
Cheers to 2025
Every New Year holds promise, as though it is any different from the turn of
“We have all got strange things about us“
My quote!
Click here to read the first part of this short story to understand the context.
Strange Things – Part 2
There I was squinting my small eyes as the brightness of the lights bulbs appeared to pierce through my every skin pore. For one moment I could see through the smoke-filled room enough to discern the contrasting colors of party dresses and outfits juxtaposed with masquerades of masked faces!
The lights, so blinding caused me to fall on my knees. Better to be on my knees than to remain the last man standing!
Bodies littered the dance floor. I could count about 8 of them. Some contorted in strange positions, others bent into unnatural position. One of the bodies on the floor appeared to be in the middle of an epileptic fit with intermittent maybe even exaggerated jerks that no one paid attention to.
At this point, I could no longer feel my heartbeat. It raced too fast to be recorded by my brain!
There was a loud gasp of astonishment as my knees hit the cold tiled floor. I braced my defeated body with two hands to break my fall.
I was torn between taking to my heels, heading to the exit door or staying calm until I could talk my way out of this quagmire.
I managed to open my eyes quickly to see Udeme’s mouth wide open as he was starting to froth at the mouth.
“Oh my God” I started a quiet prayer.
“If you would rescue me from this ensnarement, I will serve you forever with every breath of my life. Please heavenly father I beg of you.” Audible words did not escape my mouth but those words echoed through my heart.
There was silence. The sort that lingered long enough to make one cringe as though expecting to be knifed from the back.
“Please don’t hurt me” Words finally made their way out of my mouth. But I couldn’t tell if it was only a faint whisper or just hot air.
“Tie him up” the hoarse voice of the one I have come to realize was the leader commanded.
Two strong arms ruffled me up unkindly while I barely resisted. They soon expertly hogtied me within minutes.
Here is how Wikipedia describes that position, just in case you are wondering;
Hogtie bondage requires all four limbs to be tied together behind the back. It typically involves connecting a person’s wrists and ankles behind the back using some form of physical restraints such as rope or cuffs.
Face down, I could only see the feet of my abductors and their co-conspirators as they got into an animated conversation.
Perhaps they were deciding what to do with me.
The pressure was too much for my heart and I soon drifted into a trance.
In the dream I am standing in a puddle, I am normal. Yet my reflection in the puddle, in the world of the upside-down, is a zombie.
Writing in Progress

Every New Year holds promise, as though it is any different from the turn of

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Let me take you somewhere. Not to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean — at least, not yet. First, to Lagos. Nigeria. Sometime in the late 1980s. A teenager who should probably have been revising for exams is instead sitting cross-legged on the floor of a library, holding a book that is older than most of the furniture around it, reading about a city beneath the sea.

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This story explores the paradox of immortality and why a movie from 2015 still resonates so deeply with audiences today.
I hope you find it worth your time.

This is my story, every pulsating detail documented to inspire you to question what you know and leap beyond your limitations.
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I hope you find it worth your time.

There is a category of question that polite intellectual company tends to avoid: the kind that, if you pull the thread long enough, begins to unravel not just a specific mystery but the entire fabric of what we think we know about human history. The Pyramids of Giza are that thread. They have been standing in the Egyptian desert for roughly 4,500 years.

There is a peculiar kind of madness that does not arrive with hallucinations or trembling hands. It arrives quietly. At two in the morning. In a small desert town in New Mexico. It sounds like an idling diesel engine somewhere in the distance — except there is no engine. It sounds like a bass note being held by an invisible orchestra — except there is no orchestra.

Let me confess something. Long before LinkedIn articles, podcasts, and leadership keynotes became my world, I was a teenager sneaking to the library

In an era that increasingly demands hyper-specialization, Akin Akingbogun stands out as a refreshing anomaly. He is a man who refuses to be confined to a single box.

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Let me tell you something uncomfortable: the most generous person you know — the one who volunteers every weekend, donates quietly, never asks for anything in return — is probably getting something out of it. Not money. Maybe not even recognition. But something.

Adaeze had been awake since 4 a.m.
Not because she was anxious — though she was — but because this trip felt different. After eighteen months of follow-ups, phone calls, and PowerPoint presentations polished to a mirror shine, the deal was finally ready to close. An investor meeting in Abuja. A partnership that would change the trajectory of her small but gutsy consulting firm. She had triple-checked her flight, her documents, her outfit. She had prayed. She was ready.

When he told his father, Dare’s first response was a sigh. Then: “I told you to practice more. I told you months ago. You don’t listen. You never listen.”
There was no “I’m sorry, son.” No pause to let the boy simply feel the loss of the thing he wanted. Just a swift, seamless pivot to what Temi had done wrong — and, by extension, how Temi’s failure was evidence of Temi’s failure to take his father’s wisdom seriously.

I want to tell you something that took me embarrassingly long to learn. Not because the idea is complicated — it is not. But because it cuts against something deeply wired in us, something we are rarely honest enough to admit.
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4 thoughts on “Strange things – Part 2”
Pingback: Strange things – another pulsating short story – Akin Akingbogun
It’s interesting, suspense filled, captivating and can’t wait to read the part 2. Thumbs up.
Weird, very weird, I hope this is a dream.
Can’t wait to latch on to the concluding part. Well done Akin