Trapped

19. THE TRUTH

THE TRUTH

I am about to respond in the affirmative but my eager friends beat me to the punch.

"Prophecy? The supernatural? Well, I once was fascinated by astrology and stuff, but I discovered I prefer to ground myself in logical facts," Owen says, trailing off.

"I do," Jadiel says softly. "The paranormal stuff."
Her face is contoured in a dazed expression.

"You do mind telling us more?" Mr Demesi says.

"Well, I, um, every night, I have these scary dreams where I see everything getting destroyed. Often, it's because of an event I trigger. They feel so real, like an alternate reality or something..."

My heart is slamming so hard against my chest. Oh, boy! I definitely am not alone in my nightmare thing. No wonder I felt a strong connection to her.

Jadiel continues, "Most times, they get so bad in intensity and frequency that I use drugs to stay awake at night. I guess that has been weighing down on my mental health." Jadiel pauses and bows her head. My Demesi encouragingly pats her shoulder.
"That glob we encountered down there, I've seen it in my dreams before," she concludes.

I shiver involuntarily at that information, and then I say, "Me too. Seeing the glob in my dreams, I mean."
I turn my face to face my bestie.
"Cordelia, remember that nasty stuff on my face this morning?" She nods, slowly remembering. "That was like a blip of it. Then, in class, before I dashed out, I had a sort of vision of the globs destroying everything. You can imagine my fear when I saw that thing down there."

Oscar places his hand over my trembling ones.

Mr Demesi sighs, rubs his palms together and says, "Okay, okay, so the concept isn't foreign to all of you, I want to believe. We don't have the luxury of time to get everyone's experience."
He points at Jadiel and I. "You girls are lucky God's got His eyes on you."

Perhaps it's high time I tell them all that the glob said telepathically to me. Perhaps, that will make this warped puzzle clearer.
"Sir, while we were down there and the glob confronted us, it- it spoke to me."

Mr Demesi frowned. "What do you mean? I thought you described it as having no facial features."

"Yes. It kind of spoke to my mind but in Yoruba."

I relay everything it said, emphasizing the fact that it referred to itself as a demon.

I lick my lips.
"Sir, you know, at some point, I had terrifying thoughts that this was the rapture, the beginning of the end of the world. I didn't voice it out because I didn't want to solidify the notion."

Mr Demesi let out a brief dry chuckle. "Yeah, I get the rationale behind that fear. Though most people are blinded to it under the guise of false security and development that the government has brainwashed most to believe, we live in a dystopian, dying world.

"But as a believer, you don't need to fear death or the end. It's a transition to a new beginning. Christ will come for His own. The question is, are you His?"

I know I believe, with all my heart. But my friends...
'God, please open their hearts to you,' I pray inside me as the silence stretches.

"I want to rededicate my life to Christ. What should I do?" Oscar says abruptly. I look at him, surprised at the speed of the answer to my prayer, and want to burst out of sheer joy.

Soon after, Jadiel, Cordelia and even Owen indicate a similar willingness to accept Jesus.

Smiling, Mr Demesi asks us to link hands and he leads them all in a prayer of repentance. I'm sure I can hear the heavenly jubilation.

Mr. Demesi begins to address them afterwards.
"I'm happy for you. You're new creatures now."

I look at their faces and see the peace and joy there. I want to hug them all.

"The truth will make you free, so says the scriptures. But, once you step out of this place, will that be the end of your belief? When situations come to tempt you to go back to your old ways and the Nigerian government begins to implement dangerous policies that are completely against your faith, what then?"

As my friends and I muse over his profound words, I hear the main door of the library slide open.

"Hello!" an oddly familiar female voice calls and the clacking of heeled boots against the tiles.

Cordelia rolls her eyes.
"I bet it's Vera. What's she looking for?"

The person emerges, and no surprise, it's her, gold-tinted locs and all.
"Oh, I was beginning to think I should go back and ask for a search team to accompany me!" she says.

"Yes, young lady, what do you want?" Mr Demesi asks. He is not pleased that she interrupted our discussion. Neither am I.

She looks at Mr Demesi briefly with disdain and fixes her gaze on the rest of us.

"You guys do know that the break period is over right? And, Mrs Pels has already pardoned your creature's shenanigan," she said, looking warily at Dart on the table.

"The maths teacher asked me to look for you. We're about to solve calculus problems."

Did I mention that because of her status, Vera automatically bags the position of being our class captain? Yup, it's so annoying.

I blow a breath and say, "Yes, Vera, we'll be out in a minute."

Vera leans closer and pins me with her narrowed gaze. Her irises rapidly switch to a sickly green hue, then to dirty brown and then to inky black.

My breath hitches in my throat.

"You better be," she hisses.
With that, she huffs and stalks off.

My mouth opens and closes repeatedly of its own accord without any sound.

Mr Demesi says, jolting me out of my shock, "Children, I'm so happy about the decision you made today, but I have to let you go. Go clean yourselves up in the restroom."

He points in the direction of the restroom. We girls go first to wash our faces and arms and clean off the dust and cobwebs from our bodies and clothes. The boys do the same in their designated restroom.

When we come back, I plead with Mr Demesi to help me look after Dart till I come to fetch him once school is over.
After lots of persuasion and Owen giving him tips on how to handle his allergy to fur, we all make to leave.

"Naomi," Mr Demesi calls.

I turn to look at him.

"You must understand that most people out there are in the darkness, and are being controlled by it. Regardless, you have to keep shining. That's their only hope."

Somehow, I sense he knows what I saw in Vera's eyes.
I smile and nod in understanding before hurrying out to meet my friends.

~~~

Author's note: There are some occurrences that we cannot explain how or why it happened, be it pleasant or unpleasant. But if we pay closer attention, we just might see clues that point to the fact that God is trying to communicate something of utmost importance to you.
This is why you must be born again. Your heart must take a side. There are no in-betweens.

What think ye of the fabulous five who now have their salvation secured?

And what's up with Vera? *Cringes

Anyway, that being said, I've enjoyed writing this book so far.

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