Osahon Ize-Iyamu

Jan 15, 2025 | nightmare-magazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Osahon Ize-Iyamu

CW: none. There once existed a couple who dreamed so desperately of buying a house. They lived in the heart of Benin City, and their names were Esie and Paul. Esie was a laid-off Chemistry teacher who became an event decorator and contractor, and Paul was a resident heart doctor. Esie and Paul got married in the summer, in an event hall that smelled heavily of bleach. They both had no family. The cake tasted like greying Styrofoam.

Nov 6, 2024 | lightspeedmagazine.com | Wendy Wagner |Osahon Ize-Iyamu

We were in the mines when the world was falling apart. I remember, the earth was cracking, and the plants were going limp, and the world looked dark blue, less full of life. Everyone tried to group together—Nan, Chim, even old Robert who mostly kept to himself—but it didn’t do much. We were in each other’s company, and that was something, but we weren’t safe. We needed to be free, out of danger so we could laugh again and cry and not feel that endless everlasting tension.

Oct 23, 2023 | logicmag.io | Osahon Ize-Iyamu

When the officers making the implant for my hand asked me to describe home for them, I told them it was the strawberry softness. It’s the fact that I could wake up every morning and see the art-styled floors that reminded me of my grandparents, the wooden seats that were made with the last of aged trees, the fact that every family member I knew was on a picture, was in the walls—my ancestors’ spirits floated through the house with their memories.

Aug 31, 2023 | thedarkmagazine.com | Osahon Ize-Iyamu

He keeps pressing the button for the umbrella to fall after the rain and it does. It comes down with a mighty force, down on his head, enveloping him like a predatory jaw. It covers him, then smothers him, then it consumes him. The umbrella snaps down on his head, spikes through him clean, clamps on his neck bone with a mighty crunch. In less than five minutes it’s done. In less than five minutes it’s over. The man’s hand falls limp from the handle.