When hell over flow a story by Ufuoma.k.oluwaseun

About the author:

I'm Ufuoma and I'm new here. Granted I've

registered for ages but I've only started using

this account. I love telling stories almost as

much as I love being told stories. I've noticed

that a lot of writers have to tag people to read

their stories. Are these people the author knows

or just anybody? If anyone knows, let me know

please. Especially as I doubt anyone would see

this without the tags. The stories I write for now

are quite short. Enjoy, whoever finds my story.

© Ufuoma Oluwaseun

Rain pelted against the roof like a frantic intruder

hoping to break into his victim's house, the

accompanying wind and thunderstorm rattled the

windows adding to the eeriness of the night.

Nkem yawned rubbing at his eyes and casting a

weary glance at the wall clock hanging in the

supermarket. It was 10:40pm. He had to start

heading home, Ever since the death of his wife,

he worked long hours at his supermarket in order

to avoid going to the empty house. Their union

had been without issue. He locked up the shop

and strolled in the rain to his car. Lightning

struck casting shadows in the dark parking lot.

For a fraction of a second, he saw the shadow of

a woman from the corner of his eyes. His head

turned swiftly, there was no one there. He sighed

as his car keys turned in the lock and proceeded

to lower himself into the car.

Lightning struck again and this time, he saw the

shadow again at the window of the passenger

seat, tentatively he turned his head and shrieked

in fear as his eyes met with the eyes of his dead

wife, Oluchi. Her eyeballs hung at their sockets

threatening to fall out, maggots frolicked about

her face, crawling from her nose into her ears

like the jewelry of an Indian bride. The skin on

her face had wrinkled so much but still he could

tell it was her. Her face was pressed against the

passenger window.

“Jesuuuuuussss oh” he yelled frantically trying to

kick-start the engine, it wouldn’t respond.

“Bia, Nkem keep quiet biko”.

He continued screaming as he fumbled with the

door in an attempt to run out. The door didn’t

budge. He started to pray, speaking in tongues

for the first time in his life.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Keep quiet” she

ordered in a bored tone “I just want to go to our

home, shower and have a good meal”. Noticing

that he had quieted down she continued

“ I haven’t had a decent meal for at least three

years, there’s no decent food in hell” she

complained.

“Did you break out of there? What are you doing

here?” he queried, surprised that he was able to

form sentences given the situation.

“I thought you would never ask” she smiled at

him, showing a rotten set of dentition. Noticing

the look of horror, she stuck her tongue out and

proceeded to lick the passenger window. He

started whimpering as he noticed that her tongue

was divided into several bits like an octopus with

each division seeming to have a life of its own

and crawling around the window.

“Chill out” she mocked.

“Kedu ihe bu Chill out?” he asked still trying to

get out of the car.

“Oh..it means calm down” she replied retracting

her abominable tongue “the young folks in hell

use it a lot….it’s funny, the place is hot like hell”

she laughed at her own joke before continuing

“and they're saying chill out….anyways

remember when you used me for money rituals?

Fun times huh? Except it wasn’t fun for me, why

couldn’t you use your eyebrows or genitals huh?”

She wiggled her eyebrows causing her eyeballs

to jump around in an unnatural way “ I hear

people use those”.

She laughed as she saw that he had wet his

pants. “Anyways hell got too full and I got

booted by the devil. Booted means kicked out by

the way. Those young folks have corrupted my

English”. She disappeared from the window and

appeared in the car causing him to jump in fear.

She laughed again causing one of her maggots

to fall, it hurriedly climbed back to her face.

Nkem held back the urge to vomit.

She frowned “Am I that repulsive? Good. You did

this to me. Anyways” she stared at him causing

him to look away “I wasn’t bad enough for hell

so I went to heaven and guess what?”.

“I can’t guess, Oluchi”

She hissed “What good are you anyway. I wasn’t

good enough for heaven too so here am I”.

He shook his head in disbelief “Hell can never

get full”.

“ See for yourself” She said as she reached for

his head and tore out an ear. He yelled in pain

and instinctively reached for his ear. Warm blood

trickled down his hand.

He tried without success to get away from her,

his limbs were paralysed “What are you doing,

Oluchi?”.

“Eating you” she said sinking her teeth into the

ear dangling from her finger tips “So you can see

for yourself that hell gets full” she said amidst

chewing “Although I doubt someone like you

would be kicked out”. She reached for him again

and he shrieked in fear.

Few minutes later, she stumbled out of the car

pausing to stare at the lifeless body in the car

before disappearing into the night. She needed

to find the juju priest.

Chapter 1

********

The three girls sat around the wooden table

sipping on caffeinated drinks and munching on

cake.

“I’m so happy for you Efemena but did we really

have to celebrate your last night as a single

woman in the middle of nowhere?” Stella

inquired, applying a fresh coat of a golden nail

polish on her toenails.

