Mama don land again. As e dey hot. Since this chapter is already prewritten, I have no idea if I double updated that same day or if I did you people shege. Let me know, since you are all from the future. Was this a double update?🥹

As usual, we have our Comment for the Week and guess who it is? It is all my readers!!

Common will you stop grinning there! See you, for your mind you all are the Comment of the Week. Lmfaooo! Abeg, let's give it up for Classy_ella who won the COMMENT FOR THE WEEK! Give her a round of applause abeg!🥹👏🏾

She also had a very sweet message for all of us too, lemme show you:

Aww.🥹

Also, a special congratulatory award to BlackIsGold04 and Iatgmaildotcom sha. You guys were TOUGH competitors for best comments, but since you didn't win and I really enjoyed your comments, I decided to still give a shout out. Love you guys!❤️🔥

Oya na, let's get onto this Chapter without much further Ado! Wheeee!🥂

~ACHA~

No amount of apologies to my Mum changed a thing.

Living in these house the past few days was hot and cold. Breathing was a feat. And every time that I went to bed, I saw my Mum's face in my dreams; I saw those red, moist eyes that broke as they watched me that day, the tears in them haunting me in every second of my nightmares.

I made my Mum cry. How could I possibly live with myself after this?

And what was painful was the fact that she did stop being caring towards me, she didn't stop dealing with my bullshit, my anger, my tantrums, even when it was clear that she was still hurting and very little interested in holding chitchats with me that lasted more than two seconds.

Also, Mum had made up her mind on the next solution to tackle me and there was nothing I could do to change it.

She insisted that maybe I needed an eye opener, and if I saw for myself just how much damage I had done to Sean Ayomide, then, I would understand the gravity of what I did and why I shouldn't have been so disrespectful to Mr. Ayomide the other day for actually letting me off the hook for it.

With that conclusion, I was going to go with her to the Hospital to see the 'condition' of my old best friend.

I couldn't argue, no matter how much I wanted to. This was the least I could do to make up for what I did, to let her know how sorry I was. So, even all through the quiet car ride, I held the curse words that lingered at the tip of my tongue. I didn't want to see Sean. I'd rather slam the car door open, mid-ride, and jump into the road without warning.

Of course, Mum had the doors all locked. She had started to pick up on my abnormal behaviors long ago and had forged preventive measures for it. She knew that my entire body thrown out from a speeding car and my bones crushing into powder as a result was not a pain that I was scared of, not even in the slightest. What was the worst that could happen afterwards? I'd die. And?

Even if Mum had not said a word to me, even if I could still feel the distance between us and the wedge that was forming between our relationship, I could tell she still had my best interest at heart.

This morning, for example, she had helped me wrap a bandage around my fist, after picking out the pieces of glass that were buried inside them. I knew she heard me slamming fists into my vanity mirror again.

And, then, she has also pulled some money out of the Joint Bank Account to get me a new Samsung, even if she knew that I didn't have trouble getting one myself. Even in her anger, she knew it was high time I got a new phone. School's resumption was barely a week from now.

It wasn't even all, Mum had also became more intentional about my meals too, making sure that I never even missed even something as useless as a 'Brunch'. She knew that left to me, I would have stayed in that dungeon I called a bedroom without food, water, or sunlight.

But, still, even with all these, she made it clear that she was not happy with me at all.

And, boy, she was good at the Silent treatment.

Mum didn't speak to me unless I asked a question, and even when I did, her answers were not more than two words.

So, even while we sat together in the car, with me in the passengers seat, I could only glance back and forth towards her from time to time, catching glimpses of that soft but straight expression on her pretty face as her hands gently turned the steering wheel. And, if she noticed me staring, then she could as well find a career in Nollywood because she damn acted like she didn't.

Being in here, in this uncomfortable silence, with this woman who had always been my best friend absolutely murdered my spirit.

It was no wonder how relieved I was when I had the chance to distract myself from the tension in the air the moment my phone buzzed with an SMS Notification. With half my heart silently begging for my Mum's attention, the other half gave attention to the new SMS message at the notification panel of my phone. And whom the message was from.

⎯⎯ ୨ ୧⎯⎯

NEW SMS MESSAGE

NANA:
Hey, brother...
Are you okay? Chiedozie and I been trying to reach out to you since the day of the Christmas party, but you're not reachable. We weren't sure if we should pay a visit unannounced. But are you good, bro? I don't know, maybe respond when you see this. I hope you do. I haven't been able to get a response from you since the Christmas party. Sorry for sending many messages. We're just really worried about you...

