Sequence 1
It's a dark, cloudy evening and the skies hover pregnant with rain over Okija, Anambra.
A little girl, Chidinma, steps out to bring the goat outside into a different part of the family compound as instructed by her mother.
As she unties the goat, looking at the dark sky, she sees a streak of lightning accompanied by a loud bang of thunder which startles her and allows the goat to escape into the nearby forest.
She runs into the forest after it but the heavy rain and crashing thunder scare her away.
Her mother, who saw everything from inside the house, runs out shouting, "Chidinma kedu ihe na -eme nwata nwanyị a!? Simple tie goat I kwere ka ọ gbapụ! Tomorrow morning like this you must find that thing before I come back from the market!".
After thoroughly scolding her they both go inside and take shelter from the rain.
The next morning, as soon as day breaks, Chidinma grabs her phone and runs out of the house in search of the missing goat. She walks 100 metres ahead and sees a large crater covered in scorch marks on the ground.
She hears what sounds like screams from an animal and walks further down to see the freshly killed body of the goat lying in a ditch, its only injuries are a spear wound on it's chest and marks on its neck.
She turns around and upon seeing a figure with glowing blue eyes and hair hiding in the bush she drops her torch and runs away screaming.
Sequence 2
Moise wakes up in the middle of a deep crater, covered in mud and looks up at the stormy sky murmuring, "Mother... Mother... Mother".
Her murmurs turn to screams as she runs out of the hole gasping, "Mother where are you!? Don't leave me alone!"
Her tears mix with the rain as she frantically wanders around the forest covered in unfamiliar brown and green colours.
She eventually takes shelter underneath a fallen tree and prays, "Lord Maahes, I hear your call, give me the strength to punish whoever seeks to destroy my family".
After waiting several hours for the rain to subside and drinking whatever small amount of clean water that fell on her tongue, Moise climbs a tree to get her bearings.
As the sun rises she sees nothing but green scenery dotted with scattered points of light.
All around her she can hear a persistent humming noise and thinks, "What kind of strange land is this? Surely I must be having another nightmare".
She tries to get down from the tree but loses her footing and falls face first into the ground.
Moise spits the dirt out of her mouth moaning, "How can today get any worse!?" then notices a red spot on her skirt.
She feels around and brings out a bloody finger saying, "Why today of all times!?".
Moise grabs a handful of muddy water from a nearby hole and wipes her face. Hunger and thirst tempt her and she considers drinking the water until she hears the sound of a goat rustling the nearby leaves.
Quickly, she grabs her spear and waits for it to come close, luring it in with her waving hair.
Before the goat can react Moise pierces its side and sinks her fangs into its neck.
She rejoices as the spray of fresh blood quenches her thirst but before she can cut into her prize and eat the meat, a beam of light pulsating through the trees forces Moise into hiding.
She watches from a bush as a little girl points her phone's flashlight at the goat, with panic in her eyes.
Moise calms down and steps out to ask her for help but she screams and runs away, dropping her phone.
Moise walks over to the phone and picks it up saying "What kind of magic is this?".
Electric sparks fly as she runs her fingers over the aluminium body of the malfunctioning phone thinking "This thing.... It is... in pain"
She touches the bottom of the phone and it explodes, sending a charge back into her hand and causing her to curse and shriek in pain.
Believing the explosion was punishment for stealing the goat, she thinks "Whatever that was, I don't want to feel it again. I better return this before I get into more trouble".
She grabs it by the horns, puts the phone in her skirt and follows the girl's scent back to her house.
Sequence 3
Chidinma runs frantically to her house and locks the door. She calls out for her mother but hears nothing, thinking she must have gone to the market.
She sees the scary figure holding the goat outside her house so runs to her room, dives under the bed and cowers in fear.
Several moments pass and she hears the door creak followed by footsteps which get progressively louder and louder. Chidinma trembles and says her final prayers.
A hand pulls her out from under the bed, she looks up and sees her mother who shouts "Chidinma what are you doing there for goodness sake,why aren't you answering your phone and where is my goat!?".
Chidinma responds "But mommy.. There is one evil spirit outside that killed it!".
Her mother slaps her and responds "Evil spirit kedu? Better find that thing before I flog evil spirit out of you!" then tosses her out of the house.
Chidinma looks to the forest again, her heart racing with every step. She walks until her emotions overcome her and she breaks down in tears.
She feels something touch her shoulder from behind and drops to the ground in fear once she sees it's Moise.
Before Chidinma can scream, Moise forces her mouth shut with her right hand and signals for her to be quiet with the left.
Moise brings out the phone from her skirt and gently sets it down on the floor.
Chidinma looks on amazed as Moise gently gets up, drags the goat's body from behind a tree, drops it at her feet and walks away.
Chidinma brings the goat back to her mother and explains everything that happened but this only angers her mother even more.
Her furious shouts attract the attention of passers by who ask what happens and Chidinma explains again.
Some of the people in the crowd suggest they go looking for the spirit, others say the goat should be buried and forgotten but an old man steps forward and says "If the spirits have decided to take a goat,we should give it back. Better to lose one goat and live in peace than to keep it's dead body and invoke divine punishment".
Chidinma's mother protests but the old man offers to give her one of his own, which she accepts.
And so the crowd follows Chidinma to the crater and drops the goat inside. The old man also breaks a kolanut in two after a short prayer and they all leave quietly.
The next day Chidinma goes back to the forest looking for Moise and finds her sleeping in a makeshift shelter made out of branches and leaves.
As she inches closer Moise wakes up and is about to blast her with lightning but powers down and sits up when she realises who it is.
Chidinma sits on the ground in front of her and tries to talk to Moise saying "What is your name? Where do you come from?".
Moise responds in her language but they can't understand each other.
Chidinma points to her chest and says "Chi.. din... ma".
