Let's face it: there are simply some wounds that refuse to heal. We go around with demons of the past too.

How do you heal wounds and how do you get rid of your demons?

I didn't know the answer to that but one thing I knew for sure was that wounded people end up wounding others and people carrying demons for too long end up becoming those demons.

A musician once said, '...and it's hard to dance with the devil on your back.'

But what if you were already used to the devil's music?

◈ ━━━━━━━ ⸙ - ⸙ ━━━━━━━ ◈

CJ stood to his feet and walked out without saying a word to Kasy. She couldn't even read the expression on his face but she was almost sure of what she had said. His reaction to the accusation was supposed to determine if her theory was right.

"What makes you think so?" Ms. Isong had asked Kasy after she'd told her what she thought.

"He's the last person you would suspect," Kasy replied before she even thought about what she was saying.

"So?" Ms. Isong shrugged. "This is not a murder mystery we're trying to solve. I believe whoever it is is lying in plain sight and it's not CJ. I would know if it was him."

"I've crossed out everyone else."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone who's likely..."

"I'll talk with CJ later. You can go." Ms. Isong dismissed Kasy and she left the staffroom, leaving the teacher to ponder on what she had said. Could it be CJ? If it was him she'd know, right?

Kasy ran into Dele in the crowded passage. It looked like he was heading to the infirmary. He'd totally pretended like the kiss didn't happen since the previous week. She didn't want to take note of the fact that he had been avoiding her. She just wished that he would at least remember that he'd kissed her first—something she'd been waiting all her life for. And now he was treating her the same way he treated his pending house chores.

"Dele!" She called out to him as he was about to open the door and head into the infirmary. Kasy didn't have any idea what he would he doing there. He seemed to have bought a lot of food too.

She ran up to him after he paused at the door. "I sent you messages during the weekend. We need to start getting ready for our debate." They weren't kids anymore. They both knew that they had more important pending issues to address than the project they'd been paired for.

"Oh," the sound escaped Dele's mouth as he looked tired and disinterested in the topic at hand. "Yes, yes, the debate...I was busy during the weekend. I don't think I saw your text."

Kasy knew that was a lie because after Tari Disemi, Dele was the next most active person on social media and he had definitely been online throughout the weekend.

"And...em..." Dele trailed after Kasy zoned out for some seconds, "I'm sorry for what happened on Friday. You have a boyfriend and kissing you...it wasn't right."

For a moment Kasy was going to ask 'which boyfriend?' but then she remembered Casper who she'd claimed as her boyfriend and who by the way, hasn't been online for nearly four days. It wasn't like she'd been counting but then...

"Oh, no...don't worry. It's...it's okay," she managed to say.

"It's okay to kiss another guy when you have a boyfriend?" Dele raised his eyebrows. Kasy wasn't expecting the question. She froze and only stared back at Dele like a thief who had been caught.

"No, that's not what I meant..."

Dele was starting to doubt the whole boyfriend thing. But even if Casper was her boyfriend, he didn't believe in long distance relationships. Dele didn't think that relationship would last.

"I'll just call you whenever I'm chanced this week, we'll work on the debate at my house. Deal?" Dele smiled.

"Yeah, okay." Kasy nodded so many times so fast, grinning.

Dele smiled again before opening the door and heading into the infirmary with the bag of snacks in his hands.

Kasy heard voices as soon as Dele had entered and she wondered who was in their with him. But she didn't stand around to find out.

"I been one bring mattress for there, make you sleep wella," Ahmed said as he sat cross-legged on the only plastic chair in the room. 

The infirmary had only two small hospital beds, a desk and table and a small ancient couch in the corner. The white painted walls were already turning an awful shade of brown. The first aid box and medicine cabinet were on a small shelf.

"Fool, you should have gone there yourself," Dele replied as he threw Ahmed a bottle of bitter lemon and doughnuts.

Enock and Sola shared the plate of jollof rice they'd requested. The couch was made for one person but they managed it. They ate he food, glaring at each other and constantly quarrelling about who was eating more than the other person. When it came to food, relationship be damned. Besides, they both claimed to have skipped breakfast.

