“Wake up wake up wake up” a voice sang merrily beside the bed.
“No! I still want to sleep” I grumbled before realizing I was supposed to be in the house alone. And if I was supposed to be in the house alone, then who was speaking beside my bed. With a jolt, I hopped out of bed to find the room empty.
“Was I dreaming?” I asked myself wearily rubbing my eyes and sinking to the floor in relief that my house was safe.
With a sigh, I finally stood up and began to prepare for my day ahead. Fifteen minutes later, I stood in front of the mirror happily applying make up and spun around with a satisfied smile at my appearance, blowing a kiss to the mirror. I bent down to strap my sandals when a voice said.
“Girlll… You are so pretty! Omalicha nwa”.
I hurriedly raised my head and banged it on a table in the process. I knew I wasn't dreaming this time, unless I was dreaming in my dream? No, I thought to myself, shaking my head trying to clear my head from the excruciating pain I was feeling.
“Who's there?” I shouted grabbing my handbag as a weapon, “Show yourself!”
The room remained eerily silent until I reached the door and grabbed the handle
“Have a nice day dear” the voice said again and this time I jumped up in shock as a mouth appeared on the door.
“Doors don't talk, what is going on here?” I whispered.
“Relax dear, we just want to be friends” the fan spoke.
“I like her, I don't wake everyone up with a song, but I did it for her this morning. She is a nice girl” the alarm clock joined the conversation. Soon enough, almost everything in the room came to life and was talking.
I must have fainted because by the time I woke up, I was crowded by furniture and appliances.
“Get away from me” I screamed, holding on tightly to my bag and dashing out screaming without locking the door.
“Neighbor, your door is open. Where are you running to?” I heard my next door neighbor Chima shout.
“My room has been possessed by evil spirits. Run for your life!” I replied, running towards the gate.
“Evil spirits ke? Has this girl started smoking something?” I heard my neighbor ask. I ran out, banging the gate firmly shut and leaning on it to catch my breath.
How do I explain what just happened? People would think I'm crazy, and I am not crazy or am I? I pinched myself to confirm I wasn't in a dream world and headed to the bus stop to board a bus to my destination.
“You look pale, what happened?” my best friend and colleague at work, Dina asked immediately I walked in.
“Girl... you won't believe the things I've witnessed this morning” I whispered warily eyeing all the surrounding things just to make sure what happened at my house would not repeat itself at my working place.
“Sit down and drink water, why are you looking around like that?” She asked.
I poked my chair and desk and lifted my laptop until I was satisfied it was safe to sit and relax.
“I woke up this morning and…” I began my story.
“Emergency meeting at the conference room now” our boss instructed as he walked in, cutting my story short.
The rest of the morning was really busy and made me almost forget I had spoken to inanimate objects early this morning. By lunchtime, I was really famished and dying to tell Dina what had happened.
During our lunch of coconut rice and chicken at a restaurant, I decided to tell Dina about the incident.
“My room is possessed” I blurted out.
“What?” She replied confused.
Before I could respond, the chicken wing on my plate spoke up with a bored voice
“Honestly, the rice is gone. Just eat me already and stop delaying the inevitable. Your friend has finished hers, and you're giving me a heart attack pushing me around this plate with that fork and knife”.
“You've got to be kidding me!” I screamed out loud in frustration, “Can this day get any worse?”
As my friend and everyone in the restaurant stared at me open-mouthed, I thought to myself, ‘Yep. I'm definitely going crazy’.