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A Raven's Tales

Chapter 1: A wisp of smoke

The night is clear and bright, beautiful infact..... Although I never thought I would go this way, I guess doesn't completely seem to be such a terrible night to die.

About two hours earlier...

Me, My boyfriend and his best friend on an highway on Ogun State, Nigeria, we have been driving now since around six thirty PM from Olumo rock.

We came to this mosquito infested continent touring every thing the African continent has to offer, and this was our last stop Nigeria. Our flight back to Canada is scheduled for tomorrow morning so me, my boyfriend Carl and his best friend Jimmy decided to drive back to Lagos since most of our luggage is in an hotel in Lagos.

Two days ago Jimmy suggested that we visit the famous mountain at Abeokuta before we leave since it was only a five hour drive down there. When we left earlier in order to make it back before noon but silly Carl got us lost and we had to pay a native motorcycle carrier to lead us to the highway.

Looking at Carl driving in front, made my heart swell in annoyance. Although I know it's not his fault that we are still on the road by this time, I just could not help but get angry at the thought that we might miss our flight back home. We are all final here students studying photography at the University of Toronto and given the fact that we had already extended our stay here, if we miss this flight we would have to turn in our projects late.

"I'm sorry Ann, I mean it I didn't know that I missed the junction earlier so please stop looking at me like you want to rip my head off." Carl pleaded we he noticed me staring at him angrily through the mirror.

I just scoofed at his silly excuse, turned away refusing to respond and pulled out my phone while Jimmy was snickering at his misfortune.

I completely ignored both of them and started playing an offline game since the internet connection in this place seemed nonexistent. The game was oddly satisfying enough and I kept playing it until I ran out of lives, so I turned on the in-app timer to inform me when my life gets recharged again, then I placed my phone in my pocket and since I didn't want to talk to either Carl or Jimmy I laid back and soon fell asleep.

Probably around ten minutes later, I woke up feeling something was wrong and noticed we had stopped. Carl why did we stop? I asked baffled.

"We ran out of gas." he replied heaving a sigh of frustration while getting down. Jimmy followed him out and since they both came out of I also followed.

"So are we going to sleep in the car now?" Jimmy asked. There no houses around here what are we going to do.

Hearing that and not wanting to suffer because of the boys mistake I quickly spoke up. "I call dibs on the back seat."

"It seems that not going to be necessary anymore." Jimmy chuckled softly pointing at a path through the woods. Over the canopy we could all see a wisp if smoke raising back-lit by the moon.

"Great we are sleeping with natives in the woods again like did in Kenya." I muttered in annoyance thinking of all the mosquitoes that are probably buzzing around right now amongst those trees.

We locked up the car and walked towards the source of the smoke close to fourty minutes later we could see a fire lit but getting there we immediately realized that something terribly wrong is up with this camp.

There were seven men wearing red and black traditional robes with chalk marks all over their faces. Although that seemed weird that wasn't the problem, the problem was that there was an already dismembered body roasting over the flames.

It was impossible to identify what the person looked like before being butchered and roasted to a black char but it looked really grotesque seeing pieces of a human body with blood stains everywhere on the floor. Later one of the men took an arm out from the flames and spread on the arm what seemed like........ barbeque sauce?

Seeing the scene we were all first shocked and gradually fear crept silently into our hearts, all three of us stood there frozen listening to their chants and watching as they feasted on a person's body until brought out a teary eyed little girl who seemed no older than five, placed her neck on the rim of a stone bowl and hacked her head off, draining her blood out into the bowl with her head still in it and passing it round as they each took a sip of it.

As we snapped out of it I almost puked but Carl held me up and made an hushing sound. As we turned around to head back to the car the alarm I set on my phone went off and the notification from the game popped up.

"Fuck!" I swore as we all ran to the car

"Who?!!" Hearing the ring one of the men shouted in broken English before speaking to the others in a native tongue and started chasing after us.

Although we had an head start those men were starting to catch up, evidently the cannibals had more experience commuting the woods in the dark. We kept on running until two of the fastest men got close enough to grab me, seeing one of them stretch out his arm to grab me Carl stopped to tackled him while Jimmy tried to stop the other one from cornering Carl.

"Keep running!" Carl shouted at me, flustered I kept on running. Almost getting to the highway I saw a pair of headlights and in tears I ran waving at the vehicle to stop.

The vehicle started to slow down but seeing one the cannibals in his weird attire jump out running after me the vehicle immediately sped up leaving me stretching out my hand towards them despairingly.

Looking at the quickly disappearing taillights with tears streaming down my face and hearing the thudding footsteps coming behind me I stalled to a stop. Carl and Jimmy where probably dead, I looked up at the sky, the night is clear and bright, beautiful infact. Turning around to look at the raised machete with a sad smile on my face, although I never thought I would go this way, I guess this doesn't completely seem to be such a terrible night to die.

. . . . .

"Hey, are you okay?" Carl asked worriedly as I sat up from the car seat drenched in coldsweat.

"I'm fine." I responded nodding my head

"Then what's up with the whimpering." He asked worriedly.

"I just had a bad dream." I replied.

"Oh, OK if you say so just rest up alright?"

"Uhmm, how much gas do we have left?"

"It's about half full, why?"

"Oh nothing." I responded. "Carl.... "

"Uhmm, what's up?"

"I love you."

"Oh.... thanks"

"Urgh.." Jimmy whinned as he stuffed in his earphones. "Can't you guys do this later, you're not alone here remember."

I just smiled and looked outside. Not sure if it was an illusion or not, but in the distance over the forest canopy I saw a wisp of smoke back-lit by the full moon.