Sent 6:37am
⎯⎯ ୨ ୧⎯⎯

I stared at the message on my phone and wasn't sure what to do with it. What I was certain of, however, was how I could feel when I looked at it. Days before now, weeks before now, every text or message that came into my phone had zero to little effect on me, and as a result, all I did was clear the notification, put off my phone and go to bed.

Frankly, I never answered. Because I didn't care. The effort seldom appealed to me, I just wanted to be alone.

It only just occured to me now that Nana and Chido were actually the only people who had been texting me since the fiesta of the Christmas party.

Only now did I feel it, that subtle feeling in my chest. An emotion. An emotion that wasn't anger.

With a heaving sigh, I started to text Nana back. It was exhausting to text, and truly, I didn't feel the will or energy to. So I did the smallest I could muster myself to do, responding his message with the simplest word I could think of:

"Hey."

Like Nana had been on the edge of his seat, crooning into his phone and waiting for my response, he responded in a flash. My phone buzzed the next nanosecond with an instant response from him.

NANA:
Oh, wow, God really does answer prayers. You responded...We've been praying you would.
Sent 6:37am

Again, it was hard to hold much of a conversation with text. So, I gave the best answer I could in response.

ME:
Lol.
Sent 6:37am

With that same efficiency and speed, Nana had already dropped another response. It was almost as if he knew that he wouldn't get a chance to talk with me like this again and he didn't want to lose this opportunity. With nothing more than placidity on my face, I watched his next message as it dropped into my phone.

NANA:
Should we come over? Me, Chido, and Kelechi... And JJ says he wants to see you too. Should we come with him too?
Sent 6:37am

I ignored the twitch that trigged at the corner of my eye lids, a bitter feel already lacing into this interaction already as I stared at the message in my phone in silence.

And Nana was smart to sense the error in his message and I could tell because he immediately answered himself before I did.

NANA
I'm guessing it's a No? I wasn't sure you would want to see him, I kinda told him that already, but he's here in my place and he insisted. But it's okay if you don't want to see him, we won't come with him. Promise.🤞🏾
Sent 6:43am

Mum had made a turn and when I looked towards the road to note the swerve, I could already see the Town Hospital a stone throw away from where we were. Soon, I was thumbing against my phone, typing a response back to Nana.

ME:
I'm not even at home, bro.
We're on our way to the Hospital to the Town Hospital. My Mum is insisting that we go and see Sean...
Sent 6:44am

I noticed the short delay in his response speed and I was only left to wonder what that was all about. However, it didn't last more than two minutes, and then, his response came.

NANA:
Can we come?
Sent 6:46 am

I stared at the message for a good minute.

ME:
You and who, abeg?
Sent 6:46am

Nana was quicker to deliver his response.

NANA:
Just me and Chido...
We won't come with JJ.
Sent 6:46am

My eyes had diverted again to the road, a small wince causing a frown on my face as my eyes started to adjust to the coming brightness of the morning. My forehead creased as I tried to shield my face from it, the realization hitting me there and then that I had started to prefer darkness to light...

Leaning away from the little morning sun that was springing up from the horizon, I responded to Nana's message.

ME:
Ok.
Sent 7:02am

I attempted to drop my phone, cutting the conversation to a close, but before I had the chance to, my phone buzzed with yet another message from him.

NANA:
I will call you when I get to the Hospital with Chido.
Sent 7:02am

All I did was react a 'thumbs up' to his message, right before I discarded my phone to the side. My air was left trapped inside of me as I watched the distance between us and the Town Hospital as it started to close in, getting shorter by the second, and it only left me when Mum was rounding a curve on the U-turn road, but it wasn't a release of tension. If anything, it was a sigh of defeat.

Seconds as we started to drive in through the large gates of the Hospital, I felt shocking sensations in my palms, only to realize that I had been balling my fists in so hard that my blood was crying for a route to spread through the rest of my palms.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath, hands releasing so fast that I felt the chills drag down the spine of my back.

It was still early in the morning and the Hospital already looked full and busy, with more than a dozen cars parked in the parking lot all in an organized fashion. Something about the Town Hospital always gave me the creeps, it wasn't just the grave silence that lingered in the atmosphere - the stench of death that roamed the air - it was more than that, something I couldn't pin down.

It was a place with a scenery a little bit too fancy for a Hospital, with tall erect buildings all flaunting a fine colour theme of blue and white and a space so wide that you could hardly tell where the Hospital's compound started nor where it even ended.

The Town Hospital was also the best place for emergency situations, but ironically, everyday, someone died in this Hospital.

