Trigger warnings: mentions of drug use.

1993, December

1993:12:09 20:07:44.972 PROJECT EDEN_create: gen_httphandle_lock0x841366a8
1993:12:09 20:07:44.973 sourcedata_queue_init: queue entity = -2079015872
1993:12:09 20:07:44.974 DEADPOOL_create: looper0x841366d0
1993:12:09 20:07:44.974 programcreate: looper0x841366e8
1993:12:09 20:07:44.975 tamika_create: looper0x84136700
1993:12:09 20:07:44.975 HEAVENLYcreate: g_event_d_backup_list_lock:0x84136710
1993:12:09 20:07:44.976 ERROR_create: g_event_context.curl_list_lock:0x84136718
1993:12:09 20:07:44.976 miscalculation_create: g_event_context.cmd_looper_handler:0x8414bc60
1993:12:09 20:07:44.977 loading_create: g_event_context.callback_looper_handler:0x8414bc80
1993:12:09 20:07:44.977 password_create: g_event_theorionproject_complete_looper_handler:0x8414bca0
1993:12:09 20:07:44.987 use_which_cert=0, curl-version: libcurl/7.54.1 mbedTLS/2.5.1 c-ares/1.13.0 curl_feature:0x85
1993:12:09 20:07:44.987 datacore_init: init http manage SUCCESS

***

Pink neon lights lit up the front of The Love Club, twinkling on and off like Christmas lights. It was barely six in the evening but the inside was bustling, in hurry and excitement of the night to come.

The chaotic excitement made Sanmi's head pound with a headache. For a moment, he paused to stare at the ensuing chaos, the bartenders were gathered at the bars, chattering as they worked, the smell of alcohol was heavy in the air making his throat tighten with the sharp smell.

Sanmi could only imagine what sort of drinks had been imported just for a silly party that would end up in chaos by midnight but it was a special occasion after all. It was the birthday of one of ORION'S main players.

He shook his head just as the disc jockey began testing his instruments and soon enough, afro pop music began pulsing from speakers. Everything about the whole scene screamed over the top, the projectors on the walls flickered every few seconds, displaying a stunning image of the birthday girl in red.

And there she stood, in the center of it all on the dance floor, barking orders and glancing at the tablet computer in her hands every few seconds. She turned around as if on cue and caught Sanmi's eye, with a single finger gesture, she beckoned him over to her.

Sanmi sighed as he moved towards her, wishing to get this visit over with. He hadn't planned on seeing any of their faces through out the weekend until he saw Joshua's impromptu call, it had scared him because Joshua never called himself, he'd rather send someone else — they both knew that interactions between them always turned into a fight.

"What's up?" He greeted perfunctorily. He had no intentions of fighting with anyone no matter how much he desired to defy their orders at every turn. Sanmi had had the worst week, and the worst was far from over, not when secrets continued to be overturned at every turn.

He just wanted to sleep, permanently.

"I don't recall inviting you over," she said, batting her eyelash extensions in a flirty manner. He knew better than to take her jabs to heart, for some reason unknown to him, Amina loved throwing insults his way, she enjoyed riling him up and most times she succeeded, tonight he wasn't going to pay her any heed. At least he tried not to.

"I'm a gatecrasher." He told her flatly.

She blinked as if she wasn't quite sure if he was jesting.

"He called, didn't he?" She asked the obvious. Sanmi didn't even bother to grace her with a nod.

He made to leave when he felt her manicured fingers wrap around his wrist. The glare he had been trying to keep in check showed itself, it didn't deter her because Amina was the queen of venomous glares but she let go of his wrist.

"I haven't seen you around campus a lot." She stated. Every single word dripped with suspicion.

"As you know, you're a science student and I'm far far away on the other side. I think it's pretty natural we don't see each other a lot." He couldn't help but say sarcastically. "Some of us are actually busy with final year projects."

The smirk that tugged at her nude painted lips was nothing pleasing, he knew what was coming.

"Not too busy to hang out with your ex, my sources tell me."

