In a small lamp-lit room echoing with the rattling sound of a beaded gourd, accompanied by chanting of incantations, was a small wooden humanoid figurine placed atop an altar with blood dripping from the top of its head down to the altar as a bald and skinny old man covered with stuffed animal fur for clothes emptied a cup of blood on it with his back turned; chanting its praises and shaking the beaded gourd as he poured the blood. The shrine's walls were covered with red cloth and stuffed animal fur along with the altar and everything around it, with bones dangling by a thread on the ceiling.
As the old man was concluding his ritual to the figurine, a young man wearing eyeliner barged in unannounced and greeted the old man by abruptly lying flat on the ground and getting back up in the blink of an eye.
"Ahhh!.". The old man exclaimed and stopped his gourd shaking at the young man's presence without looking away from his idol.
"Greetings, Baba". The young man greeted again tipping his cap that looked like it had dog ears and adjusting his Dashiki before taking his seat on the floor beside the altar.
The old man turned dramatically slow, revealing his face to the young man. He had wholly black lips and dry skin with white paint circled around his left eye and black paint inside the white circle like a panda's eye. "Okanlawan~, I will curse you and send you into the forest. Can't you see that you just interrupted my oblation?~". He cursed with his raspy voice almost singing at the end of every sentence or phrase.
"Ah ah Baba, you can't curse me, I'm immune to curses, they don't affect me anymore. Ah-ah. Don't you know, that when a man is exposed to excess cursing, he becomes immune to it's effects? I have gone beyond someone that can be merely cursed long ago." He said cockily, fanning himself with his cap. "And why is it so hot in here, why don't you build a window or something for this shrine?" He complained, but the old man ignored him and proceeded to finish his ritual. He covered the cup of blood and put it on the ground three times beside the altar where another figurine was wrapped with a black and red cloth and it had a two feet long cane in its hand.
The old man bowed his head to the ground and muttered some prayers to his idols before getting up and gaiting lopsidedly towards the young man. He took a seat on a low stool three feet away from the altar to attend to the young man, while still holding his cup of blood. "Alright, tell me, what brings you to my shrine at this late hour?~" he asked.
"Look Baba, all these things you are doing... there's no power in any of it. Your voodoo is powerless, all these tricks and oblations to the gods are meaningless, it's nonsense. Even this blood,..." He yanked the pot of blood from the Old man's hands and examined the content in it. "...is this even real blood? it's as dark as your eyes, Isn't blood supposed to be much redder?" The young man lamented and rained insults, vexing the old man.
"AH! Haaaa!~..." The old man exclaimed yet again causing the whole shrine to quake, now instilling fear into the young man. "Okanlawan!~ You are instigating me! Do you wish to be sacrificed to the gods, are you planning to get yourself killed by my hands?~" he said, after standing up to stop the quake.
"Ah no, no, death? Please, have mercy, o great priest..." He performed a priestly ceremonial gesture for pleading before laying flat on the ground in fear of the man's power and pleaded for his life at his feet.
"Are you also a member of the priests' community?" The old man asked curiously.
"Forgive my ignorance. Please, don't be angry. The charm you gave me, it, didn't work the way it was supposed to. I went to the market to try it on one of the market women yesterday, to get some items without having to pay, but it didn't work. Instead, I ended up getting drenched with water in the middle of the market." Okanlawan narrated while still gripping the old man's feet. The old man calmed down and took his seat and gestured for him to take his seat, with pouted lips. "Thank you, Baba. Thank you." He got up and dusted himself before taking his seat.
"If it were not for your father, what a pity, I would have turned you into a goat a long time ago. Ah, Akinmade, one in a thousand men, child of the mighty elephant, Akinbogun, child of the nine forefathers of war, always successful in every endeavor, when battles arise, Akinmade is the hero, when war comes, Akinmade leads the fight, a child who never fears, who never retreats. Oh, how we miss you so..." The old man took his time to praise Okanlawan's late father Akinmade. "....May his precious soul rest in peace, until we meet again." He concluded and turned back to face Okanlawan only to find him murmuring with a squinted face, obviously he did not like his father. "Why exactly are you here?" he asked disregarding his disrespect to the name of his great father.
"The charm you gave me didn't work,...You said that if I rubbed it on my lips and lick it, people will do whatever i say without question." he said, bringing out a leaf wrapped substance from his pants to give the old man.
"Did you recite the incantations I told you to say before using it?~" The old man asked knowing that his reply would be negative.
"Which incantation? Ah-ah, THAT incantation?!" He exclaimed.
"No oo, it's a fish, you thief~ How could I give you a charm and not give you an incantation to make it work?..." He scolded sarcastically, but as he scolded, Okanlawan was busy eying the figurine holding a cane in its hand, stealing glances as the old man scolded with his shaky old man voice. "Forget it, I'll make you an even better one. I have some of the most powerful charms inside the house, let me get one for-..."
"...Hold on, hold on, don't be in a hurry.... You see, right now, I don't think i want another of this kind, here you go...." Okanlawan rudely interrupts as the old man was about to get up. "...that's what I want..." He handed the wrapped leaf to the man and pointed at the idol with the cane with childlike demeanor.
