Photocredit: Google.
I.
Thunder crashed. Lightning flashed. She turned with hesitant casualness. Before lightning left the blackness of night gulping back the world around her, she had a glimpse of him ducking out of sight.
She clutched her bag in response to the realization that she was being tailed, increasing her steps. A second later found her running.
II.
She scissored through the wind, Continue reading
Mirror on the wall
look at me while
I tell you tomorrow
you want to know
who will it be
then search no more
I will be your guide.’
The ominous song woke Chidi from her sleep. It was 12 AM on the dot and the night was chilly and silent. Despite the cold, perspiration still Continue reading
I stood outside Mike’s house, the cold harmattan air caressing my tear stained face. I was heartbroken. I had snuck out of the house, against my father’s “I don’t want to see your legs outside” to Mike’s house because I wanted to give him a little Christmas surprise.
I had gotten the surprise instead when I let myself into his house. I walked into Continue reading
“Not everyone knows my fiancée’s death wasn’t an accident. Even I didn’t know at first. Carbon monoxide poisoning is what they said. He left his generator set on all night, pulled a little too close to his bedroom window, they said. He died in his sleep, they said.” Amauche is looking down at her tied hands, but her gaze is unfocused, mind drifting somewhere in the past. “Victor was a deep sleeper; he never left his
Parasitic Twin. Fetus in fetu. Vanishing twin syndrome.
According to experts, some pregnancies start out with multiple foetuses. For some yet to be verified reason, during the first trimester, one of them may be absorbed by another twin, multiple or placenta. This foetal resorption is either partial or complete. The partial type leads to the discovery of extra limbs and body parts on or in the surviving twin, but when complete absorption occurs,
Continue reading
The staff of Yaba Psychiatric Hospital is used to handling emergencies in the dead of the night. Sometimes, the inmates try to hurt themselves. Sometimes they succeed.
And sometimes they hurt other people.
Twenty minutes before Chisom Benson reached the hospital, her twin sister bit someone’s ear off.
The victim was a big strapping fellow called B.J. by his colleagues. He was the strongest orderly Continue reading
After it is ascertained that Amauche Benson is still securely locked up in the psychiatric hospital at Yaba, naturally the police turn their attention to her twin sister, Chisom.
“Young lady, how do you now explain how that girl ended up in your kitchen then?” a policeman asks, tone brash, his eyes narrow with suspicion.
They are standing outside Chisom’s house; two policemen
They called her The Ember Killer.
Named after the notorious ‘ember months’, coined by superstitious Nigerians obsessed with the spate of fatal accidents and misfortune that seemed to thrive in the last four months of the year. Those were the months in which she began her murderous spree.
Mid-September had seen the discovery of what Amauche Benson claimed was the third victim, a French lecturer in the University Continue reading
Chisom staggers out of her house, almost falls and then grips the railing on her verandah.
Her head is swirling, thoughts jostling each other in her head, full of red stains and broken flesh and the vivid images throw a hook down into her stomach and try to pull up bile. She retches and clamps a hand over her mouth, careful not to look back at the door she has left open behind her, frantic to find something to anchor her to the moment. Continue reading
“Nigeria is a poultry. The masses are the hens, the government is the farmer. And we are all waiting for christmas.”
– Adeosun Adams Mercy
It was the eve of the presidential election, the night the General was declared winner. We were at Aso Rock, eating meat and dancing reggae. It was a buffet. Continue reading
Stephanie returned the diamond ring but she didn’t return Cyril- the cuddly brown stuffed-bear that her ex-lover had bought her. Cyril had become her friend and no one should return friends. Continue reading
the dark notes 