Tobi had promised his girlfriend, Chioma, a “chill” Halloween night which meant a bowl of popcorn and a horror movie he'd picked to set the spooky mood.
“It's meant to be a very scary movie,” he announced, dimming the lights with a wink. Chioma, who had survived three older brothers and the usual Lagos danfo commute, raised an eyebrow and wagged a finger at him. “You screamed at a pigeon yesterday. Sure you're up for a horror movie?”
“That pigeon was aggressive,” he responded defensively.
Twenty minutes in, the movie had shown a creaky door, a whispering weird child and a dark basement. Tobi narrated every scene with confidence. “Don't go down there. Nobody goes down there. Why are they going down there?” He had also gripped a cushion so hard it had started to look strangled. All the while, Chioma hid her smug smile.
“You're doing great,” she said, not looking away from the screen. She was eating popcorn at the pace of someone watching a cooking show.
On the screen, the heroine crept down the basement stairs as the music stopped. A silence stretched so long that Tobi leaned forward, holding his breath.
Then the lights in the apartment went out.
The whole room dropped into darkness. Tobi made a sound that no human voice should be able to make, shocking Chioma. At the same time, he leapt off the couch, launching the popcorn into the air and landed behind his girlfriend using her as a shield.
“Tobi! It's the power company,” she shouted, laughing so hard she could barely speak.
“That's what the ghost wants us to think!”
From the next door, they heard the chorus of “Up NEPA!” the way they always did when the light came back. But it wasn't the power company restoring the light but a neighbour starting their generator.
The same neighbour's voice floated across the compound. “Who is screaming like a banshee? Are you okay there?”
“He's fine!” Chioma called back, chuckling. “He's just been attacked by NEPA.”
“Shhh,” Tobi whispered, emerging slowly from behind her, one hand holding his phone torch like a sword. “I wasn't scared. I was being strategic.”
“You were behind me.”
Then the lights turned back on and the TV rebooted, displaying the heroine, now apparently unbothered, standing at the bottom of the basement stairs as if nothing had happened.
Chioma reached for the remote and hit pause. “Okay, new plan. We finish this movie with the lights on and you hold the cushion, not me.”
“Deal,” said Tobi with great dignity.
Ten minutes later, a cat knocked over a plant in the movie and Tobi screamed again. Chioma didn't even look up. She just passed him the popcorn bowl.
“Eat. It's good for the nerves.”
I hope you enjoyed reading this short piece. It's inspired by the Freewrite #dailyprompt phrase "a very scary movie”.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
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