"Miss Chidinma..miss Chidinma can you hear me!?"
The voice came to me like a sound traveling through an endless tunnel. White light flooded through my eyes.
What was happening?..where was I?..why did the light hurt so much? Suddenly, like a freight train all the events of the night came rushing back. The dance, the scream, Chichi in a pool of blood..dead.
I screamed.
"Chichi! No! No! Why!? Why!?.." I cried vehemently, pulling at my hair.
"Miss Chidinma we need you to calm down, you are not in a good condition..." The nurse said, her voice mingling with my cries.
I jerked up and pulled the tubes and clips and tags of my body. I needed to get away, I needed to think. The nurse, damn her, she was trying to stop me from leaving.
I pushed her away with all the strength I had left. I made it to the door but I felt myself fainting. Someone had caught me.
"Rex?.." I said before drifting off again.
~~~~~~
There was a light again, but this time it was paler, almost numinous. I felt like I had pulled away from my body, my spirit hovering somewhere in between a void and the light.
The light. It was calling me, pulling me in, I felt myself moving towards it like one in a trance. It felt like I was moving through an endless tunnel at lightspeed. Suddenly, halted at a clearing, white, bright light surrounded me. As if compelled, my eyes found a wavering figure, far off in the distance. It was just rooted to one spot.
"H-hello? Hello? Do you know where we are?" I asked moving closer. My voice sounded like I was hearing it through water.
As I drew closer, I noticed that it was a woman. "Hello? Where are we?" I asked again.
"In your mind." the figure answered startling me. As she turned I gasped breathlessly.
It was Chioma. She was wearing a white sleeveless dress that billowed around her, making her look ethereal..she looked almost heavenly. She looked calm, happy, serene, like the night of her death, while she danced.
Although she looked so unlike Chioma, the fire that was her still raged in her now calm eyes. Like blue fire.
"Ch..Chioma.." I sobbed, holding back tears, my voice shaky with emotion.
"Why?" I asked the tears had already started falling, staining my face. She smiled sadly at my tears but still, she did not speak.
"Please Chi, please talk to me. Just talk to me! Tell me!"
Still smiling sadly, she shook her head somberly.
"If I told you straight away then the cause of my death would be lost. You have to figure this out on your own my Dinma. Do you understand? Every step you take, I'll be with you. Remember that." She finished with a hand on my shoulder, her eyes boring into my soul.
I didn't understand. I had more questions.
".....then the cause of my death would be lost"
What did she mean? I did not understand. I was about to ask, when I felt myself being sucked violently through from the white light, back through the void.
Suddenly, I gained consciousness and found that I was still on the hospital bed. The worried eyes of my parents and brother were staring at me, streaked with tears and relief.
"Chidinma.." my mom started, as a look of relief flooded her face. A slow tear trickled down her cheek as she hugged me to her bossom.
"Chi m o, dààlu!" she said lifting her eyes to the heavens. My dad and brother looked equally relieved and asked me how I felt. As I answered them, I suddenly remembered what happened in the void.
"I saw her, mama." I said suddenly, my voice cracked and heavy, causing confusion to cross the faces of my family.
"I saw her, she was in this place and..and she was talking to me saying.." I started babbling until I felt a gentle hand squeeze my shoulder.
"Baby girl, it's okay..it's okay." At this I started to cry. My mother took me in her arms, rocking me from side to side, whispering soothing words into my ear, as my heart bled.
I had just lost someone very dear to me, a sister I never had and more. Grief had automatically become my greatest companion.
~~~~~~
"Chi m oo daalú" means "Thank you Lord."