Moise does the same and says "Moi..tsu".
After a few moments of awkward stares Chidinma notices Moise's blood stained clothes so she grabs her hand and tries to bring her to her house, which Moise initially resists but eventually agrees after Chidinma threatens to cry.
She tells Moise to wait and calls out for her mother, after confirming the house is clear she quickly pushes Moise inside and takes her up to the bathroom.
Chidinma shows Moise how to use the tap and leaves her alone for a while.
Moise turns on the shower, takes off her clothes, tears off a chunk of soap and thoroughly washes the blood, dirt and goat fur off her body.
Chidinma returns with detergent and a pair of brown shorts, sanitary pads and a blue shirt. She helps Moise get dressed then goes outside to wash her clothes.
After spreading the clothes Chidinma leads Moise to the living room and turns on the television saying "Watch this and let me bring you something to eat".
The TV broadcasts a news report, Moise simply looks on wondering how it works as the reporters say:
"Kidnapping on the rise in Rivers!
Residents of Bonny and surrounding areas are calling on the Rivers State government to do something about the rising cases of kidnapping and suspected ritual killings in their communities. We spoke to one of the indigenes who had this to say;
'Since last year we have not had peace in this area, one by one people have been turning up dead with all sorts of strange injuries.
We are already struggling with the strange appearances of snakes in the community and our children are afraid to go outside. We are calling on the government to save us from this menace!'
This is coming several months after oil workers, including several Dutch nationals, were kidnapped and killed in the area by suspected ritualists...".
Chidinma comes back with a plate of fried meat and a cup of water on a tray. She takes the remote saying " Here why don't you watch this instead of the boring news" and changes the channel to watch a movie.
Moise watches attentively and tries to pick out whatever words she can understand.
Before the climactic final scene the power goes out and both girls groan in disappointment.
Moise shouts "Why!?" and Chidinma jumps in excitement saying "Oh so you can speak English!".
Puzzled Moise responds "Engulish?" and Chidinma sighs disappointed.
She gets up from the couch and brings back her English text book.
She points to a picture of a coin and says and says "money "
Moise responds "gizhuta"
She points to a girl and says "girl"
Moise responds "nana"
The lesson is interrupted by a knock on the door by Chidinma's mother who runs to let her in.
As she opens the door Chidinma excitedly pulls her mom in saying "Mom there's something you need to see, the spirit came to the house!".
Her mom looks around and sees only two cups and an empty tray in the parlour, then shakes her head saying "You have started again with this spirit nonsense, maybe you should go and spend the rest of the summer break with your daddy in Lagos".
Confused, Chidinma stamps and points to the couch insisting "But she was right there!".
Her mom hands her a basket of ugwu leaves saying "You must be idle, go and pluck these so you won't be seeing spirits up and down".
Outside Chidinma plucks the leaves grumbling, "Why did she leave, why?".
After plucking the leaves, she walks over to the bush to dispose of the stems, out of the corner of her eye she sees Moise, wearing her old clothes and drops everything to go see her.
She grabs her by the waist and asks "Why did you leave?" and Moise answers "Bad feeling".
Chidinma tries to bring Moise back into the house but this time, she adamantly refuses to enter.
Moise pulls out a knife from her anklet and gives it to Chidinma, then puts a finger over her mouth saying "Shhhhh".
Chidinma does the same and sadly waves her goodbye before running off.
Sequence 4
Later that evening, the peace of Chidinma's House is disturbed by the sound of several trucks and the loud bang of knocking on the door.
Her mother comes out to see two men in suits with several armed men in uniform behind them. Shocked at all the commotion, she rubs her eyes asking, "What is going on?"
One of the men replies " Is this the house of Mrs Ezinne Nwachukwu? We are with the Anambra police command Anti Trafficking Task Force. There's an 'animal' we are chasing, it ran into your compound, that's why we are here".
Ezinne replies "Please there is no animal in this compound apart from goats and some chickens".
The agent rudely walks inside asking "Are you alone?".
Shocked, Ezinne protests "What is all this? You just come in here, don't even introduce yourself and start asking me all these questions".
The agent steps back and says "Sorry, my name is Mr Charles Okafor but please, we don't have much time, if you know anything speak so we can be on our way".
Chidinma, who just returned from playing with her friends, notices the large crowd at her house and immediately runs into the forest.
An SDF trooper notices her trying to escape and shouts "Hey you, stop!". This leads to three other men chasing her through the forest
She throws the knife in her possession as far away as possible while screaming "MOISE SAVE ME!"
Chidinma notices a blue light ahead and instinctively dives flat on the floor.
Before the trooper can grab her, Moise jumps over Chidinma and impales him to a tree with her spear.
Before the other three men can react she rips out her spear and blasts them with a massive bolt of lightning, killing them instantly.
Noticing more men are coming, Moise grabs Chidinma and leads her north to the shelter she built. She forces Chidinma inside, covers it with tree branches and leaves then runs back south to draw attention to herself.
Charles runs out of the house, hearing the noise in the distance, and shouts "What the hell is going on out there!".
One of the troopers runs to tell him "We made contact with a possible level three sir, four men went out, none returned".
Charles turns to Ezinne and says "Forget we were ever here", she responds "I hope you do likewise" and slams the door shut.
SDF troopers move to recover the bodies of their fallen comrades.
As the corpses are lined up one of them says "All their magazines are full sir and their side arms are still in their holsters".
Charles kneels over their bodies, shakes his head and replies "They didn't even stand a chance".
Consumed by anger, he turns to the rest of his men shouting, "Everyone form a perimeter around the entity and cut it off. I don't care how fast it is, do not let it escape!".
He runs hastily to his truck and makes a phone call "We need helicopter surveillance in my position now, also... get Dele on the line".
The End?