₦airaland Forum

enirock:
The dad may know more than he's letting on.

But how Shelby take know abi na person use her phone
nice concept and I can't wait for more.

Thanks Frankline

becca2017:
Thanks for the update

xaviercasmir:
Wow nice update

Lakesc:
Thanks for the update..

Thanks for reading

Austine8090:
419 we r waiting o

You mean 461?

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

CHAPTER FOUR

I opened my eyes to the ray of sunlight bursting into my room through the slightly opened cotton, its warmness, gladly welcomed by my right chin. I turned over, away from the window, hoping to still catch some more sleep and maybe continue the dream I was having which was turning out to be an interesting one. The bed creaked and grumbled as I shifted my weight on it and suddenly went motionless. Yes, there it was, my perfect dream. I was flying over houses with wings so strong the wind it blew made them collapse and also blew away the soldiers I was fighting. I was the superhero in my own world, the virtual reality I had created for myself. I felt so fulfilled as i flew past their endless arrows and spears, flying towards my goal, the lady that was tied up at the top of the cathedral just ahead of me. As I approached her, I made some three-sixty spins before finally landing just in front of her, my back facing her as I stared at the territory I had single handedly conquered. I was shirtless, my packs were very obvious and my wing spread to it limit. I slowly looked over my shoulder at her as Chris brown 'Forever' played in the background giving me the heroic grand enterance. Suddenly, the cloud went dark and all the soldiers I had defeated began to rise to their feet, the girl behind me chuckled startling me. I turned to her quickly, and noticed that all of a sudden she was no longer tied up, and her eyeballs, she was a fallen! She took a few steps forward, and subconsciously, I took steps backward towards the edge of the cathedral, which had suddenly tripled in height. I tried to fly, but I realized that I no longer had wings, she chuckled again and pushed me off the cathedral, laughing loudly as I made a free fall until I finally hit my head on a rock.

I immediately jumped off my bed, panting, my bedsheet following suit, I turned and found my younger sister standing at the edge of my bed, staring at me like I was wearing a scary Halloween mask with shock all over her face, she was probably startled by my action. I heaved a sigh of relief when I realized that it was all a dream and that I was at home, in the comfort of my bed. I got on my feet, picked up my bedsheet and sat at the edge of the bed, rubbing my eyes, as I tried to wipe the sleep off.

"Your phone was ringing...." She finally spoke after a moment of silence and observation. "...and daddy said I should tell you to prepare for church."

I nodded and she hurried out of the room, banging the door loudly behind her. I turned slowly to my phone, that explained the song that had been playing in my dreams, Forever by Chris Brown was my ringing tune. I picked it up and turned on the screen. The date, day and time appeared boldly on my home screen.

'Sunday, 23rd of March 2028'

I swiped left and was surprised to find out that I had missed eight calls from Shelby. Shelby was one of the girls in school that had unknowingly falling for me. I had taken things too far with her, farther than I had ever done with any other girl because I had liked her too, but the feeling quickly wore off and I grew apart from her. She had told me about six weeks that she was going to spend her holidays in China with her aunt and wasn't coming back till it was time to resume, her family had a tree from over there. I guessed the recent development made her unable to stay there for long and she had to fly back earlier than expected, because she was calling with her home line. It was unlike her to call with her home lined and not her personal line, she had only ever done that once, after which I saved the number for future purposes. As I stretched, I wondered what she wanted that she had to call so early on a sunday morning. I tossed my phone on my bed and walked into the bathroom as I made a mental note to call her back during the day to find out what she wanted. I picked up my toothbrush, lined it with toothpaste and drove it into my mouth. As I scrubbed my teeth, my mind once again went to the girl in black and how she was doing, I wondered if she had successfully made it to China and if so, if she had been successful in neutralizing whatever it was that the fallen had planned there.

The Premier of the Republic of China had announced yesterday that China was no longer allowing immigrants into the country and that no one was allowed to leave. He further announced that China was going off the digital world, barring internet access in the country and broadcasting firms, it was going to be a total blackout there for the next few weeks as they dealt with an 'Internal issue'. This announcement received a lot of backlash from the world as Amnesty international and some other human rights organisations claimed they were going against the fundamental human rights. Other heads of state also condemned this, but they couldn't do more. I wondered if the girl in black had gotten out of the country before the law was enacted.

I had turned down the offer she made to go with her and help her stop whatever it is that was planned, as politely as I could, when she showed up three days ago, I had given it a lot of thought the night before and I couldn't figure out a single advantage in following her to China, it just wasn't logical. Even if what she claimed was true and the world was really about to be doomed, there were over eleven billion people she could have tried to convince to join her agenda, except they couldn't see her as she said and I was the only one who could. It wasn't a pretty scene and I still couldn't get rid of the image of her disappointed face, as she promised never to show up in my life again. That must have been for the best as I had been granted the perfect opportunity to go back to living my normal boring life without having to worry about running into some dude with black eyeballs and since she left, things had somehow returned to normal except the once in a while nightmares. My dad shouted that breakfast was ready, and I knew I had to hurry.

