Omsk, Russia

"What are we going to do?" Ebun asked, wearied as she sank low onto the grassy field, curving her arm to shield her nostrils from further inhaling the poisonous fumes from the burning fire.

It was half-past five in the evening. The sunset flaunted itself across the sky in unique disarray of fiery red colors.

The color was an omen— a bad one. The tainted outlook of the sky was like a foreshadowing of more bloodshed and danger that was to come in the future.

Red. Red as doom.

Earlier in the day, Ebun had spilled the blood of Mr. Kojo, the janitor, with her pocket knife and had fired multiple bullets into his torso region. Unfortunately, Ebun and Sean had heard the door squeak behind them. Someone had witnessed what they had done but was quick to pass by before Ebun and Sean could figure out who it was.

Immediately afterward, Ebun and Sean drove past several streets in Moscow with the trunk of Mr. Kojo's body resting at the boot of the car as they searched for the most suitable place to get rid of the pervert's corpse.

Eventually, they arrived at a completely different city in Russia — Omsk. Omsk had a different time zone from Moscow. Hence while it was still half-past two in Moscow, it was already dusk in Omsk.

With dots of blood spatter stains all over Ebun's cheeks and palms and Sean's clothes smudged with coal, the two had spent hours improvising items from the woods to set up a small crematorium in which Mr. Kojo's body would be burned to ashes.

Sean, whose back was now turned to Ebun as he was busy adjusting a log of wood from beneath the kiln, seemed to be lost deep in his thoughts, rendering Ebun's question a rhetoric one.

"Sean!" Ebun yelled from behind Sean.

"What?!" Sean snapped back, responding to Ebun this time.

"I asked you what we are going to do!"

"What else do you think we are going to do?" Sean turned to face Ebun with a frosty look on his face that made Ebun's palm moist. "Can't you think for yourself?"

"You can't possibly be suggesting that I go for the excursion the school is planning," Ebun's eyes shone in disbelief as she managed to protect her nostrils from the thick smoke. "What if I get caught by the person who saw us at Mrs. Yekaterina's office? What if the person recognizes me?"

"It's not a suggestion, Ebun. You must go for the excursion to protect yourself," Sean replied in a calm, unmoved tone.

"You seem to have forgotten so quickly that I recently lied to my hostel mistress, Mrs. Mariyah, that I was going for a school excursion so that I could prepare myself for the murder of Mr. Kojo. There's no way she will believe me if I tell her about this excursion even though it's real this time around."

"You were preparing yourself for the murder of Mr. Kojo but still failed to do a proper job. The least you can do is convince your hostel mistress to spend some more days away from home. Use the real excursion to clean up the mess you created during the fake excursion unless you want to go back to Moscow and get caught. I had to come to this rural city just to get rid of this corpse — despite the power I have. How much more you?"

Ebun dug her hands into her kinky hair and tugged hard at it, bending her head in frustration. A tear slipped down her eyes, mixing with the spatter stains of blood that tainted her cheeks.

Frankly, convincing Mrs. Mariyah wasn't going to be difficult. After all, she'd managed not to be seen by her for some days now. She'd been climbing the ladder through the backyard into her room every night and had been waking up before everyone else in Hostel Pavlov to leave in the earliest hours of dawn. Mrs. Mariyah still believed that she was on the dinosaur excursion she'd lied about.

Hence, she could still play the excursion game.
All she had to do was send some of the photos she'd taken to Mrs. Mariyah as a means of reassurance and evidence.

However, Ebun felt wounded. Her ego had been bruised. Sean didn't lie — despite how much she hated to admit it. She'd messed up, disappointed Sean, and had killed Mr. Kojo in such an amateurish way. In as much as she hated how Sean rebuked her, Ebun was defenseless.

"I'm sorry, Sean," Ebun raised her head to study Sean's reaction to her apology even though all she could see was his back. From the stiffness of his shoulders, Ebun could tell that he was unmoved. Nevertheless, she went on to bear out her heart.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you — for causing you trouble and for ruining this operation. I don't think I can still be the badass I've always fantasized about becoming. I'm not sure if I can still get the revenge I've always desired to get on the bastards that raped me and even on the perverts all over Russia who traumatize the lives of innocent girls.

I couldn't even pull the trigger properly. What will happen when a time comes when I have to use a sword? I can't go far if I keep ruining everything. What if the police catch me? What if my sister in Nigeria learns about my ordeals? She's paid many people to spy on me. She'll kill me if she finds out. I shouldn't do this anymore. Besides..." Ebun sniffed in and coughed as she choked on her tears for a moment.

