Once there was a void. In that void lived a consciousness, wandering and alone. I was alone for so long. I had no idea what I was or where I was; where I came from, or if I could even return to the place before here. Blank quietness blanketed me,
“You will be heard when you speak, even by your elders. Your days will be long, children your age will call you blessed. Your elders will sing your praise.” Obuzor’s mother muttered to her granddaughter. The little mouth yawned unimpressed. Her grandmother continued muttering her prayers, but this time
The light would not go away, and Uloma’s feet were starting to tire. There was no end to the white light. Her sparse memory told her how bad an idea it would be to give in to the exhaustion. It told her she was fighting for a reason, but
Uloma awoke to an eerie, searing silence penetrating her consciousness. She was lying on her living room floor with its bamboo cane chairs and beaded table. She retrieved her hand, which was splayed in the general direction of her woven door leading to her hallway. Everything felt like a dream.
Here is how a story begins: once upon a time, there lived a girl, no, maybe there lived a land, and in that land lived a girl. A story needs a land just like it needs a girl. Every story may need the land as much as it needs the
Uloma heard the rush of a sudden breeze and the folding of wings, even before she saw their owner. She looked up at him now, sauntering up to her. His fair skin against his white feather-peppered body was a vision, but she, for once, did not notice any of that;
Uloma wandered through the crowd, keeping an eye out for her sister. The feeling of being so small, in view of all these giants and creatures resembling things that should exist only in theory, kept her grounded. Uloma shook herself for thinking some beings should exist only in theory; it
Uloma was hit by an overwhelming sense of everything the second she walked through the wall. All her senses stood at attention at the world she was looking at. “Welcome.” Eti said with a knowing smile on her face. Everywhere Ulo looked were beings that could not really exist outside
Walking into someone’s eyes had to be the strangest thing Uloma had ever done, but it did not feel odd at all; it felt like walking through any old portal. It was the usual tingles and the unsettling heavy feeling, all four standing on a plank surrounded by silvery
Uloma was well aware of the risk in what she was doing. She was sitting in Nne-nne's house, the ripe, putrid smell associated with this place teasing her nose and distracting her from the trees, where pods of yawning and stretching babies hung. There had been enough chance
“The afterlife is concretely built on the understanding that not all who die are equal, and therefore not all who die will ascend to the same plane.” Emenike said, pausing as he turned to face the class of students, peering at him with varied degrees of interest. “Who here can
Uloma had never felt as frightened in her life as she was feeling now. She looked up from where she was huddled in Emenike’s bamboo bench. “They are not extinct.” She muttered, her terror-stricken eyes pleading for something she already knew the answer to. In front of her, Asiya