The Hidden Toxin ✔(#6 in the Our Side of The Dice Series)

Chapter 22: Mr. Dolotov Park

Ebun woke up groaning from a severe headache. The headache fairies had multiplied in size once the deadly sound emanating from her alarm clock assaulted her eardrums. Slowly, she opened her eyelids. The first thing she saw was a cobweb dangling from a joist in her room.

Waking up to a cobweb-infested room on the sixth floor of Hostel Pavlov didn't help matters much. It only contributed to her sour mood and throbbing headache as she now managed to get up from her bed. She leaned on to the side table and squinted her eyes to the digital screen of her alarm clock.

It was seven o'clock.

She had time to prepare for her meeting with Sean, a.k.a "the fake excursion." The night before (that is, the same day Mrs. Yekaterina had asked for her favor), Ebun decided to spare no time. Ebun hadn't wasted any time with the post-graduate's case. Still, this particular case felt like it needed intense urgency. Hence, she sent Sean a long paragraph of a text during lunchtime.

Sean seemed to understand the urgency of the matter, and so his reply came nearly a minute later:

"We are going to have a meeting with Mrs. Yekaterina at my apartment tomorrow. Henceforth, we might have to spend more time together to deal with this case. That is You and I. So you should think of a good lie to tell your hostel mistress. I'll come to pick you up with a school bus tomorrow morning."

From the way he'd replied, Ebun could tell that Sean didn't joke with Mrs. Yekaterina. He'd concurred immediately without asking any questions or giving Ebun a task. Ebun had thought that trying to convince Sean about Mr. Kojo and Irina would be a huge task, but Sean believed it immediately. The reality of it warmed Ebun's heart.

Fortunately, when Ebun arrived at the hostel the previous evening, she'd met Viktoriya at the lawn. Hence, they spent the entire evening discussing how to protect Ebun from the claws of Mrs. Mariyah.

"I have another idea!" Victoriya said with a triumphant beam of hope after previously providing twenty unsuccessful ideas. "Since this guy in your gang is coming to pick you up in a school bus tomorrow, we could just tell mum that you are going for an educational excursion. You could pack a few clothes and —"

"That's a good idea, but the thing is, I don't plan on spending the night at his place. At least, I don't want to. You know, I'm kind of scared that he may...hurt me or perhaps, even rape me. It's never occurred to me until now. I mean, this guy in question hates women with an insane passion, " Ebun replied.

Ebun was surprised at herself. Although from what she'd observed from spending a few days with Sean, it seemed like he only hated women that assaulted young boys. If that weren't the case, he wouldn't have women in his abode — the women Ebun had met on her first day at the psycho barracks.

Still, Ebun had a niggling feeling that Sean didn't particularly enjoy being around her very much. Whenever they weren't killing any rapist from the Medical school, Sean was always away, whether he was perhaps, busy hurting women or not. And there was always this hostile attitude Sean had towards her whenever she tried to inquire what he was up to — just for the sake of wanting to know more about him. He didn't want room for friendship between them.

Whyever the hell did they even have to be friends anyway?

Maybe she was overthinking it since this was her second assassination assignment. Or perhaps it was because she had a teeny weeny bit of admiration for Sean and wished for more between them — like a friendship.

Still, she felt it was best to stay away— for the sake of her safety. Moreover, there was no way she could spend more time with Sean than she already was. Yemisi would come back to Russia and create a scene if she learned that Ebun wasn't staying at Hostel Pavlov! Staying with Sean would indeed be bollocks.