*The Grave Robbers* ( *Episode 1- 2*)
*Episode 1*
*Written by Charles N Okere*
An angry old man, accompanied by some mean-looking men, walked up to the door of an apartment and furiously banged on it. The occupant of the apartment angrily opened the door, intending to slap whoever it was.
But he froze when he saw the old man and the mean-looking men. He didn't need to be told what brought these august visitors to his doorstep that morning. He immediately put on a smile and greeted...
"Ha, oga landlord good morning o. This one you came to my house with these men, am I save,I hope all is well?
"Look wizzy, wisdom or whatever you are being called, you can never be saved and all can never be well with you. Since you have decided not to pay your 10 months house rent.
"Haba,oga landlord why are you talking like this nah? If I had the money to pay I would have paid a long time ago. But you the see current situation of the country and. ..
"And how's that my business Kwan? Look I don tire for all these stories, at least I have tried. I have been patient enough. It's either you pay now or wave my appatment. After all, there are a lot of people waiting to hire this apartment and here you're telling me lazy man stories. What am I even saying, you're a true definition of a lazy man and a wasted youth.
"Ha, Abeg oga landlord e never reach to dey insult me nah. Which one come be wasted youth. Is it because am owing you common 10 months house rent that you're calling me names?
"Oh you are calling 10 months rent common right?
"Oga landlord is not like that, I am sorry. But you call me lazy and wasted.
"See oh, are you not lazy and wasted? In short I don't even know why I am waiting my time having this conversation with you. Boys go in there and bring out everything in there.
The thugs were about to do as instructed, but wisdom prevent them and went down on his knees.
"Okay, oga landlord am sorry. I agreed am lazy and wasted. But please don't throw me out on the street, just give me a Grace of one month and I promise to pay all that I am owing you.
The landlord looked at him in disbelief and answered.
"Wisdom this is exactly what you said few months back and you never fulfilled it. I can't be deceived or fooled by you again. Today you must leave my house. So someone serious can take it. Boys what are you waiting for, go in there and bring out all his belongings.
"Ha, oga landlord, please don't do this to me, please I beg you. Okay Please give me two weeks and I will pay you everything.
The landlord stares at him thoughtfully, heave a sigh and ordered his boys to stop.
"I must confess you've a kind-hearted guardian angel. Because I don't know why I keep accepting this useless excuse from you. If you fail to fulfill your promise, I will not only chase you out,I will flush you out of my house.
After the left (the landlord abd his boys) he stood up to his feet and dusted himself off.
,"Nawa o, see the way this yeye landlord won take disgrace me. Kai landlord if na my village people send you to shame me, just go back and tell Dem say you no see me. In short tell Dem I pass them. But e no go better for all the witches and wizards for my village.
Chai, how I go take get #250k to pay within a space of two weeks.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice his friend Solomon's presence. Solomon stared at him in silence for a while, then tapped him on the shoulder.
Wisdom shivered in surprise, staring at Solomon with his mouth open. "How long have you been standing here?" Wisdom asked.
"Two minutes and some seconds, I guess," Solomon responded.
Wisdom heaved a sigh and ushered him into his apartment. Solomon sat down on one of the sofas in the sitting room, while Wisdom sat on another next to him."
"Guy wetin happen,this one way you keep your face like person way give Mami water belle? Solomon asked.
"Solo If na that One, e even better pass wetin I dey go through now.
"Haba wetin come be that one na? Guy talk to your gee tell me what's up.
Wisdom sighed and responded.
" My landlord came here early today with some mean looking thugs to throw me out of his house.
"Haba, why em go throw you out, shey you be Dustbin to throw you out?
"Solo, be serious, am not joking.
"Am sorry, my bad. Please continue.
"As you know I am owing him 9 months rent,which I have been promising to pay. But couldn't. So I asked him to give me a grace of one month which he refused. Then I pleaded with him to give me two weeks grace which he accepted. The challenge now is that I don't know how to settle it.
"So na because of this small thing dey make you keep your face like rejected offering. Guy abeg shift, I get update way big pass that one.
"I no blame you Sha, I blame my village people for giving me a clown as a friend. So which update big pass the one way dey on ground.
"Guy relax, your body too dey pepper you. I saw Desmond our classmate back then in secondary school.
Wisdom thinking and trying to create an imaginary picture of Desmond.
"The name sounds familiar, but I am still trying to remember the face.
"Wizzy, so you don forget Desmond, that boy way we nickname "black man devil" because him back pass charcoal.
"Oh, oh, Desmond very black boy, now I remember. So where did you see him?
I met him at the fuel station yesterday evening. Desmond is now a millionaire, or rather, more than a millionaire. He has his own personal bodyguards and moves in convoys. He owns the latest G-Wagons and Rolls-Royce models, including the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G50, G63, and G580, as well as the Rolls-Royce Phantom EV and electric SUV. When I say "latest," I mean the most current models. He gave me his contact information and asked to meet this weekend to catch up on old times. He also gave me ₦200,000 for transportation.
