A cue gotten from https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-107318.0.html add your own bit to this story. I'm aiming for a horror/thriller actually , little or preferably no romance would be deeply appreciated

_{I'm not a good writer ooo} Enjoy  


Morbid tales of ghosts and shadows swirled in my head like ferocious winds generated from turbulent waters. I closed my eyes silently hoping my shallow breaths wouldn't make a sound. The darkness that lurked around the edges of fear instilled an excruciating sensation that raced from the shaft of my hair to the tips of my toes. Cold sweat poured profusely from my forehead and armpits creating an imitation of a map with defined contours on my white T-shirt.  My heart also pounded in my chest, beating frantically against my ribcage.
  Two figures walked passed my hiding place (which consisted of overgrown shrubs that could hide my five feet four inch frame) unceremoniously in strides that spoke volumes. Their eyes, though lazy, had a devlish spark to them as they surveyed the deserted fields in icy stares that could freeze the Atlantic.
  They were men but something different as well. I couldn't place what it was but one thing I knew for sure-evil was certainly around the corner.

I held my breath as l listened to them come closer, my heart beating to the rhythm of their footsteps. They paused a few feet from me and it was then I knew the end was near.

I looked at the only thing I had managed to grab before making my escape. . .the photo of my parents.

This. . .me. . .crouched behind tall bushes was definitely not how they imagined this day would end.

I remember as a little girl sitting on mama’s bed, watching with childish envy as brushed her long beautiful hair.

“Mama, will my hair be as long as yours?”

“Yes, sweetie. . .Your hair is going to be longer than mama’s”

“Really?”

“Yes and on your wedding day. . .We’ll weave around like a crown”

“A crown because I’m a princess”

“Yes darling, because you are a princess”

“Will you be there?”

“Of course my love, nothing will keep me away”

But something had. . .something none of us had seen coming.

So here I am in a T-Shirt instead of a wedding gown, no hair woven crown. . .wondering for the millionth time how what was supposed to be the happiest day of my life turned into a nightmare.


Thank you Stillwater

"I can tell she's somewhere close" said the taller of the two in a strange guttural tone. I prayed they would not hear the pounding of my heart which was threatening to deafen me. The sound of rustling leaves about six feet away was like a knife though the silent night. Both set off towards the sound. I tried to take a deep breath to fill my lungs which were about to collapse. In what seemed like a millisecond, they were both back. "This could not be happening'", I thought to myself trying frantically to recall all mama taught me that strange night so long ago.

"The power to fly at a height of 25 feet requires three important items; knowing what you are fleeing from, thinking of flying and saying this word aloud three times, "
Why can I not recall the word tonight when I need it the most? I close my eyes for the briefest second, any longer could spell disaster.

For one, these are not men in the strict sense of the word. They seemed to communicate even without words. I could not see their faces from where I crouched. I could feel the muscles in my calf tightening but that would have to wait.

After what seemed like an eternity, they started walking away from me.

I remained crouched in my hiding place, allowing for a considerable time for my pursuers to leave the fields. Suddenly I felt a tickling sensation across my thigh and gasped out for breath while managing to douse an exclamation that could have travelled across the fields as I noticed a trail of ants along the length of my right leg. Being in a stooped position for so long, I could not feel their caresses on my skin as usual in quick response to external stimuli since my leg muscles had tensed up so badly. I hurriedly put the photo of my parents in my breastpocket to attend to the unbecoming ants. I slapped my leg vigorously in frustration trying to get rid of the ants that had accumulated there. I pounded hard on my skin for what seemed like forever as tears flowed unhindered down my cheeks. I sobbed hard, very hard. I wanted to cry out badly but I could not. It took all the power in me to pull myself together.

After a while, I stood up straight with pains in my legs to my full length. I perused my environs with the aid of the moon shining ebulliently and casting fluorescent beams across the field. For the first time I noticed I was in a corn field. I looked ahead with heavily misty eyes as my brain calculated on a decisive route to take back home.

The closest route would be the deadliest. I wouldn't walk that route all by myself on a fair day, how much more tonight and with at least two unknown devils behind me. Thinking hard about it, are they really behind me? It's safer to believe. Well, I try the longer route. I have made no reamrkable progress right now but I'm face-to-face with whatI thought was left behind - two shadows.

