AREA '61 (9)

Episode 9

"I got the chance to do something other than wet my pillow on a matric day. I got to have the matric of my dreams in my third year. All thanks to a little thing named Cathy."

"Laaa!" Cathy sang an opera in the showers. Nonye shook her head and continued typing, "I also went hiking, picnicking and jogging at stadium. It's funny how I've never done these things during my three years here. The craziest was the birthday bash we went for. I won't tell Cathy it was the first night party I have ever been to."

Nonye laughed as she recalled how she and Cathy had run to Balewa right before 10 pm because Cathy was scared of the "ghosts of hilltop." Cathy had made up that legend herself and it never ceased to amuse Nonye the way she had fled from her own made up ghosts.

"Tonight, we're going for a stage play in the New Arts Theatre. My first ever! I can't wait," Nonye hugged Cathy's giant teddy. She quickly let go and sat up on the bed as Cathy walked out still singing opera.

"Did you miss me, Papa?" Cathy cooed at the stuffed bear.

"Get dressed or we'll be late," Nonye snapped.

"It's alright. I know you were hugging Papa. You have some of his glitter on your shirt," Cathy giggled and walked to her wardrobe. Nonye quietly dusted her shirt and glared at the smiling teddy.

At the Theatre, Nonye and Cathy took their seats. Cathy counted the packets of popcorn she had bought while Nonye shook her feet wondering what magic hid behind the curtains. She almost didn't see the tall figure three rows in front of them. He was very familiar. He was helping another familiar person get seated comfortably. She was dressed in a very skimpy dress and made a big deal of her hair and nails. He on the other hand smiled frequently and whispered things to her. She giggled most times. Until she laughed and placed her hand on his chest coyly. Then he stretched his right arm and circled her shoulder while she leaned on him.

Nonye's face darkened. She felt sick and not even Cathy's laughter could bring her back from her world of envy. She didn't hear when Cathy remarked on how funny the actors looked or how lovely the lights were. She was surprised when the play ended and Cathy tugged her hand. "What a great play!" she said, "I loved Tony completely! We should come tomorrow. Are you okay?"

"Be quiet, Cathy," Nonye ordered through clenched teeth and lowered her head so they wouldn't notice her as they left. Cathy stared at Jordan and Trish and looked back at Nonye who had bowed her head.

"Are they gone?"

"Yeah. You know, they wouldn't have heard me from all this noise."

"I'm sorry. Let's go."

Startled by the apology, Cathy followed Nonye out of the Theatre. Nonye walked tensely and looked around her for signs of the couple. When she heard Jordan call, "Felicia!" she pulled Cathy's hand and hurried into a crowd of students. She couldn't dare to look back. She knew what she would see, Jordan's disarming smile and Trish's sarcastic stare.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cathy asked when they were on the road to Hilltop.

"No," was the harsh plea.

Cathy thought for a while. Then she said, "Tall guys are turnoffs these days. Have you seen spaghetti running in the cartoons? That's what they look like." Cathy laughed but Nonye kept a straight face. It hurt Cathy.

"Can you let go of my hand now? I'm not a kid, and your grip hurts," Cathy asked as they ascended the stairs. Nonye ignored her and walked her to her room door. "Go inside and lock the door," Nonye ordered coldly. Cathy frowned as she unlocked her door and told Nonye good night before closing the door. Then Nonye sighed deeply and began her journey to Balewa.

Things stayed cold between her and Cathy. It worried her but helped her return her focus to Area '61. Her deadline was approaching quickly. Halfheartedly, she went through her facts and tried to compile her feature. Then Cathy's message popped up on her screen and she smiled. It said, "Come with me to the engineering faculty bonfire."

"What is this girl? Crazy?" Nonye fumed and sent her response, "Bonfires are not worth it. They're evil opportunities for students to get high and be immoral."

"That's not what I saw on Netflix."

Nonye slapped her forehead and imagined pinching Cathy's elbow. "I'm not going," she sent finally.