Efemena guffawed startling their other friend

who peered up from her phone long enough to

cast both of them a stern glance.

“Why is Sarah vexing abeg?” Efemena asked to

no one in particular.

Stella regarded Sarah, she was typing away on

her Samsung. “She wants strippers and here we

are” she waved her hands in gesticulation “we

have been whisked away to the middle of

nowhere by you. This poo is boring”.

Efemena scoffed “Stripper ke? We are Nigerians

besides….”

“In Paris..Nigerians in Paris….the most romantic

place in the world” Stella interrupted, she was

painting her fingernails now “ We could be dining

at some exquisite restaurant, treating our

tongues that have been worn out by fufu, starch,

eba and the likes to Parisian delicacies “.

"Tell her oh?” That was the shrill voice of Sarah.

She was still scrolling through her phone.

Stella continued “We could be sliding money into

the G-string of a stripper but you had to drag us

into a cabin in the woods. This is what you do

with your husband to be not your girlfriends”.

“Abi oh” Sarah chirped in a lighter tone.

Efemena feigned a yawn, “I am a child of God-

iyooh, I don’t do strippers”.

“Nobody is asking you to do anybody oh, we just

want to have innocent fun and this is not fun”

Stella snarked.

Efemena feigned hurt “ How is this not fun, I’ve

always wanted to sleepover in a cabin in the

woods, it’s cozy, you’re surrounded by nature”.

She reached for a piece of cake after slurping

down some coke “It is peaceful and quiet, you

can reflect and stuff”

“If I get killed in this cabin ehn, my ghost would

hunt your ghost” Sarah joked returning to her

phone “and if you like eat all the cake oh so that

we would be pushing you inside wedding gown

tomorrow”.

Efemena rolled her eyes, “Mumu….where will you

see my ghost? I no fit die today oh, after all the

yeye boys I had to pass through in order to

reach Frank, no be now oh. I’m enjoying my

bobo” she wiggled her eyebrows.

“Shh” Stella ordered, her eyes wider “Did you

hear that?”

“What?” Efemena and Sarah chorused.

“I heard footsteps “ Stella whispered dropping

her nail polish and crawling closer to the other

girls.

Efemena frowned “Don’t be a mumu joo, we are

the only ones here. The guy I hired this cabin

from said the place is usually deserted at this

time of the year”.

“Shh” Stella ordered again, fear creeping into her

eyes “If you listen really closely, you can hear it”

“What?” asked Efemena impatiently.

“A metallic sound, like someone sharpening

something”.

The room fell quiet as the girls listened intently.

In the quiet night was the scraping sound of a

metal.

“What’s that?” Efemena asked in a shaky

whisper.

“I don’t know” the other girls whispered.

Suddenly something hit hard against their

wooden door startling the girls, making them

scream and scurry from the ground.

“Call for help, Call Frank or anyone” Stella yelled

at Sarah, seeing she was the only one with a

phone close by “Or call..”

Another hit to the door interrupted their

conversation sending them scurrying towards the

bedroom. They took cover in the small sized

closet and talked in hushed tones.

“Call for help Sarah” the two girls pleaded

frantically.

Sarah’s lips parted and with panicked concern

etched on her face, she blurted “I forgot it…it

must have fallen to the..”

“Are you for real?” Stella spat through clenched

teeth “ You are always attached to your phone

like some weird Siamese twins but this one

time…..you better go and get it. I’m not sure the

person has broken in yet”.

“Go and get it yourself” Sarah said defensively

trying to hold back sobs.

Stella angrily pushed back the door and tiptoed

to the sitting room.

Some moments later…

“It's been a while, why is she not back?”

Efemena complained.

“Knowing her, she probably snuck out through a

window, leaving us here” Sarah murmured.

“Maybe..the guys are playing a trick on us or

something” Efemena reasoned “I haven’t heard

any sound, let’s go and look. No matter what it

is, there is more of us than whoever is out

there”.

Sarah grudgingly agreed and they creeped

silently to the living room. Once in the

passageway to the living room , the lights in the

house went out, leaving the girls with only the

moonlight streaming in from the living room as a

guide.

“Stella?” They called out “ is this some kind of

joke? “

No reply.

“Geez” Efemena murmured as they walked into

the living room.

“What?”

“ I kicked something” she replied, bending down

to feel for the offending object, she raised it up

and shrieked in horror as her eyes met with the

blank stares of Stella.

“ Jesus” she screamed hauling the bloody head

at Sarah, Sarah jumped away and the two girls

started running towards the door.

They made it past the door and started running

into the forest when Sarah started to cough and

clutch at her neck. Efemena peered at her and

gasped in shock as she noticed blood seeping

out through her mouth and a small arrow

dangling from Sarah's neck. She looked back at

the cabin and saw a masked man wielding an

axe in one hand and a bow in another, He raised

the hand holding the bow and slowly waved at

her. She turned on her heel and ran as fast as

her legs could carry her into the dark forest.