The news of Bertha's crazy behaviour spread around school like wild fire and she wasn't the only centre of attention. I was too. It was terrible because I was one who didn't like attention. The thing that bothered me a lot was how the news got to school so quickly when there was no other pupil at the clinic apart from Bertha and I. I had just come back from the clinic for lunch and I met some excited pupils on my way to get my plate in the dorm. I wondered what they were all excited about and why they were looking at me. I might have seen one or two pointing their fingers at me. I then saw Christine and Amanda who already had their plates standing by the corridor of the dining hall. I noticed Christine holding my plate. She was my bunk mate and knew where I kept it anyway.
"Diana, Diana!" Amanda and Christine both called out when they saw me. I went over to them.
"May I ask why you two look just as excited as everyone else around here?" I asked when I got to them.
"You have a lot to tell us," said Christine excitedly as she took me by the arm and dragged me with her and Amanda to the taps to wash our hands behind the dining hall.
"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked while we washed our hands. They didn't answer my question even as we got inside the dining hall.
There was noise as usual when we came in since people were just settling down and some were having a quick chat before prayer. But I noticed the dining hall quiet down a bit when I walked in. I saw, not a few, but many eyes on me as I went to the table Christine, Amanda and I always ate our meals from.
"Diana, sit," said Christine as she sat down on the bench, Amanda sitting on her other side.
I took a look around as I slowly sat on the bench. I didn't like the feeling of everyone looking at me like I had done something wrong. I was close to the edge of my table and I looked over to the next. A lot of people's eyes were on me, some shyly looking away when I caught them looking.
Noise started to build up in the dining hall and I felt a bit of relief. But there were still eyes on me coming from all angles.
"May I ask," I said to Christine, "why are people looking at me all of the sudden? Did something happen?"
"Why are you asking us?" she asked. "We're supposed to be asking you."
"Asking me about what?" I shrugged my shoulders.
"We heard about what happened to you and Bertha at the clinic," said Amanda.
"Wait, how did you guys know about that?"
"Does that even matter?" Christine asked excitedly. "We heard you two got into some kind of fight and you had to stick a syringe in her neck so that she could calm down."
"Oh." It seems like the person who had spread the news had highlighted some of the relevant details. Only what everyone was supposed to know anyway.
"Tell us," said Amanda. "I heard you put up a good fight. Give us some details."
I looked across the table and I noticed some of our table mates look at me quietly so as to get the story straight from my mouth. This was getting ridiculous.
"Look, we fought but it wasn't serious," I said as I stared at my empty plate in front of me. "It was no big deal. You know how sick she is."
"Umm, I also heard that there was lightening that struck a tree by the clinic and you were outside when it happened," said a girl named Kasonde, a grade eight pupil who sat across from me at the table.
I looked at her, surprised. I totally forgot that that had even happened.
"Um, yes, unfortunately I was," I said.
"For real?" Christine asked as she gasped. "How did you survive? I heard it struck three times around the clinic."
Goodness! Where did people get all the info from? It was surprising when only the local residents of the community outside school, the nurses and the doctors could be possible witnesses to the whole thing. That's if some were looking out of the window and had seen the lightening incident.
Before I could say anything, one of the prefects on duty stood in the middle of the dining hall and got everyone's attention by telling us all to quiet down. After the noise had died, she randomly picked a girl from one of the tables and told her to give a prayer before we had our meal.
After the prayer was said, noise started to build up again as the servers, two from each table, had to go into the kitchen and bring out the trays of food for their table mates. Today was a Monday so we were probably going to have beans and cabbage with nshima, our Zambian staple food. Nshima is basically a very thick porridge made from finely ground corn meal, called mealie meal. It is served in lumps and we eat it with our hands, that is after washing them. To eat it, you break off a bit of the lump and kneed it in the palm of your hand until it becomes a ball. Then you can eat it along with the relishes you have served. In our case, it was beans and cabbage.
The two servers from our table came with three metal serving trays that had our food and placed them on the middle of the table. The servers always had to serve us because if we were to serve ourselves, we might just get more and others might get less.
After the beans and cabbages were each served on our plates, we took our lumps of nshima and placed it onto our plates. I stared at the cabbage and I couldn't help but frown at it. The cooks usually cut large pieces of it and I didn't like that. Most of the time, I would eat little of the cabbage, at times, I wouldn't eat it at all.
