OMONIGHO
By Oselumhense Anetor
[email protected]
+234 816 425 4347
Chapter One
Voices
Omonigho heard the sound again. She shriveled closer to the wall of her bedroom. She felt the icy fingers of the cold wall against her left cheek. She quickly removed her face from the wall. Why won't the voices stop? She pressed her forefingers into the holes of her ears, hoping to cut out the sound. But they kept humming inside her skull. Omonigho knew her condition usually worsened at this time of year. It was raining season, and the powers within her grew as the rains fell. Tonight, she had gone to bed wearing many clothes. She had even worn the oversized cardigan her mum had given her for her sixteenth birthday. Yet the chill seeped into her bones, defying the warmth of her many clothes. It felt as though she were naked on a cold harmattan morning. She could hear the rattle of her teeth as they shook to the rhythm of the chill she felt deep inside. The voices called to her again and again. The humming rang clearer and faster. There was something seductive about it; something alluring.
Omonigho had been carrying this burden since she was seven. She had dreamt of a tall beautiful lady in white, under a vast sea. She had even been given a room adorned with jewelries and embroideries, too beautiful to describe. In her dream world, she was a princess; a very favoured one. The Queen had told her that she was privileged to have been chosen among the maidens of her lineage. That dream had been several years ago. When she woke up, she had told her mum about it, but her mum had looked at her with dishonest eyes and told her it was just a dream. Over the years however, Omonigho had come to realise that her dream state was not just a figment of her imagination. In fact, there were times the dream world felt more real than her ordinary world. She had long since come to accept the voices and the dreams as part of her existence.
The voices continued humming inside her head, driving her to ecstasy. Omonigho tried to resist. She knew what would happen once she gave in. She knew she'd be back at her room under the sea, where the Queen sat with reddish eyes, where a mighty serpent kept eternal watch over the ancient book of names and secrets. She needed to fight. She wanted her freedom. She didn't want to go to that place of fear and extreme obedience, at least not tonight. She clutched her pillows in a strangling embrace. But before she knew it, she was carried into the darkness, into layers and layers of waters.
Back in her bedroom, Omonigho rolled unconsciously from her bed onto the floor, her limbs parting and closing as though she were swimming in an imaginary pool of water...
Chapter Two
Sleep
Dawn arrived late the following morning. Mama Omonigho, as she was fondly called by her neighbours, woke up late as well. But she was yet to know. She sat up on her bed and waited for the familiar chime that would signal the early hours of dawn. But the old clock hanging on the opposite wall was silent. Mama Omonigho peered at it from her position, trying to make out the tiny frail hands of the aged thing. But she was unable to see clearly enough. Rays of dawn were yet to illuminate her cluttered room, and she didn't want to make the walk across her room unless she could see a little through the darkness. The lantern that she had kept beside her bed the previous day had gone out, in its thirst for kerosene. Thinking she was probably up too early because of the intense cold and rain of the previous night, Mama Omonigho lay down again. Unknown to her, the old clock hadn't chimed all through the night. It had died noiselessly at midnight.
The rays flooding the room woke Mama Omonigho up. She had dozed off. She jumped up from her bed and instinctively glanced at the clock. "Twelve O' clock?" She muttered to herself in disbelief. She rushed to the window, drew the weary curtains aside and studied the skies. "Oh God", she said again and again. "Oh God, we're late." It was Ewatto market day and she was already supposed to be in the market at this hour. She rushed out of the room. Then she came back, gave the old clock a good shove and went back out. In the silence, the clock came alive and began chiming all the hours it had missed.
***
Omonigho was fuming. She sat on her small throne, inside the chamber of the Queen mother under the sea. The woman wanted her to lead the other girls on a mission that promised to be dangerous. Omonigho was having none of it. How could the Queen mother ask her to go on a mission inside a church again? She hated churches and she didn't like going into them. She had already been to several churches and successfully brought down many men and women of God. Their names were now successfully written in blood on the pages of the ancient book. But each time she went inside a church, something changed within her. It was not a feeling she could describe. The Queen mother should know better than asking her to risk her life continuously in this manner.
"You'll do as I say", the Queen mother bellowed. Her voice rang out like thunder all over the ocean floor. "How dare you question my authority?" Her eyes blazed fire, and the ancient serpent curled and uncurled, sensing the Queen mother's discomfort. The Queen mother knew her little princess was stubborn. But she also knew she could not punish her even if she wanted to. She was a rare child, with all the qualities of destruction etched into her destiny. She had single handedly accomplished many more missions than all her other maids put together. Her position was not just bestowed; it had been written in the sacred books many years before she was born. She was a maid with 'extra grace'. So she could misbehave a little now and then, knowing she could get away with it. The Queen mother let her temper recede. "Don't worry my princess. You'll be safe. I'll make sure of it".
Omonigho kept quiet. She didn't like it when the Queen mother read her mind. She always did it. It annoyed her. She knew the time of cleansing would soon begin - the time the box that only she could open would be brought to her. Then the missions will begin in the seven regions, and the blood will begin to flow in preparations for the big feast. Deep down, she hated these moments. It was as though a part of her wanted none of it. She felt the eyes of the Queen mother on her and she raised her head. The Queen mother had been reading her mind yet again.
