18/05/2025
Chapter 5: The Dream
That night, Adaobi tossed and turned under her thin bedsheet. The shadows on the wall danced like restless spirits. Sleep came in heavy waves, dragging her down into a strange dream.
She stood in a forest, barefoot, mist swirling around her legs. A voice called her name — soft, desperate.
“Adaobi… my daughter…”
Her mother stepped out of the fog, eyes swollen with tears. She looked just like the photo Adaobi kept in her locker — except her skin was pale and her wrapper torn.
“Leave,” her mother said. “Before the new moon. She’s not what she seems.”
“Who?” Adaobi asked.
But her mother was already fading. As she vanished, clawed hands reached out from the trees and dragged her into the earth.
Adaobi screamed — and woke up gasping.
Her room was pitch dark. The lamp wouldn’t switch on. She reached for her phone — dead.
Then she felt it.
Burning.
She threw off her bedsheet and saw them — three scratch marks across her forearm, as if something invisible had clawed her.
She ran to her father’s room.
He opened the door, eyes wide with sleep and fear. When she showed him her arm, he sat down heavily.
“I should have told you everything,” he muttered. “She came after your mother died… but maybe she never really left.”
Adaobi trembled.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…” he whispered, “Amaka may have become your father's wife — but she wasn't the first to want his soul.”
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