Song for this chapter:

Hold u down - Montell Fish

—••—

The definition of a bawdy house: A house of ill-fame and ill repute; a brothel; a house of prostitution and lewd sex. Looking for a community where you could safely have an orgy? Hurray! This den of iniquity was the right place for you.

Sean knew what a bawdy house was and hadn't chosen this place by mistake. Or rather, on the flip side, he hadn't given it much thought before picking the place. He could have been a mastermind, but he was in no way clairvoyant. It just turned out to be the right location, especially now that they were in trouble.

After the call from Mrs. Yekaterina, Sean, for the first time in a long while, didn't know what to do, and Ebun, who wouldn't stop panicking, made matters worse.

"Shit. Zinaida's body hasn't dissolved completely. What are the police going to say when they see the vat of acid? It's not as if we can carry that heavy container and dispose it, can we? What about the bloodstains? The skeleton. The—"

Ebun rambled on and on. As Sean watched her pace to and fro through the hollow, abandoned room, he could feel his blood heat to boiling point.

"Let's just start cleaning up. You are worried about bloodstains. Well, your clothes are the only thing that has bloodstains on them. After all, you were the one who did all the punching. You can take them off so we can use it to wipe off the mess we've made here."

Heat rose to Ebun's cheeks as she stopped in her tracks from pacing anxiously — and it wasn't the heat that came from excitement or a rush of hormones. She was infuriated. How could he shamelessly say something like that?

Sean, on the other hand, was having fun from messing with her. The lividness on her face was worth the show.

"We haven't made any mess, and I don't need to take off my clothes," Ebun said, glancing at the trunk and the ground where Miss. Zinaida's body once was before they dipped it into the acid. She found it spotless and without a single blemish of a bloodstain.

"Oh!" Sean feigned elation. "You don't mean it, right? Happy New Year, Ebun."

"How can you even make a joke in this situation?" Her anger rose another meter on the thermometer of her rage level when she realized that Sean had been messing with her.

"Because you won't stop complaining, and it's very annoying. It's not like I know what to do, either. If cleaning up a mess that doesn't even exist would save us from the police, I would have done that. I would have thrown the vat of acid away despite how heavy it may be. We are both in this mess. It's not just you. So calm down and allow me to think so we can figure this out together."

"I'm sorry, Sean," Ebun's shoulders sagged. "I've just never been in this situation before. Also, there's a lot at stake for me if I end up getting arrested. Mrs. Mariyah will report me to my sister, which means I will have to go back to Nigeria. As for you—"

Ebun was going to ramble on about how Sean wouldn't be in any trouble compared to her when she realized that he, too, was equally in a deep shithole.

"Mrs. Yekaterina! That darned woman!" Her eyes widened. "How could she ask for your services as the leader of the psycho barracks and not do everything in her power to protect us from the police now that everything has backfired?!"

Sean shrugged.

"Well, I can't say if she's done anything to protect us or not, but obviously, we can't rely on her right now," Sean stood up from the pavement and wiped off the speckles of dust that smeared his overall.

"Here's what we are going to do. Keep an eye on the container of acid and see if Zinaida's body has dissolved. While you stand watch by the vat of acid, I'll go outside and survey the area to check for a safe place where we can hide.

I believe that by the time we've found a place, Zinaida's body would have dissolved completely. We'll pack the trunk and every other necessary thing. So once the police get here and don't find anyone, they'll just think they got the wrong location. The vat of acid won't be enough to arouse their suspicion."

Ebun nodded in agreement with his plan. She was beginning to feel relieved that, at last, there was a plan she could follow, a step she could take to be safe from the police. Sean used a stick to dust off the mass of hay from a particular area, and behold; there was a thick oak door at the back of the building.

"If you need to pass any important information across to me, make a sound with this whistle. I'll hear you," Sean gave Ebun an object.

Then he opened the door, which was thankfully unlocked, and stepped outside, shutting it firmly and leaving Ebun alone in the dark, dingy den.

Slowly, Ebun walked over to the place where the container was. Luckily, there was a small window by the side where the vat was. Hence minimal rays of light illuminated a small area. When she gaped into the container, her eyes widened in shock to discover that Zinaida's body still hadn't completely dissolved.

Although Zinaida's torso had dissolved entirely and Ebun could only see her skull now, fragments of her fleshy limbs still bobbed out of the bubbling acid. Her clothes were still floating too. And her wig. Shit. Ebun stared some more, wondering what she could do to hasten the process.