"Fine. But I'm going. And don't try to talk me out of it. You're not my mother."

Nonye wondered what Mrs Lotanna thought about not sparing a rod on her stubborn child. She sighed as she looked at her unfinished feature. Then she hissed and put it aside.

"Someone has to put that child on house arrest," Nonye fumed when Cathy ignored her seventh warning message. The bonfire was minutes away and Cathy had posted, "Old enough to go for a bonfire. Yay, 17!"

Vexedly, Nonye put on a jacket over her clothes and scented it with her oil perfume. As she did so, Cathy posted again, "Leaving in three minutes..."

Nonye put on her sandals and checked the next post, "Hilltop gate is so narrow."

"Where are you going? Night class?" Chisom asked.

"No. I have to see... My friend."

"Cathy? Isn't it too late for that?"

"It's just seven."

"Will you be back today?"

 Nonye opened the door, said "Hopefully," and closed it behind her. She skipped downstairs and was just in time to see Cathy and a group of coursemates walking past Okpara and towards the Library. Cathy was in the middle of the group. She was wearing a pink top and black jeans. Her mouth was not smiling as she alternated between focusing on the girls and her phone.

Nonye reconsidered hollering Cathy's name and decided to follow instead. Mrs Lotanna might have entrusted Cathy to her care but Cathy was still a grown young woman capable and free to make her own choices. Nonye respected that, but still went out of her way to keep Cathy safe. Or to help herself worry less.

Nonye was glad when the group parted ways at the Library roundabout. It was startling though how the group went towards the faculty of engineering while Cathy increased her pace towards the faculty of art. Nonye went after her curiously. She noticed how Cathy walked without looking back and knew that Cathy was aware she was being stalked. Nonye struggled to keep up without calling out to Cathy. She wondered how Cathy managed not to stumble despite the ever decreasing light of dusk. More than once, Nonye stepped on sticks and stones that made her trip. Still, she didn't stop. She followed. At a point, she doubted Cathy had seen her. Cathy seemed so intent scaling the length of bitumen that kept her from the twin FASA buildings.

Nonye stopped when she glimpsed the girl in pink stop. Cathy was staring at the two buildings. Nonye guessed she was recalling the names they had given the buildings on their happy return from their jog at stadium; Fasie and Fasella. It had been Cathy's idea and she had promised to preserve the legend for freshers to come. Nonye smiled as she recalled how heartily they had laughed. Then she closed the distance between her and Cathy who had begun to walk slowly.

Cathy took the road that led to stadium and went towards Music department. Nonye grew suspicious. Just what was this little thing up to? Nonye tiptoed after Cathy. Cathy walked with her arms folded. She seemed so ignorant of any stalker, so consumed by her mission.

"Area 61?" a quiet voice suggested in Nonye's brain. Nonye humphed at how ridiculous it sounded. With her deep-seated curiosity though, more thoughts wafted in. Cathy had approached her. And Cathy had once said that she had seen Nonye a lot at FASA quadrangle. Could it be that she had been monitored, approached, enticed and now lured? Cathy had been too nice to her. It made no sense how they had grown to trust each other so closely and visit each other so often. Had Nonye been taken advantage of again? Was this one doomed to end with her being murdered and found in a ditch at the back of a hostel?

Her thoughts ran wild. Still, she followed the beckoning steps of danger. She stopped when Cathy looked around, but not behind herself. Then she stepped into the music quadrangle. Nonye watched as she turned her back to her and stared at the starry sky above. She seemed expectant. Nonye's brows shot up at the thought of witnessing a rendezvous in music quadrangle. Her stomach twisted suddenly when she heard a scream and Cathy disappeared from sight. She froze with fear and realized herself when Cathy screamed again. Then she ran towards the quadrangle with only Cathy in mind. She grabbed a stone (she was surprised how she found it when she cross-examined that moment) and faced the terror. She found only Cathy squatting and screaming with a bemused expression on her face. Nonye stayed frozen in her warrior stance and stared at Cathy. Very slowly, it dawned on her that she had been set up. Gradually, the look of relief turned to one of anger.

