Chidiogo trotted all the way down the stairs and had already stepped onto the paving to begin her journey to the hostel when she became aware of a faint, unfamiliar feminine voice which seemed to be calling out to her to stop.

Her body halted on it's own and her neck twisted to the back. Walking towards her in long strides was a girl with a smallish stature. The girl jumped a little flight of stairs and landed directly on the paving, next to Chidiogo.

"Hey," the girl said, flashing Chidiogo a smile which only confused her.

"Hey? Sorry, have we met?"

The girl laughed at her question and she struggled to understand what was funny about it. "I'm Diane, I think you'll remember me as the girl who spilt a drink on you on social night."

As she spoke, Chidiogo's face lit up in recognition, her mouth forming the shape of an 'O'. The girl's face was lighter than she remembered, a glaring contrast to her almost black hands.

"You never came to collect your shirt and you still have my jacket with you. I didn't get your room number and I didn't know any way I could find you since I didn't even know which class you were in," Diane said.

"So sorry about that, it totally skipped my mind. I'm heading to the hostel now. If you're going there too, we can swap back," Chidiogo said.

"Sure," Diane said, letting Chidiogo lead the way.

They walked in silence for a couple minutes before Chidiogo felt the need to break the silence budding between the both of them.

"What class are you in?" Chidiogo asked, glancing back and slowing down so Diane could catch up with her.

"S.S.3. You?"

"S.S.2."

Diane nodded and didn't make any attempt to continue the conversation. Chidiogo remained quiet as well, only breaking the silence once to suggest they used the subway.

Once they got to the hostel building, Chidiogo greeted one of the new matrons stationed outside and made to walk through the double doors but halted on hearing Diane's voice.

"Let me sign in." Diane picked up a stylus and scribbled on the tablet the matron held out to her. "Don't you want to sign in too?" She looked up from the tablet for the briefest of seconds.

"Not yet. I left my bag in school so I'll still go back for it."

Diane hummed and Chidiogo watched as she collected a slick band from the matron. She fastened it in front of her and the matron made sure the red light at the centre had turned green before letting her into the hostel.

Chidiogo refrained from asking her what she thought about the new hostel procedures as they walked through the lobby. The idea seemed absurd to Chidiogo when it was mentioned just a couple days ago, laughable even.

She couldn't tell exactly what inspired the school to get bracelets that alerted the hostel mistresses when they stepped out of the hostel after signing in, right after a random head count was carried out.

What surprised her was that somehow, Mmachi hadn't gone on her late night adventures the night they carried out the head count, as if she had had some kind of prior information about it.

And since they started the whole bracelet thing, she had toned down the way she stayed out late but hadn't stopped entirely. Chidiogo wondered how she was able to get out of the hostel without setting off the alarm at first but then remembered that she was Mmachi.

Knowing her well enough, she probably figured out how to deactivate the bracelet the very next day. Or possibly the bracelets weren't even functional and the school just used it to scare them into not leaving the hostel. Either way, she wouldn't bother to find out.

Chidiogo broke out of her thoughts once Diane stopped in front of a room. Diane cracked open the door to the room and peered in first before giving it a swing, letting it creak open.

"Diane, you're back!" A disturbingly familiar deep voice called from inside the room. "I was starting to think that—"

Quinn stopped talking the moment her eyes fell on Chidiogo, her body hanging midway in the action of rising. Her mouth hung open long enough for any willing fly to venture in before she eventually found her voice.

"Happy birthday. You turned seventeen, right?"

Chidiogo recovered from the shock of being addressed by Quinn quickly and responded. "Yeah, thanks."

"You guys already know each other?" Diane asked, walking into the room. She answered her own question before anyone else could. "Yeah, that's right. You're in the same year."

"Were you able to get what I asked you to?" Quinn asked.

"Give me a minute," Diane said, burying her head inside her wardrobe. After a while of searching, she resurfaced with Chidiogo's chiffon blouse.

"Here." Diane walked to her and handed the shirt over to her. "I'll follow you to your room for my jacket?"

"No, you don't need to worry. I'll bring it back for you," Chidiogo said.

She wasn't heading to her room straight and didn't want to delay the girl.

Diane gave a reluctant nod. "What's your room number?"

"Ten."

"Okay, see you." Diane shut the door on her face after that.

She blinked at the shut door for a moment too long before turning on her heel and heading for Sky's room. She didn't know if she would be back from the dinning hall yet but she had something important she needed to discuss with her.

She got distracted with her thoughts and almost walked past the room. Audible murmurs coming from the room drew her back and she peeked into the room through the window.