,

Jimmy had always being very clumsy, he bumbles across like a half blinded buffoon, that the dead would wake up

From his footfalls not to talk about the smart ass girl we are chasing, am sure even if she were in Timbuktu she would have heard us coming from Trinidad

Why does the boss want this girl? Dead or alive she said, but make sure you get the picture! What picture? Of course I couldn’t question the boss

Nick got crippled last year in her fit of rage; I still need these legs…,

Jimmy stops suddenly I seem to hear a sound coming from the shrubs behind us….a figure starts to rise

I put my hand inside my jacket as I begin to remove my 9mm pistol.::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

oops

Slanted purple eyes watched from the vaulted eyre of a near-by Iroko. Down below, like a pair of hunting eagles, the two thugs circled closer and closer to their prey. The purple eyes narrowed slightly, and gloved hands shoved silently backwards to unsheated razor-sharp blades. As the unknown phantom watched, one of the bumbling thugs pulled out his 9mm. The phantom smiled grimly; any minute now.

The report of the pistol shattered the deathly stillness of the night, and reality went to hell in a hand basket. Imitating the soundless and eternal flight of the peregrine falcon, the black shadow was down in a flash, his dark cloak billowing out behind him. The flash of the stainless steel reflected across Jimmy eyes just before it decapitated his head. He didn't even have a chance to utter a last cry. Shocked to his very core, Nick stood speechless. He didn't notice their quarry dashing away to safety - screaming her life's worth in the process. The black phantom moved like the wind. One minute he was slowly walking towards Nick; the next, the shinning blade zapped through the air and Nick was sliced to smithereens, spilling blood like a stuck pig.

Calmly, the black shadow wipped his blade on the grass. Then he picked up the fallen picture and gently straightened up. The BOSS would be furious, of course. Nobody likes having his baby-dogs wasted. But that would be trouble for another day. For now, the black phantom had a bigger task - a task assigned him by the Coven of the Shadows. The picture was not enough, he had to find the girl. SHE was the chosen one.


_{Hope i didnt complicate things too much} 

I knew instantly something had changed. I didn’t think I could get anymore frightened but I was wrong. If the hairs on the back of my head were standing a few minutes ago, then they were doing jumping jacks right now. It was like I was no longer being chased by henchmen but the devil himself.

Tears pour down my face as I run heedlessly into the thick forest. Blades of grass slash at my legs, my throat burns, and my eyes hurts from straining them to see in the dark. The cold air seeps into my body through the sweat soaked t-shirt. . .torn to rags now.

Was it just this morning Beatrice was urging me into the most beautiful dress ever made?

“Oh child, hurry. . .you don’t want to keep your handsome groom waiting, now do you?” she said picking my wedding gown.

I smiled at Beatrice; I wouldn’t have survived mama’s death if I didn’t have her by my side.

“Up, up” she commanded like she used to when I was a child and like one, I obeyed.

She unzipped the dress and threw it over my head. She turned me around, zipped, straightened the bodice and then took a step back.

“Look at me child” She whispered

I did and saw the tears in her eyes

“Bless you. You look beautiful. . .just like your mama did on her wedding day” she reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a picture and handed to me. It was mama and daddy. Beatrice was right, I did look like mama. For the first time since my betrothal was announced, my smile was not forced.

“I do look like mama” I said my voice breaking.

“Yes, Yes you do” She smiled.

I continue to stare at mama’s face. I miss her so much. Why did they take her from me? Why did she have to die? Why did she leave me?

“. . . . the Chosen one” Beatrice voice penetrated my thoughts.

My head snapped up but she was already out the door.

This was not the first time I had heard those words spoken in that manner. . .almost reverential.

The Chosen one.

I wasn’t sure how or why but I knew something evil lurked behind those three words.

And running for my life in the middle of what was supposed to be my wedding night was not the best way to find out I was right.

Who is next. . . James Bond or Zorro?

Precious thoughts of Beatrice I would hold forever in my heart evaporated as my eyes clashed with a glowing candlelight in the far distance. For the first time that night, a smile tingled the corners of my lips. I quickened my pace, leaving behind endless rows of corn already sprouting their cobs for harvest as I ventured deeper into the thick forest.

My beautiful black hair was in disarray- subject to twigs and dirt. Let alone my raggedy shirt, a mockery of what I looked like earlier today. By daybreak my body would be similar to a body cutter with the kind bruises I had incured- that is only if I survived this nightmare.

Approaching footsteps heightened my alertness, but fatigue took the better of my legs. My pace slowed but the candle light gave me hope. . . sweet, sweet hope.

I could feel the steps coming nearer and for a moment I paused to look back. It was pitch dark but there was definitely a presence approaching and fast too.

I sought out the closest shrubbery and snuck behind it feeling confident that it was thick enough to obscure me from whatever was coming. Sweat trickled down my face as I blinked hard in the darkness trying to make out a shape listening very hard for the steps.