"Got ya," Cathy giggled. She dared not laugh; Nonye was still armed.

"Are you silly?" Nonye seethed.

"I'm sorry. I just thought if I staged a cult ambush, you'd have something for your feature. I wanted to hire real cultists but... They either don't exist or are really hidden."

"What?" Nonye asked breathless from trying to make sense of Cathy's words.

"I know how important the feature is to you. I also knew you'd follow me. So, I did this. For your feature. You can change my name to Castella and say my body was never found. They don't need to know it's fictious," Cathy explained with lots of gestures.

"Cathy," Nonye called and took a step closer. "You..."

A hooting sound broke out all around them. Reflexively, they squatted and grew stone silent. There was something eerie and bone chilling about the shrill hooting. It broke out again. Slow and deep chants soon followed it. The chants were incomprehensible. Nonye noiselessly inched closer to the wall of the quadrangle and slowly raised her head over it to see what was hidden behind it. Cathy did same. Besides her pitched breathing, she was as silent as silence.

What did they see? Two shadows hauling another shadow that could scarcely bear its own weight. Roughly, the two shadows dropped their burden and left. The girls trained their eyes on the lifeless figure on the ground. Nonye was already imagining the news headline that would be broken in every UNN news outlet, "Student found dead at music quadrangle."

"Nonye, what should we do?" Nonye heard Cathy ask in the tiniest whisper. She was surprised her ears had picked the sound of Cathy. Nonye was spared the effort of copying the whisper when the shrill chants broke into the night again. The sound echoed round the open field and began to grow louder slowly.

"They're coming," Cathy panicked and began to tremble. Nonye held her hand and kept her eyes peeled for the approaching figures. It was five shadows this time. Four formed a semicircle around the body and the fifth roamed round the body. It stopped suddenly and began to yell guttural sounds which the other four answered. Nonye tried to make out what language they were communicating in. She was convinced it was a cult when the fifth made what was obviously incantations and the four chanters chanted a powerful Igbo cult song.

"It's not Area '61 but... Music quadrangle?" Nonye thought with dreadful ecstasy.

"Iloaku!" the leader screamed suddenly and Cathy's hand felt sweaty to Nonye's grip. "Iloaku! What enemy has done this to you? I hear your soul groaning. Cry out for justice. Cry, Iloaku! Your brothers will avenge your cries."

"Aa...!" Nonye slapped her hand on Cathy's mouth and killed a scream as the body on the ground began to groan loudly. The two girls watched on in silent terror.

"Iloaku. Tell us. Who did this to you? Was it our enemies? Have they avenged the blood of their leader with yours? Speak, that we may avenge you."

"A rival cult group? That means there are two?" Nonye thought and nearly passed out with joy and fear and glee. Quietly, she pulled out her phone and proceeded to record the silhouettes.

"Iloaku, speak! Speak, for our blood boils. The cycle of death will continue until..."

"Fools!" the body shouted and sat up. Cathy clung to Nonye shuddering but the two couldn't stop watching the occultic scene. "Fools," the body said again in a voice that sounded like it was from the world beyond.

"Can you not see? No more deaths! The land is disgusted by the blood we feed it."

"But Iloaku..."

"The living. The living! Watch over them. Those that still draw the breath of life into their lungs. Those that still have time to right our wrongs. Those that know not the pang of death! Watch over them, and leave the dead to avenge their death!"

Cathy sighed in admiration. So did Nonye. It sounded beautiful, almost too poetic for a talking corpse. What's more, the fear in the air was declining. The chanters had stopped. The leader was staring at the sitting corpse. He seemed to be struggling for words. Then someone yelled, "Cut!"

"Huh?" went Cathy.

