She could hear drums beating, voices singing in an alien language.
She tried moving, but her body seemed frozen. She felt so cold, as if she was wrapped in ice. At last she opened her eyes.
And she could not stop screaming.
Suddenly, it looked like someone had thrust their fists into her throat, her lungs. No sound came out of her mouth anymore, though tears fell from her eyes. She looked around her in terror, willing herself to disappear from this nightmare.
Men, women, children, donned in black clothes, danced around her. Their faces were terrifying; some had three eyes, while some had no lips with exposed, fierce dentures. She saw another with no other facial feature except one large eye in the middle of her face.
And their faces were all so eerily white.
She couldn't stop crying silently, wishing for a miracle to happen. The singing and dancing continued around her.
Suddenly it stopped.
She looked around in a panicked state, wondering what would happen this time. Then she saw these weird people-creatures kneel towards a direction.
Towards someone.
She slightly raised her head and looked too, and she saw Firi, in a fine regalia, walking towards her.
At first, she wanted to feel calmer, seeing a familiar face, but fear gripped her again.
Firi was staring at her with rage in his eyes. The closer he got, the more scared she became.
That was when she noticed them.
Seven little girls that looked like a miniature version of her. They moved towards her too, flanking Firi on both sides, and their eyes were also red wth rage.
Rage directed towards her.
She started shivering so hard as they moved closer and closer. She still couldn't voice out, but she felt so scared it was as if fear would be the death of her. As they got to her sides, she heard Firi say,
"Children, this is your very bad mama. She abandoned you here to enjoy herself somewhere else. A very bad mama."
As he spoke, the little girls closed around her, with burning eyes, angry eyes, snarling and screaming at her,
"Very bad mama! Come take care of us!!"
At that time, her voice worked and she screamed.
She screamed and screamed.
Until she could not scream anymore.
"Wa alaykum salaam Imam," It was Mister Shittu that answered from inside, as his wife just stood at the entrance, staring dumbly at the old man.
"Please do come in," Mister Shittu stood up to welcome his visitor. Sally Shittu managed to fake a smile and retreated into the house.
The men exchanged pleasantries briefly, then the Imam asked for Umar.
"He is in his room, I hope you don't mind Sir, if we go to his room." Mister Shittu said.
"I don't mind please, let's proceed." The Imam replied.
When they got to Umar's room, Umar's mum was already there, sitting beside him on the bed, and Umar was fast asleep.
"I would have loved to ask Umar some questions," The Imam said, "and perhaps, perform a little ruqya for him, but since he's asleep, that would be another time."
"We could wake him up," Mister Shittu said, already moving towards Umar to wake him, and ignoring the glare from his wife.
"No, don't wake him up," The Imam said. "I'll write out some portions of the Quran that you can read together with him, and I'll be back some other time in sha Allah."
After writing out the portions for them, and performing duaa for the household, he said goodbye, promising to come again.
As Mister Shittu locked the door after the Imam's departure, his wife stopped him and mumbled something about forgetting to get something on the next street, and bolted out of the house.
The Imam was about turning to the next street when someone called to him from behind. He turned towards the call, and saw Umar's mum running towards him. He couldn't guess why she wanted to see him, but he waited all the same for her to catch up with him. When she got close to him, he noticed that she looked quite angry, and he immediately said "Audhubillah minashshaitani rajeem" under his breath.
"Imam, stay away from this issue!" Umar's mum got straight to the point, no preamble.
"What issue?" The imam asked innocently.
"You know what I'm talking about Sir. Umar is my son, so he is my business, not yours. Don't claim to be a savior. I've warned you!"
With that, she turned on her heels, and left for her house.
"Subhanallah, Subhanallah..." The imam kept saying, as he watched her go.
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The Intruder
Short StoryMunawwarah was excited about her marriage to her hot long time neighbour, and things were going so fine for them, until the intruder decided it was time to take his bride back. But how can Munawwarah be his bride when she has never been wedded? And...
