struggle with the voice in my head "thirst" the muffled voice spoke. I staggered towards the refrigerator, forced it opened, and snatched a bottle of chilled Eva water, screwed off the cover spilling some, I gushed it down my throat in a bit to quench the burning thirst in my soul.
Dryness overwhelmed my soul with an unquenchable thirst, am I suffering from acute xerostomia? What is going on with me? I panted heavily.
"Thirty"
The voice slowly became louder as my body became weaker.
I rushed outside the cottage for more air.
"Thirty...."
The voice screamed in my head. My body about to give up in the struggle to understand it or suppress it, I staggered and stomped into the yard. Thousand sound filtered into my ears like I was using an antenna, I could hear a man foot steps coming from afar. Seems like my sense organs were in triple function. I walked slowly towards the man' a million thoughts for action ran in my head, almost exploding it.
Fizzled out.
The young man glided past me like a shadow. Everything happened so fast.. before I could realise we had passed each other by, i exhaled a relief but I saw myself feasting on his flesh.. head buried in his torn stomach to drink the gushing blood.
It has a very offensive smell but it sure did quench the burning thirst.
I felt satisfied.. calm, coolness of life returned to my being.
Then, I recognised myself.. Jeffery Jackson. This was me.
"What was i doing here with quirt of blood all over my shirts and face?." .
I looked down trembling "Who is this man.. is he dead?" I was blank " Who kill him?"
He must be dead.. the copious of blood lost is too much for him to survive.
Petrified! I stood here deadpanned for a second trying to calm the nerves that had gotten the best of me that I shivered like a jelly.
Somehow, I had to get out of there before someone saw me and identifies me to the police.
Dread in my gut, I ran back to the cottage, pulled out my clothes and shoes into a box and set them ablaze, soaked myself in my bath tub my heart hammered in my chest, i pondered on what had just happened and wished it didn't.
"How did I get to become a killer, I have always been a very compassionate person," I scrubbed few blood stains in my fingers.
"what changed?"
I took a box of Benson cigarette and a lighter, picked one stick out of the box, hit the coloured side on the bathroom wall, puffed it into my mouth and parks the lighter a couple of time before it lit up flames... dragged it up a little and throw it away.
The voice in my head whispered "are you not thirsty?"
Hastily' I jumped out of the bath-tub.. hurrily wore my cloth and pick up my phone. Dialled my Doctors number... the voice on the other side said
" Hello Jeff"
"Dr. Inyang, I need to see you now." I requested my voice was croacky.
"Are you Okay?"
"Doc wia you dey abeg?"
"Ok. Come hospital.. I dey dia."
The voice in my head seemed quiet for a period. I zoomed to the hospital...took the lift to room 45' psychiatric department. knocked and barged into his office without awaiting the "come in" order.
"Jeff! Can you wait just a second' i am having a session with the lady here" he stretched his hand toward a beautiful lady sited across his chair.
My entire body started to shiver, like a bad drug addict... I stood there without words nor movement.
"Thirty" The voice returned in my head and louder this time.
"You have got chills." Dr. Inyang said as he stood up from his seat.
"Excuse me ma'm... let me see what's wrong with him. He is my friend."
He walked up to me.. I can smell his blood.. delicious it will be.
I controlled my urge...emotions run wild, my veins turn green.
"Have you been taking hard drugs Jeff?, when did you start this one na?,
Hmm see Jeff o that was a dullard." He said sarcastically as he pull down my lower eyelid to observe my eyes.
"Blood red eyes" He mumbled.
"Have you been really stressed lately Jeff?"
I struggled to reply him but the voice kept thundering in my head
"Thirty..."
The young lady starred at us, affixed in her glaze.
Her blood will be more delicious.. i turned my attention towards her..
"I need her." I soliloquised.
"What? Wha..t are you saying Jeff."
The push my voice out to speak but no words.. I better vamoose her before I..
I turned and walked back to my car..
Like Lion awaits its prey, I waited in my car patiently.
Few minutes later..
The young lady surfaces... walked majestically towards the hospital gate.
I comported myself and approached her.
"Excuse me please."
She stopped and looked at me.
"I want to apologise for the show I just pulled off with my friend Inyang, I actually wanted to frighten him" I smile shyly " we do a lot of silly things to each other.
She was still looking shocked.
"You mean that was just a show.. ?" her eyes beamed.
