21st of July, 1992

Students in white laboratory coats piled out of the laboratory discussing in loud tones as they compared notes, some chattered about random items refusing to even think about the experiment they just finished. Judging by the glum looks on their faces, Mika knew the experiment had definitely not gone their way. The lecturer in charge had probably shown them hell, she was well known for putting her students through the most difficult tests. Behind her they called her Dr. Torture in jest, Mika was sure that if she caught wind of it the whole class would be in trouble, she almost smiled at the thought as she tugged at the sleeves of her hoodie.

Some of them had began to take of their white coat while grumbling, others were racing to food canteens to fill their stomach. But her eyes were not on them, rather they were on the tall boy with the geeky glasses who leaned against a wall, flipping through a bulky textbook earnestly. A smile tugged at her lips and she hissed at the pain it brought.

Mika jogged briskly to his side and tapped him on the shoulder once and watched with amusement as he jumped in fright. That was Kingston, always lost in his head and the books he read. He was already ahead of class with his readings, he was perhaps the only student Dr. Torture liked, albeit grudgingly. When his eyes met hers, he did not look amused.

"Jesus, you scared me. Can you not announce your arrival like a normal human being?" He hissed through clenched teeth.

She let her lips tug slightly in a smile, it was all she could afford without the pain. "You mean shout your name like a normal person and draw everyone's attention to you, which you despise?" She teased, she liked the way he appeared to hate her when she knew how much he really liked her inside.

"I hate you." He said with such seriousness that she couldn't resist and leaned in to kiss him lightly. He didn't pull back like he normally would. Kingston was painfully shy.

"I know." She said as she pulled away.

"You missed the class, Mika, for the sixth time this semester. You told me you'd quit." He said, his forehead creasing in a frown. Kingston pushed back his glasses and hugged his book to his chest. If he smiled more, he might look less frightening.

She laughed hollowly. "You don't just quit ORION, you don't say not to them."

"I said no," He shrugged. She felt annoyance course through her, sometimes he was too naive. "You always have a choice, Mika --"

It was then he noticed her wounded face and he let out a hiss of pain like he was hurting.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed loudly, a couple standing near them shot him a concerned look. He clenched his fists in fury, letting his textbook fall to the ground with a thud. King pressed a hand to her face and she recoiled with a moan.

"This is the third time this month, I'm going to have a word with fucking Phillips, this has to end." He bent to pick his book and began to shuffle from her. Mika pulled him back with a pleading look.

"Stop, King. You can't go looking for trouble, not when He's already set his eyes on you." Mika whispered furiously. He still looked angry but he made no move to walk away, King wasn't stupid, he knew he'd never win against ORION, against Phillips. The last time he reported to the police about the cult, they had gotten away with it and Mika had paid for it, for months she had to hide the wound on her back. Kingston still didn't know about it.

"I can't keep letting them hurt you." He grumbled.

"Listen to me, Tolu," He knew she was serious when she called him by his first name. "It was my fault, I busted their drug deal again. I couldn't stand by and watch them ruin another life."

Kingston groaned aloud. "You promised to stop this vigilantism, you can't go around playing dress up in an attempt to save stupid rich kids who are obsessed with ruining their lives."

"You love it when I play dress up," She said in an attempt to make him smile. It was in vain, Kingston never smiled, not even the first time when he told her he loved her.

"Don't, you know it that ORION isn't an organization of stupid bored kids doing drugs. It's a dangerous cult with far more influences than our families combined," He held up a hand, he stared at her for the longest time in suspicion. "What are you hiding from me, Mika?"

She held his stare without flinching then she sighed, sagging against the wall in exhaustion and wondering how her life had suddenly become a shit storm. It had started out as a harmless invitation from Remi Phillips to hang out with people like her and now she was far too deep to get out, she knew too much. Mika was sure ORION would never let her leave, alive.

"They want you to join, Tolu, they have already initiated your sister, Dayo. They want you at all costs and they will have you, whether you like it or not, dead or alive."

***

The Present

Kendrick looked up from his phone, fingers hovering above the screen as he heard the sound of marching footsteps up the stairs. The annex building was quiet and most lecturers were yet to arrive at their offices, even the building cleaner was not yet around. He wouldn't be here either if he didn't need to borrow a tennis racket from Firepemi's dad who was a Physical Education lecturer, the last thing he wanted was to run into Firepemi whom he was avoiding.

