41 - Fear 101 C

Fear 101c
Damilare is the biggest fool I know and I never hesitate to tell him that. It is not that he really is a fool, it is just that he says the most retarded things. Like one time, he said, ‘Do you know why if you shake Mentos and coke together, the bottle will explode?’ I replied, ‘Don’t build your jokes on unconfirmed rumors. We don’t know that that is true.’ He ignored my sermonizing and said, ‘It’s because in real life, if you have a mentor and take cocaine too, you will definitely blow’
(I know. The most stupid things.) It was he who told me about Room 101c. He had just returned from NYSC and he came to see me in my office. As we walked down to the cafeteria, he said, ‘Guy, mad things dey happen for this life. This NYSC mad die!’ I nodded and led him to a quiet part of the Cafeteria. I was trying to get him as far from my workmates as possible. His discretion at keeping his voice low is inexistent.
‘Damilare’, I said, ‘If you’re about to tell me about NYSC and babes, save it. Don’t forget I also did NYSC.’ He looked confused and disappointed. Then he said, ‘You’re mad o. So everything I can possibly talk about is women? See finish. That’s what they call this. I am not talking about the girls in NYSC, although that one sef dey. I’m talking about Room 101c’ I began to laugh. ‘Damilare, I just told you what you’re about to talk about and you said that’s not what it is. We had a room like that too in Camp. We called ours the ‘Sambisa for Love’. I know, very offensive. But that was the room where everything went down’
Damilare looked even more confused and annoyed. ‘Guy, remove your brain from your boxers and listen to me. Room 101c is not for such. You can’t even remember your mother’s name inside that room. Guy, everything there is mad. The room travels from state to state and for you to join the HPN; the Hospitality Practitioners of Nigeria, you have to sign an NDA agreeing that Room 101c can appear in your hotel at any time and when it does, you must allocate it to a visitor, and you or your staff are not allowed to enter the room until it disappears. So no hotel has any room numbered 101c. It is reserved for-‘

I shut him up. And now, I am sorry that I did. I should have listened to him because Room 101c is absolutely real. I am in it now.

It was a tired day today at work and I just decided to lodge in a hotel for the weekend. This has always been my way to de-stress. Immediately I walked into the lobby of the hotel, I thought I saw the receptionist quiver and look sorry. She looked even more sorry when I said I had not booked a reservation. She recomposed, smiled and said, ‘Okay. No problem sir. You’re in luck. We have a free room up for grabs. Here’s your key. It’s on the first floor. Room 101c.’ I did not even remember Damilare’s sermon then. I just collected the key and nodded to the receptionist bidding me a ‘nice time on your stay’.

Immediately I entered the room, I knew something was wrong. It smelled of smoke; like something was burning; like the room itself was on fire. The door was still half opened so I tried to turn around and go file a complaint but I felt a huge hand push me into the room and lock the door. I heard the sound of the key turning in the keyhole and that sound has continued since then. My heart keeps racing every time my thought focuses on it. I had a bad experience with being locked in a burning house when I was younger, and my dad kept trying to unlock the door with his key from the other side. It’s the same sound I hear now and it was the same smell that registered in my memory.
Clutching my suitcase in my hand, I stood in the middle of the room lit with red fluorescent. The floors are rugged but I can’t tell if the color of the rug is red or it’s just be ambience that causes everything to be red.
I tried to open the door and run out but the door knob was burning hot. As I turned around, I saw a slimy little lady. Her face was old but she had the body of a young person. I cannot quite describe her but she seems like she has no bone structure; as though only thick water ebbs through her body. I don’t know, I cannot quite explain.
She started in an eerie voice, ‘Hello there, welcome to Room 101c. You are here because you have once heard of this room and as I expect, you did not believe what you were told. But now, you must experience it and share that experience with as many people as possible. Now, you may ask: What is the incentive for sharing it with many people? Well, the things that would happen to you today will scar you mentally, upset you emotionally, hurt you physically, and unbalance you psychologically. The only way you can erase the memory is to share it with people. The more you share it, the more the memory is erased. And trust me, you will want the memory erased.’ She smiled in a not-positive way and said, ‘Shall we begin?’, asking no one in particular.
Two little dwarfs appeared in front of the TV and started walking towards me. My heart began to race. I have always been scared of dwarfs since one dwarf clown made life unbearable for me when I was 7 years old. They pushed me to the floor and began stomping all over me. It was not the pain from the trampling that made me scream like a woman, it was the fact that dwarfs were on top of me.
Then for a moment it all stopped and I thought how terrifying that was. I opened my eyes and sat up and behold, I was lifted high above everything else. I was sitting on something like a cloud and the whole world was down below me. I am scared of heights. I am absolutely terrified and horrified by heights. I tried to close my eyes but my eyelids won’t come together. I could not blink, even. The cloud began to move around in; going really up and descending at an alarming speed. And then, it began slowly to go in circular motions. It kept going until it was going fast as though caught in the middle of a whirlwind. I have always lived with the fear that one day, I would be caught in a whirlwind, and I will die.

I passed out with my eyes wide open and when I woke up, I saw myself in a hospital room. A scary looking nurse walked in and without saying a word, she turned me on my chest, pulled down my trousers a little and began puncturing me with needles. I was screaming and crying out because not only was the whole process painful, I also have a phobia for needles.
Alas, this is as far as I can write of my experiences in Room 101c. Many other bad bad things have happened and will still happen to me here; each one addressing each of my fears (even down to my fear of being locked up in a room with Ikechukwu’s music playing on repeat).
Room 101c exists, and it is real. I am in it right now and presently, my fear of writing essays as entries for competitions is being dealt with.

• Written by Adeboro Odunlami