Sitting in front of the dresser was Amarachi, who mumbled incoherent words to the vanity mirror. She looked very different from the last time Chidiogo saw her.

The only thing which remained unchanged in her appearance were the twists which had stayed on her head for ages and had probably turned to dreadlocks. Her eyes were puffy, Chidiogo could tell even from where she stood.

There were scars strewn all over her skin. Chidiogo strained her ears to pick up her murmurs. She was still trying to do this when Sky's voice startled her.

She stumbled backwards, spinning around quickly. Sky stared at her for a while before looking at the window and back at her, as if waiting for an explanation.

"I was . . . " she trailed off.

Sky raised a brow at her.

"I wanted to check whether you were in the room," she said, feeling like a deer caught by the horns.

Sky chuckled. "Is that what you're finding hard to explain?"

Chidiogo rubbed the back of her neck and stared at the floor.

"And why were you looking for me?" Sky asked.

Chidiogo looked up from the floor and glanced around to make sure no one was around.

"Okay, here's the thing. You know how you told me to keep an open mind to who the suspect could be and not just keep my mind fixed on Mmachi?"

Sky folded her small hands across her chest. "Yeah?"

"The other day, I tried to follow Mmachi to know where she disappears to everyday . . . " Chidiogo stopped talking when she saw Amelia approaching them.

Sky, who had her back to the direction Amelia was coming from, didn't see her coming. "Did you find out anything? And you know that was a dangerous thing to do, right?"

"What was a dangerous thing to do?" Amelia asked, reaching where they were and glancing between Chidiogo and Sky.

Sky's mouth hung open as she stared at Amelia. She pressed her lips together, when she realized they were apart, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Oh Lia, we were just talking about—"

"I was telling her about how I tried following Mmachi and reached a dead end," Chidiogo said quickly, "but I found out something else that day."

Sky stared at Chidiogo with widened eyes and raised brows. Her whole expression screamed, What the hell are you doing!?

Chidiogo gestured for Sky to relax while Amelia, oblivious to their body language, started speaking. "I told you following her would be of no use. And what exactly did you find out?"

Chidiogo exchanged glances with Sky.

"Is it something related to your attacker?" Amelia asked again.

"Well, kind of. I guess." Chidiogo wrung her fingers.

"What do you mean kind of? What did you find out!?"

"Lia, I think you should let Chidiogo put her words together," Sky whispered.

That put a temporary halt to Amelia's persistent questioning.

Chidiogo offered Sky a small smile before speaking, "It's not something big and I'm not really sure whether it's relating to my attacker or not but I have a feeling it is."

Amelia's lips began to separate but Chidiogo silenced her. "Let me explain. The other day, when I came back to our room, Mmachi was on a phone call with someone. I'm not exactly sure what they were talking about but someone seemingly escaped from their captivity and they were discussing about a file. I think they wanted to use it against the person. I'm not sure.

"All I know is that I decided to check the WhatsApp on Mmachi's laptop to see if I could get whatever was happening to make sense. I didn't eventually see the file but I saw a message from an unknown number. It said something about this being her last chance and that she needed to kill someone or the person with the unknown number would."

"So?" Amelia said, "How does that relate to you?"

"The part of the killing. Maybe someone else wants me dead but they're trying to get Mmachi to do their bidding for them," Chidiogo said.

"And you know that whoever sent that message could have meant that she should kill someone else," Amelia said slowly as she stared at Chidiogo like she couldn't tell the difference between beans and pebbles.

"I know that but we can't cancel the possibility that it could be me."

Amelia let out a sigh. "It doesn't make sense that the person didn't just kill you straight, but that aside, what do you plan on doing?"

"Nothing for now but I'll think of something."

Amelia stifled a yawn, moving her head up and down. "I'm going back to our room. See you later."

Amelia started leaving and Sky waited until she was out of earshot before saying anything.

"Do you really think you can trust her?"

Chidiogo shrugged. "I have a bit of faith in her."

"And if she turns out to be the one who wants you dead?"

"If she thinks she's helping me investigate this, then that makes her believe she has the upper hand. She certainly wouldn't question the information I feed her and eventually, she'll fall into my trap. On the flip side, if she's innocent, it wouldn't hurt to have one more brain on my side. And besides, I didn't tell her everything I found out."

"There's more!?" Sky's voice rose with her brows.

Chidiogo nodded. "When I tried to dial the unknown number, it was switched off. I checked it on Truecaller and guess whose name I saw?"

"Who?"

"Chikaima Umeh."