So, being here made me feel very uncomfortable. I hadn't even gotten in just yet, but I already got an unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. And maybe it mixed in with a little guilt, for the fact that I was the reason that someone had ended up in a place like this. I had never felt this kind of feeling before concerning him, this kind of guilt, but I was barely in and my conscience attacked me... Mum's plan was working before it even started.

She turned off the ignition and quietness ensued after, a weird unnerving silence that lingered above the both of us, hovering over our heads. It ate me the fuck up, right from the inside out.

My eyes diverted towards her, a burning guilt inside my chest as I watched how sober and sad her expressions were. The realization that I had never seen her like this before killed me; Mum was the most jovial person I knew, the most playful woman I ever met.

And I was such an angry person right now, so angry that I hadn't even realized how much I was hurting or neglecting the only people who genuinely cared about me. The flash of memory that came with that realization, the clear callback of her face that day, the tears that packed in her eyes, and the hurt and disappointment in all her demeanor, it absolutely scattered me.

"Mum, I-I'm really sorry. I really am. I-"

"Don't forget to shut the doors when you come out of the car."

She cut me off with a quiet voice, an unnerving undertone in her voice as she spoke. I felt the breath inside of me hitch for a moment, my heart sinking into my stomach as I observed the bluntness and deadpan that was nothing akin to her usual personality.

"These days, you always leave every door open when you exit a place," she said to me, her soft voice sounded like it was feigning firmness, "But, then when you enter a room, you never forget to shut the doors and lock it down."

I nodded, shoulders dropping in hopelessness and despair.

"Okay," was all I could respond, but if it was going to make things any better between us, I obeyed my Mum.

So, I made sure to close the doors as soon as I stepped out of the car, and even though I waited for my Mum to join me and fall into step, she walked straight ahead of me, knowing that I had no other choice than to drag my feet behind her, following her in the direction she went with a downcast gaze.

My only companion right now was the gravelled floors of the hospital, and even until we moved onto the tiled steps that led into the main building, my eyes never rose to measure the towering height in front of me. They stayed, roaming the ground beneath me as I walked behind my Mum.

"Greet, Marcus," she whispered to me, a sternness in her tone and it was only then I had realized we were inside. The stench of medicine, IV fluids and death as well as the blinding brightness of the bright white lights that illuminated across the pitch white Hall space accompanied that realization; and my head went up, eyes lingering onto the dozens of nurses and doctors that walked to and fro around me, busily rushing to a destination with stretchers of unconscious bodies and black body bags.

So early in the morning and people were already dying.

This looked like just the reception. I was scared to imagine what the hell went on inside the ins of this awful place.

"Marcus, I said greet!" Mum's voice sounded more authoritative, even in her whisper-yell, and that was when I realized I had unknowingly ignored her the first time.

Mutters of 'good morning sir' and 'good morning ma' left my mouth at every living thing that brushed past me there after, but I noticed that most of them were more interested in exchanging pleasantries with my Mum. Smiles and head nods cast her way from all angles, and two out of eleven regarded that her son was even standing there...

I knew Mum was always the centre of attraction many times. Having it wasn't usual to see a woman in her fifties with a face like hers, with features that looked like they were drawn specially to perfect taste with God's special pen, and a body that didn't look like it had aged a day, an hour glass that called eyes to her, especially when she chose to go out in bodycon dresses like the white coloured one she wore today, it was only normal that she had gazes turned her way with every step she took. Enough to even take off all the attention from me.

But, nah...

Something about these gazes felt odd.

It wasn't just gazes of innocent intrigue, there was an unsettling familiarity in their smiles, their greetings, their mannerisms, and their entire body language at large. I'd be damned if I said that it was almost as if they knew her.

It started to make me wonder; how many times had my Mum had come to this Hospital to see Sean Ayomide?

"Hgh! Sorry!-"

My thoughts were shifted from my suspicions as a stroller crashed into me, and my soul left my body when everything on that stroller - possibly a dead or unconscious person - came rolling out, tumbling and crashing onto the ground on the intrusion.

Mum was quick to jump in, a rush of apologies pouring out of her as she tries to bend down to help, a clearly reflexed action that was immediately stopped by the... Nurse?

I frowned in confusion,

A similar expression stamped on my mother's face.

It was a default thing to assume that it is a nurse, as I had seen and noticed that a ninety percent of the people rolling bodies on stretchers were all nurses, but I couldn't find it easy to grasp how things worked here... If some nurses, like this one that crashed into me, were allowed to show up at work with such mystery abiding them: a white hoodie over their head that shielded the entirety of their face, leaving me a glimpse of nothing more than the streaks of snow white hair that shriveled in curls by the side of the hood.

