It is said that kids are the easiest to scare and lure into imaginative deceits. Or at least that's what they told me to help me get over my fear of the dark. There's always something about it that gives me cold feet. I grew out of it eventually, believing I was just young and naive, thinking nothing could scare me out of my wits because there's no connection between the physical and the spiritual…or so I thought.
Fast-forward to my university days, I moved away from home and lived with my highschool friends,Gloria and Esther in an apartment close to my school. People within the area always talk about having supernatural and spiritual visits or attacks, of which I believed were all made up until one particular night.
I was having an important exam so I decided to stay up all night and my friends were nice enough to stay awake with me, even after I politely declined “It's to ginger you to stay awake, plus we won't let you stay outside all alone after all the stories we've heard, and we have important exams anyway ” Gloria, who happens to be my best friend said. Even though I found it unnecessary, I agreed eventually after minutes of argument about it. I had no extra time to waste as I should've began eating my books hours ago. We all bought reading smacks and set our tables in the middle of our compound because apparently, according to Esther, looking at our beds will only make us crave sleep.
Staying up half reading and half gossiping, we eventually got tired and after the ginger to stay awake, my friends slept off first, ironic isn't it. After some minutes I slept off too but was awakened by a hurried tap on my lower back, followed by the sound of hurried footsteps, as though someone was running. Being a light sleeper naturally, I looked up to see who had tapped me and why the person ran away but I was greeted by the sight of a shadow, no, a black cloud, no a fading person, no a…. My thought was cut short to the realization of the presence walking slowly towards me and I wasn't staying to feed my curiosity of the real identity of the person or thing. I figured the running mundane was Esther. Looking to my left I saw my best friend Gloria, who seems to be deep in sleep, it's normal cause she was a deep sleeper unlike me. I hurriedly woke her up and sprinted to my room, just like Esther had done. I was followed by the sound of someone/something running towards me. “Look back” my instincts said, but hell no! I'm not going to give in to my deadly curiosity. Reaching my room door, I was relieved to see that the running figure was Gloria. We locked our door and windows and peeped through the curtains to see who or what the creature was but we saw nothing. Looking down at our books and gadgets we left outside. Our lodge security was tight and strict so no way was it an intruder. After closing our curtains to relax for a while, we opened it and my eyes clocked with the shadow man, that's what I mentally called it. Just standing there, staring at us through our window. I yanked the curtains close and took a tiny peep later, it was gone.. he was gone... I don't even know what to address it as. I don't know how we manged to get some sleep, but we did. We didn't speak about it anymore but to be honest I was scared out of my soul. Reminded me of some childhood experiences. Sun was out and it was time to go get out stuffs before our lovely lodge members would help us take our property. Everything seemed normal now so I was in a hurry to go back down. Dressing up and hurriedly opening the door, only to almost bump body pressed to the creature. My good Lord! Is this how I'm to die?