Wisdom looked at Solomon with great surprise in his eyes, unable to believe what he had just heard about Desmond. For a moment, he was speechless, feeling dumbfounded.
"Do you mean Desmond, the dullest boy in class, or is it another Desmond?" Wisdom asked, his mouth agape.
"Guy why you dey do like moi-moi nah, how many Desmond we get for our class, in short how many Desmond we get back then for our set? Solomon asked
"Chai, nawa o this world no balance. Imagine Desmond Don blow, Desmond don make am big before us.
"Guy see this one way you dey talk no concern me, I no dey even reason am. The thing be say we go met am to show us the way this weekend. As for your house rent i go help you with 100k way you go take give your landlord.
"My main gee you too much, thank you and God bless you for me.
"Abeg no think say I dash you the money oh, I no be father Christmas to dey dash people money. All I know you go pay me back my money after Desmond show us the way.
"My gee that one no be problem, infact I go pay you double double.
Both friends laughed out loud and talked about some other pricing issues.
*EPISODE 2*
The night was thick with the weight of silence, yet Chinasa could not sleep. Not because of noise, but because her soul refused to rest. Sleep teased her with its edges but never embraced her fully. The image of that circle—the one not of friends but of black shadows and wicked grins—lingered like oil in her throat. She turned again on her bunk, her mattress groaning beneath her. The room was warm, the ceiling fan clicking as it fought uselessly against the heat. Still, her body would not obey the rhythm of rest. When she could take it no more, she climbed down quietly from her top bunk, her bare feet brushing the cold terrazzo floor. She walked slowly to the latrine with a small torch tucked into her palm, though she didn’t need it—she knew these halls in the dark.
In the toilet, she splashed water on her face, staring long into the mirror with trembling breath, as if searching for proof that she still existed. Her reflection looked distant, like it was watching her from somewhere far beneath the surface. And when she returned to her bed, curling in on herself like a folded prayer, her school mother stirred beneath her.
“Chinasa,” Senior Ngozi muttered from the bottom bunk, voice laced with sleep and concern. “You’re turning like you’re fighting something in your sleep. What's wrong with you ?”
“I’m fine senior,” Chinasa said too quickly, barely above a whisper. But she wasn’t fine. Her voice cracked on the lie. She turned her face to the wall, and her eyes blinked into the blackness, seeing not darkness but the memory of fire and blood and the masked woman in the red veil.
---
By morning, the light that crept through the louvers offered no comfort. It only exposed the bruises the night left behind. Chinasa’s eyes were heavy, red-rimmed from tears that refused to dry. She stood near the general bathroom with a resolve that stiffened her shoulders. Her face was set. When Betty appeared, flanked by her ever-smirking shadow Chommy, she tried to walk past quickly, pretending not to notice Chinasa’s haunted eyes. But Chinasa moved into her path.
“You did this to me,” she said quietly, her voice trembling but firm. “You put me in that circle. You brought me into this evil.”
Betty scoffed. “Abeg, Chinasa. Are you okay like this? What are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying!” Chinasa cried, drawing attention from a few girls rinsing their buckets by the tap. “You gave me to them. You lied to me!”
Betty looked back at Chommy, who folded her arms, then turned again with a shrug. “She’s mad. Don’t mind her.”
She walked off, hips swinging as if nothing had happened, while Chinasa stood there, fists clenched, the betrayal raw and choking like dust in her throat. Chommy and Asia pulled Betty close as they entered the dining hall, whispering, laughing. Chinasa followed, barely aware of her own feet.
She sat alone at a corner of the long wooden benches, a tray of untouched pap and akara in front of her. Her spoon remained still, her hands trembling faintly on the table. Her eyes were far away. Then a voice brought her back.
“Can I sit here?”
Victor.
He looked concerned. She didn’t answer. Just gave a slow nod. He sat beside her carefully, eyes scanning her face. “You’re not eating. Did something happen?”
“I don’t want to talk,” she murmured, barely looking at him.
Victor nodded, though his eyes remained on her. He was about to speak again when Chinasa froze completely, her body going rigid like wood. Her mouth parted slightly, and her eyes widened—not from anything around her, but from what she saw.
From somewhere deep within her chest, a pressure began to build—a pressure not of pain, but of release. And then it happened.
Her spirit tore free.
Victor gasped as he watched her body tremble, but Chinasa saw what no one else could—her own soul, like a shimmering silhouette, peeled out of her skin like vapor, formed into something feathered and monstrous—a dark owl with eyes that glowed like embers in the dusk.
The owl screeched and flew.
Screams erupted in the cafeteria. Girls ducked. Plates clattered. Someone shouted “Blood of Jesus!” as the enormous bird smashed through the hall’s upper window, feathers trailing behind it like a curse. The owl flew straight into the distance, its wings flapping with eerie grace toward the edge of the forest behind the school compound, where darkness was thickest and the soil remembered old oaths.
