CW: Blood, kidnapping, death.

I

Kachi stroked the yellow python-eye hidden between the cheeks of his buttocks with a distracted finger. The familiar round smoothness of the hard orb calmed his mind as he stared dispassionately at the mangled corpse sprawled at his tiny, blood-coated feet. It was the body of an obese man in his middle years. Like the rest of the bloated body, the man’s leather loincloth was blood-stained. Even the sandy soil around the corpse was damp with drained life-fluid.

Kachi sighed as he observed the dead man, his uncle, Akah. Another corpse he hadn’t meant to create. Now, he would have to endure the discomfort of body-doubling to avoid suspicion—Not that anyone would suspect a mute ten-year-old boy of murder. Still, it’s better to be safe.

Another gust of air escaped his blood-stained lips. He shut his eyes and pressed his yellow arse-eye into his flesh, hard . . . harder. He felt the python-eye birthing sharp little teeth that pierced his skin. It burrowed deeper, goring and spinning into his flesh, till it vanished. His skin rapidly sealed itself, leaving a smooth, bloodless surface that throbbed—Ouch! Oh, Great Asata!

Kachi moaned silently as blinding pain zipped through his veins. His green cross-eyes glazed in agony as his body was doused in sudden hot sweat. With the pain came the unearthly images, the supernatural visions from Mother-Asata, the python-deity. He allowed his eyes to roam.

With his charmed vision, Kachi saw the tiny hut he shared with his widowed mother, as well as the three larger huts that belonged to his late father before his uncle, Akah, seized them. His astral gaze hung heavy over their family hamlet, following the movements of its inhabitants. Akah’s two wives were busy preparing the evening meal over the open fires while his mother skulked around the hamlet, her movements stealthy and fearful. In the light of the dying sun, Mama’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, darting anxiously around like one seeking a lost treasure. Kachi knew he was the missing treasure his mother sought.

He let out a deep gust of air and began to weave his dual reality inside his head. A mighty shudder quaked his body as he started to birth his Oyili, his double. He felt his invisible doppelganger separate violently from him in an agonising ritual that plunged his mind into instant darkness. He started to fall, smashing against the bloodied and bloated corpse of his dead uncle with a hard thud.

II

When next Kachi opened his eyes, the stars winked in the black skies like the myriad glittery eyes adorning Mother-Asata’s great length. A warm breeze fanned his exposed body, and pesky mosquitoes whined noisily near his ears. By his side, his late uncle’s corpse was now a withered husk, his shrivelled skin wrapped tightly round his bones as if glued with tree-gum.

Kachi scrambled to his knees and reached his fingers between his buttocks. The smooth skin he felt confirmed the disappearance of his yellow arse-eye. He heaved a deep sigh—Good. As always, the charmed python-eye had successfully birthed his double. He could tell by the sudden emaciated state of his uncle’s corpse that his Oyili had clearly enjoyed a bountiful feast to speed its growth. The body-doubling always worked faster when there was fresh meat to feed and give flesh to his spirit-self; a goat, a dog, a pig, even a corpse.

From his kneeling position, he observed Akah’s dried corpse with detached fascination. In his lifetime, Akah had been a towering giant of a man, instilling terror and subservience in their family. Now, he was a skeletal husk dressed in bloodied skin, his skull stretched in the malevolent grin of the unhallowed dead.

Kachi inhaled deeply, looking up to the night skies. He allowed his charmed inner-eye to wander again. This time, he saw himself—his Oyili—lying in deep slumber inside the small hut he shared with his mother—Good.

He staggered to his feet and stretched, yawning indulgently, long and wide—Great Asata! I’m so hungry I could eat a cow. His eyes suddenly narrowed—Uncle Akah should still have the cowrie coins.

Kachi started to riffle through the corpse’s loincloth. He eyed the terror-glazed eyes of the dead man with the indifference reserved for a squashed ant. His hands quickly found their target, a leather pouch heavy with money.

He stepped away from the corpse. A bright smile lit up his blood-spattered face—Mama will be happy to receive the cowrie pouch. After all, it should rightly be hers after Uncle Akah’s wicked act.

At the thought, the smile vanished suddenly from his face. A deep scowl furrowed his brows as he observed the shrivelled corpse—Yes, it’s a good thing Uncle Akah is dead. Who knows how many more children he might sell to the slave traders to feed his insatiable greed? Now, I’ll have to find a way to chase away Uncle Akah’s two wives and their eight children so that Mama and me can live alone in Papa’s hamlet once again. But first, I have to sink this body into the river.

