The Long Ride Home: A Chilling Nigerian Supernatural Horror Story

Content Warning: This story contains supernatural suspense, mild horror elements, and scenes of coercion that may be unsettling for some readers.

Intro

Some journeys are meant to be uneventful, but for Josh, a simple commute home turns into a brush with the unknown. What starts as a tense ride through a storm quickly spirals into a chilling encounter that refuses to stay in the past. Here is his story.

A passenger bus stopped on a rainy forest road during a storm. From a glowing purple portal in the dense woods emerges a mysterious shaman-like man with a beard and bone necklace, wearing a loincloth and holding a wooden bucket, staring intensely toward the bus. Lightning flashes in the dark sky, creating an eerie horror atmosphere.

The Long Ride Home

It was a hard day after the day's work. Josh had been so tired, his chest was doing a marathon, his back was cracking at every turn. He had been sitting in the office bus that would take him home for about three hours, and yet it seemed the bus wasn't moving fast enough.

He sighed, looking outside the window. A light drizzle was hitting the glass, and the scenery was interesting. On either side of the road was a forest; it was dense and thick with no way to even see through. He shuddered as the weather darkened a little and the light drizzle increased to a heavy downpour. Visibility was a nightmare, and calls and arguments were made for the driver to stop until the weather cleared, but others argued they had been long on the road and the driver should continue but drive slowly. It was a tense moment, and words were exchanged and fists clenched. To stop things from developing into something ugly, the driver stopped the bus and asked the two divided groups to calm down. "Abeg, please make una relax (Please, you people should relax)," he said, turning from his seat to look at them.

"Abeg, dey drive (Please, keep driving)," one of the angry passengers muttered, pointing a finger and raising a fist at the driver.

"No point me your finger (Don't point your finger at me)," the driver said angrily.

"If I point my finger at you, wetin you fit do? (If I point my finger at you, what can you even do)?" The angry passenger replied.

The Purple Light and the Stranger

All this was going on while Josh's attention was drawn to a particular place outside the bus. He had tuned the argument out and instead was looking at the forest. He had seen a movement—a flash of purple light in the darkened forest. "Did anyone see that?" he asked, tapping at the woman sitting beside him.

"See what?" the woman asked, glaring at him.

"Over there," he said, pointing at the spot. "I saw a flash of purple light."

"Yeah, and I saw a glow of the sun and a plate of chicken served to me," she replied sarcastically, turning away from him.

"I must be imagining things," Josh muttered, and as he was about to turn away, he saw the light. It started as a dot in the darkness and then kept growing slowly. He tapped at the woman again. "LOOK!"

Maybe it was because of the way he exclaimed, or maybe others had seen the purple light, but there was silence as they watched the light grow, and it soon expanded into a doorway. They watched with open mouths as a man stepped out. He wore only a loincloth with what looked like bones around his neck—Josh wasn't sure because it was far. He squinted his eyes to see well. He could make out a bucket in the man's hand. The man had a bushy beard that almost hid his face; his hair had been cut off, making his skull glimmer in the purple light. He soon stopped and looked directly at the bus. He yawned and snapped a finger, and to everyone's surprise, he appeared inside the bus. Josh could see that indeed, it was a chain made of bones from animals. Everyone took a step back when the man's gaze passed them. He finally sighed and took a step toward the driver. The bus is a coastal bus that can carry up to 30 passengers; it had a big space just after the driver's seat where you could stand and address passengers. That is where he stopped and addressed the people in the bus.

"You have trespassed upon the land of the purple people, and you must pay for desecrating the land at a time we are performing a holy ceremony," he said, looking at everyone.

The Price of Blood

A man at the back finally shook his fear and asked, "Pay on a government land? What for?"

Others finally got the courage and shouted the man down. "Who do you think you are?" a woman asked, pointing a finger at him. "How dare you ask us to pay for parking on the side of the road?"

"Yeah, how dare you?" a man shouted.

All this was going on while the man in the loincloth was silent. He just kept his bucket in the bus and said, "The price is a drop of your blood. Put it in this bucket and you're free from what may come." And with that, the man vanished, leaving the bucket behind.

"We need to get out of here now!" a man at the back exclaimed.

"I said we shouldn't have stopped!" another woman said, glaring at the driver.

"What should we do?" a young man not older than Josh asked. His hands were shaking badly, and if Josh wasn't mistaken, he could see a wet patch on his pants. It seemed like he had wet himself.

"I said drive now!" the same man bellowed. And everyone took that as a roll call and kept chanting, "Drive now!"

Josh didn't care about what they were arguing about; he didn't care if they drove out or not. His eyes were glued to the bucket, and he wondered if they were all making a mistake in ignoring it. Before he could voice his fears, the man who had been screaming for the driver to drive picked the bucket by wrapping his hand in a white handkerchief and threw it out of the window, and at the same time, he flipped the middle finger at the bucket.

There was a general laughter, and the mood in the bus lightened as that infuriating bucket was no longer there. Since there was no harm done to the man, everyone agreed it was a fraudster trying to scam them. But Josh had a sinking feeling that they were buying more trouble than each of them could handle.

