ANJIÁLA – Episode 9

ANJIÁLA – Episode 9

© Bunmi B Gabriel

*Anjiála*

I stood alone in a quiet and dark forest, there was no single ray of sunlight or moonlight in sight. I looked at the dark sky in confusion, not knowing how or where to go. A single ray of white light shone on a spot, a guy stood with back turned to me

His hair was white, gleaming white. It long curly silky strands flowed on his back to his mid back thigh. The wind blew his hair slowly and it danced merrily. His hands were in the pockets of his white loose pantaloons and he was barefooted, j could easily make out the hardness of his shirtless back through the small space in his thick hair

Who was he?

Why was he here?

What am I doing here?

The last time I remember, I had a sleepover in Abbie’s room where we secretly discussed of Arie’s coming birthday

How then did I get here?

‘Anjiála’ he whispered, his voice was softer than anything I had ever heard. ‘Come’ he instructed, I bit my lip and tried to find my way in the dark, something held my feet down. ‘Come’

‘I’m stuck’

‘I know’ he said with his voice which was still making butterflies flutter in my stomach. ‘Do you know why you’re stuck?’

‘No, I don’t know why I’m here either’

‘You’re stuck because you lack faith in what is suppose to be’

‘I don’t understand, I believe enough’

‘Anji, you’re being held back by one thing and that thing will be tested later, once that time comes, you must believe in yourself and learn to trust those around you. Anji, you’re stronger than you think, you don’t carry the mark of Nephaledia for nothing, you weren’t given the highest power for nothing. My spirit trust you with my return and I hope you will learn to trust yourself’

‘I do, I’m just afraid of failing’

‘Then you don’t trust yourself dear, I will give you a hint that will help you. In every mission, in every clue, a path and a happen have been laid out for you and your friends. all you need to do is look deeper, observe every single thing, seek out the visible clue, and do it with full confident. The harder part is yet to come, be ready and always rely on the strength of Aramis’

‘Who’s Aramis?’

‘You’ll see’ was all he said before I got sucked into a hole. I screamed as I fell down the hole until I woke up still screaming. Arie screamed too and slapped me, Abbie woke up screaming and punched my nose

‘Ow!’ I cried

‘Why were you screaming?’

‘Was it a night terror?’ Abbie asked under her breath

‘How did you get here?’ I asked Arie

‘I don’t know, you gurls had a sleepover without me, I’m hurt’

‘We’re sorry, you were so busy practicing how to use your power, we didn’t want to bother you’

‘You could have at least tried me’

‘Sorry, it won’t happen again’ I swore

‘Promise?’

‘A hundred blueberry and a pineapple juice promise’ Abbie smiled, she giggled and smacked my head

‘Why?!’ I cried

‘Why were you screaming? Nightmare?’

‘Is that why you smacked my head?!’ She pressed her index finger on my lips

‘Shhhhh, mommy is talking’

‘I am hundred percent sure you have ran mad’ I said seriously though I was kidding, she fanned herself dreamily

‘I love you so much. One day we will get married and have kids’ she cooed hugging me

‘You’re not a lesbian’ Abbie scoffed

‘Neither am I’

‘Our love can change that’

‘Get off me you psycho’ I laughed pushing her off. She fell on the bed and laughed

‘Time to torment he pretty boy’ she said shrilly and turned invisible

‘Whoa’ Abbie breathed and bit her lip, obviously day dreaming about her own power. The door opened signifying that Arie was out. Ten minutes later, we heard a loud girlish scream

‘Ghost!!!!!’ Zino, we ran to his room, he was on his window screaming and pointing at his books. ‘Ghost!!!!’

‘What happened?’ I asked stiffening my laugh

‘My book, it floated and hit me’

‘No it didn’t’ I said with a tight smile. Abbie was trying to hold her laugh so she couldn’t talk, he was f****ng wearing a boxer with the bold inscription “I’m mommy’s boy”

‘It didn’t float’ the book flew and hit him, he screamed holding the frame of the window

‘Did you see that!’

‘No’ I said playing ignorant

‘Abbie, you saw it, right?’