*

Everyone was on the table when I got down, they had already dressed up and were almost halfway done with their food. I sat on an empty dinning chair, took some slices of bread and requested that the jam be passed to me, Michael handed it over. As I ate, I could feel the multiple stares that were directed to me from everyone as my dad cleared his throat multiple times.

"You slept good?" My dad finally asked, wiping his mouth and cleaning his hands, guess that was that for breakfast.

I knew my sister must have mentioned something to them and I couldn't blame the poor girl who must have been traumatised by the actions of her elder brother. I nodded in affirmation and buried myself in the slice of bread I was holding.

"I need to see you briefly before we leave for church." He continued. "Join me outside as soon as you finish eating, I would go warm up the engine." He turned to my siblings. "Make sure you clear the table before we leave." He excused himself and stepped out of the house.

I wondered what he suddenly wanted to see me for as I placed some jam over my bread, could it be as important as his countenance seemed when he announced it?

"Is it true that you can see ghosts?" Shalom's voice cut through my thoughts.

I almost choked on my bread.

"Shut up, how many times will I tell you that all that ghosts do not exist." Michael countered.

"But Zino said it and I also heard Uncle Davy telling his mom when I went over yesterday. Uncle uche also told Dad that you were acting strange when he came over and that you brought a girl home too."

Michael sighed, shook his head and continued eating. Uche, that bastard. I picked up the cup of tea and gulped it as I planned the perfect response in my head. I now had a hint of the reason my dad might have wanted to see me, but he knew better, I could never bring a girl home in their absence, not that they were always present though. I raised my head and the attention of both my siblings were fixed on me.

I faked a laughter and took another bite of bread and Jam. "Like Michael said, ghosts do not exist and I'm sure Uche must have been mistaken, I never brought any girl home." I took another bite to hide my anxiety.

Shalom gave a disappointed sigh while Michael shook his head agian slowly as he gulped his tea.

"I knew it. I knew there was no way you were that cool." Shalom said, finishing her bread and packing hers and my dad's plate.

"Ouch." I called after her, as she disappeared into the kitchen. "That hurts. I thought I was the coolest brother ever."

"I'm sorry." She shouted from the kitchen. "Yes you are."

I smiled and ate the last slice of bread as Michael gave an irritated countenance to our little drama, packing his and my plate, while I wiped my mouth.

*

I found my dad in the garage just by the gate, he was warming the engine of our 2027 Toyota four-runner and immediately he sighted me, he waved me over to join him in the car. I pulled into the front sit beside him. He turned to me for a while and did nothing but stare, it felt as if he was trying to figure the right way to pass whatever message was on his mind. He reached for the car deck and picked up his Android Tablet.

"How have you been feeling the last few day?" He asked as he scrolled through his tab.

It wasn't the question I was expecting, so I answered with a single word. "Fine."

He stopped scrolling and turned to me, sighing. "I know that I have not always been around and that I spend more time at work than I do with my kids and trust me when I say it is something I am trying to work on, so that I would be available for you kids."

I stared at him, and I was surprised by his approach to the matter on ground. He could have just gone straight to the point and ask me if I had brought a girl into his house.

"Are you really fine?" He asked again and I grew frustrated.

"I didn't bring a girl home." I finally decided to take the lead.

"I know, but that not the issue." He played a video in his tab and handed it over to me.

It was a video of our house and I could see myself coming out of the house and heading towards the gate, I wondered how the video had come about.

"I had mistakenly left the car's cam on and it was recorded from the car's deck last Sunday when we went for the company's outing, the one you decided not to attend."

My eyes widdened, it was the day the girl in black and uche had showed up at the gate. The video played on and I saw myself hurry into the compound and stopped, I was talking in the video, but there was no one there, it was as if I had gone insane.

Even a video recorder could not catch her, I wondered. The video ended with me walking back to the gate, saying something and then shutting the gate and walking back to the house. My dad retrieved the tab from me and placed it back on the deck.

"If you are fine, what was that about?" He asked as gently as he could.

I thought for a while, and decide to tell him everything but as I was about to start, my siblings entered into the car.

"Let's have this discussion later." My dad said as he tightened his seatbelt. "Yoir mom is coming back today too." He continued.

My siblings jumped up in happiness at this announcement, oblivious to what was going on. I stepped down from the car to open the gate.

*

Our church was a twenty minutes drive from where we lived and we were in, about five minutes when my phone rang again. I turned the screen and found that it was Shelby calling again. I stole a glance at my dad, his gaze was fixed on the road, before I answered it.

"Hello." There was a short static sound before her voice came through.

"Don't.........Car....."

I couldn't hear her as the line broke in between. "Hey I can't hear you." The static sound came again.

"Car.....away.....wired.....blow..."

I couldn't figure out what she was saying, the network must have been really bad. I sighed and spoke in again. "Can you say again, I couldn't hear you."

The car came to a stop in front of the traffic light and a car pulled up close to ours, on my side. The driver lowered his window, removed the shade he was wearing and I could see his eyeballs, they were dark. He smiled, put on his shade and drove away as the light turned green. Our car moved too and that was when I heard her, but it was too late.