"Feeling better?" Dele joined Annika on the bed since there weren't any more seats. He handed her the cheese balls she'd requested and she examined it like it was a foreign product.

"How many times will you ask me that?" Annika glared at him. One wouldn't even know that she'd been screaming her lungs out merely hours ago. She went back to looking at the cheese balls.

"Should I feed you?"

"No."

"Then eat," he commanded, "besides you should be eating real food, I don't know why you insisted on cheese balls."

"You wan feed her as wetin?" Ahmed asked, eyeing Dele.

"Ode, mind your business," Dele replied.

"So what did you tell Uncle Ken and Ms. Isong?" Sola asked, directing the question to Annika. She and Enock had just finished their food.

"I told him it was just a migraine, that it happened sometimes," Annika said, "and it's partially true."

"Partially," Enock emphasized. "I don't know why you just can't tell them the truth."

"I'd die before that happens," Annika mumbled.

"And how come you asked for Dele and not me? I mean, who's your best friend here?" Sola asked, suddenly being very dramatic.

Annika chuckled and so did Dele. Ahmed only looked at her like she'd fallen from the sky.

"Because only Dele knows my medicine combination. If I had asked for you, you wouldn't even know what to do," Annika replied with a smile.

"That's a lie!" Sola protested and from there a silly argument ensued.

The noise died down as soon as Annika had asked, "Wait, what's today again?"

"Monday," Dele replied immediately as he watched Annika looking confused. "What is it?"

"Our form mistress, the English teacher...what's her name?"

"You mean...Ms. Isong?" said Enock.

"Ms. Isong, yes," Annika mumbled.

The room remained quiet as everyone just stared at her.

"It happens sometimes after taking the drugs, don't worry." Annika shrugged and smiled a reassuring smile.

They all awkwardly smiled back.

• • •

While Zehan spoke, Adam did not interrupt. He was too shocked to say anything and he didn't want Zehan to stop talking. He rarely talked about anything that was happening at home and now he was doing so, interrupting him would be a great mistake.

"So...that's it. Instead of answering my questions, I just got more questions in return," Zehan said and sighed heavily—a sign that he was done talking.

"Wait, so what happened to the other child?" Adam finally asked, "triplets, right?"

"I don't know. She refused to tell me anything else," Zehan replied. "It's like she only talks when she's drunk and tired."

"So, it's only two of you in the house now?"

"She's rarely there. Jamal has gone back to school so she doesn't have any reason to be at home."

"And your dad?"

"Haven't seen him."

Adam sighed. "I'm usually very busy at the store, if not, I would visit you more. But you know how my father is, and now my mum is sick too, I'm just everywhere."

"I understand," Zehan said, "thank God your knee heeled quickly."

"I swear, I would've just been limping around school." They both chuckled.

There was a brief silence before Tamara Disemi appeared out of nowhere in front of their desk. "Hey, Zehan." She smiled cheekily.

Zehan frowned. Tamara hadn't said two words to him after she'd visited the hospital with her parents during the time he was recovering from his second suicide attempt to tell him about hell and how Islam was the cause of all their misfortune. Of course, Monica had done well to send them away and Zehan was grateful for that.

He didn't understand why she was acting all friendly and nice all of a sudden. Sure, she was always that way but not with Zehan.

"Hey, Adam," she greeted Adam after Zehan only stared her down. Adam nodded slightly.

She turned back to Zehan. "Grandma called yesterday. She said she couldn't reach your mum," she said and that immediately got Zehan's interest.

"What did she want?"

"You know her seventieth birthday is coming up. So she wants us to spend a few days at her place," Tamara replied with a smile. Her cheeks were really big.

"And by 'us' you mean—"

"You, me, Timi and Tari," Tamara confirmed Zehan's thought, "my mum said she'll also be there and grandma also wants to see aunty Monica,"

"You're joking,"

"If it's a joke then laugh." Tamara shrugged. "Tari was supposed to deliver this message but she...I don't even know what's wrong with her. I think she's—"

"I didn't ask about Tari," Zehan deadpanned.

