The morning came with chaos of its own, Lekan had barely snuck past the matron's already stinking body and back in her bed when she heard a scream so loud it made her jolt awake.

She could already guess what had happened, and while she thought of heading down and feigning her surprise, another scream ripped through the air, then the chaos followed. It wasn't until her roommates filed out of the room hurriedly, excited grins on their face of the gossip to come did she rise and follow them.

By the time she got downstairs, The Warden was already there, staring into space in shock while more than hundred girls murmured their disgust and fear.

The matron's body was the exact place it had been at night, kicked against the wall with patches of her flesh missing, she had bled out to death from her injuries.

Danjuma, one of the security guards at the gate burst into the door and began to shout orders at the girls. Soon, he was joined by the Warden's voice.

"Go back to your rooms!" He shouted. "Now, or I'll make a scape goat out of one of you."

They didn't need to be told twice, except their didn't head up to their room, they lingered by the hallways and looked over their shoulder as they discussed loudly. Lekan listened to some of them make jokes, others express their fears — a girl even burst into tears and was surrounded by her friends who watched, too scared themselves to console her.

Until now, the victims had been teenage boys, maybe they thought they were invincible or untouchable but now that delusion had stomped on and now they were feeling the fear Lekan had been feeling since the murders had began.

The fear that still lingered when she squinted her eyes a little and saw souls fade out of their bodies. They were all going to die, and there seemed to be nothing to stop it.

Breakfast was at one pm and by then, everyone were either too scared too eat or still too shocked to do so. Lekan wanted to get away from it not because she was feeling their fear, but she had heard the newer rumours — that the police would be arriving later at night as security and when she had checked the internet through her new phone, she had seen several articles written about Mary Slessor, the detention center had stayed out of public knowledge for most of existence and that anonymity was gone.

Journalists wrote headlines like; five things to know about Mary Slessor Youth Detention Center.

Or why Mary Slessor has become a hidden graveyard.

There were theories everywhere they read and Lekan had gone on and on reading them, waiting for any of them to mention the splitting but there was nothing. Almost as if the plan had been forgotten.

She didn't like it one bit.

"It isn't this quiet here during afternoons." Feyi said, jolting Lekan from her thoughts. "I hate what Mary Slessor is slowly becoming."

Lekan nodded. "When did you get here though? I thought you were heading down to the infirmity to ask for sanitary pads."

Feyi rolled her eyes. "Fortunately, there wasn't a line of boys pretending to be sick so they could ogle Nurse Vicky's boobs."

Lekan giggled.

"Oh, by the way, there's someone in the Warden's office that wants to see you." Feyi added nonchalantly, smoothening her pinafore as she sat.

"And you're just mentioning that now?"

"I forgot. It's not your lawyer though."

Lekan straightened, if it wasn't Nehemiah then who else would be visiting her? Feyi's next words answered her question before she could say it aloud.

"A pretty albino girl with the strangest fashion style, I mean, she was wearing the biggest skirt I have ever seen and the brightest yellow tank top that clashes against her skin." Feyi said, Lekan just shook her head with a slight smile, Feyi could get heated when it came to talking about her favourite things; fashion was on top of that list, then closely followed by food — the girl could eat a whole horse and still make space for snacks.

"Is she your sister?" Feyi asked, blinking at Lekan's forming grin.

"No, Alisha isn't my sister, she's Nehemiah's girlfriend."

Feyi scoffed. "I already don't like her." She said, then perked up, "Hey, she was carrying several nylons with her, maybe she brought snacks. Tell her about me," She called after Lekan.

"And don't return empty handed!"

Feyi didn't have to shout, because as Lekan stepped out of the cafeteria, Alisha was standing on the steps, beaming her wide smile.

"Hey, Lekan, I wanted to surprise you." Alisha said after they hugged. "We can go back inside and eat." She raised up the white plastic bag she carried that bore the logo of a popular fast food restaurant.

"I didn't want to eject your Warden out of his own office." Alisha said, brushing past Lekan so she entered the cafeteria. Lekan sighed and followed after her, thinking that if it weren't because of the food, she wouldn't have agreed to sitting in the cafeteria with all eyes on them.

Lekan hadn't always liked Alisha, they were too similar in character, while Nehemiah was mellow and laid back, Alisha was the opposite, like Lekan, she liked to be in control, liked everything to go her way and when they didn't, it bothered her.

It was a flaw the both of them still struggled with and while Lekan had lived briefly with Nehemiah before Mary Slessor, they had learned to compromise for each other.

When Lekan headed back into the hall, Alisha was already at the counter beaming at the serving ladies and chatting with them. Like a child afraid of being embarrassed by a parent, Lekan stuck near the door, catching Noah's eye as he raised a spoonful of custard to his lips. He stopped midway to stare at her, before looking away.

Lekan frowned, recalling their conversation a few hours prior, she had confessed her ability to see ghosts and he had replied with a seemingly nonchalant 'okay' before pretending to sleep so she wouldn't say anything again. She knew he was skeptic and it hurt that despite all they had seen, he still doubted, still sought for a reasonable explanation.

She focused again on Alisha and decided to join her at the counter, they were all going to die anyway, why should she care what they thought of her?

Then why do you care what Noah thinks? Her mind mocked.

"Hey, Alisha, I really think we should eat somewhere else." Lekan said as she came to stand besides her.

Alisha scoffed, nudging Lekan slightly. "It's fine. I just need to talk to your Cook so she can give us a good place to sit."

"Good luck with that, Cook's a colossal bitch." Lekan muttered under her breath then felt bad instantly, she might not like the woman but Mary Slessor did suck the joy out of everything.

Alisha must have heard but she said nothing, although her lips quirked up in a smile.

"Has Nehemiah told you the story of how we made the former Cook's life miserable until she had to retire?" Alisha asked.

