CHAPTER 16
Some cities in Nigeria were mentioned in this chapter, to which I would advise you to check them out online. Though used for fictional purposes, these cities are popularly known for their great, cultural, traditional and historical values...
Milli and Prissila, on their mission to free their family. Muejiz, also on his way to the location of the portal to hell, to seal it off.
Prissila and Milli walked towards the gates of a psychiatric infirmary, where their families were kept.
"There are demon guards at the gates how do we get past them?" Milli asked in concern, holding back Prissila as they walk to the gate.
Prissila smiled and kept walking towards the gate. "Just follow me." She beckoned.
She closed her eyes and walked towards the gate, an imaginary wave hit through the gate as they walked through it, unseen, like the wind. The six guards at the gate were engrossed in an argument like savages, as in their demonic nature.
"Wow! You made them not see us. I thought we'll have to put them down somehow, like fight them or something." Milli poured out in awe.
"Oh, brother! Not every problem is solved with violence." Prissila replied. But as she vomited her last sentence, Milli pushed her out of the way, as a huge fire blast came their way. He immediately stopped it by creating fire from his palm, directing it towards the incoming fire blast.
* * *
Muejiz entered a dilapidated factory building with electricity buzzing statically, and light bulbs flickering. He walked through creeks upon creeks, as the air was filled with dark airy wind. He came upon a spacious room with shadowy figures afloat the ceiling.
The figures began to descend, as though they sensed an enemy. They got down and started hovering around Muejiz, whose eyes were now closed. He opened his eyes, now blank white again, to an ugly monstrous apparition facing him. Immediately, the monster drew back.
"Too late," Muejiz said, speaking in his multiple, demonic voice form. He made a motion as though drawing back the monster, then snapped his fingers and the shadowy monster was caught on fire, bursting into flames. It made screeching, wailing sounds, as it flew high up the stairs, from Muejiz, into the dark. Muejiz followed its direction and kept walking up the stairs into the dark.
* * *
Milli and Fey, ending their fire battle, as the flames stopped radiating from their palms and finally, the firefight stopped. Prissila stretched her hand towards Fey, and she immediately stood frozen, as though petrified, with her head facing the sky.
A moment later, Fey dropped her head, facing Prissila and Milli mockingly, laughed and spat, "Parlor tricks don't work on me girl. Ain't that right Celeste?" She asked.
Immediately, Prissila was stabbed with a dagger in the back by Celeste who planted herself behind Prissila and Milli while they were distracted by Fey.
Milli, in anger, formed lightning from both his palm and directed it towards Fey and Celeste. Fey blocked hers, and Celeste quickly dodged hers by changing direction, and then retaliated immediately, by tormenting Milli's mind with her powers, breaking him down.
Prissila, now on the floor, bleeding from her wound, stretched her hand and reached for Celeste's leg, who was now standing close above her head after changing position from dodging Milli's lightning. Prissila immediately closed her eyes and Celeste screamed in severe pain, falling down holding her head as though haunted, plagued and scared, by a terrifying, life-threatening nightmare.
Fey immediately appeared behind Celeste, grabbing her before she reached the ground and they both vanished.
Milli rushed to where Prissila laid, with her eyes now closed as though passed out. "No, no, no... Prissie! Come on wake up. Don't do this to me right now... Don't..." He stammered emotionally, as he bowed in tears.
"Do what to you?" Prissila's voice asked shakily, and Milli laughed, hugging and pinning her to the floor.
"Dude, get the fuck off me and let's go rescue our family." She managed to command.
Milli let go of her and helped her up. Prissila got up, resting on Milli's shoulder as they hop on, through the facility, to the location of the dungeon their families were...
* * *
Muejiz got to a wide-open space and the air shifted to a hot, uncomfortable one. He entered a room full of gruesome demonic figures. They saw him and angrily started to surround him. Muejiz laughed evilly, closing his eyes again.
"You all know you can't land a scratch on me, but I love the fact that you always want to try." He said, opening his blank white eyes as he ends his last sentence. He raised his hand in a gesture that suggests raising something from the floor. Every figure in the room rose afloat in the air and froze, petrified, following the gesture.
Muejiz twisted his wrist and a blue, green and red mixed flame burned all over his hand, immediately, all the petrified demons in the air were caught by the same type of flame. They burned in pain, turning into a shadowy dark smoke, flying up into the dark, making screeching noises.
* * *
The door to a dungeon burned up and was pulled out. Milli's face appeared, entering the now, a bit smoky room where an eighth months pregnant Zainab, her husband, The mother superior from Milli's orphanage home, Lt. Ali and a young woman who was one of Zainab's entourage, were chained to a pole and the wall.
