03-The Parade

(Fourth Subject’s Responses to Investigator’s Written Questionnaire)

[December 22nd, 2098]

EYES ONLY

1) Michael Adewale Oluwatosin Oluwole

2) Well, I was doing what anyone else does at the Pride Parade, having fun, you know? This is like the fourth Pride Parade in Lagos, ever. And we were all just there to celebrate the same sex act being legislated.

3) My boyfriend. We’ve been together for about 5 years now.

4) Yeah, I saw her.

5) She was wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, I think. Her hair was in, like, an afro.

6) Nothing much, really, but when she was dancing, I saw her hand and it looked weird, you get? I called my boyfriend to show him too and he agreed that it was strange. It was like she had circles tattooed on her palm.

7) Yeah, there was a necklace she was wearing. Like a ball on a chain on her neck. It looked weird with her outfit but the Pride Parade is a no judgement free zone, so whatever.

8) I started hearing screaming and then smoke and everyone started running away.

9) Yes. I was.

10) I couldn’t just leave. Chinedu — my boyfriend, went to get drinks and I had to go and find him. I was running, trying to spot a head with pink dyed hair. That’s when I saw what was causing the commotion. It was her. The girl with the weird tattoo on her palm.

11) Her chest. It was like it was smoking, the sphere was making this strange sound and she was screaming.

12) I just stood there for a while and I was staring. I didn’t know what to do.

13) Her eyes. They were glowing blue.

14) You know the old Noreos wrappers? Yeah, that kind of blue.

15) She looked scary, you know, but it was hard to move. It was like I was frozen.

16) She looked at me and said my name. Like my full name. And I just started walking towards her.

17) Painful. I still can’t shake the feeling.

18) I don’t know, maybe 17, 18?

19) The ball on her neck was…inside her chest now. Like it had burrowed into it.

20) Nothing. She just stared at me. Her eyes were open. It felt like she was trying to, though.

21) I could hear it in my head. The ball thing. It was like it was saying something in whirs and chirps. I was…Guy, I don’t even know. It felt like I was in a trance or something and I couldn’t break away from it.

22) She grew wings.

23) Metal…and some flesh. It was like they grew out of her.

24) Agony.

25) Chinedu called me from the other end of the field, and I ran.

26) Till I die.

I attest that this is a true statement of events.

Michael Adewale Oluwatosin Oluwole