I only noticed the dark, huge sunglasses on their face when they pushed my Mum's hands away from the fallen stretcher before they reached down with jittering, anxious hands to fix the mess I made themselves.

"Excuse me."

That was all I heard them say, with a voice too masculine to be a woman and too feminine to be a man, before they dashed away from me and Mum, averting the gazes of the other staff in the reception that started to become a little suspicious too.

In turn, their subtle suspicion started to morph into grave alarm.

And it only made sense.

With all the distraction and shock from the accident I caused, it only occured to me after the staff started calling attention and alert to the oddly dressed hooded person that the hospital stretcher they were running away with - the one that I supposed should have had a body on it after I had knocked it down - had nothing more than a bunch of stuffed pillows wrapped in hospital sheets, a clear attempt to imitate something that could have been mistaken for a body.

There was no telling; he or she was clearly and inevitably an imposter.

However, my Mum didn't let me stay in on this scene for too long. As soon as she sensed the chaos growing around us, she grabbed me by the hand and proceeded onto the steps. She never looked back once at that weird, hooded person and neither did I...

However, I couldn't stop the feeling from overwhelming me. Even after we had left the scene and all that I could pick up off it was the noise of all the confusion from the reception, I just couldn't stop the feeling. The unnerving feeling of eyes boring into my back. The unsettling sense of being watched, being followed.

And, no, it didn't stop even stop after I was completely out of the scene. When Mum had taken me to a different section of the Hospital, a place that looked like a much larger reception. It was just a feeling that I couldn't shake off, even after she held my hands, as if assuring me that everything was fine and I needn't worry.

"Wait here," she said to me, when I nodded, she left me by the curved seats and walked towards the receptionist, maintaining a clear distance away from me.

I was left again to wonder why, a part of me getting even more worried about meeting Sean's condition. Mum clearly didn't want me to hear her conversation with the receptionist and I guessed that was exactly why she had left me to the seats at the extreme while she went to engage her, and it made me wonder the extremes of what I was going to see. For the first time since the event, I felt fear...

Another emotion that I had almost forgotten how to feel.

The seats were my companion and with my back leaned against them, I sat there in that distance, watching Mum conversing with intense sober reflection with the receptionist. From time to time, her eyes cast gazes my way, but they did not last more than half a second. It was enough to rise my fear nonetheless, and I wondered yet again if this was something I should have been worried about or if this was just another tactic to make me feel the gravity of what I had done... Whatever it was, it was definitely working.

All of a sudden, I wanted to see Sean Ayomide.

The worst still, when I expected my Mum to signal me to join her the last time that her eyes met mine, all she did was use her hands to give me a signal. One that I clearly read as 'Stay where you Are'. And that was it. My mum walked out of the reception, completely varnishing from the arena and leaving me all alone.

Something felt wrong.

Something felt extremely wrong.

And one thing with gut feelings was that even when you tries to ignore it, your body could not. You couldn't force your body to not feel the feelings you were trying to ignore, so even though I tried to not imagine the worst, my hands were still jittering against my thighs, my heart was still pounding inside my chest, and an abundance of chills were rushing down the marrow of my back.

I wondered for the third time in the space of two minutes... Was Sean currently even alive? Had I... Had I killed someone?

{INCOMING MESSAGE}

The beeping sound of my notifications seemed to shake me up even more, my heart picking up a beat or two faster as I proceeded to support my now weak grasp on my phone with a second hand.

It was useless. My phone was vibrating in my own fucking hands, on the verge of slipping off in between my trembling fingers and falling off onto the ground.

The Text ID said it was Nana,

However, I didn't need to slide open my phone to know. His entire message glared in my phone screen as I watched it with shaky hands that started to dig into my own skin, scratching itches from all over my body: the back of my elbows, the small of my back, the nape of my neck, my forehead, my ears, my waists, trying to kill the tingly sensations that were spreading all over me.

NANA:
We're here. Just me and Chido. Which section of the Hospital are you in?
Sent 7:26am

My phone had finally fallen off my hands the moment my throat constricted; my body was burning and itching, but my hands latched around my throat in a desperate bid to catch some air, no matter how little. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't fucking breathe.

It was at this point that I had finally called the rest of the Hospital and their attention towards me, and though my own suffocation had started to spin the world around me in circles and doubles, I saw the multitude coming my way. A wave of nausea hit me, my breakfast at the edge of exploding through my mouth, but my hands were flying in a frenzy, a maddening craze...

