The Last Curse - Episode 1

The moment we heard the sound of the school gate being ripped from its hinges, the moment we saw real life blood that gleamed crimson splattered about the place, it was already over. But fifteen minutes ago, we had no idea about it.

Frank, Wole and I as usual had skipped classes and were hanging out in our usual hideout. We were on the fourth storey of the classroom block leaning against the railing that kept us from falling to our deaths. The balcony treated us to the boring back view of the school filled with nothing but brownish-green grass. Frank got out a cigarette from his pocket and dangled it before my eyes. His eyes were bright like usual and had that undertone of mischief that had drawn us both to become friends.

I shook my head, resisting the temptation to indulge in smoking. Not because the school would expel me for it, but because Frank had challenged me. He’d smugly said that whatever bad thing he did, I copied. So I’d sworn that he could never get me to do anything bad that I didn’t want to do.

“One day, Mimi, you’ll smoke with me. Just keep pretending to be a good girl. At the end of the day, I’ll still pull you into temptation…and you’ll enjoy every moment of it.” He said mockingly. He adjusted the collar of his brown leather jacket which he liked to form big boy with.

I stuck out my tongue at him and gave him the middle finger. That made Wole laugh and Frank just smirked. “Frank, just give up already. I can do bad all by myself, I don’t need you to lead me on.” I told him.

When I’d first come to this secondary school six years ago, the view from up here had been intimidating. Now as I stared four stories down to the ground, I felt comfortable, almost at peace with myself. Wole lit the cigarette for Frank. He was always looking to please people and that made me think of Wole as a poor, lost puppy. Frank puffed on the cigarette and blew out smoke through his nostrils.

The sound of my phone shrieking made us all jump and we three laughed nervously when we realised it was just my phone. We all knew we faced immediate expulsion if we were caught smoking. Irritably, I got out the phone from the pocket I’d personally sewn into the school skirt uniform even though it was against school regulations for any alteration to be made to the school uniform. Of course the pocket wasn’t much of an issue. The big issue that Mrs Ibe, our Igbo teacher, had with me was that I’d adjusted the school skirt to way above knee length.

“Yeah?” I spoke rudely to the person on the other end of the line. Whoever was calling me while I was still in school deserved all the rudeness they got from me.

“Mimi…you have…you have to leave now.” The voice sounded breathless and I didn’t recognise the number.

I frowned. “Who’s this?” I asked.

“It’s Emma.” Emma? Emma my brother? What could be wrong with him? We hadn’t heard from him in about a year since his creditors came to the house to collect the debt he owed them. My uncle and aunt had been left to deal with his mess. Why was he calling now? “Mimi, leave Asaba. Leave Asaba now! It’s started…oh my God, I fucked up big time. I’m too late…can’t fix it…shit! Mimi, meet me in Okada. Go to my apartment there and wait for me. It’s the only place you can be safe.” He was speaking faster now, “Hurry Mimi…stay alive…you’re the only one…God be with you.”

The call ended and I stared numbly at the stupid phone in my hands that couldn’t give me answers to questions I wanted answered.

“What was that about?” Frank asked.

I shrugged, “I don’t know. Maybe he’s high on something. I haven’t heard from him in a year and he just calls me to babble shit. The guy’s a meathead.”

Wole burst out laughing but when he saw I wasn’t laughing too, he quickly killed his laughter and looked away.

The sound of approaching footsteps put us all in a panic. Frank quickly put out his cigarette and threw it over the railing to the ground below, but the stench of cigarette smoke clung to us and the air around us. From his pocket he hastily brought out a small bottle of perfume and sprayed it on the air and our bodies. By the time Mrs Ibe turned the corner and spotted us, the faint smell of strawberry permeated the air but it wasn’t enough to cover up the smell of cigarette.

Mrs Ibe’s eyes narrowed as she walked towards us with that short and stocky body of hers. Her shiny, skin cut hair style made her ears look stranded on her face like elephant ears. Walking behind her in a ‘oh-I’m-such-a-queen’ manner was Sara, my nosy rival in everything I did. She was the ultimate cow that never let sleeping lions be. She must have seen when Wole, Frank and I snuck out of class. And of course she’d reported it to the nearest teacher who’d give her the time of the day.

“What are you children doing here when your mates are having class? Hmmm! What is that smell? Were you people smoking?” Mrs Ibe shrilled in that headache inducing, high pitched voice of hers. She stepped closer to me and sniffed the air around me (which by the way is pretty hilarious because she looked so much like a dog when she did that). She moved on to Wole and finally stopped at Frank. Her face compressed into thick lines of wrinkles and I couldn’t tell if she was having toilet trouble or just plain frowning.

“You children have been smoking?! At your age?! What will you do when you grow up? You all are going to the principal’s office with me.” She grabbed Frank’s ear hard and he had to bend to her height or risk his ear being torn out. She tried to grab my ear too, but I skipped away from her. She settled to grabbing Wole’s ear. He didn’t even made a sound of protest, just allowed himself to be pulled off to the principal’s office by the ear.

“Mimi, follow us to the principal’s office and don’t you try any pranks. I’ll see how you can get out of this trouble today.” Mrs Ibe told me. Ah! That woman knows me so well…

I took my place behind the trio ahead of me, making sure to keep some distance from them. If I was going to be expelled, might as well be cool about it.

Sara stepped in beside me, looking smug at her victory.

“Wipe that smug look off your face, cow. Did you report us because you felt sad that you weren’t invited along?”

“As if!” She muttered vehemently as she eyed me, “Riffraff’s like you should be busy hawking on the streets and not attend school at all. You’re a waste of space and good for nothing.”

I shrugged and put my hands in my pockets. Her insults didn’t bother me. They never did. “If I’m as useless as you say, then you’re as useless as me. After all, I’m the captain of the girl’s football and volleyball team and in your stupid sense of competition you made sure to become the president of the home makers club and the rotary club. You keep competing with me Sara, why is that? I’m guessing it’s your sense of inferiority complex that compels you to do so.” The look of rage and disbelief on her face made me laugh out loud, “Don’t pretend to be better than you are, Sara, because you’re not.”

She sputtered and bristled, words failing to come to her aid in conveying her rage, but the look in her eyes said enough for me.

“I’ll make you pay for this. I’ll make sure you get expelled.”She finally said.

“Give it your best shot, cow.” I said with a shit-eating grin. She stomped her foot in a hissy fit and stalked ahead of us, probably itching to get to the principal first and make matters worse than they already were.

I should have been a little worried about getting expelled, but I wasn’t. What bothered me at all was that being expelled didn’t worry me. What did that say about my state of mind? Huh?

We all walked down the flight of stairs that ended on the ground floor. All the while, Mrs Ibe had been yelling at the boys, gathering the attention of students in the classrooms we passed. I put some more distance between me and the trio. We walked out the classroom block and got on a cemented path that led to the Administration block that housed the principal’s office and that of other staff. The admin block was the first building you saw when you look through the irons bars of the school gates.

A shrill scream stopped us in our tracks. It was the kind of scream that had the hair on my neck stand at attention. The kind that sent cold shivers down my spine. Mrs Ibe, Wole, Frank and I were already running towards the source of the sound before I could even form a thought.

We saw Sara in front of the admin block staring at the school gates, her mouth still making that awful sound and her eyes wide with terror. Frank and I stopped running and turned simultaneously to look at the school gate. My mind could not comprehend what I was seeing…I mean, I was seeing things but I couldn’t understand them. I think my mind was trying to protect me.

Because there are things in this world that can damage the soul beyond repair.

• Next Episode: The Last Curse - Episode 2