I couldn't breathe.

  Shallow breaths crawled past my lips. I held my chest, the scent of blood clogging my nostrils. The head remained in front of me, dark and grimy. Bile crawled up my throat as I hunched over. My body bristled with chills. I stared at the floor, blood tainted it also. My world spun.

Daniella had been killed.

  My throat became parched, my lips dry. I gasped, pain enveloping my chest. My fist stung from how long it had been clenched. The blood splatters rimmed my world, an addition to the dots.

"You seem upset." The man spoke, his hoarse voice sending a shard of anger and pain. I shook my head, choosing not to hurtle words at him. That had never helped anyway. I never was close to Daniella but I knew how much Dana cared about her. A tremble overtook my limbs again.

  The very person I had taken this fall for wasn't still out of harm like I had  thought she would be. Shards embedded in my chest, making it difficult to breathe. I tried to focus beyond the blur,  to look for loose ends in this, but I was always backed into the same corner with the darkest truth I have had to live with.

Daniella had been killed.

  I couldn't help the nausea that drenched my throat. I rubbed my temple, feeling small injuries under my pores. I couldn't help but feel that if I hadn't taken the blame for Dana, I wouldn't have known any of this. I tried to conjure up pros that came up with my decision but there were barely any. The ultimate con being that she was in danger despite my attempts. I shook once again.

"Abeg we no go do this thing finish. So we go wait for this boy to finish this yeye crocodile tears him dey shed? O boy stand up jor.." I turned to Atsu , he walked up to me with a mask and a blindfold. He put the mask on my face, something that made my body fill with unease.

We really were going to do this.

He then proceeded to tie the blindfold. The sack like material held tightly to my upper face. The disgust in me grew as I continued to mull over what I had seen. A blank had resurrected to life, just like the time I had found out that my father had embezzled my ma's money and when Robert had started cheating on her, I hated it. A sick sense of foreboding gripped me as Atsu swung me over his shoulder without any restraint.

  My body collided with his muscular shoulder. My stomach wobbled with pain.  Though the pain in my stomach couldn't fathom the pain in my chest. His steps reverberated in my ears, just like the stampede roaring down my heart . Different smells passed through my nose, inviting me to analytically dissect them. I couldn't.

The blank put in front of me was wrapped too tightly. Just like other experiences I had been gripped by a white sheet, no coherent thought written on it. Despite all my vast knowledge, all the midnight oil studying and all the learning I had succombed myself to, to be able to disallow surprises like my father's  pretence and embezzlement from taking root. My chest hollowed. All for nothing.

Daniella was dead.

  The knowledge replayed continuously in my mind. So this is how it felt like....