Kachi stooped and lifted the corpse. His movement was fluid and effortless, as if he carried a dead chicken rather than a grown man’s body. The supernatural strength gifted him by the great python-deity ensured his breathing was unlaboured by the weight of his uncle’s corpse.

He took a couple of steps and stopped. He dropped the corpse to the ground as if it were a sack of Cassava tubers. He stared coldly at it for several seconds—should I just chuck it into the bush and be done with it? On the other hand, the villagers might discover the body before the wild animals devour it.

With a shrug, he stooped and grabbed the corpse by the arm and began dragging it along. With sure steps, Kachi headed towards the direction of the roaring river, navigating tangled roots, sharp stones, and lush vegetation with ease. His night vision was that of a cat, and under the dark skies, his green cross-eyes glowed like jade stars.

A sequence of images flashed rapidly in his head, evoking the earlier events that triggered his present predicament. Once again, he saw his uncle’s harsh face as he haggled with the Calabar slave traders over his illicit sale, the greed and malice glistening in Akah’s dark eyes as they glared at him.

“Look at the boy’s eyes, eh,” Akah had said, dragging him closer to the two slave traders with hard, painful fingers. “Have you ever seen an Igbo boy with green eyes? The boy has the cursed eyes of witches and demons. His cousins are terrified of him and he has cursed my wives with soured wombs that can only yield female births. So, take him and his evil to the Oyibo, white men, and let them deal with his demons themselves. But you must pay me well for him. I know he’s a mute, but that will make things easier for you since he can’t contradict anything you say should anyone question you along the villages. Anyway, I’ll need enough money to pay for a cleansing ritual at the witchdoctor’s, to ensure he doesn’t return to haunt me should he die at The River-of-No-Return.”

The trade had been quickly concluded and the men had grabbed Kachi’s hands firmly as his uncle walked away without a backward look. But not before he left Kachi with a dire threat.

“Make sure you don’t try to escape, do you hear?” Akah had snarled at Kachi, his bloodshot eyes as ugly as his raspy voice. “You must agree that they’re your kinsmen if anyone asks. If you cause them any trouble, I’ll kill your mother with my bare hands and feed her body to the vultures, are we clear?”

Kachi nodded, his eyes wide with panic. Nothing was clear to him, neither his uncle’s sudden treachery nor his unknown destiny. Akah had ordered him to trudge along to the market that morning. It was his tenth birthday as well. He hadn’t even said a proper goodbye to Mama; there had been no need for it. After all, the market was just a few hours’ errand. Fool-Goat that he was, he had even harboured the foolish thought that Uncle Akah planned to buy him a secret birthday gift.

Now, he belonged to the slave traders.

Kachi’s heart tightened, squeezed by sharp, metal claws. He felt the full force of Mama’s anguish when she discovered his fate; when uncle Akah returned from the market without him.

He swallowed deeply, pushing back the pain. He wanted to cry but his voice remained as silent as it had been from the fateful night the great python-goddess claimed his soul on his first birthday. It was also the day his father had died in his desperate and foolish attempt to save his only child from Mother-Asata’s deadly coil.

As the slave traders dragged him away, a voice whispered suddenly inside his head, an ancient voice that hissed with fire and dripped with honey. It caused his body to sway in a hypnotic trance as he listened.

Then, Kachi smiled—I’m not alone. Great Mother-Asata is with me.

III

An owl hooted from a nearby tree and Kachi welcomed the sound—Good; I’m getting closer to the river. With calm indifference, he transferred the corpse to his left hand, dragging it with ease along the rugged landscape. Once again, he allowed his thoughts to return to the site of his uncle’s meeting with the slave traders.

His eyes gleamed with sudden glee—Great Asata! Will he ever forget the stunned terror on the faces of the two slave traders when he shed his human skin for his reptilian body just a few minutes into their journey? One second, they were holding his hands in a bone-grip. The next, they were clutching a black, doubled-headed Mamba that sank its fangs into their bodies with deadly ferocity, dosing them with lethal venom.

With his cold snake-eyes, Kachi had watched them writhing and bloating on the ground, their mouths foaming from his poison. He hadn’t bothered to await their deaths as he slithered and twisted through the bushes in hot pursuit of his uncle. In his transformed snake form, he sought his target with icy menace. In a sleek wave, he glided through the dense vegetation till he spied Akah’s lumbering frame along the dusty path. His uncle was whistling a tuneless song with smug satisfaction.

