almost cut." The seniors let out muffled Mmphs while we just secretly rolled our eyes.

"Naso this woman carry us go bridge oo, before person fit say jack robinson,she don jump inside the water. She just disappeared in front of us like that, we come realise say she be mami wata*." Senior Sophie finished her retelling.

"Ahan, sophie na true you talk like this?" Senior Favour questioned, her face full of distrust.

"Wetin be the meaning of that one? Shey I go dey lie ni?" Sophie retorted.

"It's ok, it's ok. Make una* no come start to dey fight oo. Abeg someone quickly change the topic." Suggested senior Amaka.

"You know how people dey talk say if you enter market now come stand for road, bend down your head, you go se-" Senior chimdi bent forward as she was about to delve into her story.

"Hey hey hey!! Ahan, it don do. All these scary things una don dey talk about since morning never do you? Who knows now whether those vultures on the roof for don hear us. Everytime cho cho cho cho cho cho, your mouth go dey run like tap." Senior Amaka quickly interrupted.

"They can't hear us because they're not around." Amina muttered.

"How do you know they're not around, did you check the roof? Abi, you no see them today?"Senior Amaka asked.

"I know because I'm one of them. The others haven't resumed yet." Amina stated.

"OBARA JESUS!!!!!" "EJE JESU!!!!!!!" "BLOOOOOOODDD OOOOOFFFFFFFFF JESUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!"Everybody exclaimed and shifted away from her.

"Which kind rough play be this? You're saying that you're a witch? God wetin I don do oo. Who send me come this school today ehn." Senior Chimdi wailed.

"Quickly change topic abeg otherwise I no go sleep this night." Pleaded Senior Princess.

"Abeg , who dey watch vampire dairies or secret circle, come make we gist. Princess, you dey watch am?"  Senior Amaka asked while stammering.

"No, you know I only do kdramas." Senior Princess replied and flipped her hair. The tension in the room drained a little because of her action and everyone was able to smile again.

"Sho, you and your city hunter. Na u sabi. Yetunde, what do you think about Damon?" Senior Amaka laughed.

Everyone broke up and formed groups of their own, though the chatter quickly died down a few minutes later. People started sleeping two on a bed because everyone was scared. I quickly grabbed Mayowa so that we could stay on the second bunk. Amina was left alone on the 4th bunk while Tade lay on the 3rd bunk beside us. I heard Tade speaking in tongues and covering herself with the blood of Jesus the entire night as she was trying to sleep.

The room was quiet but no one was able to sleep so people started reading novels and browsing twitter. The room was filled with sounds of pages being flipped and notification pings. Suddenly, another sound appeared. The sound of a woman walking on heels.

koi koi koi. Koi Koi Koi.KOI KOI KOI.

Night has its ears.

   

The sound kept getting louder and closer.

"Who's that one knocking? People are trying to sleep now." Senior Chimdi asked, annoyed.

"It's probably one of the hostel mistresses. Ma! MAAAAAA!!!!!!" Screamed Senior Amaka. There was no reply. "Maybe she didn't hear me, let's just fash it." She laid back on the bed and continued typing on her phone.

KOI KOI KOI. KOI KOI KOI! KOI KOI KOI!!!

The sound was coming from right outside the door.

When Senior Chimdi and Senior Princess bent down to look through the gap under the door, they saw a pair of red heels. They scrambled back to the floor with masks of horror on their faces. 

Their backs were against the bunk bends before they were finally able to talk and tell us what they had seen. We all screamed while covering our mouths and retreated farther from the door.

All that's going through my mind right now is who sent me oo, who send me come school early. I too do no good oo. I swear I'll never come on resumption day again in this my life.

After about half an hour, the footsteps started receding. She must have assumed no one was in the room since we maintained radio silence.

Not even up to ten minutes after the whole red shoe fiasco, we started hearing the sound of pounding, coming from the direction of the hostel mistresses' room.

The pounding kept getting louder and louder, till it was a shrill crescendo. All of a sudden, we heard someone shout, "IYAN TI JINNA*!!!"

Whose pounded yam is done ehn Jesu?

ᴡʜʏ ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ꜱᴄᴀʀᴇᴅ? ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛ ᴏꜰ ɢᴏᴅ? ʜᴇ ᴅɪᴅɴ'ᴛ ɢɪᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛ ᴏꜰ ꜰᴇᴀʀ ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴄᴏᴜʀᴀɢᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴀ ꜱᴏᴜɴᴅ ᴍɪɴᴅ, ᴡʜᴇʀᴇʙʏ-

Hey, hey, hey. Your own don do. Why won't I be afraid, how many prayer I dey pray? I've never experienced this kind of thing before, so better get out of here with this your spirit of God nonsense.

Not long after the shout, we started hearing drums, music, laughter, and the sounds of conversation. It was as if there was a party going on right in our hostel.

Our hostel mistresses entered the room in a fluster, the door banging against the wall on their way in. They asked if we could hear the sounds too, we all gave a murmur of assent. 

They closed the door and settled down on an empty lower bunk. The hostel mistresses huddled together like a pair of penguins, their heads bowed down. They tried to restrain their screams, though fear was evident on their faces and in their cowering bodies.

Everyone stopped laying down, and we became groups of three on a bed, like meat arranged on a stick.

I hope they don't think we look like kebabs and find us tasty. Why did I think of that? I want to start crying now.

ᴛʜɪꜱ ɢɪʀʟ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜɪꜱ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴍɪɴᴅ ᴇʜɴ. ɪꜱ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴍᴇᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛʜɪɴᴋɪɴɢ? ꜱʜᴏᴜʟᴅɴ'ᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ʙᴇ ᴘʀᴀʏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ɢᴏᴅ?

