Chapter 2: The Whispers Begin
Ifunanya Okonkwo stood before her class, trying to focus on the lesson, but the whispers at the back of the room never stopped.
She had been at Saint Raphael's for just one day, and already, the students were talking.
The classroom smelled of chalk dust and something faintly moldy, as if the walls had absorbed the passage of time. The desks, though polished, still bore the carvings of students long gone—initials, crude drawings, and words etched in frustration or boredom.
But Ify could barely concentrate on any of that.
Not after what happened last night.
"Do you remember?"
The words on the blackboard had vanished by morning, as if they had never been there. She had convinced herself that she was imagining things—that her mind was just playing tricks on her.
But the whispers in the classroom told her otherwise.
"...my bunkmate swore she heard footsteps last night..."
"...they say Miss Titi still checks homework at night..."
"...the blackboard in SS3B wrote by itself last term..."
"...Shhh! She's looking!"
Ify tapped her ruler against her desk, the sharp sound cutting through the murmurs.
"You all seem very interested in something that is not my lesson," she said, her voice calm but firm. "Would anyone like to share with the class?"
Silence.
Some students shifted in their seats, avoiding her gaze. A few giggled nervously.
A girl near the front, small, dark-skinned, with short braids, hesitated before raising her hand.
"Yes?" Ify said.
The girl licked her lips. "Miss… is it true you schooled here?"
Ify stiffened. "Yes. I was in the Class of 1978."
A ripple of murmurs swept through the room. The girl leaned forward slightly.
"Then you must know about Miss Titi."
The air in the classroom seemed to change, as if everyone was holding their breath at once.
Ify's grip on the ruler tightened.
"That's enough," she said. "Let's focus on the lesson."
The students obeyed, but the atmosphere had already shifted. The whispers had begun.
---
The bell rang at 9:00 PM, signaling the final lights-out for the junior and senior dormitories.
Ify sat at her desk, flipping through some students' essays, but her mind wasn't on the words in front of her.
The school felt alive at night—but not in the way it did during the day.
The wooden walls seemed to breathe, creaking softly in the silence. The wind outside whistled through unseen gaps, making the windows rattle faintly.
Ify tried to shake off the feeling, but a distant sound made her pause.
Footsteps.
Soft. Slow. Moving through the corridor outside.
She stood up and listened closely. The footsteps weren't hurried, not like a student sneaking back to their dorm. They were deliberate.
Steady.
The way a teacher would walk during night rounds.
Her heart pounded.
You're being paranoid, Ifunanya. Just go to bed.
Then, she heard something else.
A giggle.
Ify's eyes narrowed. Students.
It was coming from outside, toward the back of the school building—the area near the old storehouse.
She sighed, reaching for her wrapper and draping it over her nightgown before heading out.
But she wasn't the only one who had heard the sound.
Because in one of the dormitories, two girls had just made the biggest mistake of their lives.
---
Tomi and Esther weren't supposed to be out of bed.
But rules had never stopped them before.
The two SS2 girls had slipped out of their dormitory as soon as the matron went to sleep, giggling as they tiptoed across the school grounds.
"This is dangerous," Esther whispered, but there was laughter in her voice. "If we get caught, we're finished."
Tomi grinned. "That's what makes it exciting."
They had been sneaking out for weeks now, always finding some dark, quiet place where they could whisper and touch away from prying eyes and judgment.
Tonight, they had chosen the area behind the old storehouse, where the senior students rarely ventured.
They settled against the wall, hidden in the shadows.
"I missed you all day," Tomi murmured.
Esther rolled her eyes, smiling. "We see each other all the time."
"It's not the same," Tomi said, brushing a strand of hair from Esther's face.
The moment was warm, intimate. Esther leaned in, their fingers lacing together—
And then.
They heard it.
A soft, dragging sound.
Like fabric rustling against the ground.
Tomi turned her head sharply, peering into the darkness.
"Did you hear that?" she whispered.
Esther stiffened. "It's probably just the wind."
But then came the footsteps.
Slow. Measured.
Not from the dorms. Not from the staff rooms.
From somewhere closer.
From inside the storehouse.
Tomi and Esther froze.
A shadow moved in the doorway—a silhouette, faint but unmistakable.
A woman.
Standing perfectly still, watching them.
Then, she took a step forward.
The dim light from the lantern outside caught her face—or what should have been her face.
Because there was nothing there.
Just darkness where her features should have been, except for two sunken, hollow eyes.
A long dress hung loosely on her frail body, and in her right hand, she held something long and thin.
A piece of chalk.
SCRATCH. SCRATCH.
The chalk moved against the air, as if she were writing on an invisible board.
Tomi's throat locked. She tried to scream, but no sound came out.
Esther gasped for breath, her body seizing with terror.
The woman tilted her head, her hollow eyes locking onto them.
The chalk dragged faster—the strokes of invisible letters slicing through the air.
The last thing Tomi heard before everything went black was the sound of her own scream ripping through the night.
---
The screams pierced the silence of Saint Raphael's, waking students and teachers alike.
Dormitory doors swung open, and the compound erupted into chaos as matrons, teachers, and prefects rushed toward the source.
Ify was among them, clutching her wrapper tightly as she hurried to the scene.
Tomi and Esther lay on the ground, their bodies stiff and unmoving.
Their eyes were open, glassy with shock. Their mouths were slightly parted, as if they had been caught mid-scream.
Madam Uche arrived, breathless.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Two junior students, who had seen them first, pointed toward the storehouse with trembling hands.
"They… they were screaming," one of them stammered. "We found them like this!"
A murmur ran through the gathered students.
Ify crouched beside the girls, pressing her fingers to their necks. Their pulses were faint but steady.
"They're alive," she said, glancing up at Madam Uche. "But they need help."
The headmistress's face was tight with something unreadable.
"Take them to the infirmary," she said, her voice sharper than usual. "And everyone else, back to bed!"
Slowly, the crowd began to disperse, but the tension in the air remained thick.
As the girls were lifted, Tomi suddenly gasped, her body jolting as if waking from a nightmare.
Her voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper.
"She was here," she rasped.
Madam Uche froze.
"Who?"
Tomi's eyes filled with fresh terror.
"Miss Titi."
A sharp gust of wind blew through the compound, and in that moment, Ify could have sworn she heard it—
A faint scratch of chalk against a board.
Somewhere, unseen.