Knock, Knock, Its The Unfriendly. Chapter VI

CHAPTER SIX

FOREVER

     Patricia woke up on Saturday morning stretching her arms, she thought she felt fine. She got excited remembering today was her school dinner night. She looked at her closet and got up to

get her dress out. She tried on her shoes and placed them by her reading table, she placed the dress on her chair and headed downstairs. “Mum, Good morning, Dad Good morning” she met her parents in the kitchen holding each other or something, Patricia giggled and covered her face, her parents both replied her and resumed their attention to each other. She went into the living room and found her brothers cleaning. She smiled and shook her head. “Good morning twins” she said to both of them, they both ignored her knowing she was about to tease them, “Look who won the sleeping match, showing us her teeth for a medal” Wale said, the three siblings laughed. There was no denying that Saturday mornings were always one of the best. Patricia loved the traditional family breakfast thing, the way everyone disobeyed the law of not eating with your mouth full. She loved to listen to her mother talk about who and who was getting some kind of punishment for bad behavior. She felt even more better when nobody talked about her Thursday incident. A good morning it was.

     Alex had called her at mid afternoon to check on her, he wanted her home address so he could come get her but her dad had promised to get her to the school premises by himself. Alex could meet with her up there and he could get to see who was taking his daughter as his date. Alex had agreed and hung-up. Patricia watched the clock hourly waiting for the dressing time to lapse. She watched television most part of the day and help her mum make lunch. She watched the clock in the kitchen too.

     At half past six she retired to her room to take a shower, she needed all the freshness she could get, “Nothing is stopping tonight” she thought to herself. Her mum came in later to dress her as she was applying her moisturizer. Mrs. Andrews had come in with her makeup set and gotten her daughter made up. She thought Patricia looked older and really beautiful, she was glad the doctor’s report on any pregnancy had been negative, she decided to pack up her daughters hair and form a wrap with it. She sighed when she was done with the makeover, she was proud of her self. “Look in the mirror” she told her daughter. Patricia leaped excitedly when she saw how beautiful she looked. Her mother handed her her dress and she put it on, it must had been a dress cut and made specially for her as it fitted her like a second

skin, Patricia kept beaming. Mrs. Andrews stepped back to look at her daughter with pride and handed her some simple jewelries. “There you go, my baby’s so beautiful, wait till everybody sees you in school” she said to her daughter. Patricia kept smiling “Thank you so much mum” she finally said. “Get your shoes let me go tell your dad you’re ready and get a camera, my daughter’s first date” she heard her mum say excitedly before she left her room. Patricia was left alone now, she looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She knew she was beautiful and jaws would drop that evening.

     Mrs. Andrews arrived downstairs at the dining table to tell her husband to get his camera ready, she told him he wouldn’t believed how his daughter was looking. On his way to get the camera he stopped to get the door when he heard a knock. He opened and smiled as he saw who it was but said nothing, few seconds later, his wife and two sons heard him say “Oh why, come in dear.”

     
     Patricia had only waited five minutes and had gotten impatient, “What was keeping mum?” she thought to herself, the desk clock read twenty past seven o’clock. She wore her shoes and took her purse with her, she left her room and headed downstairs. “Mum, Mum!, Mummy!” she had started calling as soon as she left her room she was worried about spoiling her dad’s and siblings’ surprises. She gave up and headed to the living room. She stopped at the last stair hoping that someone sees her and jaw-drops but no one came, she rolled her eyes and stepped down holding her dress so she doesn’t trip. The living room was empty, so was in the dining area to the kitchen, she called “Mum! Dad! Dad! Deji! Wale!” she called out aloud but got no response, she headed upstairs again and checked every room. “Empty” she said to herself. She was back down stairs and took off her shoes, she wore a pair of flip-flops and walked outside, the cars were in the garage, she found no one. “Where did they all go? What’s going on? Is this some kind of a joke?” she said more to herself. A frown now crossed her face as she walked back into the house, there was a new chill to the house that she had ignored earlier. She stood at the entrance and opened her mouth in a voiceless scream. The blue eyed one sat on the edge of the stairs looking at her with concern. “I’m here now, now we would be together forever” he said with a beautiful smile.