"I'm not even as bold as I thought I was," she continued. "While I was trying to pull the trigger, I saw the white mask—the mask of the guy that ejaculated on my stomach. I saw the mask along with the faces of the other bastard demons who ruined my life. I started to hallucinate, and I became weak at that moment. I can't even—"

"That's a lot of negatives, Ebun," Sean cut her speech and turned towards her. His lean figure towered over her like a shadowy and fountainless castle.

Then he squatted to be on the same position level as Ebun. He seemed to be moved now.

Furthermore, he pulled out Ebun's right arm and took it in his. He rubbed his thumb on her palm for a moment, and he did it tenderly.

"If I didn't think of you as a fierce and interesting woman, I wouldn't have asked you to follow me to Russia. Come on, do you think I didn't know something like this might happen? It was your first time holding a gun and killing a person. I didn't expect you to master the art of murder in one day."

At those words, Ebun raised her eyes and looked at Sean directly in the eye, beholding his brown orbs. She tried her best to ignore the heat that was rising from within her.

It has to be the smoke from the fire that's making me feel this way. Not because Sean is holding my hand. No. It shouldn't be. It mustn't be.

"Did you make a mistake the first time you used a gun?" she asked.

Sean stared at Ebun with worry and then discomfort. He said the truth in hesitation, as though he was scared to break Ebun's heart.

"No."

"Exactly. And I'm sure you didn't see this accident coming because I made you believe I was already skilled enough to use a gun. Also, you were quite harsh for the most part while you taught me how to use a revolver. You snapped at me a lot of times — as if I'm the first person to ever give you such trouble. It shows that I'm not good enough, and I'm just a pain in your neck."

"EBUN!" Sean fixed his arms on Ebun's shoulders and shook them vigorously as he stared intensely at her with angry eyes.

"Trust me when I tell you that I saw all of these coming. Why do you think I kept warning you earlier today that we should make sure not to get caught? Why do you think I followed you all the way to supervise the murder of Mr. Kojo? Do you think I have that much time on my side? Or do you think I chose to follow you because of Mrs. Yekaterina?

I agree that my teaching was too harsh, but I was pretty patient with you. Ask the other members of the psycho barracks about their first-time experience of learning how to use the revolver. I wasn't so patient with them. I had a paranoid feeling that we were going to be caught today. I knew you might not succeed at killing Mr. Kojo with just one gunshot, which is why I chose to follow you. I knew all of this, and yet I stayed by your side."

For a moment, Ebun was still as she let his every word sink in. Then she asked slowly, lowering her gaze.

"Do I test your patience? Do I infuriate you?"

"Hell yes, you do! Perhaps, you are even a pain in the neck, as you claim. I'm mad at you and unhappy that we have to be extra careful because someone who wasn't supposed to see us saw us. Nevertheless, my plan is not to leave you alone and let you get into trouble with the police."

'My plan is not to leave you alone.' those words traveled deep into the fibers of Ebun's heart and made blood rise to her cheeks in a hurried flush.

Did he just say that?

Oh yes, he did, and it's because his life and those of the people at the psycho barracks are also at stake, and Sean would do anything to protect the power that he has. Not because he cares about you! Ebun's inner woman clarified.

But the way he looked at me while he said that. Was the psycho barracks on his mind while he uttered those words? Ebun pondered.

There was only one way to find out. With an exaggerated and battered sigh, Ebun asked:

"W-what are you going to do to protect me- or yourself from the police? If you get into trouble because of me, I won't forgive myself. I know you don't care about me. You shouldn't. But I can't let you get implicated because of me."

"O-of course, I don't," he answered, breaking Ebun's heart. "But to protect myself and ensure that the psycho barracks isn't in danger, I will have to stay by your side for this excursion to clean up this mess."

You see, he doesn't care about you!

Still, Ebun didn't share the same sentiments as her subconscious. Sean had stuttered, and he hadn't clearly stated that he didn't care about her. He only said, "of course I don't." Somehow, Ebun got the feeling that Sean was lying.

"What do you plan on doing?" Ebun asked as she managed to set her feelings aside.

"For now," Sean smirked and gazed into thin air dreamily. "I plan on waiting."

"Waiting? For what? For who?"

"For the students of First Moscow Medical State University to arrive."

"Arrive? Wait...you mean..." Ebun's eyes widened. "You mean we are already at the location of the excursion? So...so... Did you come here on purpose? You drove all the way here when we could have found a befitting place in Moscow to burn Mr. Kojo's corpse?" her eyes lit up even further as the facts dawned on her.

Sean raised his left eyebrow half an inch. His way of responding in the affirmative.

