A Day Painted in Red

Hi guys! I am back again today. It didn’t tell me long to get back like I said in the former post right? Well, I come with good tidings. I have a story for you guys today. I couldn’t figure out under which tag to place it because it contains some fictional and real element so I place it under fiction anyways. You get the choice to figure out which is which though. So here it goes. Enjoy.

A Day Painted in Red.

It had been a pretty uneventful Sunday. People had gone to church and came back to continue revising their notes against the exams which were due to start the Tuesday of that week. It was expected that the evening would be uneventful as well. Boy, were the students of a certain University shocked. Exams were coming up later on in the week, everyone was so busy reading and the female hostel was much quieter than usual. Sheila was on her bed reading in preparation for her exams on Tuesday and then she heard it, the sound of girls shouting and footsteps of people running. It wasn’t an uncommon phenomena for girls to be overly dramatic and run around in her hostel, occasionally making some loud noise but at some point it got louder and louder. More people were running out of their rooms. Sheila and her roommates came out of the room to find out what was going on.

“They set a couple of staff cars on fire.” A girl said.

“Wow. Who are the owners?” Another girl asked.

“They said Abiodun’s car was one of them. I don’t know about the others.” A third girl replied.

“You guys, people are going to the balcony to see it.” Sheila’s roommate said.

At that they all rushed to see to the balcony to get a view. The balcony was already fully occupied with girls sticking their necks out to get a view the fire. Sheila couldn’t see the flames until her bunkmate, Ade said “Look towards the glass windows of the workshop. You’d see the reflection of flames.” Before Ade even finished talking Sheila could already see it. The thick black smoke ascending into the heavens and a very yellowish reflection through the glass. A good number of girls were running to see the burning live. They went out in droves running as they went.

The sensible like Sheila and Ade stayed at a safe distance in the hostel to watch. Who in their right senses would go to watch a car burn anyways? Time went by and the girls who had gone out to watch the fire came back in their numbers. Prior to this particular arson event, the vice chancellor’s office was rumored to have been set on fire. In response to these arson events, the school declared a 9pm to 7 am curfew with the warning that anyone found outside after that time who be picked up and have to answer to the authorities.

Conspiracy theories started flying about as to why the cars were burnt and the VC’s office event. Some said it was because the arsonists wanted the exams to be moved forward. One funny one was that the arsonists were trying to avenge the dismissal of the two favorite noodles joint on campus.

The buzz eventually died down and everyone went back to reading and other activities. The next day, a Monday which had been declared as a public holiday started uneventful. Sheila and her bunk mate Ade had gone to get food. Reading and revision continued till evening. Sheila’s other roommate Hannah went out to read that evening. She came back just some minutes before nine pm complaining that the curfew wasn’t fair at all. She didn’t like staying in the hostel to read because it had a lot of distractions.

Sheila tried to convince her it was probably for the best as they didn’t know where the arsonists would strike next. Safety was probably the motivation for the curfew. They had barely finished talking when they heard girls screaming. Accustomed to the noisy nature of their fellow students they ignore it. The noise got louder and more panicky. The screams included faint shouts of “Fire!” “Fire!” with sounds of people running. This was no longer your usual noise made in the hostel. Sheila and roommates rushed out their rooms to find people running screaming “Fire!” “Fire!” They had originally thought it was in their neighboring boy’s hostel but word got around that it was in their own hostel and that was when it got very serious. Every girl was running towards the exits to get out of the hostel. Sheila was partially dressed with a tank top and a pair of boxer shorts. She came back into the room to pick her phone and joined the droves exiting the hostel with her other roommates following behind her shortly. They had been completely undressed so they had to cover up with something to be able to flee.

As she headed towards the stairs, she could see the smoke but had no idea where the smoke was coming from. She was already wheezing and coughing because it was beginning to choke her. She followed people heading down the stairs where it was really cloudy with smoke and without thinking that they might be running into the fire, she followed them while covering her nose with her hands to avoid choking any further.

On her way out, beside her she saw Nkechi, a girl she knew, really wheezing and coughing and running out of breath. She was most likely having an asthma attack. Nkechi was almost falling to the ground and another girl was helping her up to get out. She joined the other girl to get her out of the hostel as Nkechi was quite huge. They had barely made it out of the entrance when she saw another girl faint beside her in a panic attack. The guys from their neighboring hostels were already there rushing those that needed medical attention to the clinic. Boyfriends were looking for their girlfriends, brothers for their sisters, roommates checking to see if they had all made it out, friends looking for friends, the porter on duty trying to do a head count, security personnel, some school staff members and some guys rushing in to locate and put out the fire. It was a mad house.

When Sheila got out completely out of the vicinity of hostel she looked around and saw different reactions. A girl was crying. Her roommate was sleeping in the room when she had ran out forgetting to wake her up.  Another was in complete shock with her eyes almost popping out of her head. Yet another was hugging a guy assumed to be her boyfriend so tightly. Sheila’s phone started ringing. Calls from different people started coming in. Her brother called first to find out if she was okay. She reassured him she was fine.

It seemed like he had already informed her parents because they also started calling her to find out where she was and if she was okay. She also reassured them that she was okay. They told her not to panic and just calm down and stay away from the burning building. A couple of female friends who were staying in another hostel called to find out if she was okay.

While she was receiving the calls she was looking around to see if all four of her roommates had gotten out. She heaved a sigh of relieve when she found them all. She also decided to check if her course mates had been accounted for. They all were and she relaxed a bit. She could feel her hands shaking. She sat down and took in a couple of calming breaths. 

Then she saw her best friend, Alf. She had never felt so excited to see anyone. She screamed his name and he pulled her into an embrace while asking her, if she was okay.

“I was just worried thinking if you were out or not.” He added.

She told him she was fine but didn’t let go of him. Soon enough, she saw her brother who looked frantic because he was looking for her. They hugged each other and he calmed down when he had seen her. 

Meanwhile, they had put out the fire and were trying to reassure the girls to go back in, saying that their safety was assured. Most were reluctant to go in. Eventually they convinced them to go in and everyone went to their respective rooms ignoring the trail of water and fire extinguisher substance littering the hall and the faint smell of smoke still in the hostel while trying to remain calm.

It seemed like the worse had passed. Sheila tried to relax her mind and continue her revision. It took a while but eventually, she succeeded. She could not allow the events of the night affect her because it was obvious the school wasn’t going to move the exams forward. They were so stiff necked about the matter. Even a female lecturer who had been on site to pacify the girls and reassure them of their safety made a scathing remark about how she had set her alarm in preparation for the next day’s exams and how she was going to sleep and that if the girls liked they shouldn’t calm themselves in preparation for the exams the next day and go to sleep. A remark that pissed Sheila off but she was rather unfortunate to record it to use it against her peradventure something else happened that night.

All was calm and seemingly peaceful till they got reports of gasoline smelling in the hostel her brother was staying in and another hostel. Sheila got scared. She called him and told him to be on the alert if anything arose. Shortly after that. They got reports and pictures of another fire in another hostel different from that of her brothers. That one was put out quickly because they were more prepared to handle any other emergencies.

However, people could barely sleep. Even those that did, slept with one eye open, literally, waiting for morning to come so that they could at least be able to stay out in the open, waiting for the day painted in red to end.

I hope you liked it. Let me know through your comments. By the way, have you signed up on Okadabooks yet? If not click here right now to sign up. 

You know why you should sign up? Because an book of all my short stories will be published there and you don't want to miss it.

So if you don't have an account on Okadabooks yet, sign up here now!.

8a71165ca2ed4002f8f2f41c7948e966a3d0a22127c3953694