She sunk her teeth into his shoulder, making him yelp in pain. He thrashed as she dug deeper into his shoulder. The sword was to his right. Abednego tried reaching for it while his other hand pulled her hair, trying to rend her off of him. He was able to slip his middle finger around the trigger sword and bash her across the head with the sword. It shocked her enough that he was able to throw her off.
He lifted the sword up, with mighty power he swung it up on her head, but it missed her, sailing out of the open door of the house into the darkness. She threw herself at Abednego's legs, still screaming, and brought him to the ground. He hit her across the shoulders and upper back with the sword and kicked her off again. She was too fast for him.
If he was going to have a chance at life, he had to make a decision. He looked out the door of the house and saw pool of water from the rain in the distance. He lunged out of the house into the storm. So horrible for Abednego, very astonishing.
The side of his body had hit the ground in that struggle. He ran as fast as he could, rolled down a hill, rain pelting him mercilessly. He only stopped rolling when his body hit the bottom of a ravine. His ears stung from the howl of the wind. He clambered up the hill, trying to get to the tree line. A more piercing howl rang through the night. Abednego looked back to see the woman running on all fours down the hill, shrieking with anger. He used all the strength that he could to run. Blood spilled from Abednego's shoulder, and the sword felt like a heavy weight attached to his hand.
She was gaining on him, and Abednego knew that his fate would be even bloodier than it would have been in the house. She wanted revenge. This propelled Abednego up the remainder of this obstacle. He ran across a short distance and flung himself into the woods, never stopping to look back. His legs caught across some rough thorn bushes, and he had to push limbs out of the way of his face. He could still hear her howls in the distance, but Abednego pressed onward in the dark. He could see nothing and felt like he was moving through jelly.
Abednego finally came to a more open part of the woods. He had to stop due to sheer exhaustion, even though he didn’t feel safe. The only sound he could hear now was the light sound of rain hitting dead leaves and crickets chirping. Most of the rain was caught in the canopy above, forming a roof over Abednego's head. He was thankful for this slight reprieve. He didn’t want to look at his shoulder, but he felt he had no choice. It was covered in red, blood covering it completely and running in rivulets down his chest.
He started crying. He was going to die out here, he would bleed to death, and there would be no escape. That woman would find him, finish him off, and eat his dead body. She would use his bones to make a house, whatever that meant. Abednego was at the mercy of an insane person and far from any civilization he knew of. As he became resolved to his fate, he listened to the rain. He remembered the mountain and the trees and the wind through his hair. He didn’t want to die. Not yet. That’s when he realized the crickets had stopped chirping. Something was moving through the brush somewhere in the distance.
A surge of adrenaline burst through him, and he took off in the opposite direction. He ran and ran and ran, hearing her howl as she tried to find Abednego. He kept running until he saw coloured lights ahead of him. It was the exact house Matendechere told him he will get food for the ogrism, on the other side of the forest. He started laughing when he saw it, thanking whatever force was in charge of the world for bringing it to him. He pushed the doors open. An old looking frail woman was behind the closet. Abednego smiled and collapsed.
Abednego woke up in pain. He was propped up in a booth, with a woman staring at him. He jumped when he saw her.
“Ssh,” she said. “You shouldn’t move.”
Abednego looked down at his shoulder. It was covered in gauze, but it wasn’t bleeding anymore.
“I-I need to get healing herbs,” Abednego said.
She looked at him sympathetically.
“I’m sorry, boy, It’s pouring out there. Healing herbs cannot be harvested when it raining. The herbs won't have any effect. I don’t want to risk either of us. I stopped the bleeding. You’re holding up just fine.”
Abednego looked at her blankly.
“What happened to you?” she asked.
Abednego was silent for a while and swiftly reminded himself of his terrifying encounter with the thing that stalked him like an animal.
“I don’t want talk about it,” he finally said.
The old looking woman nodded. She brought him something to eat. She introduced herself as Maimuna, She started telling him about herself. At any other time, this would kind have annoyed him, but anything that could take his mind off of the recent hours was welcome. Maimuna had had a fairly hard life. Her stories weren’t uplifting, but they felt more horrendous, more frightening compared to what he had just faced. She talked about how she and her siblings, a brother and a sister, had been terrible harassed by Imboko, how Imboko clobbered their parents and now they are living in hiding.