"Look at his mouth, rubbish, you thief. You're such a fool, and an ungrateful one at that. Ah-ah, the nerve, did you give me money or did I owe your father anything before he left this earth?"
"Didn't you just say 'Akinmade is a great person', 'rest in peace', eh? Why don't you consider all that he did in his time here on earth and help me. You know what, I don't want it anymore, sorry I even asked." Okanlawan imitates the old man's voice mockingly as he quotes him.
"I wasn't going to give it to you either. You just pointed at Anjonu Elegba like that? do you wish to have someone killed? This power is greater than the ones used for ordinary people." The old man said, bragging about the power of the spirit in the figurine.
"Ehh, really?" He asked, massaging the old man's ego.
"Ah, the great assassin spirit, Anjonu Elegba, you can't handle its power, if you try it, people will die~" he warns before getting up to go get his charm in the inner chambers of the shrine, unaware of Okanlawon's intentions.
"....You lying old bastard, I'm not about to die anytime soon....look at how small this thing is. Is this what is supposed to take my life?" he got up, hissed, and proceeded to run off with the figurine. He ran as fast as he could away from the old man's clay-house shrine and ended up in a forest, it was a very late hour. He looked around for a moment before bringing the frigurine out from his pants and unwrapped it cackling moronically as he did. "Old fool.... Now, Anjonu Elegba.... Anjonu Elegba.... Anjonu Elegba, I summon you the third time, heed me now." He summoned the demon that was contained in the figurine and awaited its arrival.
He called the demon three more times but it didn't appear, he became and frustrated, and angrily tossed the figurine in the bush. "Ah, what kind of unfortunate spirit is this? I knew it, that old fool has no power at all, he's all bark and no bite... Ah, I've just wasted my time, thinking I stole gold, turns out It's a worthless bit of dirt..." He kept lamenting and didn't realise that the dust-like figure was quietly emerging out of the figurine like a genie from a bottle and started to form a huge demon. The demon was a giant humanoid looking creature with an abnormal height, it had multiple whips and canes laminated on its body like arsenals around its torso and waist, and a longer cane in its left hand. It had thin pieces of cloth strapped all over its body like fur, with a wooden hand-carved voodoo mask being the only part of it that was not covered with the thin pieces of cloth.
As soon as its body completely materialize, it crept closer to Okanlawan, who was done with his ranting and was about to leave, and it raised its hand that held the cane and was about to strike Okanlawan, but it missed him by an inch. The force of the strike was so powerful that the cane cut into the tree that Okanlawan was leaning on and was stuck in it; the impact caused Okanlawan to fall face first on the ground before realizing that the demon he summoned had arrived, but the demon was too powerful for him to control like the old man said, so he took off running. He ran around the huts, calling for help but no one answered, and the demon was catching up to him until he could no longer run. He ran back into the woods and ended up at the door of a small cottage where the demon caught up with him.
"Please, I beg you, I have learned my lesson, forgive me, I am sorry..." he continued to rant, pleading for his life as the demon was taking rapid breaths, growling, dancing around him and heaving its chest like a gorilla, and raising its hand that held the cane, swinging it like it was charging up to deliver a lethal blow. But then, just as the demon was about to strike Okanlawan with the cane, a bright light in the form of two massive and majestic wings appeared suddenly from behind him and when the demon saw it, it let out a terrible roar before bursting into flames. The whole time that the light appeared and disappear, Okanlawan had his eyes shut in fear of death, even after the demon had disappeared. "Yeeeee! I am dead, I am dead, I am dead, I am dead!..." He kept yelling with his eyes shut until the door behind him creaked open and he heard it. "...Ah, It's too late! I'm dead now, you should've opened the door sooner, but now I'm dead, I am dead, its all over... Ah!..." he started crying, kicking and hitting his palm on the ground where he sat, like a child.
"Young man, what are you doing outside at this time? Can't you see that its dark?" An Old Woman said when she saw the young man at the foot of her door.
"Leave me alone.... I was screaming earlier, 'Help me, somebody help me,'... Is this the right time to open the door? Eh? Ha! Everything is so dark now.... Wait, was that a ghost like me? Old Lady! I can't see you, show yourself...." he continued to cry with his eyes shut, thinking he is now conversing with the dead and stretching his arms forward in an attempt to touch the Old Woman.
"You are not dead, open your eyes." The Old Woman said walking out to stand Infront of him, she had in her hands a lighted lantern on her left hand, raised up to see the young man's face, and a book on her right hand, held up to her chest. And when Okanlawan realized that his eyes were indeed shut, he opened them and the first thing he saw was a wrinkle-faced elderly person with grey brow and scattered hair holding a lantern to his face, so he shrieked thinking she was the reaper. She immediately dropped her lantern and covered his mouth. "Ah-ah, what is wrong with you, young man? Ah, you shall not die but live in the name of Jesus....What brought you here?" She whispered, and he calmed down and decided to talk after looking around and realizing that he was still alive, he then started mumbling in an attempt to reply so she took her hand off his mouth.
"Please....may I come inside, please? I beg of you. Don't let me remain out here, please." He asked humbly while still reliving the trauma of being chased by the demon, and the woman nodded and helped him into her house where he explained everything that had happened to him.