Knock Knock, Its The Unfriendly. Chapter I

CHAPTER 0NE

THE PERFECT HOME

     Patricia Andrews had resided on the island part of Lagos, Nigeria since her childhood. Little had changed since she had been born sixteen years ago apart from occasional touch-ups of the paints in the exteriors of buildings in her neighborhood. She lived in a quiet part of the world and hated staying out late. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews had been more than pleased with a daughter you could always count on not to keep late nights, not even sneaking out late at night to go have some fun they would had never understood. Patricia was the only girl among her two twin brothers, they were 21 and in the University, they were both totally different from Patricia, they embraced the restlessness and noises of life and couldn’t survive a week of serenity in their parents’ home without tripping out almost everyday.

Deji and Wale were the only one who kept late nights and had always burdened their little sister with the favor of opening the door for them whenever they returned from one of their numerous outings, sometimes she had to cover up for them when it was needed of her, she would always oblige reluctantly.

     Patricia was like the perfect daughter that almost never got into trouble, she wouldn’t stay out late nor stay up late. The parents; a surgeon and a high school teacher respectively were hard workers and presented themselves at home at every chances available, Mrs. Andrews whom was a teacher in a secondary school loved her kids and smother them affection whenever she had the slightest chance. There was the ‘good morning kiss’, the ‘bye mom kiss’, ‘the hello mom kiss’ etc which the kids usually shied away from whenever they could. Her husband a surgeon who hated being away from his family was the eccentric one and never took life too seriously, he would sometimes make jokes of life and death, “If it was that serious, we shouldn’t have to die” he would say couple of times with a chuckle and an elbow-nudge to the closest person beside him, and his wife had never for once found such jokes that funny. This is just a tale about a normal family living their normal lives, at least before that knock on the door.

     The only little problem Patricia had was that she was a dreamer, she had crushed on a boy in her class for almost a year now, his name was Jimi Johnson who was a transfer student from a place she didn’t know. She never told him of her crushing neither did she think he might had had any idea of her feelings towards him, she figured that he was the most handsome and tallest kid in class. He even had deeper dimples when he smiled. She went as far as naming her teddy-bear after him. It got so bad that she began to write anonymous short letters to him twice a month. She would mail it to his house without adding a return address on the envelope. She knew he had seen her first letter when she saw him read it in class, she saw him smile at himself when he was done. She had hoped that one day he might crush on her in return and maybe send her letters too. Once in a while she dropped anonymous notes too on his seat as well, she made sure she was never caught. She knew she was psychologically stalking him and she never felt guilty for once, sometimes she fantasized that he might give her her first kiss one day and maybe they might even get married in the future. She found it exhausting to wait for the future to come on time. There was a school dinner that she would be attending for the first time of her life and she hoped to be his date. She had asked her parents for the fourth time if she could go and they had finally agreed she could attend, she had even made them promise to get the best and most beautiful dress for her for the dinner. Her mother had quietly said the motherly things to her even though she wasn’t prepared to listen to such, she knew she was a good girl when compared to other girls moreover she was only sixteen. “Don’t go chasing after boys because you think you’re all grown up, have your books on your mind at all times and know there’s so much time for every other thing like boys!!!” her mother had said to her one day. Patricia had looked clueless, “What was her mother talking about? There’s time to crush in love though” she had thought to herself reassuringly.

     On a Tuesday afternoon, Patricia retrieved her pen, a plain white sheet and a notebook and took a walk after returning from school, these were one of those days she wrote her twice a month letter. She loved her mysteriousness and how she though she kept her crush guessing. She strolled within her close neighborhood until she came across a tree, the tree stood alone and farther away from the clusters she had seen all her life, she wondered how come she was just noticing the tree for the first time. She had no idea of the nature of the three or what kind of fruits it bore. She touched the tree and the trunk felt very cold. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination but she could make out different faces in the trunk, faces with hair, the faces of women or something. She could make out eyes, shapes like noses but no lips as she took a walk around the tree trunk. “A special tree” she said to herself and smiled. An idea struck her. She laughed at herself sweetly as she thought about how silly she had become. She smiled at it like it was alive, picked up a sharp enough stone from the ground and started carving into it.