"You!..."

"Clever son of a bachelor? Is that what you want to say?" Sean grinned.

Ebun's lips quivered as she blushed uncontrollably. She was impressed. It became clear that Sean had planned the excursion location with Mrs. Yekaterina if something like this happened. Also, the time difference between Omsk and Moscow was an advantage. If the police from Moscow came looking for them, substantial time would have already passed by in Omsk, and they would be able to escape.

But there was one question.

"I agree that coming here before everyone else gives us an edge, but how will that help you clean up the mess?"

"The person who sneaked in on us has to be a student, a new staff, or an auxiliary worker at the university — not a lecturer. It has to be someone who doesn't know about the collaboration between the university and the psycho barracks. So coming here before everyone else will help us to be more relaxed and attentive in figuring out who the person is — which will make it easier for me to kill whosoever it is."

"Oh. That's smooth," Ebun nodded. "So I want to believe we are going to have clothes to wear, right? Because I came with none. I mean, I didn't know we would be coming here."

"Mrs. Yekaterina will be coming to Omsk in a few days. She needs a little time to take care of Irina. So she will be coming with extra clothing for us," Sean answered. "But she will have to go back to Moscow so she can deposit Mr. Kojo's skeletal remains at the laboratory for specimen exhibits."

"Thank you so much, Sean," Ebun said with a small smile on her face as relief washed through her. She felt like Sean had her back at that moment.

Sean nodded and stood up. He turned and walked closer to the furnace where Mr. Kojo's body was burning. He scrutinized it. "Finally, the body has burned to ashes."

Sean turned off the fire and used a long stick to segregate the ashes from the coal in the ember beneath. As he dug further, the skeletal remains of Mr. Kojo could be seen. The bones had taken on a crispy and brown look because they had burned in deep heat for a long while.

Sean used a stick to pick out one of the bones which happened to Mr. Kojo's left phalanges and threw it in Ebun's direction. Then he laughed.

"Take a look at that! Isn't it so hilarious that these bones will be used for scientific study in the laboratory? The poor students will be completely clueless about the bones they are examining. They won't know it's the remains of their most beloved janitor! Hahaha!"

"I've always found the idea of using the remains of criminals for laboratory study to be funny but in a very dark way," Ebun grinned as she examined the bone. "It's intriguing to know that this is the skeleton of a rapist."

After a while of laughing about the innards of a specific category of perverted people, the sun had gone down completely, and it was time to find shelter for the night that was fast approaching.

"Get up," Sean commanded Ebun. "Let's go somewhere. I know of a bawdy house here in Omsk where we could spend the night."

Three days later...

"Do I pass as an auxiliary staff of Moscow's University?" Ebun asked Sean in a hushed and concerned tone as she adjusted the face cap to sit correctly on her head.

"Yes, Ebun. Now focus and stand upright," Sean replied, tilting Ebun's shoulder to the correct position so she would stop leaning close to him. "The bus conveying the students will arrive at any moment from now!"

Sean and Ebun were standing beneath a canopy that served as a shade from the burning sun. They were waiting at the reservation center at Omsk, where the university students would arrive for the excursion. Hours earlier, they'd arrived at the center and set up their tents at a favorable but discreet location.

Sean and Ebun were now both dressed in navy blue jumpsuits with the image of the university's logo embroidered on their breast pockets.

The day before, Mrs. Yekaterina had arrived at Omsk to supply Sean and Ebun with extra clothing and uniforms. To catch whoever it was that had witnessed the murder of Mr. Kojo, Sean had schemed a befitting plan.

According to Sean's little knowledge about educational trips and excursions, he was sure that students would not be allowed to carry sharp objects or items that could serve as a potential danger. And usually, there would be officials who would comb each student for any prohibited or contraband items.

Sean had figured that if he and Ebun could disguise themselves as school auxiliary officials, it would be easier for them to search the students. The probability of a student possessing a dangerous object on a harmless excursion was very low, but this was Mr. Kojo in question.

Sean had weighed the stakes properly.

Mr. Kojo was loved among the students, and many of the innocent school folks were clueless as to the kind of scumbag Mr. Kojo was. Hence, whoever it was that must have seen them kill him would most likely be furious and would want to avenge the "unjust" death of Mr. Kojo.

Perhaps, that deduction was a bit far-fetched. Maybe he wasn't going to see any knives. Nevertheless, the possibility of the news spreading around the school like wildfire was very much feasible — especially in an environment like this. In addition, Sean was sure that the person would come along on the excursion to expose them — in one way or another.