He wondered if Fire's father knew about his son's less than legal extra curricular activities.

A girl came into view, she looked familiar and with a jolt, he realized she was the girl he bumped into last week at this same building. She was staring at him too, but not with any of the disdain she had glared at him with last week. She looked tired and the bags under her eyes were prominent. She was dressed in matching blue Adidas track suit.
The best thing would have been to ignore her, even though she might have a better idea where Dr. Ireti might be but he caught a glimpse of the tennis bag handing on her shoulder, before he knew it, he was already speaking.

"Do you play?" He heard himself asking. A look of surprise crossed her face before she fixed a look of annoyance at him.

"No, I don't. I just carry a tennis racket around because it's the latest fashion trend on campus." She said sarcastically. For a moment, regret flashed through her face. Kendrick was sure she would say another scathing sentence but she sighed and propped herself on the chair overlooking the balcony.

"I'm sorry, I'm not this usually rude." She finally said.

His jaw dropped open in shock. She was actually apologizing to him

"You don't have to look so shocked, I know we started off on the wrong foot but can we start over?" She said, chewing on her bottom lip in uncertainty. "And yes, I play tennis."

"It's alright, apology accepted." He said, his own voice sounded low to his ears.

"Do you play?" She prod.

Kendrick laughed. "Not really, it's been a while and I'm meeting with someone, we're supposed to play together. I'm here to borrow a racket from Dr. Ireti." He wondered what she would say if he told her he was meeting with Joshua Phillips, most people in the university seemed to be obsessed with him, particularly his good looks.

She bobbed her head and tucked a stray braid behind her ear. She had the longest hair Kendrick had ever seen on a Nigerian girl and now she wore it in cornrows that touched her back.

"I have a spare?" She spoke hesitantly. "I can teach you to play, if you want." She was quick to add. She bounced her converse clad feet on the ground and kept twitching her fingers. It occurred to Kendrick that she might be nervous.

"That's not a bad idea, but only if you want to." He said in a bid to reassure her. She only bounced her feet faster. He couldn't help but smile. "I've never made a girl nervous before, this is a first."

She scowled suddenly. "I'm not nervous, I'm -- I'm just not used to spending time with a stranger."

Kendrick slipped his phone into the pockets of his jeans. "You offered." He said with a shrug as he stared at her. She couldn't meet his eyes.

"I'm starting to think that was a very bad idea." She said in a rush.

Kendrick didn't say anything. He just stared until she began to ramble.

"That sounded rude, I'm sorry. Fine, let's do this. Let me warn you, I'm not very good at tennis, I won't teach you to win, only to play --" She babbled.

"It's fine, let's take this one step at a time." He cut in firmly. "What is your name?"

"Grace, my name is Grace." She said, inhaling deeply.

"I'm Kendrick, and I want you to teach me how to play. Think you can do that?" Kendrick asked. Grace didn't seem quite settled yet but she had stopped bouncing.

She nodded quickly. "I can do that,"

***

The Lagos state university sports centre was nothing like the sports centre or his former university, it was decent but it could use some work, there were four tennis courts, all four were made of concrete and only two were in functional state, the others were broken and had no nets. Perhaps it didn't matter, because Kendrick had no intention of using it again after today.

10am, be there. That was the message sent to his phone this morning by a strange number and Kendrick knew it was from Phillips. He was suddenly feeling nervous about meeting the enigma that Joshua was again, a part of him reckoned the fact that he was playing a very dangerous game with people he wasn't supposed to toy with. He was sure he would only get burned in the end, but for Emmanuel it was worth it. His dead best friend would have probably done the same thing for him.

So he huffed out a breath and forced himself to focus. Yet he missed for the sixth time as Grace rallied the ball to his side of the net. Contrary to her words, she was a very good player or maybe he was just that pathetic at Tennis. They had been at it for an hour and still he didn't know how to rally, he could serve the ball just fine but that was where his prowess ended.

He could see Grace slap a hand over her mouth to hide her laughter. She didn't seem as nervous as when they began playing and the haunted look had disappeared from her eyes.

