I shivered. The tension in my system made me feel antsy and on my toes. My heart banged against my chest in a hard way making pain sear my chest. I rubbed the black clothes I had on with a sweaty palm. The mecury lights blinked faintly, reinforced by the dim thrumming of fields that were hidden away under white washed walls lined by massive paintings and tapestries of all sorts.

  "Boo to my forehead. Confirming the fear inside, a drop of sweat gently slid down. I breathed out to keep myself from fainting.

  Horrors throbbed at the background of my mind. I swallowed harshly as blood overtook my world again. Drawn away from my surroundings, I was immersed inside the horror of the memory. Blood splattered everywhere. I tried to level my fast breathing. Darkness hovered above me with a strong vice like grip. The red liquid stirred foggy memories back to a horrifying realization.

  Voices came back to me, taunting as quakes of fear broke down my sanity. I fell to my knees as the tightness in my throat thickened.

"Calm down." With a jolt, I was snapped out of my reverie. My depressing moments caused a stir of sadness, fear and a deep guilt to hold me down.  My gaze snapped to her face that remained smiling as though unseeing to my obvious discomfort. She grabbed my hand and then I realized I was on the carpeted floor.

  I slapped her hands away. She raised a brow though a small smile still played on her lips.

"What's the matter?" The innocence. Her gaze caused a deep sorrow and anger to grate against me that for a second I wanted to give in to their desires.

A bitter feeling filled my mouth and I just pushed myself back to my feet before striding down the corridor. I heard her right behind me and I remembered once again that we heading down the passageway cutting through the back quaters before connecting with a major pathway that was heavily guarded. The black suit of the male servants I had on filled me with a longing for my other life where my only worries were Robert and whether Dana would reciprocate my feelings.

Dana.

  Tears sprung to my eyes as I pushed forward. The vigor in my bones had gone down the drain, the sinister feeling squeezed me with sharp talons. I wiped furiously at my eyes to prevent Afua from seeing me. I had a feeling that it was the blood oath that had caused her death. A lump formed in my throat again. We turned a bend, making us meet an iron door that remained upright and steadfast.

  A keypad blinked at me, shining with a blue light that was different from the poor lighting from the mecury lights.

It's light out.

I stared at the key pad and a series of numbers were strewn across its top to fiddle with and hack into. But judging from where we were I doubted we would be able to do it. I swallowed another lump in my throat as I let my hands hover above the glowing keypad. Horrified about the earlier incident, I struggled to hear anything from them, all I remembered from the whole plan is that I was supposed to be hacking into all the security.

  Some boils coated my arms which made me hiss slightly. The final reaction. Tears filled my eyes again as the gravity of the situation hit me. The nerve that I had lost itself to the rapids as my stomach tightened with disgust. My lips quivered. Before I could do anything else, I felt myself being pushed to the side. I was knocked against the floor with a hollow thump and pain ricocheted through me. My bleary brain barely processed the fact that Afua was breaking through one of the most secure of doors.

  Then shouting and the phenomenon that had become a regular companion in my life. Absolute chaos.  I pulled myself to the corner before I held my knees to my chest. My breathing quickened. The blood curdling screams overshadowed me. Everything turned and toss as puke filled my mouth. Then I released.  Hurling my guts onto the floor, I remembered all the days that had passed. The disgusting sensation in my mouth reached up to the brim.

  Tears slid down my cheeks even as I felt heat graze my body. Thoughts ran through me. I was immersed into the waters of my different spiralling emotions. Anger. Sadness. Disgust and a deep brewing hatred. Something clicked right in front of me. I was pulled back into the world by the heavy scent of smoke. My heart stopped.

  With trembling limbs, I raised my head to see a blaring laser pointed at my head. Another round of tears threatened to spill out as I met face to face with death. The man had on a custom grey uniform with the barrel of the laser directly on my forehead. He had a snarl plastered on his face, his face caked with fresh blood. My adam's bobbed before another set of dots shimmered to sight.

Tiny prickles of fear clicked down on me.

"Say goodbye, deviant." A loud boom resounded. I squeezed my eyes shut and welcoming the idea already.

I had nothing to lose.

The mantra repeated in my head but it didn't still the quickening of my heart. Another boom forced my eyes back open. My throat lurched as I faced yet another dead body. The blood that gushed out multiple places caused a deeper shift in the air around me. The haunting look in his eyes made another addition in my resume of nightmares. I turned and hurled my guts out. My world began to spiral out of control. The darkness closed in on me as it whispered enchanting songs that I would enjoy once I fell into the abyss.

  "Get up sharp sharp. Someone don call police." Atsu grabbed my hand before pulling me onto stumbing legs. I almost fell back if not for the slap that plunged into my cheek. I brought a hand to my throbbed cheek with my mouth slightly ajar.

"Better go do wetin you suppose do." Then it hit me.

Better go do wetin you suppose do.

  I pushed down on the tremble in my hands as I shot forward instead of going back down the passageway that we came, I ran into the hallway which led into the man's bedroom.

