Steven shuddered under his gaze.

"You," he muttered and retreated at the door.

Steven followed him immediately. He hurriedly grabbed his left hand and he tried to wriggle free.

"C'mon Joe, I'm scared," Steven said, his face depicting nothing but fear.

Joe turned to him. "I warned you."

"But I can't just stay silent. If anything happens to you, I won't be able to free myself off the guilt."

"The tale you told my sister, why couldn't you just tell me?"

"What would you do if I told you, Joe? You'll definitely tell your friends and escalate the problem."

He tittered. "I'll come back for you."

I just stood away. I watched their drama and also watched him leave, leaving Steven behind.

"Emma, there's definitely a problem now. He'll cause a lot of problems now."

I was lost. What was to think? What was even happening? Everything seemed far from reality to me but everything was real and at that minute, I felt my knees buckle. The world rotate under my gaze.

"Emma!" I heard Steven call.

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STEVEN:
Emma scared the hell out of me. She fell right in my arms and I lifted her into the house and laid her on her bed. As much as I wanted to be with her, as much as I wanted to prevent Joe from being irrational. I was stuck in between doing these two. I took her mobile phone to dial her one of her parent's phone number but it was locked with a pattern. Luckily it could be assessed with her fingerprint and with her finger, I unlocked the phone. I dialled her mum's phone number but just as I dialled it, Joe entered. I hurriedly dropped the phone.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in my sister's room?"

He was already close to me. I was jittery. I felt he would throttle me the next minute. "Ste—"

"Seems I've been too lenient with you. How about I pluck out one of your eyes?"

I cringed back as he drew out a pen knife from his boots. "Joe, she fainted!"

He turned to her and slowly calmed. "For real?"

I equally regained my composure. "Joe, what are you going to do now?"

"It's none of your fucking business! You interfere in what does not concern you and that's why people like you die like fowls!"

"Joe, you aren't safe anym—"

He was cut short by a call on Joe's phone. Joe brought out his phone and accepted the call.

"Hello, Mickey," he said as he walked towards the door.

I moved towards the shutters. He suddenly paused at the door.

"What!" We exclaimed at the same time.

We turned to look at eachother curiously.

"What's wrong?" He asked, looking from me to the shutters.

"We've got some visitors!" I screamed in fear.

"Visitors?"

"Strange visitors! They're masked. They're armed."

I could see the fears on his face. I panted furiously. I turned to look at Emma and she was still unconscious.

"What are we to do."

"Keep calm. They're here for me."

I wrinkled my face. "Oh, really? Like I don't know how animalistic and irrational you guys can be? What am I to do to Emma? Huh? Or should they just kill us!"

"Oh just keep quiet and use this!" He said and threw a revolver at me."

"How the hell do you expect me to use a gun when I've never handled one before?"

"They're here," he announced, looking through the door hole.

He stepped out. "Stay quiet, I'll lock the door outside." He said and locked the door behind.

Everything was quiet. I shuttered the shutters and quietly stayed by Emma. With my phone, I called the police then Emma's phone rang. I hurriedly cut the call and put the phone on silent.

I heard footsteps at the door and my heart thumped furiously.
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To be continued...
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© Imole Olusanya