👻 Episode 3: The Lavatory Encounter. Whispers from the Other Side

By Grace Antiedu & Nana Ama Acheampomaa

In the heart of Middle Farm camp, before the sun crested the hills and even before the cock could crow, ten-year-old Achuor stirred from sleep. It was his habit to wake early and slip out to the lavatory, long before the others in the camp rose and turned the shared path into a waiting line.

The lavatory sat about a hundred meters behind his family’s house, near a thick row of plum trees that loomed like silent guards. At that hour, the world was hushed, swallowed in shadows. Only the wind rustling through the leaves reminded him he wasn’t completely alone.

But that morning felt different.

As he stepped onto the path, the air turned heavy. He paused. A cold shiver crept over him like fingers brushing his neck. Gooseflesh prickled his arms. Something was watching.

He moved forward slowly, his heart thudding louder than his footsteps. The trees, cloaked in darkness, swayed gently but there was no breeze.

Then, he saw her.

A few feet ahead, hovering just above the ground, was a figure. Still. Silent. Suspended in the air. Its head hung low, the face hidden by thick strands of hair. But the burial cloth... he knew that cloth.

Akyale.

Achuor froze. Time stopped.

The figure began to lift its head, slowly, as if dragged upward by unseen strings. And when their eyes met -if you could call them eyes -his blood turned cold.

The face was a ruin. Decayed skin clung to bone. Hollow sockets stared straight into him. A mouth twisted in pain, or was it rage?

In that instant, the fear that gripped Achuor cracked open, and his legs obeyed instinct. He turned and ran.

He sprinted blindly through the dark, stumbled into a neighbor’s house, and crashed into the room of a man getting ready for his shift at the plant outlet. Without a word, Achuor bolted out again and didn’t stop running until he reached home.

He said nothing. Not then. Not ever.

To this day, no one knows what happened that morning. The only one who saw her kept it buried in his heart like the secret grave she never truly left.

📍 Next: Episode 4 – Silence Is Safer

🕯️ Some ghosts haunt places. Others haunt memories.