"So, Diana?" asked one of the servers who sat on the other side of the table named Mulenga. "Aren't you going to tell us the whole story or what?"
"It's rude to talk with a full mouth," I said as I looked at her.
"Your mouth isn't full," said Christine.
I took a small lump of nshima, quickly kneaded it into a golf ball, dipped it into the beans and got a large cut piece of cabbage onto it, then put it all in my mouth. I looked at everyone else at the table.
"It is now," I said with food in my mouth.
My table mates didn't bother to ask any more, getting my message loud and clear as they went on to eat their lunch. Unlike other tables in the dining hall, ours was quiet. It was good to observe table manners once in a while.
I made sure to finish my meal before anyone else at my table and I told Amanda and Christine that they would find me in the dorm. After my little drama at the clinic, I needed to lay down for a bit before the siren for the afternoon session wailed.
I could feel almost everyone's eyes on me as I made my out of the dining hall. It was annoying. If their piercing gazes were needles, the pain would obviously be excruciating.
After washing my hands and plate at the taps, I made the quiet, peaceful way back to the dormitory area. It looked like almost everyone else was in the hall. It felt good to have some quiet. Despite the little fight I had with Bertha back at the clinic, I had to stay and watch over her just to make sure she was good and stable before coming for lunch. It was tiring of course and now, I was the gossip of the whole school. That added on to my fatigue.
I soon reached the Dolores dorm and I was glad to find the place empty. I went straight for my down bunk. It kind of felt good to finally be on my bed, as it felt like I hadn't been on it in a long time. Of all the things I liked around school apart from having the chance to write whenever I wanted to, it was my bed. It felt so good to rest when you have had a rough day. And what a better way to ease your stress than a comfy bed.
As I laid my head on my pillow, I could feel how heavy my head was and I hadn't realised it till this point. I was tired for sure and as I lay the rest of my body unto the bed, I could feel myself slowly feel at ease.
Somehow, I couldn't stop thinking about what happened today. First of all, the lightening which almost killed me if I hadn't gotten inside the clinic. And secondly, Bertha. Something strange was going on that I couldn't understand. The lightening at the clinic was no mere coincidence. Well, at least it felt that way. I'm not one who liked to acknowledge the supernatural forces, apart from God's divine intervention, but I had to admit, what had happened today definitely involved the supernatural. Someone was trying to avoid me from getting in the clinic to Bertha when I tried to go back inside. And then, there was the lightening which was coming straight for me. The nurses who had seen me enter the clinic after the lightening struck, said they had seen no one try to push the door closed. Which was weird.
Now, coming to Bertha, it was a whole other story. Didn't anyone in the ward notice her change in appearance? Well, the doctor and the nurses didn't seem concerned, or maybe it was because I was the only one who could see it. And as for Bertha's aggressive behaviour, something kept telling me that it wasn't her. It felt like I was staring at a whole different person today. People say she acts crazy when she's ill. But what if they were wrong and what was making Bertha act like that was some kind of demon or something?
While my mind kept swirling with all of these questions, my eyelids became heavier with each second that passed. I could feel the heavy weight in my head slowly become lighter. I didn't know what I was thinking of next as I felt like I was drifting off in the clouds. I could hear footsteps and a couple of voices, but it all felt like I was hearing it from a distance. I tried to keep my eyes open but I couldn't. Darkness was closing in on me and it felt comforting. I soon heard voices that were audible but slowly fading.
"Looks like she's asleep. Do we wake her up?"
"No, she's tired. She still has time to rest."
And that was the last thing I heard before I finally drifted off to sleep.
"DIANA!"
My heart skipped a beat as my eyes flew open upon the sound of someone calling my name. I quickly sat up on my bed as I held my chest. I was scared. I took in deep breaths as I felt my head start to spin. The heaviness I had experienced earlier had come back and this time, my head seemed to be pounding.
I looked around the dorm. I noticed that there was no one around. Something didn't feel right, though. The place to me felt different.
I dropped my feet from the bed to the floor and I slowly stood up. I looked around the floor for my school shoes which I had removed earlier but there was no sign of them near my bed. That was weird, I put them right where I had left them and now they were gone.