The moment that they started coming towards me, the second multiple hands started to land on me, I lost my shit. Pushing everyone away. Their hands icked me, their touches triggered me. My body itched all over and the last thing I needed was the crowd around me, fucking touching me. There was no strength to scream or fight, but I did it anyway.

Voices started to fade away, but I heard my Mum's voice. My vision was starting to blur even more, but I saw what looked like the shadows of Nana and Chido, both boys with my hysteric Mum, but they didn't stay too long in my line of vision.

I could still hear my Mum's screaming and wailing even after I passed out.

***

"Has he ever had a panic attack before now, Ma'im?"

My eyes were flickering open and close, the white lights of the room too aggressive against them as they tried to adjust and readjust over and over again. My vision was trying to zero in on something, anything, in order to make out the mess that was my surroundings

"A panic attack? I have never witnessed him having any of those till this moment. I'm scared, doctor. What does this mean concerning my baby?"

Drip Sets.

Syringes on Tables.

Cabinets of white and blue.

White walls.

Two boys sitting at the corner.

A woman and a Doctor.

And, God, that awful stench of Medicine.

The more my eyes darted around these things, the more they made sense. The more my brain was able to give an interpretation to them, give feelings associated with them. It started from the stench and then, when my eyes darted back to the hazy form of the woman at the door with the doctor, I felt a warmness inside of me. Again and again, my eyes tried to readjust to my surroundings, hoping to give more meaning soon.

"Does he have any history of Depression or Anxiety, Ma'im?"

"Actually, Doctor, I-"

"- He's awake."

The intrusion into the conversation, a highly familiar voice that I knew I had heard before, butt into the conversation.

And that's when I knew I was the topic of their conversation.

The silence in the room was overwhelming, and maybe that was all I need. For the world to fucking go mute. Because in that moment of grave silence, it all started to come back to me. Not just my vision. But the entirety of my situation right now. And of course, where I was.

What happened to me.

And possibly, how it was the reason that they had admitted me into this ward.

However, I got the strength to sit up against the bed, I had no idea.

"Mummy, I've never had a panic attack before," I said to her, the woman with the doctor that I had now recognized to be my Mum and immediately she heard my voice - or the gruffness that was left off it- she was in tears, running towards me and throwing me into a soft hug while her face buried into the crane of my neck.

I felt her tears on my skin.

And the moment my head dropped down against her shoulders, my own tears wet her dress, soaking a section of it.

"My baby," she muttered into our embrace, and I felt so vulnerable. Too vulnerable. But, I didn't let go and neither did she. We may have stayed this way for a whole eternity.

I

t felt good. To release this much all at once, and doing it when you were in the company of the people you loved.

"Your friends came to see you."

My heard stopped in that moment, hearing my Mum's words the moment she pulled over.

But the moment I looked over her shoulder and saw who she was talking about, my shoulders dropped down it's guard. A peaceful feeling overwhelming me in an instant.

All my life, I had only ever referred to my 'friends' as Sean and JJ...

Maybe that was why it felt new and a bit odd to look over my Mum's shoulder and see that the friends she was referring to were not them.

Nana sat there on the seat by the very edge of my bed, a morning glow cast upon him and the full curls of his hair that fell over his face, all from the rays of the sun that hit the window from outside. And on eye contact, he smiled warmly at me, a glint of the shine from the rays hitting his thick braces with a bright sparkle.

And a small distance away, Chido stood , leaning coolly against the wall with both hands stuffed in the pockets of his Castron High Varsity jacket and a plastered look of worry on his face. The spiky haired kid could only cock his head to the side and force a smile when he noticed my gaze moved to him; but in all his demeanor, I could see the raw fear and worry that filled his eyes as he watched me watch him.

"Hey, Friends."

That earned a wider smile from Nana and a genuine grin from Chido.

"How are you fairing, big man?" Nana greeted first, and when he reached out and extended a handshake towards me, I took it in the firmest grip I could muster in this my weak state.

Chido hadn't moved from his position, but he watched me and Nana, eyes carefully following the both of us and an almost blank stare in his eyes. It would have been able to feign a total blank stare if I couldn't see past the facade. He looked extremely worried, and it surprised me a little because I always saw the guy as someone with a cold, no-nonsense persona. Someone definitely more stern and strict than Nana, Nana who needed his own personal 'nice guy' certificate for being the most welcoming and tolerant guy to walk this damned earth.

After all, Chido was one of the most feared Prefects in the entirety of Castron High.

Yet, here he was, unable to even pretend like he was not on the verge of spewing out tears just by watching me.

