GHOST (The Shadow in the Dark)

Part Ten

              If I had not set alarm, I wouldn’t have woken up early for my first which was Dr. Bright’s class. He was always with 7:AM classes because it was not part of the lecture timetable and the classrooms were empty for use. He said he would be always busy during his lecture time on the timetable
  I was already by the Faculty orchard when I remembered he had banned me from his class. I stood by the entrance to the Faculty confused on what to do. My phone blinked.
‘He is not coming today but he you can now attend his class.’
It was not just the text message but his presence that disturbed me. He was around. I turned to locate who I’d never seen his face.
‘Where are you? Why are you following me in the morning?’
‘How did you know?’
‘I can feel your presence.’
And it was just when I have pressed send I knew I was stupid to send that kind of text.
‘Really? So where am I?’
I did not answer him but moved to my now favorite sitting position. The morning was a bit chilly and students were not yet trooping into the school. It was just a minute past seven when I sat down on the iron chair. I was the only one on my roll. I robbed my arms to warm my chilly body. My phone blinked again and I wanted to ignore him but I still opened the message.
‘Ella I hope I’ve not made you believe I’m giving you the choice to ignore me.’
‘Can’t you just give me some breathing space?’
‘How can you feel my presence?’
‘How am I supposed to know that?’
‘Can you pinpoint my location?’
‘No, just feelings.’
‘Nice gown and I want to feel your hair tonight, loose that thread, I hate it.’
I turned round, not that I was looking for him, I was looking for someone out of the ordinary, someone who gave out the aura of danger but all I saw were those sent to watch me. They were still there. I sent a message to D.P.O.
‘Sir, is it not possible to remove your men? I have everything under control.’
I did not get a reply from him. I must have sat down there for up twenty minutes when my phone blinked, I thought he had replied but instead it was Ghost who replied.
‘I don’t remember telling you to send that message to him.’
‘Are you now monitoring my phone?’
‘You just broke the deal.’
Panic enveloped me as I typed another message.
‘No I did not, I was just trying to…’
I did not know what to write to convince him I was not trying to send away those he was using to blackmail me so I would be free. I just knew I was running out of time.
‘Please, I did not intend to break the deal.’
‘Too late.’
I prayed he was bluffing and no one would die but I was wrong. I heard sounds of gunshots. It made those walking towards Faculty to turn back. I did not run for my life, I ran towards the sounds of gun battle. It had ended before I got there.  It was not too far from the Faculty security office. It was a massacre, I counted four dead men close to a Hilux jeep, the door was opened and the person sitting on the driver’s seat was also dead. They all had guns that I had never seen before. I shifted back and bumped into one of the security officers who was running to the scene.
“Calm down young lady, I think the shooting is over” the man said tapping my shoulders and running towards them.
This was horror, I did not want to see more than the five dead men I saw, I was sure they were not the only one. My phone blinked but I refused to check the message.
      Suddenly, I noticed a red beam of light was on my stomach. I had watched something like that in so many films that I knew someone was pointing a gun at me. A sniper was the right word. My phone blinked again when I was already bringing it out from my bag.
‘That is the reality of what happens when your break the deal.’ That was the first message. I scrolled to the last one.
‘See you this night’ but the beam was still there. I raised my head thinking there was a ray that I could follow to locate him, to kill him but there was none.
‘I wish I was powerful. I would have made your death very slow and painful.’
He did not answer but he was still there and the beam was still there. I was still too shaken to move.
‘You have lectures by 8:AM, move now or another dies.’
I had it in me to revolt, but I knew the consequences.
           As I walked to B series for my English class, I felt numb. The class was getting filled up with the shooting and the number of casualties the major argument of different groups as I found a seat with just three people. The girl at the edge refused to let me sit down, she said the seat was already occupied. I had to go to the back before I found a seat with just a girl.
     My head was on the desk immediately I sat down and I let the tears flow. I wept for the number of men Ghost had killed, I wept for my lost soul. I wept because I knew my body would still not resist him later at night. I was miserable and it was worse than my zombie state.
