GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

part thirty five

   I did not go back to my hostel. I just walked aimlessly around Ekosodin. Sabrina’s words kept ringing in my head. I wished I could take back time to when he told me about himself, I wished I could take back time to when I discovered the flash drive, I would have looked through it, I wouldn’t have allowed my emotions to rule me. I heard someone speaking Hausa making me to stop my endless walk. I had entered Newton Street without knowing, I was on the street to Winners’ Chapel. There was a small kiosk by my right and a Hausa man was talking on his phone. I entered the kiosk without purpose. The man ended the call and asked me what I wanted to buy. I asked him for a sprite drink, then sat down on his wooden chair to drink. I asked him for his State in Hausa and he was really shocked that I could speak Hausa. Grandma who had once lived in the north before going there with my mother, always spoke Hausa to me, especially when she did not want neighbors to know what she was saying and I always had conversations with them before the incident.
We discussed for long and he even refused to collect money from me. He called me his new found sister. I asked him if he knew the meaning of Saheed because it was not Hausa name, should be Arabic. He told me it meant lucky.
    I stayed there for long and I had no idea my body was burning until I tried standing up and fell. He rushed at me and shouted when he checked my temperature. I told him I was fine that it was just stress. I tried standing up again but he prevented me from falling. He said I needed to get to Health Centre which I protested against. I told him I just needed to relax and I would be fine. I sat down, my head bent for some minutes. I tried standing up and I was happy I did not fall. I said my goodbye but saw myself falling just after taking few steps away from the kiosk.
   I woke up with a drip on my left hand. I was at the University Health Service Centre. A nurse was checking the drip.
“Thank God you are awake. Young lady, how can you allow your temperature to run more than forty? You are lucky a Good Samaritan helped you.”
I turned to see that I was at their emergency ward, and the only one on a bed.  I asked the nurse to help me call the Good Samaritan after she said the test result of my blood sample was not yet out. It was the Hausa man. He said he saw my school ID in my bag, if not, they had refused to take me in. I was very grateful to him because I had to. But in truth, I wished there was no Good Samaritan because I would have been with Ghost. He said someone named Ken had been calling my line and I needed to call him. I thanked him and had to beg him to go back to his store that I was in good hands. If only I had tried hating on the criminals, not the whole tribe.
  I called Ken and he was acting like an angry father. He believed I had been deceiving him that I was fine and refused to be convinced I had been okay before I went to the river. I did not tell him the incident that happened at the river, it must have caused the rise in my temperature. He even gave the phone to his mum who told me to find my way to Lagos as soon as I got discharged. I promised to think about it.
    It was around 6:PM before I was discharged after finding nothing in my blood sample. The doctor told me to take a long rest and eat fruits. I called Ken as soon as I entered my hostel. He called two hours later to make sure I had taken fruits and food and the drug they gave me.
      I had no idea of time but I woke up because my body felt like it was being microwaved. It came with serious headache and cold. I could not even stand up to get a wrapper to cover up. I had kept my phone on my reading table and there was no way Ken would have flown down immediately. I shook from cold and fever. This was it, nature had taken its course and my emptiness was about to end. I had no idea what the other world looked like. I started confessing all my sins hoping God would forgive me. I did not want to go to hell. I closed my eyes waiting for death to take me away from my torment.
     Suddenly, I started feeling warm. The feeling of being microwaved started reducing, it was replaced by a good heat that removed the cold, it made me to stop shaking. It came with a kind of scent, a very familiar masculine scent. I pushed closer to that warmth and I felt my body being wrapped in him.
“It is okay Emmanuella. I’m here, come back to me.”
That was a voice I would only hear if I was dead. I never knew death felt so wonderful. I did not want to open my eyes because I was afraid I would find my soul somewhere far from his warmth. I wanted to be wrapped in him forever. He did not say another word but rubbed my back and kissed my hair. If I had known death would be this sweet, I would have found a way to die earlier. At a point, something told me I might be dreaming causing fear and panic.
“Sssh, Emmanuella, open your eyes. Please.”
“No, I don’t want to” I panicked.
“Why?”
“Because you will disappear. I won’t survive it. I am going to hold you and close my eyes forever.”
“I am going nowhere Ella. You are shaking so badly. I might need to take you to our hospital. Please help me. I’m real.”
But I shook my head. That was how dreams like that normally happened. Once I open my eyes, he would be gone.
“No, please, don’t tell me to open my eyes, please stay, don’t go. I’m sorry, please don’t leave me. Life is meaningless without you, an endless bottomless dark pit. Please don’t tell me to open my eyes, I want to stay with you forever” I cried and continued crying.
“Ssh, okay. You can close your eyes. Don’t open it, if it makes you believe I will stay.”
“Thank you, thank you.”
I felt relaxed immediately, I was going to stay there with him forever.
“I love you Emmanuella” he said kissing my hair.
He was really going to allow me stay. I was going to be trapped with him forever. I could never wish for more.
        I woke up to sunlight permeating through my window.  I did not remember raising my curtain but there was a bigger issue. I was awake, I did not die and he was all a dream. I checked my temperature by placing my hands on my neck and it was surprisingly back to normal. I started crying. He promised he would not leave me. This was another kind of torture. It had felt so real. Nemesis was dealing with me by showing me a glimpse of what I could never have, by allowing me to feel a bit relieved that I was going to die but recovering all of a sudden after torturing me with his presence. I felt so helpless and hopeless.
“You are definitely not beautiful when you cry, nothing cute about it.”