The Night At The Hotel. Episode IV (Part 2)

Part 2 of Episode IV

I instructed the help to get the kids ready to go home, the kids seemed to lighten up on hearing this, she took them both to the bathroom to freshen up and got them out shortly, I held the two kids by their hands and motioned for the maid to follow behind me, we walked briskly back to the car-park, although I pretty much hated to drive at night I knew this night would be an exception,  knew we could pass the night over and leave just when the sun was shining but I was too angry to consider it, I just wanted to leave the dumbass hotel of a joke with their stupid lighting and go home, I met the little group I had left outside earlier now quiet and watching the sky, they turned to our direction and seemed surprised when they figured that we were leaving, I was motioning for the kids to get into the car without the delay when I uttered a “What the?” on seeing that my left front tyre was totally flat, I turned with a sweeping look back at the group of employees behind me staring at them, one was already walking towards me, I think it was the barman, yes it turned out to be the barman when he got closer “Your tyre had been down since earlier this evening, we were trying to tell you the first time you came out, we weren’t sure when you were leaving, I’m sorry about this, is there anyway I can be of assistance ma’am?” he said to me, I was still speechless and wondering again what was going on, “Who did this to my tyre? We both know it was fine when I came out some minutes ago, so which one of you touched my car? Is this how you treat your customers around here?” I demanded. His eyes drooped and he apologized again, he said he had no idea about what happened to my tyre, he said they all thought that they might get it fixed for me by morning when they thought that I’d be leaving.

       He looked back at his group and at me uncomfortably and said “Ma’am if I may say, I think its too late to leave tonight, strange things happen here as soon as the sun goes down, would you please come back into the hotel and I promise that I would personally get your car fixed at no cost first thing tomorrow morning” he said to me pleadingly.

“Well I don’t think its too late to drive, I don’t own me an extra tyre but I’m leaving this fucking place tonight…… and what strange shit were you talking about?” I asked him out of curiosity, he looked behind me like he was looking out for something, I turned back to check the kids seated in the car waiting for me then I resumed to him, “I can’t explain them, we make a protective circle around the building every-night to keep evil out, the employees here are responsible for our customers and I plead with you to come back into the hotel, there are strange and scary…..” he was saying and I cut him off just in time, I understand they’ve got some stupid scare tactics to keep this place selling but they can’t keep me here when I’d rather be at home than staying here foolishly waiting for some floating ghost of misery to come and give me lap-dance, “Its okay, you can save the bullshit, now would you please point me out to where I can find the nearest vulcanizing stand?” I replied rudely, he seemed pained by my response and shook his head at me, he said he didn’t know any that was close enough but there should be one on the right side of the T-junction although he was pretty sure the guy wouldn’t be there by now. I thanked him and went back into my car, he didn’t move quickly, I could see that he was worried but I wasn’t quite sure why, I locked the car immediately I got in and started my engine to test it and also its brakes, I saw that in coincidence to me starting up my car-engine there had been some kind of whirlwind blowing outside as I saw the barman ‘s cloths move in the wind and the others shielding their faces from something, he seemed distressed and he finally gave up and went back to his group, they all left for the interior of the hotel, I bent to look at the sky and it did looked calm and bright enough, the stars were out and the moon wasn’t left behind too, there looked like there was some partying up there. I moved the car a little to test the brakes and all seemed to be fine, I got out of the car to catch the resting whirlwind blow at my hair before it suddenly stopped and opened up the car bonnet to check if any other thing was amiss, I also bent underneath the car to catch any drop of oil or something but everything seemed to be intact except for the flat tyre, I looked closely at it to see where it must had leaked from and saw nothing, I checked my wristwatch and the time was already 8:45pm, I sighed and stood up.

The Night At The Hotel. Episode IV

Episode IV

I slowly opened my eyes from my unexplained siesta and held my head as the first wave of headache came, I shut my eyes to shut the ache out and shook my head slowly to clear my head ‘literarily’, I noticed that the bar had been closed or something had happened because the bar-lights had been turned low, I turned down to check my wrist for the time and I figured that I had been asleep for more than 3hours, ‘huh! 3hours?’ I thought out loud, how could I had been asleep for 3hours just sitting here and I wondered why nobody had tried to wake me up, I looked around to blame someone but the bar was very much empty, my drinks and cup were still in place untouched, another pain shot at my head again, I held my neck wondering what was going on, the lobby of the hotel had been lighted dimly and I found it hard to see enough to gain my balance, I staggered out of my seat and walked slowly to the restroom. The restroom still had its bright lights on and this almost blinded me that I had to support myself with the nearest sink quickly closing my eyes, the moron who turned down all the lights had forgotten about the ones in this restroom,

