Eighteen O' Five {ONGOING}🇳🇬

•~~Chapter Thirteen~~•

One of the officers led me into the classroom for the questioning when it got to my turn. There, I expected to meet a man, Dorcas's dad on the seat but on the contrary, a woman. Dorcas's dad must have been asked to take a break off work because of his missing daughter. Quite ethical.

His replacement, the new woman was rather huge and dark. Scarier than any woman I had seen all my life. I could have bet she was the devil herself if not for the missing horns.

There were permanent wrinkles that formed on her face, not because she was grey but of her constant frowning, I guess, she looked her forties. But in truth, she looked terrifying.

With her asking me the questions, I would fail.

The fan above my head was whirling fast, blasting air,  and in effect cooling the room but my body reacted conflicting to this temperature. Sweat clustered around my forehead, trickling the side of my head.

It was all hot until my body began to shiver like a kid that bathed in the snow. How was it possible to feel cold and hot at the same time? While still standing, I got dizzy and my legs tripped. Quickly I  grabbed the arm of the chair to avoid a fall. It all happened quickly like one, two, three.

“Are you alright?” her deep manly voice asked.

It was impossible to respond as I struggled to gain my consciousness.

“Young man, I said are you okay?” she asked again, her voice deepened.

After a few rubs of my thumb and index finger on my forehead, it got better with me.

“Ehem. I'm fine ma,” I said before taking my seat.

“Okay, very well then. We shall begin,” she said.

She began speaking, said somethings but my attention wasn't with her. My eyes were focused on the floor with my fingers still rubbing my forehead for comfort. When she noticed I wasn't paying attention, she screamed at me, “Maintain eye contact!”

Her resonant voice and the bang of her fists on the table almost popped my heart right out of my chest.

The fuck did she do that for?

“Listen and listen good, you or one of your colleagues think you can kidnap the princess and go free?” she clenched her fist again and banged. “When we finally get the one who did it among you, it will be so de-ad-ly”

She pronounced the ‘deadly’ as slowly and evilly with her fist in the demonstration, drilling into the table.

What kind of beast had they sent to interrogate kids in school? She had not even started with the questions and I was scared out of my mind.

“Let's begin! Don't forget the eye contact,” she spoke. “So, I'm going to continue from where Detective Solagbade stopped with you.”

My eyes were fixed on hers as she glanced and simultaneously flipped through the pages of some documents she had in her front.

“Oh yes!” she palmed her short black wig backward and rested her back against the chair. “You're the boy that sits beside the princess in class.”

“Yes ma,” I said, my voice shaky. I could feel my legs shaking as well.

“Good. So tell me, what things did you talk about?”

“I really can't remember ma, just small talks.”

“Did she tell you she doesn't have a mom?”

“Wha—? No...No.”

“Oh. Her mother passed when she was still a baby, shortly after her delivery. She never got to meet her mother. It must have been really tough for her, growing with just her father and stepmother. It's so sad...”

“She never told me that.”

There was an emotional attachment that came with how she said those words making me sell myself off with my reaction.

“Wait, do you like her?” she asked suddenly.

“Who? Aderera? Yeah. Ehem. I mean no of course,” I stuttered.

“Eye contact!” she banged her fist again when she noticed I was taking my eyes off. “There is really no need to tell lies anymore. I know the whole truth already. She told me every single thing, just tell me what you did with her.”

“Who? Aderera? Told you what?” I asked sharply.

“Not Aderera. You know who,” she replied, squinting at me.

There were only two ‘She's’ that knew anything or everything; Dorcas and Olamipo. Dorcas was missing, no way she would have told her anything. Olamipo wouldn't snitch on her own brother, she wasn't the type to. This devil was just messing with my head, no one told her anything. Psychological hoaxes.

She kept on staring, waiting for me to fall into her trap and say a name, maybe, but she didn't get one.

“I'm sorry ma, I think you're mistaking. I don't know the truth you know but I'm not telling you any lies,” I said.

And that was how I answered her remaining questions, with confidence. It was the only way to beat fear and psychological tricks which were her strategy in the interrogation room.

I thought I would fail but to the god of death we say, ‘not today’.

*

After I returned home with my sister, the words Titi whispered to me after my questioning session wouldn't stop ringing in my head.

“18–05... me–ans... t–rou–ble. If... y–ou... ne–ed... he–lp, m–my... g–gra–ndma... can... he–lp... y–ou.”

Why would she think 1805 meant trouble? How did she even know about it? What on earth was the number? It was messing with my head, my mind couldn't contain it anymore I had to tell Olamipo about it.

She suggested we told my dad, I refused. We hadn't told him about the text message that was sent from my phone, too. I didn't want us to. Some things had not been right about him since the night Dorcas disappeared, and it had been difficult for me to trust him.

Olamipo and I wanted answers about the number, 1805, so we decided to go it. We decided we would go to Titi's house and ask her grandma for help, but without our dad knowing. And the only way we could do that was sneak out of the house.

We came up with a perfect plan to sneak out in the night when our dad would be asleep.

We weren't sure going to Titi's was the best thing to do but we just had to try.

We needed answers.

*