They weathered psychological, and physical a***e. She mentioned one home where a male pedophile called Okuyoyo had locked her and her sister in the closet while he bit up the parents cutting their fingers.
“My life was hell as a child. But, it did get better,” she said.
“I have a pretty good life now in this evil forest. I communicate with the dead spirits all the time and there's an assurance that all shall be fine. That someday someone will avenge for them. Now, I can’t complain, I am waiting for that person who will avenge for us and those that Imboko killed,” she shrugged.
“What about your siblings?” Abednego asked.
She hung her head. Maimuna didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but she finally spoke.
“My sister couldn’t take it anymore. He committed suicide a few years later. My brother tried to get the ogrism tail. The ogrism is the only weapon that can avenge for the spirits and totally kill the king. As we speak right now, we understand that he couldn't make it, the ogrism captured him; though he wasn't eaten but will stay there for the rest of his life serving the ogrism. The witch woman Matendechere said that they made him their wife, till now, I have never heard of him. All I am left with is to wait for that person who will come, get the ogrism tail and avenge for the entire land."
Abednego looked at her.
“So, your brother is in the captivity, being detained by the ogrism?”
“You could say that.”
“What do you mean?”
She gave a small as she looked at the gauze on Abednego chest.
“I guess it would make more sense for me to explain further. The king, being brutal, got of my father, sodomized him and gauged his eyes out and bit his nose off.”
Abednego stared at her in silence, but she continued.
“They were going to lock her up, my mother, but a shrink determined that she wasn’t in sound mind and started backing like a dog. So, they sent her to the looney bin. She was only trying to protect herself and us."
" Now that you are here, you and I would go visit her. She talked about getting revenge on everyone who had hurt us. When he sodomized my dad and bit his nose off, he said that he liked the taste of the blood. So he has a guardian spirit protecting him, now the restless spirits are waiting for the one and the only one who will raise, avenge for them and the innocent souls that were burned to death. Or are you the one?" She asked Abednego.
"One more time," she said.
"Since the time my mom was put in that lonely bin, she told me that she was going to eat all of the people that had hurt us. She said that if she ate them and s**t them out, that would be sending them to hell. God wouldn’t take them, because they were s**t. Those people drove her insane. But she’s still smart. She escaped. I still see her sometimes.”
I was trembling. Maimuna looked up at Abednego the same way that a lion looks at a gazelle. She zeroed in on his shoulder.
“You met her tonight, didn’t you?” She smiled with all the evil in the world, her pale blue eyes lighting up at Abednego's terror.
Abednego remained silent. She laughed. Her voice dropped down to a whisper.
“She wants to send everyone to hell. I really do admire that in her. Sometimes, she’ll bring me something – an arm or a leg. I’ll cook it up for her. She’ll pull the meat apart like a dog. She takes the bones back with her. I followed her once. She sticks them in the ground around her. It’s like she builds a wall around herself.”
“You’re insane,” Abednego choked out.
“Maybe I could find her. I’m sure she’s looking for you. We could eat you together.”
Maimuna stares wide-eyed at Abednego as he goes by. He doesn't understand why.
When he gets inside or outside her place, he ties a tunic at his upper arm and smack my veins so he can see them and be rest that he is still alive. Finally he sees the mountains, h sees the trees, he feels the breeze and he feels alive. When the thunder booms and the wind howls, she’s there.
Abednego can’t fight her. He has to gain courage to run away, this is not the place Matendechere told him, perhaps he is lost. The sun is overtaken by black clouds Abednego a hideous, killing cold sets in. He lay in the middle of the house, steady studying the woman, his limbs severed.
He can only scream. She slopes around the him, like someone fastening bones together, always making sure her eye and Abednego's eyes meet. Her mouth pulls back in a wide smile, laughing. Life will always be a cage. You just have to make sure it’s one you’ve built yourself. She appeared to be saying,
"I broke out of my cage, and I don’t have the means to build a new one. So the bones are right here with me and I have to build. Yes, the bones are right here with me."
Abednego racket his brain and sow the only way is to storm out of the house and run for his dear life. He figured the way out. As Maimuna c****d her head and grinned at Abednego, he bolted from the booth and raced out of the door. He looked back to see Maimuna grinning that evil sneer of hers. Abednego ran down a narrow road, hoping and praying that someone would pick him up. He put all his effort into getting away from this place, this experience, this life he had made. He ran into the night.