Chinasa’s mind was with the owl.
In the center of the clearing, black candles burned. The stones formed that same circle again. And standing there was the woman—the masked one—the Queen of the Night. Her eyes, hidden beneath the carved ivory mask, glowed with malice and satisfaction.
“You have come again, my daughter,” the woman’s voice coiled through the air, thick as smoke. “It is time to complete what has begun.”
“I didn’t choose this,” Chinasa wept. “Let me go. I don’t want this life.”
“Want or not, it is yours now,” the woman replied, lifting a hand. The royal guards stood behind her—tall creatures with spindly fingers and curved horns. “Eat again. Taste flesh. Only then will your bond be sealed.”
“I will never eat human flesh again,” Chinasa shouted with trembling resolve.
In fury, the Queen raised her staff.
The wind rose like a vengeful hurricane. Chinasa was swept off her feet, thrown backwards with inhuman force. She struck a tree hard—her spine arched, her mouth opened in a silent scream. In the real world, her body convulsed in the cafeteria. Blood gushed from her nostrils. Her hand trembled, then went limp.
Victor screamed.
“Help! Help her—please!”
Students surrounded her. Teachers rushed in. Chaos roared. Chinasa lay on the tiled floor, blood trailing from her nose, her eyes shut as if in death.
She was rushed to the clinic on a stretcher borrowed from the sick bay. After saline drip and careful monitoring, her breathing stabilized. The blood stopped. But something within her remained fractured.
---
When she returned to the hostel later that evening, her body sore and her heart heavy, she didn’t go to bed. She went straight to the corner where Betty was seated, rubbing lotion into her knees while humming to herself like someone whose conscience had no weight.
“You used me,” Chinasa said, voice low. “You knew what that meeting was about, and you took me there.”
Betty glanced up. “You should really stop saying that. It’s not good for your mind.”
“I saw your face that night. You were chanting.”
“Enough,” Betty snapped, standing.
Asia and Chommy appeared again, their timing like shadow.
“She’s disturbing again,” Asia said, her face already twisting with disdain.
“She needs beating to rearrange her head,” Chommy spat.
Before Chinasa could react, the blows came fast. Her head slammed against the wall. Hands dragged at her braids. Her knees buckled under the assault. They didn’t just hit her—they punished her.
Screams and noise drew the matron in. “Stop that!” she shouted.
Ngozi, Chinasa’s school mother, came running. Chinasa was bleeding again—from her forehead this time. The matron grabbed Betty and Chinasa both by the arms, dragging them like criminals to the principal’s office.
Principal Mrs. Eche listened with the detached weariness of a woman who had seen too many girl fights.
“Madam, she said Betty initiated her into a secret cult,” the matron said.
Mrs. Eche sighed. “Chinasa, must you keep weaving fairy tales? If this is about friendship drama, resolve it like young women. Don’t bring spirits into it.”
“But it’s real,” Chinasa said through her split lip, her voice barely holding.
“Enough.”
Dismissed.
As they left, Betty smiled.
And Chinasa’s chest burned with the quiet rage of a girl who had been silenced—but who had now learned that pain was the first step in becoming what they feared.
---TO BE CONTINUED..........
*Episode 1*
*Written by Charles N Okere*
An angry old man, accompanied by some mean-looking men, walked up to the door of an apartment and furiously banged on it. The occupant of the apartment angrily opened the door, intending to slap whoever it was.
But he froze when he saw the old man and the mean-looking men. He didn't need to be told what brought these august visitors to his doorstep that morning. He immediately put on a smile and greeted...
"Ha, oga landlord good morning o. This one you came to my house with these men, am I save,I hope all is well?
"Look wizzy, wisdom or whatever you are being called, you can never be saved and all can never be well with you. Since you have decided not to pay your 10 months house rent.
"Haba,oga landlord why are you talking like this nah? If I had the money to pay I would have paid a long time ago. But you the see current situation of the country and. ..
"And how's that my business Kwan? Look I don tire for all these stories, at least I have tried. I have been patient enough. It's either you pay now or wave my appatment. After all, there are a lot of people waiting to hire this apartment and here you're telling me lazy man stories. What am I even saying, you're a true definition of a lazy man and a wasted youth.
"Ha, Abeg oga landlord e never reach to dey insult me nah. Which one come be wasted youth. Is it because am owing you common 10 months house rent that you're calling me names?
"Oh you are calling 10 months rent common right?
"Oga landlord is not like that, I am sorry. But you call me lazy and wasted.
"See oh, are you not lazy and wasted? In short I don't even know why I am waiting my time having this conversation with you. Boys go in there and bring out everything in there.
The thugs were about to do as instructed, but wisdom prevent them and went down on his knees.
"Okay, oga landlord am sorry. I agreed am lazy and wasted. But please don't throw me out on the street, just give me a Grace of one month and I promise to pay all that I am owing you.