Kachi slowed, crawling to a snail’s pace behind his uncle. He debated whether to bite Akah on his exposed ankles or sink his fangs into his fleshy arse. In the end, he did neither. Changing rapidly back to his ten-year-old human body, Kachi materialised beside his uncle. He tugged Akah’s arm with gentle insistence. His uncle looked down at him and gasped. The stunned look on Akah’s face upon seeing him brought the silent giggles to Kachi’s lips.

“W-what is this?” Akah had stammered, looking wildly around for the two slave traders. “Did you escape from them, you evil child?” His uncle’s eyes reddened with rage as he grabbed Kachi’s arms angrily, shaking him like wet laundry. “You stupid, useless mute! Do you think I’ll let you return to the hamlet with me, eh? Do you think I’ll return this money to the traders? I warned you, didn’t I? I told you I’ll kill your mother if you misbehaved. Well now, I’ll kill not just your mother, but your useless self as well.”

Akah’s large hands curled around Kachi’s neck, squeezing hard. His eyes blazed with hate as he applied deadly pressure. Kachi’s arm reached quickly behind him, his fingers seeking his yellow python-eye nestled between his buttocks. He felt his head roar as his uncle began to cut off his blood supply. Yet, he felt no fear, just the familiar agonising pain as the teethed-eye burrowed into his flesh. His mind began to weave the creature he needed to be, a terrifying reptilian monster that quickly split his small human head into three massive snake heads, swaying with the black Mamba’s trademark deadly menace.

Akah’s sudden screech coincided with the release of the pressure on Kachi’s neck. The hatred in his uncle’s eyes morphed into blind terror as he stumbled away from him. Kachi’s attack had been sudden and ferocious. It ended as quickly as it had started. He weaved Mother-Asata’s mystical wind into his feet as he glided in swift chase after his screeching uncle. With lightning speed, his tri-headed Mamba fangs savaged Akah’s body in countless, venom-filled punctures. In mere heartbeats, his uncle was reduced to foaming fits, convulsing his life away on the blood-soaked soil.

Before Kachi wore his human skin again several minutes later, Akah was already a bloated and bloodied corpse, his wide eyes glazed with the mid-day terror that had brutally stolen his life.

IV

The roaring sound of the river dragged back Kachi’s wandering thoughts—I’ve arrived. Finally! He stood at the bank staring at the black glistening surface of River Asata, named after their village python deity. He fought the hypnotic pull the river always wrought in him each time he ventured near it. The undulating waves in their mesmerising flow was a magic his soul never ceased to crave.

Kachi lifted his uncle’s corpse and flung it into the river with detached irreverence. He heard the splosh the body made before it was quickly carried downstream by the dark waves. He stooped and splashed some water on himself, washing away the blood that stained his face and his body. The soil was wet and soft beneath his feet and the air reeked with that special indefinable odour of the black river.

A sudden movement in the river’s surface caught his water-blurred eyes. Something long and thin leapt from the water and wrapped itself around his neck, tight . . . tighter—Oh Great Asata!

Kachi stumbled back, his mouth wide in a silent shriek. His fingers clawed at his neck, seeking to untangle the rope stealing his breath. They encountered the sleek softness of a familiar friend. Except this friend suddenly turned foe and sank its fangs into the soft flesh behind his right ear.

Kachi groaned softly. Intense pain radiated through every vein in his body. With frantic fingers, he yanked the snake from his neck and flung it back into the river. He saw it swish a rapid zig-zag across the gleaming dark surface of the river. Its long length glowed with the dazzling light of a hundred stars. His eyes widened in awe and panic as the glittering snake quickly disappeared underneath the river.

Kachi’s brows dipped, confusion and pain glazing his green eyes—Why would a snake attack me? Why? He rubbed the sore point behind his right ear gently, feeling the pain slowly subside. In fact, he soon felt so good that he started to wonder if he had really been bitten by the glowing water-snake. Save for a small rash behind his ear that felt like a ripe pimple, he would have put it down to his imagination.

As he began the uphill trek back to the village, Kachi’s mind remained gripped with the inexplicable attack—I’m Mother-Asata’s chosen one. I’m a snake-shifter too. I’m at peace with all reptiles on Amadioha’s earth. So, why would a member of my own snake-family attack me for no reason?

