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Somewhere in southwest Nigeria, there was a girl named Bola. She was a very normal girl in most respects, she liked ice cream and makeup, and dance videos and Tuface Idibia. She loved her parents and obeyed them, at least most of the time. She had one flaw though, she loved the moonlight a bit too much and this made her leave her bedroom window open at night. Her mother would get angry whenever she found out and her father would warn her sternly, he might even add a scary story like spirits reaching in to grab her through the open window.
She always dismissed these stories as well, just stories, seeing as no well educated young lady believes in spirits and ghosts and other superstitious speculations of our unlearned ancestors. Stories of monsters who spoke with the voices of their prey's loved one's or birds who could give you night mares if you stared at them for too long are just too unscientific for reality, Bola's reality anyway. She preferred better excuses to scare her such as thieves and criminals, who by the way would have to first scale the fence and then sneak past Abija, the family's guard dog.
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Bola felt the open window created no threats to her, her parents were just paranoid from staying in the village for too long. Also claiming that the dog howled at midnight because he saw ghosts was just too hilarious.
On this fateful night, she lay in her bed staring at the moonlight as she dozed of to sleep. She had used her phone until it was almost dead, if the faulty electricity was not repaired by the end of the week her dad would start rationing generator fuel. She yawned widely as she checked the clock on her phone (01: 36AM) while fighting the urge to play one more game. Abija howled into the night, a bit too close to her window for comfort, she would have to go out and stop him or else his noise would keep her awake till morning.
She yawned again and turned in bed looking for a more comfortable position. She hoped Segun would smile at her today the way he did yesterday. They had been getting closer since the beginning of the rainy season when he'd walked in the rain so she could use his umbrella .. She smiled sleepily he looked so chivalrous walking...
Abija howled again, jarring her thoughts and clearing her sleep halfway.
“Amadioha strike that dog and his howling" she swore as she staggered out of bed grabbing her phone. Amaka, her Ibo friend was starting to influence her, she'd surely be in trouble if her mother heard her swearing by any of the old gods.
“Abija!! O ti to! It is enough" she called from her open window using her phone to try see what was troubling the dog.
The circle of light created by her phone's torch moved around the dark compound but she saw nothing. Not even the dog.
“Where is the idiot dog self?" she asked herself. The compound looked lonely and a little bit scary as a cloud moved to obscure the not-so-bright moonlight. She shivered from more than just the cold and pulled her nightie closer to her. A sudden flapping of wings made her jump as a bird took of into the night. She just made out its shape as it was very black, blacker than the night and its eyes glinted in the darkness. She shook herself, something was definitely wrong tonight. Maybe she should close the windows tonight, she tried to tell herself that it was because of the cold and not her fears.
As she reached for the windows something moved in the darkness and she pointed her torch at it, clutching her phone tightly. It was just a mango.
“It must have fallen from a tree" she said aloud, totally forgetting for some reason that the mango season had not begun yet and also there was no mango tree in her compound.
“It looks very ripe and fresh too, maybe I should go and pick it up" she said again. At that moment she found herself outside the window, her phone in one hand and the other stretched towards the fruit. She walked slowly towards it and then bent to pick it up but the fruit hopped forward.
She stared at the fruit suspicious
“Enh! It is getting away, I must catch it" she heard her voice say.
She creeped forward again and reached for the mango, but again it hopped forward. Again and again she reached for the fruit, again and again the hopped a little bit farther. At some point she turned off the torch to preserve her phone battery as the mango had a slight glow to it now and she didn't need the torch to follow the elusive mango. To any nightowl or insomniac watching the streets.
Bola must have walked for awhile as her leg started to ache. When she looked around she could not recognise her surroundings. She was in a light forest, the trees partially obscuring the moonlight, she turned back then forward and then left and then right but each direction looked the same. She was totally lost.
“Hiss!! Oooooohss thisss isss goodsss" she heard from the trees.
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“Who is there? Who are you?" She said as panic started to grip her. “I am lost! I don't know what is happening or were I am!"