"Don't get into the car, go far away from it. It has been wired to blow."

Almost as if on cue, there was a loud bang at the back of the car and we were sent flying in the air. The car swerved and tumbled, somersualting endlessly as we flew all around in it until it came to a stop upside down. I gave a loud cry as I tried to move my legs but couldn't as blood dripped down my head. I slowly turned to the driver's seat and I could see my dad, he was motionless and a part of the car had pierced straight into his neck as blood dripped down through it. My eyes caught something briefly at the back of his neck, a kind of tattoo that shown before it went dim again, I took it as my dying eyes playing a last minute trick on me. I couldn't turn back to see my siblings but I could not hear anything either. I tried again to move my legs but i couldn't, I also tried to call out their names, but my voice also failed me before I finally passed out.

Elvictor:
which genre be this?

I wan know

Psi-FY

Lakesc:
Thanks for the update...

Thanks for reading

Ann2012:
Well done OP

becca2017:
Your story is really nice

More wisdom bro

Thank you, thanks for reading

Khriztarl:
thanks for the honour. I appreciate.

You're welcome. Thanks again

enirock:
Uncle Franklin, I have a complaint (okay more like a plea). For the sake of your ardent readers, would it be possible for daily updates or at least three episodes in that two days?
What I read up there has already raised my adrenaline and being a lover of good write ups, that two days interval looks like a death sentence. Thank you for this. We eagerly await more updates.


Before person go say I dey make noise
Ike gwuru.

The reason why I had to make it a once in two days update is because I want to drop the whole chapter all at once and not in bits, the two days gives me a chance to gather my thoughts, pen them, make some readjustment, read through and proofread before I release it.

I could switch to short daily updates of other readers also call for it, but I think a long once in two days update should suffice. Thanks for the opinion

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

DEDICATED TO Khriztarl, thanks for being the first reader to comment and bringing your family along.

CHAPTER THREE

Two days passed after this event and as much as I struggled to, I never mentioned what had happened to my parents. There was no logical way to explain how I could see somebody everyone else claimed they couldn't and that she somehow mysteriously found her way in and out of our house. In as much as I wanted to believe it was a all a game, I had decided to wait till I figured it all out before I mentioned it to any other person. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and things had somehow returned to normal. The girl in black never showed up after our little argument and even though I felt bad for losing my temper during our last conversation, I felt worse knowing that I might have been going insane. My parents and siblings were out, my Dad had gone to his workplace, my mom had gone on a trip since monday, and was not returning for the next two weeks, while my siblings had gone to school. I wasn't expecting anyone back till past eight.

Dad owned a transportation company, they were mainly in charge of transporting essential goods and services across states in the country and were one of the most used services among couriers. Although, he was the CEO, he always stayed back later than most of his workers, including the manager, sorting through files and making sure that all the day's work had gone smoothly whilst preparing for the next day.

"All these workers are just there for the money." He had said when I pointed out that most CEOs didn't do half the work he was doing when they had managers. "If the business goes down, they would all leave to take up another job. They don't really care if you're turning in profits or loss, so far they are being paid. It's up to you to decide if you want to move forward, remain static or crash. What's worth doing, is worth doing well."

He always came back much later than the others and went straight to bed after having a little chit chat with all of us. Mom on the other hand owned supermarkets in seven states across the country and as much as we hated it, she had to do a lot of travelling to ensure smooth running of her businesses. Whenever she was around, she was seldom at home, switching between wholesalers, companies, and numerous dinners to increase her network. She always argued that networking was the key to business.

"Networking is an essential part of building wealth, your network is your networth. If having faulty eyesight was poverty, your network doesn't give you better glasses, it gives you better eyes." She would then go on to narrate how she first started with very little and was able to build because of a woman she met and decided to keep in touch with.

She was the definition of an independent woman. Whenever she was at home, she was always either giving a command to me- I really hated it- or the maid, barking over the phone at her sales people or having a video call with one of her clients. I later got to learn that she had not always been like that, and that majority of what she was was majorly influenced by my dad. I never asked the details, it never really mattered to me. My siblings attended one of the best secondary school in the area, it had a lot of children who were either politician's or from a well to do home. The youngest, Shalom, was in JSS3, while Michael was in SS2. Their school closed by four but they had to go for evening lessons till eight, such was the standard set by my parents. 'Hardwork and Network was the key to a successful life.'

I laid on my bed and was going through my class's WhatsApp groupchat. They were having a discussion on the recent sightings of flying humans in different countries, albeit pictures provided and video recorded were not clear and looked doctored. Everyone had their input and majority, including myself didn't believe it to be true. I closed the application and went on to read the world news, there was a major controversy in China about the recent deaths and disapearance of people, and the Premier of the people's republic of China was scheduled to give a briefing on it on Saturday. As I scrolled through other headlines, I received a message from Davy asking what I was up to. I clicked on his icon and replied that i wasn't doing much and really needed a get away.