‘No, I didn’t’ she forced herself to speak. ‘You’re going crazy, nice boxer by the way’ she said with a twinkle of her eyes and walked out. I followed and we heard him scream again, he ran out screaming in fear. Arie appeared beside us a minute later laughing her a$$ out. ‘You need to harden his torment’ Abbie said devilishly, I gave her a surprised look. ‘He needs to suffer for breaking my heart’ she said defensively

We laughed and went to dress up for school

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abbie and I sat in the school’s stadium watching the guys play, practice actually. Siobhan and her friends were cheerleaders and they were cheering, Arie was there too but wallowing because she thought we forgot her birthday. Zino foolishly forgot, none of her family called her and her uncle was away. She must have felt terrible

‘Whoooo!!!!’ Abbie shouted jumping to her feet and cheering. ‘Go Zino!!!’ I rolled my eyes, I was more interested in my dream, I didn’t tell the girls because every time I tried to tell them, something came up so I assumed I shouldn’t

‘Boooo!!!!!’ Arie shouted unenthusiastically, I nudged Abbie

‘What?’ She mouthed

‘We need to go’ I whispered

‘Oh ye…..wow! Awesome shot Zino!!!!!’ She shouted clapping her hands. He winked at her which clearly angered his babe, she waved her hand and Abbie suddenly fell down with a force that made her hit her head hard of the roll of seat behind us

‘Abbiana!’ Zino shouted and ran towards us, forgetting his practice

‘That b***h, I’ll deal with her’ Arie stood up, I held her hand. ‘But…’

‘Please’ I pleaded, she huffed and helped Abbie up, Abbie was crying, her head was bleeding

‘Abbie are you okay?’ Zino asked worriedly, she glared at him and slapped his hand away

‘No thanks to you’ she hissed, pushed him out of the way and stomped off. I sighed and ran after her with Arie

‘Hey, it’s not his fault’ Arie said with concern. Abbie wiped her tears

‘I know, I just hate feeling weak’

‘Let me deal with them’ Arie huffed

‘No, you can turn invisible, not counter a witch, be reasonable’

‘I will so deal with them’ Arie ranted on. ‘I’ll make s….Abbiana, your head’ she gasped, the blood running down Abbie’s head returned to it source and the wound closed up. ‘You have healing power?’

‘We all do’ I whispered and gave her my jacket to cover her head with the hood. She took it and wore it cursing under her breath

‘Ariana!’ Someone called, we turned and saw Mateo jogging to us, I rolled my eyes away, my crush on him was dead for no reason. ‘Can I show you something?’

‘Are you going to rape me? You can’t even try’ she snorted pompously

‘I don’t rape girls, I seduce them’ he smirked

‘Whatever’ she pushed his head and smiled at us before pulling him away by his ear

‘She’s too much of a handful’ I said jokingly, Abbie said nothing, just walked away. Okay?

__

**Ariana**

I followed Mateo to the boy’s locker fearlessly, he walked in with me and the looks were annoying. I ignored them and focused on his back, his muscular back. How hard it was to be crushing on my enemy

‘Here we are’ he said once we reached his locker

‘So you brought me here to what? Show me how stupid you are?’

‘Can yo be nice to me for once’ he said sadly

‘I will when I die’

‘You’re just a stupid thing’ he huffed, that hurt bad. He opened his locker, brought out something… A gift!

‘For me?!’ I squeaked

‘Unfortunately’ he scorned and threw it at my face, I caught it anyways and screamed in jubilation. ‘Happy birthday’ he grumbled

‘Thank you so much, thank you for remembering, no one remembered, not even my best friends’ I said with gleeful tears rolling down my cheeks, he looked shock that I cried. I’ve never cried in his presence once. ‘Shut up’

‘No’ he shook his head. ‘I won’t believe that Abbie forgot, maybe that white haired chick but not Abbie of all people. She must be planning to surprise you, they both are’

‘You think?’ I asked poutingly

‘I know’ he smiled

‘Oooh! I’m so happy’ I screamed and hugged him. ‘I promise I won’t be mean again, at least for a month’

‘Seriously? What happened to forever?’ I pushed him away

‘You bought me a gift, not a house’ I scoffed, I sat on the floor and unwrapped the gift. I opened the box and squealed. ‘A me doll! A doll to show how pretty I am’ I hugged the plastic wonder of me and shrieked excitedly

‘What’s going on here?’ I looked at the girl

‘I got me for my birthday’ I said happily showing her the doll. She scorned at me but I didn’t care. ‘I have to show my gurls’ I stood up and hugged him again. ‘Thanks Matt and take this for a handful’ I kissed him quickly on the lips, pulled away and winked at the fuming Siobhan. ‘Bye new boyfriend’ I skipped away

‘Mateo! You just stood there and watched her kiss you!!!’ He didn’t reply, he was dazed. I ran out swinging my doll. I screamed when she suddenly appeared in my front

‘What are you doing!’

