Chidiogo shot up from the bed, alarmed on seeing Mmachi heading towards her.

"I–"

Mmachi yanked the book away from her grip before she could say a word more.

The action was so unexpected, the book separated from Chidiogo leaving behind a ripped portion of some pages in her clamped fists and flakes floating around in its wake.

Still fuming, Mmachi pried the rest of the pages from her hands.

"How many times have I told you to stay away from my room!? And because of you my book is ripped!"

Her eyes were glossy as she tried to put the pages back together, her shaky hands making her work impossible.

Chidiogo could feel tears pricking her own eyes as she watched Mmachi struggle to arrange the book. She hated seeing tears in other people's eyes.

"I'm s–"

"I don't want to hear it. Get out!" Mmachi yelled, smashing her hands against the table with so much force, Chidiogo feared the table would break.

Her skin split on the impact, blood flowing out from the spot. Chidiogo's eyes widened at the sight of blood streaming down the table and landing on the floor in small globules.

Mmachi cussed under her breath, glancing down at her bleeding palm. Her once rheumy eyes had become clear, as though her eyelids had mopped up every single drop of tear in a single blink.

"I'm so sorry. Please we need to talk," Chidiogo rushed out in a single breath but Mmachi didn't seem to pay much attention to what she had said.

Instead, her eyes darted about in a frantic search for something. They landed on the handkerchief Chidiogo had used and discarded earlier just as Chidiogo realized what she wanted to do.

She had already wrapped the cloth around her palm when the words flew out of Chidiogo's mouth.

"No!"

Mmachi glanced up cocking a brow, furrows denting her forehead.

"Don't use that. I used it to clean dust off the book ear–"

A hiss emanated from Mmachi cutting her off, the handkerchief already tumbling out of her grip before Chidiogo could complete her statement.

"Unbelievable," Mmachi said under her breath but Chidiogo heard it.

Pounding footsteps and the sound of objects slamming against the ground followed and soon a tiny purple box was produced from Mmachi's bag.

Chidiogo watched on as Mmachi pulled out several white cloths from the purple box.

"What did you want to talk about?"

The whizzing of a zip fastener working it's way through the teeth holding the luggage together filled the air for the moment as Chidiogo's brain registered that Mmachi was talking to her.

"You have nothing to say?"

Mmachi gave her box a violent push, watching it buckle before beginning a sluggish journey in the direction of her wardrobe. She watched it with a weary look on her face before giving a sigh and turning to Chidiogo, her left hand positioned on her waist while her right—wrapped in a piece of cloth—hung limply by her side.

Her left foot tapped away on the floor as she stared at Chidiogo waiting for a reply.

"I'm waiting."

"Right." Chidiogo played with the hem of her shirt for a moment before continuing, "It's about mom and well the whole dog thing."

"You lost me after the 'mom' part," Mmachi said picking one of the white cloths she'd pulled out from her box and bending to wipe off the trail of blood from the white tiles.

"I know you don't want to hear it but what you did was really wrong."

The sound of the clock ticking away filled the air for a moment together with the squeaking of the white cloth against the floor and a distant hollow sound that seemed to come from the direction of the bathroom.

Chidiogo took a breath before she continued speaking.

"I know she shouldn't have gotten rid of Chase and she definitely shouldn't have hit you but you shouldn't have pushed her either. Two wrongs can never make a right. I'll try to see if I can get her to apologize but you'll also have to do the same and try not to..."

She trailed off when she noticed Mmachi had stopped wipping the floor and was squinting at her. Tentatively, she asked, "What's wrong?"

"You got rid of my sheets?"

"Oh they were dusty–"

"Doesn't matter. You don't just enter someone's room and mess around with whatever you like. Now who's gonna make the bed again?"

"I'll call a maid to–"

"Don't worry I'll just do it myself. Can you at least give me some space to do that?"

Chidiogo nodded bitting the inner part of her lip to prevent her from saying anything further as she turned around to leave. Mmachi had changed the topic with ease and she was stuck between letting it go and trying to at least get Mmachi to see reason.

She hesitated before placing her hand on the door knob. She looked back at Mmachi once more deciding to give it a shot.

"Mmachi?"

"Yeah?" Mmachi looked up from the bundle of sheets she'd sampled on her bed.

"Could you at least apologize to her?"

"Mom?"

"Yeah. It will–"

"Make her feel better"—Mmachi sighed—"Sure."

"Really?"

"Yes. Anything else?"

"No." Chidiogo turned to leave but as an afterthought added, "Thanks."

"Close the door behind you."

That was the last thing she heard before she left the room.

———††††———

Chidiogo played around with her noodles, already filled after having two plates earlier. It was considered a taboo to sit at the dinning with an empty plate; hence, she sat poking her fork absentmindedly into her third helping of food for the evening while waiting for her mother to arrive.

On a norms, everyone should have been present by seven to have dinner. Only Mmachi ever broke the rule since she was a sucker for breaking rules and, from Chidiogo's observation, almost never seemed to have an appetite.

So it felt a bit odd for Chidiogo, that no one had showed up. She sat patiently at the dinning watching the long hand of the walk clock move towards twelve while the short hand inched up to eight.

Two domestic staffs loitered about, throwing occasional glances in her direction.