'Perfect. I want to run an errand for my mom, it's a strategic location and I need someone to accompany me'

I perfectly understood what he meant by strategic location, a girl was definitely involved.

'You're running an errand for your mom, or you're going to see a girl?' I wasn't buying it.

'Both. I was going to that area anyways, so I'm killing two birds with one stone. You should come along, I showed her friend your pictures and she fell for you instantly'

I scoffed, typical Davy, would do all he could to make sure he convinced you. I dropped my phone on the bed and laid on my back, my gaze on the decked ceiling. My mind drifted to the girl in black, who she really was and all the circumstances that had surrounded our meetings. This was the perfect opportunity to find out from Davy what was really happening, what they had planned and why they had planned it. I picked up my phone and typed into it.

'Would be with you in ten'

*

It took about thirty minutes for us to get to the location even though the road was free and we made just a few stops, Davy's mom had lent him her Siena car and we drove in it to the location. He was to meet up with her PA and hand over some bills to him as he was scheduled to be in Mamo's kitchen for launch. Davy drove into the parking lot and parked the car in between two Benz, we pulled out of the car and made our way to the entrance of the eatery.

Mamo's kitchen was unusually crowded on this fateful day even though it was a large eatery. Majority of the sits had been taken by majorly workers from companies in the area. Freeland was a major hub for different companies due to its strategic location just towards the outskirts of the state. Mamo's kitchen was popular because they served variety of meals, they even as far as chinese and Italian. Jack of all trade. I took a step back and told Davy that I would be waiting for him outside while he went in to hand over the bills, he nodded and disappeared into the eatery as I took a step away from the door to prevent obstructing guys that were going in or coming out.

Davy was taking longer than I had expected, so I decide to take a few slow steps towards the parking lot. My gaze went onto the main road as cars drifted by at high speed gnoring the speed limit, I shook my head and wondered why humans were always inclined to go against rules, whatever it was, always disregarding the possible consequences of our actions. Taking a few more steps forward, my gaze caught a woman standing on the other side of the road staring at me. She was wearing a tattered black gown with no slippers and her entire body was stained, she was not wearing any footwear and her gaze was wicked as she stood rooted to a spot, not flinching, or moving, even as people passed her by and went about their businesses like she was not visible to them. I turned to look around, as I might have been mistaken and she might had been staring at someone else behind me but I was the only one in the area who was not going into the eatery. I turned back to the road and she was gone, I looked around and there was no sign of her, it was as if she was never there. Sighing, I turned to head back to the car and there she was, standing just behind me, the shock from suddenly seeing her made me stagger backwards and almost trip into the main road when someone grabbed me by my collar and pulled me back.

"Guy, what the fvck." Davy screamed as he tried to help me stand. "You really wanted to die on me? What do you want me to tell your parents? That you followed me to a carteen and fell into the road willingly?"

I ignored Davy and tried to balance on my legs, my eyes fixed on her, there was something wrong with her eyes as she had lost all the white parts and it was so dark I could almost see into her soul. Her lips moved and I tried to make sense of what she said.

'Die?'

Davy tapped me hard bringing me back to reality.

"Guy, why are sweating like you just saw a ghost?" He sounded concerned.

I turned to him and back to her, but she was gone again. "You didn't see her?" I asked, still panting.

Davy stared at me worried. "See who?"

There it was, I no longer thought this was a game, something was happening to me and it scared the life out of me, was it my time to die, was this how it ended for everyone? I walked past Davy slowly, ignoring his stare, I pulled open my side of the car and got in, slowly strapping my seat belt across my chest. Davy joined me almost immediately, he stared at me for a while before igniting the car and driving out of the parking space.

"Are you still down going to Gina's place?" He asked as we approached a traffic light, his voice pleading.

I didn't want to be the reason he didn't have a good time since he had earlier told me that he had been anticipating that day for a long time, and even though i had not recovered from the shock of what had just happened, I couldn't back out.

"I'm fine." I managed to say. The light turned green and we turned left onto Grammar street.

*

My stay at Gina's place was majorly uneventful, I really wanted to get back home, lock myself in and collapse on my bed but I couldn't because Davy and Gina had excused themselves to go into one of the rooms, they claimed they needed some 'privacy'. From her endless chatter since we came in, I found out that her parents were mostly out of the country and she was the only child. She attended a private university, was in her final year and was also on holiday. She claimed that she was always bored and usually tried to kill her boredom by hanging out with Beatrice, the supposed friend Davy claimed to have showed my picture to, but it wasn't working for them anymore and they needed to 'spice' up their life.

I turned to my wristwatch and it was already past four, this meant that they had been 'spicing up' privately for almost an hour. I raised my head, and my gaze caught Beatrice's for the hundredth time, I could see anger and dissatisfaction in her expression but I really wasn't in the mood to give any thought to that.

"Can I use the restroom?" I asked as I sought a way to get away.

