Three weeks ago… 
It was a sunny afternoon. The heat in the car made my clothes stick to me. I peered outside my window; the cars weren’t moving. There was a toyota Hilux truck in front of me, honking like an escaped robber being chased by the police. 

I thought of maneuvering to my right, but the endless swarm of hawkers wouldn’t permit me, and I was not ready to commit a hit-and-run. I sat back in my chair and turned to look at Aliyah; she was reading a small pamphlet containing selected chapters of the Quran. She had always been the religious one; 
I on the other hand, had not yet reconciled with my faith. Not after what happened with uncle, with everybody. I touched her hands, and she smiled, her lips reciting something I couldn’t hear. She had a coffee-brown complexion and thin eyes covered by a swarm of curly eyelashes. Her pretty face was one of the things that attracted me to her when we met—but mostly, it was her intelligence. 

I turned back. Meenah was staring outside. “Meenah,” I called, but she seemed focused on looking out the window, muttering something inaudible. 

Cars began honking and moving; the traffic had cleared, and we started moving. We reached Ilaro at about 4 p.m., and I parked in front of the house. I came down and stretched as Aliyah adjusted her veil. “It’s beautiful,” she said. She was especially excited about the relocation, but I was dead nervous—why wouldn’t I be? This was 
the house where I was raised by Uncle after my irresponsible parents left my sister and i to fend for ourselves on the streets of Lagos. Years later, my sister went crazy and disappeared. my uncle became obsessed with his traditional cult like beliefs and like everyone else abandoned me and also disappeared after sending me to boarding school in the north. since I moved there, I hadn’t been in touch with him until I heard about his death, and now I was inheriting his old house. 

I opened the back door to wake Meenah, who had fallen asleep during the journey, but when I opened the door, I couldn’t find her. “Where’s Meenah?” I asked Aliyah, who now began to notice my panic. I looked around the street and called out, “Ameenah! Ameenah!” but received no answer. 

I ran inside the compound and looked around. I went towards the back and saw Meenah kneeling by the enormous well, her hands shaking and sweating profusely. 
As I reached to touch her, my head felt extremely heavy and painful, and I dropped to the ground. My belly felt nauseous, and everything—everyone—seemed to disappear. 

I looked up and saw a vast land with dead trees floating as ash in the atmosphere, like a volcanic eruption had occurred. 
I looked up to see a faceless figure standing right in front of me. Its body looked like gathered red dust, with short, dark hairs scattered around its edges and a large, dark opening at the center. 

The limbs were thin and long, reaching the ground, completely covered with dark hairs, with each limb ending in a long, pointed claw. The ground was a mixture of red clay and the rotting carcasses. "Return her back to us!!" It said, it's voice reverberating. 
The migraine continued, and I screamed hard—
and then I woke up.