I quickly went round my bunk bed to check if maybe I might have slipped them off my feet from the other side. But they weren't there either. Great! I know boarding schools have a reputation for pupils stealing things from others, but who could steal school shoes, like, seriously? Or was this some kind of prank?
I looked around the dorm. The place was quiet. It was as if everyone had gone back to class for the afternoon session. Could it be that I had over slept? If that was the case, I would have been woken up by a prefect because they always go round to check if there was anyone left in the dormitories. And whoever had called out my name was no prefect for I would have seen one standing by my bed. Was I just imagining things? I didn't have time to think of it as I looked around for my shoes.
I knelt down on the floor to try and check under the bunk bed. Maybe Christine must have slipped them under it. As I looked, I noticed that there was nothing but thick dust and a lot of dirt. That was strange. We just had general cleaning on the weekend and we always swept under our bunk beds. How could the floor gather so much dirt like the place hadn't been swept in ages?
I stood up from the floor and I shook off the dirt that had gathered on my knees with my hand. The place was really dirty. Usually, those assigned to clean the dorm always swept the place almost three times a day. In the morning, after lunch and sometime in the evening. If the place was ever dirty, the prefects would have them punished. So it was pretty rare to find the place dirty all the time. So why was it dirty now?
It was then that when I looked around more carefully that I realised that the feeling I had woken up with that something was wrong with the place was actually true. This place was my dorm, but it wasn't entirely.
I looked around and I noticed that there were worn out mattresses on the bunk beds. I stared at the mattress on my bed and it was completely worn out too. Just like the rest, it had gathered dust. Other beds had no mattresses at all. Most of the mattresses had been eaten up by rats because of the many holes in them. The wood on most of the bunk beds had been eaten up by termites and some looked worn out. I noticed huge spider webs. Some connected from the bunk beds onto the wall and up the roof. Our roofs never had ceilings. I looked at the roof and it was full of spider webs covering up the planks. It was like a huge clutter of spiders lived up there. Creepy.
In my white stockings that had soon gathered dirt from the floor, I slowly walked down the aisle with bunk beds on each side of the room. It was like no one had been here in ages. The paint on the wall looked completely stained with dirt and in some areas, there were cracks on the walls. The windows were also stained with dirt that the light that came in from outside lighted the room in an oddly orange dirt colour.
As I continued to look around while heading towards the door, I noticed an old worn out black exercise book on one of the down bunk beds. I went over to get it and I coughed upon lifting the book as dust from it fell in all directions. I shook the book to remove the remaining dust, also hoping that no dead creature would fall out of it. Luckily, all that fell out was dust. I turned the book to the front cover to see who it was for, but there was no name. The ink seemed to have faded due to time that I couldn't even make out a name from the imprint left by the pen. I went on to open the book.
The pages on the book seemed to have yellowed up a bit on the edges due to the dust and the pages felt crisp and hard in my fingers. I noticed that it was an English book. I continued to scroll through the book until I reached where the person had last wrote. I looked at the date. It dated to the year 2010 in the month of October. Weird. It was March. How could we already be in October? I went back through the pages, hoping to see some mistake. But the dates and months were all arranged in chronological order till October. But how could I pass through all these months and finally be in October? Was I really in October or was I way past it already?
"DIANA!"
I dropped the book on the floor upon hearing the sound of someone calling out my name. My heart had skipped a beat there. The voice sounded more like a whisper. I looked around the room. There was still no one around.
"Hello?" I called out bending over a bit by a nearby bunk bed to see if maybe I might have missed someone sitting on any of the down bunks.
"Diana," came the voice again. This time it seemed more calmer than before. The voice echoed around the room. Where was it coming from?
I went back in the aisle carefully looking around. I was just about to turn around to head towards the door when I almost bumped into someone. I grew frightened because I hadn't heard anyone enter the dorm and the person standing there caught me off guard. I backed away a little, my heart skipping a beat.
"I'm so....," before I could apologise, I stopped myself as I noticed that the person wore a black heavy cloak with a pointed hood over their head.
My eyes grew wide with fear as the first thing that came to mind, was to run even when there was no where to go and the person in the hood blocked my way to the door. I was just about to turn, when I felt stuck. I couldn't move. I felt my whole body grow stiff in my limbs and soon in my neck. What was happening to me?
