Fib and the Axe of Fury

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO

F

ear affects people differently.

I confirmed it after my encounter with the creature at the subway. The worst part of it all: it saw me. Why else would it show its ugly teeth other than to try and scare me? Throughout the train ride, Mo made silly jokes—but I couldn’t laugh at them. Instead, I gave her quick, stiff smiles.

"We're late," Mo grumbled, interrupting my thoughts.

I would’ve loved to lecture her on the reasons not to come to school late, but as soon as I spotted the swarm of students heading for the door, I simply took in a long breath. Assembly had ended, which could mean only one thing: we were late.

We had one month and two weeks until the W.A.S.S.C.E., and I’d promised to keep to myself. No more unnecessary arguments, or fights, which led to me always being called to the principal’s office for punishment. But with the way things were, there was no way I wouldn’t get on the bad side of the school prefect.

I pushed through the gates with Mo following me. As expected, most of the students left on the assembly ground were prefects. Some of my classmates, who had no school post, also walked through the courtyard that divided the school into blooming, flower-framed halves. One section housed the library, while the second building housed the classrooms, the laboratories, the administration office, and the health center. I scanned the assembly in search of a familiar red beret, and there was Tokunbo, next to the door that led into the school’s main building. She was about ten meters away from us, standing there with an irritating smirk on her face.

She was neatly dressed in our school's white shirt and red checkered skirt uniform. Her curly black hair, which tumbled down her shoulders like a waterfall, accentuated her high cheekbones perfectly. Tokunbo’s hazelnut skin seemed to glow under the watery morning sunlight. She looked beautiful and poised, confidence oozing from her skin like tear gas. I hated her.

"Tokunbo's coming for us," I said. "Thank you, Mo."

"What?" Mo asked, her voice thinner than usual.

"Never mind," I mumbled, as we both walked towards the entrance to the building.

"Hey, Fib,” Tokunbo said in a too-sweet tone. She stopped right in front of us. "It's 8:50."

I pinched my lips into a thin, hard line. At that moment, if my eyes had been lasers, they would have shredded Tokunbo into pieces.

"Yeah," I said with as much venom as I could muster. “Guess you’re going to punish me, now.”

"Careful, Fib, I'm the one in charge," Tokunbo retorted, making me release a bitter laugh.

It was always the same thing for Tokunbo. The same old ‘I'm the one in charge, here,’ talk she uses when she's not getting what she wants.

"Okay, aunty head girl," I said. "Let's get this over with."

Tokunbo's lips broadened as she gave me a once over.

"Oh, I’ll punish you once she puts her phone away." She squeezed her perfect nose.

I turned to see Mo punching the keypad on her phone. For a moment I thought she didn't hear Tokunbo, but the sneer dancing across her lips said otherwise. She was taking her time. Mo looked up from her phone, her fingers wrapped around it and squeezing so hard I feared the screen might crack.

"What if I don't?" Mo asked. Her tone came out hard.

I chuckled and gave Mo a soft slap on the shoulder.

“I hope you laugh harder when you’re washing toilets instead of going to class."

"What?" I shrieked before Tokunbo could finish talking.

Mo gasped too. There was no way in hell I'd wash the toilets everyone used. The school cleaners were paid to do that job, not me.

"You're crazy," I blurted.

"Take it back," Tokunbo said. She stood a few inches taller than me, forcing me to look up at her to make eye contact.

"Nope," I smirked. "You. Are. Crazy!"

Her face scrunched up, and before I could sidestep any of her attacks, she pushed me hard enough to make me fall and sent my already broken eyeglasses flying off my face. My heart hammered inside my chest as I knelt and crawled around to look for my glasses. Mo called my name, but I lost focus. Through the sickening fear in my veins, I heard my mother’s voice echo in my head for the second time today. Always wear your eyeglasses outside our home.

A dewy sensation ran against my skin, causing my breath to become heavy. The hair on my arms grew stiff as needles from the unpleasant sensation. A roar echoed through my mind, and the creature I saw at the train station appeared within a thick, green smoke. It stood at arm’s length with a fire burning in each of its eye sockets.

"No," I shook my head, "this isn't real..."

“It is,” a whisper said behind my ears, echoing out like wind.

I screamed and closed my eyes.

"Fib!" Mo shouted.

I looked and saw her staring at me as if I'd lost my mind. The few students left on the assembly ground all had their eyes on me, confusion evident in their collective gaze.

I turned away out of shame until my eyes landed on Tokunbo, who shook her head and mouthed, ‘witch,’ before spinning away in a huff. A tap on my shoulder made me jump. I whipped around to see Mo still staring at me, her eyebrows furrowed with thick lines between.