Clothes. Clothes can dissolve in acid. Maybe I should give it a little more time. How about her wig? Can acid make synthetic hair vanish? I don't know. Should I pull out the wig from the container and keep it somewhere else? No. No. Bad idea. My hand will dissolve if I dip it in the vat of acid.

Ebun looked around for any long object  – preferably a stick. Then she walked in the direction of the backdoor that Sean had opened and found a rod lying there. Quickly, she picked it up and used it as her tool to pull out Zinaida's wig. Then she placed it inside the trunk.

Ebun could still feel substantial parts of Zinaida's body that hadn't disappeared while she'd brought out the wig. A drop of sweat dripped down her temples. Did it always take this long for a corpse to dissolve in acid? Ebun picked up the rod in which its end dripped insidiously of acid.

Then she dipped it back into the vat and used it to stir the acid, causing the remnants of Zinaida's flesh and clothes to swirl in the mixture. Ebun didn't know if this move of hers would cause the corpse to dissolve faster. But she did it anyway. When it comes to doing things anxiously, there's no time to second-guess whatever idea that comes to your mind.

Now, Ebun sat by the pavement and kept her eyes fixed on the acid mixture. There was nothing else she could do now other than to watch and pray. While she sat idly, she began to imagine the horror that would await her if, God forbid, her older sister came to Russia to take her back to Nigeria.

She hadn't come this far just to come this far. The god who watched and allowed rapists to rape people had better be the same god to save her from this impending doom. All she'd done was murder a rapist. God should at least save her for helping him do his job, right?

Thirty minutes passed.

The sun had begun to relocate westwards – or at least that was what Ebun thought. Her anxiety was starting to make her see strange things. A dark cloud had simply passed over, momentarily blocking the sun's shine. Sean was still outside, looking for a safe space where they could hide, and he hadn't returned, meaning that he was yet to find a place.

Ebun's palms and underarms were exceedingly moist. She stood up and looked into the vat again. Ebun was elated to see that at last, Zinaida's clothes had completely dissolved. But she could still see Zinaida's toes jutting out of the acid.

Maybe I should stir the vat some more. A little stirring might make her feet dissolve.

Although Ebun was slightly uneasy to see remnants of Zinaida's flesh, she felt a bit assured that the stirring method she'd adopted might dissolve the corpse just like the clothes. So she picked the stick again.

A little stirring. A little stirring. And—

A blasting sound of sirens suddenly assaulted the tranquil afternoon air. Ebun's heart pounded so hard that it became audible in her ears — like a tangible sound. Hastily, she dropped the stick, looking around anxiously.

The police were here.

God, what's going to happen?

Ebun's mind raced, unsure of what to do first. Should she blow the whistle to alert Sean? No. The police will hear and quickly find her. Should she stir the acid some more? She didn't know whether that was a good idea either. Zinaida's corpse was taking forever to dissolve, so what was the guarantee that her body would disappear now that the police were nearby? Dead bodies didn't give a hoot about the concerns of the living.

The only sensible thing she could do now was run for her dear, dear life.

She looked around the bawdy house. There were mounds of hay in the corners. Perhaps she could duck and shield herself with some grass. She followed the orders of her mind and ran towards a corner that looked more like a haystack.

Right at that moment, as she hid, two horrifying things happened.

A bullet pierced through the glass of the small window. Ebun hadn't seen it, but she'd heard the shattering of the glass and could smell the acridness of the hot metal grazing through the ground – meaning that the bullet was very close by and would have pierced into her flesh if she hadn't hidden well. The sirens blasted even louder. Any moment from now, the police will open the door of the bawdy house and scout the area.

While she shivered and ducked lower to avoid being seen, Ebun felt a strong arm grip her elbow in the dark. Her first instinct was to scream her lungs out. In fact, she'd already opened her mouth to make a horrifying sound, but the strange hand had been faster to clamp itself tightly around her mouth.

Ebun strained her eyes in the dark, trying to make out the features of this strange person who'd grabbed her. She could see a muscular, tall frame. Broad shoulders. A low haircut.

Sean.

"Oh, it's you," Ebun whispered, relief washing over her momentarily. "I'm sorry I didn't alert you."

"It's okay. I heard the siren. I was unable to find a hiding spot outside, so we'll have to go upstairs. We have only ten seconds to run before the police open the front door and find us."

"This building has an upper room?" Ebun's eyes shone in surprise.

"Yes. You can't see the staircase because it's covered in hay. Now..." Sean pulled her up in one swift move. "Let's run!"

Ebun followed hastily in Sean's lead. True to his words, while they mounted up the wooden stairs that had been heavily covered in hay and strings of cobwebs, Ebun could hear heavy footsteps coming closer and even a few words from the policemen. They had less than ten seconds to flee. 