Tamara turned to Adam. "Adam, I hope you're coming for choir practice this Saturday, we've missed—"

"Tamara, I got your message," Zehan interrupted, his irritation had reached it's peak, "I'll pass it on to my mother. Thank you, you can go," he laid emphasis on the last word. He and Adam watched as she walked away.

"Your cousins are annoying," Adam said.

"Annoying is a nice word," Zehan scoffed, "well, except for Timi, at least he nods his head and acknowledges that I'm there."

"Awkward,"

"Speaking of awkward...choir practice?" Zehan looked confused.

"You know we attend her father's church," Adam replied, "I'm in the choir, although I haven't joined them in ages, my father would behead me."

"It's been long since I heard you sing," said Zehan.

"It's been long I sang anything," Adam replied.

They were both quiet for a while with Zehan boring holes into the white board as he thought of what Tamara had said. He knew there was no way he could escape this. He could never say no to Nina.

"She said a few days! Which means I'll be under the same roof with them...and their mother!" Zehan thought out loud. It wasn't supposed to come out so comical but it did. 

Adam patted Zehan's shoulder without saying anything.

It wasn't like Zehan could do anything about the situation. No one said no to their grandmother, not even Monica. It wasn't because Nina was a dictator but because she rarely asked for anything. So when she asks for a visit on her birthday, everyone obliges.

But there was one thing Zehan knew for sure. If he truly wanted answers about the whole prophecy thing, then it would be best if he went and asked the prophetess herself.

• • •

If Tari was going to try not to fail woefully that term, then she was at least going to try to pretend to be studying. And that's why that faithful Tuesday morning saw her dragging her feet to the library, a place she wasn't sure she she'd stepped into since JSS 1.

She would have asked Amira or Timi to join her but they were too busy cramming all the wave formulas. Tari didn't know how they did it but the thought of studying alone gave her a migraine.

Tamara was also a nerd and fortunately, an Art student but she and Tari had both agreed that they would never study together again after Tari submitted Tamara's Economics homework as hers in SS1. Besides, they would spend the time arguing anyway.

So Tari eyed the Government textbook she had pulled out from the lineup on the shelf. There were a lot of people in the library and the pregnant librarian was asleep as usual. That woman was always pregnant, Tari thought. She was sure Mr. Johnson had gotten fed up with all her maternity leaves.

Tari looked around to find a seat but they were all occupied by students who were either seriously trying to fit the enter text in their book into their head, or just reading the text the way they read magazines. Asides from the occasional murmuring, the library was dead silent. And there was only one unoccupied seat.

The one on the same table with Charles Elias.

"Jesus," Tari mumbled. What was he even doing in the library? Since when did he become a serious student?

He was already smiling at her and in as much as Tari had been avoiding him since he'd return from his expulsion-turned-suspension, she couldn't just walk out. That would have been rude since they weren't exactly in bad terms. They were just two teenagers who had had sex once.

"Since when?" Tari nodded towards the books scattered on the table in front of Charles. He understood what she meant and he chuckled. She took the seat opposite him.

"One hour everyday in the library is one of the conditions of my being back." Charles smiled. Tari nodded, she didn't know there were conditions for him being pardoned for whatever, but it made sense. "How have you been?"

Tari took her time to reply because she was taken aback by the question and because she didn't know how to answer that question. She shrugged. "I've been alright."

"Alright..." Charles repeated, twirling the pen in between his fingers as he'd leaned into his seat.

"What?" she asked, trying to understand why he was looking at her strangely.

"There's just something...different about you. I don't know but...there's something," he replied.

Tari chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. She shrugged. "You're not the same either."

"How?"

"You're less talkative and active. I most times forget you're even in this school."

"What did you expect?" he asked. He wasn't smiling anymore and his demeanor went sour. "I just learnt my lesson after what happened."

"What lesson?" Tari had to ask. Anything that would keep the conversation from shifting to her issues.

"Not everyone who calls themselves your friend is truly your friend," he replied.