"Fetch the ball!" She screamed at him, voice echoing in the empty tennis court. The University's sport's centre was almost empty and only the both of them were in the tennis area. It wouldn't remain that way for long because Wednesdays were the university's sports day, by 4pm students would be piling through the gates to watch play sports.

As he jogged lightly to the bushes by the court where the ball had flown to, he sneaked a glance at his phone. It was already a few minutes after ten and he was yet to hear from Phillips. For the first time, he wondered if he was being toyed with.

Kendrick almost tripped and he heard Grace's distinctive laugh. He turned around to make a face at her before picking the ball at his feet.

It was scary how he didn't mind Grace's company, usually he liked to be alone and dreaded the company of girls. Not because they fawned over him but because he never knew what to say to them, the last girlfriend he had was in his final year of secondary school and they had broken up because she accused him of putting his friends over her. Honestly, Kendrick had been happy to get rid of her. He realized that he didn't mind Grace at all, in fact, he wouldn't mind seeing her around.

"Let's take a break." He called out as he jogged back to her side. He dropped the racket to the ground and sank to the floor besides him. After a moment of hesitation, Grace joined him.

"Guy, you suck at this game." She said in a manner that he wasn't sure whether she was joking or not. She said it so seriously and he got the feeling that she wasn't someone who smiled much or let herself relax, if Kendrick could guess, he was sure she came from a family that was strict because she seemed to be hell bent on proving herself to someone. She had played with such vigor and fury that it seemed she needed to expel her feelings in anyway.

"Blame it on my genes." Kendrick said absentmindedly, he flicked a glance at his phone screen, still no message, at least not from ORION. He had a missed call from his mother followed by a very stern message to call back. He ignored it and made a mental note to call when he could. The last people he wanted to speak to was his parents, not when they furious at his decision to switch schools. Kendrick shoved his phone into his back pocket.

"It would be so much easier if we could do that. If you're a failure, then blame it on your father." She said wistfully. "Lawn Tennis isn't all that hard to learn, it was the first sport I learnt to play."

"When did you start playing?" He asked her, ignoring the look a passerby student was giving him. He got those a lot and most times he felt like a wild animal among humans. He was used to ignoring the stares but for some reason, they got on his nerves today. He wondered how many more years he would have to live in Nigeria for them to see him as one of them.

"I think I was twelve," Grace answered, she jerked her head in his direction. "Have you got somewhere to be? You keep glancing at the time." Her expression was suddenly closed off, not open like it had been a few moments ago.

He shook his head. "I'm supposed to meet a friend here, the person I'm supposed to play against." He lied. Joshua Phillips was border lining on enemy status, he was definitely not a friend.

"Right, I'm guessing you still need the racket. I can borrow you my spare, if you want." She said and pursed her lips like she had said too much. "You can return it later in the day."

Kendrick looked at her, noticing her full lips twitch slightly in a barely there frown. Grace had a beauty spot right above her brows, it was so slight that it was easy to miss.

"How will I find you?"

"Leave it with Dr. Ireti, I'm assuming you know him personally?" She said.

"I know him, he's the father of my best -- I mean friend." He hesitated, it felt like a betrayal declaring Firepemi his best friend, especially because he was a pawn for ORION.

"Okay then. . ." She trailed off and rose to her feet. "I have a class to attend that begins in a couple of minutes, so I gotta go."

Somehow, he knew she was lying.

"Okay, thanks. I guess." He shrugged, feigning nonchalance. "I'll see you around."

Grace parted her lips to speak before clamping them together as she shoved her racket into the racket bag, Kendrick refrained from pointing out the fact that she had a class and yet she didn't have a book or any writing materials in sight.

When she had walked far ahead, she paused in her steps and turned back. She had a slight smile on her face, Kendrick watched her cup her hands to her mouth.

"You better don't lose!" She shouted.

He didn't reply, he didn't need to. Instead he watched her quicken her pace until she disappeared past the gates. He check his phone again, then he waited and waited.

And waited It was 2pm, until the sun beat down on him and soaked his shirt, until the tennis ground was hot.

They never came. Kendrick didn't think they had planned to. Instead, Joshua Phillips had played him like a fiddle and he had fallen for it.