In the nearby bushes, the owls, monkeys, bats, bushbabies and crickets continued their nocturnal ruckus, while the stars in the black skies winked gleefully at the mischief they had witnessed that night. Kachi was oblivious to his surroundings. His thoughts were now on a new trouble. He paused underneath a tall Melina tree and started scratching his head with manic fingers. His scalp itched so violently that he was convinced a colony of gigantic headlice had suddenly invaded his head.

Kachi let his fingers loose beneath his dusty, matted hair, moaning softly in a mixture of bliss and agony.

Many heartbeats later, the itching started to subside. The savage orgy of his scratching fingers stopped. Once again, his head was calm, although his scalp felt as if it had been boiled, roasted and fried in a blazing fire. With a weary sigh, he resumed his journey home.

As Kachi drew closer to their hamlet, he started to will away his Oyili. His lips moved rapidly as he chanted the silent ritual to recall his doppelganger, an ancient mantra received from the great python goddess. Soon, the smooth spot between his buttocks started to itch. His fingers reached back in a manic scratch. He felt the slow and steady growth of the lump, till the yellow python-eye returned in its smooth, hard rotundity, nestling safely once again between his buttocks. Something light, small, and invisible enfolded him in a warm embrace. He smiled—Good!

By the time he snuck into the hut he shared with his mother, his Oyili had vanished and Mama was in a deep slumber on her raffia sleeping-mat. He stealthily stretched out on his mat with a tired sigh. His fingers furtively sought the back of his right ear. The small pimple from the snake bite had vanished. He smiled and shut his eyes. When sleep finally came, Kachi’s dreams were light and joyful, the charmed dreams of the innocent.

V

He was woken up the next morning by the confused uproar in their hamlet as news of Akah’s disappearance spread across the village. The clansmen quickly dragged Kachi from his sleeping-mat as Mama wailed, trying to shield him from their fists and shouts.

“Where is your uncle, you useless mute?” an angry kinsman screamed, sending him toppling to the ground with a vicious kick. “We heard he took you to the market yesterday, yet nobody saw you at the marketplace. Now, we see your cursed face, but no sign of your uncle. Where is Akah? Tell us before we decapitate you.”

Kachi felt the familiar tightness in his chest—Great Asata! Will there never be an end to the constant beatings? Even with Akah’s death, others have come to take his brutal place.

His hand started to reach behind, underneath his loincloth. He caught his mother’s pleading eyes and stopped. His arm dropped to his side as his brows dipped in frustrated mutiny—Why won’t Mama ever let me avenge our abuse? She knows what I am, whose spirit resides in me. Yet, even now, she stays my hand.

“Woman, speak to your useless son in the stupid language he understands and tell us what he says before we kill him,” a second kinsman threatened.

Mama rushed over and fell to her knees next to Kachi, pulling him into her arms. Her shoulders quaked with hard, silent sobs. As their bodies connected, he felt the familiar merging of their minds. The words that would not spill from his flawed lips flowed easily from his mind into hers. Finally, when he was done mind-speaking, the anguish and rage burning in Mama’s eyes at his revelations told him that he did well, that Akah had deserved his violent fate. It brought a thoughtless smile to his lips.

And the clansmen saw it.

“Asata curse the boy!” they screeched, dragging him from Mama’s desperate arms. “The green-eyed witch-child smiles and mocks us to our faces. Bring the machete so we can dispatch him and the witch that gave birth to him to The Empty Realm. Hopefully, they’ll wander there for eternity without hope of a reincarnation.”

As they rushed to find the machete, Kachi reached for the hidden yellow orb in his arse crevice. He shut his eyes, ignoring Mama’s frantic shaking of her head. He started to push the teethed python-eye into his flesh, harder . . . deeper. The familiar heat dowsed his body in hot sweat. Excruciating pain wracked every nerve in his wiry body as he ground his teeth in agony. A deluge of dazzling images began weaving inside his head in a spinning kaleidoscope of unfettered power.

Kachi felt his invisible Oyili detach from his body.

He doubled over, making soft grunting sounds. With fierce concentration, he began to give his Oyili a new form, a different body from its usual ten-year-old one—Great Mother-Asata, please help me! I must try this to save Mama! Please . . . please, make it work!