"Everybody knows that," Tari said immediately. She was well familiar with fake friends issues and that's why, for a long time, she'd kept only one.

Charles only stared at Tari the way biologists stared at specimens. It made Tari feel very uncomfortable so she began flipping through the Government textbook she'd initially abandoned on the table to a page unknown to her.

"Tari,"

"What?" she didn't look up from her book.

"There's something wrong, what is it?" he asked again. "You're not yourself, you're acting like you're sitting on nails."

Tari was about to check her seat to see if there were nails on them but she didn't need an English professor to tell her that it had nothing to do with her sitting posture.

She sighed. And before she could think twice, she snatched Charles's pen from his hand and took one of the notebooks on the table. Charles watched her as she scribbled something on an empty page. She passed it back to him when she was done.

Charles' eyes went wide after he'd read what she'd written. His heart stopped beating for some seconds and his head grew hot. He was about to write back "For who?" but he wasn't stupid. He paused and it dawned on him. She wouldn't be telling him she was pregnant if he wasn't responsible.

So while he held the pen with his eyes glued to the 'I was pregnant' on the blank page, he heard Tari speak.

"But I got rid of it. So problem solved. I just wanted to tell you."

He didn't look up until she picked up her textbook and left the table.

• • •

Dele couldn't quite explain the way he felt when he saw Ahmed Yusuf with girls. All this while he'd been pretending to be okay with the fact that Ahmed had assaulted a girl in school but he wasn't.

Seeing Ahmed with girls, especially younger ones, was salt to sore eyes for Dele. So when he had seen Ahmed talking to the same junior student he'd sexually assaulted, in the hallway, he had nearly lost it.

"Ahmed." Dele breathed out heavily while holding onto Ahmed's arm after marching towards them like a police officer. Surely, the girl had recognised the Deputy Head Boy and immediately adverted her gaze while Ahmed looked alarmed.

"Ah ah, wetin sup?" Ahmed asked just as the girl literally ran out of their mist. A few junior students who passed them by stared at the duo.

"What's wrong with you? What we're you doing with her?" Dele growled. He was still holding onto Ahmed and his eyes were glaring daggers into Ahmed's.

"Wetin dey work you? Abeg free me." He released himself from Dele's hold and faced him squarely. "You don dey ment, abi?"

"What were you doing with her? I thought I asked you to leave her alone? What's your problem?" Dele was almost shouting but he knew better. They were in the junior block and those junior were excellent gossips.

"You no even ask me wetin I dey talk with am. You just carry body put, come dey para for me! You dey ment." Ahmed didn't look like he was having any of it.

"Don't give me bullshit, Ahmed—"

"I just dey tell the geh may she no reason wetin happen that day, na—"

Dele laughed dryly. "You're mad, Ahmed." He stepped closer to the other boy. "Ahmed, since how many weeks? Eh? If she no reason the matter since, na now she go reason am? Don't give me that shitty crap about reasoning her—"

"You dey craze!" Ahmed was now yelling, getting all up in Dele's face and pointing to the side of his head. "You hear wetin I talk? I say you dey craze! No dey yarn this kin nonsense where I dey cuz I go burst your head one day oh! I dey warn you oh!"

Ahmed began walking out but Dele still had a lot to tell him. Ahmed thought it would be better to just walk out rather than stay there and start a fight with one of his best friends.

"Where are you going? Ahmed!"

Ahmed wasn't listening and Dele fumed. He knew Ahmed was at it again. He wasn't making amends with his sexual assault victim, not after all these weeks. He had just wanted to finish what he'd started.

Ahmed was like an unsatisfactory beast.

And Dele was the reason why he was that way.

• • •

Ms. Isong stared at CJ and CJ stared back at her.

The classroom was empty and Ms. Isong sat at her desk with CJ sitting uncomfortably across from her. She had summoned him and now she wasn't saying anything. CJ didn't want to be there. He didn't understand why the English teacher was so interested in him. Sure, he had learned that she was a good person and even though he wasn't helping with what she'd asked him to help her with, she had kept his secret. A secret that could've gotten him expelled and possibly arrested.

