She wept in silence, absentmindedly washing off her bloody hands and hoping to God that she hadn’t just killed a man. Bending over, she rinsed her face in the bathroom sink, a moment later the faucet was turned off and the water stopped running.
A deep sigh came forth as she faced the mirror in front of her, wondering if this was how it felt to be a murderer. No, the feeling sucked. She wasn’t ready for jail, besides she didn’t mean to kill him, it was self-defense, he came at her first- tried to kill her. ‘It was an accident,’ that was the delusion she told herself. Muna swiped a palm over the misted glass and her heart limped in shock.
The cut on her forehead had disappeared. What, how? She leaned forward and peered closer but there didn’t seem to be any sign of injury whatsoever. No mark, no blister, nothing. Blood smeared the region on her head when she reached to feel if it still hurt. It did not. Something was definitely wrong and it all started after the mysterious event that occurred two months ago when she went missing at sea.
At the time it happened, Muna was chilly with Fred and Seyi on the beach one cool Saturday afternoon. They laid on the white sheets spread over the soft bar beach sand. It wasn’t a hidden fact that Fred was attracted to her, Seyi had to snap her fingers in his face before he realized himself.
His gaze had been fixated on her fresh black thighs for minutes then later her cleavage. She looked so ravishing in her red bikini that he felt enticed. Seyi was still laughing at him for publicly showing how mesmerized by Muna he was when a woman screamed at the top of her voice that her eight-year-old son had played off from the shore and into the sea. Muna outran everyone who jolted immediately to help.
She dove into the ocean and swam deep underwater to follow the drowning child. Dusky rays from the sunlight like hazy beams were penetrating into the depth. Muna grabbed the boy’s hand and swam him upwards and back to the surface. She gasped for air the moment her face came up. Muna checked if the kid was still alive and luckily, he was. Fred, who was the closest to her, did a breaststroke to where she was and took the boy in his hands.
Muna suddenly felt like something had grabbed her leg from underneath the water. As she was about to complain to Fred, she instantly got pulled under by a powerful force. Seyi and Fred screamed her name while the latter submerged to help. The boy was already in his mother’s arms by now and was about to undergo cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Fred flailed his legs as he floated underwater with eyes scouring the aquatic world to find her but there was no sign of Muna at all. Asides the plants that could only strive here, all he observed were a couple of turtles and a group of colorful fish. He swam around, confused as to how she had just vanished when it was barely two seconds after she sank that he followed. He dove deeper and deeper, the farther he went, the darker it was. Muna was nowhere to be found.
It was three days later that someone found her body washed over by the shore at the same beach. She was alive but unconscious, next thing she knew, she woke up in a hospital with Seyi and Fred by her side. She couldn’t remember what had happened to her these past three days and the idea that she was away for seventy two hours was still a marvel to her.
Blackouts became a regular thing to Muna after that experience. There were no patterns to it, it just happened intermittently and she would wake up in weird places. One time she actually woke up in an uncompleted building in another city entirely. The doctors said she was suffering from something called a parasomnia disorder which could have been caused by lack of sleep but she knew there was more to that.
Tonight she was out with Seyi who took her to a nightclub downtown, she’d left the dance floor and gone to the bathroom to powder her face or so she claimed. Muna actually needed some time to think. She was in one of the toilet stalls just thinking about what was happening to her, why she was losing time when she heard about three ladies shouting at someone she soon figured to be a male figure.
They hollered at him to leave, that the restroom was for women. She ignored the nagging girls but the sudden silence like someone had pressed the mute button on a TV remote control caught her attention. Hills clicked against the tiled floor, departing the restroom and soon the door slammed shut. Muna got off the toilet seat and came out of her stall to know for sure what was happening, that was when a glowing blade flew toward her neck, and would have taken it if she hadn’t ducked away from the attack.
The man in black suit swung the shiny sword around his wrist and launched an attack at her. She discovered that she was equally matched with him in terms of skills and strength. Muna was surprised by the way she was moving so quickly like a trained fighter. What blew her mind away was the blue force that exploded out of her like a globe. The energy was a powerful blow that threw her attacker into one of the toilet stalls. Muna rushed at him and they struggled for a while in that small compartment until she finally succeeded in clanking his blade away.
