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

Chapter 27: A Fair Fight of Fists

Ebun was still for a moment.

She remained on the same spot, balling her fingers into tight fists. Although it was difficult for her to move since the person was pulling her backward, Ebun managed to roll her eyes nonetheless and looked down at the object pressed against her jugular.

It was a knife.

Ebun laughed. And it was not because of the kind of weapon her attacker had chosen to use.

"If you move an inch..." the person threatened. "I'll slit your throat off immediately!"

"Oh, come on," Ebun yanked her arm off the person's grip. Then in a swift, half of a three hundred and sixty-degree move, Ebun rolled away, freeing her neck from the pressure of the knife, and turned towards her attacker.

In a fluid motion, she grabbed the hand holding the knife and twisted her wrist in a backward flex, making the lined part of her palm come outward. The knife fell to the ground with a clang.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" the lady groaned as Ebun relentlessly twisted her arm, keeping her grip firm and excruciatingly painful on the lady by each second.

"Are you kidding me, young lady?" Ebun let out a sigh and shook her head. "You tell me not to move an inch. Yet all along, you were the one who couldn't even keep your grip steady and firm. Both on the knife and me. Is that how you were taught to fight your enemies? Who are you? Where did you come from?"

As Ebun asked the last two questions, she realized how curious she was and how important it was for her to get answers to those questions. This petite lady in a coiffed wig with dark circles beneath her eyes, who was fidgeting beneath her hold, was someone she'd never seen before.

Who, really, was she?

Certainly, she was not one of the students who smuggled weapons on the first day of the excursion, neither was she among the girls who chattered endlessly beneath the sycamore tree. Sean seemed aghast, too because Ebun could hardly feel his presence in the forest. He hadn't made a single move to protect her.

"Who are you?" Ebun narrowed her eyes as she asked in an icy tone, emphasizing the who. Then she moved closer to the lady while still twisting her arm.

Deep down, Ebun was scared. She feared that her unknowing and inaccessibility of the lady's identity would give the lady an edge over her. When fighting a war, there was always power wedged in the ignorance of one's opponent. But she couldn't let her fear show. Otherwise, it would be her doom. Sean hadn't trained her for this little while to have her chicken out in the presence of her foe.

The lady's eyes were the glassiest at that moment as she tried to stare right back at Ebun. All of a sudden, tears fell down her eyes.

Ebun slackened at the sight of the lady crying. Her tears weren't a cry for help. Neither were they a signal of surrender. They were tears of grief. It seemed like the lady had lost someone, and she was out to avenge the death of her beloved one.

Ebun wondered who it was. Was it someone she'd killed in the past? For a swift second, her heart raced when a wild thought ran through her mind that she had, by chance, murdered an innocent person. Then she remembered that she'd only killed two people so far: The postgraduate man and Mr. Kojo. And those two were definitely not righteous.

Although Ebun felt a slight pity in her heart for this young lady, she began to think that this woman was perhaps mistaken about the identity of her beloved one's murderer.

But the woman wasn't.

"It's you guys!" the woman yelled. Splatters of the woman's saliva landed on Ebun's chin. "It's you guys that murdered my boyfriend, Kojo! Why did you guys kill him? Huh?! HOW DARE YOU?!" her eyes glittered with resentment and rage.