"Kasy told me that you're the one who has been writing those suicide letters," Ms. Isong finally spoke up.

CJ only fiddled with his fingers and didn't say anything for awhile. Then he shrugged. "Tell her to go and find something better to do."

"Is it true?" Ms. Isong probed further.

CJ looked up at her and glared at her for awhile before looking away. His eyes were still red and the bruises on his face were still as evident as when he'd walked into class the previous day.

"Yes."

Ms. Isong wasn't sure she'd heard correctly. "You said what?"

"I said yes," CJ confirmed. "Is that not what you want to hear? Yes, I'm the one who has been writing you letters about killing myself because I have nothing better to do than sit around and fantasize about taking my life but never actually going through with it."

"CJ—"

"No," CJ cut the teacher off, "it's very annoying that you and Kasy would think something like that even after I told you that whoever wrote that probably needs a mental check. I have things to deal with and instead of dealing with them, I'm not just going to sit around and write letters to my English teacher."

"CJ, I didn't say you wrote it." Ms. Isong sighed and paused for awhile. She looked tired. "I just wanted to ask you and make sure because Kasy seemed so sure when she...accused you."

CJ scoffed..

"CJ, are you listening to me?" Ms. Isong asked after he'd looked away. "CJ?"

"Yes, yes. I'm listening..."

"So..." the teacher trailed, "what happened...to your face?"

"Tega,"

"What's a tega?" Ms. Isong looked utterly confused and had it been under different circumstances, CJ might have found it funny.

"My mother's boyfriend."

"Your mother's...wait, he beat you?" she asked with wide eyes and CJ turned to her with the look that said, 'Bitch, what did I just say?'

"Are you joking?" Ms. Isong asked again. She just wasn't buying it.

"Yes, I'm CJ the comedian and you're welcome to my show." CJ smiled that short, dry smile that told you he was being sarcastic since you'd decided to be stupid.

Ms. Isong swallowed and didn't say anything. She looked down to her entangled fingers on the desk and thought of what she could possibly say to CJ. There was nothing.

"I nearly committed suicide when I was in Secondary school."

It left her mouth and she didn't know why it did but that got CJ's attention. There was silence for half a minute before she cleared her throat.

"Something...something happened to me and...I nearly jumped off a bridge." Ms. Isong wasn't looking at CJ but he couldn't take his eyes off her. He hadn't realized he was holding his breath until the teacher looked up at him. She forced a smile. "I don't know what's happening at home but...it gets bad before it gets better. I do hope you know that."

"What happened to you?" CJ didn't know why he was asking but he knew that he really wanted to know what could've made someone like Ms. Isong want to take her own life.

"I..." she trailed. It looked like she was contemplating on whether she should tell him or not. "I...was not in a good place. A lot of things were happening and...I was...something happened and that was the last straw. I just couldn't take it anymore." She hadn't exactly answered his question but she didn't look up to his face while she spoke.

"That's why you want to find this person?" CJ thought out loud.

"Yes."

There was a prolonged silence before the bell went off and students began walking into the classroom in pairs and groups, eliminating the silence. CJ took that as his cue to leave.

Ms. Isong sat at her desk and watched the students who were talking and laughing. A lot of things went through her head and most of them were memories of what had happened seven years ago.

She didn't want to remember it. And she did not want to cry about it. Not ever again.

And with that thought, she picked up her phone and reread the message she had read a hundred times since it had been sent to her that morning.

Hey, Esther. I know we haven't been talking much and I don't know how to tell you this in person because I don't know how you'll react to it. I know you've been doing well and all but in case you still want to find...that guy, whoever he is, I think I can help you. It's been a long time so just ignore this message if you want to forget about that night and move on. Remember you can talk to me♥

At this point, you should've already connected the dots. Let me know if you think you finally know what's happening or what happened.

From the next chapter, we'll be telling the rest of this story in pairs of the characters perspective (sort of), it will still be third person. And no, I did not pair them according to love interests but according to the way they were paired for the debate.

You'll see what I mean.