"Who the fuck came up with that nickname?" Amelia asked. "And is he somewhere around . . ."

Amelia turned to see what Chidiogo was looking at. "Oh! Is he the Nicholas you're talking about?"

She turned to Chidiogo for confirmation. Chidiogo managed a nod.

"That's Chikaima's brother! Come on let's go say hi." She pulled Chidiogo along with her, giving her no time to process both the information she just heard and the fact that she was being dragged to meet Nicholas.

"Amelia wai—" Chidiogo started saying but it was too late and Amelia was already hollering both their names.

Chikaima turned first, her lips slightly parted. Her brows went back to their normal position as quickly as they closed in on themselves. Her lips came together to form a smile when she saw Amelia and Chidiogo.

Nicholas turned next, his eyes lingering on Amelia before it slowly drifted to Chidiogo. Her heart stuttered the moment their eyes met. He stared at her for a fraction of a second before his eyes returned to Chikaima.

"Fancy seeing you guys out here!" Chikaima said, her smile widening when Amelia and Chidiogo finally got to where they stood.

"We came out to get some snacks. Chidiogo was supposed to take me to the shop."

Chikaima's eyes moved to Chidiogo for a millisecond before she turned to Nicholas. "Hey, meet my friends."

"I think I've met one of them before." Chidiogo's heart picked up pace at his words. "That's Emily, right?"

"It's Amelia!" Amelia said, crossing her hands over her chest and frowning.

Nicholas gave her a smile, flashing his veneered teeth. "Sorry."

"And this is Chidiogo. She was in this school before. You must have seen her once," Chikaima said.

He cast Chidiogo a fleeting glance before humming. Glancing at his watch, he straightened himself.

"I've got to go. They'll soon lock my hostel. See you tomorrow."

He patted Chikaima on the head before jogging off in the opposite direction.

"Your brother is an asshole," Amelia said, causing Chikaima to chuckle.

"Why? Because he didn't remember your name?"

"Yes."

"He only met you once."

"He's still an asshole."

Chikaima chuckled again. "Let's get back to our room."

Amelia pulled Chidiogo along with them, breaking her out of her trance. She had been staring into the direction Nicholas had headed. She tried to convince herself that what she felt was relief, that it was a good thing he hadn't even acknowledged her presence.

But the sinking feeling in her belly and weight in her chest proved otherwise. The lights in their room were out by the time they got back. Chikaima brought out a flashlight so they could get into their beds without waking others.

Chidiogo managed to hold her tears in until she was curled into a fetal position on her bed, her curtains drawn over it. Then she let the suppressed memories rush back and the tears flowed until she was gasping for her breath.

———††††———

Chidiogo didn't know how and when she had fallen asleep but she was aware of how violently she jerked up from one of her vivid dreams, screaming until the realization that it was just a dream eased away her fear.

Sweat dripped down her whole body as though she doused herself in it. She took in long breaths as she pushed a button on the polished wood that formed the walls of her bunk bed.

The wooden frame that formed a cubicle around each bed had been fitted with lamps that provided illumination—separate from the general room's lights—for each person without disturbing the rest.

Chidiogo's lights came on, the glow remaining confined to her bed space. Her eyes throbbed as she pulled open her curtains, causing the light to seep out to the surrounding areas.

She sat on the edge of her bed, letting her legs dangle above the lower bunk. She didn't want to go back to sleep so she tried to think of something to do.

"The nightmares are bothering you again?" Mmachi's voice came and almost sent Chidiogo falling over the edge of her bed.

Before Chidiogo could take the stress of trying to find out where she was, Mmachi turned on her own bunk lights. Hers was the lower bunk opposite Chidiogo's. She wore a satin pajama set and held an open textbook in her hands.

"Were you—were you reading in the dark?" Chidiogo asked.

"No, dummy. Human beings can't see in the dark, remember?"

"But you—"

"I was about to turn on my lights before you woke up and started screaming."

It was then Chidiogo took a look around the room, realizing that she could have possibly woken someone up. Her eyes were swollen, she could tell from the extra effort it took to move them around.

All the other lights were off so she concluded no one else was awake.

"Maybe you should have stuck around till Dr. Kumar made a final diagnosis. PTSD seems more accurate than psychosis at this point."

"You're not a psychiatrist."

"Unfortunately." She adjusted on her bed so she sat on the edge just like Chidiogo. "What did you dream about?"

Chidiogo narrowed her eyes. "Why do you care?"

"I don't. But humanity demands I pretend to. This is the first time in a long while you've woken up screaming. And plus you look like shit. Anyone would be curious."

Chidiogo searched for her phone and checked her reflection in the camera app and just like Mmachi said, she did look like shit. Apart from the swollen lids, her eyes had a layer of red coating them.

Streaks of dried tears ran down from the corner of her eyes to her lips looking like white lines.

"Did something happen today?" Mmachi asked and Chidiogo dragged her eyes away from her reflection.

If Mmachi gave off any expression, she couldn't really tell because of the distance between them.

"I met Las," she said, finally deciding that it wouldn't do her any harm.

"Las? Who's that?"

Chidiogo frowned. "You know him."

"No—"

"Quit pretending!"

"I'm not!"

Chidiogo groaned. She really wished she could see Mmachi's face clearly but she neither had the strength to put on her contacts nor find her glasses. She wasn't even entirely sure if she had packed the glasses.

"Give me a second."

She jumped down from her bed, stumbling a bit before walking to Mmachi's bed. She could see Mmachi's face clearly by the time she sat down next to her but it remained expressionless.

"You're not lying?" Chidiogo asked.

"What reason would I have to!?" Mmachi asked.