"Where you dey go?" I didn't answer, instead I ran over. The crunch of circuits and sockets broke underneath my shoes. The thick blanket of smoke fell face first into my nose. My lungs clogged as a series of coughs sprung out of my mouth. An ear piercing scream came from my left. With renewed strength in my veins, I bolted through until I broke through thick fog. The foggy outline of the beauties and riches in the room didn't deter my search. The smoke that was broken by jarring red lights still caused me to cough a little. Then I saw them.

  Lying down beside a large king sized bed was a man against the carpeted floor. His heavy breaths flung to my ears before falling through in the chaos behind me. Ebo was upon him, the syringe almost pressed into his chest. The urge to run away from it all swept me but I stomped on the desire.

  Through interludes  in my vision, I surged with the palpitation of my heart and the ache in my limbs as my sole companions. As soon as I had reached him, I knocked the syringe out of his hand. Ebo slowly raised his head with knitted brows. Using his confusion as my advantage, I ran past him before bending to pick up the syringe.

   I heard a couple of shouts followed by his pounding footsteps. I ran towards a flight of stairs at the edge of the room. My pounding footsteps bounced around the vintage wooden staircase, dark lights continued to glow vividly even as I broke out for breath onto the rooftop. The nipping wind blew me, I shook.

Series of similar yellow building rushed up to the sky, silver skyscrapers also regulars in this area. I surged across the cemented rooftop fenced with iron railings. A set of steps filled my ears. I whipped around to see Ebo with a knife in hand. My breath caught in my throat.

   "What do you think you're doing?" My heart beat quickly in my chest. I slipped on the water stained cement but I caught myself before going first face into the floor. Though Ebo's eyes were narrowed, his stance remained calm, exuding a neutral aura. My scratchy throat prevented me from being able to say what I wanted to say.

  I stared down at the drop past the circling railings.  It was about six stories drop.

A quick way to instant death.

Nervously, I eyed Ebo and the unsheathed dagger he now held, stained with the one thing I hated most. Blood. Fresh blood. Fear cascaded through me.

"I thought you to be a very smart person." I edged away from him even as he took two steps forward.

"You killed him, didn't you?" Ebo smirked.

"No I couldn't, his body is metal plated. But his guard didn't experience the same luck." He wiped a finger on the blade of the dagger for more dramatic effect. The fall of a body against the floor echoed in my head.  I scrambled away. I caught myself again with throbbing hands. He twirled the dagger in his palm and held it as though it were the most precious toy in the world. He drew the blade of the dagger along his palm, it didn't leave a scratch. His palms remained unharmed.

  I managed a tight breath.

"And invincible too. Now why would you dare challenge me knowing all of these?" He shot forward and I bent away, missing the swipe of the dagger. I jumped to his front and he turned back to me, his composure still calm but now I saw his shoulders tense. His fingers twitched.

"Get back here before you do anything that you will regret." My heart banged against my rib cage harshly. I licked my bloodied lips. He ran towards me, in my haste to run off, I slipped. My body collided with floor, I rolled away meeting face to face with the snapped dagger.

  The blade had snapped in two against the floor. Ebo's war cry pierced my ear before I rolled away, narrowly missing his stomping foot.
He whipped out another dagger which glinted wickedly against the light. I jumped to my feet before scuttling away. He pounced onto me. The brute force knocked both of us to the floor.

  Stars exploded in my eyes. I shifted my head, leaving the exact place another dagger plunged into. Adrenaline fueled me to push him off of me with my leg. I rolled back to my stomach. A sharp pain pulled me back as my vision doubled over. Dots pierced it as I heard Ebo's manaical laugh. My breath caught in my throat. The heavy scent of blood set my body on fire. The burning of my leg worsened with every deep breath I took. Tears came to my eyes again.

  "You know I never liked you." The pressure in my body eased as he lifter himself off of him.  Vomit perched itself on my tongue. My legs throbbed heavily as I felt weak from the blood that flowed out of me. Using my palms, I used it to put some distance between the both of us.

"You stole my Dana from me." His footsteps again failed to pull me out of the haze. Pain assaulted my face as I was pushed to the floor. The sound of sirens crackled in the distance as the night of Agee came alive. I skittered up to grab onto the railing to hold myself up. Through my doubling over, I noticed a crazed look in Ebo's black eyes.

His black eyes.

Something that doesn't belong.

  The meaning behind Dana's words popped into my mind. I held onto the syringe tight with strained muscles.

"-you did to Dana-"

"Dana is not a thing you can have!" I finally confronted him. His crazed look doubled. I felt my stomach tighten as the image of blood splattered all over the place came to my mind.

"Who says so?" I didn't answer. 

I couldn't.

Tears filled my eyes again.

"Oh, scared now I see? Don't worry your death will be painless. " I tightened my hold over the syringe.

This wasn't a dagger but...

  "I told you I-" I threw myself at him. Surprised, his eyes widened as my body came crashing down. He remained adamant on standing, using his hands to grab at my own digging ones. Before he could react, I plunged the syringe into his eye. A gutteral noise rose from his throat as the blaring sirens and sound of reinforced shields buzzed in the background. He grabbed onto my hands and threw me off of him. I fell over the railing and plunged down with red and black as part and parcel of my world.

THE END.

WORD COUNT: 26956


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