At least my eyes could move while the rest of me was as stiff as a statue. I couldn't even feel my lips when I tried to scream. At least I knew my brain was working because it knew how scared I was and so did my heart as I continued to feel it pump faster than ever before. I was still breathing but it was faster and heavier. I looked at the person in front of me and for a moment, I thought Death had found me again. But something told me that the person wasn't who I thought it was despite the cloak and hood which almost seemed similar to Death's.
I continued to look at the hood hoping to see who was under it but it felt like I was staring at nothing but darkness. I tried to talk but I still couldn't move my lips.
"I suggest you don't try to talk, Diana," came a woman's voice from under the hood.
I felt myself calm down by the sound of her voice. I was just thankful it wasn't Death under that hood or else I wasn't going to wake up from my sleep this time around.
"I'm glad you're here," the woman continued to speak. "I'm sorry I had to do this to you, but I had to. If you had wandered off, you would have gotten lost in your dreams and it would be difficult to get you back."
What did she mean? Was all this a dream? My dream? And how could I ever get lost in my own dreams? They were my dreams and not anyone else's.
"I know you have a lot of questions. But we have so little time and I'm lucky to have found you here. I've been waiting for you, Diana."
I would have raised an eyebrow at her, but here I was like a statue.
I looked on as the woman still with her head under her hood looked around the place and soon she noticed the book that I had dropped onto the floor. She bent over to pick it up with her hands. She wore black gloves. She went through it till the last page.
"Ah, I see, you've gone way into the future," she said.
What? Into the future? How can I be dreaming of the future?
I could tell the woman was looking at me as she turned her head towards me. I still couldn't see her face under the hood but I could tell she was reading my mind. Even with my mouth shut, I still had a loud mind.
"We sometimes dream of the future even when a lot of us don't realise it. A lot of us dream of the present, like what might had happened before we slept. A lot of us usually ignore our dreams. Some forget what they dream about. Most people don't take dreams into consideration unless it's a good dream or they dream of a family member dying or themselves. Others are unfortunate never to wake from their sleep." She paused as she came closer to me. "Am I right, Diana?"
Well, if she had unfroze me, I would have gladly answered her question. But I made sure my thoughts weren't very loud on that part. I just wanted to know what she doing here in my dreams.
"I don't mean to intrude," she continued as she closed the book in her hands. "The last thing you need right now is someone invading your dreams almost looking like Death. I just came to inform you in this particular dream that something bad is about to happen. And if you don't do something about it soon, this place will end up just like you're seeing it right now in the future."
My eyes looked around. It seemed like the school management had abandoned the place for a really long time for it to look like a total wreck. But what could have happened for this place to turn into a non human habitat?
"I don't have much time and I know you've a lot of questions. I would have come to any other person for help, but I came to you instead. I've realised that you're special. You met Death but survived, with reasons even I can't understand. And you've developed a lot of abilities uncommon to humans, like your strength and speed. And now, you're able to see things that not everyone else would."
Wait, was she referring to Bertha? The woman quickly read my mind and nodded her head.
"Bertha's demon is just the beginning. You have to figure out what's really going on or else, you're not the only one who's going to suffer from the evil wrath that will befall on this school. And it might spread far and wide."
This wasn't good news. If Bertha's demon was just the beginning, then there was a lot going on that many of us in school didn't know about.
"You're about to wake up and I don't have much time." I felt her slip something into my hand that I couldn't see but it felt a lot like paper. "I really need your help on this one, Diana. But when you feel there is anything you need, find what's on the piece of paper. In that way, I'll be able to communicate with you. Remember, you don't have much time. The sooner the threat is stopped, the better."
The woman soon turned around to leave. I tried to shout out to her but then I remembered that I couldn't move. I had so many questions to ask her, like who she was and why she came to me. And how did she know about Death and I? I saw her walk out of the door and then suddenly, the door disappeared. I looked around and I saw the whole place slowly being eaten up by darkness. It was moving in like a virus eating up everything in it's way. And it was coming for me. It closed in and I didn't try to fight it as I was soon swallowed whole.
"Diana, wake up!"
My eyes flew open and I soon found myself sitting up on my bed. I held my head as I felt it pounding like crazy. Goodness, what was happening to me?