"They say here for an hour and a half waiting for you to wake up, baby," Mum said to me, casting both boys a welcoming look, "And, they were so calm, holding hands and praying for you while I cried to the Doctor. Such nice kids. Godsent children."

"It's nothing, Ma," Nana said to my Mum, his voice gentle and reassuring, I could see how much his words calmed my Mum by the sparkle in her eyes, "It's the least we could do to help. My mum also gave me some food to bring along for Marcus, but that's of course, if you don't mind, Ma."

Mum was wholeheartedly laughing.

"Why would I mind?" She exclaimed, surprise in her eyes, "Please help Marcus out. He pretty much threw up all the food in his system with that panic attack. He'll need all the extra food that he can get." And that was all that was needed for Nana to start to whip out a well packaged bag from his side, the aroma of well cooked plantain porridge filling the entire air in a minute.

Mum was on a roll, making jokes to Nana about how her Mum was struggling places with Hilda Bacci and going on and on about the 'sweet smelling savor' that he was blessing us with, and all the way, Nana was laughing adorably, like a little child that was being tickled on the ribs by an adult.

"We don't mind staying here till when you are ready to leave," Nana told my Mum, "Although my friend is a prefect in school and they have an online meeting in the afternoon concerning the Post Handovers for Second Term and since it's a bit urgent, so we may have to eventually excuse him."

Mum's attention had diverted from Nana to Chido who was still there by the wall, and the moment her gaze fell on him, he had moved up from the wall and his hands fell out of his pockets.

"Good morning, Ma'im," his deep voice bellowed around the ward, reverberating round the room with grounds and solidity as he greeted my Mum.

Mum gave him a welcoming smile.

"You are a prefect in Castron High?" She asked him, a little note of impression in her tone.

Chido nodded. "Yes, Ma'im."

"What post, if you don't mind me asking?" She asked him, more fascination in her tone as she observed the kid with a good eye. "Are you the Head Boy? You should be the Head boy."

"No, Ma'im," Chido answered her with light in his eyes as he further added, "I'm not the Head Boy, but I am the Head boy's assistant."

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips, I knew what the bastard was doing.

"Oh, really?" Mum was even more intrigued, failing to catch the sub.

"No," Chido said, a small laughter escaping him as he tried to keep his composure generally, "I'm just joking with you, Ma'im. I'm actually the Male Sanitary Prefect of Castron High."

Mum laughed with him too, her chuckle rich.

"Oh, so the cool kid leaning on the wall the whole entire time is not that uptight after all and he actually makes jokes too, abi?" She teased Chido and he shook his head, laughing heartily, "And, may I ask what they call the Male Sanitary Prefect of Castron High? What is your name?"

"Chiedozie," Chido answered efficiently, stepping up to extend a handshake to my Mother. "My name is Chiedozie Ihenna, Ma'im." He shook her like a work professional to his client and Mum was impressed by the air Chido carried himself around with, her eyes told it all.

"You kids and your strong grip these days!" She commented, "Your generation isn't raising weaklings, I can see it!" And with that, she turned towards Nana, who still had the sweetest smile spread across his face. "And you, what's your name, you nice kid with fine American hair and braces?"

"Nnaemeka," Nana answered, his charm never coming off as my Mum regarded his pure charisma and overall likeability, "I'm Nnaemeka Obi, Ma."

"Well, Nnaemeka and Chiedozie, I would love to see you two around my son more often," My Mum said to them.

I nodded in agreement to that. "Definitely."

"And, you all said you wanted to join us and see Sean as well?" My mum asked the both of them and for a moment, I felt a lodge in the middle of my throat.

"We'd love to," Nana answered, "It's not been easy for any classmate to pay a visit. Sean's mother had forbidden visits from anyone who was not authorized by family to see her son. So, we couldn't visit him up until this point."

Chido took over from Nana here.

"We have a girl in our class called Ella, she's the Chapel Prefect," he told my Mum, "And she was the one who organized the hospital visitation for Ghadafi at the start of the year. She organized us prefects and sent out banners to classmates and his ward was filled with flower bouquets and get-well-soon cards and it was very much appreciated. Ella even organized a prayer for him where she gathered our other Muslim classmates, his brothers and Sisters, to intercede for him... We wanted to do something nice like that for Sean too..."

"But, the orders from his Mum to the Hospital didn't let us," Nana carried on, "So, when Marc told us he was coming to see him. We figured it would be a great opportunity to reach out to both him and Sean, and just ensure they're both fine." He looked at me and nodded in satisfaction, "We're relieved to finally reach out. And we do pray God perfects his healing for Marcus, both physically and emotionally."