His fist bored a hole in the wooden demarcation between the toilet they were in and the next after she dodged his blow. She seized his head and connected her knee with his nose. He could have sworn that he heard it break. Muna swung a great punch at his jaw and his neck snapped backwards. She kept bashing his face against the rim of the water closet till the liquid in the toilet had turned red with his flowing blood. When he was weak enough, she dented his head into the wall behind him with a single kick.
Overwhelmed with guilt and fear for what she had done, she washed her hands and face in the sink hoping to clear her eyes, maybe she was still sleeping. This must be a dream, she thought to herself.
“Hello, Muna,”her reflection spoke to her like it was a separate entity. Indeed it was. Muna gasped in fear and involuntarily moved back a bit when she saw what she looked like in the mirror. The lady in the mirror resembled her but she was dressed in a white Igbo maiden attire.
The top was a plain wrapper that covered her breasts leaving her flat tummy exposed. Her waist was adorned with a number of red beads. Below, the lady had the same cloth around her hip. She had braided hair that was packed in two places on her head. Her lips were painted black complimenting the makeup on her eyelids. She looked ancient but beautiful. Modern Muna dressed in a matching brown jacket and trousers on a pair of white trainers peered closely into the mirror and she couldn’t even recognize herself.
The reflection looked like her, but it most certainly was not her. Muna waved a hand in the air. The reflection did not. She slapped her cheeks a couple of times under the assurance that would wake up from this nightmare anytime now.
“Muna, listen to me,” said the reflection, “I know you’re confused-”
In that state of dilemma, she was beginning to lose her sanity. Her fingers combed through her hair as she stepped away from the mirror and leaned her back against a shut toilet door;
“-No, no, no. It can’t be. You can’t be talking to me,”the words burst out of her in a rush.
“Listen to me-.”
“-I must be losing my mind. I’m definitely losing it- I’m crazy!” She panicked.
“Focus, Muna!”the lady in the mirror hollered and she kept calm for a few seconds.
“I just killed a man.” Muna turned to the lifeless body sitting in the puddle of his own blood, leaning against the dented brick wall which his head had previously been bashed into.
“He wasn’t a man. Plus he was going to kill you first. It was self-defense- ”
“- Yeah, tell that to the judge.”
“I will,”came the reply.” That’s if we get caught.”
“Are you for real?!” Muna was really freaking out. How possible was it that her own reflection was talking back? Moreso, why was she dressed like an ancient princess in the Igbo culture?
“Listen to me, Muna. They’re coming.”
“Who’s coming?”
Suddenly, there was a series of loud bangs on the door like someone was trying to forcefully bring it down.
“We’re out of time, they’re already here.”
“Whoa- whoa- whoa! Slow down there. Who’s already here- What’s going on right now, who the hell are you anyway?” The words rushed out nervously.
“My name is Idemmili and in case you haven’t noticed, we now share the same body. Now do you want to keep playing Q’s and A’s or do you want to live?”
“I- I don’t understand.” She stuttered.
“I’ll explain everything later but right now we have to go.”
The banging continue.
“That door’s not going to hold for long. It’s your call, Muna.”
She drew in a deep breath with her hands ruffling her hair in frustration. “Okay- okay-fine. Get me outta here.”
“Now you’re talking.”
“But I still have a lot of questions like; what the heck is an ancient river goddess doing inside me?” Muna was familiar with the Igbo history so it was no wonder she knew who Idemmili was.
“There’ll be plenty of time to answer that later but for now, I’m going to need you to let me take control.”
“What? No!” Muna disagreed.
“Muna, I need to be in charge.”
“There’s no way in hell I’m letting you take over my body,”she strongly objected, claiming she’d seen too many Hollywood movies to know that would be a terrible idea.
“I could make you black out again but I’m choosing to ask your permission. Either way, I’m taking control.”
What more could she lose? Muna shut her eyes for a few seconds and they glowed white, sparkling when she reopened them.
Author: Samuel Francis
