ACW-UA BI-WEEKLY PUBLICATION || ISSUE 2 || APRIL 22, 2021

THE LIBRARY

“Hello… Can anyone hear me?” Richard paced, tipping toes, panting and breathing hard. He walked down the staircase, placing one foot before the other. He had just woken up in the dark halls of the library. The last thing he could remember was: He was with Dominic and Sarah at the third floor. They had an assignment to submit the next day, and after meeting with Adebayo at the Convocation Ground, where they had Tutorial in ENG104, they went to the Library. They had read for about two hours when he felt sleepy and placed his head on the table, and slept off. That was the last thing he remembered.

Now, he was awoken by a shrill voice, and he thought hehe heard footsteps approaching in the dark. He shook his head to recover and blinked. Dominic and Sarah should have woken him before they left, he at least expected. Does it mean that no one saw him? He thought. The air was thick and cloggy and he could feel the darkness like a cloak over his head. It was peril. He tapped his right thigh for his pocket, felt his handset and brought it out. He pressed the power button with his thump, but the handset didn’t light on. “Shittt” He cursed, in gnashed teeth. The cloak of darkness was pressing hard on him with a scent of uncertainty and gradually it paved way for fear. His heart beats heavily and he could feel it trying to rip off its ribcage and his teeth gnashes as he swallowed hard with his eyes wide open and palms wet.

Just then, there was a quick flash and he could only but see the empty walk way before him and the voice came again this time clear, “Son of Adam. You can’t run forever”. Richard dragged his feet in the dark as he turns around sharply. “Who are you?” he yelled. The flash came again like a lightening through the windows, and there was a whirl of cozy breeze, which felt chilled on his arms. He suddenly remembered he left his books upstairs, but he wouldn’t go back there anyway, he rather continued moving, until there were lightning flashes and he saw the images of a man.

The man in black Italian suit, black shoes and a hat sat on the librarian seat with a walking stick on his hand, backing the table - and he. He chuckled and laughed hypothetically hehehe, then, he turned his seat around to face Richard.

     “Who are you…? What happened to me?”

The man stamped his feet to the ground, making that stepping sound of solid shoes. Richard couldn’t see his face clearly as the hat shaded it from the flash and the darkness interrupts his sight. Richard thought he heard some footsteps behind him, but when he turned around, he couldn’t see any shadow in the dark still. “What do you want from me?” he asked the man in black again.

       “Richard Osaremen” he called. “How long would you continue running?”

       “Who are you and how do you know my name?”

       “Accept your destiny, boy” the Man said, and with the speed of light, Richard was lifted, his feet off the ground and a force pulled him, dragging him backwards through the dark. The man before him seems smaller and smaller, still sitting in the brown librarian seat with left hand raised, elbow on the arm of the chair and the helm of the hat between his thumb and forefinger while his other hand rests on the handle of the walking stick and as the force pulled him in such speed capable of seizing a breathe, he passed through a portal – like in the Sci-Fi movies, he had seen portal but never believed it to be real, but this is it, real, original and sure.

The room was stuffy and untidy. Clothes all over the bed, and the windows shut. It was in this room – this airless room that smelled of damp – that Richard found himself, stretched and spread on the flour. His head banging and throat thirst. He opened his eyes with blinks, and found himself in his room in his Father’s house. He rose to his feet and struggled in the dizziness to move in shuffling gaits and staggering feet leaning hands at the wall. He turned open the doorknob and headed to his kitchen where he gulped down a glass of water, and moved to the bathroom to wash his face against the mirror, and he screamed. Something had changed. The last time he checked, he did not have moustache and beard and his hairs weren’t stretched. Then his eyes stuck at something behind, from the mirror. He turned to have a better view at the little red calendar hung on the wall and lo, it was 2045. He was lost in the future. Why? How? He was yet to found out, but probably in the next coming days. He might found out.

                                ... To be continued. 

© Eze Prince 

Prince Ezeabata Chibuzor is a student of law at the University of Abuja. 

ON HIS SHOULDERS... 

On his shoulders sits problems of the past and tomorrow's fears,

And his eyes are home to unshed tears,

Oh! How he battles with the voices that calls him weak,

They say "When will he reach his peak?"

On his shoulders are burdens not to be shared,

And not once has society cared,

Beneath its smothering gaze, he dishes out smiles,

And when the truth makes him weak, He lies.

On his shoulders sits despair,

With no hope of repair,

Yet, he walks with straightened shoulders,

Like the Spartan soldiers.

He is a 'man',

Coated with expectations,

Saddled with responsibilities,

Is he okay you say? Oh! We'll never know.

- Chyna

Emmanuel Chioma Judith [CHYNA] is a student of the University of Abuja. 

MY MUM, MY DIAMOND

The light in my heart

My strength in weakness

The one who sat and

watched my infant head

My mum, my diamond

An epitome of love

This love lives in me

Come rain and shine

She is as valuable as diamond

More precious than gold

Like the lioness and her cub

No one could ever take her place

All her sweat and tears

Is right inside my heart

How can I forget

My mum, my diamond.

- Agbo Mary

Mary Agbo is a first year student of English & Literature at the University of Abuja.