I put my right palm over my eyes and slowly opened them to allow the lights in gradually, I stared at myself in the mirror right in front of me wondering how terrible I was looking, I wasn’t looking pretty at all, I had lines of scars from where I had been sleeping and my lips looked swollen but apart from these I looked just ordinary although I felt like my eyes were about to fall out, I rinsed my face with the cold water from the tap and pattered my face with the loose part of my top, I looked at myself in the mirror and I knew how terrible I looked even though the mirror was telling my eyes lies or my intoxicated head was telling my mind lies, I held my forehead like my brain was about to fall out and I knew the next thing coming, I bent my head and puked all over the sink the meal I had had earlier today, I kicked myself when I inhaled a full doze of fish and bile and somewhat the culprit of everything- alcohol. I spat out the following saliva and watched the mess I made slowly flow down the sink, I had a feeling they might be needing a plumber soon, I stopped staring at the shit in the sink and went for another sink to clean up, I rinsed my face again being careful not to get pepper into my eyes.

 I stood up straight and held my neck rubbing it then I held the sink again shaking my head when it occurred to me that my folks would had probably been looking for me but I wondered how-come they hadn’t been looking for me earlier, I mean I wasn’t that hard to find because I remembered telling them where I was heading to while they were busy talking with mum, and the bar was very visible once you get into the lobby of the hotel, I mean would they talk for over 3hours and forget that I was supposed to be with them or what exactly is going on here, if they had looked for me earlier I would had napped on a proper bed and not on a stupid bar table, I thought angrily to myself, I pushed out the stupid break-up memory when it tried to crawl back in with its broken legs, I didn’t remember if I had come into the restroom with my purse and I became awake immediately, I had a feeling I might had been robbed while I had been asleep and hurried back out into the lobby looking alarmed, I found my purse and mobile phone on the bar table just staring at me probably the same way I had left it, I grabbed them both leaving the drinks on the table, there was nobody in sight for me to question so I went back to the room-suite, I checked the contents of my purse as I walked through the dim-lit passageway back to the room, I knocked softly on the door and prepared myself for all the questions of the whole world that I was sure my siblings were going to query me with, I got no response and knocked again putting my ears to the door to listen to any sound from the room, I found out that the door was ajar and pushed it in, the room was dark and empty.

The Night At The Hotel. Episode III

               Episode III

I rested my hands on my hips while taking a walk back to the T-junction I had driven in through, I checked both sides of the roads by stretching my neck so that I don’t stand out on themain-road, I wouldn’t wanna get hit by a car you know- even though very few cars passed by, nothing out of the ordinary, the road was a little bit dusty and the next neighbor to the hotel was an abandoned gated building with a ‘FOR SALE’ board hanging to the rusty gates, the building wasn’t so visible but you only needed to stretch a little to see it, weeds were all over the place and it looked like it might had been glorious in its time when it was properly owned, there was no more houses to see after that but fenced and probably empty lands, the one-sided sidewalk was wide and filled with mud-dusts, I was already getting bored with the view so I left for the hotel, I walked back casually to the hotel still looking and not particularly sure of what I was looking for, maybe a flashing light, a floating ghost or something weird peeping out from a window or a crazy woman trying to gnaw at me and screaming “Beware! Beware!!” but nothing of such happened, I noticed as I walked past my car that two of my siblings car had been packed ahead of mine, I wasn’t sure they were there earlier, the car I saw earlier was totally different and I knew their cars wherever I saw them, I guessed they had moved the cars there while I was busy surveying earlier, I shrugged and went for the entrance to the building, the door to the lobby of the hotel was opened for me by the security manning the door, he greeted me and I said “hello”.  I looked around and saw that enough normal activities were going on in the small hotel with no zombies roaming about the floor, I shook my head and wondered what was so hunted about it, turning to my right I saw the mini bar and walked towards it hoping the bars weren’t more than one, I took out my phone to call my eldest sister but the service icon now read ‘insufficient’ I still went ahead and called her number and as expected the call failed, I hadn’t notice the mobile network disappearing earlier because I had called her in my car and she had received my call, I walked closer to the bar trying to find my sister, only two people sat at the bar drinking and talking to each other, I took a seat and ordered a coke to refresh myself, I was planning to go back and ask the receptionist for the room direction when I felt sharp fingers poke me on my sides and I heard myself scream really loud.