“Hey, are you alright?” I heard a male voice.
I quickly wiped my tears with my palm. He was handsome and was the most popular guy in the class. Ken was not just fair and handsome but was from a rich family. Girls always struggled to have same seat with him. And nothing had changed because the seat now had six people and one of the girls was still telling her friend to shift.
“You know it’s obvious you are crying. Ella what is wrong?”
“You know my name?”
He chuckled revealing his dimples. Why should a guy have dimples? Wasn’t it a sin? He did not have beards, it was neatly shaven. He had a pointed cheek bone and his nose was perfectly made to fit his face.
“Everybody knows your name, with the stunt you pulled on Dr. Bright.”
“I did not pull any stunt. I have no hand in what happened to him.”
“What of the phone?”
“You won’t understand even if I told you.”
“Okay, let’s skip that to why a pretty young lady is crying.”
I quickly cleaned my eyes.
“The tears are no more but I know you were crying. What’s wrong?”
The noise in the class was much and he had to move his face very close for me to hear and in addition to that, I could feel the heavy glares from the four ladies on the seat.
“Ken you promised to give me the novel today” Mabel, the most popular girl in class said.
I had seen her coming to our seat from the front seat where I could not sit because her friends had kept seat for her. She glared at me as she spoke.
Ken was still looking at me, and he did not turn to her as he brought out one of his literature novels to give to her.
“I will see you later this night, hope you’ve not forgotten our outing?” She made sure she strained the last words for my listening ears.
Ken nodded and she felt angry at his non attention, she faked a smile and cat-walked back to her seat.
“So? What’s up Ella?”
But the lecturer entered the class saving me from answering. He was one strict lecturer that could send someone out for just sneezing. The class went silent that one could hear a pin drop.
“Sorry for coming late, it was as a result of the shootings and dead bodies.”
“Yes class rep.”
“Any news sir, are we safe? This is the second in less than a week.”
“The only news is that students are safe, that’s according to the police. The casualties were not Uniben student and even though their identities are yet to be known and the reasons are yet to be unraveled, they are sure they are not students. But we hope the police bring an end to these shootings and killings, we don’t want any student becoming casualty of a stray bullet. Okay to the business of the day.”
Lecture started but I could not concentrate. They were not unknown, they were police officers on an undercover mission to protect me from the man who killed them for fun. They could not even protect themselves, they had no idea who he was and they were yet to accept reality that they were the prey of a dangerous predator who was using every single opportunity to gradually pick them out. He had said I broke the deal but I did not, I had no way of countering him then but I now had.
“Are you sure you followed the lecture?”
It was Ken, lecture was over and people were already strolling out. That was when I remembered the cult guys, they were not around. They hardly attended classes.
“Hey Ella, I’m right here.”
“What did you say?”
“Are you this always distracted?”
“Sorry.”
“I was asking you about who made you cry.”
I looked at him and saw he was serious, genuinely serious about knowing.
“I wish I could tell you but I can’t. Thanks for asking.”
I did not look back as I hurried to my now favorite seat. There was no damn way I would put him in the line of fire. Immediately I sat down, my phone blinked.
‘Smart girl.’
‘Don’t you dare use him to blackmail me, he was just worried about me.’
‘You are just too receptive to everyone, you think that is all he wants?’
‘It doesn’t matter, I won’t accept, I won’t let you harm him.’
‘I had no plan to consider harming him, he is not worth my attention, not even close to my competition.’
‘Because you know I won’t look his way because I’m trying to protect him.’
‘No, because you are not interested in him like you yearn for my touch of ecstasy.’
It was just a text but my body had reacted and I was getting aroused and it made me want to tear my skin. Something was wrong with me.
‘Then promise not to harm him if I go out with him.’
‘I don’t care as long as it does not interrupt when I want you. Go prove me right.’
He was so sure of himself and I was going to prove him wrong.
‘I did not break the deal, you said I could pick his calls and answer his messages.’
If only I remembered that earlier.
‘Knowing, understanding and comprehending are three different things. I take back my ‘smart girl.’ Try comprehend what that meant then text me with a better argument.’