Sanmi looked away, catching the eye of a snoozing worker who was quick to straighten when she was caught. When he looked back at Amina with his expression composed, he was even surprised by the flatness in his words.

"Who I fuck is not any of your business," he reminded her, smiling when her expression soured, lips down turning. If she had been expecting a confession she would be disappointed.

Sanmi wasn't even sure whether to be surprised or angry that The ORION Project had spies on him, he knew that it meant that he would have to be more careful. ORION could fish the proverbial needle out of a haystack and if they did, he was done for.

They didn't like to share, at all, Sanmi had been there when Joshua had ordered the kill on a guy that had been playing on both teams — for both ORION and MEDUSA.

"Unless, you're down for a threesome." He said, watching with great satisfaction when she pretended to gag.

Amina shook her head.

"You are truly disgusting, Sanmi." She told him.

He forced himself to shrug nonchalantly, reminding himself to warn Tope that The ORION Project might be on to them. He fished out his phone and glanced at the screensaver just as a Nicki Minaj song began to play and Amina began to wriggle her hips to the song.

Sanmi thought that she was lucky she had a generous behind she could shake and call it dancing because she was a horrible dancer. He reeled in the urge to point it out.

"Is the interrogation over?" He asked, nodding to the stairs in the corner. "I don't want to keep his Highness waiting."

"Forgive me, I find it hard to believe that this girl you once loved body and soul is now your fuck buddy with no strings attached." She mused.

Sanmi rolled his eyes.

"You know nothing about what our relationship was, or how it ended."

"She means nothing to me now, nothing at all."

Amina looked at him for the longest time as if she were looking into his soul. Sanmi tried not to flinch even though he towered well over her, Amina was Phillips' hound, if she caught a single whiff of disloyalty, then they'd kill him regardless of any evidence.

He needed to stay alive, just enough to make all of them pay.

At the end, seemingly satisfied with what she saw, she nodded.

"Alright, I hear Joshua's got something for you, you better run along now before he changes his mind."

Sanmi gave her a tired nod, muttering something sarcastic under his breath as he mounted the stairs leading up to the office. He was half surprised when he stepped into the dimly lit room to hear The Weeknd playing from the speakers.

Joshua only ever played classical music. To others it might not mean anything but Sanmi knee very well that Joshua's choice in music usually matched his mood and now that The Weeknd crooned softly about cocaine as if it were a lover, Sanmi knew something was wrong.

"Shut the door behind you," Joshua said softly from where he stood behind the bar, he raised up a finger and gestured to the phone on his ear.

Sanmi made sure to slam the door as loudly as he could, pretending not to see the glare Joshua shot him. He settled on one of the bar stools and set his phone down on it.

He felt familiar anger well up in him, he hated taking orders from kids he was one or two years older than, he hated the way they made him feel inferior in their presence. He couldn't help the sneer that lifted the corner of his lips and when he glanced at Joshua, the other boy smiled slightly as if he could hear Sanmi thoughts.

Joshua soon set his phone down, hanging up on whoever was on the line without a word of goodbye. His gaze never left Sanmi as he reached blindly for a bottle of whiskey on the shelf.

He set it down with a loud slam and poured the amber liquid into two tumblers. He pushed one towards Sanmi and raised an eyebrow when the glass remained untouched.

"Since when did you start turning down drinks?" He asked, there was dangerous curiosity glittering in his eyes and illuminated by the flickering chandelier. It was dangerous for Joshua Phillips to be curious, curiosity meant he didn't understand something and he would come to see a novelty with fascination, he would not stop until he came to understand it.

"I'm not drinking on an empty stomach." Sanmi lied. He wanted so bad to drink, to feel that familiar burn of alcohol sliding smoothly down his throat but he would rather die than let any of them see his desperation.

The truth was, Sanmi had turned to binge drinking in the past weeks, anything to take away the itch that was building from his withdrawal. He was fighting his demons with another demon, he would never win.

"I see," Joshua said, he set down his drink after a sip, the music switched to a slow tempo pop song just as he did so.

