Ibinu

Expensive.

It was past lights out. I couldn't pinpoint the exact time because I wasn't with my watch, but to go by the snores of my roommates, I would have said an hour or two passed.

I lay in my bed, earphones plugged into my iPod, listening to my anime opening playlist as I continued reading the crime thriller novel I had started during prep. 

It was about a criminal psychologist trying to solve a serial murder case with the help of his trusty sidekick, a PhD student writing her thesis on serial murderers and their motivations.

The process was comfortable since the overhead lights were shining down, and I didn't have to wedge a torchlight between my head and shoulder.

I know you're confused. How can there be lights out when the lights are still on? 

Well, ever since the 'Mr. Red' incident; a boy kept sneaking into the girl's hostels and molesting girls of all ages; our school had stopped putting off the lights in all of the girl's hostels. 

We gave him the nickname 'Mr Red' because of the red jalamia he kept wearing during his hunts. I still remember how we girls couldn't sleep; my insomnia had reached new heights due to the perceived threat. The tension was at an all-time high that year because the attacks seemed random, and nobody knew who would be next; it honestly felt like the perpetrator would never get caught.

Luckily, he was caught last year, and everyone was able to sleep easy. Though he was suspended and banned from the school grounds, he was allowed access to the school during the day as he was in Tobi's set; and it was exam season.

When one of Titi's school daughters said she liked him and wanted to date him, we told her to go for counselling because *her head was not correct. 

Ahan, how can you have a crush on someone like that? I mean, the guy was even grooming his successor, for Christ's sake! That was some tendencies of conduct disorder if I ever saw it.

I wrenched my mind back from thoughts about 'Mr Red' and refocused my attention on the novel in my hands. 

I was really getting into it when a flash of movement in my periphery caught my attention, causing me to turn around swiftly.

Despite my timely response, I only managed to catch the edge of Bisola's pyjamas fluttering as she snuck out of the room. I rubbed my eyes in confusion, thinking I had seen wrongly, but no, that had surely been Bisola; no one else wore check pyjama sets.

I looked towards her bed and found it empty, thus confirming my assumption. In disbelief, I  reached under my pillow for my watch; when I saw the time, my disbelief deepened further. Bisola was one of the early sleepers, give her fifteen minutes, and she would be out like a light.

Meaning that for her to be awake at this time, something had to be very wrong.

In my worry, I threw my bed cover off my body, jumped down from my bed at the fastest possible speed and only slowed down to shove my feet into my slippers, wear Amandi's shirt, which I had borrowed but never returned and grab my torchlight.

I ran into the hallway, making sure to keep the noise at a minimum, and reached for the lock of the hostel door. Unlocking and sliding the door open, I rushed out of the hostel searching for her figure and saw nothing but empty stillness.

If it were anyone else, I wouldn't have been so worried, I would have assumed that they were going for a late-night rendezvous, but because Bisola was single and too faithful to Dotun to mess around; despite the lack of a formal title, I quickly threw that suggestion out the window.

My thoughts whirring at a thousand a miles per minute, I considered all the places someone could go to be alone, then remembering this was Bisola; the closet scaredy-cat and how she wouldn't want to go somewhere too far from the hostels, I was left with only five viable options.