Till date, none of our parents know what happened that night. And honestly, I don't even know if I ever want to tell them. 😂😭

It was our final-year party, so you already know the energy was different.

My friends and I got ready, dressed up and headed to the party with one goal: have the best night possible.

And we did.

The music was loud, everybody was dancing, drinks were flowing and people were just happy. At some point, everybody was calling my friend's name because he was moving around spraying money like he had just won the lottery.

“Guyyyy! Your name!”

“Chairman! Spray again!”

We were shouting, laughing, dancing and generally behaving like people who had forgotten that they still had to find their way home.

Before we knew it, we were completely wasted.

Eventually, the party ended.

By then, it was around 4 a.m.

We got into the car and just sat there.

Nobody wanted to drive.

One person said, “Abeg, let's just sleep in the car till morning.”

Another person said, “Sleep where? Let's just go home. We're already close.”

We started arguing about it.

Looking back now, I wish we had just slept.

But we eventually decided to drive.

That was when the night changed completely.

As we approached the Ugbowo Expressway, the road was strangely empty. Then we noticed a man standing ahead wearing an army uniform.

At first, we thought it was just a normal checkpoint.

“Okay, they'll search the car and we'll pass.”

But deep down, something didn't feel right.

The man came closer.

Then he said:

“Una don reach una last bus stop.”

Immediately, cold entered my body.

It was 4 a.m.

No cars coming.

No cars going.

Just us and this man on an almost empty road.

I looked at my friends like, “Are we actually about to die?”

Then my friend did something I still can't believe.

He put his leg on the wheel and stepped on the accelerator.

We sped off.

The next thing I heard was—

BANG!

The soldier shot at the car.

The bullet hit the vehicle.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt.

From that moment, the drive back to our hotel became Temple Run in real life.

Nobody was talking normally anymore.

We were looking ahead, looking behind, checking every dark corner and praying there wouldn't be another checkpoint.

Because if there was another one waiting for us…

We were finished.

Somehow, we made it back to the hotel.

Safe.

Shaking.

Terrified.

Looking like chickens that had just escaped an eagle. 😭

We entered the hotel and nobody even wanted to talk about what had just happened.

And till today, our parents still don't know that after we went out to celebrate our final year, we almost didn't make it back.

The crazy part?

That wasn't even the scariest thing that happened that night…

PART 2.