THE UNION

Chapter 3: THE NEW GIRL

In a mortuary, Tolu a young human black girl with braids sits beside a buried coffin. Tolu sighs in

discomfort and tears start rolling down her eyes. Tolu was Chong's closest friend and he always looked Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

out for her, she didn't feel the same again and felt a part of her had already left her body, Tolu has been

in the mortuary for over 2hours and she waits for Papa and the others to come along, she brings out a

blank sheet of paper and moves closer to the buried coffin "I didn't know what to write Chong, I just

couldn't say goodbye." She checks the time on her crystal wristwatch and starts wondering where the

others are. A old man with a broom passes her by but comes back to her and moves closer to her

"They still haven't showed up huh?" Tolu forces a smile "Yes but I'm sure they'll be here anytime soon."

The old man starts coughing, he tries to sit down but his back hurts after cleaning up the whole

mortuary, he remains standing " You should probably check on them, crazy world we live in." Tolu gets

up and quickly moves out of the mortuary to find Papa.

Tolu arrives at the front door of Papa's house, she had been there for over 5minute knocking the door.

She wonders where everyone might have gone to, she brings out a hair pin from her pocket and opens

the door, she wanders around the house and starts shouting Papa's name. "Papa! Where could he

be?" Tolu starts getting worried cause she knows Papa never left his house while she knew him and

even if he left, he wouldn't forget to attend Chong' s funeral. She always felt Chong and Papa had a

very tight friendship apart from what Chong told her she had talked with Papa a couple of times. She

moves to the dining table and touches the center table, Tolu chuckles and a smile quickly radiants from

her face. "So many good time here."

In a flashback that takes place in 2016, Tolu is seated on the dining chair beside Papa, they've both

been laughing for awhile now. Papa quickly starts questioning her. "So what's your profession Tolu?"

Tolu smiles awkwardly, she felt he might not like it. "A police officer." Papa stares at her for a minute.

"That's brave, I mean you don't have any superpowers and you're out there trying to help people." Tolu

has always been talked down on about her job, there weren't much humans like her in her station and

she was always mocked for it. She felt a little warmth knowing Papa likes the idea. "My dad was a

officer to not that I want to be like him but I just want to help people." Papa pats her pack."Wonderful,

you're better than Chong who's always afraid of everything." Chong, a young chubby Asian man comes

out of a kitchen, he was listening to everything Papa and Tolu were saying."Keep quiet Papa." Chong

felt a little bit embarrassed cause Tolu has always made jokes about him being weak. They all giggled

for awhile, Tolu knew only little about Papa and Chong's relationship so she took the opportunity to ask

questions. "So Chong, did Papa adopt you when you were a baby?" Tolu felt shy about asking that

question and it was showing on her face. "No, Papa helped a bunch of us at the lowest point of our

miserable lives." Tolu felt more comfortable about his response knowing he wasn't angry about the

questions. "And where are the others." Chong moves to a fridge beside the dining chairs, he opens it

and brings out a bottle of wine. "They aren't here, they moved a long time ago." Chong voice changed

when he said that, like he had wanted to leave to. Papa smiles."Discovering themselves as they always

put it" Chong pours the wine into different glass cups. "What they should be doing is checking on us."

Tolu moves closer to him. "I'm sure they'll turn up soon." Chong has never bought a friend to Papa's

house so Papa quickly brings up a strange question. "Are both of you a....." Chong quickly

interrupts."No!"

Back to the present, Tolu is still looking around for clues, she goes to living room and stands beside the

center table. She sighs heavily as she starts getting really worried, a portal suddenly appears in front of

her and it spits out the team except for Pap. Tolu quickly moves back and screams. "Gross!" Ayo

quickly gets up and starts questioning Tolu. "Who are you." Streches his finger to her, she pushes his

finger with her right hand. "A friend of Chong, didn't see you guys at the funeral so I decided to check

here." Gboyega looks really pale. " I need to vomit." Gboyega rushes to the bathroom, Tolu remains

confused about what's going on. "Can you tell me what happened?" Ayo moves closer to her. "None of

your business." Ayo's voice deepens, Ngozi who hasn't been paying attention quickly moves in

between them. "Cut the lady some slack." Ngozi pushes Ayo back, Richard sits on a chair. "How do we

know you're saying the truth?" Richard sayd to Tolu, Tolu quickly faces him. "Cause Chong told me

everything about you guys, even the potatoes incident." Richard moves closer to her and hugs her.

"Anyone that knows about the potatoes incident is family." Tolu brushed him off. "Where is Papa?"

Richard who already likes Tolu's energy tells her. "He was kidnapped by a crazy person with this crazy

reality changing powers." Ayo hits Richard on the left hand, he expected him to have kept quiet.

"Really?" Tolu starts wandering around the room, she knows Papa needs her help and this can be the

opportunity she needs to prove to the people in the station that she can handle a case. "You guys need

my help and lucky for all of you I'm a police officer." Ngozi sighs in relief. "Good, link us up with some

officers so we can start working on this case." Richard rolls his eyes. "Didn't you see what we just went

through, no police officer is going to help us Ngozi." Tolu nods to the positive about what Richard said.

"Did you guys get any information while inside that portal?" The team start thinking. "We know he calls

himself Essence" Ayo quickly responds before the others, Tolu types the name on her phone. "I'll look

into that and get back to you guys tomorrow morning." Tolu jumps in excitement and leaves the house.

That night, Gboyega brings out the portrait of Gbemi. "I'm sorry." His voice and a sense of guilt hit his

mind.

Richard summons up courage and knocks on Ngozi door, a minute later Ngozi opens the door shocked

to see Richard. "What do you want?" Ngozi faces her head down, Richard stammers at first but later

speaks. "Essence said you saved us, I just wanted to thank you, I saw some pretty fucked up shit."

Ngozi touches Richard shoulder. "You're going to be alright Richard." Ngozi goes back to her room and

closed the door, Richard turns around and sees a lifeless version of his mom standing in front of him,

knowing this is a illusion cause this isn't the first time she's been taunting him with this, he passes

through the fading body.

Ngozi sits on her bed, she brings out her amulet and starts thinking about how she summouned Tina.

Ngozi felt in some kind of trance, a tiny lady fairy with wings wearing a long green how suddenly

appear in front of her, Ngozi stares at her in excitement knowing that her friend who will always help

her when she's confused had arrived. "Is she really back Daisy?" Daisy nods to the positive.

Ayo stares at his room window and sighs heavily. "I know who I am, I get to decide who I am and no

one can take that from me."

In the middle of a forest, a man using animal skin as clothing and has red beads around his arms and

necks with a tiny lion sculpture inserted in his chest sits on the ground. The man starts saying

incantations in Yoruba and finally speaks English. "Bring Papa to me." A sudden wave of wind hits him,

the man body starts shaking and he hears the voice of a woman. The voice whispers to him and

echoes away. "Papa is trying to escape me." The man eyes start closing and a form of rage enters his

body. "Son! We have to go."