Hell Again

by Mihret Adal Gidi

  For a good reason, I cease to analyse the crooking sound coming from behind be. More like approaching towards me. Every part of me starts to feel bad and fearful, shivering. Just as I feel her on her hands and knees on my left, I hear her making a resting growling sound coming to an end.

  I can feel something isn’t right, but I suddenly start to hate being alone with Jane. I speed up till it hurts my knees and she keep up; her breathing is changed into ferocious; feels like, tongue all over the place like an animal is licking everything wastefully in a growling breathy manner and yet still wet and messy all over.

  All I ever care about is getting to Zhai as soon as possible. I couldn’t waste my time to stand and run in this very last rest space, but I keep crowning which she keeps up with me. Before I come to my foolish realisation, I feel Jane’s arms blocking me as a sudden gulfing air brushes my face and wet hair strings back.

  “Watch out,” she says. I hear the voice of an old lady and I scream, falling back to a safety from falling down into the hollow we formed. I can’t even presume to look at her, I simply squeeze my eyes shut.

  “Are you okay, Adha?” I can hear Zhai’s echoing voice coming from down there.

  “Wait, I’m coming!” I hear Abebi screaming, but she sounds closer than Zhai.

  “Relax, calm down,” Jane once again utters. “It must be the darkness getting to you, calm down,” she repeats herself.

  Could it be true that I am that stressed of the dark to hallucinate Jane into something else? I am not willing to take any more chances by allowing her to get close to me.

  “Don’t get near me,” I scream.

  “It’s me, Jane,” she says, but to my mercy, Abebi is already here.

  “It’s me, Adha, are you okay?” she asks me, and I take her hand in a hurry.

  “Get me down, please,” I beg her, and she instantly helped me down the hollow, holding me tighter with her left arm.

  “Stay on the root you will be sliding down before you know it, its covered in algae and Zhai is waiting down there,” she says, as she helps me hold still on the root and she was right; in no time I slide down into Zhai’s arms, but I am screaming. I look up to where I can still hear her explain to Abebi about what she thinks happens to me.

  “What is it?” Zhai asks me, worried. She looks up and then down at me.

  “Nothing, you can help them,” I said. I just didn’t want to jump into my conclusion; I don’t want to make a mistake, only to throw all our hard works to a waste.

  I turn to look at Zhai standing as she helps Jane stand still after her sliding, but then I smile, looking at Abebi, who is sliding down the root like pro; standing with her legs parting in fair distance and she seems like she is enjoying it.

  “Are we cheering up already?” she asks me, and I widen my smile when she walks towards me.

  “I… I ’m really sorry,” I laugh breathy, hugging myself and she shakes her head.

  “I can also sense something different,” she whispers to me, looking to Jane, who is paying attention in our direction as she is talking with Zhai.

  “I don’t know,” I answer her, sharing a whisperer with her. I exhale long and press my lips my eyes still at her.

  I lick my lower lip and look around to the huge space we end up into. I can see clean water space, like a lake under stone... I mean, a lake in a natural cave, it seems, showing its glowing creatures in it, just perfectly. The rest of the surrounding feels solid; huge stones and dry land, by the spot we are standing by, but everything here is moderately wet, the wall of the solid stone cave is covered by alga as a result.

  If this were under different circumstances, I would have enjoyed everything I am seeing at the moment, but situation has me stuck with confusion to whether accept it or drop it. I turn to look back to the root, we have been following it, leading our dig all the way down here. We chose the root the intruder was sucked through.

  My eyes slowly follow the trail of the root we followed all the way down here; I stay focused, following the trail from the top of the hollow we formed all the way down to the end of it, but it has unfortunately made its way through the huge stone. It will be impossible to even think about hammering to break make path through it the way we got here. It also sounds way more terrible to give up and go back after making this far.

  I look at Zhai and Jane, who seem like they are scheming for the way out and then back to Abebi, who is staring at me quizzically, like she is trying to read my mind. I can guess she is disappointed, that we have reached to an empty space where we can’t do anything. I turn to the lake and stand, giving Abebi my back and my face to the lake.