"Matthew, didn't I tell you to master your script?" It came from a shadow wearing a face cap and a bag pack. He shone his phone's torch at the actors and revealed them to be just students dressed in costumes. One of the chanters was a girl with her ear pod on.

"Whaaat?" Nonye dragged and a look of disappointment crawled onto her face.

"Guy, I did. It's just that..." the cult leader began to explain.

"Just what? We've done this same rehearsal five times because of you," the talking corpse nagged and hissed. He jumped up when the leader aimed a kick at him.

"O-o-oh! Can we just go already? BBN will be playing by 8," the girl complained and stomped her foot impatiently.

"Alright. Let's call it a night, guys." The director's order was greeted with cheers and the students chattered and laughed as they strolled towards the Theatre and Film Studies auditorium.

"Really?" Nonye yelled as Cathy giggled and sat on the wall of the quadrangle. "I actually thought I was on to something," Nonye moaned.

"Well, you were. And, you just found the dreaded secret cult of the den. Hurray for Nonye Holmes!" Cathy cheered and clapped. Nonye couldn't help smiling. She pocketed her phone, held Cathy's shoulder and shook her.

"Hey!"

"That's for scaring me."

"I didn't..." Cathy was cut short by Nonye's sudden embrace.

"That," explained Nonye, "is for helping me find Area '61, even though it's not Area :61. How am I sure you didn't plan all this?"

"I'm glad you figured it out," Cathy said poshly and blew at her nails.

"Yeah, right. You were as scared as a chicken when the body talked."

"No, I wasn't," Cathy retorted sharply.

"Let's go, before we find a real cult," Nonye said and left the quadrangle.

"Um, we are going to my place, right?" Cathy asked quietly. Nonye laughed and took Cathy's hand in hers. Then they journied the dark and silent road home.

"I missed you, Papa!" Cathy squealed as she jumped on her bed and cuddled her teddy. Nonye took her last slurp of spaghetti and dropped the plate. "Scaredy cat," she teased Cathy as a way of appreciating her for the meal. Cathy didn't answer. She was shuddering and muttering prayers. Her nerves must have been hit badly. If the cult hadn't turned out to be a TFS rehearsal, Nonye was sure Cathy would believe any legend Nonye made up.

"So there's no Area '61 then," Nonye muttered and felt disappointed. She has told herself that she would prove them wrong, all the doubters that thought she was silly. Area '61 would be her legacy. Above that, she had hoped to honour Favour's memory and all the departed students of the den with her Area '61 feature. She had planned it all. She only needed a real cult in the den to materialize that. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there was none. She could make do without one but she had fixed her mind on finding one so much she didn't know how to alternate.

Nonye watched the video she had recorded. It was thrilling to think she had taken it a few minutes ago. She played back her favourite part; the admonition of the talking corpse. His words pulled a string in her and made her feel invigorated. It was like a message, the same message Edna, the hall governor of Bello had given her. The dead were gone. Nothing we did could bring them back but we have the chance to stop more events of death. Even if we're incapacitated as just students, we still have a huge role to play. We can care for our fellow students, check up on them, have their backs. Then we wouldn't need hashtags of justice or candlelight nights. That way, we honour the memories of the dead and care for the living.

"The living," Nonye whispered and sighed at the memory of Favour's warm embrace. She looked at Cathy, the naive little thing that had walked into her life and made her feel her pain less. The penguin that had trusted her foolishly and taught her to trust in humanity again. Cathy, the ray of sunshine in her dark world.

"Sleep well, pretty little thing," Nonye whispered and pulled the blanket over Cathy's shoulder. Then she ensured the door was locked, turned off the lights and climbed onto the bed. She thought of writing but Cathy turned in her sleep and reached for something to cuddle. She caught and held on to Nonye's arm. Nonye groaned and dropped her phone. Then she smiled at Cathy and closed her eyes.

To be continued.

Well, it was a cult after all. A cult of actors 🤭

Thank you for reading so far. Did we learn a lesson from our fave characters? I did, and I hope you did too.