"Well.. apologies accepted."
She proceeded to walk off.
I cleared my throat and spoke again..
"My name is Jeff."
"I am a writer... author of "the moon"
She smiled broad.
"The moon? I love that novel. Such an interesting read. I read it cover to cover at one siting." She giggled. Looked me straight in the eye
"But i hatred the author for his suspense chai.. Jeffery Jackson."
I smiled back sheepishly..
"Sorry for the twist.. do you like horror genres? I am presenting writing one I tittle it Thirst. Its a mixed of zombie and vampire stories"
"Wow.. i will get a copy once it is published." She said tapping on my right shoulder.
"Can I drop you off." I asked.
"If you wont get out of your way to"
"I am sure ...it will be within my route."
We both laugh
I drove her through the back of my cottage to the path behind it.. i packed right in front and asked her out gently.
"Where is this Jeff?" She said softly.
"I thought you will love to see where i draw inspiration from."
"Let go... it a little pond with many birds singing" I joked
She hesitated at first...then she followed me clinging to my arm.
We walked a little farer into the path until the voice whispered again
"Now!"
I hate myself for this... truly i really do but i had to feed my thirst else i start drying, cracking from the inside out.
"I am sorry pretty lady" I said and pushed her to the ground. She hurried to stand up suspecting a danger coming.
I jumped on her and tore her up. Her intestines flew out from the busted stomach, blood jet everywhere...
I drank to my filled...ate till i was too heavy to move.
I dragged myself out of her lifeless body.. brushed off pieces of her skin on my mouth, pulled of my shirt and took off to the car and drove slowly back to my cottage.
I am really sick.. I took the manuscript of my novel and jotted roughly down some lines... disgusted by it, I tossed it off the table...
"HELP ME". i sobbed.
I cried myself to sleep, and suddenly the ringing of my mobile phone woke me. "Amaka Disappoint me' i don wait you tire, i don loss weight o" by famous Nigerian singer Tuface Idibia. ..
I carried by head up from the table with a groggy feeling. Picked the call on speaker phone, my mum spoke on the other side of the line..
"Jeff! Jeff!. Helloo Jeff"
" hello mum.." I grudgingly replied her..
"Good day" I greeted.
"Good day Jeff' how are you? We have been worried sick over here... its been few days now since you went to feed your livestock at the cottage.. you didn't say you were staying at the farm house for that long oh" she paused.
"Your brother wants to come over and bring you some food items cos i knew we had very few left over there."
"No no mum.. he shouldn't bother. I was even planning to return home later today."
"But he had already left Jeff....you know how your kid brother is.. "
I switched off my phone at once....and turned it on again.. swinging it up and down to reboot faster...
I dialled Timothy's number and it rang without a pick.. my heart jumoed.
I kept dialling as i spoke to myself..
"Timothy can not be here with me like this... .oh not Timothy...Please.. no.. "
"Jeff..!" Tims Shouted happily as he knocked at the cottage door.
"Go away Tims please!" I screamed from the inside...
"Open the dame door my friend he insisted."
"Alright Guy... " I unlocked the bolt and let him in.
"Have you been staying in the pig house... you stink."
"You look peel too.. are you turning your colour to white.?"
"Chameleon thinz .. see as you just dey resemble zombie." Tims mocked at me.
I couldn't utter a single word, my heart raced in my chest.
"Oh boy make I rush microwave this soup mum gave me to bring for you and also make Eba for you.. l am sure you haven't eaten good food since you came here".
He swaggered across the room towards the kitchen.
Sighting my manuscript on the floor...he bend and picked it up...
Took a peak at the tittle and read it aloud "THIRST."
"You eh.. "
"Mr writer... "
"You get brains sha.. " he dropped it on the table and swaggered off to the kitchen.
I sat down on the wooden chair beside the table and wept without tears... I might have developed Sjogern's syndrome out of fear.
"Big bro' dinner is set." Tims beckons.
It was my favourite Affang soup with much meats and dry fish..
"Excitedly" i washed my hands and jumped on my seat... moulded a big ball of eba and took it near to the soup to take some but it looked dead and disgusting.
I looked again trying to clear my eyes but it looked like left over carcasses in a rotten feasted body.
"I cant... I screamed.
"Can't what?"
"Can't eat?" Tim teased. Looking at me with eyes full of disappointment.