The landlord looked at him in disbelief and answered.
"Wisdom this is exactly what you said few months back and you never fulfilled it. I can't be deceived or fooled by you again. Today you must leave my house. So someone serious can take it. Boys what are you waiting for, go in there and bring out all his belongings.
"Ha, oga landlord, please don't do this to me, please I beg you. Okay Please give me two weeks and I will pay you everything.
The landlord stares at him thoughtfully, heave a sigh and ordered his boys to stop.
"I must confess you've a kind-hearted guardian angel. Because I don't know why I keep accepting this useless excuse from you. If you fail to fulfill your promise, I will not only chase you out,I will flush you out of my house.
After the left (the landlord abd his boys) he stood up to his feet and dusted himself off.
,"Nawa o, see the way this yeye landlord won take disgrace me. Kai landlord if na my village people send you to shame me, just go back and tell Dem say you no see me. In short tell Dem I pass them. But e no go better for all the witches and wizards for my village.
Chai, how I go take get #250k to pay within a space of two weeks.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice his friend Solomon's presence. Solomon stared at him in silence for a while, then tapped him on the shoulder.
Wisdom shivered in surprise, staring at Solomon with his mouth open. "How long have you been standing here?" Wisdom asked.
"Two minutes and some seconds, I guess," Solomon responded.
Wisdom heaved a sigh and ushered him into his apartment. Solomon sat down on one of the sofas in the sitting room, while Wisdom sat on another next to him."
"Guy wetin happen,this one way you keep your face like person way give Mami water belle? Solomon asked.
"Solo If na that One, e even better pass wetin I dey go through now.
"Haba wetin come be that one na? Guy talk to your gee tell me what's up.
Wisdom sighed and responded.
" My landlord came here early today with some mean looking thugs to throw me out of his house.
"Haba, why em go throw you out, shey you be Dustbin to throw you out?
"Solo, be serious, am not joking.
"Am sorry, my bad. Please continue.
"As you know I am owing him 9 months rent,which I have been promising to pay. But couldn't. So I asked him to give me a grace of one month which he refused. Then I pleaded with him to give me two weeks grace which he accepted. The challenge now is that I don't know how to settle it.
"So na because of this small thing dey make you keep your face like rejected offering. Guy abeg shift, I get update way big pass that one.
"I no blame you Sha, I blame my village people for giving me a clown as a friend. So which update big pass the one way dey on ground.
"Guy relax, your body too dey pepper you. I saw Desmond our classmate back then in secondary school.
Wisdom thinking and trying to create an imaginary picture of Desmond.
"The name sounds familiar, but I am still trying to remember the face.
"Wizzy, so you don forget Desmond, that boy way we nickname "black man devil" because him back pass charcoal.
"Oh, oh, Desmond very black boy, now I remember. So where did you see him?
I met him at the fuel station yesterday evening. Desmond is now a millionaire, or rather, more than a millionaire. He has his own personal bodyguards and moves in convoys. He owns the latest G-Wagons and Rolls-Royce models, including the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G50, G63, and G580, as well as the Rolls-Royce Phantom EV and electric SUV. When I say "latest," I mean the most current models. He gave me his contact information and asked to meet this weekend to catch up on old times. He also gave me ₦200,000 for transportation.
Wisdom looked at Solomon with great surprise in his eyes, unable to believe what he had just heard about Desmond. For a moment, he was speechless, feeling dumbfounded.
"Do you mean Desmond, the dullest boy in class, or is it another Desmond?" Wisdom asked, his mouth agape.
"Guy why you dey do like moi-moi nah, how many Desmond we get for our class, in short how many Desmond we get back then for our set? Solomon asked
"Chai, nawa o this world no balance. Imagine Desmond Don blow, Desmond don make am big before us.
"Guy see this one way you dey talk no concern me, I no dey even reason am. The thing be say we go met am to show us the way this weekend. As for your house rent i go help you with 100k way you go take give your landlord.
"My main gee you too much, thank you and God bless you for me.
"Abeg no think say I dash you the money oh, I no be father Christmas to dey dash people money. All I know you go pay me back my money after Desmond show us the way.
"My gee that one no be problem, infact I go pay you double double.
Both friends laughed out loud and talked about some other pricing issues.
*EPISODE 2*
The night was thick with the weight of silence, yet Chinasa could not sleep. Not because of noise, but because her soul refused to rest. Sleep teased her with its edges but never embraced her fully. The image of that circle—the one not of friends but of black shadows and wicked grins—lingered like oil in her throat. She turned again on her bunk, her mattress groaning beneath her. The room was warm, the ceiling fan clicking as it fought uselessly against the heat. Still, her body would not obey the rhythm of rest. When she could take it no more, she climbed down quietly from her top bunk, her bare feet brushing the cold terrazzo floor. She walked slowly to the latrine with a small torch tucked into her palm, though she didn’t need it—she knew these halls in the dark.
