In the darkness that did not feel like sleep. I felt an eerieness like the darkness itself was active.
I could not see anything, but I was aware of movement around me. No wind, No sound, Just presence shifting in a space I could not measure. My body felt heavy, like I was still lying on the street, but at the same time I did not feel the ground beneath me.
Then I heard footsteps. It was slow, careful and gently approaching me.
The footsteps were not echoes, They were deliberate. Each step carried weight, like the person knew exactly where I was even though I could not see them.
I tried to open my eyes.
They were already open.
There was nothing in front of me.
Just a wide stretch of grey that looked like fog but did not move.
The footsteps stopped. I felt it Close, very close.
I could not turn my head mainly because my body refused to respond, I felt like I was pinned in place by something invisible.
A voice spoke.
"Too early."
It was not loud. It was not deep or high. It was steady. Controlled.
I tried to speak but my tongue felt thick.
The voice continued.
"You saw it." said the voice in an eerie ephemeral voice that sent shivers down my spine.
The grey space around me flickered faintly. For a moment, I saw the colored strips again, the rainbow colors, moving across the empty air like veins of light.
Then they disappeared.
"Hmm it seems you're not supposed to see it yet," the voice said.
A hand entered my vision.
Dark sleeve. Long fingers. The hand hovered in front of my face but did not touch me.
"You reacted, fascinating"
The hand slowly closed into a fist.
And just like that, the grey space cracked.
Lines of color shot through it like fractures spreading across glass. The same colors from the street. They ran outward in all directions, forming a web around me.
Pain pressed against my skull again, but softer this time.
Controlled.
The voice moved closer. I could feel breath near my ear now.
"Shh"
"They can hear you now."
A sudden pull yanked everything away.
The grey space folded inward. The colored fractures collapsed. The presence vanished.
I felt myself falling.
Not downward.
Inward.
Then—
Sound.
Real sound.
People shouting.
"Water!"
"He fainted!"
"Move back!"
My eyes snapped open.
The sky above Birnin Kebbi stared down at me, bright and unforgiving. The sun made me squint. Faces hovered over me. Blurry at first. Then it became clearer.
A man I did not know leaned over me. "Young man, can you hear me?"
I tried to sit up, at first my body resisted but slowly obeyed.
My head throbbed, but the sharp pain was gone. Only dull pressure remained.
"I'm.. I'm fine," I managed to say.
"You screamed, wetin happen?" someone said behind him.
"I heard it from the junction, the shout loud no be small" another voice added.
I looked around.
The street.
The same one.
The same buildings.
The same spot.
But the colored strips were gone.
Completely gone.
I scanned the ground carefully.
Nothing.
Just cement.
Dust.
Footprints.
My bag lay beside me. Someone must have placed it there.
"Any of Una know who him be?" the man asked the small crowd.
"No," someone answered.
"He just collapsed."
"You should take him to the clinic," a woman suggested.
"I'm okay,make Una no worry again I day fine" I said quickly.
I forced myself to stand. My legs were weak but stable. The crowd watched me with curiosity, not fear.
Good.
They had not seen what I saw.
They had only seen a boy faint.
I adjusted my bag and stepped away from them.
"Go home and rest," the man advised.
I nodded without looking back.
Each step away from that spot felt strange. Like I was walking out of something unfinished.
Halfway down the street, I paused.
I did not turn around immediately.
I waited.
Nothing happened.
No lights.
No ringing.
No whispers.
Slowly, I looked back.
Everything was normal.
Too normal again.
I walked home.
The heat pressed harder now. My shirt clung to my back. My head still felt heavy, but my thoughts were clear.
That voice.
It had been real.
It did not feel like a dream.
The words repeated in my mind.
'You saw it'
'They can hear you now.'
I reached my house and opened the gate.
Mom was outside, rinsing vegetables in a bowl.
"You're back early," she said looking up.
I swallowed.
"Yeah."
"You look pale."
"I'm fine."
She studied me for a second longer than usual but did not press.
"Help me carry that inside."
I obeyed.
The normalcy of the house felt unreal after what happened. The tiled floor. The sound of the TV from the living room. My sister arguing with someone over the phone. Though for some reason my sister have been on her phone for too long lately, but she gets cranky if I interrupt the conversations. So I just let her be, I took the vegetables to the kitchen and placed the bowl on the kitchen counter.
"Are you sure you're okay?, or the malaria don day serious?" Mom asked again.
"No worry mummy, I just felt dizzy outside." I said smiling to her.
