Chapter 1: The Void Beneath Lagos
The subterranean cavern beneath the Iroko tree did not remain fixed in the dirt of Ibadan. As Chidi stepped closer to the towering Tallyman, the ground beneath his boots shifted, liquefying into black, stagnant water.
The cavern walls melted away into an impossible, nightmare reflection of Lagos.
Above them, no sky existed—only a churning vortex of dark red clouds. The Third Mainland Bridge stretched across an ocean of blood-tinted water, its massive concrete pillars cracked and weeping dark palm oil. The spires of Lagos Island were visible in the distance, twisted and distorted like melting wax under a harsh sun.
Kemi hung suspended above the black water, bound by thick, roots that twitched like living veins. Her eyes opened slowly, filled with a dull, grey haze.
"Chidi..." she rasped, her voice barely a whisper against the howling wind of the spirit void. "You shouldn't... have come down here..."
“The countdown is expired, Chidi Obinna,” the Tallyman’s voice boomed across the mirror-city. Its towering mass of jointed gray limbs and weeping faces shifted, its lidless eyes glowing with a dark red light. “The principal is due. Your bloodline ends tonight.”
"The debt was built on a lie!" Chidi shouted, his voice echoing across the crimson waves. He held the heavy leather ledger high in his left hand, his right arm throbbing violently where the serpent scar burned pure white. "You took Kemi’s father! You took my mother! You took Baba Agba! You’ve eaten two generations of innocent blood, and the book is still hungry!"
The Tallyman raised the massive, rusted iron key. “The contract does not care for innocence. It cares only for the ink.”
"Then change the ink!" Chidi screamed, throwing himself forward into the black water.
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