The Present.

"Anaya? Is that you? Hello?" Mama walked slowly to the adjoining room, afraid but also hoping that it would be her daughter finally returning home. But there was no one in there. It was just Ed who had now stopped barking as its eyes sternly glared at the doorway to Anaya's room. It was as if it wanted to tell Mama it had seen someone enter the room. Mama didn't miss the clue.

She immediately rushed to Anaya's room and saw something odd in there. The windows had been opened. She was sure they hadn't been opened in a while — not since after Anaya mysteriously disappeared. She walked over to the opened window, confusion written all over her countenance.

An old car parked outside the house caught her attention the second she got closer to the window.

There was something puzzling about the car, the young woman in it and even how she'd dressed that made Mama sceptical. She felt it wasn't by mere coincidence the car was there at that time. Besides, the lady in it looked like she knew exactly what she was doing there.

Who was she and what was she looking for? Does she know where her daughter could be? Mama's sixth sense kept on hinting her that she could get the answers to those questions from the lady in the car. She ran outside with the hopes of getting to her and finding the answers she needed. She was desperate but the car drove off the second she got there!

***

Now, the quiet road leading to Kangara was nothing more than just a dirt track covered in shrubs and small bushes from the beginning until she got into half of the journey.

Having escaped from her mother finding out about her a few hours earlier, Anaya couldn't get over the feeling of guilt that engulfed her. She somehow felt responsible for what her mother and brother were going through.

If only there was a way she could tell them the truth without them freaking out or thinking she was out of her mind. How do you look in the face of your mother in a different body form, the body of a stranger and say, "Hey, this is me, your daughter...I know I look different but this is not my body. It is just my soul in here...". How? The best result was a call to the priest to bring the Holy water and chains or a call to the Asylum.

And only if there was a slight chance they would believe the exact words she was going to tell them, she wouldn't know exactly what to say as she didn't entirely know what happened to her either. She had to get answers first before she could try any of that.

That was why the journey to Mwanaume's shrine at Kangara was important to her at this point and that was the only thing she tried to have her attention on. She sighed, closed her eyes and opened several times in an attempt to get out of her mind and focus on the journey.

She was now halfway through, deep into the forest; lost among tall trees. The sky had almost entirely vanished, only a few bits of blue remained like shards of broken glass. An incredible mix of sounds, vastly those of herds of large animals and bird-songs echoed through the tall trees. The air was rich with the fragrance of leaves — different kinds. It felt humid too and she loved it.

Anaya took in another deep breath, a smile escaping her almost dry lips. There! There it was. Her usual smile. Of course, this felt different because she did it with someone else's lips but she knew it still had its charm — the power to make her feel better. And She did feel better. A lot better. Her love for nature was always so strong that it surpassed every other emotion she had. But her heartwarming moment with nature ended as abruptly as it started when she realized she had arrived at her destination.

In front of her, it stood — the almost forgotten town of Kangara.

What contrast! The township ahead of her was nothing closer to the picturesque ride through the forest. It was like she had stepped into a 1970 version of a bad dystopian movie. Only, this was real.

Emptiness and Gloomy.

These were the words that hit Anaya's mind when she got down from the car. For a second, she thought she had probably gotten the wrong location but the pocket map she held told a different story.

Who or what will still be at a place like this? She thought as she advanced through the town.

Several houses had fallen, as their roots rot away. The open doors of the remaining houses, which were conceivably once very welcoming, were now an eerie and unexpected sight. In the streets and gardens lay broken roof tiles, and crusty, dried paint fading from walls and fences.

It dawned on her that the stories told about the town were true. Every bit of the readings they had in their history class was true. And as she advanced deeper into the town, the stories she had heard about the town replayed through her mind.

Every bit.

"Kangara is one of Kolontou's forgotten relics of the past. It used to be an epicentre of Spiritualism and other forms of African traditional religion. The people who lived there worshipped Ilaazen — the sky god, the Supreme Creator — and other higher and lesser gods. They believed in spirits, veneration of the dead and the use of traditional African medicine vis-à-vis the Orthodox medicines."

"They believed that the departed souls could communicate with those living and sought to make contact with the deceased, usually with the aid of a the Mwanaume (the Man), the high priest who was believed to be in direct contact with the spirit world. That was just one of the things the Mwanaume could do. The power of the Mwanaume was passed down from generations to generations."

She continued her walk through the town still trying to figure out where exactly she was supposed to go

The farther she moved, the more she remembered...the history lessons.

"The Kangarians lived with no care of the outside world until 'the holy war of Kangara' happened a few forty years ago. The advent of Christianity in their part of Africa brought doom to Kangara and many other towns like it. Many historians believed that to call what happened to Kangara a war, was to do a great injustice to those who perished as it wasn't a war but rather an ambush by the Christians in the other towns in Kolontou who believed the Kangarians were demon worshipers. They woke up one dawn to a blazing fire in the entire town. Almost everything was burnt to a crisp. And the township never went back to its former glory."

'This must have been where the fire started.' Anaya thought as she got to the first burnt house. The rest of the burnt houses followed in front of her. The walls of the houses at that part of the town had long since crumbled and in their place stood thick beams of wood, blackened and charred from where the flames had licked at them.

She couldn't help but feel saddened by the history the place held. She walked for a few seconds then stopped in front of a half-burnt wood-like structure with one big pole in the middle, also burnt, and she knew that was where the unlucky remaining 'heretics' were rounded up and burnt alive.

For a brief period, she couldn't move. All she did was gaze at the stake. She could literally see the people tied to the pole, screaming. She could feel the heat of the fire on her skin as if she was one with those burnt in the fire. Her heart became burdened with sorrow and once again, she felt the need to put flowers on the structure as a way of honouring those who died for what they believed in. But where would she find flowers at a deserted place like that?

She began a search to find some of the flowers. Any. But her search led her to the place she was supposed to go. She didn't know for a fact that was the place but her instincts told her it could be.

It was the only thing that had life in the entire town. Mwanaume's shrine. It stood tall and isolated in front of her. It was adorned in white paint with carvings of different symbols — mostly adinkra symbols — on it. It looked sacred by its mere appearance. There was no sign that it was also hit by the fire.

Anaya walked slowly towards the closed door not sure of what she was going to find in there. But...before she could open the door, she felt an excruciating pain in her head then it moved to her abdomen. She felt like there was something in her trying to escape, tearing down all the walls of her stomach. Following that were the deafening voices in her head. She screamed out of pain and fell to the ground, her screams filling the empty space of the town as her vision blurred.

As her eyes shut, all the light faded away and blended seamlessly into darkness until all that remained was black.

***

At this point, I can't help but feel scared for Anaya. What is she going to get herself into again?
Are the answers she's seeking even at Kangara?
What happens to her next in her quest for answers on this dark voyage?

Follow the story to find out more!

***

Chapter proofread and edited by RubaiaMQ🖤🤓