Ini

𝕮𝖍𝖖𝖕𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝕾𝖎𝖝𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖓

"Ini." Ayo muttered as he squatted and pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back as she cried her heart out, while remembering her mother and the horrible things Orisa Ife kept doing.

"What's wrong?" Ayo asked, concern laced in his tone as he pulled away. He  used his thumbs to wipe away her tears before caressing her cheeks. Inioluwa sniffed as she tried to gain a better composure of herself, but it didn't seem to work as her heart was filled with too many burdens. The burdens became so much, that she felt like she could no longer bear them anymore.

"Everything is wrong. Everything's ripping apart, Ayo, and I have no control over anything." Inioluwa expressed, taking in breaths occasionally as she tried to stop another dose of falling tears.

"And it's all because of Orisa Ife." Inioluwa added, and Ayo became more perplexed than he already was. He asked no further questions as he knew that she may not be in the right state of mind to answer any of them. Instead, he helped her up to her feet.

"It'd be alright." Ayo reassured, despite having little to no idea what the real problem was and this in turn marvelled Inioluwa. She thought he'd be bothering her with his questions–questions that she doesn't want to give answers to.

"You could have gone to deep sleep or worse. That's why you need to leave." Inioluwa tried to reason, but Ayo slightly shook his head.

"Nothing will happen to me, Ini, but leaving me to my own curiosity doesn't help matters either." Ayo passed on, trying to fish out the truth from her and it seemed to work because Inioluwa said nothing as she walked towards the living room's couch and sat down. He watched her for a few seconds before she patted the spot next to her, and he went towards her and took his seat.

"Where do I even begin?" Inioluwa asked herself, as she began to retell everything that had happened to Ayo–starting from the first time she had seen the woman in white.

***

It had been a whole day since Abike had seen Inioluwa and she couldn't help but think about how Inioluwa was. Her mind was never at rest, especially since Folashade had been inflicted with deep sleep. She had been unable to bring herself to ask someone for a cure for Folashade because she didn't know how to start explaining how Folashade got the affliction.

But it was quite clear that Folashade was getting worse, as more mucus filled lumps sprouted on her skin and she became skinnier and darker in complexion. Even her hair began pulling off, and it became as though she had cancer–cancer that came with an awful stench and squishy lumps.

Abike could no longer bear the sight of her daughter in such horrific state. And so, earlier in the afternoon, she carried her to the girls' room and placed her on a mat. But the stench refused to be got rid off from the living room.

Abike was currently in the living room, going through an old notebook from when she was in secondary school. Her eyes were squinted firmly as she tried to make out the words she had written from over twenty years ago and it was worse because it was written fully in Yoruba.

It was her History notebook, and thankfully, it had a little story about Orisa Ife. She was so happy that she remembered her history book and the topic that was written about the goddess. After that woman had died from deep sleep, they were taught a little about Orisa Ife.

Abike had spent hours searching through her old luggage, before eventually finding it. If only she would be able to make out the words clearly, she'd realize that Orisa Ife wasn't all powerful and fearful because every evil has a weakness–the same goes to Orisa Ife.