I saw a short post by @Theblackdoll saying the Halloween writing contest is ending today and I said; "oh sh*t! I haven't written mine yet". I already got a topic in mind some days back but I was focused on other article, but here we go.
The supernaturals of new era school
I went to a private primary school that's close to a public secondary school called new era and it's an all-girls school.
Back then, we are always hearing rumors of mysterious activists being done in the school, and sometimes it affects my school as well. There's a forest all around the public school and people say there are all sorts of creatures in there which includes witches as well (but in this case the students of the school are the culprit).
One notable creature which I have heard roams that forest is called bush baby. They say it walks about with a mat in one hand and an oil lamp in the other, and it cries just like a baby. The cry is used to attract victims who think it's a baby and go out to rescue it, and they end up getting killed.
Students of the public school have told us that some of their peers have gone missing when they entered the forest and they believe it's the work of the bush baby.
Another version of the story says when one encounters the bush baby, they are offered boiled yams by the creature and if you eat from the yam, you will be killed. Adults have warned us to never go into the forest because of the threat of the bush baby, but a friend of mine disobeyed.
An encounter with the bush baby
We usually go to the field in the public school to play football when all the students have gone home, and as usual, we were there one day playing football.
During the course of playing football, one of us decided to go exploring and he ventured off into the forest, and nobody knew until we heard a blood-curdling scream from the forest.
Everyone froze and we were all looking in the direction of the forest, and that's when we noticed someone was missing. No one dared take a step towards the direction of the forest and we were contemplating running away when suddenly we saw him running out like crazy.
We all stood back waiting for him to meet up with us, and when he did he was sweating profusely. We asked him what happened and he went on to explain that the bush baby almost caught him.
Everyone's heart skipped a beat when they heard that name. He went on to explain that he went into the forest and was trying to pluck some fruits from a tree when he suddenly heard a baby crying.
At first he was confused and was wondering what a baby could be doing in a forest and then he suddenly remembered the bush baby. He turned back to run but something grabbed his legs and he fell, that was when he screamed. He got back up and kept running until he came out of the forest.
After that story, everyone hurriedly left the field and we never went back to play football there again.
Mermaid in the school
As I said before, some of the mysterious things that happens in new era secondary school also affect mine sometimes, and the one I could vividly remember was the appearance of a mermaid in the school's toilet.
A river flows behind new era secondary school, just beyond the forest and we have heard that there are mermaids in the water or as we call them in Nigeria; mami water.
These are not the regular cheerful mermaids you see in barbie or Ariel in the little mermaid movie, they are vicious creatures that kill humans.
I was in my classroom back then when we suddenly started hearing shouts and there were commotions everywhere, someone ran by and was screaming " there's mami water (mermaid) in the toilet". As soon as my class teacher left to see what was going on, we all ran out as well towards the direction of the restrooms.
When we got there, all the teachers were gathered at the door of one of the toilets and I saw one of them with a broom flogging something I couldn't see. Some of the teachers were holding the students back and some others were praying hard as the one kept flogging the creature with a broom.
The teachers finally succeeded in sending all of us out of the vicinity of the restroom. I met my younger sister who arrived at the scene earlier and she told me that what they are flogging has a fishlike tail.
I started wondering what could a mermaid possibly be looking for in a primary school's toilet and out of water, what if it wasn't a mermaid? If it wasn't a mermaid, what then could it be that even the headteacher was present at the scene?
I was feeling that it couldn't be a mermaid and when I asked later what happened to it, they said it "disappeared". Although I didn't believe it was a mermaid, so many students who saw it believe it was because they all said they saw a fishtail.
It was a pretty big incident and the school had to be shut down immediately and for the next few days. Up till now my sister still believes it's a mermaid because she saw it but I had a hard time believing it coz why will a mermaid just be chilling in a toilet?
Conclusion
And there! That concludes my entry for Theblackdoll's #Halloweencontest2021. It has been a race but I am glad I was able to publish this before the end of today.
I still pass by my old primary school and the public school once in a while and even though it has been a lot of years, I can't forget those experiences.
The forest around the public school has been leveled down and the school is now wearing a modern look, unlike before that it looks like a haunted place.
It was after some years that I got to know that there's actually an animal called bush A.K.A Galago, but I still believe there's a killer bush any out there.
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Saturday, October 30th, 2021
Very creepy, I would never set foot in that forest. And about the mami water in the bath. It sounds a bit hard to believe but who knows what would be in that bath that had several terrified.