"Miliagro?!" Cried the mother superior, calling out Milli's name in full.
"Milli?!" Zainab called.
Prissila stretched herself faintly into the room, as Milli rushed back and supported her to stand properly.
"Milli?! What's wrong with Prissila?" Zainab asked with concern drawn on her face.
Prissila struggled and stretched her hand towards everyone in chains. with her eyes closed, the chains broke into several pieces freeing the captives. Prissila fumbled and fell to the floor with Milli struggling to hold her.
The Mother superior and Zainab rushed to where Prissila and Milli was. Zainab placed her hand on Prissila's wound and it started to heal gradually.
"You can do Magic?!" Prince Ameer, Zainab's Husband asked, surprised. "Then why the heck are we tied up here all this while?" He fired.
Zainab sighed deeply as she finished healing Prissila and spat. "Because we were chained with Damascus steel. It binds magic and as such, I couldn't use my powers." She explained, to a still amazed Ameer.
"Wait! Where is Sir Abubak'r, Katie and the others?" Milli cut in, looking around the room.
"In a dungeon somewhere here. I don't know..." The prince coughed.
"They are directly above us," Prissila revealed and tried to sit, in a bid to stand, but couldn't, as she was very weak.
"No dear you're still weak. I only healed your wounds not replenish your energy." Zainab explained.
"Let's go get them!" Lieutenant Ali beckoned.
"We will join you when we're done here," Zainab answered, as Lieutenant Ali, Milli and The lady in Zainab's entourage, left the room to go rescue the others.
* * *
Muejiz walked into some empty place like a rooftop. only that, there was a huge ring of fire of different colours. Dark, shadowy, smoky, horrific figures roamed inside and around the ring.
"Home sweet home." Declared Muejiz. Immediately, his phone rung in his pocket, breaking his attention.
"Hey Jiz! We've freed them. How's everything on your end?" Called Milli, from the other end of the phone.
"I just got there," Muejiz revealed.
"Let me talk to him," Abubak'r, on the other end of the phone begged. "Muejiz?!" He called out.
"Dad!" Muejiz cried, as his eyes immediately, became full of tears and his expression changed from a dark version of Muejiz to the real Muejiz with the "an always happy smile on his face" expression.
"My boy!" Abubak'r hailed, as his voice broke, as though in tears.
"Dad?! You remember when you told me that Mum said a time will come when I have to decide to either please myself or save the world?" Muejiz asked his Dad.
"Yes!" Replied Abubak'r
"Well, I think the time is now Dad." He confirmed.
"What do you mean? Wait, are you okay?" Abubak'r asked curiously.
"I saw her Dad!" Muejiz said as he broke into tears, "I saw Mum when I died..." Muejiz revealed.
"What?!" Abubak'r asked, shocked.
Muejiz narrated, in flashbacks, of when he was killed, after being pushed off the rooftop by Lilith and stabbed by Rocky spikes.
* * *
Muejiz hair turned grey as his eyes went blank white and closed. Lightning filled the area as a white blinding light engulfed Muejiz's body and it vanished from the spike.
Muejiz stood freezing, in a cold environment, similar to the ancient city of Ile-Ife Nigeria, only this time, it was more beautiful, as though the houses, which were few, were newly built, filled with light and almost empty. Only for few voices here and there with no one around. He checked his wounds and they have all healed.
"Muejizhan?!" Aisha's voice called out behind a cold stricken Muejiz.
"Mom?!" Muejiz called as though learning to call 'mom' for the first time. He recognized Aisha from the pictures of her they have at home.
Aisha rushed and hugged her son. "You have grown so big and handsome and tall and..." She praised as she soon burst into tears.
Muejiz held his Mother, tight. Speechless, as he joined her in crying.
"Come, I need to show you something," Aisha said, as she broke from the hug, held his hand and dragged him along.
Aisha, holding Muejiz hand, walked few steps, as a bright blinding light filled the place and they appeared in the ancient Benin City, Nigeria, also looking beautiful as new, and very well illuminated, only that, it was littered with some strange figures and substances like dirt.
"What's this place Mom?" Muejiz asked, curiously
"It's our ancestral realm," Answered Aisha. "The soul of every righteous supernatural, mostly witches, that dies anywhere in the world, carrying the blood of our forefathers, is being pulled back here. This realm is created by our ancestors and you, in your past life. It serves as a prison world, with the apparition of our original west African kingdoms, majorly the current day Nigeria, to trap souls of supernatural descendants. So that future generations can draw power from here and the ancestors can as well guide them." She explained.