The weight in my throat reduced, it was conflicting with the peace that their words were bringing me.

There were just four of us in this room,

But it felt like much more.

"Mum?"

I turned to her, and for the first time, I voiced out a worry that had always been there in the depths of my subconscious.

She looked at me, dough eyes attentive and soft.

"If he is alive, can he walk?"

I just felt the need to ask her, it was a strong desperation to know the answer. A desperation from the fear that I had shunned from confronting the whole entire time.

"That was the first thing I spoke to the Doctor about," she told me, "But, you needn't worry. None of his injuries fall in that line, Marcus."

"What are his injuries?" I further asked her, my petrification rising with every second that passed in her silence.

Mum told me anyways. She told me everything.

"Marcus, he was unable to block out many of your blows to his head and face, so he suffered a massive concussion," she started by telling me, "He has injuries in his left eye, but nothing too severely life threatening. The doctors aren't sure about his left ear though, he suffered massive damage to his ear drums. Some minor injuries in his right ear as well..."

My heart was hanging in the air, my breath in a pause.

Mum wasn't even done.

"He is also going to need surgery to fix his nose," she told me, "You were lucky, Marc, that you inflicted that much damage so close to his spinal cord and not his actual spinal cord, a part of me was terrified that you paralyzed him. But, it was a close call. He still needs some surgeries here and there, also on his shoulder blades. And you completely broke the joints of his right hand..."

I couldn't breathe.

"But, that can heal too," she finished, my air was released out of me in a heavy sigh of relief, "But he may need to wear a cast for a few months after recieving his treatment. All in all, he is fine. He got into a coma for a few days after the assault, but as God would have it, we didn't lose him, Marcus. It was close, but we didn't."

There was a silence that hovered around the room for a while.

"I won't force you, Marcus," Mum said to me, "I never really intended to force you in the first place... So, I will ask you. Do you think you have the stomach to see the state that you put Sean in?"

The air was thicker, I could feel it with every forced inhale. Before it was me, not caring to even know. Wanting to do even more damage. But now... Now, I was just scared. Mortified, even.

However I looked up at my Mum and shocked myself at my own answer:

"Yes."

***

I held my breath the entire time that we had to walk down the narrow path that led to Sean's room.

Mum led the way, she seemed to already know the route to his room. She seemed to know her way in and around this Town Hospital, and it solidified my suspicions that it was not her first time here. That she had probably been here to see Sean from time to time too. While the possibilities swarmed through my mind, I walked a distance behind Nana and Chido who followed my Mum's every step ever so closely.

And there was no better way to say this, but I sensed when we got to the Ward.

I just knew it. I couldn't explain how, but the moment that our steps started to slow down, and a hesitation started to linger in everyone's body language, I knew that the door a few feet away from us was where Sean was. The sudden groping air that whooshed past me on the realization was cold and unnerving, and with each second that we got close to that door, every step of mine felt dragged and heavy. It was like I was walking with all the weight of the entire world crushing onto my shoulders.

We stopped right in front of the Door.

"Wait here," My mum said, turning to look at us just as soon as she paused, her hands an inch away from the knob, "Let me check something first."

And with her word and my heart hung in the air, she slipped into Sean's room and disappeared in there for what seemed like an eternity.

An eternity so bleak that neither of us, from Nana to Chido to me, even said a single word to each other.

Then, she stepped out again, an unreadable look on her face that scared the life out of me. Hands trembling slightly against the rim of the door which she held like her life and balance depended on it, her words slow and her voice, shaky:

"You can now come in, boys."

Nana and Chido entered that room before me.

"Jesus."

Only Jesus could have known who between the two boys had exclaimed, but it felt like my soul had detached from my body the moment that I finally mustered the audacity to step into the room along with them, behind them.

"Your friends are here to see you," I heard my Mum speak, her voice was hesitant, as though in that short moment, she has started to internally debate all her decisions, "Your friends came to visit you, Sean."

Sean didn't even move.

If he could move.

I watched that body on the bed and wondered in what age and world that could take the shape of my old best friend.

He looked unrecognizable. How could I even be able to tell it was him, with all those fixtures all around him? With every inch and corner of his body wrapped in bandages and protected with casts, to the point that the small glimpse I could have managed to get off his face was an unrecognizable swelling that looked like his features had bloated seven times their regular size...

I felt trapped on my feet. Unable to move. Unable to speak. Unable to react.

"Sean?" My mum had called again.

This time, he moved...

He could move.

