“Haya Bas….” Janet relented, completely exasperated by her persistent roommate and friend Doris. “I’ll come… but only because I don’t trust that crowd and you’re too gullible to leave alone with them.”
Doris beamed up at her in that odd doe eyed way Janet was sure drove the boys crazy and chuckled when she realized how effective it was on her too. She shook her head with a smile, but was soon frowning again.
“EEEhhhhh….. Are you sure you are also not coming because of Jemo…” Doris said, wagging her eyebrows in a ridiculous manner that didn’t suit her at all. That wasn’t even funny. Janet frowned at the memory of him.
Who didn’t know Jemo? Smart, rich, good looking and generous, (and when we say generous, that usually means with shots, in their circles) what wasn’t there to like. He was ALSO a lecher and five faced Man hoe that played it fast and loose with girls and according to the grapevine, but she knew for a fact, had knocked up his fair share of girls. The only reason he wasn’t a baby daddy yet was he always managed to pay off the girls to get rid of it.
She’d seen a couple of her friends become “that girl” to him in the two years she’d been here. It had been especially bad in her first year. He had swept through like an epidemic. In her 3rd year she still had a bad taste in her mouth. And he was the one who invited them. They had met in passing a couple of times before, and she had done little to hide her distaste. So she doubted he remembered her and if he did, it wasn’t a pleasant recollection for him. She didn’t dwell on it too long though because the Jemo she knew was hardly picky with his girls, even if they hated him.
It was supposed to be a road trip, with him driving, and therein laid the problem. She didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. He was a year ahead of her and would be graduating shortly. Having finished his classes and project, he was intent on enjoying his last days as a student by throwing bashes up and down the coast and consequently, dragging along all the younger students that didn’t know any better. Ordinarily, Janet would never partake in this flagrant debauchery, but it was obvious Jemo had an eye on Doris, a first year and having known this girl in high school, Janet felt the need to shield her before she became another one of Jemo’s used goods.
On the day of the trip, they met at the main carpark. Jemo was already there, leaning back on his flashy range rover with a pair of shades and a douche smile. He was already flanked by girls on either side. Janet recognized them as the garden variety campus groupies everybody knew somehow. There was one other guy to the side chatting rather loudly and obnoxiously on the phone. Campus had been eerily empty and she understood it to mean that everyone was making their way to the coast. The traffic was going to be bad.
The moment they appeared the two girls stopped giggling and glared silent daggers at them, clearly recognizing competition. As Jemo threw them a self-satisfied crooked grin that had Doris simpering beside her, she could have sworn those 2 vipers hissed at them. She scowled openly but didn’t speak lest the car ride to coast turn radioactive. She zoned out as Doris flirted carelessly with this guy and responded to his questions with an unsociable grunt whenever he tried speaking to her. Shades on her face with Doris firmly by her side (somehow the 4 girls had managed to fit in the backseat, barely) she planted herself between Doris and the girls.
Once they settled and were on their way, she quickly put her earphones in and zoned out. Initially she had wanted to stay awake to keep an eye on Jemo’s driving, but being so disconnected and all, she dozed off. When she woke up it was 7pm and DARK. She took a moment to take stock of her surroundings and regain her bearings and the moment she did, her sleepiness was GONE.
She looked to the side to see a clearly high, but meek and nervous Doris. There were liquor bottles and cans all over. The vipers were making out …heavily, also clearly high, egged on by a very buzzed Jemo and his friend whose name she didn’t know in the front. NOT ONLY was this imbecile drunk, he was also NOT paying attention to the road because of these two desperate b*tches in the back seat…AND he was doing 90 AND it was pitch black outside. For a moment her brain failed her at the sheer magnitude of danger they were in. She knew she shouldn’t have come!!! Kicking herself, she turned to Doris, glaring, looking to ask when things started deteriorating but stopped on seeing her face.
Doris was the youngest here and very impressionable. She wanted to fit in with his crowd and clearly the groupies weren’t going to make this easy for her. Aside from Janet, she had no real allies in this car. She would have been too intimidated to speak out. So she went along with them. Still, this little twit should have AT LEAST woken her.
Her train of thought was suddenly interrupted when the car suddenly swerved, dangerously! A shameless yelp escaped her mouth, quickly followed by a litany of insults hurled at him.
“Motherf*****…..Can you look where you are going…!!!!” She screamed. “ Simamisha hii Gari!!. Unataka kutuua?!!” She was hyperventilating. Doris was now sobbing pitifully at her violent reaction. Jemo blew her off, probably too high to reason with. She looked around trying to figure out what to do when another jarring car horn had her frozen in her pants. The blinding headlights had them all screaming. Jemo swerved again but this time lost control.
When she regained consciousness, they weren’t moving anymore. She looked aroung and Doris was gone and so were Jemo and his friend and one of the girls. She panicked but moving suddenly sent a wave of unusually bad pain washing down the back of her heard and down into her neck. It was bad enough to bring tears to her eyes and she allowed herself to cry shamelessly, realizing that she had just survived a car crash. She sat still for a moment and reached over to touch the other girl in the car with her, but she wasn’t moving.
Her heart jumped into her throat thinking that this girl may be dead and her tears fell harder. She heard shouting outside and she turned gingerly and saw some figures moving around in the distance. One was moving towards them and she realized it was Doris when the door was wrenched open and her face came floating into view, tearstained.
“Aki Janet, they are not stopping…!!” Doris said, her voice shaking.
Janet found her feet and limped over to the guys. Jemo’s friend stood in the middle of the road waving for the passing vehicles, mostly trucks to stop, failed miserably as all the vehicles without fail drove right through him, forcing him to dive off the road right before.
IT DIDN’T MAKE SENSE!!! They tried everything but they wouldn’t stop. Janet couldn’t hold back tears anymore. It was freezing and they were all hurt. She was in pain!!! Then Doris pointed at something in the distance. A light.
Something about it wasn’t right. She felt an even deeper chill seep into her bones looking at it. They were in the middle of nowhere, literally. They had gone off the side on slope into an actual forest with wild animals. She could hear them around them right now. What could possibly be creating light in such a deserted location? Was it someone camping; A forest ranger of some sort? But why on the side of the road? And why didn’t he come looking when they crashed and as they were screaming for help from the motorists? Something didn’t feel right. Bit again, Jemo plunged right ahead decrying his pain. Janet spared a glance at the girl still unconscious in the car but went along anyway.
They followed reluctantly and as they came closer, found themselves approaching an eerie traditional hut with unnaturally bright fire torches. Jemo hesitated for a moment but decided to go in anyway. Janet came in last with Doris to find the guys frozen… literally. Their eyes were and faces where frozen in expressions of pure terror. And the moment they stepped inside, they felt their bodies harden. The terror that overtook her barely had time to be expressed before she stiffened completely. She couldn’t even blink, completely unable to move. Not even able to make a sound.
A short hairy little creature stood at the center of the hut surrounded by floating balls of fire. It had hooves and floppy ears coming out of the top of its head and tiny little horns on its forehead. Tears of despair ran down her cheeks as it ran around looking each of them over then huffing in displeasure when it checked the last of them. Suddenly, there was a sound behind them and another little creature like itself came in with the girl in the car’s unconscious body floating behind it. The two creatures seemed to talk then suddenly waved some sort of whisk and she felt and saw chains materialize on each of the party.
The car wreck was discovered the next morning. The doctors report said they had all died almost instantly…