Beatrice rolled her eyes before finally muttering the direction to me. I thanked her and left, trying my best to look as composed as I could. I opened the door to the toilet and stepped in, walked towards the ceramic basin and turned on the tap, sprinkling some water on my face as I stared at myself in the mirror. A few weeks ago, I was a perfectly normal youth that buried himself in endless streak of kdramas and hollywood movies, who would have thought that I had slowly been losing my mind. I turned off the tap, picked up a wipe and cleaned the water off my face, I wasn't going to get broken easily, I was going to figure things out and get back to normal in no time, first, I needed to find the girl in black.

"They found you."

I turned around swiftly to the familiar voice, the girl in black stood close to the bath tub a few metres away, looking as radiating as ever with her hands crossed. There was something different about her though as I could see an open wound on her right arm, wasn't so sure it was there before.

"How did you get in here?" I questioned.

"Aren't you listening? I said they know about you." She ignored my question.

"Who's they?"

"They know about you and would do everything in their power to destroy you along with your gift, you're an anomaly, one that doesn't fit too fit too well with their agenda."

"Can people really not see you?" I countered, determined to get my answers.

"Like I said earlier, humans are one of least advanced species in the universe. They do not posses advanced rods and cones to grasp our dimension."

"But I can see you." I argued.

"Yes, and that's because there's something wrong with you."

I gave a sarcastic laugh. "Tell me about it."

"At first, when I noticed that you could see me, I thought you had been possessed by one of the fallen and planned on expelling you. But your eyes was inconsistent with the other vessels I had met, their souls had lost its essence and it reflected in their eyes, you could see the void it had left behind."

My mind quickly went to the woman I had seen earlier, had she been possessed by this fallen?

"You've met one, haven't you?" She asked with a scrutinizing look as she took slow steps towards me. "Don't tell me you looked into its eyes."

I was silent as I didn't know what she wanted my reply to be. She gripped my arm and pronated it, some black spots were beginning to form behind my fingers and she turned to face me.

"When did this happen?"

"About two hours ago."

Her mouth was a little agape. "How are you still alive? No one has ever stared a fallen in the eyes and lived to tell the story, not even a guardian." She ran her finger over mine. "The poison is trying to eat into you soul but your body is fighting it successfully."

I withdrew my hand from hers. "I need some explanation to why this is happening to me."

She heaved. "I don't have the answers you seek, but one thing I know for sure is that I have never seen anything like you."

There was a knock on the door and I could hear Davy and Beatrice voice.

"Are you okay in there?" Davy's voice came.

"We have to make it to China in two days before the Prime minister gives his speech." She took some steps away.

"Not this again. How do you expect me to leave my family and follow an invisible girl I just met across the world, how do expect me to explain this to them. I mean, I don't know how you operate in your world, but over here, we have to book flight tickets, go through immigration, and other enquiries before you enter into another country."

"You don't have to worry about the means of transportation, I already sorted that out. If we don't go to China in two sunsets, it would only be a matter of time before you don't have a family to explain anything to anymore."

"I'm coming in now." Davy spoke after numerous banging as he turned the door nob.

"Tomorrow by sunset, unfailingly or I leave without you."

The door opened and Davy walked through, just as the girl in black vanished into thin air. "You okay man?"

"Yeah I'm good." I turned to look around but she was nowhere to be found

"Let's head home now, It's been a good day." He said as the corner of his mouth slowly widened into a grin.

BIGGIE121:
yo frankline what up, it's been a while , how you been?? welcome back from the long leave..

you've got a nice story here but why didn't you continue or restart the story you were writing before you went AWOL(forgotten the title).

'Forbidden love'

If you notice, I had to take down most of my stories on here during that period. I needed all of them to be unpublished on any site in order to submit them for a competition I put in for. The competition is over now and I'm back again. When i get the rights back for the book, I would repost, continue, and complete it on here as swiftly as I can. Thanks.

Hope you've been good too?

Khriztarl:
Oya, i have landed. Franklin, promise me you're going to complete this story. So i can call my other family members.

I will ma'am, thanks

Your comments are appreciated

CHAPTER TWO

I stood still, stunned, surprised and confused at the same time and I had a hard time processing three similar emotions at once. She wasnt helping matters too, grinning and staring at me in a weird way that would have almost made me think she had lost it and needed immediate attention. Uche suddenly appeared out of nowhere, sighing and rolling his eyes.

"Guy, where were you now? I've been knocking on the gate for a while and I almost left thinking no one was home." He said interrupting and ignoring us.

Uche was Zino's elder brother, and by far the most annoying 'entity' on the street, he always made sure he got things, like he was entitled or destined to always have them, a sense that never ceased to set fire down my spine even when I carried out his bidding.

"Sorry, I thought she was the one knocking?" I replied as I struggled to suppress the frustration that was building within me. I had to figure out a way to create a huge gap between us, albeit our parents made matters worse, being family friends and all.

"Who?" He turned around and stopped back on me. "You have a girl in the house?" He winked at me. "Is this the reason you refused to go with your parents to the family dinner?" He said slyly.

I rolled my eyes, I had always hated teasing. I turned to the girl in black who had taken a step away from the gate, my expression requiring some explanation on the game she was playing. She only turned to me and raised both shoulders. I couldn't believe she still played dumb.