"We haven't seen you around here in a while, have you been avoiding us?" Joshua asked.

Sanmi rolled his eyes, a motion that did not get unnoticed by Joshua.

"Final year shit." He gave the same excuse.

"Good, I was beginning to wonder if some other organization was taking up your time." Joshua deadpanned, he was straight to the point; he suspected Sanmi was switching loyalties and it baffled Sanmi because Joshua liked to play games. If he was being straight then it meant he was desperate, something was bothering him.

Joshua Phillips was afraid.

Sanmi let glee settle in the pit of his chest, then the fear settled in sooner. Joshua had no idea how right he was, that Sanmi was rubbing hands with ORION'S biggest rival.

Suspicion in a phase early was dangerous, especially since Sanmi had barely scratched the surface of the secrets and lies, he needed to do something that would take Joshua's eyes off him for a little while. Avoiding them was not helping him at all.

"MEDUSA?" Sanmi probed. Every knew MEDUSA was only one of the handful cults that could give ORION a hard time and not end up completely obliterated. He needed to be sure that Joshua was not too close to the truth.

"Yes, MEDUSA, ZEUS or fucking APHRODITE," Joshua snapped.

"Why would I go for the smaller fish?" Sanmi shot back, feigning indignation.

Joshua didn't miss a beat. "Money,"

"Maybe if you paid more. . ." Sanmi deliberately trailed off, let them think he was in for the money even though the thought made him boil in anger.

Joshua pretended to mull it over before nodded.

"Fine, I'll double your fees," he said. "But don't you dare play games, trust me, I. Will. Find. Out."

"Not to mention that I have something coming for MEDUSA tonight, they've messed with me enough."

Sanmi resisted the urge to snort back in amusement. Joshua didn't know anything about anything yet and he was going to keep it that way. Now was the time to throw the last bait, the one he had been mulling over during the way to the club.

He reached for the pockets on the inside of his jean jacket and fished out the photograph, he slid it over to Joshua and put on his best confused look, tilting his head to the side.

He hid smile behind his palm as pure surprise widened Joshua's eyes. It was comical.

Joshua stared at it for the longest time, and when he raised his head, fury tightened his mouth. At least one thing was certain now, Joshua or The ORION Project hadn't sent Grace that letter, someone else had. Someone who wanted Grace to find out the truth.

"What is this?" Joshua attempted to backtrack.

"Someone sent this to my sister several weeks ago, and you and I know this photograph is old as fuck, the date at the back says it all." Sanmi said. "Is this a prank?"

"Photoshop obviously, must be a prank, but not by my hands." The look of displeasure deepened on his face.

"I'm not sure whether to believe you, after all, games are not above your level." Sanmi didn't have to force the bitterness, it came naturally. It wouldn't be far fetched to say that ORION had been pulling their strings a long time ago.

"I will look into it," Joshua said firmly, a distant look in his eyes. "Good thing you told me about it."

Sanmi shrugged, pretending to be embarrassed by the praise.

"If there's nothing else, I have things to do." Sanmi reminded, waiting to be dismissed but instead appalled when Joshua pulled out a small white package from behind the bar.

Sanmi hated that the glee that filled him outweighed the fear. And when Joshua gave him a mocking smirk, he hated that he didn't say no.

That he didn't turn it down, not when Joshua dismissed him. Not when he snuck a look when he was far away, not when he tumbled down into that dark hole again, white powder staining his nose.

The game was never over, it was a never ending level.

The aftermath shame never stopped him from playing.

***

Can I call you? There's something I found about you should know.
— Kendrick, 6:40pm

Grace stared at the phone screen for the longest time until the words blurred into one other. Yesterday, Kendrick had finally gotten her number and she had gotten his but she didn't expect him to reach out so soon and not with a text message so ominous.

A part of her wanted to ignore it and pretend she had never seen it because she had slowly learnt to be wary of surprises — they never turned out well for her.

"Are you going to answer that?" Ewa's voice said, Grace startled, unaware of her sister's sudden presence.