Occasionally, he would hear something in the woods beside him. Something walking. He wondered if it was her. After two hours, he had no choice but to slow his pace. His legs couldn’t take more than a sluggish crawl. To his left, a rowdy rolling bin shackled like lightening through the night. Two men stood outside near a baobab tree under a fire light. They laughed and threw something that looked like bones from their hands. They stopped their chatter when they saw Abednego. They followed him with their eyes. One of them had shoulder length black hair. He smirked as he looked him up and down. At this, Abednego disappeared into the woods.
To work for king Imboko you must be strong enough to strike a deal of slaughtering people. The reason to why he takes little boys and trains them from a tender age. You be ready to strike that deal with him, or else, you are on your own. You must strike those frightening deals with him again and again without tiring.
The first lesson is to make yourself strong while in his courts.
After the jaw-dropping revelation that Imboko will be taking over Namamali land as the king, everyone was mesmerized. Nina must keep her younger child Kipili safe. To do so, she had to leave the child on the dead body so that when the king's men comes they may sympathise with the child and safely take him away without any harm coming to him. For Nina, she has to bind the wicked king, Imboko, she has to find away even if her husband Abednego wasn't showing up. They have to succeed and make herself and her husband the power behind the throne.
Navigating the constantly shifting frightening alliances of Imboko would be most difficult thing if Abednego won't show up. Imboko does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine people. He kills and tortures them.
When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Imboko means to betray him, threatening his own life and the lives of everyone around his leadership, Imboko must uncover the traitor and eliminate. Total elimination without mercy. He believes in maintaining total control of the entire land.
Nina also took off into the evil forest, she wants to search for her husband, yes, she has heard about Matendechere, the old woman who lives in the forest. Probably her husband might be there.
She set off to look for Abednego, she knew that Matendechere will help her locate Abednego, and more so get her the invisible magic powers to eliminate the king.
It is believed the spirits of the people that Imboko killed are on the land causing horror and distress to the young children and mother, this menacing spirit spat, hissed, threw things about, and aggressively terrorised families in the land of Namamali. Not even the local priests who tried to offer their Godly assistance could explain or cease this erratic and unexplainable ghostly behaviour.
Some that were not spared finally fled to unknown places, fearing for their lives, and anyone who dared to provoke the king or who tried to assist during the terror suffered serious plight, mental health breakdowns, and even permanent paralysis.
Some houses remain in ruins and no one dares step foot over its threshold. They are deserted.
The only help is the from famous witch doctor, Matendechere, she is the only witch who understands the demons language, she understands their movements, she is well conversant with magic powers. Through her the village can come to eternal rest and all the spirits too can be sent to eternal rest. That's where Abednego went to seek for help, since he wasn't back Nina opted to follow him. The only place that no human being can go and get out alive.
In fact anyone who dared go into that forest, was met with death, death from invisible spirits. It is a famous forest known as Igodo or evil forest. Far away from Namamali village. It is the most famous haunted forest Factually, the forest experienced a tragic past. It was laden with sorrow and turmoil.
The ruthless and powerful king Imboko headed the stately property of Namamali after beheading his brother, a fight for the seat of power ensued for over.
With so many lives lost and bloodshed in the land, the only land in turmoil, it is believed that supernatural presences live on. Now Abednego had left into the evil forest and Nina follows the course to look up for the only witch who bares a secret of how to eliminate the king. Nina had heard of stories about voices down the dusty roads of Namamali village, footsteps, and impish spirits who wish to remain known.
This is definitely one of the mysteries that Nina and Abednego have to tackle before they reach out to the king. There was something a lot more visceral about this Igodo forest.
A young family had moved in the village, only to soon realise they were not the only people to be accosted by the king and their only son taken away. What first began as slight intrusions soon became undisputed attacks on the family.
The king killed their people who now lives in form of spirits, items would be thrown. Some iconography would be smashed. Screams would be heard. The young son was even thrown from his bed.
Imboko had messed up with everyone, those who never adhered to his ruling system were termed as laymen, they were dragged into the open field in the market and burned at stake.
After some time, the family, no longer able to handle the weight of their living conditions, moved.