"Anyways that one na your problem." Uche cut in. "I heard that you have the complete season of Game Of Thrones and I have been dying to see the series." He reached for his pocket and brought out a flash drive. "Here. Transfer it into this flash, I will send zino later to pick it up." With this he left, struggling to walk with his trouser sagging below his gluteal region.

The girl in black chuckled at this scene. "Humans are really pathetic." She commented with the most sonorous voice I had ever heard, folding her hands as she leaned on the main gate.

I turned to her and I realized that there was a little scar just under her jaw, even the perfect were not totally perfect I thought.

"I heard you've been looking for me." she leaned away from the gate and turned to face me. "And I've also been looking for you."

Danm, that voice!

My heart tripled its beat, and I flushed wondering who had told her. "Ermmm...erm.. not really." I stuttered trying to find my composure and the right word. "It's not that I was looking for you, or I was stalking you or anything." I faked a laughter hoping it would ease the tension. "Yes, I wanted to know your relationship with Davy and why you got little Zino and now, Uche involved in your little show."

She stared at me blankly like I had spoken in a language she didn't understand. "Oh." She said after a while like reality had just dawned on her. "Davy is your friend, the guy that just handed you that storage device is Uche and Zino is a kid that lives in the next house." She said, as if wanting to know for certain.

"Yes." I replied.

"Well, prior to this moment I didn't know who they were or that they even existed and would love it if you can keep your personal life to yourself" She said walking past me into the compound.

"Woah, woah." I objected. "I know I might have maybe slightly stalked you and had a very little crush on you albeit, from afar, but that doesn't give you a free pass to come into my compound like you live here." I objected as I stood in front of her trying to prevent her from taking any further step in.

She stopped and stared at me, her facial expression again blank. "You don't have the capability to stalk me and I can bet that if we ever got in a tussle, I would be the one doing the crushing, although you would have to explain it to other humans how you got crushed since they don't have the ability to see me."

I couldn't hold back myself as I burst into laughter, she had a twisted sense of humor, and her ability to tell the joke with a straight face made it more funny. I had finally met the girl in black and she was nothing like I had ever seen. She was even more beautiful than I had assumed, and up to the way she blinked, she was unique in all aspect. She seemed like the friendly type, not one of those girls that would eat up your head for even having the courage to look at them and boy, was she funny.

"When the mural showed that there was somebody that could actually see us, I didn't believe and even when the lodestone pointed me in this direction, I always had my doubt, not until a few days ago." She continued unperturbed.

I stared at her for a while as I tried to make sense of what she said, it all sounded like a quote from a novel or a movie that I had not yet seen.

"Hello." I waved in front of her face. "Earth to the girl in black. Can you at least speak in english and not in parables, it would be much less stressful to decipher that way, not like you didn't know."

"We have a lot to talk about, but just little time to. As we speak, the fallen have initiated their plan in all five tangent point to bring about the end of your world as you know it."

I slapped my inner head. Did she think speaking in this manner made her more attractive because it sure did, but she could at least make jokes that were relatable.

"Okay, it was nice to finally meet you girl in black, I would have loved to ask what your name was but knowing your sense of humor, you might go off in one of your tabloid mode."

"Aemiliana Ahenobarbus Artakhshathra the 3rd, but you can call me Amy."

"What?"

"My name, you asked for it."

I paused for a while and stared at her straight face, I wondered how she could spill all these without giving herself out or even laughing at her own jokes. "Okay, girl in black."

"Amy!" She argued.

"Whatever, I think it's time you leave." I reached for her, held her slightly on her shoulder and helped her to the gate.

"You can touch us." She said, surprised, as I whisk her to the gate.

"Of course I can touch you, it's not as if you're a ghost or something." I said as I finally let go of her outside the gate. "I know you have things to get back to, I also have things I was doing before you..., I mean, uche knocked. Maybe we could meet up some other time when I am chanced to discuss all your fantasies." I said, locking up the gate.

I sighed as I walked back to the apartment wondering what in the world was happening. I unlock the protector, removed my slippers and walked into the sitting room. I realised that I had forgotten to pause the movie i was seeing and it had already played for more that fifteen minutes. I walked over to my laptop, which was connected to the plasma tv and rewind the movie to start from the beginning. Sighing, I inserted the flash drive into a USB port and transferred the whole folder of Game Of Thrones into it, minimizing and going back to the video player as it transferred.

"Humans are so far behind on technology." A voice sounded from behind me, startling me and almost making me roll over on my opened laptop.

"Blood of God." I exclaimed, seeing the girl in black standing behind the three sitter couch as I made it for the door. "Who the hell are you and how.." I turned around. "...how the hell did you get in here."

She took a few steps towards my family portrait that hung on the wall and her expression suddenly changed. "This is not right." She murmured to herself.

"Yes, everything is not right. Walking into my house without inviting you is not right, scaring the life out of me is not right, playing games with my friends just to make me look crazy is not right. None of this is right and I'm beginning to regret ever deciding to take that walk because meeting you is not right."

