The sky was as black and thicker than we usually know. That is how the shrine was — Cold black. The only thing that supplied light were seven tiny lamps in the shrine. They burnt bright red instead of yellow or orange. Whenever it rained, it never touch the shrine and sunlight doesn’t penetrate it either. Everything about this juju-man’s shrine was mysteriously scary and different.

As it is, only the bold and the extraordinary could get there. Like the speed of lightning, the six devils appeared in the shrine. Their attire immediately changed into a red cloth tied around their waist and white cowries, in form of a necklace, appeared on their necks. The herbalist himself wore a braided hair decorated with white cowries. The red shirt and skirt on him too were beaded with cowries. He looked very young and agile, but he walked and talked slowly, as if he managed.

“Baba! Please, help us!!”

“Forbidden! It’s forbidden to come in here with fear!” The herbalist yelled. “Look at how you’re all shivering like premature chickens!” He rolled his eyes at them and hissed. Looking so disappointed.

“Death chased us, Baba! Blade is already dead.” the one with pot-belly begged, controlling his heavy breath.

He had a round, shiny head and a deep scar across his left eyebrow. Within the seven devil’s gang, they identified him as scorpion, but his real name was Samson Gbadebo.

“Yes! I know. I know what you don’t know, my son. And I see what you can’t, beforehand. I gave you guys a warning, but you ignored it. Perhaps it’s been six months since you last renewed your power.”

The baba looked at the six of them straight in the eyes, one after the other. They tried to hide the pains they were all feeling, looking back into the old man’s eyes with boldness like a steady lion ready to pounce on its prey.

“You guys are weak! Your power, like the evening sun, has faded!!”

“We all know who you are! The greatest living creature in the entire land! Baba, we are brave, but you’re the bravest! You are the light that would never quench, the tree that would never fall.” The boss praised.
“What should we do now? What’s the way forward?”

“You’ve spoken well, my son. The way you should have spoken when I gave you warnings. But! It’s never too late!” He took a long wooden staff from the corner of the room, which was electrocuting.

He lifted his legs as if they were too heavy for him to lift. The old herbalist was in his late 80s, but he looked actually younger and acts like someone over 150 years of age. Only God knows how he lived till that moment. Definitely, he must have exchanged his looks for his actions (walking and talking).

He marched to where his gods were, but the gang stood in the middle of the shrine. They hung two mighty Python heads, facing each other at each corner of the room, yet they looked so much alive. Everything looked dark and scary, but to the old man, it looked like paradise.

The herbalist’s lips were naturally pure black. Anyone seeing him for the first time would be scared, but that was his fashion. Well, the baba asked them to wait a bit, then he made some incantations to appease the gods.

It took a while; he paused at the three red looking statues facing each other, with so much joy and pride. He blushed, chuckled, then he stopped in between. After that, the herbalist came back into the cycle and faced the boys. Their injuries faded immediately as he joined them, and they looked at each other with excited faces.

“Don’t feel too happy because the gods and spirits of the land are angry with you. You denied their warnings, but the gods are kind. They pardon you.”

“What about blade?” The boss asked in curiosity.

“I know you’re the leader of the group, and it’s natural for you to worry.” He wore a crooked smirk, pointing his staff to the east of the room. Immediately, blade’s body that was already lying on the hospital bed appeared into the shrine.

“Blade! Blade!!” Others called him, hoping he would still wake up.

“Don’t bother yourselves. If you try calling him like this till when you grow grey hairs and lost all your teeth, he won’t wake up.”

“Is he really dead?”

“No, he’s soul is stuck between the land of the dead and our own world. For now, he can’t hear what you say, but he’s still with us. Only if you’re ready to take the sacrifice.”

“What’s it baba! I’ll do anything!” The boss answered.

“Very good! Excellent! But first. Drink this.”

He handed him a white Calabash with milk, looking at the water inside it.

“What’s this baba?”

“You’re ready, aren’t you?” He frowned and raised an eyebrow. “Drink it!”

Even though he was the boldest, he shivered, carrying the Calabash with only his left hand and placed it between his lips.

“Don’t drink it because I know you’re tasty!” He hissed. “Just hold it in your mouth for a second and spit to the spirits within the cycle!”

Dele, the boss, did how he was told and fire gushed out of his mouth like a dragon. Everyone shivered except the herbalist that burst out into laughter.
“You guys are chickens!” He laughed.

Dele wiped his wet mouth. “What’s this and what does it mean?”

“You just drank from the water of life, my son. And that means your next mission would be successful, but...”

Machine gun, Fire, scorpion, Frayyo, and Frediko looked at themselves with so much excitement.

“But what? When are we going?” Fire asked, impatiently.

“Only one of you would go. The gods has chosen him already.”

“Who’s he baba?”

“He’s the leader of this gang. He’s you, Dele.” The herbalist smirked at him again. “You’ll get a blood of... An unmarried lady in her thirties. She should be someone you haven’t met before, someone completely from another town. We would need blood directly drawn from her heart, her red blood cells and the posterior tibial artery.”

“W…what? But we used one of our family members the last time. How would I ever get these kinds of blood... I can’t even remember what you’ve just said...”

“They’re the rarest kind of blood in the human body, Dele. This is your task, and you need to do it alone. If you’re not back before seven days, you would lose your friend and the six of you would slowly die like a poisoned rat!” He expanciated on his last words, so it wrote a signature in Dele’s memory.
“Get what I ask you. Soon, you will find this girl. You’re a man. You should know what to do.”

“Yes, baba. I will do it.”

“What is most important here is to get the blood of a woman with a true love for you in her heart, and with hot, burning of love for you in her eyes. She must be madly in love with you. It’s you, Dele, only you. She must be ready to do anything for you, take death for you and even give sacrifices to you without second thoughts. If she’s not in love, and you get her blood, it’s going to be poisonous to you guys, and it would even fasten your deaths.”

Others looked at themselves in a confused manner. Although he spoke in clear Yoruba language, they couldn’t even fathom what he just meant. The six of them understood that it was a tough mission indeed. An entirely different one.

“What about us? What would we do for the while?” Fire asked.

“The remaining five of you would stay here. You’ll feed and drink with me for that seven days. Hopefully, this mission would be a successful one. Only then would the seven of you be together again because if one dies, the others would. That’s the path you’ve taken. What affects one affects all.” The herbalist muttered.

“Now, let me warn you. You would have to wear one piece of cloth throughout these seven days.” He warned.

“Okay, baba.”

The herbalist placed his staff three times on Dele’s forehead and made some incantations.

“Iberu kosi fun Omo akin! Don’t worry, Dele. The gods are with you. You can now go in peace.”

The old juju priest roared out a loud laughter like a lion. Dele immediately disappeared from the gigantic baobab tree and walked out of the mysterious forest. Free like a bird, confused if his mission would be a success or not. With either way, he has no option in this and like never, he’s more than ready for anything and everything.

***

08.01.2021.