Adunni sat across from Mr. Olamide, the flickering candlelight casting long shadows on the wooden walls of his modest home. The air between them was thick with unspoken words, the weight of history pressing down on both of them. She had rehearsed this moment in her mind countless times, yet now that she was here, facing her uncle, she found it difficult to begin.
Mr. Olamide's dark eyes studied her with quiet intensity, his fingers tapping idly on the armrest of his chair. "You said you had something important to tell me," he said at last. "Something about Mirabel."
Adunni inhaled deeply, steadying herself. "Yes," she said, her voice firm but laced with emotion. "Mirabel and I… we are twins."
The room fell silent. The wind outside howled through the trees, rattling the windows. Mr. Olamide's expression didn't change immediately, but Adunni saw the way his fingers tensed, how his breath caught ever so slightly.
He leaned forward. "Twins?"
Adunni nodded. "The child my father wrote about in his journal. The one he feared would bring the burial time too soon. That was me. I am the other twin."
Mr. Olamide let out a slow breath and sat back, rubbing his face. "How?" he asked, his voice low. "How did you get here?"
Adunni's fingers curled around the edge of the wooden table as memories of the past came rushing back. "People from my time caught sight of my powers. Powerful witches… I thought they were my friends." She hesitated, recalling their faces—Ese, Onome, and Ehosa. Sisters bound by something far older and darker than she had realized at the time.
"They wanted me for something," she continued. "I don't know what, but I knew it wasn't good. So I ran. The night I escaped, a storm raged, and I had nowhere to go. I ended up at the cliffs. I thought—" she swallowed hard, forcing the words out—"I thought if I jumped into the river, they wouldn't follow me."
Mr. Olamide frowned. "You can't swim?"
Adunni gave a short, mirthless laugh. "I know." She looked down at her hands. "I blacked out. And somehow… I woke up in the present."
Mr. Olamide sat in stunned silence, digesting everything. Then, after a long pause, he asked, "What was your special ability?"
Adunni lifted her gaze to meet his, and for the first time, a slow smile played on her lips. She reached for an apple from the basket on the table, tossed it into the air, and—
With a blink, her eyes glowed a striking blue.
The apple froze mid-air.
Not fell. Not hovered. Froze.
Mr. Olamide inhaled sharply, his eyes widening. He rose slightly from his seat, staring at the suspended fruit as if it defied the very laws of nature. His mind was already working through the implications, the connections forming rapidly.
"If Mirabel is your twin," he murmured, "and you can freeze time…"
He trailed off, but Adunni already knew what he was thinking.
Then that means Mirabel can do the same.
The apple dropped, rolling across the table, but neither of them moved to pick it up. Instead, they sat in silence, the weight of revelation settling upon them.
1:23pm
The weight of the revelation sat heavy in the air. Mr. Olamide remained frozen in his chair, still processing what he had just seen. Adunni's ability to freeze time was undeniable, and if Mirabel truly shared her power, it raised dangerous questions.
Meanwhile, Sunmi stretched in her room, relieved that mid-term tests were finally over. The break had come at the right time—school had been exhausting, and she needed time to clear her mind.
Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn't eaten in hours. Sighing, she got up and made her way downstairs toward the kitchen.
As she passed the living room, the flickering images on the TV caught her attention. Her parents sat on the couch, eyes glued to the screen. The news anchor's voice was urgent, the tone sharp enough to send a chill down Sunmi's spine.
"…reports of an unexplained phenomenon occurring across multiple countries. Passengers aboard Flight 723 from Lagos to London were discovered dead mid-flight. However, upon arrival at the morgue, several of them were found… mysteriously alive again."
Sunmi's breath hitched.
The footage switched to a morgue in Ghana, where the supposed victims had risen, their eyes dull yet disturbingly focused. Nurses and doctors stood frozen in horror as the corpses sat up, blinking as if waking from a deep sleep.
Sunmi's heart pounded. No. This can't be happening.
For a second, she saw flashes of her vision—the zombie Tolu created, its presence dripping with unnatural energy. She had felt it before, that same darkness. And now, it was happening in real life.
Panic surged through her. She turned and bolted upstairs, grabbing her phone and quickly dialing Moses.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up…"
After three rings, he answered. "Sunmi?"
"Have you seen the news?" she asked, her voice frantic.
There was a pause before Moses let out a slow breath. "Yeah… I've seen it."
Her hands trembled. "Do you know anything supernatural about this? Does the Council of Magic know what's going on?"
Moses was quiet for a moment. Then, his voice came through, low and tense. "The Council is studying some of the passengers… Sunmi, I felt it."
She swallowed hard. "Felt what?"
"The energy coming from them—it's dark. Evil. The same thing you described from your vision… the same thing you felt from Tolu when she tortured you."
Sunmi's stomach twisted. She gripped the edge of her desk, struggling to keep her breathing steady.
Moses continued, "The Council believes this started with Tolu's zombie. Somehow… the infection spread. It's behaving like a plague."
Sunmi shook her head, her mind racing. "But zombies don't spread like this. They're supposed to be mindless, rotting corpses—"
"These aren't normal zombies," Moses interrupted. "They're like vampires."
Sunmi blinked. "What?"
"They look normal until they're hungry," Moses explained. "Then… they change. They die—convulsing, going through the exact death that turned them—and then they rise again, hunting for flesh. And when they eat, their victims don't stay dead either. Half-eaten or torn apart, they come back just like the ones before them."
Sunmi's body went rigid. An undetectable plague. A cycle of death and resurrection.
Tolu hadn't just made a single zombie.
She had created an outbreak.