Stunned

This story is by Jefus Godwin-Enwere and was part of our 2017 Summer Writing Contest. You can find all the Summer Writing Contest stories here.

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On a bright, adventurous day, I strolled to work with excitement and mischief up my sleeves. Never had I felt the need to do something strange which I knew nothing of. It was a strong urge but with no ulterior motives. Who knew what the day held?

As I crossed the edge of the road, a certain darkness engulfed me. It was, of course, strange as other sides of the road were perfectly lighted with the voluminous rays of the sun. Choosing to believe this was as a result of my quest for mischief, I continued skipping off to work. The shadow kept up with me as I took brisk steps. I decided to turn around and, from the ground, my head started to spin. With courage, I gradually looked up and it took five minutes to fully behold the magnitude of what stood in front of me; a giant, weird creature. Still making sense of what I just saw, my jolly neighbour, Mrs Perkins screamed my name with excitement. She was an overly joyous lady, very fleshy with perfectly wide, white teeth and she let out a grin that spun across the two corners of her mouth. “Hello dear”, she said. “Why do you just stand? Go on to work or you’ll be late”. “Yes, Ma’am Perkins”, I muttered.

The creature had begun to move. It had hands like enormous tennis rackets. Its face was irregular, giving a melting mirage. At this point, I was frightened and let out a scream. Mrs Perkins rushed to me but was left confused as she couldn’t see anything. If only she did, I would have been standing there alone as her size had nothing on her speed. I retreated as the creature advanced towards me. Suddenly, it stopped and began dancing to some sort of sound: a musty, rhythmless sound similar to the bellows of a wide animal. I decided to grab a stick from the sidewalk as my form of defense. I bent over and picked a 16mm stick and pointed it at the direction of action. Sensing that I was ready for war, it danced even more and the sound increased. It became obvious I was being mocked but even if this might be in my imaginations, I wasn’t about to throw in the towel and chicken out and so I tightened my grip around the stick and clenched my fist, ready for what form of war this creature was about to begin. I thought to myself, “This is about to be my epic hero reveal…Awesome”. I charged at the creature and made a leap. Meanwhile, Mrs Perkins had caused a stir with her incessant screams. No one could see what I was up against but couldn’t deny that I was in a combat of some form. The creature dodged my jab and seemed to be leading me in circles. I paused for a second and took a deep breathe. Then I leaped at it and, to my amazement, I hit it right in its supposed heart. Immediately, I fell to an empty ground and opened my eyes to strange faces who had circled me in amazement and silenced confusion. My face was blank and I motioned to be yanked up.

None of these people could grasp the heroism I just displayed. I felt like a superhero, in fact, it wasn’t a feeling. I know, for a fact, somewhere in me resides a superhero who will, from now, be named “Mystery Diva”. My perfectly pressed shirt was now rumpled, dirty and even missing button. My skirt was turned the other way round and my shoes weren’t even on. Mrs Perkins appeared out of the inquisitive crowd, picked my shoes and grabbed me by the hand, pulling me in her direction. She was taking me to her house. I doubt at this moment, I wanted to be alone so I was glad she did. She whipped up a cup of coffee to relax my nerves and gave me some clothes to change into. How she had clothes my size was a question I would have to keep for later. All these while, I couldn’t help but imagine what I just encountered. I thought about if I had had more sophisticated weapons like a gun, a sword or even a pepper spray. Different thoughts ran through my mind and it felt like my excitement heightened and I craved for more adventure.

There was a knock on Mrs Perkins door and it turned out to be some of the witnesses to my strange encounter. They had loads of questions of which I had no answers to because I, on one hand, was still trying to put the pieces of my mysterious puzzle together.

My imaginations were starting to become real. All these while, they had been obvious fairy tales because the happenings were too exagerrated. But now, I could feel the reality in my veins as much as I was a part of it. Work just really needs to chill till I get back in mental shape. Hahaha!Laugh