“Don'sss worryy" the voice replied from the darkness making her worry more “Aal izss well, you are here andss you are minessss" the voice said with mirth.
She turned around and around trying to locate the speaker but he seemed to be circling her. She was about to make a wild dash through the bushes, anything to get away from voice that made her skin crawl and caused the hair at the back of her head to rise. Suddenly, a figure dropped from the overhanging branches, Bola screamed in fright and backed away but she hit a tree halting her progress.
The figure looked like a really short man. She was starting to berate herself for screaming at a potential helper when the figure looked up and the moonlight showed his visage. He was bald, completely hairless and had scaly skin. When he stood tall she saw he had no legs but his lower body was that of a snake and he was far taller than she was. She could make out the lower part of his body moving in the trees and it was really long. There was no way she could escape
“Hiss!! I assssk for food andsss the witch bird bringsss a bridessss" the snake-man said, forked tongue tasting the air like a snake would. He came closer to the frightened and shaking Bola, almost touching but around at the last minute. “thisss izsss goods"
“Wha...what. arreee... you. ." Bola stammered, she tried telling herself to run but her legs seemed to be glued to the floor.
“Hissssssss!" the snake-man hissed thoughtfully “you arrre my news bridesss" he drawled.
“I can't marry you" she screamed.
“yesss you can, you came after my token" he raised his hand to show a faintly glowing mango “butsss if you will not marry then you will be foodsss" he continues showing off his large fangs.
“You may still be foodsss if my firssst wife catchesss you, she tendsss to eat competition" he said circling her once more “I myssself am yet to desscide which isss more tasssty, meat or maid, if..."
He stopped, looked up and then tasted the air with his forked tongue. In sudden movement his snake half coiled around Bola trapping her and blocking her in effecting darkness. Her pounded in her chest as the cold, scaly skin moved around her. Fear was impeding her ability to breathe as she remembered that this was how most snakes ate their prey. She was going to die here.
‘Of all the ways to die,eaten by a snake would be my last choice. Would it be painful?" She thought to herself ‘I should have closed the windows and then I wouldn't have seen the witchbird or followed the token. Now I am going to get eaten. Eaten my a snake-man, with his fangs. I should have gone to bed earlier maybe this would've been avoided. I wish mum and dad were home to stop me from going out. May be I can still escape, but how?? What would dad do in this situation?'
She tried to breathe slowly and found that it worked. At least the snake wasn't trying to suffocate her. She could wiggle a bit but it made her feel claustrophobic and build panic in her chest. She could hear voices and listened closer trying to differentiate the speakers.
“I say you are hiding something from me" it sound like a woman.
“No my love I am not, don't worry yoursweetheartitchbird would be back soon with your treat" her captor implored.
‘That must be the his wife' Bola thought ‘if she sees me I'll get eaten for sure'
“Okay I believe you sweetheart the feminine voice said and went away.
Luckily for her, an hunter was passing by at that time and saw her in the grips of the snake man, the hunter being an experienced hunter took out an incense and poured into the small lantern he was carrying.
The snake man tasted the air again and sensed something odd, the scent of the incense was already weakening him and he had to release Bola and escaped into the dark woods shouting "am coming back for you!!!". Bola immediately got up from the floor having been released from the grip of the snake man and ran towards the direction of the moonlight hoping she could get her way back home. The heater immediately called her but she didn't answer thinking it was another demon in the woods trying to lure her to itself. The hunter ran after her and caught up with her. He stopped her and asked her what she was doing in the dark, trying to catch her breath, she replied "I don't know how I got here" gasping and panting.
The hunter then explained to her who he was and how he saved her from the snake man. She had no choice than to rely on this saviour in a "no man's land". She followed the hunter who led her out of the dark woods and brought her back to a house about a stone throw from her own house. The hunter told her to go home, but she insisted staying with the hunter overnight cos she was scared of what might still happen. She thought to herself "is the snake man still coming back??, is his wife coming after her ??, what will happen to her before day break???".
This were her thoughts as she sat on a bamboo chair in the hunter's house.
Stay tuned for the next episode of MOONLIGHT HORROR