She turned to me and for the first time ever I thought I saw a little flinch of hurt written on her face.

"Like I said, I am Aemiliana Ahenobarbus Artakhshathra the 3rd, but you can call me Amy. I am the guardian of Aeolbot, the first sun of the universe. I track down Tartarus, also know as the fallen that escape transport to Orcus and make sure they are brought back before they can cause imbalance between the worlds."

Damn, I had had enough of all the mumble jumble talk she seemed to be inclined with and with the adrenaline that still pumped through my veins, all I wanted was for her to leave.

"About three light years ago, when the mural revealed that some of the fallen had escaped to Via Galactica, the least advanced solar system in the universe, a lot of us guardians did not believe it since we were far too advanced to impact matter there. But about two years light years ago, the fallen carried out coordinated attacks that destroyed eight out of the nine planets in Via Galactica and all lives in it, making it uninhabitable and therefore causing a great imbalance to the universe. The implication meant that in all the other solar system including ours, only one out of all the planets could support life and it was a gothic scene, having to watch your friends all die from famine, pests and diseases. We later discovered that the fallen had figured out a way to posses vessels in Via Galactica and with them, they could fit right into the society and carry out their will. Theses vessels, unlike other vessels are able to see us and impact this world as well as ours simultaneously."

All she said sounded like a very good plot from a top movie, you know, all those old roman god of war type of movie, incorporated I to star wars and a little but of the witcher. She would easily make a good scriput writer with such imagination but it wasn't going to work on me.

"I don't know what it is you hope to achieve from all these, but I can assure you that right now, I'm done with whatever games you're playing and would politely ask you to leave before I call the security."

Well, there went my chance for whatever future I had planned with her in my head, she would never be willing to be my soulmate and mother of my children now.

"We don't have much time to waste as they already know I'm here and have sped up the process. We have to be in China before next weekend if we hope to stop the first process and subsequently make it to Russia, Australia, the United states and back here to stop the other processes, only then can we ensure the safety of Tellus and the universe."

I scoffed. "Sorry, but you keep saying 'We'. There is no 'We', there's only 'Me' and 'You' and 'Me' would like 'You' to leave my house this instant. Did you hit your head or something?"

There was a knock on the gate and it startled me. I turned to the direction of the gate and back to the living room and she was gone. There was no one standing there, it was as if I had gone crazy and had been talking to myself. The gate banged again and Zino's voice came through.

"Uncle, it's me. My brother said that I should collect the flash drive."

There's no time selected for updates, but for now, it should be once every two days

YOUR COMMENTS ARE HIGHLY APPRECIATED

THE GIRL IN BLACK

CHAPTER ONE

"There she is." I muttered to my friend.

He raised his head and turned to the direction my gaze was pointing at. It was evening and I guess a little past six, the sun had lost its light and was giving way for the moon to take over duties for the rest of the night and surprisingly, it had become the favourite time of my jobless introverted life because that was the moment she always passed by. It had become a ritual for me ever since I first laid my eyes on her, a few weeks ago, to make sure I looked good, unconcerned, as I sat in front of my parent's house or sometimes, took a stroll and feigned being oblivious to her presence. This was the way a lot of them had fallen for me over the past few years, it was a tactic I had learnt after my first heartbreak, even though I had never been in a relationship.

Over the past few weeks, since I returned home from school, I had been living one of the most boring life a youth could ever have, shuffling from movies to games to social media to bed and starting the cycle all over again till I was fed up and decided to finally leave the house and go for a walk. This turned out to be by far the best decison I had ever made as I finally saw her, my possible 'Soulmate'. No, i was not being dramatic. She had every feature I had ever hoped for in the opposite sex, something I never thought was possible, and was even planning on settling for less while lashing out on myself for creating an unattainable image in my head. She had the perfect height, perfect shape, perfect skin colour, perfect face, size of her nose, eyes, mouth, everything to the last detail as if she was taken right out of my imaginations and put in front of me, the overwhelming feeling I got from it almost drove me insane. She had walked past me on that fateful day, without sparing me a look almost as if I was non-existent and I didn't take it as anything, at least not until it started reoccurring and she still never made an eye contact with me even though I walked past her every single day since then.

It had been two weeks and four days and within those days, she made me doubt my existence each time I walked past her, never turning to look at me and always wearing a black gown every time I see her. In one of those days, I had taken a stroll to my best friend's house and after a long time chatting and beating ourselves in video games, we kind of stumbled into a discussion of girls and I had brought her up. He had laughed his heart out pointing to the fact that I had never been this emotional when I spoke about girls and he had already considered me a male egocentric, I quickly played him down on this, stating that he might have gotten the wrong impression about me due to the fact that I never take them serious especially when it came to relationships. He hissed and made funny faces.

"Serious or not, this is the first time since Magret, that I would see you this interested in an opposite sex."