She looked up to see that Ewa was seated on the worn sofa, typing away on her own phone and gesturing at Grace's own phone. It was ringing and she hadn't even notice. Her Rihanna ringtone made her wince and she let it ring on until it finally stopped. When she peeped a glance, she saw it had been Kendrick calling.

"No," her answer came out small, fragile that it made Ewa raise her head and watch her with concern.

"Is anything the matter?" Ewa asked hesitantly, afraid Grace would rebuff her.

Grace found herself answering every question.

"I'm not sure, everything's been crazy."

Ewa nodded as if she understood, or maybe she did. Grace could never tell what was going on in her sister's life, she didn't know Ewa's friends, she didn't if her sister had any and suddenly she was curious.

"At least things are mending themselves, the university withdrew their charged and declared you innocent." Ewa pointed out and Grace deflated, remembering that Ewa knew close to nothing about what was going on in her life, that the drama with Dr. Ireti was old news.

Not only had she had been declared innocent but a few days ago, the results of the previous semester had been released and Grace's CGPA had skyrocketed to the top ten in her class, it had nothing to do with her efforts or hard work, it had everything to with ORION telling her that they were influential and that she would be rewarded for everything as long as she played their games.

"I guess so," Grace shrugged and picked up her phone just as it began to ring again. "I'm going to take this, excuse me."

Ewa nodded stiffly, obviously put off by their awkward and painfully polite conversation.

Grace swiped at the answer icon as she stepped into the veranda.

"Hey." Kendrick's soft voice came from the speaker.

She nodded at first then remembered he couldn't see her.

"What?" She winced at how sharp it came out. "I mean, what's up?"

She was surprised when he laughed, a booming one. Grace began to smile when she imagined his smile, there was something about Kendrick that put her at was when she was with him, it could be because he was a bit like her; quiet. He never expected her to speak when she didn't want to and he seemed to understand her outbursts.

"Relax o," he crooned.

"Hard to when everyone seems to like springing bad news on me left and right." She told him dryly.

"Fair point." He said. For a moment he was silent as if he was thinking something over and she watched from the balcony as Rafe played with his friends downstairs, taking turns kicking a faded rubber beach ball.

He pushed at a boy his age wearing a Star Wars T-shirt who was quick to retaliate with a kick to Rafe's knee, Grace was in the motion of shouting at them when Kendrick began to speak again.

"I spent the whole evening stalking the social media profiles of ORION'S main members." He said.

Grace scoffed a laugh, thinking that he had too much time on his hands. She had spent the whole afternoon doing one chore after the other and enduring her mother's complains when she did something wrong.

"Good for you."

"No, listen, I found something valuable, something dangerous."

Grace perked up at that, heart thudding in anticipation.

"What did you find?"

"Basically proof that they had a hand in the death of a senator." Kendrick said, voice pitching in excitement while a chill ran down her spine. The senator at last night's party had implied as much, but Kendrick having proof of it was both dangerous for him and ORION itself, especially if they found out.

"So what now?" Grace asked, biting down on her bottom lip worriedly.

"Now? Now we wait, we lay low, gather more evidence that could bring them down."

"You shouldn't smile when playing with fire." Grace warned him.

She could almost imagine his eye roll and she wished he were more cautious.

"I also found that Jamal — that's his name right? — Popola is opening up a new club tonight, this is our chance to speak with him."

"No," she said sharply. "Jamal always lies and the last thing I want is to be in his presence." Even if he seems to know something we don't.

"I'm not leaving your side. I swear." Kendrick said vehemently.

"You know this is the only reasonable chance to speak to him, in school, ORION'S eyes will be on us." He cajoled softly.

She hated that he was right. Hated that the thought of seeing Jamal again, so soon made her stomach churn.

"Fine."

"Sweet, text me your address, I'll see you in an hour."

"I don't know . . ." Grace trailed off, in one final attempt.

"This is the right thing to do." He told her.

She sighed and wondered; right thing? But for who — me or your dead best friend?

She might have voiced it, but he had already hung up.