Ex Vivo (#2 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 4

Akoma stood before the mirror on the wall of her hotel washroom that night. It was two minutes to midnight and all attempts to sleep were futile. For the first time in five months, she was finding dealing with the posttraumatic stress disorder that followed her more ruthless ex gratia services quite difficult. Anytime she closed her eyes, she could hear the screams of the man she had burned alive, and the recurring visuals were inescapable. Most times, she briefly felt uneasy about something mischievous she had done, but the guilt would disappear either through Ender's overwrite or simply getting preoccupied with the next assignment immediately. The first two months were hell on earth for Akoma because her former best friend just used her for target practice, from making her dance for her, run errands, wash dirty clothes, to doing very unsettling favours that were a violation to Akoma's very conscience, conviction and orientation. As she looked beyond the pain in her sunken eyes, she could not help but admit that the daylight that made Akoma the strong, narcissistic independent woman was long gone, and what was left was an almost vacant body controlled by her wicked puppeteer, her soul hardly detectable and her personality very shrunken.

Akoma splashed water onto her face and rubbed her eyes. She did not know why Ender had not taught her the witchcraft she used to invade people's minds. Nevertheless, she was not ready to learn that craft for her own reasons. Sometimes she felt she was in total control of her will, notably some time in her third month when she just woke up from sleep and felt the strong urge to escape, only to ran into Ender few kilometres from the hotel and get lassoed again. Since that time, Ender's hold on her had become more intense, and the assignments had also grown bloodier than the previous ones, probably to desensitize her. She had also been ordered not to stay in one location longer than a month, meaning she had moved about five times since Ender got full control over her mind. Currently, she was acting under the order to stay in the new hotel room and never leave until the next assignment. Sometimes she would just lie there in that mind prison and weep without knowing why, and other times she would just blackout and wake up only when Ender said so.

Her phone rang and she answered it. "Yes?" she said in a contemptuous tone.

Ender sighed on the line. "When will I be able to adjust your manners just a little bit? It seems to be the only part of you that never stays under my control, eh?" Akoma did not reply. Ender cleared her throat and continued. "Right. One of my Snitchers is gathering info about a case in a university in the city. Stay sharp for more details."

Akoma snorted. She thought of asking 'What stupid business do I have to do with a couple of campus folks who have no idea what love is? You want me to do what - saw them into pieces?', but under the order to never ask questions capable of agitating Ender, she sighed deeply and allowed the hot nonsense at the tip of her tongue to cool off. Instead, she asked, "Anything else I can do?"

Ender chuckled. "Would you want to spend the night with me?"

Akoma's heart leapt and she felt nauseous. "Look - "

"Naah, just pulling your legs. Forget about - you know - the other time. I was just fooling around. Forget it, OK?" She paused before repeating the last statement clearly and slowly, but Akoma interrupted.

"It's OK. You don't need to force it on me. I don't need you to do that. I can forget it on my own. Thanks."

The line cut and Akoma chucked the phone onto the bed before slumping onto it to bury her face in a pillow.

*****************

Amuzu woke up with a start and realized that it was morning. He had spent the night with Suzy, his girlfriend and course mate, after their mid-semester exams and intended to stay for two more days at her place. He yawned and stretched, and when he looked around him, he saw his unzipped backpack lying at the edge of the bed and his clothes neatly packed into it. New clothes had also been ironed and placed across the end of the bed on a hanger. He frowned and scratched his bare chest.