A cloud of blackness swept swiftly across my line of vision bringing with it a cold breath like I had never felt before. My breath was stuck in my chest and I could only hear the thud of my heart. It moved with such speed that I was unable to discern its nature. And the smell was that of death. Paralysed, I wanted to believe I would wake up from this nightmare yet I knew this was real and happening.

I was supposed to be prepared but how was I to know it would be tonight? I waited a few minutes and peeked out towards the burning candle.




[hr

It went out. If the candle light was put out, it means someone put it out, means someone is around - a human being who is not chasing me. What if it was only blown out by the wind. The last thing I need now is to run into an enclosure and then realise I just walked into a coffin when I am supposed to be claustrophobic.
Right then, the candle light is put back on. Someone is definitely in there that loathes darkness as much as I do. Thank God.

The steps I heard are gone now, vanished like the hopes I had waking up into today. It's not enough to assume that I'm alone and leave my haven, but then again my last ray of hope could be that candle there. I have to get before the devil. I can't do any of these stuffs all by myself, I need to see another human again. So I fetch a breath of air with absolutely nothing fresh about it, and run.

Eyes on the prize, I run like hell. My thigh cramps up but I don't care how turgid it gets, I'm getting there before something else does.

Eyes on the prize, I run like hell. My thigh cramps up but I don't care how turgid it gets, I'm getting there before something else does.

I couldn’t make out who was holding the candle and they made no move to make themselves known. The closer I got, the brighter the flames. . .it burnt my retina. I had no choice but to shut my eyes.

A few more steps and I then I heard it, .someone calling my name. Before I could react, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and began to shake me. My eyes snapped open and saw Beatrice leaning over me, concern written all over her face.

Oh God, not again.

The dreams were becoming frequent. . .Beatrice reaches for my left hand and holds it up. My stomach churned violently as blood drip from my wrist to the white satin sheets.

Frequent. . .and very real.

i looked in amazement as the blood dripped on the satin sheets. they seemed to have a life of their own. too weak to ponder i waited in bated breaths as my blood like an ink began to form words. i have always liked red ink, but today it seems to spell my mood because on the virgin white satin sheets written in chuckberry red were the words - THE CHOSEN ONE. As i look up to Beatrice for an explanation I realize for the first time crouched in a corner looking intensely at me - an old woman with blazing red hair.

She beckons. I oblige, a mite relaxed now that Beatrice had come, or appeared. All the while, not a single word had escaped my gob. There was something familiar about her eyes. Again they appeared too young for her wisened body, and I can swear I've seen them smewhere I can't now remember or at least felt them gaze on me before.

She gestures west with her head and I look - a closet it seemed. A couple lying in the corner, naked. They were almost no more than silhouettes but I could tell they were anything but ordinary naked odies wreathing in irregular rythm.
Reading my curiousity, 'reading' - she reads me - the old lady strikes a match and lights a second candle to illuminate the couple.

Two mangled bodies cloaked in red, red - (I wish wine would follow now and not) - blood. I'd seen too much for just ne night.

"What are you doing to me?!" I cry.

from within the trees exactly 800paces away from her window i watched through my binoculars,the girl being roused by her nanny,

even through the squint of the binoculars i could make out tiny spots of blood,

hmm so the night raiders attacked her in her sleep,voodoo he-goats , killing was a job for an assasin not a bunch of white faced clowns jumping over fire and chanting boring words

an assasin, that was what i started out as, now i am the bag man, i am the assasin of the assasins.terror monger,the corrector,snatch(am known by many more alias in different countries

but a 17 year old girl!!!!

she is still a darn virgin

but then abgain a job is a job

just another statistic

at high noon she dies

******************************************

"Nothing dear," Beatrice replied huskily. "Everything's fine."
What seemed to be concern I read earlier on her face was replaced with an impassivity that shook me to the core of my being. I turned as the old woman with blazing red hair matched with a daring red regalia whispered some words into the flames for a few seconds.
She finally looked up, beckoning on Beatrice to come to her in a language I couldn't decipher.

"Who're these people? " I questioned again eying the naked couple on my bedroom floor in fear.

No answer greeted my question as Beatrice strolled towards the callings of the old woman as if she had been hypnotised.

She spoke into Beatrice' ears. Her chapped lips moved incoherently all the while staring steadily at me.
I looked at my left hand. . .the incised wound had stopped bleeding. Then I recalled my dreams--- the candlelight, the corn fields, my pursuers, my zeal to survive. . .

Annoyance gripped me. I've had enough.
With brewing anger I stared back defiantly at the old woman. I needed answers. And I needed it now!!!!!!!!!