"Like in the movie, The Originals..." Muejiz thought out loud.
"What?!" Asked Aisha.
"No, nothing. Just that I've seen something like this before in a movie." He confessed.
"oh, I see!" Replied Aisha, "Well dear, this is not any movie." She confirmed.
"Lately we've been having some problems. Some kind of doorway opens up into this place in various locations and demons come in here to torment and drag some of us to hell. We've been trying to trace each doorway and seal it off. But recently, they've been opening in more than one location at a time, causing mayhem." She narrated.
"All of hell has broken loose and no one is safe, even here..." Muejiz cried.
"Exactly!" Aisha confirmed. "I know you can't stay here for long cause your mission is important to save humanity. I just want you to remember that, when the time comes to make a decision, I believe you'll make the right one that is best for all of us." Aisha expressed, positively.
"Mom I died. Like I'm dead..." Muejiz confessed.
"Yes we know," Aisha confirmed. "It's why, unlike others, we dragged your body in here. We've got a plan to resurrect you back in your full glory similar to your original self." She revealed.
"What do you mean?! I mean How? And who's we...?" Muejiz asked, confused.
"All your ancestors and past lives," Aisha confirmed and immediately, some people appeared beside Aisha and started to chant in old tongues. Few of them moved towards Muejiz, stretching their hands. One after the other, as they close in and touch him, they entered into his body. He fell on his knees screaming in excruciating pain, but they entered him regardless. After the last person entered Muejiz, he raised his head towards the other ancestors and his Mom Aisha, his eyes glowed and return to normal, as he smiled mischievously.
Suddenly, the portal Aisha talked about, opened up once more where they were and shadowy figures emerged from it. Muejiz stood up, stretching his hands wide as though surrendering for them to take him.
As they moved close to him, Frightened Aisha stretched her hand, trying to cast them off her son, but immediately they touched Muejiz. The smoky figures dispersed like sandstorms being torn apart by a heavier wind.
Muejiz turned and looked at Aisha who is now smiling proudly. He turned back, facing the ring-like portal and ran, jumping into the now closing portal.
Muejiz appeared in hell, an ungodly place filled with the smell of burning flesh and filth. The whole place looked gruesomely horrific and filled with patches of flames here and there.
Muejiz, still looking strangely at the place, was pulled up, unable to move, and dragged down, miles, through some sort of doorways, he fell flat on the floor, in a fiery place. He stood up and started to look through the flames to make meaning of where he was.
He saw five figures in cloaks, forming a pentagram and burning in flames, as they surround some kind of box on the floor...
A figure stood, smelling Muejiz from behind him, and again, he stood, petrified.
"Intriguing body and power. I can't wait to get hold of it." Said a female voice, sounding like the feminine version of Muejiz.
A hand grabbed Muejiz's shoulder and the figure entered him as Muejiz screamed in pain again, opened his eyes, this time, they looked evil and blank white.
* * *
Muejiz, back on phone with his Dad. "I had to see, and go through hell, to come back from death, dad." He narrated. "So if I close the portal to hell, I will go back to being dead!" He exposed.
"What?! How...?" Abubak'r argued confusingly.
"Listen, Dad! I have to close the portal now. It's the choice that I have to make to save everyone including Mom wherever she is," He said, turning and looking at the ring of fire behind him, now getting more gruesome. "And I have to do it Like now!" He concluded.
"No dear, you must stop and listen to me. You have to calm down and make a decision that will benefit everyone. So wait for me to get there and we'll talk about it. We'll find a better plan together" pleaded Abubak'r.
"Uhhhhmn! Sorry Dad I have to go now." Muejiz said, cutting off the line.
The ring of fire became horrifying and the dark shadows hovering inside it were bulging out of the ring, like a baby coming out of its amniotic sac.
Three shadows tore out of the portal, headed towards where Muejiz stood, close to the edge of the factory building's rooftop. He stretched his hand, motioning as though throwing something towards the shadows. A huge wave hit the shadows halfway, resisting them from moving further. He twisted his wrist and fingers rhythmically as though pushing back the shadows.
* * *
Abubak'r broke down in tears after his conversation with his son. Katie moved close to the broken Abubak'r and hugged him in a bid to console him.
"He's going to be fine. All is going to be well." Katie said, hopefully.
"No, he's not. He's trying to kill himself. He, he's trying to..." Abubak'r tried to narrate but was gripped with tears, as he cried the more.
Prissila rushed into the dungeon. "Milli, Muejiz is in danger, we need to go and help him out now!" She cried.
