ONE RED NIGHT (Epilogue)

He stood for a while over the bloody mess before rushing over to his dying brother. His eyes glistened in the semi-darkness as tears filled them, he propped his brother's head up in his arms and stared blankly into the sky; dawn will soon approach and he'll have a lot to explain to the police, the school and most unnerving, their parents. Joshua stirred and spoke in a broken and pain-ridden voice,
"I... am... sorry Cal"
"shh..." Caleb whispered,
"you'll be alright" he added even as he knew within him that his brother's chance for survival is bleak, his left carotid artery had been severed completely. If Caleb knew his Biology well, then he'll know that the great loss of blood was due to the damage of one of the big arteries on either side of the neck which transports blood to the brain, it was a surprise that his brother could still speak.
Caleb looked around him again, the scene around him was reminiscent of a horror movie. Then suddenly the familiar shuffle of leaves jarred him out of his reverie. He turned in time to see what was left of their friend, Taiwo as hobbled towards them. His bowels were dangling horribly before him as he walked. Caleb stared in disbelief at the apparition before him. Even from five meters away one could discern the horrible transformation; his eyeballs were a deep and resplendent red similar to that of the creature that infected him, his jaws were hanging in an awkward angle due to the overgrown canines and his movement was like that of a Zombie. It was then that it downed on Caleb.
He immediately turned his gaze towards his brother just to confirm his suspicion, he wasn't surprised by what he saw - they were turning into something else, something more dangerous. Then a thought crossed his mind, "it's either kill or be killed" he had to choose and he chose to live.
***
A couple of hours later, the cock announced the approach of dawn for the third and final time and the bush was filled with singing birds. Caleb was alone, his brother with every other walking dead was gone finally and he knew it was time to find his way back to the school, he looked at the gash across his hand with an expression mixed with fear and agony, the wound looked different and strange, then realisation filled his eyes - the hand too will have to go if he didn't want to transform like the others.
"its been a red and horrible night" he muttered as he walked into the welcoming morning.
***THE END***

ONE RED NIGHT (IV)

Caleb ran for another fifteen minutes through shrubs and grasses before stopping for the first time since he broke off from the trio. He doubled over in a fit of panting and perspiration in spite of the cold October night. Caleb couldn't help but worry about his brother, he knew he'd be looking for him. Only if he'd listened to him, he was thinking when a brief shuffle of leaves startled him out of his reverie.
"Josh?"
"where're you?" he asked albeit he doubted that it was truly his brother. He turned his head frantically like a dancing masqurade as a wave of panic washed over him, then he saw it right in front of where he stood. The same glistening but sinister pair of eyeballs which they had seen approached slowly.
Caleb knew then that he was in trouble, it would be too late, too stupid and too dangerous to run. He was faced with two bleak options: attack his assailant or hope for some miracle. The earlier, he gave more consideration as he reached slowly behind his belt where he concealed a stiletto. He trudged backwards as he was doing this and the creature followed as though it was pulled to its prey by an invincible rope. Caleb tried to swallow the lump forming in his throat as a tree trunk blocked his path, it was then that he did something he rarely does - he prayed. He tightened his grip around the knife handle as the creature poised and bared its teeth in a ferocious snarl that will take the life off its victim.
But instead of the attack Caleb expected, all he heard was a voice - an angered, cogent and yet familiar scream that shattered the serenity of the night. What he saw next left him baffled, "what madness would lead someone into making such a grave mistake?" he wondered as he watched the human form now wrestling on the grassy floor of the bush with the formidable creature. It suprisingly took him a full ten seconds to identify the fearless, or maybe crazy person who threw himself on the creature with bare hands. It was in fact his brother.
"Josh?" he muttered in utter disbelief.
Only a few minutes ago as Joshua was searching for his brother, his search had almost proved successful when to his dismay, his brother was already cornered.
"Run!" he screamed still entangled with the deadly creature.
"no way" he said half to himself as he broke into a sprint brandishing the stiletto in his right hand.
"I said..." Caleb stopped short when his brother's voice trailed off in a distorted sound of pain as the powerful canines sank deep into the left side of his neck, it withdrew its head violently leaving a gaping and bloody hole where the neck used to be, the powerful jaws has claimed another victim. A tremendous wave of anger and blind fury enveloped his mind as he watched his brother gurgling and gasping. He stared from his dying brother to the creature that stood triumphantly over the its victim.
Every iota of fear was immediately replaced by the rush of adrenalin as he charged forward with the only weapon he had on him. Even the warning snarl from the creature couldn't deter him from his assault. Blinded with fury, Caleb collided with it, circled both arms around its huge form. With the creature running wild and dragging the boy along, Caleb held on with a hand and with the other he slit its throat with one belligerent stroke. It stumbled and left the both of them rolling along the forest floor as a loud shrill cry filled the night. Caleb walked to the limp creature with his hand still bleeding from a wound he sustained in the melee. After standing over the creature that had cost them so much for some seconds, he made to walk to his brother but something caught his eyes. A single cowrie shell hung around its neck like a dog tag, his brows furrowed knitted as he wondered where he had seen the object but dismissed the thought. He tore it off and was about to take his souvenir when something happened, he was taken aback as the creature metamorphosed into a human form.
"I said it" he whispered to himself as he stared blankly at Emeka with his throat still bleeding.
"I knew it!" he screamed as he brought down a boulder on the limp body, blood and pieces of bone spattered around him.