"It's time to go back to class," said Christine who was standing by the bunk bed. "You should hurry. You don't want to get punished."
I dropped my feet to the floor. I was glad to find my shoes right where I had left them.
"It looks like you really need a lot of sleep," said Christine as I wore my shoes.
"A lot," I said as I stood up from my bed, my head still pounding. "I need to wash my face before we go to class."
I took a good look around the dorm and I was glad to be back in the real world. Or I can say, the present. There were a few people in the dorm, some of them on their bunk beds chatting with their neighbours from across. Others were also getting ready to head out for class. The place was normal like it should be. When I remembered my dream of the future, I felt my body shudder a little. I looked up at the ceiling as a remembered the spider webs.
"Okay, let's go, then," said Christine.
"Wait," I said as I remembered something and I bent over to check my bed. The woman in my dreams had left something in my hand. Could it possibly have come back with me?
There was no sign of it as I straightened the bed covers while looking for it. I then went for my pillow and I found a neatly folded piece of paper under it. I quickly took it in my hands then put the pillow back in its place.
"Let's go," I said after I straightened up.
Christine led the way as we found ourselves in the aisle heading out of the dorm. We found Amanda by her bunk bed, waiting for us.
"Did you get enough sleep?" Amanda asked me.
"No," I answered. "Now I can't wait to go home. School is really killing me at the moment."
"Same here," said Christine. "So are you going to tell us what happened at the clinic?"
I gave her a look and said, "no."
I held her shoulders and turned her around so as that we could continue heading out. Just as I was about to take a step forward, it dawned on me that the book I had found in my dream was on the bunk bed closer to Amanda's. I turned to look at that particular bed and it was then that I realised who slept there.
"Hey, Diana," said Chisha who was our class monitor and also the owner of the down bunk bed where I had found the book.
At first I hesitated as I thought of what to say next apart from blurting out that something bad was going to happen to this place.
"Hi," I said quickly. "I'll see you in class."
"Sure," she said with a smile.
I joined Amanda and Christine who were at the door waiting for me. I couldn't quite believe the little revelation I had just encountered and it took a little time for it to sink in. Why did I feel that Chisha might have a connection in all this? Wasn't the book just there as a coincidence for me to know how far I was into the future? Why was I asking myself all these questions?
"Hey, are you okay?" Amanda asked, bringing me back from my thoughts.
"Mmmm," I nodded my head.
"I bet she's thinking of how to tell us what happened," said Christine with a silly grin on her face.
"Not in a million years," I said as I walked out through the door before them.
"You will eventually," Christine said as she and Amanda followed behind me.
I headed for the ablution to have my face washed while my two friends waited outside. As I found myself by the washing basin, I unfolded the piece of paper that I had in my hand. I expected to find words written on it, but instead, I found a drawing. I checked the back of the paper to maybe find some sort of instructions or something useful, but nothing. There was just a drawing of a purple butterfly enclosed in a black thick circle. Horizontal and vertical lines cut across the butterfly in the circle dividing it in four parts. I wondered if I had seen this symbol somewhere, but nothing came to mind. How was I going to find this symbol anywhere? This was just getting complicated.
I folded the paper and placed it in the pocket of my uniform dress. I quickly washed my face and I didn't mind drying up as I knew the water would evaporate when on my way to class under the sun.
I left the ablution and found Christine and Amanda talking. Just as we were about to head out of the dorm area, Chisha appeared before us with a group of her friends from the doorway that lead to the dorms. They were heading for the small gate that led us out of the dorm area.
Chisha noticed the three of us as she looked behind her. I couldn't help but feel goosebumps as soon as she turned away. Something in my head was buzzing like a warning sign. What was going on with me?
"Come on, Diana," said Christine as we walked out of the small gate. "Aren't you going to tell us?"
I could tell Christine was really desperate for a juicy story. It was good she and Amanda were here. I was thinking too much and I needed a distraction. All I did was smile at her.
"I'll tell you," I said. "But tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? I can't wait for that long."
"Deal with it then," I smirked.
"You're so unfair, Diana," said Amanda.
I smiled at Amanda. Life wasn't fair either. I had a huge mystery to solve and something told me that my life was on the line, again.
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