"Didn't I wern you ahll not to shoot?" a deep voice barked.

Ebun tried her hardest not to give that statement much thought as she focused on the journey ahead of her. Thinking about a sentence uttered by a policeman would only instill more fear in her and slow her down. It was still shocking to see that this bawdy house was much more extensive and spacious than she'd thought.

When they finally got upstairs, Ebun was astonished by what she could see. She couldn't believe that this seemingly abandoned, dusty bawdy house had such interesting sights that lay in the upper-division. Behold was a long corridor with several doors lined vertically – down to a point where she couldn't even see.

There were posters plastered on the walls and sculptures of unmentionable body parts in vivid, intricate details. Adjacent where she stood, she could see the statue of a penis — unrealistically long and thick. On one of the posters that Ebun could correctly see, the squiggly writing read:

Welcome to The Pussycat Parish of Omsk— to a place where your desires would be fulfilled to the maximum – to a place where men and women spend a lot of time on their knees worshipping.

The Pussycat Parish of Omsk. Ebun analyzed. Pussycat. Pussyc— Ebun's eyes shone in heightened shock when realization slowly began to hit her. Where men and women spend a lot of time on their knees worshipping.

Ebun scoffed. Worshipping my foot. The worship used in this context was nowhere near the religious act.

Ebun looked at Sean for a moment, expecting him to answer her questions without voicing them out. But when he stared back at her with a bland look, she opened her mouth.

"What kind of place is this?"

"An ancient sex house."

"What the hell? Why did you choose this place of all places to dissolve Mr. Kojo's girlfriend's corpse?"

"I don't know, but I think it's the best decision I made by coming here because now, I have an idea and hopefully what I'm about to do will serve as a convincing reason."

Without giving Ebun the chance to say another word, Sean opened the door to a room next to them, and when Ebun peeped inside, she suddenly became short of air.

Over the walls in the room were several iron-clad racks that contained weapons for people with specific kinks and fetishes: chains, whips, belts, handcuffs, and so many more unidentifiable objects that Ebun beheld. In the left part of the room was a bed with hard metal furniture.

An unplanned shiver ran down her spine.

Sean walked in from behind, then he bent down and whispered in her ear for a reason that Ebun didn't find necessary in any way whatsoever. But it seemed like Sean was way too excited for what was about to happen.

"Now, all you have to do while we stay in this room..." his warm breath tickled the strands of hair that lay beside her neck. "...Is moan."

Five minutes later...

Thwack.

"Harder, baby, Faster!"

Wham.

"Ahhh stfff gggr."

Ebun bit her lip as she mouthed the words, doing her best to imitate the lustful sound of a person who was enjoying getting laid. She'd even pretended she was choking and couldn't mouth coherent words.

Sean, on the other hand, took a horsewhip from the rack and smacked it against the ground several times to create a whipping sound.

Ebun stood by the door, watchful for the approaching footsteps to ascertain if the policemen were coming upstairs or not. Each time she felt like they were coming closer, she'd send a signal to Sean to whip the floor harder while she moaned louder, pretending to be reaching a point of climax.

While she pretended to be having sex, she fought hard to suppress the urge to laugh. It wasn't supposed to be a funny moment, but it was unbelievable what she had to do to protect herself.

The plan was to infiltrate the air with intense sexual sounds to scare the police away. He wasn't sure if this was an effective plan, but he'd wanted to try. Sean wasn't a lawyer, but he was adequately aware of his fundamental rights as a human being. The right to privacy was one of them. The police wouldn't go ahead to intrude this passionate moment just because they needed to catch two murderers, right?

But Sean couldn't have been more wrong.

While the plan seemed to have worked for five minutes, the police were in no way intimidated by the sounds. Instead, they took it as a cue to trace their whereabouts. While Ebun had previously been having wrong presumptions about the direction of the footsteps, she was now sure that the police were coming upstairs.

"What are we going to do now?" Ebun fidgeted, wondering if this had been a good idea at all.

"It looks like you will have to take your clothes off for real now," Sean said as he began to move closer to her.

"What?"

"Pardon me for what I'm about to do, Ebun."

Ebun didn't get another word out before Sean wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her closer, and then enclosed the space between them with a sealing kiss.

Then, he captured her hand between his because she'd tried to push him away. Whirling her around, he picked her up as though she weighed nothing. A moment later, she found herself pressed against the wall with no means of escaping.

She was supposed to be terrified by the fact that she couldn't escape. This scene brought images from the day she'd been raped by those six men six years ago. On that day, she'd been unable to escape. But Ebun knew she had to do this. She had to let herself be inescapable from Sean so she could escape the police.