In the toilet, she splashed water on her face, staring long into the mirror with trembling breath, as if searching for proof that she still existed. Her reflection looked distant, like it was watching her from somewhere far beneath the surface. And when she returned to her bed, curling in on herself like a folded prayer, her school mother stirred beneath her.
“Chinasa,” Senior Ngozi muttered from the bottom bunk, voice laced with sleep and concern. “You’re turning like you’re fighting something in your sleep. What's wrong with you ?”
“I’m fine senior,” Chinasa said too quickly, barely above a whisper. But she wasn’t fine. Her voice cracked on the lie. She turned her face to the wall, and her eyes blinked into the blackness, seeing not darkness but the memory of fire and blood and the masked woman in the red veil.
---
By morning, the light that crept through the louvers offered no comfort. It only exposed the bruises the night left behind. Chinasa’s eyes were heavy, red-rimmed from tears that refused to dry. She stood near the general bathroom with a resolve that stiffened her shoulders. Her face was set. When Betty appeared, flanked by her ever-smirking shadow Chommy, she tried to walk past quickly, pretending not to notice Chinasa’s haunted eyes. But Chinasa moved into her path.
“You did this to me,” she said quietly, her voice trembling but firm. “You put me in that circle. You brought me into this evil.”
Betty scoffed. “Abeg, Chinasa. Are you okay like this? What are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying!” Chinasa cried, drawing attention from a few girls rinsing their buckets by the tap. “You gave me to them. You lied to me!”
Betty looked back at Chommy, who folded her arms, then turned again with a shrug. “She’s mad. Don’t mind her.”
She walked off, hips swinging as if nothing had happened, while Chinasa stood there, fists clenched, the betrayal raw and choking like dust in her throat. Chommy and Asia pulled Betty close as they entered the dining hall, whispering, laughing. Chinasa followed, barely aware of her own feet.
She sat alone at a corner of the long wooden benches, a tray of untouched pap and akara in front of her. Her spoon remained still, her hands trembling faintly on the table. Her eyes were far away. Then a voice brought her back.
“Can I sit here?”
Victor.
He looked concerned. She didn’t answer. Just gave a slow nod. He sat beside her carefully, eyes scanning her face. “You’re not eating. Did something happen?”
“I don’t want to talk,” she murmured, barely looking at him.
Victor nodded, though his eyes remained on her. He was about to speak again when Chinasa froze completely, her body going rigid like wood. Her mouth parted slightly, and her eyes widened—not from anything around her, but from what she saw.
From somewhere deep within her chest, a pressure began to build—a pressure not of pain, but of release. And then it happened.
Her spirit tore free.
Victor gasped as he watched her body tremble, but Chinasa saw what no one else could—her own soul, like a shimmering silhouette, peeled out of her skin like vapor, formed into something feathered and monstrous—a dark owl with eyes that glowed like embers in the dusk.
The owl screeched and flew.
Screams erupted in the cafeteria. Girls ducked. Plates clattered. Someone shouted “Blood of Jesus!” as the enormous bird smashed through the hall’s upper window, feathers trailing behind it like a curse. The owl flew straight into the distance, its wings flapping with eerie grace toward the edge of the forest behind the school compound, where darkness was thickest and the soil remembered old oaths.
Chinasa’s mind was with the owl.
In the center of the clearing, black candles burned. The stones formed that same circle again. And standing there was the woman—the masked one—the Queen of the Night. Her eyes, hidden beneath the carved ivory mask, glowed with malice and satisfaction.
“You have come again, my daughter,” the woman’s voice coiled through the air, thick as smoke. “It is time to complete what has begun.”
“I didn’t choose this,” Chinasa wept. “Let me go. I don’t want this life.”
“Want or not, it is yours now,” the woman replied, lifting a hand. The royal guards stood behind her—tall creatures with spindly fingers and curved horns. “Eat again. Taste flesh. Only then will your bond be sealed.”
“I will never eat human flesh again,” Chinasa shouted with trembling resolve.
In fury, the Queen raised her staff.
The wind rose like a vengeful hurricane. Chinasa was swept off her feet, thrown backwards with inhuman force. She struck a tree hard—her spine arched, her mouth opened in a silent scream. In the real world, her body convulsed in the cafeteria. Blood gushed from her nostrils. Her hand trembled, then went limp.
Victor screamed.
“Help! Help her—please!”
Students surrounded her. Teachers rushed in. Chaos roared. Chinasa lay on the tiled floor, blood trailing from her nose, her eyes shut as if in death.
She was rushed to the clinic on a stretcher borrowed from the sick bay. After saline drip and careful monitoring, her breathing stabilized. The blood stopped. But something within her remained fractured.
---
When she returned to the hostel later that evening, her body sore and her heart heavy, she didn’t go to bed. She went straight to the corner where Betty was seated, rubbing lotion into her knees while humming to herself like someone whose conscience had no weight.
