MAGBO THE SEER (The story of a young seer from Lagos)
Episode one
The street of Acadia was unusually cold and dark. The tallest buildings are not more than three or four stories in height. Most of the buildings are not fenced but they all have roll-up doors. The street is quiet and deserted except for the figure of a young boy Magbo. He was half-running and half stumbling in the cold of the night.
He gets to a nearby building and bangs on the door. No one seemed to be in the building. He turned and looked behind him. From the look on his face, you could tell he was in great danger. He leaves the building and continues running.
He gets to an Oak tree and sees the figure of an elderly man sitting down. The man was backing him so he could hardly tell who he was. He runs closer to the man and begs for help; “Help!!! Ghosts they are all over the place, their faces are horrible” to his shock the man sitting under the oak tree turned his face towards Magbo and laughed maniacally; “are their faces like mine? Hahahaha!!!!”. The man’s face looked like that of a blood-thirsty vampire. Magbo ran as fast as his legs could go.
He soon gets to a place that seemed to be a church having service. He peeped in and saw it was filled with a lot of people. He hastily rushed in and took the front sit. He had barely sat for up to five minutes when he realized the atmosphere is a bit awkward. He turned and looked at the faces of everyone. Alas, he had been sitting in the midst of ghosts, this wasn’t a church but a den of ghosts. Magbo gave a very loud scream.
He woke up and found himself on his bed in his room at Lekki. He looked around the room to be sure it wasn’t real. He places his hands on his chest to feel his heartbeat. Indeed it was just a dream.
He goes back to sleep. He was only half asleep when he heard some noises from outside. He got up and turned on his bedside lamp. He started to walk closer to check through the window. He was half way to the window when his bedside lamp turned off by itself leaving him in the dark room. He paused and peeped through his window from his dark room. “What’s wrong? Magbo wondered”. His parents have just moved to this apartment and he had been having strange dreams ever since then but what he does not understand now is why he is hearing strange sounds from outside. He decided to find out what it was. He peeps out through the window and scans through the street as fast as he could. He was afraid of being seen by any monster, he had read a lot of stories on how terrible monsters can be to their victims.
Just as he was about to return to bed, he saw a small group of people at a close distance from the fence of his building. They were actually five in number putting on black dress. Their faces looked scarier than that of the ghost he had earlier dreamt about. Fear gripped Magbo’s heart when he sighted them, he had always thought witches do not exist. For the entire twelve years of his existence, he has always believed it was a myth but now he knows he had been wrong. The first thought crept into his heart to scream, he however listened to an instinct which asked him to remain silent for his safety otherwise face the consequences of his action. He however summoned courage and wondered what they might be discussing at such an unholy hour. He could only hear them laughing and murmuring, he reached for the door and rushed out of his room to wake his parent.
He barges into his parent’s bedroom without giving a thought to knocking. He felt they must be disturbed as well by the noise from outside. To his surprise Mr. and Mrs. Muyi his parent were both sound asleep. He woke them up and cried out; “Mummy! Daddy! Wake up”. His parents got up grudgingly, “what’s the matter with you this time darling” his mum asked him, Dad interjected; “it must have been another bad dream, please go back to bed okay, be brave” Magbo was dumbfounded; “No, it’s not just a dream, I heard them, I saw them through my window” he explained. “But darling how many times have I told you that whenever you have a bad dream just look around your room and convince yourself that you are safe” his mother echoed sleepily, “Mom, this is not a dream, it was real, just look through the window and you will see them”. “okay, okay, if that’s what you want then it’s fine” his Dad said and motioned to Magbo’s mum. They both walked to the window and peeped through but saw nothing, “Look over there, they are beside the fence”. “No darling, there is no one there, you must be hallucinating, go back to your room okay”
Magbo was more than shocked, “hallucinating?” he thought to himself as he stood on the spot watching the witches continue their meeting. Their laughter was getting even more intense, “They must have known we are watching them” Magbo thought to himself, he watched his parents return to sleep leaving him alone to face his fears in his cursed room. He soon summoned enough courage and returned to his room, he was alarmed when he met the lamp turned on by itself, he studied his room from corner to corner to be sure that no one broke in, he moved closer and peeped through the window once again. To Magbo’s surprise the witches were now in his compound and looking through his window. He runs under his bed and covers his face. One of the witch echoed loudly; “Only you can see or hear us don’t even think of getting yourself into harm by telling on us otherwise…”  another witch concluded “we will kill you and everyone that is precious to you” they all laughed aloud “Ha-haha-hahaha!!!”
By now Magbo was already under his bed where he remained still until the next morning. His mum was surprised when she found his room scattered and untidy like a war field. Should he tell his mum what happened?, he opened his mouth to tell her and then closed it when he remembered the witches order never to say a word about them.

                                                                                                            (To be continued...)

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