Chapter 1.
‘The first test’ she called it, as she half-dragged and pulled me down towards the beach water. Her hair silver and beaded dangled wildly as she moved. She looked twice as scared as she did normally, which was saying a lot.
“Move Raye. Please, I am begging you.” She said this in a mixture of Yoruba and Hausa. She hardly spoke in one language, and said it was harder for the spirits to understand.
The slide down the slope was steep, so we had to slow down, but there was that urgency in our steps. Once we reached the water she started looking for sea stones and then filling up my little school short’s pockets.
“Don’t be afraid, Okurin ni e na” meaning ‘You’re a man’.
I steadied my feet despite my failing little nerves. I knew what was coming. I was going to be drowned. It was that plain and simple.
Once my pockets were filled, she continued dragging me. “Yemoja, Hear my prayers,” she said just louder than a whisper and then she began reciting an incantation which had my Oriki which she called my lineage chain. I couldn’t quite focus on what I had memorized by heart. It seemed a torrent of jargon as the water rose past my knees. She said it was necessary because the Otaaje, which were the Witch-hunters, were coming. She had been saying this for three days without giving any particular reason. All I knew was that she had been falling into trances more often than usual. Coincidentally, the air was heavy with the scent of rust.
I had forgotten all about that too, as the water crept past my waist. “Yemoja o!” She shouted and then was back to reciting in whispers. She had mentioned the transitional test to me, but I wasn’t meant to go through it for years to come but here we are on this particular day. An irony which was not lost on me as my heart beat rapidly against my chest.
The water was tickling my jaw as she rounded up the incantation. She looked around cautiously and then looked into my terrified eyes deeply. It was only for a second, but it felt like ages had passed within that moment.
“Come back to me, Orishayeraye,” she whispered, then she looked up at the skies again. “Yemoja!” she screamed and pushed my head down below. On my seventh birthday, my mother drowned me.
Present day
“Goal!”
I heard from all around the field. The free kick I took about twenty-five yards away, was a success. It found its way over a wall of five defenders and around a rather large goalkeeper into the net. The small crowd in the University sports center was ecstatic. Couldn’t imagine why. It was only the quarter-finals of the HOD’s cup. The referee, who looked much older than he actually was, blew his whistle signifying the goal and the end of the match. Everyone began heading off the pitch. Although I scored the winning goal, not one of my English language coursemates came to congratulate or celebrate with me. The reason was simple, they feared me.
Tying my neck-length dreads, I went a bit further down from where the rest were celebrating and began to take off my football kit. Some of the coursemates stole sideward looks when they thought I wasn’t looking. No one would meet my eyes and I don’t blame them. I took off both the soccer boots and knee-pads and tossed them into my sports bag. Then I pulled it over my shoulder and made for the bathroom.
There was one person that was still blatantly staring at me. A light-skinned girl wearing sunglasses, just staring. She was a new student in my department, but we had never spoken and I hadn’t had the chance to eyenalyze her. Eyenalyze is what I call the process of looking into your eyes and reading your soul. The longer I focus, the more details I see. I see what kind of person you are. If you’re evil or sinister or nice and friendly. It’s a fairly harmless process unless you try to hide something, then it hurts.
The girl still had the nerve to look me in the eye because she had been wearing a pair of extremely dark shades since the first day I saw her. A bit of a fashion statement perhaps?
I ignored her and stepped into the toilets. A neat green room with blue tiles that ended at four urinals at the edge of the room. I walked up to the large mirror on one of the walls and checked my reflection. My dreads had started to get silver at the roots again. Sixteen years of never seeing a blade or a clipper resulted in the neck length of my hair. I made a mental note to take out the beads and dye them jet black as soon as I got to my apartment. I began changing into normal clothes. A sweatshirt, a pair of joggers and a pair of shades, which more often than not complete my look. Once satisfied, I headed out. The girl was not there anymore. Oh well. I walked towards the gate of the sports center.
“Raye!” I heard my name being called and so I stopped. Maleek, my team’s captain, came running towards me. “We need to train the day after tomorrow,” he said, looking everywhere but at me. I had eyenalyzed him before. He was a greedy and selfish person, that’s all I could get. I nodded at him, then turned to leave. The sports center was getting rowdy.
The walk from the small stadium to the University’s private quarters wasn’t far, but I had to see lots of people which was a bit uncomfortable. When I see people, I can see their auras, a force that their souls emit. It has a distinctive colour that tells a lot about the individual. Being in proximity with so many people can sometimes be like being inside a rainbow. That’s when there are lots of people with strong auras around, which seldom happens often. If I didn’t want to see people’s auras, I just rubbed my eyes hard. Which is what I did. Everyone seemed normal again so I walked fast to the private quarters where my shared two-bedroom apartment was.
On the way, I looked up to the sky as mother had taught me to do often. I noticed that ravens circling the sun. Ravens were creatures of doom and often spelt bad omens. I inhaled deeply and the scent of rust was strong. The Witch-hunters were close by. I quickened my pace.
Thanks to the new incentive, I made it in ten minutes. The front door was always open. Toby, my housemate, always forgot to lock up the front door and I never bothered. Only spiritual barriers could keep out what I wanted out. I entered my tiny living room which had a television and a couch. It was tidy as usual. I made straight for my room which was further down. On getting in, I tossed the sports bag aside and began searching for another bag. My charm bag. I usually kept it beneath my clothes and so I had to dig through the clothes to find it. The contents of the bag weren’t as much as some of the other Orishas I had come across in my life. Mine was made up of different coloured chalks, a necklace and a bracelet. The chalks were white, blue, red and black, signifying their strengths respectively. White was the most common chalk so was the weakest, primarily for petty nuisances. The blue was for complicated humans, which might prove harmful. Red was for dire demons who were sent to kill Orishas like me. And then there’s the black. I still don’t know what or who it was for but Mother said the user dies after using it. The necklace provides an automatic shield around my aura and the bracelet helps channel the aura for battle. I tossed the necklace on my neck, wore the bracelet over my right wrist and picked a blue chalk. Dashing to the front door, I began reciting the lines of Beshields, an incantation of protection. The front door had swung open again, but I didn’t bother to close it. I drew a line across the entrance and began drawing symbols of protection.
“What are you doing again?” I heard Toby say. I turned to where his voice was coming from. He was standing by the side of the house, holding a Sprite bottle.
“Just protection, nothing more,” I replied as I continued drawing. Toby sighed and shook his head. This wasn’t the first time I had drawn strange signs under our front door.
He took a swig from his drink. “Well, can I enter? Or will I turn to yam?” he asked and I had to smile. Toby was one of the good guys. I eyenalyzed him before and saw he was a happy-go-lucky person who had nothing to hide. Moreover, I had saved his life once before.
“You probably won’t turn to yam. Probably.” I answered him, finishing the drawing and standing up.
“I’ll take my chances,” he said and he walked over the signs into the house. “You see? My faith has made me whole,” he spoke with his usual cheerfulness. I closed the door and headed to my room while Toby entered his. Once in, I noticed a Raven on the floor. I stopped to inspect it. Its neck was snapped and it was bleeding from shards of glass still stuck in its body. There were shards of glass all over the floor so I checked the only window in the room. It was broken in the middle. A small circle which the Raven must have passed through. It made me wonder what else had passed through. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow move with speed. I turned as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. A large weight of heat slammed into my chest tossing me backwards. A Witch-hunter was in my room.