“You used me,” Chinasa said, voice low. “You knew what that meeting was about, and you took me there.”
Betty glanced up. “You should really stop saying that. It’s not good for your mind.”
“I saw your face that night. You were chanting.”
“Enough,” Betty snapped, standing.
Asia and Chommy appeared again, their timing like shadow.
“She’s disturbing again,” Asia said, her face already twisting with disdain.
“She needs beating to rearrange her head,” Chommy spat.
Before Chinasa could react, the blows came fast. Her head slammed against the wall. Hands dragged at her braids. Her knees buckled under the assault. They didn’t just hit her—they punished her.
Screams and noise drew the matron in. “Stop that!” she shouted.
Ngozi, Chinasa’s school mother, came running. Chinasa was bleeding again—from her forehead this time. The matron grabbed Betty and Chinasa both by the arms, dragging them like criminals to the principal’s office.
Principal Mrs. Eche listened with the detached weariness of a woman who had seen too many girl fights.
“Madam, she said Betty initiated her into a secret cult,” the matron said.
Mrs. Eche sighed. “Chinasa, must you keep weaving fairy tales? If this is about friendship drama, resolve it like young women. Don’t bring spirits into it.”
“But it’s real,” Chinasa said through her split lip, her voice barely holding.
“Enough.”
Dismissed.
As they left, Betty smiled.
And Chinasa’s chest burned with the quiet rage of a girl who had been silenced—but who had now learned that pain was the first step in becoming what they feared.
---TO BE CONTINUED..........
*The Grave Robbers* ( *Episode 1- 2*)
*Episode 1*
*Written by Charles N Okere*
An angry old man, accompanied by some mean-looking men, walked up to the door of an apartment and furiously banged on it. The occupant of the apartment angrily opened the door, intending to slap whoever it was.
But he froze when he saw the old man and the mean-looking men. He didn't need to be told what brought these august visitors to his doorstep that morning. He immediately put on a smile and greeted...
"Ha, oga landlord good morning o. This one you came to my house with these men, am I save,I hope all is well?
"Look wizzy, wisdom or whatever you are being called, you can never be saved and all can never be well with you. Since you have decided not to pay your 10 months house rent.
"Haba,oga landlord why are you talking like this nah? If I had the money to pay I would have paid a long time ago. But you the see current situation of the country and. ..
"And how's that my business Kwan? Look I don tire for all these stories, at least I have tried. I have been patient enough. It's either you pay now or wave my appatment. After all, there are a lot of people waiting to hire this apartment and here you're telling me lazy man stories. What am I even saying, you're a true definition of a lazy man and a wasted youth.
"Ha, Abeg oga landlord e never reach to dey insult me nah. Which one come be wasted youth. Is it because am owing you common 10 months house rent that you're calling me names?
"Oh you are calling 10 months rent common right?
"Oga landlord is not like that, I am sorry. But you call me lazy and wasted.
"See oh, are you not lazy and wasted? In short I don't even know why I am waiting my time having this conversation with you. Boys go in there and bring out everything in there.
The thugs were about to do as instructed, but wisdom prevent them and went down on his knees.
"Okay, oga landlord am sorry. I agreed am lazy and wasted. But please don't throw me out on the street, just give me a Grace of one month and I promise to pay all that I am owing you.
The landlord looked at him in disbelief and answered.
"Wisdom this is exactly what you said few months back and you never fulfilled it. I can't be deceived or fooled by you again. Today you must leave my house. So someone serious can take it. Boys what are you waiting for, go in there and bring out all his belongings.
"Ha, oga landlord, please don't do this to me, please I beg you. Okay Please give me two weeks and I will pay you everything.
The landlord stares at him thoughtfully, heave a sigh and ordered his boys to stop.
"I must confess you've a kind-hearted guardian angel. Because I don't know why I keep accepting this useless excuse from you. If you fail to fulfill your promise, I will not only chase you out,I will flush you out of my house.
After the left (the landlord abd his boys) he stood up to his feet and dusted himself off.
,"Nawa o, see the way this yeye landlord won take disgrace me. Kai landlord if na my village people send you to shame me, just go back and tell Dem say you no see me. In short tell Dem I pass them. But e no go better for all the witches and wizards for my village.
Chai, how I go take get #250k to pay within a space of two weeks.
He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice his friend Solomon's presence. Solomon stared at him in silence for a while, then tapped him on the shoulder.
Wisdom shivered in surprise, staring at Solomon with his mouth open. "How long have you been standing here?" Wisdom asked.
"Two minutes and some seconds, I guess," Solomon responded.
Wisdom heaved a sigh and ushered him into his apartment. Solomon sat down on one of the sofas in the sitting room, while Wisdom sat on another next to him."
"Guy wetin happen,this one way you keep your face like person way give Mami water belle? Solomon asked.