I'm just ten for Christ's sake, do you expect me to be rational? Better just thank God that I haven't even urinated on myself.

Eventually, the sounds of a party faded away, and we were able to ask our hostel mistresses to recount their experience.

They explained that they were sleeping when they got woken up by the sound of someone rolling a mortar and the sound of a pestle* hitting the floor. 

They heard someone asking if the yam was done and telling someone else to make sure the meat was soft because 'they are already old and their teeth are no longer as sharp as they used to be'.

Ahhhhh!!! Who did we offend oo? Na school I come, no be Nollywood I sign up for, ehn. Saanu fun mi.*

When we asked them about the footsteps, they denied hearing anything. They questioned our experience and suggested that we had imagined the whole debacle. 

Who wants to be hearing footsteps with you? When there are better things to imagine. If I say now that they imagined their own incident, they will vex.

We told them about the red shoe Senior Princess and Senior Chimdi saw, they caved and started crying with us.

As if things were not bad enough, the roof started shaking. We could hear the swooshing of wind, it was like torrential rain had started.

Mayowa and I tried to look out the windows to see how bad the rain was because the roof was shaking like it could fly off at any moment. We didn't want to have to deal with a leaky roof on top of everything we had dealt with tonight.

When we gathered the courage to peer out the window, we saw a bald shining head and a mat beneath the person's body. It would have reminded me of Aladdin but Aladdin wasn't a baldie, his head shot up immediately as if he had noticed us. 

He had no features, just a blank white face where everything would have been, there weren't even any openings.

We jumped back from the window and exclaimed in shock while pointing outside the window. The others went closer to check it out since he wasn't visible from their position. They saw him and started screaming along with us.

One of the hostel mistresses stood up in anger and announced, "See this isn't normal. All these things can't be happening in one night for no reason. We need to pray! We must pray seriously for God to put an end to all this occultic nonsense." 

Everyone jumped up and nodded in agreement. We started to pray for God to deliver us and to send down fire to burn them all to ashes.

We were trembling as we conducted our prayers and tried to bolster our faith and courage with each other.

While the prayers were underway, we started hearing footsteps but instead of heels, the footsteps sounded like wet slippers hitting the floor.

Slap, drag. SLAP, drag. SLAP, DRAG.

"JEKIN AGBARA OLORUN SOKALE!!!"

Our prayers intensified and the footsteps got louder and louder. It stopped in front of the door, and we started hearing what sounded like a wet sponge slamming against the door.

SLAM! SLAM!! SLAM!!!

The slams kept getting louder and more violent, to the extent that the door started shaking from the action.

The prayer broke off and continued after the encouragement of the hostel mistress. Our voices started hitching as we continued but the hostel mistress said 'we should raise our voices up to heaven and that we should not fear any devil for we have the lord on our side.' 

The roof and the door simultaneously started shaking even more vigorously and the hostel mistress that was bolstering our courage was the first to run out.

"AH! Ma, wait for us now." We all ran out of the room after her dramatic exit. We saw a pair of slippers laying on the floor in front of the door. All of us jumped over it because we didn't know what would happen if we mistakenly stepped on it.

Nobody wanted to turn into a yam or goat. The first hostel mistress was already waiting for us in front of the hostel door and kept reminding us to hurry. 

As we were running past the bathrooms, we heard the sound of running water, buckets being piled and arranged as well as taps being spun.

Stupid Senior Chimdi called out, "Who's there? Come quickly, we are about to go."

All of us including the last hostel mistress ran to the hostel door and left her there. She was still standing there foolishly till she realised that she was hearing the sound of someone moving towards her but not seeing anyone.

She ran quickly to come and join us, the sound of slippers following behind her. As we slammed the glass hostel door shut, we saw a handprint on the door.

The way we ran to the school premises was like we were competing for the Olympics. Senior Princess fell down but Senior Amaka quickly picked her up and backed her.

We flew through windows to get out of the hostel passage and into one of the classrooms. Those who weren't able to jump on their own were pushed by the others so that we could all scale the windows successfully. 

I was honestly surprised when I saw Mrs Bisi with her fat bum-bum scale the window easily. 

ꜱʜᴇ ᴍᴜꜱᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ᴘʀᴀᴄᴛɪꜱᴇᴅ ʜɪɢʜ ᴊᴜᴍᴘ ɪɴ ʜᴇʀ ꜰʀᴇᴇ ᴛɪᴍᴇ.

We ran out of the class building and ran all the way to the kitchen where we spent the night. The cooks were astonished by our sudden appearance, but we couldn't be bothered to explain to them. 

When dawn came, we were finally able to breathe easy because we knew the nightmare had come to an end.

Glossary:

Hostel mistress: A woman tasked with supervising and taking care of the students, maintaining peace and order in the hostels and who lives in the hostels with the students.

Una: You people.

Japa: Run away.

Mami wata: Mermaid.

IYAN TI JINNA: The pounded yam is ready. 

Saanu fun mi: Have mercy on me

JEKIN AGBARA OLORUN SOKALE: Let the power of God come down.

NB: About the Hostel wear: In Lola's school, the sets are color coded so every set has its specific color. The color is assigned to the set as soon as they are enrolled,e.g Set 2019/2020 will be assigned yellow, 2018/2019 blue e.t.c.

I would like to thank the following people for their appearance: Mr bunk shaker, Miss Mami water, Mrs Koi Koi, Mr Bush Baby, The Yoruba party goers, The vultures, Mr slippers man, The invisible hostelites and the roof shaker. This chapter would not have been possible without your appearance.