Kachi started to change his Oyili into his dead uncle’s form. In his mind’s-eye, he saw Akah in his towering rotundity, observed every tiny detail of his uncle’s hulking form, right down to the knife-scarified lines carved into his cheeks.

In blinks, his Oyili began to take visible, brutish form.

With colossal force, Kachi dragged the fledgling Akah-Oyili to the site where the decomposed corpses of the two slave traders festered. He watched it feed ravenously on their abundant rotten flesh. With horrified fascination, Kachi observed its rapid growth into its new hulking identity.

When the Akah-Oyili was done feeding, Kachi sent it back to the hamlet. By the time the men arrived with their machetes, Akah was walking into the hamlet with heavy, shambling steps. Kachi collapsed on the ground in a deep faint.

VI

When next he opened his eyes, he was inside Mama’s hut, cradled in her trembling arms.

“Oh, Great Mother-Asata be praised!” Mama exclaimed upon seeing his open eyes. “My son is back again.” Mama pulled him closer, filling his nostrils with her familiar loving scent of kennel-oil and wood-smoke. Beyond the open door of their hut, Kachi heard the sounds of joyful celebration in their hamlet.

“Your uncle came back,” Mama said, hearing his unspoken questions. “Oh, my good son, what a great miracle Great Mother-Asata did for us today, bringing back your uncle before those wicked men could kill us both. Isn’t it a good thing I stopped you from using your Asata-powers to attack them? They greatly outnumber us and would’ve surely killed us today if you had changed into your snake body and exposed your magic to them,” Mama shuddered, her eyes terror-filled as recollection flooded her mind.

Mama had witnessed his first skin-shedding when he was just five years old. Kachi’s python arse-eye was a terrible secret they shared; a cursed deformity Mama always told him never to reveal to anyone. Mama had first noticed the strange, glowing protuberance the day after the python-deity had swallowed Kachi whole before regurgitating him and killing his father in the process. Kachi had turned one year old on that fateful day.

From then, Kachi lost his voice and developed the terrifying visions that exposed the evils in their community, wicked acts only he could see and avenge. He had also developed the unique mind-reading ability shared solely with his mother. Mama said it was from their bonded thoughts that she had learnt of his terrifying secret, the fact that the python goddess, Mother-Asata, had marked him as a human-watcher, a powerful sorcerer charged with the task of watching over Her community and exacting swift vengeance on those that would commit evil or bring harm to Her devotees.

Save for their joint thought-sharing abilities and his supernatural strength, neither Kachi nor Mama knew the full extent of his powers until the day they encountered the cannibals from the notorious Abani-clan at their isolated farmland. Akah had confiscated all their prime farmlands after his father’s death and left Mama with the unfertile land located at the furthest outskirts of the village. Every trip to that distant farmland was fraught with dangers, from wild animals to the body-snatchers and slave raiders. But Mama had no option. It was either that or die from starvation.

The three cannibals had struck on a late afternoon, just as they left the farm for their journey home. The sight of their blood-smeared faces brought a loud shriek to Mama’s mouth. She pushed Kachi behind her, backing away from the fierce-looking men advancing with their machetes held high.

“Run, Kachi,” Mama gasped. “Run as fast as your legs can c-carry you and don’t look back; you hear me? Don’t look b-back no matter what y-you hear,” Mama stuttered, her voice terror-hoarse.

Kachi felt a sudden intense heat douse his body with gushing sweat. His head grew light, as if filled with air. A sudden knowing flowed into his head, a dazzling enlightening. Even before his fingers reached for his buttocks, he knew that he and Mama would be safe. On that fateful hot afternoon, Kachi finally discovered the powerful secret to his yellow python-eye and his divine calling.

And for the first time in his life, he did not run. He did not obey Mama. By the time he was done, the three body-snatchers lay dead on the ground, their bodies bloated from the deadly venom his Mamba-bites had inflicted on them.

He found Mama slumped on her knees. Her body trembled violently with shock till he wrapped his small arms around her neck and gently calmed her mind. His ability to body-switch into all reptilian lifeforms was another secret he now shared with his mother. Mama’s shock on witnessing his altered state convinced him never to share the other powers Asata had given him, especially the powers of winged-feet and Oyili body-doubling.

VII

From the cramped gloom of his mother’s hut, the rowdy celebration in their hamlet pierced through Kachi’s thoughts. He quickly pulled away from Mama, severing their mind-connection. Mama mustn’t learn about his latest human-creating powers, the fact that he had created his dead uncle from his own Oyili.

