Battered Wife

20

The next day after my unsettling nightmare, I tried to pretend I was alright. I made breakfast and took Adesewa to school. Although that nightmare kept trying to rear it's ugly head, I still tried my best to focus on my work. By my lunch break, I was a lot more fatigued than I usually was.

So when I saw Elijah, I really wanted to hug him but I restrained myself.

"So I reached out to my friend runs a security company." He started. "He's trustworthy and he worked in the US military before retiring and moving to Nigeria to start a business and settle down with his family. He sent me a digital brochure of his services, did you look through them yesterday?"

"Yes but I didn't understand a lot. What do you recommend?"

He moved to stand closer to me," do you want him to send someone to follow Adesewa and your friend? Or do you want him to just send security to monitor activity around your house?"

"I know I sound insane but what if I have another Enemy that appeared in my dreams and tried to force me to stay there forever?"

"What do you mean?" He asked.

I hesitated for a second but remembering how much that nightmare had bothered me all day long, I decided to just spill the beans. If he thought I was insane and laughed at me, I will tell him I was joking.

After making this decision, I told Elijah about my dreams. The ones I had about him, the ones I had as a child, the images that sometimes appeared in my sight when I was looking at CCTV footage and then disappeared. Then I went silent, waiting for him to laugh but all that was on his face was solemnity.

"Elijah?" I asked after he was silent for a while.

His brows were furrowed returned to stare at me.

"Say something." I insisted.

"Follow me I'll take you to see someone." He said after meeting my gaze.

Then he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the doorway that led out of the rooftop and unto the staircase.

"Are you sending me for a psyche evaluation?"

A smile formed at the corner of his lips, "No, I'm taking you to somewhere so you can realize that you don't need a psyche evaluation. You may be different from regular people but you're not alone."

I stared at my hand clasped in his, "So my dream was real? I'm not insane?"

"Yes." He said, turning back to meet my gaze with a smile.

Many jumbled thoughts flew through my head as I thought of the things I'd inadvertently saw several times but pretended not to see because I knew how ostracized people suspected to be witches or mami water were treated in my village.

Before I could think more, Elijah took me to down the stairs to the nearest floor which was empty. Instead of moving right where the elevator that led around the office building was, he led me to the left until we stood in front of a brick wall.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Don't freak out." He warned, turning to the side to meet my gaze again before he pulled a shiny pen out of his jacket and used it to write something on the wall.

The strange thing was his pen didn't touch the brick wall and his worlds stood in the air until his pen stopped moving. Then thr world in a shiny bright color mix that was predominantly light blue drilled into the wall.

With a ding sound, the brick wall parted like an elevator door exposing an elevator.

I was a Nigerian and I was very good at handling shock but my jaw still dropped as Elijah pulled me into the elevator.