  “I hope you are not expecting us to swim down, I know I don’t have gills,” Abebi says, and I smile. I think she fear my fixed gaze to the lake, suspecting I might suggest to swim.

  Great, good thing she mentioned swimming, it helps me recall the intruder’s situation; how wet she seemed, sodden. I look down at myself and realise that I am wet but definitely not drenched. My memory is now clearer than earlier; she was drenched and cold. This space is cold, and she must have come through the water to be that drenched. I gasp and frown as another flashback hits my head; I remember her mentioning going through… That was her last word.

  Exactly! I spread a smile as I understand everything. It’s all clear for me, but I can’t proceed if I am not sure about Jane. What are you, exactly? I flick turn to face her and she is sitting alone.

  “Spit it out, already?” Abebi utters, rolling her eyes at me, her hands on her waste; I guess this is her, tired of me and my doings, as well as being mad at me, but trying to keep it to herself. “Except, a swimming thought,” she adds rolling her eyes.

  “How did you get here?” I ask her, whispering, and she elevates her eyebrows up. “I need to check on something. Be sure.”

  “Jane?” she asks, and I nod. “If she said so, it’s because she knows. She knows me well,” she says. “Why would you ask her about me?” she asks me, squeezing her eyes in disgust at gossip and I shake my head.

  “We were conversing, besides, that’s not the point.”

  “What is?” she asks me, and she is definitely getting worked up.

  “Is it a secretive attraction to finding someone else?” I had to ask her before things get out of hand.

  She didn’t say anything but gasps in disgust and disappointment. Narrowing her eyes, she gets down to her dress and rips out the rest of it only to stand in a mini dress she just forms, and she looks amazing with that shape of hers.

  “What are you doing?” I ask her in shock.

  “You wait and see,” she says, pressing a disappointed forced smile on her lips and gallops round Jane, and before she knows it, she spreads the ripped-out garment on her hands and spreads it sideways and places it round her neck.

  I am already screaming at the top of my lungs and Zhai runs closer to help Jane but I run to block her way, I don’t know why I scream but I guess it’s reasonable for me since I didn’t see it coming. Jane keeps struggling, but, indeed, Abebi, really is as strong as she said she is. Jane couldn’t escape her attack.

  “Wha is goin on?” Zhai screams.

  “Wait,” I say, but I don’t have good enough words in me to calm her down; all I feel like doing and all I am doing now is holding her with in my arms to stop her from moving.

  “You kilin ha,” she screams to Abebi.

  Jane stops struggling in no time as she fights to breathe comfortably as she possibly can.

  “You must be stupid to talk about me,” Abebi says to her and she kneels down on the ground, holding her still. “Tell me how you got here?” she asks her, and I frown.

  “Yo…you know,” she answers, struggling to breathe and with muffled voice under the garment, that is squeezing her.

  “I said tell me?” she asks her once again, pulling it tighter on her neck.

  “Lust…” she answers but Abebi holds her tighter.

  “Whatever you did to my friend, you will pay,”
she says.

  “What are you doing?” I ask her, letting Zhai free and she looks up at me.

  “I told you she was different, I saw it in her eyes when she wakes up from her sleep,” she says to me.

  “Oh no,” Zhai pleads. “It must be the bugs, the witches,” she says. “They have ways to take over your body in this world, she is dead the moment she falls asleep,” she adds, but I see tears streaming down her cheeks, cleaning her muddy skin.

  “Are you sure?” Abebi asks her in sadness but struggling to keep Jane…the witch or bug, not sure but whatever it is, it’s still under her capture.

  “Yes,” Zhai utters sadly and I kneel down next her.

  Screaming, Abebi tightens the garment harder and shaking myself to the presence, I crawl to them and hold her legs tighter. Zhai runs away from us and grabs a stone she can lift and comes back to us.

  “Hape this to spy,” she says and strike to hit her with the stone on her face.