Yeah, your thoughts are right, Magret was the bedlamite that broke my heart into powdery tiny pieces without remorse, she claimed she never saw me as a man, and would always see me as a little brother because she was about four years older than I was. Talk about 'age is only a number'. Well, I went straight into an African-like depression and struggled with esteem problems for years before I finally recovered and although they moved out of the area a few months later, I still cringe whenever I thought of that moment of rejection and vowed ever since to always make them fall for me first. Over the years through my stay in school it had been working perfectly even though it never led to something substantial.

"You know what, I think I need to meet this girl you're talking about. I've been home for almost a year now and I don't think I've seen anyone that matches the profile you're describing and trust me, I've seen most of the girls in this area."

I trusted Davy to have 'seen' most of the girls, we both knew that the qualifying verb he used was a major understatement to what had actually happened since he was a vigorous unrepentant womaniser. To be sincere I was a little scared that if he got his eyes on her, it might as well be game over for any future endeavour I planned on making.

"Unless she doesn't exist and all these things you just told me are fabricated lies from your head or you're just seeing things."

I scorned as I picked up the pad to select my team. "Deal! Come by my house tomorrow around six-thirty and I would show you the most magnificent being you've ever laid your gaze upon." I said the last line in a poetic fashion and we both burst into laughter.

Davy as I expected showed up much earlier than I had asked him to and i made a joke about him always showing enthusiasm whenever it came to women matters but never when it came to things that actually matter in life and we both laughed it out, around past six, we both stepped out and after standing for about ten minutes, I finally saw her from afar, walking down in all her light, looking as elegant and radiating as ever, taking long perfect strides like she had been a model in her previous life. I quickly tapped Davy stylishly.

"There she is." I muttered turning away almost immediately to prevent her from noticing what we were on about.

There was a moment of silence as Davy turned in her direction, back to me, and back in her direction again. He giggled a little and turned back to his phone.

"So?" I asked silently

"So what?" He replied in his normal tone and I cringed hoping she didn't notice what we were on about.

"What do you think about her?" I asked, this time a little bit loudly.

"Think about who?" Davy was staring at me confused.

I turned to him and was getting fed up with his games, did he think he could just dismiss me and go behind my back to lay the ground work? Even if he was going to, he should at least show some respect and answer my question. I raised my head and as usual, she walked by without sparing me a glance. I sighed and turned back to Davy.

"What do you think about the girl in black that just walked past us now?"

Davy turned back to stare and almost immediately turned back to me, concern written all over his face.

"Are you joking right now?" He asked. "Nobody walked past us."

I scoffed, not believing that Davy was this crazy, I knew he was crazy but not to this extent. I rolled my eyes and turned back in the direction she had taken and there she was, walking away as elegantly as she ever did.

I called a neighbor's young son that was walking past us at the moment, carrying a nylon bag with him as I tried to go out of my way to stop Davy from continuing his blind games.

"Zino, can you see that aunty wearing black." I pointed in her direction.

The young boy stared at the direction for a moment and turned to me, not saying a word

"You can see her right?" I persisted.

"Which aunty?" He asked with his eyes wide opened. "Uncle, have you started seeing spirits? My teacher said that only 'Ogbanje' and witches can see spirit, are you a witch?"

Davy burst into a frenzy of laughter patting the boy on his shoulder. "Don't mind him, he is only joking with us. Go home now, your mom must be waiting for you."

Zino scuffled out of our sight, opening and shutting the gate almost instantly.

I sighed. "I'm not joking." I turned back to the street and she was no where to be found. "Where did she go?" I asked my eyes going round the street and searching for her.

"Where did who go?" Davy rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you asked me to come all the way down here just to play a fast one on me." I could see disappointment and hurt written on his face and I assumed he was faking it. He had always somehow taken matters pertaining to girls with more levity that he had done with matters pertaining to life and this wasn't any different from his usual gimmicks.

I ran my hand over my eyes confused at what was happening. Davy walked past me.

"I had suspected that you were only trying trick me from the start but something in the way you described it made me think it was true. I guess I underestimated your acting skills. See you later." He said stomping out on me without waiting to hear anything more.

I stood alone in the street wondering what was going on and I made a decision to walk up to her the next day to find out what she had hoped to achieve, liancing with Davy and poor Zino to freak me out and why she always acted like I didn't exist.

She didn't show up the next day, the day after that or for the next few weeks and even though I moved on, I still wondered what that was all about. Myself and Davy never spoke about it again, even though I had the urge to ask him about it.

About three weeks after the incident, my parents decide to take myself and my sibling to a company outing which I declined as I preferred staying indoors and wallowing in my sorrows than going out there and faking that all was well, they decided to leave without me. After I had breakfast, at about eleven, power was restored and I quickly plugged my phone in to charge, and settled on the couch to watch a movie when the door bell rang. I screamed internally wondering who might be coming to the house at such time and I concluded that only Davy could. I dragged my feet to the gate and unlocked it and to my greatest shock, there she stood, smiling. THE GIRL IN BLACK

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Thanks for finishing this. It was a really good story and your descriptive mentality is tremendously good.

Can't wait to hop on your next ride, the price is really worth it. Till then