ONE RED NIGHT (III)

As though they were transfixed at the spot by an invincible force, the three boys stared at the outlandish creature as the gap between them shortened.
"Run!" Joshua's voice rang out almost at the same time he took to his heels. As if the spell holding them had been broken, they all took off into the darkness as the creature leapt after them with a devastating speed. In an instant, the boys scattered in different directions with little or no knowledge of where they were running to.
Taiwo, the biggest of the group had been running half-blind as a tremendous wave of panic engulfs him, his fears heightened when he heard the shuffling of feet behind him. Taiwo relentlessly ran into the darkness hardly feeling the pains caused by the dry twigs and thorns that mercilessly tore at his face and arms.
As the approaching sound behind him increased, Taiwo also increased his pace frantically as the sound of his heartbeat seemed to fill his ears until he made a grave mistake, he turned to look back and lost balance and concentration in the process. His ankle twisted and he fell to the grassy carpet with a thud wincing in pain. He tried to stand up but was deterred by an excruciating pain on his badly dislocated ankle. With his lungs screaming for air and an expression mixed with abject fear and pain, he looked up in time to see the devilish creature closing in menacingly with its saber-toothed jaw bare.
"please... Don't..." he was saying when it pounced on him. Taiwo knew it was over for he felt like a hot metal was plunged into his stomach as the creature sank its strong canines in his lower abdomen. A painful and death-like cry was all that escaped his lips when the creature violently shook its head with its teeth still imbedded in its victim. Within seconds, his warm bowels spilled out with a dark pool of blood (the moon had just risen and this made the blood look dark).
While Taiwo was dying slowly, the twins faced a different fate as they were both lost. Still concealed under the thick brush flanked by shrubs where he had taken refuge, Joshua cursed himself for ignoring his brother's pessimism earlier but most troubling was letting him out of his sight. With a feeling mixed with regret and determination, he stepped out of his hide-out and started a dangerous search for his twin brother Caleb.
"Cal" he kept calling quietly as he thought about the other two boys who had walked into the gully. Paul and Emeka, had they been attacked also? For the latter, he felt no pity but anger and hate for leading them into danger.
His brother's pessimism would've checked out if they had the slightest idea of what transpired in the gully when the two boys went in, for lying precariously in the belly of the pit is the lifeless and mutilated body of Paul- he had faced a similar fate to Taiwo but the master-mind behind the whole plan to sneak out for a fictitious night party was nowhere to be found.

ONE RED NIGHT (II)

    They had barely walked half of the meandering footpath up the plateau when he only source of light they had flickered and went off leaving the group in an unnerving mask of darkness. They continued silently as each of them tried hard to conceal the hint of fear rising within them until the garrulous twin broke the silence,
     "I don't think there's any part going on around" Caleb said
     "Are you sure you know where you're taking us?" Taiwo put in. He had hardly finished his sentence when Emeka snapped at him.
     "you can still go back if you want, nobody invited you anyway." As they were arguing, Caleb pulled his brother aside.
     "Something is wrong Joshua,"
     "what is wrong?"
     "I don't trust Emeka any longer"
     "why?"
     "I think he's misleading us" Joshua fixed him a quizzical look and smiled ruefully
     "when did you become so paranoid?"
     "since I heard about his strange and weird pedigree"
     "two things are possible, either he's purposely misleading us or he's lost and had refused to admit it"
     "just follow me and stop making noise" his brother said as he walked off to join others. Caleb followed his brother reluctantly as he pondered over the possibility of a subterfuge. He wondered if this was a prank which his brother knew about somehow and he hoped it was just a prank, their thoughts and ideas had never varied.
     Caleb stole a quick glance at the luminescent hands of his wrist watch as they approached a deep gully, it read Eleven-thirty. They all stared wide eyed at the dark recess of the eroded gully accentuated by the shades created by the slender and frail branches of trees and shrubs at the edge.
      "we're not passing through here are we?" Paul asked showing his first sign of fear since they set out. Almost immediately, Emeka walked to the edge of the gully, turned around, grabbed a twig protruding from the wall of the gully and let himself down.
      "it's the only short-cut" was all he said before his voice trailed off amidst the chirping of insects. Paul followed immediately leaving the twins and Taiwo.
      Joshua nudged his brother and walked to the edge. He also grabbed the twig to begin his descent but something caught his eyes. He wheeled around and peered down into a shiny sinister pair of eyes. His body tensed as he stared ahead as if in a trance while his hands groped behind for support.
      "What is it?" the other two chorused and as if in answer to the question, a dark monstrous figure crept out of the gully. With bare and drooling saber-toothed jaw, it moved it's cat-like body towards them.
      "Jesus Christ" Caleb managed to mutter as he searched his memory of documentaries from 'Geographic channels' in a vain attempt to place a name on the strange creature.

