When night bleeds

PROLOGUE: A kiss of darkness

For the nine hundred and fifty eight times, Cheta, visited this part of her father's farm, it had never seize to fasinate her. With sweat dripping like fountain down her body, she beamed at a particular direction where a banana tree stood.

Yes, she kept count of it. Even though the futility of schooling from level zero to the top had been knacked countless of times into her brain. Education is almost useless to women, said once by a friend of hers. Get you a man to marry you and you good. Cheta, had rolled her eyes. It wasn't the first time she'd been told that, neither would it be the last. Nothing ever deterred her still from applying the knowledge she gained from the little education she was able to attain.

With a radiant smile plastered in place, she drank in the beauty of her surrounding; the giant fruitful mango tree, ukwa, casava, yam and so many others. They always brought a smile to her face. The only things that ever gave her a sense of belonging.

"How about I tell father to plant an orange tree right there." She said out loud to herself pointing at an empty space beside a plantain tree. "The ones back at home won't surfice for next harvest." With a shake of her head for arriving at a wise decision, she dropped the hoe she held to tighten her faded ankara wrapper around her waist. At that very moment, she caught sight of something unusual she hadn't noticed upon arriving.

It stood rooted beside a mango tree; all covered in black. She had been working on the land for about eight hours. Like other days, she never fail to study all the plantations, she was certain it wasn't there earlier. The sun had long since dropped around the horizone. The sky starting to get dark.

Looking closer, she noticed the figure move an inch, then stop.
As a person who had grown in a rural town, she had stopped being afraid right from when she was six. She had never encountered a spirit to know if they appear in black or white. Besides it might be her silly friend putting out one of her annoying jokes. "Sandra?"

No response.

"Father?"

Absolute silence. It moved again, this time towards her.

Could it be her brother? She scowled. How long was she expected to work before returning? She couldn't remember. "Mother?" she called, deliberately avoiding mentioning her elder brother's name.

Silence.

She drew back involuntarily. Whoever it is must receive a piece of his or her medicine when she gets...

Her thought abruptly flew to the wind when her back collided with a hard object––human actually she confirmed by glancing behind her.

A large veiny hand clasped around her face as she opened her mouth to scream. The first thing that came to her mind was drive her leg back towards her Interrupters knee, but her assailant seemed to have thought faster that her. With a sharp blow at the side of her neck, she went tumbling to the ground.

Pain as sharp as the devil's sword sliced the entire of her body. The back of her head pounded so hard it drove her to few seconds of insanity. When she regained her vision, she looked up to discern what was goin on, her attacker chose that moment to smack her hard across the face.

"Oh my, God!" She yelped in shock. "What is going on!"

Someone chuckled above her. "Right about time we have a serious discussion."

Anger surpassed her growing fear. She forced her focus beyond her current pain, and tried to bound to her feet. "Who are you?" Cheta, demanded furiously.

"Don't you dare use that tone with me." The human judging by his voice to be a man, commanded. Two things dangled in his tone: rage and adulterated joy.