Lizzy felt the demons in the room and she thought she would find me dead the next day. Sarah was also aware of the demons, but she knew they were afraid of Lizzy. Lizzy was the bully that was hated by demons. You can be a good person to all, but others will hate you. You can never choose who will like you back.

I am sure there are those who hate me for dating Sarah. It was almost two weeks without my presence at school, so it was a clear fail for me. These demons were Sarah’s parents; why couldn’t they forgive me? I didn’t mean to see what I saw. It was just a nightmare I hopelessly fell asleep to. If I died, I was sure that I would become a ghost. No, I would be an angel. I suffered more than the existing ghost. God knew that I deserved another life.

Lizzy planted muti in my room but no-one saw it. It chased the demons away and my recovery was going well. After a month, Sarah stopped coming to visit me. She accepted the demons to be part of her and she thought that it was the only way to save me from them. She didn’t know that the muti drove them away.

I regained my vision, but everything wasn’t that bright. I noticed that Lizzy was there at my bedside when I woke up and I called her Sarah by mistake. It was hard to spit the name out. Lizzy didn’t care what I called her, she was just happy to see me awake. She smiled and called the doctor. I started feeling that I had no weight and I couldn’t even stand. I told Dr Mai the specialist, and he told me that it was normal. All I had to do was attend a few sessions with them and I would be able to walk again.

I thought I would die and be an angel but I got another chance to live. I kept asking about Sarah but no one said anything. I had no phone but I wanted to call her. Even if I had the use of someone’s phone, I couldn’t call her because I didn’t know her number. After a few weeks, I was discharged from the hospital. I went back to school to find out there had been a strike and there had been no development while I was gone.

I got a new cellphone and called Sarah once, but after that, she changed her number because she didn’t want to talk to me. Lizzy called me almost every day to check if I was recovering well. It helped a lot, because there was a lot on my mind. I had even forgotten the right spelling of many words.

It was that time again. The love issues between me and Sarah. What are words? Girls don’t listen to them anyway. They only want to hear what they want to hear. If I could force fixing things with Sarah, to Hell I would be sent. I was turned from my grave last time. How long will my life be this way?

She said she would never lie to me, she said she would never leave me. It was as if it never happened when she started to avoid me. All I wanted was to live that life, the one before I knew about the demons. I started being an alcoholic because I was stressed. I told my best friends about this story and all they said was ‘sorry’.

Why apologise for what they didn’t do? I felt super-stressed, as if I could blow up everything with my empty thoughts. I wouldn’t let any girl let me down in a relationship. Sometimes I used to play a song by Eminem: No Love feat. Lil Wayne. My soul always felt happy after listening to that song.

Everyone who looked upon me saw a loser. I had lost myself to alcohol, it was true. There is a script in the Bible that can support my doing. I wasn’t me anymore. I was going through changes. Ask anyone and they will tell you what I was like. I could sleep all day, skip classes and lock myself indoors. Lizzy was there for me and made me feel that I could change back to me again. I didn’t know what to do. She showed me how she felt about me but I was not good at understanding girls. They just flirt sometimes; it doesn’t mean that they are into you.

Bridget knew that while I was at the hospital, there was issue between Lizzy and Sarah. She wanted to tell me but I don’t know what stopped her. The issue was resolved by her. How could Bridget keep this a secret? She told me that she used to visit me when I was hospitalised, but that’s all she ever told me. Sean didn’t say anything either. Even if mom knew, she wouldn’t tell me. The alcohol thing was the best thing that would keep me away from stress. If you read my WhatsApp status, you would think I was attacking someone.

John stopped talking to me and Lizzy started to tell me how much she loved me. I was drunk one day and I ended up in the church. The pastor had a way with words and reminded me how I used to be. He came to me and prayed for me. The whole church chanted Fire! Fire! Fire! I don’t remember what happened next.

I woke up in my room and I was hungry, with no food to eat. All my money had been spent on booze. Who was there that I could ask for food? I made a short term loan from the home boys. It was after a month and a few days that I received a call from John. He told me about Sarah and Lizzy, and how they fought about me.

***

Tell us: Have you ever turned to your church in an hour of need? Were they able to help you?