She touched my forehead.
"No fever."
"go and rest."
I went to my room and closed the door.
The fan still made its slow ticking sound.
I sat on my bed.
Silence.
I stared at my hands.
They looked steady.
I lifted one slowly and held it in front of my face.
Nothing unusual.
No light.
No reaction.
I stood up and walked to the window.
Outside, the boys were still playing football.
A motorcycle passed.
Everything looked stable.
But something inside me felt stretched.
Like a thin thread pulling in a direction I could not see.
I leaned closer to the glass.
For a brief second—
The reflection in the window shifted.
Not my movement.
Something behind me.
I turned quickly.
Nothing.
The room was empty.
I exhaled slowly.
Calmly I walked to my desk and opened my physics textbook.
I thought If I focused on something normal, maybe my mind would settle.
I read the first line three times and could not remember what it said.
My head throbbed again.
Softly, but there was no pain just pressure.
Then the air in my room changed.
It felt thicker.
I froze.
The fan was still moving.
The door was closed.
But the space felt occupied.
I did not move for several seconds.
Then, slowly, I turned my head toward the corner of the room near the wardrobe.
At first, I saw nothing.
Then I noticed it.
The air there looked slightly distorted.
Like heat rising from asphalt.
A faint shimmer.
I stood gazing at the scene before me
The shimmer grew clearer.
Thin lines began to form within it.
Very faint.
Almost invisible.
Colored. It was the rainbow colors again.
My heartbeat quickened.
"No," I muttered quietly.
The lines stretched outward from that corner like cracks forming in invisible glass.
They did not glow as brightly as before.
They were controlled, as if watching.
The pressure in my head returned, but the whispers did not.
Not yet at least.
The lines extended slowly across the wall.
They did not damage it.
They existed over it.
Layered.
As if another version of the room was trying to show through.
I stepped backward.
The lines followed slightly.
Not aggressively.
Just aware.
The memory of the voice returned.
'They can hear you now.'
"Hear me?"
"How?"
The colored lines spread wider.
And then—
The wall flickered.
Not fully gone.
But thinner.
Through it, for less than a second, I saw something else.
The same room.
But empty.
Dustier.
The paint cracked.
No fan.
No noise.
A still version of my house.
Then it snapped back.
I stumbled against my bed.
The shimmer pulsed once more.
And then it stopped.
The corner of my room looked normal again.
Completely normal.
The pressure in my head faded slowly, while standing there breathing heavily.
A sudden knock hit my door.
I jumped.
"Chiroma?" my sister's voice called. "Mom said come and eat."
"I'm coming."
My voice sounded steady.
Good.
I opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
Everything looked exactly the same as always.
But I kept glancing at the walls as I walked.
Nothing followed.
Nothing shimmered.
I sat at the table and ate quietly.
My sister talked about a movie she wanted to watch. Mom reminded me again about WAEC preparation.
I nodded at the right times.
But inside, I was listening and waiting.
For ringing.
For whispers.
For footsteps.
That night, I lay on my bed staring at the ceiling.
Sleep did not come easily.
Every small sound felt amplified.
A dog barking.
A car door closing.
Wind against the window.
Around midnight, I turned to my side.
And that was when I heard it.
Not ringing.
Not whispering.
Footsteps.
Outside my window.
Slow.
Deliberate.
My body stiffened.
Our house was fenced.
No one should be walking that close to my window at this hour.
The footsteps stopped.
Right outside.
I did not move.
I did not breathe loudly.
Then—
A shadow passed across my curtain, it was neither cast by a vehicle nor was it random when suddenly it paused.
As if whoever stood outside was listening and watching.
My heart pounded hard enough to hurt.
The pressure in my head returned instantly.
Soft at first.
Then growing.
The colored lines flickered faintly along the edge of my ceiling.
Just thin traces.
Barely visible.
The shadow outside shifted.
A hand pressed lightly against the outside wall.
I could see the outline through the curtain.
Long fingers.
Still.
The same shape I had seen in the grey space.
My throat tightened.
I forced myself to sit up slowly.
The pressure in my head intensified.
The colored lines along the ceiling brightened slightly.
The hand outside moved.
Slowly.
Upward.
As if reaching toward where my head rested against the wall.
The whispers began again.
Faintly while building up.
I swung my legs off the bed.
The moment my feet touched the floor—
Every light in the house went out.
Complete darkness swallowed the room.
And the footsteps outside began moving toward the front door.