really alive

I had expected. Everyone but Adaeze and Usman was seate

on here?” I thought, finding neither

Both were dressed in sky blue school uniforms tops and their pinafore, a deeper shade of blue than

vident he was an aje-butter, one of those spoilt rich kids that could wet themselves over a cockroach. There were two other pe

daeze and Usman were not tired of gra

urself to swallow your pride and admit you we

Adaeze responde

snig

you ever done that?

ed relaxin

t on my bad side.” She picked her wo

be carefu

sai

, keep

ed pacing and glared at Adaeze

are gone” Us

een an illusion, that they would b

to be sacrificed before you actually do anything? Anything at all” “Could someone tell me

an, but no. Missy wanted it her own way”. He was getting overly dramatic now, waving his arms as he spoke, as

. You merely risk your life and that of everyone who would bel

seethed. It seems these guys were real

iyat?” I as

still not looking at me. Adaeze didn’t s

. She was one of those who believed in his fairytales. Sadl

sparks flew from him as he balled his fists. Adaeze

. I’m more than enough mat

This time, even Adaeze ignored me as

ttered, moving back a bit, just in case one of them

this house. Come on, tell him.” He definitely was mocking

serve an explanation

use is

mething new. Even the dumbest of dumm

till a kid turns thirteen and then zap” He snapped his

them?”

their bodies and tr

him to contin

does it wan

know” Adae

d they had to lie low for a while, say, a hundred years or so. After which they would be rebuilt to conti

s to be believe

he box that contains the temple priests’ case, a box hidden

t like the way with which he stre

, Ab

asy enoug

it that way” Usman re

he darkness?”

id it like it was some normal phenomenon. Maybe to them it was, I wasn’t used to all this sort of drama. Then I remembered my

I asked, directing my quest

an picked the bait, r

ou got taken, err separated?

hadn’t existed, going about their day like nothing had happened. Two years later, Suliyat got taken also, and then th

rass, Usman?” Ada

alive, hell yeah

mean by remov

sman, clearly out of patience fired

show up after the house has taken a child to clear off the paren

er kids being haunted by a sort of darkness that somehow drew me towards it. I panicked. I was just facing the darkness for the first tim

e past twenty-four hours. Maybe they held a clue t

ned to some sort of lucid dream, only I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t tell what form I was, but I watched myself stare into the darkness as I had done earlier on, with clear unblinking eye

omeone must have seen me. Maybe Usman had seen me and was just bidding his time before having his

I gave up and grew back to reality. Adaeze and Usman were still howling at each other. Perfect. If the other kids would be as quiet as they had been since we all came into this wardrobe, I

. Typical aje-butter, I thought. The other end of the wardrobe started seeming far away as I walked onward. S

essence phase even as

ome any

dead in