“The sun may rise tomorrow but you may not’, the Prophetess chanted whilst ringing her bell and forcefully stamping her legs on the ground making the beads on her ankles to make strange sounds. Oghenebrume watched her from afar, she was dressed in a long white garment with a red rope on her waist, her head was covered with a white cap that had a similar resemblance to a toque.

“this one na cele abi wetin?”,

He asked Oghenetega who was sitted beside him.

‘ahh, you no sabi Prophetess? you dey dull oh, na she be Number 1 for this our area, I hear say some pastors dey go meet her for powers sef, but I surprise say she waka come outside today, she dey normally stay for her house, na people dey find her come”.

Immediately those words left his mouth, Prophetess locked eyes with Brume.

‘Yes!’, Prophetess muttered to herself, ‘’it is this one!’’.

She slowly walked towards Brume then circled him while ringing her bell and chanting words he was very sure did not exist in the dictionary. Brume wasn’t a religious fanatic, he didn’t believe in God or any other deity, because according to him, if they truly existed, he wouldn’t be in this situation.

He graduated as the best graduating student, represented his school in several competitions, he could do no wrong in his principal’s eyes, rumor had it that he would one day become President of Nigeria. How he ended up as a keke driver in the deepest part of the trenches in Warri was unknown to him.

Things started to go downhill two years after he left secondary school and his parents died in a ghastly motor accident, leaving him to fend for himself and his younger sister, Rukewve. Five years on and his life had gotten worse, he believed that if God truly existed, he wouldn’t have let him suffer like this, even if not for his sake, at least for the sake of his father who was a pastor.

‘’ I have been sent specially to you ‘’,

Prophetess spoke while vibrating and twisting her body in ways that was not humanly possible. That was when it clicked in Brume’s head: he had made up to 5 thousand naira yesterday, the other drivers at the park probably sent her to swindle him of the money, sorry for all of them because he had already given more than half to Rukewve to buy textbooks for school, so their effort was dead on arrival.

You! You are the cause of all the problems you are currently facing, you have been cursed’, she said while ringing her bell.

Brume looked at her in amazement, she was definitely bluffing, cursed ke ? from where to where? He was everybody’s favorite.

‘’ umm, hmmm, Efe keeps calling out to me, Efe, Efe. Do you know any Efe”.

Was she joking? This is Warri, there is atleast an Efe in two of three houses.

‘’think well, Efe, Efe, you were wicked to him, think well, hmm, ‘’

Prophetess said , looked him dead in the eyes and walked away. Brume was perplexed, he wondered what had just happened and who the Efe she spoke of was.

He went on with the rest of his day with her voice in his head and it wasn’t until 12 am when he woke up to ease himself that he remembered Efe.

Efetobore Okiemute, the shortest boy in Ss2, he had a big head and bulgy eyes, ironed all his clothes, down to his underwear and socks. He was generally a timid person, the perfect target for Brume and his gang to bully.

Bullying was a norm in Standard International College, it was a tradition for Ss3 boys to bully those in Ss2, how else were they supposed to establish dominance and seniority?

Brume and his gang were the toughest in school, nobody dared to cross their parts, Brume was the principal’s favorite student,so reporting him was out of the equation . However, upon gaining admission into the university and realizing he was a weakling compared to others, he turned a new leaf and became a sweetheart. His kind nature gained him popularity, and even won him a ‘Humanitarian of The Year’ award in his first year in school .

He pondered on Prophetess’s revelation all through the night, wondering if he was truly cursed. Moreover, he apologized to Efe, or did he? To be fair, after the ‘incident’, nobody really heard from Efe, he changed school and became unreachable. Did he really curse him? Could it be why nothing was working in his favour?

Early the next morning, Brume set off to see the Prophetess, seeking answers.

Prophetess had just finished her morning prayers when she heard a loud banging on the door, she had expected him to come when the sun had risen at least, no by 5;30am. She opened the door and ushered him in.

‘I hope you did not come empty handed’, Prophetess asked him, ‘you cannot take something without giving anything in return’.

Brume suspected she might ask for something hence why he brought the twenty-five thousand he had saved up for his house rent, he handed her the money and told her that was all he had.

She collected the money and gave him bitter kola to chew while he was waiting for her to consult her gods. Two hours later, she was finally done.

‘Two days after the incident happened, Efe travelled to his maternal home in Edo sate. He cried uncontrollably for days and suddenly one morning, he stopped crying, he became his cheerful self again and went to Port-Harcourt to live with his aunty. Have you heard of Edo people?