  When we hear a disturbing sound, Zhai ceases on her move and we look down at it. Abebi lets the garment go and stands, looking down. Shaking its head in lightspeed, it changes back to its natural form; wide rouge eyes, wide mouth, from ear to ear, filled with sharp teeth and a hairy body. We all look at it in total disgust but Zhai doesn’t take another moment to give it air to breath and leave the cave. She keeps hitting it on its face over and over again until it’s bashed into no shape at all, but a liquid jelly material floods out of it.

  For some minutes, we all stay quiet with Abebi crying but it doesn’t take that long since the body start smelling really bad, we all run in different directions to throw up.

  “Aww,” I hold my belly in response to a terrible pain that is wanting me to keep throwing out.

  “Ar you okay?” Zhai asks me, walking towards me in concern.

  “I’m fine,” I answer and walk to a smaller curved stone to sit under the root.

  “I choose starve to death than to go back,” Abebi says, as she sits on the floor to my right and close to me.

  “We won’t,” I answer. “We didn’t dig this deep not for nothing,” I add. And Abebi elevates her eyebrows up. “Let me catch my breath and we’ll go through it,” I say, pointing to the root and Zhai gasps as she understands. “I remember clearly, recently.”

  “I was wondering what come next,” Zhai smiles in complete pleasure and hope. She is cleaning her face from the substance that sprouts on her face while hitting the creature, with the tip of her dress. She rips three pieces out and walks to the water, rather worn out, and comes back, handing us a piece of her torn dress socked with water, one for each of us.

  I start rubbing my face with it as soon as I take it, since it might be the smell of the substance sprouted on my face that’s making me feel sick; to keep throwing out.

  “Well, everything happens for a reason,” Abebi says, looking down at the creature on the ground. She stands up and grabs a piece of metal we used to get all the way down here. “I will keep forming a way to open it. I can’t be tired when it’s about to end,” she mumbles clearly as she walks right past me, wrapping the piece Zhai’s garment on her right hand.

  “You take rest, we will make a way,” Zhai says to me, as she gets another and they start working on a part of the root that’s closer for us to open and enter; a part of the root closer to the ground, where we don’t have to climb up any more spaces. I can see the root is thick and they really need my help as well, but I didn’t sleep at all, I am extremely tired and I think I am feeling sick as well.

  Three feet away from them, I rest my body on the ground facing the wall, that’s covered by algae, closely. It must be my exhaustion but as I rub on my belly I simply fall asleep right away.

  ***

  “I thought you would want to see,” Hadiya says to Rihanna. She can’t resist to smile but her laughter to Rihanna’s fearful actions as much as she is interested in seeing whatever it is about to come out.

  “Bismillah,” she says as she holds the Holy Quran in her hand. “This is safe distance, I will be loud,” Rihanna adds, as she opens a part, she wants to read out loud for their protection. She is standing far from Hadiya.

  “What should I write?” Hadiya asks herself, holding a paper and pen as she thinks. “What do you think I should write back?” she asks Rihanna, projecting her voice so she would be audible to Rihanna.

  “Who we are speaking with and what we need to do and... why?” she says and looks down to the Holy Quran.

  “Don’t forget to put, ‘Allah waakbar,’ at the top before anything,” Rihanna reminds her in a warning tone, but Hadiya agrees with her, smiling, she was already on it even before she mentioned it.

  She starts writing down, but she starts it mentioning that God is great; ‘Allah waakbar,’ three times at the top of the sheet and proceed to write her question; ‘Who you are? What want?’ She is hoping to get response as soon as possible. She smiles as she folds the paper feeling satisfied about her question. She turns and look back to Rihanna, who is holding the Holy Quran tightly as she stretches up, looking at her direction.

  “Allahu la illaha illa huwa, Al-haiyaul-quaiyum la ta’khudhu sinathun wa la nawam...” Rihanna is loud on a throne verse, two five fiftieth, verse of the second surah of Ayat Al Kursi. She chose it for it is believed it is most powerful ayahs in Quran for it recites the greatness of God.

  Clearing leaves off from the ground to the hollow she formed earlier, she bends down, wrapping the paper in a plastic wrap and frowns as she sees another one. She pulls it out and open it to read it, this time around she is calmer and she have already braved herself up since she’s ready.

