A burn and a new flame

Two men knelt before a gargoyle at night, shirtless, and with black clothing wrapped around their waist, both of them held shivs in their hand as they mumble some kind of incantations, and so was the rest of the people standing that surrounded them in black cloaks.

They said the incantation was loud and loud and those men slit their throats and the people standing, bowed their heads and the fire burned brighter.

Niola stayed up all night as she was scared to fall asleep, she asked a nurse to dress the burn wound on her arm earlier before going to the studio, she worked on the portrait all day and took painkillers to reduce the burning pain so she could concentrate on getting her work done, but even still it was her left arm, it still slowed her work down. She thought of calling her mom to tell her what had happened the night before, but she couldn't, she didn't want her to worry again cause she was preparing for her journey to oke-osa, and she didn't want any other thing jeopardizing that, so she'll have to deal with it herself.

She winced as she tried to adjust the bandage, "shit!" she took a deep breath and reached for some medication from the bedside table. She watched a few movies on her phone to keep her awake, which worked, she was watching a final scene of a movie when her alarm slammed 6 o'clock, she turned off the alarm and got up to the bathroom. She stared at the bags under her eyes for a minute, then took a shower. By 7:30 she was all dressed and was waiting for her Uber to pick her up at the studio, her scooter was still at her mom's, hopefully, Jerry was going to help her drive it down to the studio today. Hopefully, she thought.

Soon she was at work, Oga Biggy stopped her on her way upstairs, "White! How you dey na, you no even ask of me, nawa for you o!"

Niola smiled as he approached, "Oga Biggy! I've been asking after you from your girls, even from Adamu, didn't he tell you?" she said and he chuckled.

"He tell me, he tell me, I travel go China na, I go do one or two things"

" Mm-hmm, oshey! baba olowo! Just dey enjoy life dey go," she grinned and shook his hand, "remember me in your kingdom o."

" Me no enjoy o, na business as usual, you know as e dey now," he said, being skeptical. "mm-mm, my wife won mark her fortieth birthday next month, so I won do one big portrait for her."

"Eh-eh, no problem now, I dey upstairs when you dey ready."

"ok, no wahala, we go talk later," he said and Niola went up the stairs.

Niola concentrated on her painting for three hours straight, then she began to feel exhausted and sleepy, she washed the brush and went to fix herself a cup of coffee, she ran her hand through her dreads and walked towards the large wide ceiling-to-floor window, she looked at the endless bright sky, the view was beautiful and a little soothing, then she closed her eyes just for a second.

Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!

She cover both her ears as the noise in her head was painful, then she saw the sky go dark and bloody, then buildings ahead started to burn.

"No! No…no, no, no, no!" She held her head tight and she could feel the burn all over again on her arm.

Knock-knock!

Zzzzzzzzzzap!

She opened her eyes slowly and everything was back to normal.

Knock! Knock!!

Someone was at the entrance.

"yes? come in!" She said panting and arranging her hair as the person at the entrance came in. It was Danielle. "Hi!... Danielle?...what are you doing here?"

"Well, I said I was going to stop by sometime," she smiled warmly, and dropped her handbag on a table, " Wow! This place is amazing!" she looked around with a grin.

Niola just stood staring at her in surprise, she was very beautiful in the dress she wore, it was a blue short-gown and her hair flowed behind her with blonde tips, "Uhm...I mean, I'm glad to see you," She said and Danielle smiled. " you are beautiful, I mean, you look beautiful." Niola almost kicked herself on how silly that sounded.

Danielle turned to look at her, their gaze met, 'those eyes are something else, she thought, and she smiled. "Thank you, you look quite different."

"Different?" Niola smiled and looked at herself, "how?"

"You look cuter," Danielle replied into her eyes, then looked away quickly. "I brought my gift, still counts right?"

"of course," Niola sneered as she watched her bring out a small box from her handbag.

"Here! Happy belated birthday," she handed it to her with a grin.

"Thanks a lot,"niola said with a warm smile as she opens the box, it was a beautiful silver necklace with a cute sword pendant with tiny crystals around it. " It's beautiful, I love it."

"I'm glad you do," she smiled meeting her gaze again, then dropped to her lips, her breath instantly hitched and stayed lodged in her throat. Niola smiles a little and looks into her brown eyes, She keeps just looking at her - her eyes roam over her face, down to her neck, and suddenly, all Danielle wanted to do was kiss her, her mouth went dry and she almost felt her breath fan her face as she got closer

Niola quirked a brow as she realized the closeness, the look. They were just a breath away from kissing, She cleared her throat, and walk back to the painting she was working on. " Here! Check this one out, I just started working on this one," she said trying not to make it awkward, but it was already awkward. It was quiet for a minute.