The next instant, the last vestiges of her thoughts were abolished as Sean's teeth tugged at her lower lip, causing her to really moan this time.

"Now, I'm going to undo some of the buttons of your shirt," he murmured.

Then the door opened, revealing the group of policemen who were flashing torchlights at them.

Don't look too scared, Ebun.

Almost at the same time that the door opened, Sean made his final move. In a blink, Ebun was away from the wall. For a moment, she didn't know where was up or down. Then, her back hit the carpet, and some of her buttons flew away, revealing her braless breasts. Then, Sean became a beast — he kissed her more passionately than he had in the past few minutes.

Ebun was forced to part her lips open and give Sean full access. She kissed him back as reciprocation for his ferocious energy. His fingers were on her. Firm but gentle fingers. They were everywhere, holding her, caressing her, driving her wild. And from within her, something even more outlandish began to rise.

Soon, Ebun began to worry that if they continued to kiss like this, pretending that they didn't know the police was here, flashing torches at them, the police would find them suspicious.

As though Sean had read her mind and had seen into her worries, he broke away from the kiss and turned to face the policemen who were still staring, their mouths widely opened in amusement.

"Yes? How may we be of help to you?"

"Ve are sorry, sir," a sturdy man with a fat paunch came forward and said. "Ve are sorry for introoding your privecy. Ve vill get going now."

Like unbelievable magic, the prestigious and 'justice serving' policemen from the highly esteemed Moscow District Police Headquarters turned and left, leaving Sean and Ebun baffled.

***

It was stupid of Sean to be this shocked that his fake kiss with Ebun had scared the police away. That was what he'd wanted to happen. Yet when it did, he couldn't believe it.

How could the policemen leave just like that? How could they exit the area without asking them one or two questions? After all their efforts? Even if they didn't suspect them to be the murderers of Mr. Kojo, how didn't they ask about the vat of acid that contained the body of Zinaida? Was the right to privacy accorded with this much respect?

Those questions took over Sean's mind. Ebun, on the other hand, was all about the kiss they'd just shared. She wanted them to talk about it but decided to let Sean's worries become her worries for that moment. The policemen's abrupt departure was indeed questionable —even though they had planned to chase them away.

Sean decided to give Mrs. Yekaterina a call.

"Hello, ma'am. The police just came, and they left — without arresting us or asking us any questions," Sean said, deciding for some unknown reason to leave out the kiss from the narration. "Is this your doing?"

From the other end of the line, there was a momentary pause. Sean could imagine this devious lecturer grinning.

"Of course! I'm Mrs. Yeketerina of Yeketerinburg Ceety! I don't betrey my people. I just decided to eenform you guys so you could prepere yourselves. How cen I let you guys get into trouble ahfter vhet you guys hev done for me?"

Sean breathed out in relief, and Ebun smiled briefly.

"Thank you so much, ma'am," Sean and Ebun said simultaneously.

***

When Ebun returned to Hostel Pavlov the next day, she didn't have time — not even a second to think about the kiss that she'd shared with Sean. She'd have loved a moment to reminisce on the feeling of his tongue running wildly against hers. His strong arms, iron-hard muscles in perfect definition, but perhaps it was in her best interest that she gave the scene no thought.

In this part of Moscow, it was a completely different world. She was no longer in a world that had now become her comfort zone; a world that consisted of investigating rapists, plotting the most effective ways to kill them, learning how to use guns and knives, spending several nights in an opium den, and dissolving dead bodies in an abandoned playground and a bawdy house.

Here in Hostel Pavlov, Ebun had to eat whatever food Mrs. Mariyah prepared, pretend that she was going to school to study and get Viktoriya to constantly cover up for her nocturnal and even broad daylight escapades. By all means, Ebun had to make sure that, under no circumstance should there be a reason for her older sister in Nigeria to give her a call.

Here in Hostel Pavlov, she had to be careful not to get caught. She had to be a good girl.

For a fleeting while, everything seemed to be alright. She and Sean had been able to leave the remote part of Omsk unscathed and free from the police. Zinaida's body finally dissolved, and Mr. Kojo's skeletal remains were now laboratory specimen. Mrs. Yekaterina had covered up for them, so there was no need for her and Sean to worry about the witness causing a ruckus.

However, it seemed like Ebun hadn't fully grasped the power of the press. There was one deed that had already been done that couldn't be reverted:

The announcement of Mr. Kojo's death on national TV.