  ‘Help me.’ Is written on the paper. This time, the writing looks bad; more like a line; like a writing while sleeping at the same time. She frowns shrugging.

  She frowns and sucks her lips inwards and frowns as she pushes her hand down the hole. She bites her lower lip and squeezes close her eyes shut and pushes her hand in even deeper; she slowly lays against her chest as she keeps pushing further and Rihanna starts walking closer to her; fearfully and not sure if Hadiya herself knows what she is doing.

  “Hadu?” she calls out for her, whispering.

  “I’m checking,” she answers but she looks quite disgusted.

  She is feeling something different; no one would expect to feel under the ground; discomfort, dry and something stingy would be normal to feel while sending hand in the ground than extreme moisture, smooth and too worm.

  “There’s no…” Before she completes her words; she screams as loudly as she can. Just when she is about to admit that there is nothing down here except something that feels disgustingly moist, she feels a hand grabbing her firmly, not willing to let her go.

  Rihanna doesn’t understand what’s happening to her, but she is screaming with her as if it might help her. She pulls her hijab off her head in stress as she runs away from her two feet away and comes back to her again. She kneels down and starts digging, widening the surroundings to the hollow. Rihanna is transformed into a mad woman; she doesn’t know what is going on what she is supposed to do. Hadiya is trying to pull her hand out the hole with whatever it is that grip her hand. She can tell she is about to pull it out the hole and the fear is about to kill her dead.

  ***

  I don’t know for how long I was out, but I still don’t feel well rested. Once I start fully woken up, I start listening to Zhai and Abebi conversing and I think they are still working on forming a way.

  “…and she would beat me out like I am an animal.” They are both laughing, enjoying whatever Abebi is talking about. “My grandmother knows how strong I am and she didn’t mind punishing me and I used to enjoy making her mad, because no matter how hard she thinks she is beating you up, her hands feels like a sponge.”

  I press a smile as I try to wake my body to its full senses. I think the thought of getting closer to getting back home is making them start a conversation about how life was like, heaven like. After all, everything we
thought was bad isn’t half as bad as we think it is. We have seen the worst of everything. I think we can value what we had from now on, no more taking anything for granted and we will make sure to live life to the fullest.

  You know what, I think us humans can make home out of this world as well. God, I miss mom, home.

  “Oh, life was so goot,” Zhai utters, completing her laughter with a long breath.

  “Yes, but I hated that night I have to make fun of that shaman’s enchanting,” Abebi sounds like she contempt herself. “I was thinking about freaking out my friends thinking it won’t work.”

  “Maybe it was not,” Zhai says. “We ar here, maybe, because we shou be.” I think Zhai is more understanding towards Abebi. “Maybe we here because we ar stron enoup to see all these,” she adds, and smiling, I sit up.

  “How long was I out?” I don’t mean to be loud. “Sorry, I’ll come join you girls,” I add, as they both turn their attention to me.

  Zhai’s dress is thorn out severely and most of the cut pieces are wrapped on their hands and some on their feet.

  “Ar you okay?” she asks me, and I nod quizzically, looking at them. Beneath them there is pile of parts of the root they are working on.

  I think I was out long enough I turn to Jane’s... that things body is by, they have moved it to the corner, just as Zhai’s dress, they have ripped the dress off as well. I turn to a stone where Janes note books are by and beside it, there are plastic seals of different size containing water and some empty.

  “We are using Jane’s stuffs,” Zhai answers.

  “She collects them, and I don’t even know why,” Abebi utters as she takes a rest. “We tested the water by the way, we are still alive, so we are using it,” she smiles wide, but I figured they are still fresh because of the water. “After all, we need to stay hydrated,” she adds and stands.

  “Besides, the substance coming out of the root buns, but it’s okay with water,” Zhai explains as she helps me stand. “You still look sick,” she adds, looking at me.

  “I’m okay,” I utter tiredly, though I feel sick indeed. “I’ll jo…” I croak and run to a corner to throw up, but nothing comes out. “Oh,” I plead.