Prophetess asked Brume, he nodded his head in affirmation.

‘I do not need to tell you what Efe did that night, but one thing I will do for you is this. You see this necklace? It will give you the opportunity to go back to that day the incident happened and either stop it or beg Efe for forgiveness. Immediately you wear it, you will find yourself back in secondary school, you have 48 hours, and you must protect the necklace at all costs, if anything happens to it, you will be stuck there forever’

she further instructed.

She gave him a white garment and the necklace and took him to an inner

chamber, he wore the necklace and found himself amid his gang members.

‘Guy, where you don dey since, we don dey find you’,

Kevin asked. He brought out a candle, matchstick and a new pair of scissors.

Na wetin we go do be this, Ochuko, na you go call Efe make him come out, you go watch out if anybody dey come, me and Prince go hol’ am down, while Brume go beat am then use the hot scissors tear him body’.

Brume started fidgeting, his expression closed up ,he wondered how he managed to stay friends with these boys.

‘ wait wait, you guys, this thing too severe oh, lets take it easy, we don’t have to tear his skin with the hot scissors, lets just beat him and let him go; in-fact no need to call him here, I’d personally look for him and beat him; this thing weyhim do us no even serious like that, no be only to report? Afterall principal no even punish us’.

They all burst into laughter as Brume finished talking.

Ochuko was the first to speak,

‘you dey craze oh, if you no sabi do am, you go comot from road make another person take over. Wait first, no be you even start to dey beat am first? Now you wan form righteous’.

Prince chipped in,

‘leave am, na big coward, nonsense boy, if you like when we call am come, no beat am’.

The plan was to be executed after evening dining, which was about three hours away, Brume still had time to think of a counter plan. Efe usually went to class before evening dining to read since he had no friends to hang out with. Brume’s plan was simple, he would corner Efe on his way to class and warn him to go to the boarding house masters house immediately after dinner in order to avoid Ochuko.

‘Efe! Efe!!’, Brume shouted, Efe turned around and saw Brume running and took to his heels, he ran as fast as his short legs could carry him, he knew for a fact that Brume calling him meant trouble.

Brume upon realizing that Efe was running from him , picked up his speed and quickly caught up with him.

He held his hand,

‘’listen, immediately after evening dining, infact before we say the Grace, I want you to go to boarding house master’s house for your safety, if anybody calls you, don’t answer! Do you hear me?’

Efe looked at him in surprise, why was he telling him to go there? what did he mean by ‘for your safety’; Brume had a record of constantly setting him up and he wasn’t going to fall for it this time.

Brume repeated what he said a few more times and left him to his thoughts.

It was Friday, which meant it was yam and stew that was for dinner, Efe ate in a hurry while contemplating if he should adhere to Brume’s warnings or go about his regular activities; something was different about Brume but he couldn’t place his finger on it. He eventually settled for the latter decision.

‘hey, you, short man devil, come here!’,

Ochuko called out for Efe while he was walking out of the dining hall. Efe pretended not to hear him.

‘you think say you wise ahbi, short man devil, you want to tell me you didn’t hear me call you, don’t worry, I will show you pepper today, stupid boy’,

Ochuko held Efe by his collar and dragged him towards the rest of the gang.

Kevin begun heating up the scissors with candle while Prince threw Efe on the floor, he landed at Brume’s feet, and they locked eyes. Efe was confused as to why he told him to run earlier on if he was still going to be part of the beating.

It was at that moment Efe made up his mind to not go down without a fight, he used his eyes to scan the environment and saw a stick by the end of the wall, he just had to figure out how to get there. Brume saw him moving stealthy and looked away, unfortunately, Kevin chose that exact moment to turn to Brume and noticed her looked uncomfortable, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Efe inching towards an object, in the speed of light, he reached towards him and gave him a resounding slap. Efe fell face flat on the ground, directly in front of the stick, he reached for it and swung it at Kevin’s face.

‘Run, run!!”,

Brume shouted to Efe. Prince charged towards Brume as Kevin was on the floor shouting in pain, Efe ran towards the door and Ochuko grabbed him, he managed to free himself from his tight grip and ran as fast as he could towards the boarding house master’s house.

Realizing what had happened, Prince began throwing blows at Brume, he held on to his neck in an attempt to squeeze life out of him, Ochuko. joined in attacking him, in the heat of the moment, the necklace on Brume’s neck cut and the beads shattered on the floor.

Prophetess shivered and looked up at the sky, there was a paradigm shift, the past and present had collided .

She screamed .