***
Mama Omonigho rushed into her daughter's room. "Omonigho! Omonigho!" Her daughter lay on the floor of the room, as still as a corpse. The harsh words she had wanted to spew on her daughter for not waking up early enough on a market day screeched to a halt inside her throat. She knelt beside her and shook her gently from side to side. "Omonigho?" She shook her with a little more force. "Omonigho?" Her voice had gone up a notch. “Hei! Osenobulua ooo. Not again. Not again oooo. Omonigho! Wake up ooo, wowo. Heo!" Even as she wailed, her mind went back to the circumstances surrounding Omonigho's birth; circumstances that none fully understood, circumstances best forgotten.
Chapter Three
Missions
Omonigho bore the third giant pot of hot water on outstretched palms as she glided towards Agbor junction with three maids from her court following closely behind. She had decided to delay her mission to the church till last. In the meantime, she needed to make sure she performed her sacred duties before the feast. They had already made stops at the junctions in Ogwa and Ebelle. Agbor was the final stop. Omonigho moved past the swarming crowds of people; people without sight. Many of the children of the world were without sight; they had eyes but they couldn't see beyond their noses. She recalled that these preparations used to be done at midnight, when everyone was fast asleep. But because of the way church members went to those junctions en masse at midnight to pray, many of their activities had been hindered in the past. So the Queen mother had decided that preparations would henceforth be done in broad daylight, when many persons were most likely not praying.
Omonigho got to the junction and glided down at th
e very center of the express way. Her maids took their respective positions, as alert as they could be. She set down the giant pot of hot water and watched it dissolve into the asphalt. Then she said the final words and made the signal to depart. In the next few weeks, these buried pots would be the altars from which the realm of the underworld would summon souls into their kingdom. In the ordinary realm, cars drove past as usual, and human beings moved about with indifference, oblivious of what was happening before their very eyes.
***
Mama Omonigho was hysterical. She wailed helplessly as the doctor tried to rouse her daughter from her deep slumber. It was already midday of the second day, and Omonigho was still fast asleep. She had abandoned all thoughts of going to the market as soon as it dawned on her that there was something unusual about this particular episode. She knew that Omonigho occasionally came in and out of consciousness, a mystery she never fully understood. But each episode never lasted more than fifteen minutes. She had finally alerted her neighbours when it was getting close to an hour and her daughter still showed no signs of coming round. That was how they had landed in the hospital in the evening of the previous day. Mama Omonigho had thought her daughter would die this time. She had had to get help.
"Mama," the doctor began. "Your daughter is fine. Her vital signs are normal; her pulse is strong and stable. Her heartbeats are firm and regular as well. I've checked everything I should. There seems to be nothing wrong here mama. This situation is truly mysterious." The doctor wrote something else in his pad and asked the next question. "What happened to her mama?"
Mama Omonigho looked at the doctor and began narrating her story.
***
Somewhere else, Omonigho was being prepared for her mission to a Catholic Church in Sapele. She and her seven maids stood still as the Queen mother summoned a fallen angel into their realm. Fallen angels were summoned for missions with high priority and maximum risk. The Queen mother only controlled the realm of shadows, dreams, serpents and mermaids. At the higher plane, principalities and powers of various ranks reigned supreme. These were governed by legions and legions of fallen angels. They controlled all the seats of wickedness in the high places.
The fallen angel stood tall and huge. His presence significantly dwarfed even the regal majesty of the Queen mother. He looked angry and impatient. Without saying a word, he raised his hands and conjured a corn-like object from nothingness. He handed this to the Queen mother and departed in a hurry. It was as though he was never there.
The Queen mother stretched out the corn-like object toward Omonigho. "Take my princess. Eat of the bose and become unstoppable. Eat, and march to victory. Eat and vanquish the foe. Eat my princess. Eat!"
Omonigho took the corn and consumed it. She could feel the powers grow within her as soon as she tasted it. Then she walked to the ancient sanctum. The mighty serpent moved aside, revealing the ancient hole. Omonigho stepped into the hole and lifted the book that none could carry. She opened it and read the portion that contained words none could read; words more ancient than time; words that aligned times and seasons. She closed it and took off, her maids following closely behind.
On her throne, the Queen mother sat in majesty, eyes blazing with pride. Her throne was bathed in the glow that emanated from the one inscription at its topmost point 'EKANS', which was the inverted spelling of SNAKE.
Chapter Four
Fate
As Omonigho made her way to Sapele that afternoon, her mind kept drifting to the reason she hated churches. Because of her extreme beauty, many men were irresistibly drawn to her. As she grew up, she had come to discover that men of God were drawn to her the most. They always wanted to be close to her for a reason she could not understand. It was much later that the Queen mother had told her that she had been born with 'the eye'. She had further explained that the eye was reserved for the most privileged of princesses. Princesses with the eye only needed to glance at men, and they became enveloped in lust. Seduction was one power they wielded with utmost expertise and accuracy.
