One of my scariest experiences in boarding school.
My mom was the one who chose a boarding school for me and my sister. She went beforehand to find out about the school, and it was a missionary school very famous in its area. It was the best when it came down to education, but another reason my mom chose it was because it was owned by a church. Eventually, we got to meet our aunty Uche, who was to be our guardian before we entered school.
Aunty Uche told us chilling stories of happenings in the school, like the visit of popular folklore such as “Lady Koi Koi” and "Bush Baby." I was in junior secondary at that time. At first, I was quiet and always on my own, but in no time, I adapted.
Now, we were in the school, and most of the stories we were told seemed just made up, but trust me when I tell you paranormal things did happen in that school. I saw things that if someone else told me had happened to them, I would find it very hard to believe.
So, we had one of our night vigils one Friday night, and our chaplain, who wasn’t supposed to be present, surprisingly showed up. After the church service, he passed a message on to us.
“I received a divine ministration from God, and He told me that some strange girls are hiding among us, that are here to initiate into and grow their coven,” he said before he prayed seriously for us and then left.
I can never forget that night. I was still a newbie in JSS1 and didn’t take every rumor I heard well; I was always so scared, even though I hadn’t yet experienced anything firsthand. That night, after the chaplain passed his message, everything became surreal—it felt unusually quiet throughout the school, and my heart jumped at every sound that rose above the quiet. The evening breeze felt more chilly than usual like it was brushing right through me. I stayed close to my sister that night because she had a harder mind than I did, and somehow that made me feel safer.
After that night, days went by, and everything settled down; everyone cooled down from the chaplain’s message.
It was after that when I met Amanda. We met in the dining hall during lunch. It was a Wednesday, and Wednesdays had one of the best meals for lunch—fried rice, boiled egg, and salad. I was munching down on my food when I heard this soft voice from beside me, “Do you want?”
I turned to the girl who was my classmate but one of the quiet ones. “No, thank you,” I said, refusing because it was my first time talking to her, and it wouldn’t look so good accepting her food just like that.
“Do you want?” She turned to the other girl beside her, who couldn’t reply because of a filled mouth but grabbed the plate of food.
“Are you going to the field after now?” she asked me.
“No, I need to wash,” I answered.
“Okay, I also need to wash,” she said. She waited for me, and after I was done, we both went back to the hostel to wash our clothes.
While we washed, she talked about herself, and surprisingly, we had a lot of things like favorite music, movies, and celebrities in common. And that was how I and Amanda became close friends, always walking around together. One thing about Amanda was that she was very generous; she had a lot of snacks and would always share with me, and I shared with her too.
Another thing I noticed about Amanda whenever we went to her hostel was that she was very secretive with her box. She behaved in a way that would make anyone suspect she had skeletons in her closet.
One day, we went to her hostel so she could get her cutlery. She unzipped her box slightly open, just enough for her hand to pass through.
“Why don’t you just open it well?” I chuckled, watching her search for the cutlery blindly.
“Don’t worry,” she shrugged me off.
“Just—open it,” I said as I went forward and pushed her playfully with my waist. Immediately, her hand was off the box; I unzipped it wide open. I glanced inside. The box was quite empty for its size—inside were some casual hostel clothes, some money, and up to seven little hand mirrors.
“What are you using all these mirrors for?” I asked her, feeling it was weird.
She quickly shut the box close and said, “They are mine. I hope nobody saw the money because I don’t have money to pay the senior that owns them.”
“Don’t worry, take your cutlery and lock it. Let us go to the dining early,” I said as my mind had already gone to the dining.
We went for a midterm break, and something weird happened. One morning I woke up with fingernail marks on my neck. I just concluded that I probably scratched myself in my sleep. I didn’t give it much thought, even though I had a bad habit of biting my fingernails, so I never had nails long enough to give myself those marks.
We resumed school, and Amanda didn’t resume. No one heard from her about whether she was coming back, and she wasn’t the only one who didn’t return.
One Sunday after resumption, our chaplain made a speech during his sermon. “The girls who came didn’t succeed, so they have left.”
And just then, everything hit me at once. It was like all the memories replayed in my head—meeting Amanda, her being so generous, the mirrors, the strange neck marks, and her not returning after the midterm break without anyone hearing from her or about her. Very few students even knew there was someone like Amanda, and it was the same for the other girls who didn’t return. The girls who didn’t return, including Amanda, all had eerie things in common—how they were quiet and generous with a lot of snacks to the few people who knew them.
After that sermon, I wasn’t the same. I even shook as I told my guardian about my suspicion. After my first ever intense voluntary fasting and prayer with my guardian and sister, I was finally able to rest—whether my suspicions about Amanda were real or not.