Thoughts swirled inside Kachi’s mind like a swarm of roiling snakes—I’ve never birthed an adult Oyili in all my years of weaving my doubles. The Akah-Oyili is a desperate experiment wrought from panicked terror. I wonder if I’ll be able to will it back to me as I’ve done with my other Oyilis when I’m ready?

Akah was sitting on his special, high stool underneath the mango tree when Kachi finally emerged from Mama’s hut at noonday. Kachi’s heart almost exploded from his chest at his first sighting of the Akah-Oyili he had created. His heart pounded so hard it almost stole his breathing. He lurked behind their hut, watching his uncle’s clone with panicked eyes. Akah was surrounded by their kinsmen, who raucously shared gourds of Palmwine with him. Akah’s wives and daughters milled around him, their faces wreathed with a kind of joyful anxiety. Seeing this huge Akah-Oyili close up filled Kachi with inexplicable terror. It wasn’t quite the same as seeing a ghost, but it was horribly close. A slight shudder shook his small frame.

As the afternoon stretched, calmness gradually soothed Kachi’s fear. Save for the strange ashy hue of his uncle’s skin, Akah looked just like his normal brutish self. With reluctant steps, Kachi walked slowly over to his uncle and bowed low in the usual obeisance. He remained stooped, waiting for Akah to shout the familiar, “Get lost, you useless mute,” at him. But his uncle said nothing. After several silent seconds, Kachi lifted his head and found Akah staring intently at him. His black eyes glinted with cold malignancy.

An icy chill doused Kachi’s body, crawling wispy dead fingers up the back of his neck—something is bad-wrong. He shuddered, averting his eyes. He could feel the badness oozing from his uncle through every pore in his body—Great Asata! What is wrong with this Akah-Oyili I’ve created?

“Boy! Yes, you useless mute; what happened to your uncle yesterday?” the nearest kinsman asked, glaring at Kachi with eyes dark with suspicion. “And don’t look at me with those witch-eyes as I speak to you. Tell us why your uncle has lost his speech and become mute like you. Quick; fetch your mother at once.”

Kachi’s blood ran cold—Oh Great Asata! I’ve gone and forgot that all my Oyilis are mute, just like me! Now, I’ve brought back a voiceless Uncle Akah! Oh, disaster!

Mama soon arrived with her ubiquitous tears.

“Clansmen, I swear by Great Mother-Asata that my son is not responsible for Akah’s stolen speech,” Mama wailed loudly in a trembling voice, clinging tightly to Kachi. “Kill me, curse me, stone me, flog me, kick me, drown me, blind me. Waste my life like a chicken’s worthless life, but please, leave my poor, mute son in peace. Oh, my poor fatherless son! Oh, my poor innocent son! Oh, my wretched widow’s life! Oh my! Oh . . . Oh . . .”

Mama wailed so loudly and pitifully that she soon diverted the dangerous attention of the clansmen from Kachi. In the absence of any other explanation for Akah’s mutism, the kinsmen decided to visit the witchdoctor for answers.

Kachi froze—Witchdoctor! Oh no, no! The truth must never come out! Instantly, Kachi rejected the idea in his mind and immediately, the Akah-Oyili mimicked his decision with ombie acquiescence. Uncle Akah shook his head vehemently and stared so coldly at the kinsmen that they hurriedly dispersed to their hamlets. Something about Akah suddenly made them uncomfortable, even though they couldn’t pinpoint it.

Kachi heaved a sigh of relief—It’s a good thing I can control my Oyili. He already planned to banish the Akah-Oyili once everybody slept and return his yellow arse-eye to its rightful place.

As night fell, Kachi stretched out on his mat and shut his eyes. The movement of his head pressed his ear against his skin. He winced, a deep frown creasing his forehead. He raised his hand to the back of his right ear. His fingers encountered a lump. It was as if the small pimple of the previous night had swollen to forty times its original size following the water-snake’s bite. It felt smooth to the touch, almost like his python arse-eye; except it lacked the cold hardness of that charmed protuberance. Instead, his ear-lump was tender to the touch, like a small pouch filled with putrid fluid.

