THE MURDER OF FARIDAH UMAR ABDULLAHI

My entire first term in Anaconda Girls College was my burial ground. And just a day before we closed for Christmas holiday, when I was about to finally have a taste of freedom, this happened...

On the night before Christmas break, I woke up in the middle of the night to pee. I never did that my entire three months of staying in this school. But for some weird reason, I had the urge to pee.

Ever since senior Georgina and her sister’s bullying got worse, I secretly slept in the mosque next to the junior girls’ hostel. I could not share a bunk with senior Georgina anymore.

And so, that night, I went to pee in the abandoned cleaners’ restroom behind the junior girls’ hostel.

While I was using the pit toilet in one of the stalls in the cleaners’ toilet, I heard movements in the toilet. Right in front of my toilet stall. Why would anyone come here in the middle of the night?

That is what you are about to find out.

I started hearing strange noises. I held my breath and kept quiet in fear. Maybe Bush Baby did exist. Or was it Madam Koi Koi?

No. The noise wasn’t a koi koi shoe sound or a baby’s cry. It was a girl’s soft cry, a moan.

The moaning sounds kept getting louder and louder with each passing minute. Was somebody crying?

I gently opened my stall door to see two girls resting by the sink. I recognized them immediately. It was senior Georgina and Medusa.

Senior Georgina stood at the side with her fingers underneath her sister’s nightgown. Medusa was moaning in pain with each thrust her sister made with her fingers in between her legs. I was pressed. I was angry. How dare she torture her sister too?

I pushed the stall door wide open and they both jumped at the sight of me. Panic flooded their faces as they saw standing me there, fuming with anger.

I ran and pushed senior Georgina away from her sister. Senior Georgina tripped and fell to the ground.

“Are you okay?” I asked Medusa, searching for any injury on her body. But Medusa pushed me in anger and slammed my head against the toilet door.

“How dare you touch my sister!” She began kicking me.

I was confused. Very confused. Wasn’t she in need of rescue?

Senior Georgina came on top of me and yanked my hair back.

“What did you see?” She asked out of concern. I could see the anxiety in her face. And the anxiety began to appear on Medusa’s face as well.

Senior Georgina wasn’t torturing Medusa. They were in on it together. Wait. Were the two sisters...?

Before I could think of the word, the toilet door opened. Two of my classmates barged in and were shocked to see me there. They were on the lookout for any teacher or matron outside.

They were all in this together. And I was the sole ranger.

“What should we do? She’s going to tell everybody what she saw! She has a big mouth!” Medusa panicked.

“No, I won’t!” I shook my head and begged them, “Let me go. I won’t tell anybody, I swear!”

But they did not believe me. They even recounted a time a cleaner caught the two sisters in the “act” last term and reported to the principal—their mother. But their mother covered up for them and somehow somehow, the cleaner was found dead in a car accident the next day.

I got more scared by that story and tried to fight them off and run away. But I got grabbed from behind and next thing I knew, my head was slammed against the mirror.

They said once a snitch, always a snitch.

One of my classmates fetched water inside the dirty mop bucket while the other one held me against the mirror so that I wouldn’t run away.

They brought the bucket of water to the ground and held my head inside it. I struggled to breathe under the water and fought for my life, but they all held onto me until I stopped breathing. And that was the last of Faridah Umar Abdullahi.

I died that night. A worthless death. Over the fears of my oppressors. A fear that none of them could prove. I was going to take their dirty secret to my grave but they were deep in their hatred for me that they wasted my not-so-precious life away.

When my mother came to pick me up from school, they lied to her. The principal told her I had already gone home with an older uncle. Her daughters and my classmates added fuel to the lie. First, they cleared all my items from my locker to look like I had left school. Then they told my mother that the man was probably my boyfriend and I ran away from school with him. They said he grabbed my bum bum in public and I was giggling like a goat.

Till this day, my mother is in search of this mystery “boyfriend”. She is still trying to find me. But she never will.

My body is buried beneath the pit toilet of the cleaners’ restroom. Never to be found again.

The only part of my existence left is the note I wrote behind my Basic Science notebook:

‘I feel trapped. I feel suffocated. My classmates want to kill me.’

If anyone finds it, maybe they will discover the truth. But until then, I will allow the world to keep turning their backs like they always do.

So why did I share my story when no one can see me, or hear me?

Well, it is not intended to bring me back to life... or to expose Anaconda Girls College for their evil.

It is for you.

It is so that when next you see another Faridah Umar Abdullahi on the leash, you will notice her. You will protect her.

Or else, she might get killed too.

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, organizations and incidents appearing in this article are fictitious.

*For Sylvester🕊, Karen -Happuch🕊 and Nuhu 🕊.*