Strawberry; By Oyedotun Damilola Muees

It was a bright day, the sun smiling so hard at those beneath it. Asake was told to go fetch some mushrooms. It was that time - when they grew along the bush path. She got there plucking them one after the next, Behold! there it laid "florid, irrestible and juicy" - a strawberry. She had never seen anything like that before.

 It was on the floor trailed like a cheese trap for catching mouse.  She picked the first and the others subsequently, forgetting her earlier mission - she was engrossed.  Soon she got to a dead end, her heartbeat could tell of a nearby danger.

There it stood, face and claws like that of 'Freddie krueger', wearing a clown-like smile, fang as sharp as a smilodon's, tail like the edge of a chain saw, stenchy slimy saliva dropping form its jaw. She knew she was doomed; fear immediately gripped her fragile body, shivering frantically.

It roared like a lion who saw a gregarious buffalo - hungry and excited. Off Asake ran, letting go of her basket, screaming on top of her voice as she feared for her fading life, scrambling through the woods.  Little did she know there was an abyss ahead of her, Speedily she fell into it like a dropped drone.

It stared at her for a while, jumped into the abyss, smelt the fear in her, about devouring what is left of her 'melted flesh'. She laid there motionless, she had given up.
....Will you stop it, mother said, telling 'Ziko the dog' to stop licking her face. Not again Asake sighed! Waking from her sleep. Don't tell me you are having another nightmare, mother rhetorically asked. What is it about this time, she continued...!