Lekan shook her head. She knew as much that Mary Slessor had been how Alisha and Nehemiah had met, Alisha had been a volunteer, and Nehemiah had once been like Lekan but there were some parts of the story that she didn't know.

"That woman was hoarding food and selling it, we caught the whole thing on video." Alisha said, laughing to herself, it was when Lekan looked down at the counter did she notice that Alisha's left hand was sporting a diamond ring.

"You guys are engaged?" Lekan asked incredulously. "Nehemiah said you returned the ring."

Alisha shook her head. "I did, he was being stupid and we talked it out, so I said yes, again."

"Congratulations, when's the wedding?" Lekan asked, feeling her own mood lift slightly. She had always been a secret believer in true love, she had seen it with her parents relationship, she had seen its aftermath break her mother but she had seen it build Alisha and Nehemiah.

Alisha was in the motion of answering when Cook came out of the adjoining kitchen, wiping her hands on her Mamador apron. Alisha froze mid tapping, and so did Cook.

The latter blanched, the former looked joyful.

"Thea, Theodora, it's me, Alisha."

Both women stared at each other for a long moment, and so Lekan stared at them, now that she looked closer, she saw that Cook wasn't much older than Alisha who was twenty five, but the way she hunched her shoulders as if she carried a burden on them made her look older.

The moment ended as Cook broke the eye contact, something like fear flashing through them as she glanced from Lekan to Alisha. Then she darted back into the kitchen as if her metaphorical tail was on fire, Alisha called after her, her joyful expression faded into a sadness Lekan had only seen a few times.

"What just happened?" Lekan asked. "Do you know Cook?"

Alisha sighed. "It's a long story, I think we'd better eat outside and I'll explain."

***

"Nine years ago, I first volunteered at Mary Slessor, I was forced to, and I thought I'd hate every second of it." Alisha said, she picked at the burger on her plate while swatting away the flies flocking to the food, they sat underneath the tree in front of the girls dormitory and Lekan took several greedy bites of her own burger, washing it down with her chilled coca cola.

Her appetite was back with a hunger and she tried to eat slowly so she could pay attention to Alisha who seemed to have travelled down memory lane by the way her eyes took on a hazy look.

"I had the chance to reconnect with an old friend here, August. He had been wrongly accused of murder and was going through a dark time." Alisha continued, she let out a noise of irritation as the flies returned, Lekan wanted to point out that if she ate faster then there'd be nothing for the flies to come after.

"I tried to help him, but in the end he overdosed on his antidepressants." Alisha said, she sighed and patted down her skirt forcefully. "Thea, your cook was his only sister, seeing her again brings back a lot of memories."

Lekan froze mid bite, something was nagging at her, a sinking suspicion.

"Really?" Lekan asked.

Alisha shot her a strange look. "Yes, really. Sometimes I just can't help but think about him, August had the most vivid green eyes that earned him the nickname Forest, he was my best friend."

Lekan's hear pounded as she registered Alisha's words.

"Do you have a picture?" She heard herself ask. It couldn't be, she chanted in her head.

Alisha looked taken aback. "As a matter of fact, I do keep the only one I have of him in my wallet."

Alisha reached out and pulled out a crinkled looking photograph, a younger looking Alisha smiled toothily, her head shaved and a smiling boy had his arm swung over her shoulder, his vivid eyes were the first thing Lekan noticed, confirming her suspicion.

This same boy in the picture was the same boy that had lay in the coffin when Lekan had first found it. Albeit a younger version of him, a smiling version of him — not the revenant he had become.

Alisha was saying something but Lekan could only stare at her lips move as realisation dawned on her.

Cook, Cook had done it.

The answer was so obvious, so right in their face all this time that it felt like a slap to her face now. Cook wanted to bring her dead brother back to life.

It was ironic that she was killing the living to do it.

***

Lekan stalked back into the cafeteria after Alisha was gone and there she was, barking orders at the serving ladies. She looked up as Lekan came to a stop at the counter.

She wasn't even surprised when Lekan leaned in and hissed the six words the both of them knew.

"I know what you're doing, Cook."

Cook only shrugged and continued to wipe at the already clean marble counter.

"And what are you going to do about it?"

It could have meant a number of things, a taunt, a challenge. Lekan knew what it truly was — the truth. There was nothing she could do about it.

***

"We need to speed up the splitting." Lekan announced during dinner, this time, Noah was sitting with them. "Mary Slessor needs to be shut down."

Feyi and Noah cast her wide eyed glances.

"Are you stupid? Where will everybody go, you might have a fancy lawyer who will save you but not all of us has that." Feyi snapped.

"Wouldn't you rather be homeless than be dead?" Lekan sneered back.

Noah exchanged a glance with Feyi.

"She's right and you know it."

"Why the sudden change?" Feyi huffed, stabbing at her boiled yam. "I thought we were going to fight this."

"We were, until I found out who did it."

Lekan didn't have to say anything, she let her gaze lazily sweep the chatter filled hall and stop at Cook behind the counter. Noah and Feyi followed it and their own shock was almost funny, their eyes bulged and Noah almost toppled off the chair he had been swinging backwards.

"It's Cook, she's killing us to resurrect her dead brother."

***

The girl had never truly learnt to say goodbye, not until now as she swung back and forth on the swing, her father sitting besides her.

Ghosts stuck to what mattered the most in the living world to them, and her father stuck to her. Until she learned to let go.

So she told him, not angry and frustrated, but calm and knowing.

"I don't need you anymore, daddy, I have learnt to need me, to depend on me."

"To fight there for me."

"— to be there for me."

"To be Olamilekan, not Olamilekan senior, I have learned to be me, not you."

"— not your shadow."

"I am not you, and I never will be."