"O'boy e bi like say this your novel is making you act weird... he lend forward and picked up the manuscript on the table and read the title out again scanning through it with his eyes...
"thirst' hmm"
Suddenly the voice thundered in my head.
"I am thirsty' eat him NOW"
I hold my head and shook it fast to calm the voice but it intensified.
"I want to drink your blood Tim." i said with a hoarse tone.
"Oya come and drink na .... somethin dey wose you oh Jeff."
"Run Tim... I will eat you up." I screamed.
"Awawa.. Mr Vampire Jeff. Oboy stop messing with me here and lets eat."
I bounced on Jeff like a jaguar will do it prey.. He tumbled off the chair and summersaulted over, wrestled me with all his might.
I punctured his neck with a big bite and he screamed his last word...my name "Jeffffffff"
His hands went flapping on the ground and everything became still. I drank up his blood which has become tasteless in my mouth... my stomach clenched.
I groaned in pain..
"Timothy.... ."
"Now no will ever be spared". My eyelid narrowed " All...everyone is going down." I said
I had just became a beast.
Threaded even my myself..
I picked up a chain saw and cut him into pieces...
Chewing some of his parts raw and groaning..
When i was done, I cleaned up the entire cottage with some disinfectant and bleach. Packed the leftover of his body in a black refuse bag and buried it in the backyard of the cottage, stormed back into the cottage and call my mum on the phone.
"Hello Mum.."
"Jeff is your brother there yet.?" "He didn't call to say he arrived"
"That's why am calling mum cos I have waited for him long enough... I am heading to town now to get more feed for the livestock."
"Ok call you when am back mum."
"Okay. Bye."
I wiped off my tears and took up the manuscripts, jotted more lines on it.. this time planning where else to go and feast on.
"Whose next?" I said with a nostalgic tone.
I took a clean bath and shaved up. Ironed my shirt and wore them neatly just as my former self used to, drove back home, loud music jamming in my car stereo' it was a song of Asondi Owendi blasting in the airwaves. I grooved to it beat.
I parked in from of our compound and entered through the passengers gate..
"Mum..". I screamed as if i just returned from yankee.
Mum saw the excited and was happy too. She hugged me tight and prayed her usual "God bless you" for me. Too ashamed to accept the blessing' I muttered "Amen" under my breath.
"Mum.. I wanted to dash in and great you and then ask you for just a little favour."
Mum looked at me smiling .... "I know the favour." she said.
"Money and I don't have any here."
"Mum, I will pay you back as usual just borrow me small na .. give me your atm card..i'l return it as i used to."
Mum shook her head...searched her handbag and handed me her ATM card.
"Same pin ..." she said.
"Thanks mum" I smiled
"How much are you taking this time Jeff?"
"Twenty thousand only for more feeds."
"Make sure it is only that amount o." She said with a very serious voice.
Mum had been both a mother and Father to us three kiids since our father passed. Our most senior is married and has two kids, I and Timothy.. ( I breath out).
"Oh Tims... "
I broke down in the car.
I drove around looking for someone to lure like dangling worm for a fish to be hooked.
Then suddenly I sighted one of our neighbours who newly moved in to the estate. She herself has been very weird...always dressing very flashy..
Not get me wrong here...not a good flashiness though' I will say rather gaudy. She loves wearing sequins.. which I hated.
I remembered I and her sitting in our frontage to talk when she just moved here... I told her I was the author of the moon novel.. a thriller fiction story.
She went' " have you ever experienced this things you write."
I laugh and remained her it was all fiction.
"Will you love to experience your writing come alive.?" She asked with a very dubious smile.
I looked at her ..thinking to myself..'she is such a wiredo'.. does she even know my storylines?
Anyways' that was it for me. No matter the smiles, waves or trying to flirt with me' I saw nothing. I was done with her type.
Here she was' walking all alone.. a perfect prey.
I slowed down the car and wound down the glass..
"Hey Theresa.. where to?"
She stopped and smiled.
Still steaming the car engine, I pulled over the car by the roadside.
"How are you Jeff?"
"We no dey see you this days again." she said.
"You bin miss me?" I winked.
"Oya come enter car let me take you to where i have been hiding this days to write in our cottage down town."
She didn't even waste a second.. she jumped into the car... and posited herself very well in front....
She is too confident for my liking... her blood probably will taste less...afteral Tims of all.. was tasteless. I grumbled.
And where is this silly voice again... i need it to ginger me to act right now.