After all, Mr. Kojo was the heartthrob of every student at First Moscow State Medical University. Which student (apart from the victims) wouldn't be devastated to learn about the demise of their favorite janitor?

Either way, Sean wasn't going to be unprepared for whatever it was that would come.

"Look," Sean pointed into the polished garden from afar where the windows from a coastal bus could be seen, and the roaring engine of the vehicle came into a hearing. "They are here already."

Ebun straightened even though she was already as straight as a ruler.

"Remember, if you see anything suspicious amongst any of the students, just smirk at me," Sean said.

Ebun nodded in response.

***

"Velcome to Omsk reseervation centeer of sciences!" a man in thick golden, shoulder-length dreadlocks announced enthusiastically. "Remember, sharp objects, cigarettes, alcohol, and glass containers are not alloved. Now everyone move over to ze canopy. Tyer are two officials vho vill be searching you all. A man and a lady for ze male and female students respectively. Now come out of ze bus and pack yer tings."

At the man's command, the students of Moscow University started to alight from the bus with their travel bags, hammocks, and inflatable tents as they moved in a straight line to the canopy where Sean and Ebun stood, waiting patiently.

Perhaps, Sean was the only one who was patient. Ebun, on the other hand, could hear her heartbeat in her ears. For some odd reason, Ebun was intrigued to see many bright and innocent-looking students, but she knew better than to be deceived by looks.

What intrigued her was the fact that one person amongst the hundreds of students present here was after her life. She couldn't wait to find out who it was. Ebun pulled up her nose mask to shield the scar on her lip — just in case the witness had also marked out her facial features.

As she stood, waiting, with her arms behind her, the female students started to queue in front of her, unzipping their bags so Ebun could search through.

The first girl on the line was a tall and skimpily dressed lady with a right hand full of tattoos. She wore a pink bob wig, and her upper teeth were decorated with shiny golden grills.

How can a student dress like this even for an excursion? I trust my secondary school in Nigeria. You are getting punished for sure. Ebun thought in her mind as she looked at the overly happy girl with slight disdain.

"I know I look like a drug addict but trust me, I'm as harmless as a butterfly," the girl said with good cheer.

"That will be left for me to decide," Ebun replied with an emotionless tone. "Unzip your bag."

The girl unzipped and opened all of her luggage for Ebun to search. As Ebun searched through every nook and cranny, she found nothing suspicious.

Ebun stole a glance at Sean. He was busy searching the bags of the male students, and he was doing it quickly. While she was still searching the first girl's luggage, Sean had already searched four boys.

How is he so fast?

Then she remembered that females always packed more luggage than males: make-up kits and all of that stuff. And females had boobs — where they could hide stuff smoothly and not look ridiculous, unlike males who were flat-chested and would come off as obvious.

"Raise your shirt," Ebun commanded the tattooed girl.

"You don't believe me? Even after searching my bags?" the girl scoffed, annoyance flashing in her eyes as she stood akimbo.

"Look, girl, there are about ninety other girls on the line that I still have to search. Don't waste my time. This is not about believing you. I simply have to do my job properly."

And see if you're the nosy wench that witnessed the killing of Mr. Kojo.

"Hey, ape! How the hell are you so rude?"

"Did you just make a racist comment at me? I thought you said you were as harmless as a butterfly," Ebun looked up at the girl with a raging fire in her eyes.

"Jenny, you are vasting time. Ve don't have ahll dey here to vatch you argue vit ze officer. Do vhat she says you should do!" a girl said from behind.

"Hurry up, girl, and move out of ze line!" another lady moaned.

But the tattooed girl stood still as a statue, her hands akimbo as she looked directly at Ebun, challenging her. As Ebun watched the girl with a fit of fast-rising anger from her heart, her patience burned down with each passing minute.

"Do what I said you should do while I'm being nice," Ebun said with bated breath.

"No!"

That's it. It's high time this brat got some African ass-whooping.

Ebun cracked her knuckles as silently as she could and, in one swift, flawless motion, straightened her left leg in a linear line. The hard sole of her shoe collided harshly with the knee of the tattooed girl. Immediately, the lady fell to the ground, momentarily losing her balance.

Gasps and screams escaped the lips of everyone present at the unprecedented occurrence. Everyone except Sean seemed to be taken aback.

Ebun took advantage of the situation and went down on one knee, cornering her prey. Quickly, she took both hands of the lady in one hand, pinning her down and leaving her with no means of defense. Ebun used her free hand to raise the fish-net shirt the girl was wearing, revealing a thin bra clad to her fair skin.

And behold, in between the bra was the shiniest knife that Ebun had ever seen in her life.