Some spirits moved into Igodo forest, which is said to be terrorised by the ghost of those people who were killed.
Matendechere revealed to one of his mortal relative about a spirit in the forest that lives in anger. This s******c soul is said to have had 25 husbands, all of which found their peril in the most curious and sinister ways. She is said to be their murderer.
That spirit is terrible, it operates in anger, it kills, and likes fresh blood but Matendechere had some concoction that keeps them away. The spirit is so terrible, it is a woman spirit. She would cut the breasts off her true maids and t*****e them endlessly.
It is said that eventually, the locals put this devil woman to rest by sealing her in a tree trunk and starving her to death.
Her demented cackle can still be heard in the halls some trees in Igodo forest. But Matendechere reported to her close relatives in a vision that that spirit is now totally evil, it tempts her daily. It wants revenge, they are angered with the king, he took their lives and that they will only rest if their blood is finally avenged.
That's the place Nina was heading to, she was determined to search for her husband Abednego. They have to rescue the village from the king, but through magic powers, the magic powers that comes from the tail of ogrism. With large, dark shadows and unidentifiable animal sounds, Igodo forest became the bloodiest places where the blood sacking spirits took refuge.
It is the forest of that has been rumoured to be the home to the all kinds of ogrism with different shapes, ranging from bats, human beings, some with heads like owls, the shape of a dog and the body of a human being. There were also some caves and valleys known as valleys of No Return, they said to be where the sorceress Matendechere now lives.
It is the only place that has strange disappearances and those who entered never saw the light again. Nina knew that she wasn't sure if she will come out alive, but she was determined to go get the sorcerer and get things moving.
The moment you are in there's intense feelings of anxiety and the feeling of being constantly watched, no locals from any village, including Namamali have ever dared to enter. People have stayed away because they fear and they know very well that if they enter, they will never find their way out.
The forest has a mass grave containing thousands upon thousands of dead rotting bodies, ultimately, massacred by demons.
Evil forest is impenetrable, the only forest with total darkness. The forest is actually haunted by werewolves, witches, and the devil himself. So for Nina to go inside, it was like signing her own death certificate.
By the time she was deeper in the forest, she encountered a tall, horribly disfigured man with bulging eyes and many arms. It is believed that he compelled children to enter the forest, confess their sins, and never emerge again.
She was now in a dangerous area, the only area populated with outcasts of one kind or another, and over time. She heard another frightening sound and when she looked, there it was, a monster with a goat's head, bat's wings, and clove hooks.
That spirit has been there feeding on human flesh; thus, they normally walk in pared with another creepy corpse.
Nina stood still, her mouth went dry ans the hair on her head stood up. She was standing on one of the forest's scariest places. There were bones of heads, and disembodied body parts that were strung along the jungle trees by a man who was haunted by the sight of a drowned girl whose body washed up on shore more than half a century ago.
The sight of the disembodied bodies were so terrifying enough, at the treetops, she heard the heads whispering to one another. The forest is haunted, and the spirits that are lurking in this evil forest only come out in the night time.
Many people who came in or lost their way just disappeared there, particularly near its famous waterfall that is situated some miles away from where Nina was.It was a dark cool night, Nina crept just before the woods and laid down.
There she curled up under the branches and took a closer look. After an hour or so Nina had the oddest feeling of being watched. It felt like something in the distance just out of view was watching. Her entire body shuddered. She tried to shake the feeling, convince herself it was nothing more than the cold making her shudder, she knew she was hidden, they had not seen her and perhaps they have seen something else, probably an animal or maybe even just an owl having a look to see where the noise was coming from. Nina let herself believe that so it wouldn’t send a cold fear in her system.
That night, and many nights to follow she was plagued with horrible nightmares. Ones she couldn’t explain or understand. It felt like being watched. Being watched in a way she couldn’t explain. She almost felt like if she could just stay asleep for just one more minute in the bush she could see what it was that was so interested in her. She often woke up in a pool of sweat, tears steaming down her face.
She searched for Abednego, trying to trace him in the forest but it was all in vain. She could search during the day and cull up herself in between the bush to sleep during night hours. Anytime she gets tired of searching, she looked for a place to get nap. Realities of this evil forest downed on her, her dreams only became more vivid. That is until she realized she was afraid to be in that forest. That forest reality began to haunt her waking life as well. But she was absolutely determined to get her husband, Abednego.That very night after searching, when the moon was full could have sworn she saw something out there amongst the trees.