"Solo If na that One, e even better pass wetin I dey go through now.
"Haba wetin come be that one na? Guy talk to your gee tell me what's up.
Wisdom sighed and responded.
" My landlord came here early today with some mean looking thugs to throw me out of his house.
"Haba, why em go throw you out, shey you be Dustbin to throw you out?
"Solo, be serious, am not joking.
"Am sorry, my bad. Please continue.
"As you know I am owing him 9 months rent,which I have been promising to pay. But couldn't. So I asked him to give me a grace of one month which he refused. Then I pleaded with him to give me two weeks grace which he accepted. The challenge now is that I don't know how to settle it.
"So na because of this small thing dey make you keep your face like rejected offering. Guy abeg shift, I get update way big pass that one.
"I no blame you Sha, I blame my village people for giving me a clown as a friend. So which update big pass the one way dey on ground.
"Guy relax, your body too dey pepper you. I saw Desmond our classmate back then in secondary school.
Wisdom thinking and trying to create an imaginary picture of Desmond.
"The name sounds familiar, but I am still trying to remember the face.
"Wizzy, so you don forget Desmond, that boy way we nickname "black man devil" because him back pass charcoal.
"Oh, oh, Desmond very black boy, now I remember. So where did you see him?
I met him at the fuel station yesterday evening. Desmond is now a millionaire, or rather, more than a millionaire. He has his own personal bodyguards and moves in convoys. He owns the latest G-Wagons and Rolls-Royce models, including the 2025 Mercedes-Benz G50, G63, and G580, as well as the Rolls-Royce Phantom EV and electric SUV. When I say "latest," I mean the most current models. He gave me his contact information and asked to meet this weekend to catch up on old times. He also gave me ₦200,000 for transportation.
Wisdom looked at Solomon with great surprise in his eyes, unable to believe what he had just heard about Desmond. For a moment, he was speechless, feeling dumbfounded.
"Do you mean Desmond, the dullest boy in class, or is it another Desmond?" Wisdom asked, his mouth agape.
"Guy why you dey do like moi-moi nah, how many Desmond we get for our class, in short how many Desmond we get back then for our set? Solomon asked
"Chai, nawa o this world no balance. Imagine Desmond Don blow, Desmond don make am big before us.
"Guy see this one way you dey talk no concern me, I no dey even reason am. The thing be say we go met am to show us the way this weekend. As for your house rent i go help you with 100k way you go take give your landlord.
"My main gee you too much, thank you and God bless you for me.
"Abeg no think say I dash you the money oh, I no be father Christmas to dey dash people money. All I know you go pay me back my money after Desmond show us the way.
"My gee that one no be problem, infact I go pay you double double.
Both friends laughed out loud and talked about some other pricing issues.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
*EPISODE 2*
The night was thick with the weight of silence, yet Chinasa could not sleep. Not because of noise, but because her soul refused to rest. Sleep teased her with its edges but never embraced her fully. The image of that circle—the one not of friends but of black shadows and wicked grins—lingered like oil in her throat. She turned again on her bunk, her mattress groaning beneath her. The room was warm, the ceiling fan clicking as it fought uselessly against the heat. Still, her body would not obey the rhythm of rest. When she could take it no more, she climbed down quietly from her top bunk, her bare feet brushing the cold terrazzo floor. She walked slowly to the latrine with a small torch tucked into her palm, though she didn’t need it—she knew these halls in the dark.
In the toilet, she splashed water on her face, staring long into the mirror with trembling breath, as if searching for proof that she still existed. Her reflection looked distant, like it was watching her from somewhere far beneath the surface. And when she returned to her bed, curling in on herself like a folded prayer, her school mother stirred beneath her.
“Chinasa,” Senior Ngozi muttered from the bottom bunk, voice laced with sleep and concern. “You’re turning like you’re fighting something in your sleep. What's wrong with you ?”
“I’m fine senior,” Chinasa said too quickly, barely above a whisper. But she wasn’t fine. Her voice cracked on the lie. She turned her face to the wall, and her eyes blinked into the blackness, seeing not darkness but the memory of fire and blood and the masked woman in the red veil.
---
By morning, the light that crept through the louvers offered no comfort. It only exposed the bruises the night left behind. Chinasa’s eyes were heavy, red-rimmed from tears that refused to dry. She stood near the general bathroom with a resolve that stiffened her shoulders. Her face was set. When Betty appeared, flanked by her ever-smirking shadow Chommy, she tried to walk past quickly, pretending not to notice Chinasa’s haunted eyes. But Chinasa moved into her path.
“You did this to me,” she said quietly, her voice trembling but firm. “You put me in that circle. You brought me into this evil.”
Betty scoffed. “Abeg, Chinasa. Are you okay like this? What are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying!” Chinasa cried, drawing attention from a few girls rinsing their buckets by the tap. “You gave me to them. You lied to me!”