Once again, Kachi’s thoughts returned to the strange snake attack at River Asata—I’m lucky I’m immune to snake venom or I’d surely be dead by now, going by the size of this horrible, soft lump. He forced his thoughts away from the growth and with silent focus, started the ritual to banish the Akah-Oyili. He chanted the mystical words silently as he stroked the smooth skin between his buttocks. His fingers sent out the invisible magnet that recalled both the Oyili and the yellow python-eye after each body-doubling. He waited for the familiar itch as he pushed his mind into the Akah-Oyili’s, issuing the return command to it.

The Akah-Oyili shut him out.

Kachi’s head almost exploded from the force of the rejection—Great Asata! Ouch! He groaned, cradling his head with trembling hands. This was the first time an Oyili had repelled his will. Sharp pain darted from his head to his neck. Once again, he repeated the ritual of recalling the Akah-Oyili; then again, and again. No matter how hard he scratched his arse and willed back the Akah-Oyili, the yellow python-eye refused to regrow between his buttocks. The tightness was back in his heart, stealing his breath—I mustn’t panic . . . Mother-Asata will do something. She’ll make the bad Akah-Oyili vanish by morning. Yes, I’ll just go to sleep. I’m sure by the time I wake up, the Akah-Oyili would’ve vanished, and my yellow arse-eye grown back again . . .

Kachi shut his eyes and slept.

VIII

The next morning, a hamlet child went missing. Akah’s youngest daughter, Chika, vanished from her mother’s hut during the night. Once again, their hamlet became the gathering point for the villagers and kinsmen. Everybody shouted Chika’s name, while her mother’s hysterical cries filled the air. Kachi joined in the search even though there was no love lost between him and his missing cousin. Like all his cousins and the village children, Chika bullied him with relentless spite. He had constantly wished she and her sisters would vanish. Now his wishes had come true—so why am I feeling this strange panic and dread?

An hour later, the domestic Ekuke-dog found Chika’s flesh-drained corpse inside the yam barn. As the shocked screams of the villagers filled the air, Kachi felt his skin disgorge a terror-blanket of goosebumps—The Akah-Oyili! Oh, Great Asata! What evil is this? Why . . . how did the Akah-Oyili I created feed without my command or knowledge?

Kachi had no doubt that the withered dead child was the victim of the Akah-Oyili’s hunger. And when next he saw his uncle, his suspicions were founded. The ashy hue that coated Akah’s skin the previous day had disappeared. Instead, the Akah-Oyili glowed like polished ebony, a menacing glint in its cold, hard eyes.

Kachi shuddered—Is it my imagination or are the Akah-Oyili’s eyes flashing a strange green colour? He took another surreptitious look, but the green hue had vanished from his uncle’s eyes. And as their eyes met, something flowed between them, a cold knowing, a clash of wills, and a declaration of hate. A contemptuous smile twisted Akah’s lips.

Sudden dizziness hit Kachi. He stumbled against the mud-wall of their hut. Icy terror returned in waves, swelling his head—Oh Great Asata! Why do I suddenly feel so drained? And look the evil I’ve now done. I’ve gone and created a soured Oyili, one that is bigger than me and determined to stay and feed. I should’ve never fed it decomposed corpses. Now it’s too late. How am I going to vanish this horrible Oyili before it wreaks more harm in our village? How long will I keep watching and chasing after it? For the rest of the day, Kachi watched the Akah-Oyili with stealthy grit.

Chika was buried the next day in Ajo-ofia, the bad forest of the accursed dead. As a child that died before her parents, especially such an inexplicable death, she was deemed a cursed corpse, unworthy of a reincarnation into their clan. Her mother wailed until she lost her voice. As Kachi observed his uncle’s grieving wife, he felt guilt and shame quake his body in silent sobs. The tightness in his chest almost caused him to faint—Oh, Great Mother-Asata, what have I done?! I’ve gone and brought evil into our hamlet and killed my poor cousin. I really regret wishing Chika and my cousins gone from our hamlet.

Even as he mourned his late cousin, a dark thought kept whirling around in Kachi’s head—How will I defeat this accursed Oyili that is determined to stay?

That night, the Akah-Oyili came for him.

IX

Kachi woke up shivering. An icy chill like nothing he had ever experienced caused his breath to smoke and his teeth to chatter. He groaned and opened his eyes. Then he screamed, a silent shriek of terror.

The Akah-Oyili leaned over him, its hulking bulk blocking his escape. Its eyes glittered a terrible green hue in the darkness and Kachi saw its murderous intent. He tried to scramble from his mat, but an inexplicable weakness drained his strength. He stared with terror-glazed eyes at the hulking intruder, his pounding heart roaring in his head.

