Tears of a Dead man by Mide Benedict| episode 3

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'As I looked at myself, I wasn’t with the cloths I wore in what I first thought to be my first dream, nor was I in a new one; I was naked, or could it have been nakedness, for that feeling of being naked was void...'

some things are not born to be, but when men offer sacrifices to evil, strange deeds emerge to suck the blood of the good….

The sounds made by birds and unknown animals chorusing in thousands and millions, cracked my eyes open to darkness; the whole place was dark and that, at first, scared me to worry, but as I recurrently heard the sounds again and again, it was as if I was in a jungle, harboured by lots of animals. I quickly shut them back and tried to lift my hands and legs but I couldn’t; they were as stiff as the bottom of a mountain. My head was no different as it was also strongly wedged to the soil which I felt without doubt and that made me conjecture that I had at that moment laid in a soil. I perceived the past things I had seen and experienced before this: me been shot by an assassin on a Sunday morning, all that story about a fight with someone over a property and how I had died while glowering at the spinning ceiling fan, were all nothing but dreams: but this situation of me being pinned to the ground and being disturbed by the sounds of unknown animals was that which my senses were dumb to, then I began to question myself and started to….

‘This must be another dream.’ I thought. ‘A dream? I don’t think so, I can’t be dreaming yet my thoughts be so real. No, it can’t be a dream.’


I tried again to lift my hands but I couldn’t. I tried again severally but all were in vain, then I retired from the trials.

‘Oh… no, this can’t be happening to me, I could have…. But…. They couldn’t have done it.’ My mind staggered on the thought of being pinned down by a spiritual power; especially the witches, who my grandma had told me in different stories that they, the witches, at night flew over people they wanted to punish and pinned them down in their beds with only their thinking knack active, but their body would become restless; they wouldn’t be able to lift their hands, legs, open their eyes and move their bodies as well. They would even….

‘That’s not it; witches don’t have power over anyone in Christ. No, this can’t be the works of witches. I am in Christ and I have faith in God….’

‘But what if am actually dead?’ Another thought budged into my mind.

‘That I was really murdered and that’s the reason my body is helpless and unmovable, what if… maybe I have been buried in a casket and that tightens me and has also caused my lack of movement?’

Ah! Ah! Now that explains the darkness, ‘yeh! Am dead, am in a graveyard. That explains the birds, that explains the animals, that explains the… ah… am really dead,’

‘No, no... No… I can’t be dead, a dead man cannot think, neither can he feel the soil beneath nor hear sounds. A man who has been buried cannot hear the sounds of the birds. No am not dead, yes it must be a dream, a nightmare. Yes, a terrible nightmare.’

I continued to think of a way to explain my situation, but all seemed like a vacuum of knowledge.  All of a sudden, I began to hear some footsteps, but I couldn’t deduce where they were coming from or their direction.
The sounds continued to move closer and closer. And as it moved, the sounds of the birds diminished, and silence began to walk into my ears, like a cat gradually walking towards a fish. Except for the footsteps, nothing more made sound. When the sound was close enough, suddenly it stopped and that made me fear for the worse, the fear of being in the darkness of both mind and body. I tried harder now to move myself and escape this mysterious being, but there was no chance for that. Then I felt a hand on my skin, it was neither cold nor warm, nor did it feel hot too; the touch was unexplainable. I just stood still, because there was no way a lame woman can escape a chase by masquerade. I could now fully feel his touch and it was more conspicuous than before, it pressed against my skin and instantly I was released from my impotence; I could now feel my hands and legs. I lifted my legs as if I wanted to fly, and waved my hands like a child waving his father a good bye after being recruited as a solider in the world war II, but my eyes were still shut, not because I couldn’t open them, but because I was afraid of opening them to find out the conundrum that had been menacing me for a while, though I no longer felt the presence of the mysterious being, yet I was afraid. It was a better fate to shut one’s eyes to the unknown than opening them to be blown away by the ghostly breeze of bewilderment. After some heart-thumps, I decided to open them and what I saw shocked my amazement that I instantly jumped up.
It was another world that I couldn’t explain; I was neither on or above what I knew to be the ground or soil nor in what I could have called the sky. There was no sun but it was not dusk too, for everywhere was very bright, even brighter than those days I had witnessed erstwhile in what I had always known to be real life. As I looked at myself, I wasn’t with the cloths I wore in what I first thought to be my first dream, nor was I in a new one; I was naked, or could it have been nakedness, for that feeling of being naked was void, I felt comfortable with the way I was. I tried to look down and I discovered I was mobile, but which wasn’t aided by my legs, for I neither walked nor crawled. As I continued to move, I now began to see some other persons who were also like I was, some in front and some behind, some fat and others otherwise; all moving in the same direction of which I was clueless. I was incoherent with the whole event, so I just let myself be moved by the unknown locomotive force.
A voice boomed out from nowhere; the voice was garish, like trillions of trumpets blown together without any sounding ‘poco a poco’; it was strong and….

‘Do not be confused.’ It said.

I looked around, as if searching for my head, but saw no one. The people who were moving along with me were indifferent about the voice, they didn’t show any sign that they heard the voice; they just moved on: that made me come to the supposition that I was the only one who heard the voice. Perhaps that was my own voice, the one assigned to me and that others too were busy listening to theirs.

‘Listen to my voice and heed it well. You have been murdered unjustly….

‘Ah! Murdered? I shouted, interrupting the voice.

‘You mean my breath has stopped to flow,

You mean my deeds are now left to show?’

‘Yes, your night-life has been erased from that of life by those you trusted most’.

‘Those I trusted most?’ immediately, my mind had a flashback to the words of the assassin.

“Maybe you owe someone after all; well the person is a close…”
I instantly got back to my senses.

‘But the prayers of your spiritual father and your innocence cling to my ears and they have brought my mercy upon you. I have mercy on whom ever I choose and now you will be sent back. I have waited for the perfect timing to cause those who have hurt you to tremble.’

‘But who are those that murdered me,’ I asked.
‘Those who murdered you are those who are close to you. You need not know them now, for vengeance will hit your heart till you commit a sin.’

‘But I will be killed again or worse will come to me if I go back to life’

‘Nothing will come your way, for when they see you wake, their minds shall weaken till they have no hand to raise against you. I will take vengeance for you and their deeds shall come out in the open. Never forget my words; never forget, never forget.’
The voice echoed and re-echoed. I was about asking another question when my eyes again became shut.
I opened my eyes once again and the things that had happened earlier happened again; I was not able to turn my body sideways but this time I was able to move my legs and hands, and when I opened my eyes, I saw total darkness. Confusion struck me; I didn’t know what to do, for all my mind could think was me being in another dream. I began to oscillate.

Suddenly I felt movements and the voices of people flowing into my ears. I tried to move my hands and I felt I the touch of wood. Straightaway, I knew I was in a coffin and I began to hit it with my legs and elbow. All of a sudden, I felt the coffin drop with a mighty ‘GBAM!!!’ on the ground and the shouting of people became louder than the previous.

To be continued on Thursday

• Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed the story. Be assured on its continuity Thursday. Always remember that we are the society and the society is us. We have to change what needs be changed and leave what needs be left.

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