Omonigho had grown to love her powers. With time, she came to realise that she had serpents attached to her body. These serpents always led her to all the places the Queen mother wanted her to go, including churches. She was so powerful, she usually went alone. Her missions were also simple - initiate young girls, seduce men of God and scatter their flock. She usually did. Soon afterwards, these ladies, as well as the men of God would come to their water kingdom without knowing exactly why they had come, and their names would be entered into the ancient book of secrets for constant manipulation and oppression.
Omonigho felt the Catholic Church before she saw it in the distance. The force coming out of the building disrupted her thoughts. It had taken about ten seconds to make the journey from the ocean floor to the Church. She glided closer to the entrance and paused. Her seven maids waited silently behind her, waiting for her cue. Omonigho had never been inside a Catholic Church before. The Queen mother had a different mission for her this time - sow the seed of discord. It was a simple enough mission. All she needed to do was go in, drop the seed of discord at the middle of the Church and depart. Omonigho surveyed the surroundings and made the decision to enter the Church from the roof; a big mistake.
***
The Queen mother watched the progress of her maids from where she sat on her throne. This was one mission she wanted more than all the others put together. She wanted this particular Church brought down. The sheer force of the warfare coming from that point in the universe was engendering the highest of confusions in her seven realms. She had tried severally to focus on the activities within the Church and failed. This was why she had had to send her most trusted princess on this mission. Discord was the only thing that could weaken the warfare. It had to be done. She saw Omonigho ascend to the roof, with her maids following close by. She held her breath at that moment, pleading to all the high powers to favour their mission.
***
Mama Omonigho rushed into the Church compound at exactly 3 pm. She looked at the signboard in front of the Church in order to make sure it was St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church. One young boy came towards them. He looked at her, at the seeming lifeless girl she carried, and rushed back from whence he came. No one needed tell him the urgency of their situation. Mama Omonigho sat down on the ground at the vast compound of the Catholic Church. She was like a mad woman with a dead child. Her hair was disheveled. Her wrapper had long since lost bearing. She has even forgotten her slippers inside the cab that had brought them from the hospital. She gazed into the heavens and cursed the day Omonigho's father had dedicated her poor daughter to the family goddess. Back at the hospital, one of the nurses had approached her as soon as the doctor left the room. "Madam," the nurse said, looking at her with sad eyes. "You need to carry you pikin comot for hospital o. Wetin dey do am nor be ordinary at all. I beg, carry am go Church. I go show you one Catholic Church wey near here well well." That was how they had been discharged. Now, here she was, sitting on the ground completely exhausted. She shifted her gaze to the closed eyes of her unconscious daughter, waiting anxiously for someone to come to their rescue.
Chapter Five
Turning point
Omonigho glided down from the roof. There was dead silence within the Church. One could hear a pin drop. The silence was deafening. Omonigho looked straight ahead at what seemed like the altar of the Church. Her gaze met a peculiar object. She couldn't remove her eyes from the shiny star-like object that was seated at the middle of the long altar. There was something inside the object; something whitish. She couldn't tell what it was. One moment she was gliding, and the next she had crashed down at the center of the Church. Even on the ground, she kept looking at the object. It was as though the thing within the object was calling out to her. She tried to move closer but couldn't. It was as though she was bound in invisible chains. She felt utterly powerless. Deep within, she knew she was doomed.
Omonigho looked around and saw t
hat no one had noticed her presence. People knelt down inside the church. They were motionless, with eyes lifted toward the same object that had so silently called out to her. Maybe it was a kind of charm; something that gave them power. She tried again to get up, but she couldn't. She was worried and scared. What about her maidens? She was supposed to give them the cue to move in. Omonigho closed her eyes. This was like a bad dream she couldn't wake up from. She pushed all her powers to her arms and made the sign. She knew the maidens were not supposed to come in just yet. But she needed all the help she could get. She didn't even know if the sign had worked.
***
Nothing prepared the maidens for the situation they met within the Church. They crashed straight down as soon as they made entrance. It was as though their powers refused to come into the Church with them. They lay there on the floor with Omonigho, their gaze drawn to the shiny object in the distance, their mission totally forgotten. Omonigho had never felt so alone in her life. Well, at least now she knew the other maidens had heard her sign...
***
Fr. Esene came out of the rectory with a frown on his face. He had not properly understood the little boy that came running to him with an absurd tale. Why would a woman bring a corpse to the Church? She wasn't expecting him to raise the dead now, was she? She might have mistaken the Church for the Catholic hospital which was a few blocks away. That was where the morgue was located.
"Please sir! Help me. Help me o!" Mama Omonigho wailed as soon as the man in white came close enough to hear her. "Please save my daughter. Please.” The tears dropped freely down her cheeks.
"Easy ma'am. What's wrong with her?" Fr. Esene looked closely at the woman and the girl lying face-up across her knees. They didn't seem to notice the heat of the sun at all. The girl wasn't dead as he had feared. He could see her chest heaving up and down. Maybe she was unconscious.
Omonigho: The marine princess Page 1