He was right, he said I could only pick and reply his calls and messages, but I had been the one to contact him. But it did not change anything, it was not enough reason to murder anyone. And the worst part was he was still around I could still feel him. I did not want to text him, I wanted him to hear the anger and resentment in my voice so I dialed his line and he picked.
“What is the difference?” I shouted attracting people to me.
I stood up and walked towards the orchard.
“Six dead men is the difference.”
I shouldn’t have called him because his voice was ringing inside me.
“Because you…”
I turned to see if someone was close to me. There was no one but Grandma had always said the walls and trees could sometimes hear and gossip.
“How do you feel now, are you happy? Are you satisfied?”
“Absolutely. You are now understanding me. I am even chilling with meat I pickpocketed. You won’t believe the way she was screaming my name and she is so feisty, one hell of a pup.”
I tried to ignore the fact that he mentioned pup, like a baby dog.
“I hope you choke to death as you eat and I hope satan welcomes you to his kingdom.”
“You really look damn hot in that gown, I am almost angry at the attention you’ve been receiving and I hardly get angry.”
I turned round but nobody suspicious. He was right about some guys looking at my behind. Grandma said it was the proper language to use. I remembered he loved using the roof and raised my head.
“I’m not on the roof and you won’t even see me if I was.”
“Can you leave now?”
“If you can leave your shadow. I feel like plucking out the eyes of that guy on ash T-shirt.”
I located the guy he was describing. There were six boys sitting down on the iron chair sharing boundary with the orchard. I had backed the orchard when I turned to search for him. The guy was not hiding his raw desire and it was making me sick. I had another lecture in two hours’ time, so I decided to just go and find an empty class to read.
“Don’t you have anything to do with your life?”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing. I never knew this was going to be fun, to think I had first rejected this assignment.”
“Killing people is fun? And it’s just like an assignment to you? You bastard.”
I had said it before I knew what I said. I stopped my movement afraid of the repercussion.
“You always fear the wrong thing Ella.”
“Punish me if you felt insulted.”
“Keep walking, you are blocking someone’s path.”
I turned to see that someone was very close, I continued walking.
“Don’t take it out on anybody, take it out on me.”
“Okay, it’s just sad you always enjoy it. I just need to touch you for you to melt in my arms and you are so passionate.”
His words were doing something to my body, I hated my body’s reaction.
“And the fun part I was talking about is you, you are too interesting. You are such a delicious subject and I can’t believe I’m going to be heavily paid to have fun.”
I cut the call, I hated my body but I hated him more.
      Just when I had brought out my book to read, my phone blinked.
It was not Ghost, but the D.P.O.
‘Ella, the only way to save the lives of these men is to locate that file. I can’t leave you unprotected.’
I did not reply him because I did not want to lie.
“So it’s not just his ears that was pierced but he was stabbed in his…..” the girl was in front of me with her two friends.  I could not just place why girls always grouped themselves in threes. She turned round to see if people were listening to them. I bent my head and pretended I was seriously occupied with my book.
“In his manhood.”
The other girls gasped, one covered her mouth with her palm.
“It was my aunt at UBTH who told me. He was first tied and locked in his office and the culprit had come back to do the stabbing very early in the morning. He would have bled to death if he was not rescued early.”
“Good for him, I heard it was a cultist girlfriend who he seized her phone who did it to him” the girl by the right said.
“And he has cultist as friends, I hope that is not the reason for all these shootings, there is no smoke without fire” the girl by the right said. The first speaker was in the middle. I took my phone to send a message to Ghost but a message came from him.
‘There is really no smoke without fire, smart and stupid girls, they are turn down, can’t wait to see you this night, you are mine.’
He too was listening. It was one thing to be followed and another to be monitored and followed. I was really in a mess. I could not believe that the whole time I had let him kiss me that night, Dr. Ken was tied in his office and he had still gone back to pierce his ears and stab him in his unmentionable part as Grandma called it. I wished he got stabbed there too
‘You are evil beyond redemption’ but the message bounced back as not sent.