Ex Vivo (#2 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 10

Akoma panicked, and her mouth was soaked with so much saliva in one spurt as she felt every nerve in her body come alive. The arm that had broken through the wall was strong and vicelike, and it appeared to have been unscathed despite the impact. Suzy cried out and cowered near the door in horror. Akoma squeaked under the pressure of the grip on her throat, and she could feel excruciating pain enough to make her tear up. She gripped the arm with her left arm and started stabbing it repeatedly with the screwdriver in her right. Suzy covered her mouth upon seeing this and started to pull the doorknob impatiently.

"Somebody help!" she cried. "Stallion! Where are you?"

Akoma stopped at the tenth stab and ogled at the unharmed skin of the disembodied arm. She glanced at the screwdriver and realized the shank was badly bent. She looked up at the hole and attempted to look beyond it to see a face but found none because whoever was out there had hidden his or her face behind the wall. Gradually, the grip grew tighter, and Akoma's head started throbbed sharply. Without warning, it started to lift her off her feet and Akoma was left dangling in the air. She kicked helplessly and dropped the bent screwdriver in her attempt to slap the arm.

"Let - go - please - ", Akoma pleaded in squeaks. Slowly, the grip loosened, and Akoma dropped to the floor, but due to her brief drowsiness ensuing from the strain, she lost balance and fell on all fours to cough and massage her throat. She looked up quickly and noticed the hand was gone and the gaping hole was left unoccupied. The floor was littered with debris from the punch. Interestingly, everything out there seemed to be going on unhindered, indicating that nothing that had occurred in the washroom had raised any alarm at the party.

Suddenly, the door knob turned from the outside and Suzy turned to look at it. "Angel, are you there?" a male voice called.

"Stallion," Suzy gasped. "Stallion! I'm locked in here. Please help. Let me out of here!"

"That's very unfortunate," Stallion shouted back. "Can you kindly step away from the door if you are close to it, please? I am going to attempt to break it down. Ready?"

Suzy looked around her and spotted the keys on the sink, rushed for it and quickly unlocked the door. Stallion walked in and scanned the room as Suzy hugged him tightly. He settled his gaze on Akoma and blinked at her in silence.

"She tried to attack me!" Suzy cried out in a muffled voice with her head buried in Stallion's chest. "She had a screwdriver!" Suzy pulled herself out of the embrace and checked Stallion's arms. Akoma stared at his arms too and noticed that they were neither unscathed nor covered with dust or debris from the crash. It could not have been him, but Akoma was not prepared to totally rule him out because Suzy had summoned Stallion at the time of peril, but the look of horror on Suzy's face when the arm broke through the wall also indicated that the reaction would not have been so if she had summoned someone she knew possessed such superhuman strength.

While Akoma analysed the scene carefully, Stallion stepped forward and looked down at her. "Is everything all right?" he asked calmly.

Akoma sighed and coughed. "There is nothing wrong. Trust me," she answered and rose to her feet, but she swayed on the spot and massaged her throat. "I think I have to leave. Sorry." She cleared her throat and walked past both of them through the exit. She glanced backwards and spotted Suzy staring after her with narrowed eyes.

"Are you all right?" Lucy asked on the phone shortly afterwards. "You are coughing. What happened in there?"

Akoma angrily ended the call. Before she could think of retiring for the night after the rough encounter, her phone rang and she checked to see Ender calling. She stared at the screen for some seconds and muted it before returning the phone to her pocket. She remembered to check the side of the washroom where the hand had come from and found nobody there. She turned on the flashlight on her phone and searched the ground for footprints. She found some, notably a chunk of earth kicked out of the ground probably during a skid to a halt. She shook her head at the gaping hole in the wall and returned to the party with a lot on her mind.

Lucy called again but this time Akoma picked it. "Akoma, talk to me!" Lucy whispered.

Akoma sighed. "I was attacked by someone in the bathroom. I couldn't serve Suzy her ex gratia. Her boyfriend also came there. His name is Stallion. I am confused. I have a feeling someone was expecting me to be here." She almost let out the bit about the stalker from Mimi's Hut, but silently kept it to herself. "Maybe I should leave."

"Huh? Who attacked you?"

"You wouldn't hang around her any longer if someone punched through a washroom wall from the outside to seize your throat, would you?" Akoma shook her head when Lucy gasped upon hearing this. "I don't know what I am up against, but - I am just confused. I don't know what to say. I will abort this mission and report an unforeseen foul play. Report that I was attacked. Please let me know when else Suzy will be - um - alone." She started to walk towards the gates. "Take care of yourself," Akoma added before ending the call. As she walked hurriedly through the gates, she sensed someone following her and intentionally dropped her phone behind her. She turned to stoop and pick it up, and a quick glance informed her that nobody was following her - or probably her stalker had chosen to hide.

As soon as she turned to say a word to the security guards, she frowned. They were standing upright with their heads bowed but fast asleep. She walked to one of them and prodded his shoulder with a hand, and he slowly keeled and fell to the ground. Akoma gasped and turned to stare at the other who was snoring loudly. She glanced back at the guard on the ground and deduced that he was still alive by his chest rising and falling. She walked closer to the snoring one and noticed the bloodspot on the side of his neck. While she wondered what could have put them into that condition, the sound of a twig breaking startled her, and without a backward glance, she leapt onto her motorbike and kick-started it hastily. She fumbled with the helmet as she sped off, and with her hands off the handgrips, the bike did a terrible sway to the left. For fear of crashing, she threw the helmet away and took control of the bike. She checked the left mirror and saw a gentleman dressed in a maroon jacket and shades standing outside the gate behind her. Just before she made a right turn seconds later, she glanced backwards and realized the stalker was gone.

"I wonder if you are the one who - ", Akoma began to say, but the rest of her words were drowned by a loud zoom that hit her ears instantly.

WHAM!

Whatever hit her really hit her hard, making her think it was either a streetlamp or a tree, but before she could make sense out of the accident, she found herself thrown off her bike into the air, where she did a forward flip and landed hard on her back. She lay there sobbing in pain and as she strained to take a look at the condition of her motorbike. The headlight and front fender were badly dented, and she looked around her to find no tree or streetlamp in her path. As she attempted to sit up, she heard a snap in her back and lay back down quickly. Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps and held her breath. She looked up and saw from her upside down point of view, a dark figure approaching slowly in the shadows. Akoma gulped and clenched her jaw in exasperation upon admitting that her back injury could endanger her.

Suddenly, the eyes of the figure glowed - and the colour was more startling than the fact that it was impossible for a normal human to possess that ability.

They were familiarly green.