"I was about coming for you let's..." Milli confessed as he was interrupted by Katie.
Katie, breaking free from Abubak'r and rushing to her daughter, "My baby! What happened to you?" She asked, devastated, on seeing the bloodstain on her shirt.
"I was stabbed but I'm..." Prissila tried answering her mother but was interrupted again, by her now pissed off mother
"Wait! What?!" Katie called, observing her daughter closely.
"Oh relax! It's fine. I healed her." Zainab, now entering the place, supported by her husband, revealed to an already mad Katie.
Katie rushed to hug her friend, who was now heavily pregnant
"Easy, she's pregnant." Barked prince Ameer, Zainab husband, blocking Katie from going hard on his wife.
"Yeah, I can see that your majesty!" Katie fired back.
"We need to go." Prissila cried.
"Let's use a little travel trick I learned from Muejiz," Milli said to Prissila.
"Take us all along," Abubak'r called.
"I'm sorry. Unlike Muejiz, we are only powerful enough to carry ourselves," Milli revealed. "You'll have to follow us by driving there yourselves." He begged.
Milli came close to Prissila as they held hands. He closed his eyes as they both chanted and vanished.
Katie again moved to Abubak'r, holding both his hand and drawing him close. "We've gone through a lot these past months and have survived it all together. I know our children will come back to us safe and sound." She professed.
Abubak'r, engrossed in Katie's hug, muttered "Thank you!" He broke free from the hug and stood close to her face as they stare at each other like lovers.
"Oh great! You're both in love, that's good news, but I hate to be the bearer of bad news to these emotions you're both feeling right now. We need to go help the kids save the world." Zainab lamented as she turned to leave the room, with her husband holding her hand.
Katie and Abubak'r broke free from each other and followed everyone out of the dungeon.
* * *
Muejiz, with both hands, now stretched to the ring. As he continued twisting his wrist, as though trying to close up the portal. Various shadows began to appear from nowhere and were being drawn into the ring.
Muejiz started to choke and cough out blood. Freeing his right hand, he used it to feel the fluid dripping from his ears and nose. He brought the hand to his face and noticed it was blood.
"I'm too weak. I can't even completely seal off the portal. I can't... I can..." Muejiz lamented as he was still looking like his normal self and not the possessed version. "I can't do this alone..." He muttered with his eyes closed
"Who said you're alone?" Answered prissila, who just appeared and standing by his right. She took hold of his hand beside her and stretched out her right hand towards the portal. Milli appeared by Muejiz left and interlocked his right hand with Muejiz's outstretched left hand, holding it down. Milli then stretched his left hand towards the portal.
A bright fiery light radiated from around them, as they began to chant while stretching their hands towards the portal, in the gesture of closing something up, the portal began closing up, bit by bit with their gesture.
The portal was about to close completely when a huge fire emanated from it towards them. Prissila and Milli closed their eyes in fear, as all three screamed, outstretching their hands towards it. The fiery light from around them illuminated the whole place, closing the portal finally and extinguishing the flame.
The space became clear, as it was only a dilapidated top floor of the building, with the roof off. Muejiz broke free of their hands, moved forward to check around the environment.
Milli opened his eyes to check, as Muejiz broke free from his grip, "We did it! Damn! We saved the world." He shouted joyfully.
Prissila opened her eyes too, to a cleared environment. "Yeeeah! We did it!" She screamed excitedly, jumped, and hugged Milli.
Muejiz, standing some feet from them, sighed, "Huh!" And coughed with a smile.
Prissila and Milli turned towards Muejiz direction, only to notice, there were patches, of spark, of fire, falling off Muejiz body, like he was on fire and his ashes were dropping from the air. The two became pale with fear and pain as they try to rush close to him and know what exactly was going on.
Abubak'r, Ameer, Katie and Lieutenant Ali, rushed into the place. Only to find Muejiz in a serious flame outburst, with Prissila and Milli trying to get close to him.
"Muejiz!" Abubak'r called at the top of his voice.
Muejiz, on seeing everyone, smiled at them all and fell down the edge of the building on his back. From afar, It was like a huge fiery meteorite falling off the top of the Eiffel tower, as the flame burned out and vanished before it could reach the ground.
Milli in pain, rushed to the edge trying to save and catch him from falling. He cried, almost falling off the building too, as he couldn't catch Muejiz. Ameer got to him and pulled him back.
Lieutenant Ali gripped Abubak'r who was also on the verge of falling off the building with his son.
Everyone was holding the other from falling off or doing something stupid after Muejiz. As they were all in pain of the death of Muejiz for the second and possibly last time.