Do You Believe In Spiritual Things?

Do You Believe In Spiritual Things?

Photo by Lennart Wittstock

My grandfather was a strong herbalist during his lifetime. I was not opportune to know him in person, he passed on before I was born but I heard so much about his deeds.

Some years ago, around my pre-teen, weird things started happening in our house.

It all began one night, we just finished having a nice time as a family in our compound as usual. It's a polygamous family. Every evening when the house is full, we sit in the compound and just have fun. Sometimes my father tells us tales, those old lies, LOL.

That night, when we went inside our rooms to sleep, my sister and I started hearing certain movements in the compound. It was like human footsteps and at the same time like that of animals. We thought it was normal but it became a thing of concern when it persisted and looked as if the steps were coming towards our window.

My elder sister tapped me, "Emreal, are you hearing that sound?"

"Yes sister, I thought I was dreaming," I replied.

"It's not a dream, I thought so at first but people don't dream with their eyes open, do they? this thing is beyond ordinary," she responded.

"Esther, maybe you should peep the window for us, since you are the eldest here," I suggested.

"You are mad, peep what?" She asked, standing up from the bed, while we were still talking, something dropped on the ceiling making an audible sound, followed by a very loud noise that sounded like the clashing between two cats. It was so intense that we felt the ceiling was going to fall on us.

"What's that, Emreal?" Esther screamed, as she ran back to the bed and covered herself with a blanket.

"I don't know," I replied as I held the pillow, my legs shaking and my heart beating fast.

The next minute, we heard our names, "Esther, Emreal, what's happening in there?" Our mother asked.

We ran towards the wooden door and opened it, our parents were there with one of our uncles. "Mommy, there is something in the ceiling," Esther replied.

"Oh, you mean the sound?" Our mother asked.

"Yes Mommy," we both responded.

"Come on, it's nothing we all heard it too, now go back to bed," she replied.

"Mommy, not in this room," I replied, still shaking.

"Okay, fine, come to our room," our mother answered. I didn't know how I slept that night but fear was all over me.

In the morning, when I woke up, everyone in the house was talking about the event. I didn't even know the fight between the cats continued while I slept.

Cats are pets and they are adorable, but in some parts of my country, cats are many things. They are pets and also spiritual entities.

You must have heard that in Nigeria, people tagged cats as witches. It sounds funny but a lot of strange things happen here. Some evil people use the form of those innocent creatures to carry out their wicked agendas.

I overheard one of my uncles telling my Dad, "This thing is not ordinary. I just hope it's not the spirit that Baba (our grandfather) planted in this house while he was alive that is already manifesting."

The way my father was quiet proved something was not right but thank God that night was gone.

We all thought that was it, it would never happen again and if that was it, then it was just a normal occurrence but after that night, it became worse.

Our family house is a fenceless face me, I face your house, with a big passage in between the rooms, facing each other and a big compound outside.

After that occurrence, every single night we had the same experience, and subsequently, our house became the house of cats. If they were only coming to have fun and go, it would have been better, but they fight from a certain time to a certain time and then leave.

Subsequently, things started going wrong in the house, things started getting missing mysteriously. People will sleep and wake up with marks on their bodies as though they were scratched by cats, it happened on different occasions, my mom was a victim too.

Now it's obvious, the occurrence is not ordinary. We had a family meeting and decided to start hunting the cats. We killed as many as we could and also kept praying, with time, it stopped.

One night during the heat period, we were relaxing in the compound. My dad just finished telling us a story and we all lay down. Some minutes later, the place was quiet, I presume everyone slept.

I don't know what happened, but I opened my eyes, and behold there was a very tall creature whose height I could say was reaching the sky, I could only see the legs but the head was nowhere to be found. The hairs on my body rose, it was as if my head was becoming bigger and my body went cold instantly. I tried to scream but I couldn't. The creature moved around in the compound and I can't tell what happened again.

When I opened my eyes it was daybreak, my entire body was sore, it was as if I was beaten by someone.

When I woke up, I greeted my father and told him "Daddy, I think I saw a spirit last night."

He looked at me and smiled, then said "Describe what you saw, when I gave him the description. He shook his head and said to my mom, "Mommy Emreal, your son also saw the same thing Esther and Daniel claimed they saw."

Hmm! My Mom sighed. "What's happening in this house?" she asked as she went inside the room.

Thank God I was not the only one who even saw it, probably, no one would have believed me. We took the matter seriously and kept praying.

After that event, the last one that happened was a man in a suit who came to the house and asked for our grandfather that died over a decade ago.

When he was told that our grandfather was late, the man smiled took his bag, and walked outside the compound. This happened in the evening.

When he just walked outside our compound, if I am not mistaken, within a few seconds, my father told my sister to call him back. She went outside and he was nowhere to be found.

Did he disappear, fly, or run? We don't know, but within the space of that time, we expected him to still be at our frontage but he was long gone.

Many said it was our grandfather's spirit(ghost) but to me, it was normal, LOL.

After some years, the weird events stopped for a while, but later on, cats returned. Each time a cat comes and cries mysteriously in the house, most times like a child, expects something bad to happen.

Someone will fall sick and die, people died mysteriously in the house, my dad lost most of his siblings, and finally my stepmother.

But what can we do rather than keep praying? The good news is since I graduated from high school, we never had any of those experiences again.

I said earlier that it was a family house. Two years back (2022) I moved out to my father's house, he was still building it before he passed on. I tried my best for my Mom and siblings to join me to no avail, but last year (2023), December, they changed their minds and finally joined me.

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