Ebube Anochili's blog

Lightning flashed, thunder struck, rain poured. One would think she would be dragged out of her thoughts. But she wasn’t. She stayed, glued to the ground as the scenes of the night danced in her head, like she was seeing a movie. But it wasn’t a movie, it was her pathetic life. Cheta had called her practically all day, she didn’t know how she’d face him with what she had done. She prayed to be struck by lightning, but of course, it only struck people who still wanted to live. She looked at her hands, the blood stains had been washed by the rain, but it hadn’t washed her guilt.                                                     ***                                               6 hours ago Simi took out the last stick of cigarette from the ...

The rain didn’t stop. It poured like a child crying for its mother’s breast. It pounded on roof tops so fiercely, threatening to bore holes in them. The wind complemented it, the leaves on the trees kept whispering sweet nothings in the cold, dark night. The sound of running water couldn’t be left out, as the gutters overflowed with it. Still, the rain didn’t stop. Not that it mattered, she could care less. She didn’t mind the rain drenching her, soaking her clothes and the cold sinking dangerously into her bones. She clenched her teeth and stared at nothing. If people died of frostbite like this, she’d gladly die. She was standing all alone in the middle of the night hoping that the rain would wash off her guilt. What had she done? She cried silently, without tears, for even her own tears had deserted her. What had she done? Normally, she would have watched the dark clouds gather, she would have gasped at the flashes of lightning and shuddered at the sound of thunder. She would hav...

What comes to your mind when you hear the word “memory”? To some, it’s the ability to recall, to others it’s the ability to record. Ok, so I got this definition from a dictionary, permit me to not say the name;         “… the ability of an organism to record information about things           Or events with the facility of recalling them later at will…” Notice the two words in the definition, “record” and “recall”. So, it’s not enough to record these things, if you can’t recall them, whatever you think you have is useless. Growing up, I guess I was blessed with “good” memory. I had the dates of events in my head, I remembered the exact words people. My mum once told me that I got the gift from my dad, she said it was a gift. I was pleased, anything I got from my dad, I cherished. The “good” memory was a blessing in my academics, I always aced my papers and graduated with a wonderful CGPA. My memory isn’t all that eidetic, heck, I don’t...

She was floating. She couldn’t feel anything solid around her. She couldn’t recognize anything around her. She couldn’t even feel herself. She was floating in air; not water. Then the voices came, some tortured, some happy but all were distant. She didn’t want to be wherever she was alone, so she imagined moving towards the voices, it wasn’t difficult moving, she was part of space now. The first face she saw was her mother’s. “Come to me child, it’s over now, we can be together again”, came the voice from her mother. It sounded like nothing she remembered of how her mother’s voice sounded. But still, she wanted to embrace her so much, it’d been too long since she saw her, since she “died”, she thought. It struck her, her mother was dead, how could she see her? “Daberechi, we’ve been waiting for you.” She spun in the direction of the voice, it came from her father but sounded nothing like him. She longed to be in both their arms, though she thought something wasn’t right. As she mov...

The night looked promising. An all paid dinner at an exquisite restaurant with lights and music and the ocean in view. The air smelled of the rains. The evening was cool, almost chilly. The dark clouds could be noticed even in the night sky. What could possibly go wrong? The only thing Daby thought could ruin her evening was if she got drenched; which was unlikely or if she got into another argument with Kaycee. Daby got to the restaurant she had agreed to meet Mr Johnson, and found a place to park her car. That wasn’t difficult cos Marlon Fingers was almost always quiet and deserted. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror and adjusted her makeup. If not for Mr Johnson, she wouldn’t be in the exquisite, almost creepy restaurant. She got out of her car and went inside and found him in a second. “Sorry, I hope I’m not late?” She asked bending down to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You are just in time, dear”, he replied, almost without humor. She took a seat opposite him which...

He was furious. Jake had been killed and the little brat got away. All his plans were going down the drain. He had to do something fast before the last of his plans got ruined. He’ll have to take the bull by the horn this time and get the charade done and over with.                                                    *** The atmosphere was very tensed. It was some days after Daberechi’s kidnap and the Easter celebrations. Daby had called Uncle Somto to tell him what happened. He had wanted to fly to Lagos immediately but she had said she was fine. She didn’t spend the celebration with family but she was alright. That night, after the police had left, Kaycee took her home. She was out of the door when Kaycee stopped her, “get a few things and come back, you are spending the night at my place.” “Excuse me?” Daby asked, disgusted. “After everything that hap...

Chika had woken up with an awkward feeling. The Saturday was going by pretty fast but the feeling kept creeping into everything she did. Easter was tomorrow, she should be happy, instead, she was restless. All she could think of was her cousin, Daberechi. She tried calling her all day but couldn’t reach her, Daby wasn’t one to be unavailable. “Chika, if you are going to buy that chicken for tomorrow, jee gote anu ahu kita, it’s getting late”, her mother called from the kitchen. “Yes ma, I’m on it”, she replied. She said a little prayer for her cousin before leaving the house. She hoped to eat the chicken in peace.                                                 *** Daby couldn’t stop feeling chills moving up and down her spine as she continued cutting the rope with the broken piece of ceramic. It felt like she had been cutting for eternity, her entire hand was sor...