On my Mum's call, his body had shifted a bit, turning towards her direction. Most of his face was covered in bandages that were stained with what looked like dried blood, but somehow, I could feel hope in his demeanor when he noticed my Mum.

"It's me, again," she said to him, "You remember right? I was just here a few minutes ago."

Sean didn't answer for a while, my mum's words were answered with silence for a long while.

"I remember."

His voice sounded estranged. It was a cough, a fucking croak. That did not sound like him. Not even in the slightest.

"And, I told you that you had visitors..." Mum gestured towards Nana and Chido, first. And the two boys had stepped up, effectively and gratefully blocking me from Sean's sight all the more. "They have been here for almost two hours now. They're worried about you."

He regarded Nana and Chido, I could tell with the way his hands had shook against the sheets slightly. Almost like he wanted to wave, but couldn't. Like it was too difficult to move that hand, even if it was to do an action as easy as waving.

Sean seemed at peace. Too calm. That was more than enough for me to understand that he had not seen me yet.

So, I took the alternative to step up.

Mum tried to stop me, holding her hand out to try to signal me to wait, but it was too late...

Sean already saw me.

Immediately.

I knew that the moment that my feet had shuffled against the ground behind Nana and Chido, he caught the sound. All he needed to do was to turn his head and peer in past Chido's shoulders and it was game.

His eye, the only one that wasn't wrapped closed in a bandage zeroed in on me and I could see nothing in that eyes. All that stared back at me was a vague, bloodshot deformed eye. No emotion. No feel. Absolutely nothing.

As if that was what he felt about me now.

Yet, without a word, he held my gaze. Even in deformity, Sean could hold down a gaze. Sean was the strongest person I knew for the longest time, and the fact that he could have survived something so grave spoke too many volumes. Even in his weakness, he could make you feel so scrutinized, so burdened with a guilt that you weren't even totally guilty of.

The boy didn't move, he didn't budge, he just didn't feel. He was nothing but a rock right now, staring back at me with a look that told me all I needed to know.

Nothing could salvage our friendship.

Not in this life. Neither in the life to come. I filled with resentment against Sean, and he... He had hated me so much to the point that he now didn't know how to hate me anymore. He simply couldn't hate me any more than he already did, so he didn't even bother. Didn't bother to stare right back at me like a person who he didn't care if they were dead or alive.

Even in all my anger and hate, I hadn't felt this level of resentment towards anyone.

And when he was done with observing me in all his calmness, he calmly turned over on the bed and changed positions. Not saying a word further to either my Mum or the other boys in the room.

We eventually had to leave.

"I think he needs to be alone," was all she said after countless attempts to get a word out of him.

The thoughts that I shouldn't have come here in the first place kept replaying over and over in my head, the sober silence that lingered between us did little to make things any better.

However, that soberness was shortlived.

The second that we had stepped out of the hospital ward and started a walk down the stairs, heading to our default destination. They say that a man walking into impending doom unknowingly is the most pitiful person in existence. A scapegoat, in other words.

Maybe that's why those pearly white teeth were flashing our way, that sharp-like familiar grin following us as we descended down the stairs, right up until we caught it and halted on our tracks. Staring back at the terror, the only human on earth that I could vouch was more insane than Sean Ayomide.

Of course, it was the woman he had inherited it all from: His brute. His audacity. That fucking psychotic smile too. The last person that we would have wanted to run into right now, the last person that needed to see me right now.

Mrs. Regina Ayomide.

A/N:

I had to cut this chapter because so much is already happening and so little space to write it. I don't want to end up rushing this chapter, so please abeg, just use this one hold yourself. The second part of this chapter may either come tonight OR sometime during the week. This is because not only do I want to spoil you guys sha, I also want to speed up the pace of this story. So, once in a while, I may update and surprise you sha.

However, how was your read?? And Sean's mother don catch them now. 🥲 While unknown hoodie strangers are bumping into Acha. Lmaooooo.

The next chapter is going to be HOT. You have no fucking idea😪🔥 So, get ready. And let me hear all your thoughts. Sean's Mum walked in on them now. LMAOOOO MAKEUNAHELPMEOOOOOO!!

Anyways, because of the cutting of chapters, the chapter organization in my drafts have kinda changed. I said to expect a new POV by the fourth chapter, but now, you will see this new POV in CHAPTER SIX. I will surprise update Chapter Four during the week and on Sunday, we will be graced with Dabi's POV in CHAPTER FIVE. Are we excited?🥹🤞🏾I am! God, y'all are in for a ride!!

See you any time this week!❤️🔥