Meaning that the entire populace of Moscow State was aware and that included Mrs. Mariyah. Her hostel mistress might indeed be a semi-illiterate, but she didn't seem to be clueless. What if she was able to decipher in some way that she was among the duo that murdered Mr. Kojo?

Or worse of the worst unimaginable things... What if Viktoriya had snitched on her?

No. Ebun shook her head as though to dismiss the thought. Viktoriya wouldn't do that, right? We had a deal. We had a freaking deal!

She tried to assure herself, but from the way she jolted out of her bed and hurried down the stairs to the third floor, it was obvious that she was anything but assured. Once she arrived at Viktoriya's room, she got rid of her manners, or perhaps, she never had any.

She barged in, startling Viktoriya, who was sitting calmly on her comfy bed and typing studiously on her laptop's keyboard. After a few seconds, Viktoriya regained her composure and returned her gaze to her laptop, disregarding Ebun. Hostility oozed from her presence like cold, chilling air and that was very unlike her.

Ebun swallowed thickly and moved closer.

"Hey, Vik."

No response.

"C-can I sit on your bed?" Ebun went on to ask.

"If you want to," Viktoriya answered without looking at her.

Ebun felt goosebumps sprout up from the pores of her skin, but she decided to sit down anyway. Then she swallowed again before proceeding to speak.

"It's been a while, Vik. Thank you for covering up for me for so long. I—"

"You killed the post-graduate man, didn't you?" Viktoriya raised her head to look at Ebun. From the icy glare she gave, it was clear that she had no tolerance for Ebun's gallivanting.

"Oh," Ebun laughed nervously. "Is it about what you saw on the news? Yes, I killed Mr. Kojo, and I already told you I would do that before asking you to cover up for me. But that doesn't mean—"

"How does it not mean? That's exactly what you did to the post-graduate man. I told you not to kill him! I specifically warned you against it. It perfectly explains why you were burning clothes in the backyard that night. It's so foolish of me to have believed that you didn't kill him."

Ebun was afraid that she might cry from the way Viktoriya was yelling at her. She felt bad to have brought out this side of her because Viktoriya had always been so kind to her and never looked like someone who would be this furious with her.

"But he raped you. How could you not want him to die?"

"Not every rape victim is like you, Ebun. I get that you came to Russia to kill rapists so you can find the people who hurt you. Still, isn't it a part of your job as an assassin to yield to your client's instructions? Do you know that you can get into serious trouble for even killing Mr. Kojo?"

"What do you mean, Vik?"

"You aren't being careful! You don't seem to realize the gravity of what you've done. Look, I know Mr. Kojo assaults and defiles young girls. I'm among the few people who know his true colors. But several girls in our university don't know that. Hence, it will be hard to convince many people that Mr. Kojo's death was well deserved.

It's the same case with the post-graduate man, and that's why I told you not to kill him! He's a famous rapist and sex offender, but do you know how he's been able to silence his victims and remain a student at the university despite his outrageous atrocities? It just goes to show that he's someone you shouldn't tamper with. His people who believe he's a good man will come after you. What the heck will you do?"

"Killing these people was the best thing I could have done, Vik. On the day I was going to kill the postgraduate man, he was going to rape another girl if I hadn't stepped into the situation. As for Mr. Kojo's situation, he raped a lecturer's daughter to a near-death state. The lecturer herself asked me to kill him, and she's been able to protect me from the police."

"You are insane, Ebun," a tear trickled down Viktoriya's cheeks. "Your explanation does not validate the fact that you went against my wishes. You didn't have to go that far to win me over to your side or get me to cover up for you. Now that you've betrayed me and put me in a state of potential danger, I've returned the favor, and this favor will be of benefit to you in the long run."

"What do you mean by that?" Ebun asked as her heart began to beat fast.

Viktoriya's silence made Ebun's imagination run wild, and when she took a dangerous guess as to what Viktoriya's 'favor' was, she gasped.

"Don't tell me you—"

"Eboon! Come downsteirs right now!"

At that moment, Mrs. Mariyah called her name out loud from the first floor. Sweat began to form around her forehead as she glanced back at Viktoriya. Viktoriya looked unbothered like she'd seen this coming because she had planned for it to happen.

Viktoriya had reported Ebun's secret doings to Mrs. Mariyah.

When this truth dawned on Ebun, she realized that her worst nightmare had appeared like doom at her service in the twinkle of an eye.

Shit. I'm in real trouble.

***

Yekaterinburg City is actually a place in Russia. I just discovered it and decided to creatively insert it in this book for fun sake since there's a character in this book named Yekaterina. I promise you, I didn't plan this from the start.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter despite its length.

Yours Truly,

The Dream Elixir.