"But I don't even understand, sef," Obinna's voice echoed with worry in the dimly lit room. Eze's mind struggled to grasp where he was and what had transpired. How long had it been? Why did the room feel suffocatingly hot? As his eyes slowly flickered open, he discerned the sight of Obinna pacing restlessly by the makeshift hospital bed.
"He's up! Eze, Mr Man, what happened?" Obinna inquired, his concern relatively evident. Eze's anger simmered just beneath the surface.
"What do you mean, what happened?" Eze retorted, his voice tinged with annoyance. "Are you not the one who abandoned me there? For what?"
"Abandoned you? That's a weird word choice Eze," Obinna responded, his confusion evident. "Why would I ever abandon you behind in a situation like that?"
Obinna would then shortly recall his own version of the bizarre events in the cave.
"You followed us, remember?" His words hung in the stifling air. "We were investigating why there was no light in the weird cave, no matter what you tried."

Eze was skeptical, to say the least, "Mm mm. I don't remember that part sha. And then Chinwe appears."
As if summoned by the conversation, Chinwe made her entrance through the doorless door, her presence enigmatic. "You called?" She questioned, her tone filled with a mix of amusement and curiosity.
"Begrudgingly," Eze muttered, his irritation palpable.
"Well, since it seems like your brain is still waking up, would you like me to recount what happened?" Chinwe offered, her voice taking on a more narrative quality.
Eze sighed, resigned to his situation. He could barely move any part of him that wasn't his wildly gesticulating arms after all. "Well, it's not like I have much of a choice, do I?"
"After we told you that you didn't want to leave, you followed us, alright," said Chinwe, her tone holding a mixture of assertion and concern.
"I'm telling you, I didn't," Eze argued, his voice wavering with even more frustration.
"You did follow us. But silently. You didn't say a single thing as you followed us. Then suddenly, you just jerked towards the left of us and collapsed randomly. What actually happened, Eze?" Chinwe's eyes searched his face for answers, her worry deepening.

"Well, it's simple. I..." Eze began, attempting to explain himself, but his words were abruptly cut off.
Then, he seemed to seize in place, as if his heart had stopped, his body freezing mid-sentence.
"NO, ADI!" A strange, echoing voice shouted, reverberating through his mind.
"HUH?" Eze shouted back, his voice cracking with confusion.
"ADI, I SAID NO!" The voice insisted, its tone growing more urgent, more insistent.
"What are you saying, Eze? What's going on? Are you really alright?" Chinwe's words came out in a rush, her eyes wide with alarm and bewilderment. The room seemed to close in on him, the air getting 3 times thicker with tension and unspoken fear.

"Guy, guy!" Obinna's voice sliced through the tense air.
"Jesus Christ, Obinna, what did we do? Do you think he's..." Chinwe's voice wavered, her eyes wide with alarm, grabbing Obinna's shoulders to shake.
"No, no, no. We will not overreact here. Maybe he's just having a hard time... um... putting together a sentence, maybe," Obinna said, attempting to sound confident despite his own unease.
"He hasn't moved for like a hundred seconds, Obinna!" Chinwe's words rushed out, her hands nervously fidgeting."Too few seconds for you to be worrying," Obinna retorted, his attempt to quell her rising panic seemingly falling flat in the face of their growing apprehension. "Maybe just wait a bit. Give him some time," he said, his voice tinged with uncertainty, trying to reason his way out of the situation.

The room fell into an oppressive silence, the weight of concern suffocating the air. Not a single sound dared to disturb the heavy quietude as Obinna and Chinwe stared, their eyes fixed on Eze's motionless body. Obinna's gaze wandered, desperately seeking distraction in the rough texture of the walls and the scant light filtering through the open windows, only serving to intensify the stifling heat in the room. Chinwe, however, couldn't tear her eyes away from the main topic at hand: Eze, who remained as still as a statue, a disconcerting embodiment of their mounting fear.

As the silence stretched on, it soon became unbearable for both of them, a palpable tension hanging in the air. Chinwe's voice broke through the hush, her desperation evident. "Obinna, I don't think we can ignore this anymore! We have to do something, get help, anything!"
Obinna stole a quick glance at his friend, the worry etched on Eze's motionless face intensifying his unease. Then he looked at the scared Chinwe, who he knew wasn't good in these situations. He couldn't deny it any longer.
"This isn't normal," Obinna admitted, his voice tinged with concern. "Let's go quickly."

Time hung suspended in the room, a frozen tableau of stillness that echoed the absence of life. The remnants of activity seemed to dissolve into the air, leaving behind an uncanny silence reminiscent of a historic event meticulously recreated in a museum display.

Then, as if thawing from an icy slumber, Eze stirred, his breaths echoing through the room like a man surfacing from the depths of a submerged world. His eyes darted around the vacant space, finding the familiar emptiness that accompanied his solitude. "Why does everything always go wrong for Eze Adi?" he murmured, shaking his head. He investigates his hand, turning it over as if searching for answers etched in his skin. Dissatisfaction etched his features as he clenched his fist, striking his chest. Thud. Once more, a resounding echo reverberated. Thud. And then, with a final, desperate swing, he struck himself, as if seeking to awaken from a perpetual nightmare.

In that moment, the room crackled with an otherworldly energy.

For the first time since Rainy season winds, a gust of wind swept through the room, carrying an electric charge that seemed to infuse the very air. Eze's heart, the epicenter of this strange occurrence, began to emit a strong, ethereal blue glow. "Blue? What's happening oh?" Eze whispered, his voice laced with apprehension. The wind howled for a brief eternity before subsiding, leaving the room in its former state of eerie tranquility.

"Mary, mother of Jesus," Eze gasped, collapsing onto his bed, his pulse racing with a mix of awe and terror. But more importantly, EXHAUSTION.

"Mary? I am not Mary," a voice replied, cutting through the silence like a hot knife through butter.