‘I swore to end any girl that dares try to steal a guy from me and you are one’ she said venomously with red eyes, she looked so innocent yet dangerous

‘Okay’ I said with a shrug

‘Seriously?’

‘Do your worst’ I smirked. She growled and whipped her fingers, nothing happened like I expected it not to. She tried again thrice but nothing happened

‘Who the f**k are you!’

‘Let’s just say I might have my own personal secret, one no one except me know’ I whispered, I removed the cross from my neck and waved it. ‘Know this?’

‘No’ she panicked and stepped back. ‘What are you doing with a sacred cross?’

‘My grandmother’s a nun, she made sure I wore one soooooo’ I smirked and three it on her, it was pure iron, consecrated iron. Witches are allergic to such. She screamed and disappeared. ‘That should keep them away from us for now’ I picked up the cross and wore it back

One can never be bold without real backup.

___

**Anjiála

‘No, Ariana won’t fancy this’ Abbie said disapprovingly, we were trying to pick out the right jewel for a gift and so far, Abbie had rejected the entire store

‘Abbiana, pick already’ I said in exasperation

‘Do you have any pearls? She loves pearls’

‘We already showed you our pearls collection ma’am’ the tired worker said bitterly

‘They are all the wrong colors, can’t I get a specific color?’

‘It can be made but it won’t be ready today’ she said through gritted teeth

‘This won’t do, let’s see another store. I want the perfect present for my sis’

‘Abbie, this is the nineteenth jewel store we’ve been to, pick something!!!!’

‘Okay okay, calm down. I’ll go for the pink and blue pearls with a heart…no star shape’ the girl and I exhaled with relief

‘I’ll get I…..’ A loud gunshot made her scream

‘What’s that?’ Abbie panicked

‘Everybody down, now!!!’ Someone shouted from the other room, I instinctively grabbed Abbie and ran towards to hall I saw.

‘My gift’ she pouted

‘Thieves’ I reminded her, we ended up at the roof top

‘Now what?’

‘We stay here and wait, it’s better that way’ I sighed sitting down. I stared at my fingers lost in thought, thinking of the guy and what he said.

‘Anjiála’ Abbie called with a far away voice, I hummed. ‘Look’ I looked at her. ‘The golden eagle’ she whispered pointing to the statue a little far from the edge of the roof. ‘Taller than trees, solid walls….’

‘The building is the taller object and it solid walls’ I said in realization

‘Eyes of gold, sacred orbs’ she finished, she looked at me and I nodded. She inhaled and walked to the edge

‘Be careful’

‘I’ll try’ she took off her shoes and stretched to the eagle since it was far

‘Careful’

‘I’m trying’ she reached out a s removed the gem from it eyes, her legs were trembling and body vibrating

‘Don’t look down’ I cautioned, she looked down

‘I’m looking down! I’m going to die! Anji help me!!!’ She screamed in panic, I stood up and ran to her but I was too late, she fell off the building screaming in fright. I cupped my mouth and watched as she plunged to the ground. ‘Solaria!!!!’ I heard her scream and just as she was about to hit the ground, her body spun and her feet hit the ground, she dashed off, a light line of lava fire trailing behind her.

I stared in shock, she had gotten her power

Her fire trailed back to the roof and she carried and ran us home. It was amazing feeling the wind at such speed, she stopped in my room gasping for breath

She learn fast

‘I’ll be back’ as soon as she was gone, she was back with Arie.

‘Oh God’ Arie said and ran to my bathroom to throw up, she returned and hit Abbie. ‘Never do that again….whhhhhhhoa! Power alert!’

‘We’ve got the second one’ Abbie showed her the orange one, it disappeared into her hand and words quickly wrote itself on her left forearm like it did to Arie. She read it

‘Roses and doves

Butterflies and stones

Jasmines in a bowl

Heathers in a roll

In the dragon’s teeth

Lies another key’

‘Great, we now have dragons’ I sighed and fell on the bed

‘We can do this girls, I know we can’ Abbie said happily, sure feel it girl. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, I saw that guy in my dream, his back turned to me like it was in the dream

‘Trust in the name of Aramis’ Lumina whispered, I smiled and felt a whole new courage, I’ll be fine.

To be continued

ALL EPISODES