Chidiogo could both see and hear the irritation seeping into her demeanor. And then she remembered that at the hospital when she had mentioned Las, Mmachi had been equally confused.

"You really don't know who he is?"

Mmachi let out a heavy sigh. "Do you want me to sing it for you before it sinks in?"

"He is—was Katherine's boyfriend."

Mmachi's lashes fluttered. "Katherine's boyfri—you mean Nicholas?"

Chidiogo nodded.

"You call him Las!?" Mmachi's eyes were the size of tennis balls as she stared at Chidiogo.

"What!?"

"That's bizarre."

Chidiogo rubbed her forehead. "You're missing the point."

Mmachi's brows furrowed slightly. "That you met him today. Did he do something?"

Chidiogo shook her head, her voice cracking slightly. "I wish he did."

"I never fully understood what happened between the three of you. You were dating him while he was with Katherine?"

"I didn't know he was dating her at the time."

"So he was two-timing the both of you?"

Chidiogo's eyes were teary. "Yeah."

"That's an asshole. Why should you care about what he does? It's even better he didn't do anything."

The sound of the wind howling outside took over for several seconds. The window panes rattled and doors shook.

"Harmattan is really picking up. Seems like the perfect weather to take a stroll. You coming?" Mmachi asked, getting on her feet.

Chidiogo blinked away her tears. "All of a sudden? And aren't you allergic to cold?"

Mmachi shrugged before pulling out one of her drawers and digging through her box. She pulled out a jacket and shrugged it on top of her pajamas.

"Are you coming? A walk really helps you get your mind off a lot of things."

Chidiogo licked her chapped lips as she shook her head. She didn't think it would be such a good idea to go on a stroll with Mmachi in the dead of the night.

"Suit yourself." Mmachi grabbed her phone and left. 

Chidiogo remained in the same position after she left, wondering why she suddenly decided to take a stroll in the middle of the night. Then she remembered her late night adventures.

She didn't think they would continue since they weren't in their school. She checked the time and saw it was three minutes to eleven pm. If Mmachi wasn't just randomly taking a stroll and it had anything to do with her usual disappearance at night, maybe this might be Chidiogo's chance to finally find out where she went every night.

She stood up before she could second guess it and was already heading for the door when an alarm began blaring from someone's phone. The sound caused Chidiogo to flinch and one by one,  bunk lights came on until almost all of them were on.

Chidiogo looked around to find out whose alarm it was and soon enough, her eyes landed on Sky who muttered apologies as she struggled to put off her alarm.

"I'm so sorry guys," she said for the umpteenth time after she managed to turn off her alarm.

One of the two lanky girls who had pulled Amelia away from Chidiogo on the field grumbled before going back to sleep.

"It's okay," Voile said to Sky, offering her a small smile.

She yawned before turning off her lights. The only lights left on were that of Sky and the Iranian girl who remained staring at Sky. It was the first time Chidiogo was seeing her without her hijab or a scarf and her hair ran pretty much for miles down her shoulders and back.

Sky headed to the bathroom after muttering another apology.

Chidiogo returned to her bed, discarding the idea of going after Mmachi. She brought out her Government textbook and started reading.

She went over the importance of Ombudsman several times but her mind kept drifting back to her conversation with Mmachi. Mmachi seemed to be genuinely concerned for her even though she wasn't actively showing it.

It could have been a ploy to get Chidiogo to trust her but it wasn't the first time she'd shown concern even though she had valid reasons to not care about Chidiogo.

And if Chidiogo was right to theorize that someone was trying to get Mmachi to kill her then Mmachi might also be in just as much danger as she was. From what Amelia had said, she thought Mmachi was in some kind of cult and even if that wasn't the case, the fact that she came back with injuries most of the time should have signaled something.

But if Mmachi didn't hate her enough to kill her, what motive did anyone else have to want her dead?

"Cases of bad administration," Chidiogo read aloud to try to push away the thoughts but they fought their way back into her mind and soon she was mumbling incoherent words from her textbook while her mind drifted back to who the killer could be.

One thing she knew for sure was that it had to be someone from her past. She wondered if it could be one of her old classmates but she would recognize them immediately. Although she had never seen a face . . .

Her mind went to Chikaima. The message sent to Mmachi to kill someone was from her number. And if Mmachi really didn't know she called Nicholas Las, then she couldn't have left for her the first note she received from a well wisher. The only other person who could have known was Chikaima.

The more she thought about it, the more she saw reasons to suspect Chikaima. At this rate, she couldn't trust anyone again.

Her mind returned to her textbook and she stared at the words for minutes without understanding. Eventually she gave up and slammed the textbook shut. All the other lights were off except the one for Mmachi's bed.

Mmachi wasn't back yet. Chidiogo tried not to worry about her. Since every other person had turned off their lights, she assumed that no one was bothered enough to read for the first round of the competition the next day.

She eventually gave in to sleep after distracting herself with worries of how difficult the competition would be.

A/N: If you guys know the amount of confusion I went through while writing this, you would also wonder with me how I managed to complete the chapter.

It got to a point where I started trying to remember what the point of the chapter was. Eventually I got it but it felt too trivial to create an entire chapter for although it is an important plot point. Well since it's more than one they are important plot points.

Wo, me I'm just tired. I hope the chapter wasn't bad though. I can't go into details about what I was trying to show without spoiling for you guys no matter how much I'm itching to.

Before I start blabbering what I'm not supposed to, I'd love to thank you all for the engagement on the last chapter. It was really impressive and honestly you guys don't know how much it meant to me.🥹 I know I say this a lot but I really love you guys.🩷❤️

Ciao.