Nothing happened.
She just kept smiling.
"How many is that now Jeff." She asked me looking outside the window
"How many what?"
I feel her control in my spirit ..why is she controlling me.. I pondered.
"Have you had enough already?" She asked again
"Enough what...?"
"Experiences na...what else? .she replied still looking at the window.
"Well... I have less experience with women if that's what you mean.. I am a one woman- type of man."
"And I have not even found "the one" yet. Orr could it be you?" I joked.
We arrived the cottage.
I led her in..
And tried to serve her some cooked meal.
She looked at it and thundered
"Thirsty"
I was in shock.
All of a sudden her voice thundered in my head "thirsty" ..the voice had return.
I rushed toward her to feast but she just raise her hand and directed me out...
As she kept saying the word 'thirsty.. it became more intense in my head..
I ran out of the cottage.
Searching for my next victim..
I never thought I could be that desperate for something..
I was....
Very desperate for blood.
I sighted a boy walked towards a shop few houses by my cottage.
"Hey you." I called.
He stopped and pointed to himself.
"Me?"
"Yes You."
"Can you help me buy a tin of sardine from that shop." I walked up to him, looked into my empty trouser pocket and brought out nothing...
"Oh dear' Do you mind walking with me home to get you the money.. so you can also know where to bring it when you buy it?"
"Yes! he said innocently."
"I have something on fire we have to hurry."
As he followed me into the house, I locked the door behind him.. before he could shout.. I bounce on him' tore him apart and eat him up.. he was soft and his bones cracking as I chew...I drank up his blood, licking the ones on the floor like a dog....and she was just there' sited cosily watching the display.
When I was done. Her voice ceased and I regain my consciousness. I lift up my face and she was there live in my cottage.
"Theresa" I muttered.
She didn't look scared, frightened or surprised...
Inshort, she was the master-minder...my controller..
She is evil herself.
"Theresa who are you?" I questioned.
"Where will i start from?" she said.... positioning her self queenly on my wooden chair just the way she did in front of my car.. I was infuriated but felt controlled my spirit.
"Start from any way ma'm..i want to know who you truly are."
"Alright... I am a ghost. A living dead.. a zombie as you people call us here" She giggled.
"The real me died years ago... shot died by the police as i was feasting on a young boy like this one here" she pointed to scattered body parts of the young boy.
"One thing about the spirit of this innocent ones is that they will get you caught."
I staggered to the floor.
She continued..." I have taken several bodies so i can switch personality, and this one i have now will be the fifth".
She looked at me menacingly
"You are my possession now. You are mine."
I got up on the floor shaking like a dry leave blows by strong breeze. I ran to the door to unlock it and she stretched her hand over it and it jammed locked us inside.
"You can not run from me Jeff."
"You have no where to go... you kill your brother soon your mother will call the police...n guess what? You will never be that her favourite son anymore"
"Someone saw you kill that boy.. soon they will report his disappearance to the police and... you will be caught, Lifetime in jail jeff." she laugh wickedly.
"You lie... no one saw me ... i know how i play my cards." I consoled myself.
"If you say so Je...ff."
She pointed to the wall and a video of how i met and spoke to the boy started playing... so many people saw me ...in short someone who i know personally saw when the boy walked with me into my cottage.
Ukpong... the dry cleaner saw us walk inside the cottage....
" simple!"
" I will just kill him" I said.
"Hahahahahha Jeff... do you want me to show what will befall you if you try that?.
Oh you don't want to see...I can serve you from it all Jeff, If you decide to follow me. But if you walk away...you will keep being thirsty.. and you wont last alone out there... you will be caught and sentenced.. and ..... the prison and your kind' ah it will be hell for you."
I broke down crying ..
"Why did you do this to me?"
"What did I ever do wrong to you" I wept.
When i was relieved of some heaviness.. I cleaned up the cottage and she advised i throw the remnant of the boys body parts into my fish pond and I did.
We drove back to the estate. I packed in front of my compound and walked together to her house. She showed me the picture of who she originally was and others..
"She has never been beautiful" I said to myself... I hated her but now I am stock with her.
Thinking on what to do next to deliver myself from her snare... "should I tell my mum? What if she call the police on me for killing Timothy?"
"Should I go to the church to see her pastor? What if he also do same.?"
I trembled... I need to leave here and help myself now that i know who is behind the voice.