"I should go! It is getting late and I still have to work, I just wanted to make sure I drop you the gift." Danielle said breaking the silence. She picked up her handbag and headed for the door and Niola followed. "Oh…It's ok, don't bother I'll see myself out, you should get back to your work." Danielle said as she was about to take her to leave, then she saw the bandage on Niola's left arm, She paused, "Oh my God, are you alright? what happened?"

Niola rolled down her sleeves and hid her arm behind her, "I burnt myself with a curling iron, but I'm fine, it's just something little."

Their eyes met again and Danielle said softly, "sorry about that… Uhm, I should go, see you around."

"Yeah…. Sure." She replied and walked to the door. "what just happen?" she asked herself, she groans and lean against the opened side of the door, then the news from the cleaner's radio in the hallway caught her attention.

"Hey! Adamu!" she said peeping. "Turn that up!"

Adamu turned up the volume and the news talked about a slaughter that happened last night in an occult meeting; the newsman said the police got an anonymous tip on the occult that night, but before they got there, two men were said to have allegedly slit their throats, there was nothing else at the scene than their dead bodies, a quenched fire and a graffiti of a gargoyle on the wall. Further investigations were to be conducted as the police kept them posted.

Niola rushed back inside and turned on her computer and searched for the tragedy on the internet, as she typed in the words she felt her fingers tremble, she held them for a second then entered her search, she saw pictures are taken from the scene and the graffiti. No way! It was the face of the statue that has been hunting her everywhere, she picked up the picture she took for the portrait to confirm if her thinking was straight and she couldn't find the statue anywhere in the background of any of the pictures. She froze for a moment and she continue to check for more search results, then she came across a page that said how some people started worshipping that gargoyle in the early eighteen hundreds, according to what she read all those people were slaughtered at their own free will, claiming they shall die and be reborn by fire and will rule. Niola snorted and shook her head as she kept on reading that few people still worship the demon, till this very day, believing to be reborn with the authority to rule. "Bullshit!" she thought, why will anyone want to kill themselves thinking to be reborn and to rule, to rule what, is it this messed up world everyone is trying to survive the madness?

She unplugged her phone from charging and called her Mom, they had a few chats and her mother informed her she would be leaving for oke-osa the next day, she told her about the statue, the picture, and the news, wondering if they were all connected, her mom said there were a lot of things they were yet to understand especially all the visions she was seeing, but she was sure more light will be shed when she gets to oke-osa. Niola didn't mention the burn on her sleeve to her mom, all this is scarier than her mother thinks, it was way more than visions, it was getting physical.

Chiamaka sat on the couch in the living room with a bag of potato chips watching TV as Danielle came back home. She closed the door behind her, walked tiredly to a couch, and dropped her handbag and keys on the table.

"Are you kidding me? you are still here, I thought you were leaving today."

"I changed my mind, I'll be staying for the weekend," Chiamaka replied chewing a mouth full of chips. " you look exhausted!"

"Yes! Cause I'm exhausted," Danielle said and headed for the stairs.

Chuckling, "Boss lady," chiamaka got up from the couch and went after her. "I cooked some real food, it's on the dining, you can thank me later."

"Why should I thank you, when we are both going to eat and I'm probably going to do the dishes," Danielle said with a shrug and pulled off her shoes and wig, along with the wig cap, then sat by the dresser to take off her make up too.

Chiamaka laughed and jumped on her bed, "did you end up going to Niola's studio? How did you see it…. Impressive right? That girl is a genius." She sat up as she realized Danielle wasn't replying. " You didn't end up going there I guess?"

"Of course I did!" Danielle sighed as she cleaned her face with a face wipe.

"Hmmm," Chiamaka quirked her nose at her.

"Seriously I did," she turned to look at Chiamaka on the bed.

"Then what? Did she turn down your modeling offer? I told you Niola doesn't fancy all that crap, instead of you to sign me, plus size like—"

"It's not that, fish! who want to sign you," they both laughed. "I did something very, very stupid today, I don't know, it was too stupid of me," Danielle said sadly, burying her face in her hands.

Chiamaka laughed and moved closer to her "what did you do?"

"I….I almost kissed Niola"

"What!.... You did what… hahaha!" Chiamaka rolled on her back and started laughing hard. " Are you kidding me? Haaaa ha ha!"

"Chiamaka! Stop! It's not funny, God! Why did I tell you!... Aargh!"

Trying to catch her breath Chiamaka sat back up still laughing with teary eyes, "what was her expression…what did she say?"

"I don't know?... But she probably hates me by now! I just feel so attracted, I don't know!" She said and Chiamaka kept laughing. "Chiamaka! You are not helping, get out of my room!"

"Alright! I'm leaving," Chiamaka said with a chuckle, "so you like girls? of course I know you are gay, or bisexual, whatever you call it, I mean you like Niola?" she asked and Danielle just stared at her.

"Look, I've known Niola for years now and I have never seen her in any kind of relationship with some dude, any kind, she's a free spirit, don't beat yourself about it, just apologize, that's all and you're good."