"Fib, are you okay? Do you need to go to the clinic or something?"

At the mention of the school clinic, I swallowed, feeling my chest clench tight.

"Fib?" Mo wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Why are you not talking?"

"I'm okay," I whispered, still shaken enough that my voice quivered when I spoke. Unlike her usual self, Mo seemed to understand, tightening her arm around my shoulders.

"Okay then," she said, her voice trailing off as if unsure of what to say.

We walked into the school building, Mo’s arm protectively around my shoulders, and Tokunbo frowning at us. I had just a single question on my mind: What the hell was happening to me?

***

Around 5 p.m., I dropped my phone into my backpack and brushed straw bristles across the dusty floor with my feet. Incense wafted through my nostrils as I pushed open the front door. The whistling from a kettle was the first thing that welcomed me.

I dropped my backpack beside the door once I stepped in. The burning sensation in my throat grew when I spotted a couple of water bottles on the wooden shelf. I grabbed the one with the smallest quantity which had little to no water and unscrewed the lid, but before I could raise it to my lips to drink it, my mother's voice stopped me.

"You aren’t deaf,” she snapped. “How many times do I have to warn you about taking anything from that shelf? Those things are medicinal!”

I whirled around to see my mother watching me. With one hand, she held a small pestle, some leaves, and placed her other hand on her waist. You see, my mother doesn’t act like the typical rich woman with expensive trinkets, as she liked to call them, dangling from every exposed part of her body, accessories on the ears and neck. She wore makeup, but in a weird way; thick eyeliner, black and white lipsticks, flowing gowns. Most times she dressed more like a voodoo priestess than an actual librarian.

"I'm sorry," I replied, before stepping out of her way.

"Except you want to end up drinking something you’ll hate," she said, "the kitchen is over there."

I groaned and started towards the kitchen, but on second thought, I glanced over my shoulder as the image of the weird looking creature flashed inside my mind. As my mother crushed green leaves in the small, wooden mortar, I swallowed hard and took off my broken glasses. I could only hope she wouldn't be mad.

"My glasses are broken," I said.

Her head snapped up and her mouth hung open.

"How did it happen? How?! How could you be so careless?"

I’m careless? Jeez! It wasn't even my fault.

As she rambled about how careless I was, the lines between her brows deepened.

"No... I didn't take them off… I didn't open my eyes when they fell. Mo helped me look for it," I lied.

"Good." Her body lost its stiffness as she let out a huge breath.

She opened the cupboard on one of the shelves stacked with books and weird ingredients, then fished out another pair of glasses similar to my red framed ones.

“Whoa! Mother, what's going on?" I asked, but she didn't have an answer. Instead, she tried forcing the glasses onto my face, but I quickly pushed her back. "No!"

I looked at her face, searching for answers within her eyes. "I can see perfectly but you keep forcing me to use these things. I've obeyed your rules, always."

"Don't be stupid." She tried holding me down, but I pulled my hand away, out of her grip.

"No!" Normally, it wouldn’t even occur to me to question or disagree with my mother, but after seeing the creature at the train station, I couldn't afford to leave anything else to chance. I shuddered at the memory of the creature standing just in front of me.

The anger in her eyes died when she looked into mine. "It is for your own good. You should not step out of this house without your glasses on."

It’s the same instruction every time, I thought. But I said, "You always say that. Why do I need to use it when my eyes work perfectly well?"

"Y-You," she stammered.

"What?" I asked.

“Young lady, I am your mother,” she said. “You don’t question my authority.”

“But—”

“Go to your room!”

Words left me. I stared into her large, brown eyes that were burning with anger and my heart fell silent.

“You’re not deaf,” she said. But I couldn’t will my lips to move.

Everything seemed slow, as if I was underwater. Tears began to fall from my eyes.

I wouldn’t consider my mother a disciplinarian; in fact, she wasn't, isn’t, a disciplinarian. So seeing her act that way really shook me. I searched desperately through her eyes, waiting to receive a hug, or something, anything. But nothing came. My mind burned with annoyance, and my eyes darted everywhere. She couldn’t fool me—my mother knew something that I should know too, but she wasn't talking, and seemed to prefer keeping it to herself.

You need to leave, I told myself, so I went for my room.

The urge to go came strong, insistent, urgent. I couldn't stand the hypocrisy that my mother was showing. Suddenly, the woman whom I'd adored for most of my life became the bad guy: a liar who wanted to hide the truth from her own child.