Her life has been turned upside down. The lack of sleep, hunger and cold has been affecting her in ways she didn’t even realize it could. She was afraid something bad is going to happen any time any moment. She was a ghost of the person she once was all because of a feeling. No, more than a feeling. Something is there.Nina was experiencing the worst moment in her life.
She saw a figure she has ever seen in her entire life. The face was almost like a deer’s skull but sharper, angrier looking. It had a humanoid shape except everything about it was longer. It must have been about seven or eight feet tall but it’s limbs were all much to long. The arms stretching down long past the midpoint of the body and the long horrible hands stretching out beyond that. It was cloaked in black so the torso and legs were only a shroud of black making it impossible to tell what horrors were beneath the darkness.
The worst part was the eyes, truly soulless eyes. There was no pigment, no iris, no pupil, only blank white orbs staring out from the skull. But somehow even still they were watching her and she knew that was the thing that had been there all those moment she has been in the forest searching for Abednego. The longer she looked the thicker the smell became. It was so strong she could taste it. It filled her nose and mouth, choking her. Her head was spinning as she began to gasp for air against the putrid smell of rotting corpse. Just before she passed out she saw the caption under flickering,
“they’re watching you. They’re waiting for you.”
The forest was more frightening. Nina was horrified at what she had seen. She began to feel it deep in the dark terrifying feelings she had been getting in the forest.
It was getting worse and worse every time. She couldn't imagine, only imagined because it’s getting closer to her, to whatever it is that it wants. She felt the dark horror flood over her and she began walk away from the place, she kept walking and walking.
Just beyond any corner, hiding just behind the trees it could be there. She thought she saw something move just around a slight turn in front. She could feel her heart slamming against her rib cage trying to break free. There was a loud noise behind her, she looked back into the woods where she had seen the monster that follows but it was just blackness and trees. She stood for a while to catch breathe for just a moment. It seemed as though she had narrowly avoided death twice in the span of a few minutes.
That’s when she heard it. The most horrible noise she has ever heard. It was all scraping, unbelievable eerie noise and what she can only describe as crunching. Hearing it hurt my head. It was as if there was so much going on her brain couldn’t process it all at once. Gathering what she had left of her courage she decided to see if she could figure out what had happened. She went slowly up around a corner and saw nothing, then another, and another. That’s when she saw it. Less than a mile from where she heard the noise, in the road was a huge trunk.
It had been uprooted and rolled completely blocking the road. There was blood everywhere. Far too much blood to lose and still be alive. Nina could smell it again, that awful smell of rotting corpse, of decomposing organic matter, of that monster. But then she began to see them, deer. There were at least three that she could see… Or at least pieces of what must have been at least three deer. She turned her head and saw it again. The monster, the demon, whatever you want to call it. It was there, watching her just like always. She could smell it getting closer and closer to her.
She stared out at it making contact with its deep soulless eyes. In that moment Nina felt almost comfortable with it, almost pulled towards it. It began to slowly move towards her, not walk, not run, just… move. It was drawing her towards it and she obliged. She was so tired and so done with being scared that she just did what it wanted. She walked slowly towards it, the terror in her chest subsiding. She turned away for just a second as she heard the noise of a certain animal like a gazelle jumping and it was gone. The monster had left her just like that.
Nina never had peace, she never settled. The matters became worse than ever. It’s face haunts her day in and day out. Tormenting her, beckoning her into the deeper evil forest, Igodo. She know what it wants now. It wants her. She just don’t know why or for what purpose.
Does it want to kill her? Or did it save her life? She needed answers. So, in her last attempt at finding help was to first of all look for Matendechere the sorcerer, yes Matendechere the sorcerer will help her, with the use of magic powers, she will help her locate Abednego. What does it want with her? Can she get rid of it? Please help. Please gods of the evil forest help me. she didn't want to go into the evil forest but she don’t know if she can resist it much longer.
She didn't want to go into that evil forest. She didn't want to go into the evil forest, yes, she didn't want to go. But she had to go because she doesn't want to live in fear, fear of her only son being taken away from her. No she has to go, yes she will go deep inside without any fear.
Aksara