Chapter 22 - The Other Mothers Awaken
© 2025 TenWrites
No screenshots. No copy-paste. If you forward this chapter, your ring light will flicker at 3:03am.
The kerosene lamp flickered twice.
Then died.
Everyone in the parlour froze.
Not because of the darkness, but because of the low humming sound vibrating from the old wooden floorboards.
Temi clutched Femi's arm. "Tell me you heard that."
Femi didn't speak. He couldn't. His phone had just gone dead. Again.
No battery warning. No app crash. Just black.
Mama Dorcas held the yellowed paper tightly. "The Other Mothers… they sealed themselves long ago. But that voice note means someone has broken one of the seals."
Madam Eunice stood. "We must go."
"Go where?" Temi's voice cracked.
"To wake them," Mama Dorcas said.
Uncle Monday slowly backed toward the window. "Abeg, make una count me out. I no sign for all this ogbanje matter!"
But it was too late.
The floor beneath his feet opened an inch, and a thick fog crept in.
A whisper rode the mist.
"One has already risen."
Later that night - 11:52pm
Behind St. James Cemetery.
The moon looked tired.
Temi's heart wouldn't stop racing.
She, Femi, Mama Dorcas, and Madam Eunice stood at the edge of the forgotten well, holding a lantern, an old cowrie bracelet, and the red bag.
"Are we really doing this?" Temi whispered.
"You are," Madam Eunice said. "We'll guide you, but only you can call the Others."
Temi stared into the well. She saw nothing.
Then - drip.
Water? No. Ink.
Thick, black ink rising from the bottom of the well like a slow heartbeat.
Mama Dorcas raised the yellowed paper and began chanting. Madam Eunice joined. Their voices overlapped in a language that smelled of firewood and old secrets.
The wind shifted. Then, the triangle symbol burned itself into the grass.
Temi dropped the red bag.
The well screamed. Not echoed, screamed.
Then something clawed its way up the stone wall.
A woman.
Wrinkled.
Crowned in sea shells.
Eyes shut.
Floating.
She hovered above the well and spoke without opening her mouth:
"You are late, Daughter of Two. We've waited since 1979."
Temi trembled. "Who are you?"
The woman pointed a bony finger at her.
"We are the Other Mothers. The First Protectors. The ones who bound the secrets with our blood."
"Now… we need yours."
Meanwhile, in the compound...
Aunty Sade paced the verandah.
She hadn't been invited to the meeting. She wasn't happy.
She lit a cigarette, even though she didn't smoke, and muttered, "Them think say I no sabi wetin dey go on."
Her phone buzzed. Unknown number.
She answered, irritated. "Who be this?"
A raspy voice replied:
"You're not part of the triangle. But you're holding one of its keys."
Her hand froze. "What?"
"Check the mirror behind your bedroom door. At midnight, it will show you the face of the betrayer."
Aunty Sade's lips parted. "But…"
"If you break the mirror, you'll never know the truth."
The call ended. And her bedroom mirror cracked on its own.
Back at the well...
Temi gasped as three more women floated out of the mist behind the first.
Each with the same triangle symbol carved into their foreheads.
Each whispering a different word:
Betrayal
Blood
Balance
Mama Dorcas fell to her knees.
Madam Eunice dropped her beads.
Femi held Temi's hand tightly.
Temi closed her eyes. "What do you want from me?" she whispered.
The First Mother opened her eyes. They were silver and empty.
"Everything."
🛑 To Be Continued…
© 2025 TenWrites. You copy, you collect. You post, you toast. Don't mess with ancestral societies and expect NEPA to forgive you. ❤️