Dancing With The Masquerade

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: THE MASQUERADE

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THE MASQUERADE

Everyone has a past. Everyone comes from a past. Our past shapes our future by what our predecessors do. Who we are, who we become, who and what we stand for all boils down to what our ancestors were. Have they tampered with something evil? Could they have perhaps tied down their future generations in a deadly deal because, in that moment, it didn't sound like it was such a bad idea?

In the old times, when life was simpler, when foreigners or missionaries haven't graced Africans with their presence, they knew only the ways of the ancient gods, taught to them by their fathers and their fathers to their fathers before them. Each land, each village, each family believed in a god, had a shrine or place of worship in their home. Sometimes, they seek the help from older gods and saw it as a good thing to bring it home with them. They took part in rituals; they presented them with sacrifices and lived majorly to please them. Unknowing to their simple minds... that could be their downfall for generations to come and generations after that, for what we don't know is greater than what we actually know.

This time, during this nightmare, I found myself tied to the trunk of a gigantic tree. Its branches were long and stretched out as far as possible, most of it tilting because of its weight. I looked left and right; the surrounding was unknown to me, grasses tall and stretched out as far as my sight could go. I had to conclude this was a forest or bush of some sort. Then, I lowered my eyes to my body and realised the only thing I had on was a white wrapper and there was no footwear on my feet. My eyes shifted to the side of my leg and there stood a strange idol made out entirely of clay with strange carvings on it. I'd never seen it before.

My heart began palpitating as it gradually dawned on me what was happening. I was well aware of the fact I'd been having nightmares, and a part of me told me this was one of it, although I wasn't sure. Everything felt quite real. The moment I lifted my eyes from the idol, I startled in a gasp. There it stood, less than five steps away from me. The same masquerade. It was still, like a statue. I stared at it, dreading the moment it might actually make a move. This scene of a nightmare was new to me. I've never experienced this part. The longer it stared, I stared back. This right here, this moment was familiar. It was trying to scare me. I mean, it had so many opportunities to kill me, but never did. The only thing I ever felt or got from it was fear.

I gulped down, drew in a deep breath as I lifted my chin up. Somehow, I'd replaced the fear in my eyes with a growing confidence.

"I'm not afraid of you... not anymore." My voice was unfamiliar to my hearing, bolder than I've ever been. It neither said a word nor made a move.

"You think troubling me every night will make you get what you want? Yes... maybe a few months ago or weeks... you could've gotten me, but not now... now, I know who I am and I don't belong to you. I never have and never will... Now, I belong to Jesus and he will save me from your clutches." I continued, the level of my confidence heightening by the minute, different from what I'd ever felt. Where had this feeling been all the years of my life, when I felt lost, confused and didn't know how to believe in myself? I'd missed out on so much.

It moved, and then another movement. I heard its voice, low at first but eventually audible to my hearing. I couldn't make out its words, but it was clear he was speaking in the native dialect then I realized... he was saying incantations. He danced, whether or not there was a beat. His incantations continued, and so did his dance. The masquerade made its way closer, still chanting its incantations, and continued doing so as it danced around the tree it tied me to. I didn't want to ask what it was doing. I was well aware of the fact that it was trying to achieve something, to most probably break my spirit.