The Akah-Oyili hauled him up from the mat. The strength in its powerful arms stunned Kachi—G-Great Mother-Asata . . . G-Great Mother-Asata . . .

Kachi was babbling in silent terror—What to do? How do I vanish this Akah-Oyili? It is me, yet, not me. It’s a bad-wrong me that is bigger and stronger and wants me dead. Oh, G-Great Mother-Asata . . .

And Mother-Asata heard him.

Her voice was an ancient, honeyed hiss inside his head and Kachi’s eyes widened in sudden illumination—Uncle Akah is nothing but an Oyili. Despite its human form, an Oyili is just a body without a soul. It can’t create, change its form, or take over its maker’s powers.

Unless it feeds on its maker . . .

At the thought, terror sent heart-pounding panic into Kachi’s body. In a blink, he shed his human skin and slithered out of the hut. In his weakened state, a grass snake was the best he could do. He disappeared into the cassava bush before the Akah-Oyili could grab his snake-tail.

The chase began.

Through winding paths, bushy trails, and bumpy terrain, the Akah-Oyili chased Kachi as he weaved his way towards River Asata. Under the moonless sky, Kachi allowed his charmed inner-eyes to wander. They followed the undulating curve of the black river till they found the water-bloated corpse wedged between some reeds and leaning branches—Uncle Akah’s body! Yes!

As Kachi crawled to the shore, he quickly shed his snake-skin for his human form. Instantly, his head started to itch. It was the same manic itching he recalled from the day of his snake bite. As his fingers gored into his scalp, he felt something throbbing behind his right ear. He touched it and gasped. His eyes widened in wonder—A python eye! Oh, Great Mother-Asata! I’ve grown a new python eye behind my ear!

Hope flared bright in his heart. He touched the ear-lump again. There was no mistaking its unique shape. The soft fluid-filled growth had hardened into the familiar smooth, hard glassiness of Mother-Asata’s charmed eye. Kachi’s eyes widened; his breath came in short, fast gasps.

The Akah-Oyili came to a stumbling halt by the riverside, a few feet away from Kachi. Its brows dipped in a frown as it saw the swollen corpse bobbing in the dense reeds. Sudden recognition widened its eyes. It stumbled backwards, staring at the corpse with terror-glazed green eyes.

“Uncle Akah, release my Oyili now and return to your corpse,” Kachi spoke into the Akah-Oyili’s head.

The Akah-Oyili swerved its head away from the bloated corpse and started advancing towards Kachi. Menace pulsated from every pore in its mammoth body. Kachi steeled himself. Once again, Mother-Asata’s voice reverberated inside his head—Destroy it with its greatest fear. That which takes a man’s life is a man’s greatest fear.

Kachi took a deep breath—No, he won’t shift into the tri-headed Mamba this time. With its superior strength, the Akah-Oyili would crush him in a blink. Already, he could see in the hard gleam of its eyes that it expected him to resort to his default reptilian mode.

Kachi pressed the python eye behind his ear.

Instantly, he felt the familiar teeth burrow into his skin, dousing him in sudden hot sweat. Just as the Akah-Oyili wrapped its powerful hands around his neck and lifted him off the ground, he shut his eyes and melted.

A sea of venom doused the Akah-Oyili in a deadly, liquid avalanche. It filled its gaping mouth and massive body with the lethal poison of a fearsome swarm of invisible Mamba predators. Kachi saw the stunned disbelief and terror in the Akah-Oyili’s green cross-eyes as it choked and drowned in pure venom. Panic set in as it tried to flee the poisonous deluge, but it was too late.

And for the second time, Mamba venom killed Akah.

Kachi’s body regrouped, flesh and bones rapidly forming from liquid venom and merging into a small, green-eyed boy. He saw his ten-year-old Oyili quickly detach itself from the floundering Akah-Oyili. It merged into his body with a soft sigh. He felt the familiar burning sensation overwhelm him. An intense itch in his arse sent his fingers scratching manically. A hard lump began to grow beneath his scratching fingers. He reached up to his right ear. The new lump was back to its soft, malleable state.

Kachi sighed tiredly. Where the Akah-Oyili once stood was now an empty space. The bloated corpse bobbing by the reeds sank deep into the river as if pulled down by iron hands. Once again, darkness held sway, together with the raucous creatures that ruled the night.