ONE RED NIGHT (I)

      Community Boys college is a small public secondary school with a couple hundred students. Its red brick structures is resplendent within the verdant and lush ambiance. It is surrounded and guarded by hills, trees and the rising and falling topography of Enugu state in southeastern Nigeria. Despite the location of the school and inadequate social amenities in the small town where it is situated, the school never failed to win lawn mowers, cutlasses and other cleaning implements every year- the prize for the annual 'most clean and beautiful school' competition. But with the beauty and brilliance of the school comes complaints and grumbles of students and even some teachers of the poor state of facilities and most disturbing, the terribly poor telephone signal in the area.
   They crept out of the dormitory and into the night with only one thing on their minds - It's been months since the last "all night" party. Girls from neighboring schools were invited but the party will also be attended by some uninvited guests who crave for the fun of city life which they miss through out the school year.

He knew the bush path like the back of his hands. Effortlessly, he led the other four to a place were the students refer to as the golden gate, a small opening created on the part of the school fence right behind the hostels used for nefarious activities outside the school.
       "What's wrong with that torch?" asked Paul as he almost slipped trying to crawl through the small opening the size of an entrance into a local poultry house.
       "It's the batteries," Emeka replied as he hit the torch continuously on his palm in a bid to revive it.
       "No need to worry anyway, I know the way to the 'flat hill' like the back of my hand" he added.
       "Flat hill?" Taiwo, the oldest whispered from behind referring to a small plateau a hill outside the school. Students had previously precariously used the plateau to organize clandestine meetings and parties away from the prying eyes of teachers who live nearby.
       "is that the venue for the party?" he pressed on as a low rumble of laughter erupted from the twins. He knew better than to fool himself any further, else he might turn to the topic after the alcohol starts talking through his friends.
      
       Emeka walked on as the familiar voices which had troubled him since he was "marked" returned. A cacophony would seem to morph into what sounded like a monotonous stream of music repeatedly. It almost drove him insane the first time the voices paid him a visit. He stopped short and bent over with his hands over both ears as he winced in pain.
       "wetin happen?" Paul inquired in pidgin English.
       "It's my toothache again, I think." he lied and kept moving.
       "Forget the kisses tonight, friend." Joshua teased.
       "I thought that tooth was removed", Caleb asked his elder brother who replied with a shrug of his thin shoulders. They continued in silence through the bush only broken by the snapping of dry twigs and rustle of dry leaves by their feet.

ONE RED NIGHT (prologue)

It was a dark and quiet friday night at the boys dormitory of ' Community boys collage,' an all-boys secondary school sitting a in a village couple of miles away from the capital city of a state in the eastern part of the Nigeria. The bell for 'lights out' had been rung half an hour ago and the once noisy hostel had turned to a serene environment but while the students in this hostel slowly drifts into a blissful sleep, a couple of boys lay half-asleep waiting for the right time to carry out their plans. "Paul...paul," Emeka whispered from the top bunk to his friend who lay below before he threw aside his blankets and jumped down on his toes. Paul rolled down from his mattress and they both stuffed their clothes under their blankets within seconds. "wake the others" Emeka commanded Paul who nodded in the dark and headed for the bunk were their other friends lay sound asleep. Joshua and Caleb are identical twins from rich parents whose reputation for mischief and trouble are well known among teachers and students from the school. "give me a minute guys let me eat," Caleb the younger of the two was saying while rubbing his eyeballs at the same time. "shut up glutton" Emeka who seemed like the leader of the gang whispered, "i don't need to tell you what'll happen to us tomorrow morning if senior David wakes up," added his twin bother as they all tip-toed towards the door. Once at the door they all startled at a huge form standing before them, it was Taiwo the oldest and heavily built boy in their class "do you guys think you're going to that party without me?" he asked as they all stared wide eyed at him. To these five friends, it was going to be a wonderful night out but little did they know of the evil among them and the one lying in wait for them.