Restless, she found her eyes moving around. From the clock to the panelled marble walls with gold inlays to the awards lining the dark cedar shelf at the extreme end of the room, all the way to the marble and steel encased electronic fireplace with its artificial flames flickering.

Her eyes lingered on it for a moment before it continued it's aimless journey.

She lost count of the number of times it darted towards the direction of the wooden stairs in hopes of finding someone descending it.

Playing around with her food proved useless in terms of distraction but she kept her hands busy with her fork, rolling up noodles and flattening them again.

After a while, she found her eyes wandering again. It landed on the digital clock which just turned 8:00 the moment the bell notified her that the other clock had done the same.

The shuffling of her chair against the hardwood floor followed the same moment she dropped her noodle smeared fork. She cast a fleeting glance at the paste she'd made of the noodles feeling a bit bad for wasting the food.

She left the dinning area and had just made it across the living room when she picked up the footsteps of someone trudging down the stairs. She stopped walking, waiting for the person to come into sight.

She felt her mood lighten when her mother stepped into the room.

"You're late for dinner."

Her voice seemed to startle her mother who threw a glance at her, her eyes flitting to the lower part of her left arm.

She relaxed after the action before walking towards Chidiogo. "Sorry about that. My leg really took that fall badly."

It was then that Chidiogo noticed she was limping. She hurried to her side and offered to help her to the dinning.

"Have you eaten?" her mother asked after thanking her.

"Yeah."

"And your dad?"

"I haven't seen him since we arrived. Thought he wasn't even home."

"He's probably stuck in the study again. I'll text him to come down."

She nodded, taking her own seat after helping her mother sit. She noticed that her plate from earlier had been cleared and replaced with an unused one with cutleries lined by the side.

She pushed the plate away before turning to her mother who was still on her phone probably texting her dad.

"Mom, I've been meaning to tell you something."

Not looking up, her mother replied, "What's it about?"

"My new school."

"Right. I never asked... How are you coping?" she finally looked up from her phone and fixed her eyes, filled with curiousity, on Chidiogo.

"Well..." Again, she found herself in want of words. She couldn't say it was fine, absolutely nothing was fine. She couldn't say it was bad either without getting her mother to panic.

"I'm guessing it's not what you expected?"

She nodded.

"You wanted to say something?" her mother prompted.

"Yeah." She took in a deep breath. "I think someone's trying to kill me."

The silence that followed her words was palpable. The near yet distant clanking from dishes being washed in the kitchen cut through it, joining the ticking clock to count away the time.

After a while, her mother spoke. Her voice came out strangled. "What made you think that?"

She was still trying to figure out the best way to reply when her mother spoke again, her voice coming out clearly this time. "Are your classmates bullying you again?"

"No..." she trailed off, thinking about it for a while.

Were they really bullying her? It had only been a week but no one had really said or done anything to her.

Though a few people approached her to make acquaintance, majority avoided her and even that felt like it had to do more with Mmachi and her juvie records than anything else.

"No, they're not."

Her mother sighed, relaxing. "So what put that thought in your head?"

"There was one incident... I was attacked on the field but I couldn't see the attacker because it was dark. Before that, and even after sef, I noticed this blue eyed person has been following me. I've never been able to make out the face but one thing I find really weird is that the person's eyes seem to glow in the dark."

Her mother sighed before dropping her phone next to her plate. Crossing her hands on the table, she leaned closer to Chidiogo.

"Honey"—she exhaled again—"I think you need to see Doctor Kumar."

Chidiogo felt any single ounce of hope she had left in her seep away. She tried not to look affected by her mother's words but her deflated shoulders gave her away.

As if noticing her expression, her mother added, "I don't think you're mad. I just—I just want to make sure that your mental health is okay and–"

"I am not seeing things!"

"I know you're not but–"

"Why can't anyone just believe me!?" Chidiogo threw her hands up in exasperation.

"I believe you, okay? I just don't want to take any risks. You can at least meet him once?"

"Meeting him won't solve anything!"

Her mother sounded tired when she spoke next, "Then what should I do?"

Her shoulders had sagged a bit, the deep wells beneath her eyes making her look all the more exhausted.

For the first time Chidiogo noticed the wrinkles, working it's way around the edges of her eyes. To think she was just thirty nine.

Looking at her tired eyes, Chidiogo tried to put herself in her shoes.

What could she expect her to do? What would she have done in her place if she had three children; lost one to the other and eventually—both? And what would she have done if she was on the verge of loosing the third to insanity?

The least she could do was to spare her the unnecessary stress.

She forced a smile. "You know what? Forget everything I just said. I can still meet Dr. Kumar—I mean—meeting him won't cause any harm but that would have to wait till mid term or so."

"Why? We could go tomorrow."

"Tomorrow's Sunday you know and I'm meant to be back in school. Don't worry we'll be home next weekend."

"But we'll be very busy and your dad and I were thinking it'd be better if you remained in school."

"But the buria–"

"Yes, it's still happening. You don't have to worry about it. You don't have to be present either."

"I guess it's okay then. I'll go to my room now."

"Sure."

One thought persisted as she made her way out of the dinning. Mmachi was right, coming home for the weekend was nothing more than a waste of time.