932kilometers ,321 metres northwest

you idiots!

you say your deemons control the mystical realm yet

you can't kill this,this,this 17yr old .what are you, incompetent thats what you are

she glanced slightly towards nakaba and sikara who where moaning from pain

as a direct result of appearing in the girl's dream, the hunters(jimmy and nick).

there is a stronger form in that realm. the one with the blackhood,the one that attacked nakaba and sikara,nasia whispered from a corner of the room. he is dark indeed if i hadnt drawn them out in time ,theirs would have being as good as dead in this world

his energy is great.

shut up!

i should have listened to the bagman,reality is grounded the girl would die but not by your hands

the chosen one,aha! what a laugh she would never turn 18 to realise her potential bagman would take care of that

now leave my presence!

the 3 marabouts two doubled over in pain and the third providing purchase for his colleagues,hobbled towards the door

the boss seemed not to notice them

all she cared about was that by noon

the girl would die.

_{Where's everyone?}

The old woman stared back at me.
"Don't fret child." she said. But it didn't read to me as a statement of concern instead it sounded more like a command. Her eyes left me again, roving back to Beatrice.
I was on my feet in a flash. "What's going on here?" I shouted without any cares, ignoring her words.
In response to my question, the old woman took her eyes off Beatrice whose head was stooped as if in subservience to a master. She perused my semblance before saying in a dangerously low tone,
"Come here child."
In outright disobedience, I belligerantly walked to the door to let myself out of what seemed to be an impossible situation only to find out it was locked. My hesitations at the door knob produced a hardened heart wrenching laughter from the woman's chapped lips.
"It's best you obey me," she said once again approaching me in a slow gait.
Her frail fingers grasped my injured arm. The weight upon my arm was so unbearable, that I screamed out in pain before biting into her arm.
She cursed out loud, "You'll pay for that, you ingrate." she sneered, her countenance devoid of all trace of sarcasm.

I glaaced frantically around the poor lit room for another way of escape, not seeing one, I made to pull at the door knob again, only this time there was no door anymore. it was a hole, a huge black receeding hole where the door had been. There was something about the hole that seemd to pul me into it. The old woman was behind me now yelling at me, I couldn't make out her words but she began to do a slow rythmic dance while advancing slowly towards me, her wrinkled hands trying to touch me. I continued to step backwards until I had reached the edge of the hole. Just as the cry for help directed towards BEatrice who still stood immobile at the corner left my mouth, I felt myself start to fall deeper and deeper into an endless abyss.

In a split moment, I felt a slug pass through my brain and then, , all was silent as I made my peace with God.

In a split moment, I felt a slug pass through my brain and then, , all was silent as I made my peace with God.

where did that thought spring from?

as i floated gently through the abyss of my mind

my ist doll,given by my great aunt floated into my horizon,gawd i loved that doll

i felt my heart wenched when jasper tore her head off,remember crying for days

****that door the handle i nearly turned,i couldnt shake that feeling from my mind that something would have happened had i opened it

the horizon starts to widen,and then i saw her

The End.

@kay9, dis is definitely not d end. . .bt if i'd have a novel of this sort,with dis kind of begining, i wouldn't have d heart 2 stop reading it until i've finished reading it,after which i'd be sure 2 be shaking all over.


Guys, keep it up. And please dnt stop

luv y'all

Ok, that was just the prologue. Oya, chapter 1:

U start now

The horizon starts 2 widen, nd then i saw her

the old woman,now looked a bit different. She looked ok,plain but neat.
Then i looked around me and saw dat i was in a village,which was full of mud-thatched houses,then i saw some kids run past me playfully,2 me they looked like children of farmers and hay trussers, although they were not unkempt,they were not comfortably dressed either

i began 2 wonder what kinda place i found myself in,when i realised dat d old woman had been trying 2 get my attention,
then we she saw dat i was myself again,she beckoned and i responded,then she told me 2 follow her

As i followed her,we passed by sum busy women who stopped 2 stare at me as i walked past them,with a mixture of fear nd xcitement written on their faces.

Then we got 2 a hut nt different from the rest,but which encircled a special kind of air around it. There d old woman told me 2 go in,dat she had done her duty by bringing me here,nd dat it was my turn 2 perform my duty 2 save the world from d impending darkness,there nd then she left.
Now i'm standing in front of this mysterious hut all alone with so many questions in my head unanswered.


Meanwhile,the shadow,tired of waiting,had gone in2 the house,nd found no one in there.
He said 2 himself :
hmmm,so she has found herself helpers right? But i will make sure i find nd kill her before she recognises d power bestowed upon her. Now i have only a week before her 18th birthday