HOUSE ON THE HILL – 2

Selimah stirred to wakefulness in a slow, dream-like stupor. It was like she was swimming from the bottom of the river, straining hard against the downward force to reach the surface, before she loses breath and suffocates from water clogging her lungs.

It was a struggle and she was losing it. She could hardly focus or barely see anything in the darkness of the room. She felt the cold draught of the night air as it bristled across the thin film of hair on her arm.

She must have fallen asleep while trying to connect with Atinuke and Dewunmi on the phone last night, she reflected with a dim sense of recollection. It had been a long day and she had been tired. She had wanted to call her friends, and her parents to reassure them she got into Nemii safe and sound.

Her brain was trying to open the doors to wakefulness, but it was like the locks had been tampered with and the keys were not fitting in into them properly. She was semi-conscious, with a faint realization that her eyes were open.

Just.

What had woken her up, she had no idea. She could barely think straight as it was.

Selimah turned to pick up her luminous wristwatch from under her pillow.

The soft glow of the watch told her the time was 3.03 A.M. She should ease herself, she thought in her half-awake mind. With a sigh, she tried to force herself to sit up.

And, just as she had woken up she suddenly found herself flopping on the threadbare mattress and falling into a slow, tremulous trance-like slumber.

And, just like that she was fast asleep again.

The watch fell out of her sprawling palms.

The bright, illuminated hands of the time bathed a tiny speck on her palm with blinking blue lights.

The time – 3.00 A.M.

***

“Good morning, miss Selimah.”

Selimah jumped at the unexpected gravely voice that had come from behind her. It was very early in the morning and she had not expected to find anyone around. Especially not this close to her door.

She turned around, and squatting next to her doorway was her landlady. The cool, fresh and clean sensation of the early morning countryside air disappeared as quickly as she had begun to just enjoy it. There was something disconcerting and eerie about her squatting outline outside her room, just to the left of the doorway.

Like a sentry. Or a watch guard… Or a lookout!

“Good morning ma,” Selimah blurted out. It was a reflex utterance born out of habit rather than from a conscious presence of her senses. Even more so, since she could not see her very well in the early morning darkness. “I didn’t see you there. I was hoping to go for an early morning run and get a sense of the layout of the town,” she found herself explaining, somewhat guiltily.

The woman got up slowly from her crouching position. The movement was slow, ponderous and somewhat menacing at the same time. It was like she exuded some sort of electric charge, which hinted at some sort of inner strength veiled by her frail, gaunt features.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” As she came forward, Selimah could swear that the woman’s eyes glinted. It was a quick flash of light, but she couldn’t have dreamt it. Or could she? Her skin involuntarily started to produce goosebumps. It must be the early morning cold air. She stubbornly thought to herself, doing her best to push the idea of a non-existent glint in the dark from her mind.

As the woman drew closer, Selimah got a closer look into those deep, soulless eyes. Yesterday, when she had first encountered them she had been sucked into them like dirt been sucked into a vacuum cleaner. This morning however, they gave off an eerie signal of foreboding which made her avert her eyes nervously, “You’d need to be careful around at this time of the day. The light is low and there are many things that can be lurking in the dark,” and with that she strode past her and as she did, Selimah got another glint in the eyes and a strong whiff of an, at first, indistinguishable scent.

However, it didn’t take long for the origin of the scent to register in her brain.

It was a scent she unconsciously recognized once it hit her.

It was …a stench…of DEATH!

***

“Omooooo! It’s been very hard to get you ooooo,” Dewunmi’s excited voice piped down the earbuds filling her with the comfort and security that comes with a familiar voice.

“I know rightttttt.”

Selimah counted herself lucky to have her two best friends on the phone after almost two weeks of total radio silence. It was not like she hadn’t  tried, but it was like the town of Nemii was not connected to any kind of communication carrier. Getting network on her phone had been an almost impossible ultimate search. She had tried vainly, but all her attempts were unsuccessful until this wee hour.

She hadn’t even been expecting to get a call, but by habit, she always left her phone on in the faint hope she will get signal bars somewhere on her early morning or evening runs, or while at the community school where she taught, or by some weird twist of luck in her room at home.

Such had been her total resignation to her fate that she had missed the first four rings of her phone, the saving grace being she doesn’t leave her phone on silent and her friends refused to give up rousing her from sleep.

“It is the network o. The signal here is very weak. In fact, not just weak, e nor dey at all ni.”

Dewunmi and Tinuke laughed, their laughter carrying through from the earpiece and filling her with warmth.

“I am sure my mommy and dada will be beside themselves by now,” Selimah mused. ” Please, just in case the network cuts, help to call my mamma and assure her her baby girl is fine and hearty. That no pieces of me have found its way into the local’s cooking pot here o.’

The three of them burst into laughter again.

“Your mom and dad ehn,” Tinuke cooed from the other end of the line. “They are so loving, petting and protective of you. How I wish my parents were half as protective as yours. Do you know my father has not called or texted me since I came here? Even my momma have only called me once; and then, all she had told me was that I have to be a full adult now, take care of myself and not come home with a pregnancy.”

Another round of laughter burst out from the three friends.

It was so good to have her friends with her. Talking to them soothed her and made her feel a connection to the world again. She felt like she had been living in a bubble state for the past two weeks, and only been brought back to reality.

“Ehen, tell us about your town and people in the place nau,” Tinuke asked, dragging her off her drifting thoughts.

“well….” she didn’t get to continue as the connection was lost.

“Shit!!!”

This couldn’t be happening to her. She checked the signal strength on the phone and new immediately it was a hopeless situation. The signal was as flat as the top of her bedside table.

Selimah sighed, resigned to her fate. Who knows when next she would have the opportunity to talk to her friends again, or her parents. She had hoped to call them once she and her friends had done talking, but that won’t happen now.

She noted the time on her phone.

3.03 A.M.

Something about the time was odd, but she couldn’t place her finger on it. She removed the Quran from her chest and switched her position on the bed, so that her head is no longer on the foot end of the bed.

She put the Quran under her pillow and was about to lay the phone down on the bedside table and turn off the bedside lamp, when her eyes caught the shape of a shadow, crouching just by the door post.

She jumped with a start.

Ya Allah.

And, just like it was never there the shadow was gone.

Selimah, squinted and hyperventilated as she struggled to gather her composure and breath. She wasn’t sure what she saw, but there was something unmistakably recognizable in the air. That something she was very sure was left behind by whatever it was she saw dart across her sightline.

Quickly, her brain scanned through files in her recent memory and pulled up the information she was looking for.

That was it! Her eyes bulged in the darkness as she came to grips with the information.

The scent…the stench of death!

As she gradually lost consciousness of her senses, she didn’t see the time on her phone.

3.00 A.M.

To Be Continued.

***