Betty looked back at Chommy, who folded her arms, then turned again with a shrug. “She’s mad. Don’t mind her.”
She walked off, hips swinging as if nothing had happened, while Chinasa stood there, fists clenched, the betrayal raw and choking like dust in her throat. Chommy and Asia pulled Betty close as they entered the dining hall, whispering, laughing. Chinasa followed, barely aware of her own feet.
She sat alone at a corner of the long wooden benches, a tray of untouched pap and akara in front of her. Her spoon remained still, her hands trembling faintly on the table. Her eyes were far away. Then a voice brought her back.
“Can I sit here?”
Victor.
He looked concerned. She didn’t answer. Just gave a slow nod. He sat beside her carefully, eyes scanning her face. “You’re not eating. Did something happen?”
“I don’t want to talk,” she murmured, barely looking at him.
Victor nodded, though his eyes remained on her. He was about to speak again when Chinasa froze completely, her body going rigid like wood. Her mouth parted slightly, and her eyes widened—not from anything around her, but from what she saw.
From somewhere deep within her chest, a pressure began to build—a pressure not of pain, but of release. And then it happened.
Her spirit tore free.
Victor gasped as he watched her body tremble, but Chinasa saw what no one else could—her own soul, like a shimmering silhouette, peeled out of her skin like vapor, formed into something feathered and monstrous—a dark owl with eyes that glowed like embers in the dusk.
The owl screeched and flew.
Screams erupted in the cafeteria. Girls ducked. Plates clattered. Someone shouted “Blood of Jesus!” as the enormous bird smashed through the hall’s upper window, feathers trailing behind it like a curse. The owl flew straight into the distance, its wings flapping with eerie grace toward the edge of the forest behind the school compound, where darkness was thickest and the soil remembered old oaths.
Chinasa’s mind was with the owl.
In the center of the clearing, black candles burned. The stones formed that same circle again. And standing there was the woman—the masked one—the Queen of the Night. Her eyes, hidden beneath the carved ivory mask, glowed with malice and satisfaction.
“You have come again, my daughter,” the woman’s voice coiled through the air, thick as smoke. “It is time to complete what has begun.”
“I didn’t choose this,” Chinasa wept. “Let me go. I don’t want this life.”
“Want or not, it is yours now,” the woman replied, lifting a hand. The royal guards stood behind her—tall creatures with spindly fingers and curved horns. “Eat again. Taste flesh. Only then will your bond be sealed.”
“I will never eat human flesh again,” Chinasa shouted with trembling resolve.
In fury, the Queen raised her staff.
The wind rose like a vengeful hurricane. Chinasa was swept off her feet, thrown backwards with inhuman force. She struck a tree hard—her spine arched, her mouth opened in a silent scream. In the real world, her body convulsed in the cafeteria. Blood gushed from her nostrils. Her hand trembled, then went limp.
Victor screamed.
“Help! Help her—please!”
Students surrounded her. Teachers rushed in. Chaos roared. Chinasa lay on the tiled floor, blood trailing from her nose, her eyes shut as if in death.
She was rushed to the clinic on a stretcher borrowed from the sick bay. After saline drip and careful monitoring, her breathing stabilized. The blood stopped. But something within her remained fractured.
---
When she returned to the hostel later that evening, her body sore and her heart heavy, she didn’t go to bed. She went straight to the corner where Betty was seated, rubbing lotion into her knees while humming to herself like someone whose conscience had no weight.
“You used me,” Chinasa said, voice low. “You knew what that meeting was about, and you took me there.”
Betty glanced up. “You should really stop saying that. It’s not good for your mind.”
“I saw your face that night. You were chanting.”
“Enough,” Betty snapped, standing.
Asia and Chommy appeared again, their timing like shadow.
“She’s disturbing again,” Asia said, her face already twisting with disdain.
“She needs beating to rearrange her head,” Chommy spat.
Before Chinasa could react, the blows came fast. Her head slammed against the wall. Hands dragged at her braids. Her knees buckled under the assault. They didn’t just hit her—they punished her.
Screams and noise drew the matron in. “Stop that!” she shouted.
Ngozi, Chinasa’s school mother, came running. Chinasa was bleeding again—from her forehead this time. The matron grabbed Betty and Chinasa both by the arms, dragging them like criminals to the principal’s office.
Principal Mrs. Eche listened with the detached weariness of a woman who had seen too many girl fights.
“Madam, she said Betty initiated her into a secret cult,” the matron said.
Mrs. Eche sighed. “Chinasa, must you keep weaving fairy tales? If this is about friendship drama, resolve it like young women. Don’t bring spirits into it.”
“But it’s real,” Chinasa said through her split lip, her voice barely holding.
“Enough.”
Dismissed.
As they left, Betty smiled.
And Chinasa’s chest burned with the quiet rage of a girl who had been silenced—but who had now learned that pain was the first step in becoming what they feared.
---TO BE CONTINUED.......... 🔥🔥
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