My New Neighbor

Episode 12

I didn’t realise that I have entered the wrong hut.

The delicious food I was eating became sour on my throat immediately and it sent a spark of excitement to my brain and lungs immediately.

I started coughing aggressively like someone that got infected with a deadly virus, I had to grab a cup of water that was nearby, emptied the content in my mouth and I gulped its content down my throat as soon as it dropped in my mouth.

I was still trying to explain myself to the man and beg for my life when the whole thing that was in front of me disappeared. My unfinished food, the water, the cup and the plates vanished like a fart and I started wondering if I’ll ever get out of that hut alive after beholding that wonder.

I fell of the chair I was sitting on immediately after the food and utensils disappeared and I have even misplaced my knives that could give me a chance of surviving

I started searching frantically for the knives and I was lucky to find them. I grabbed the three knives with my dirty and unwashed hands and by the time I raised my head up, the man has disappeared.

I wasn’t sure whether he disappeared or he went out of the hut, I couldn’t just see him at the spot he was standing on.

I stood up immediately to escape but the whole atmosphere changed immediately and the man appeared in his full regalia that was full of voodoo charms. A mere looking at his cloth was sending shivers down my spine and I had to back out in fear.

I was still staring at his outfit in disbelief and fear when a gun appeared in his hand. I became even more surprised because the gun appeared without him even saying a single word of incantation. I gave up after I witnessed this and every will to survive and escape vanished.

The looks on his face changed immediately and the once nice and gentle man that served me a delicious food earlier was no more. I’m now staring at a lion in human skin. His face was red and fierce every aura around him was spelling death.

He pointed the gun at me and pulled the trigger. I thought he has shot me but I didn’t hear any gunshot and I didn’t get hit by a bullet. He tried it again but the bullet refused to come out of its hole.

” Ohh, it you. I’m sorry for tampering with your vessel”, the man said while directing the words to me but I knew that he wasn’t talking to me. He was talking to the spirit that was in me.

“I am sorry for putting fear in your vessel and trying to take her life. I didn’t know that it was you”, the man apologised again.

The whole atmosphere became still and came back to normal after his apology and like a magic that occured earlier, everything that disappeared earlier appeared back, including the water and everything.

I grabbed the water immediately to wash my dirty hands and I exited the hut.

I was already at the entrance of the hut when the man called me back and gave me a direction.

” Don’t go through that path you came with. There are wild animals there and people don’t pass through that place at midnight. Pass through this place and keep on tracing the path till you see a river. Take a right turn after seeing the river and you’ll see the road”, the man concluded while pointing to another entrance in the hut.

He told me to pass through that place after giving me the direction and I thanked him after.

” You don’t have to thank me. Thank the spirit that’s in you”.

I just ignored his last remark and dashed out of the hut. I didn’t want Fred and his men to meet me there.I thanked him again before finally dashing out of his hut. I was at least lucky that he gave me the right direction to get out of the God forsaken forest.

I started tracing the pathway the man gave me.

I was so very very worn out by this time and the atmosphere was now more darker and bizarre. I was hardly seeing anything. I kept on stumbling on shrubs and broken woods and I didn’t even know the time I started frinnig and the freezing cold that was threatening to freeze my skin.

I was almost at the verge of passing out again when I spotted the river. I was so much happy and elated and I started thanking the man profusely and silently.

I started running towards the river happily as soon as I saw it and I kept on thanking the man until I heard the loud ear-bursting roar.

The whole place shaked and it looks as if the roar was coming from my mind. I couldn’t move, I because still and stunned.

I turned my head slowly to look at where the sound was coming from and I could see it.

It was a very big and wide Lion, it was bigger than any animal I’ve seen in my entire living experience and the Lion I saw at the Zoo wasn’t even as big as this. Its mere appearance was so intimidating and frightening and I didn’t even realise that a balls of tears are now falling freely from my eyes.

I was still crying in tears at my impending death when I saw another animal behind it. There was a huge Tiger standing right behind the Lion and both of them were gawking at me and sticking out there tongues at intervals.

Apparently, the man gave me a wrong direction. He gave me the direction that led to the very abode of the wild animals.