Surprisingly, after a few minutes, the weather cleared. The rain stopped abruptly, and the sun pierced the sky, bathing the world in its golden rays. There was no event, no more drama as the journey continued, and soon some of the passengers were reaching their destinations and dropping off.

Home at Last

Josh finally reached his destination, waved at those still in the bus, and headed home. He was so tired—his back ached from sitting for such a long time, his head was beating like a drum, and his eyes had sunken from lack of sleep. He was dragging his legs along his street; he couldn't even reply to greetings. He just waved his hands with a faint smile on his lips as he responded to greetings. He saw the old soldier sitting outside and waved at him.

The old soldier had been a kind man to Josh. He had been trying to use his connection to get Josh a job, but it hadn't worked out yet before Josh landed his present job, so he had a good relationship with the old soldier. The old soldier had served in the army and had retired as a general.

Josh finally reached his house. He pulled at his tie and flopped on his bed, thinking about what to eat, but he was too tired to get it. "This is the moment I need a wife," he thought. "She could have set a plate for me now." He struggled to get up, entered the kitchen, and agreed on scrambled eggs with toasted bread.

He had a hearty meal and soon he had his strength. All the events of the past hours had fled his mind; he didn't remember anything of the man with the loincloth or the bucket. He looked at his watch and was surprised to see it was past 9 PM. "Wow," he exclaimed. "It was just about past 7 PM and now it's almost going to 10 PM." He kicked off his clothes, took a shower, and flopped down on his bed, thinking about the next day.

The Nightmare Returns

The room is dark, and there is a strange noise coming from his kitchen. He woke up, turned the light on to investigate, but he saw nothing and there was no noise. "Must be rodents," he thought. He had seen one two days ago. "Those little shits are a pain in the ass," he thought as he headed to the bathroom to piss.

He yawned and wondered how he could be peeing for close to 30 minutes now. He shook his head and headed back to his bedroom. Laying down, he fell asleep instantly.

He was standing in the middle of a forest, the bucket the man had thrown out of the bus right in front of him, and the man in his loincloth leering at him, holding a knife. The knife looked like it was made from black glass, because it glittered in the faint light of the sun. "Do you think you can go scot-free?" the man in the loincloth asked him.

The Price Comes Due

What do you mean?" Josh asked, taking a step back, but he was blocked by an invisible wall. He turned to look but saw nothing, but he couldn't move.

"Pay the price or you will regret it," the man said, advancing with the knife which had materialized into a rodent mouth with sharp row of teeth.

Josh stopped trying to fight his way back and lifted his hand in a defensive posture. He could feel the hot breath from the mouth of the rodent. He watched frozen with fear as the teeth slowly opened and clamped on his index finger. He screamed, grabbing his hand, and that was when he woke up. He hurried, turning on the light and examining his finger, but he could see no bite mark, but the pain was excruciating. He glanced at the time; it was just 2:39 AM.

He was clutching his hand, muttering prayers he never thought he would ever pray. He was about to finalize his prayer when he heard a large crash in his kitchen. He froze, lips trembling, legs stiffened to the ground. He closed his eyes and slowly moved to the door of the kitchen and peeked. It was empty, nothing on the ground. He heaved a sigh of relief and thought maybe it was coming from outside, and then he heard the chittering sound in his room. It sounded like thousands of rodents. He paused, looking back inside the kitchen but finding nothing, and the noise in his room kept increasing. He slowly put one step after the other as he moved to his room. He stopped by the door and picked up a rod he had always kept around to use when necessary due to constant robbery he had faced.

He gripped the rod tightly, a bead of sweat sliding down his brow. He pushed his door open and entered. There was nothing too. He let out a huge breath and sat on his bed. He looked at the time again; it was 2:45 AM. He couldn't believe it had been only 6 minutes. It felt like an hour.

He closed his eyes, hands still on the rod, and tried to sleep again. He was just about to drift off when he heard a flapping sound outside his window. He jumped up, holding the rod like a sword ready to cut anything, but what he saw froze him and made him wet his boxer. Flapping its wings just outside his window was a huge bird with three heads and a glowing hole in the center of its chest. The claws were long, holding a bucket exactly like the one the man had thrown out of the bus, and then a word came out of the bird's mouth, "Pay the price."

Josh couldn't hold it anymore. He fell on his knee, begging and extending his hand for the bird to collect its payment and let him live in peace.

What This Story Teaches Us

Some debts no go just disappear because you no gree (agree) pay them. Josh and the rest of the passengers thought say throwing that bucket out of the window na (is) the end of matter, but some things wey (that) you find for road no be ordinary — when something from the unknown dey ask you for something small, think twice before you flip am finger and laugh am off. Pride and fear fit (might) make us dismiss warnings wey our gut already dey shout at us. Sometimes the price you refuse to pay small, na im (it is what) go cost you plenty later.

Outro

As Josh drifts deeper into this haunting vision, one thing becomes terrifyingly clear: some debts cannot be thrown out the window. What happens when you ignore a warning from the other side? For Josh, the reckoning is only just beginning.