Eighteen O' Five {ONGOING}🇳🇬

•~~Chapter Seven~~•

While I stood with my hands resting on my waist and with my mouth opened for breathing, I looked around for any sign of Aderera but there was none. I looked for a few more seconds before I let out a sigh of frustration.

She has probably left after waiting for so long. Fuck men!

I was set to leave as I turned back to face the path I had followed but I turned my back yet again after I heard a sound.

A cough.

I turned on the flashlight of my phone to check where the sound of the slight cough was coming from. With the help of the flashlight, I found a body lying on the ground at the other end of where I stood. I darted towards it and confirmed it was Aderera.

She was in a horrible state. Her eyes were difficult to stay open as she forced coughs out of her mouth. Coughs that were accompanied by blood. Her mouth drooled blood and her clothes were soaked in the red that oozed from different parts of her chest.

Snake? Dog? Lion? No. Wolf?

Fear engulfed me and I froze with my eyes and mouth widely opened. Sweats dripped from my head down to my neck, my bladder filled up. I was losing it.

Call for help? Carry her?

I hammered my knees to the ground as I went down to her. I raised her back a bit from the ground and rested it on my left thigh. She coughed yet again and I didn't know where to touch to make her feel better. I didn't want to risk hurting her more, so I just kept using my palm to rub her cheek.

“Rera, please talk to me. What happened to you? Please just say something.” My voice vibrated as I spoke.

She finally opened her eyes, rotated her eyeballs towards me slowly before expelling air with sound from her mouth again.

“Oh, God! Okay Rera, can you at least walk? Let's get you to the hospital or something. Please Rera. Please!”

I noticed gradual movements of her mouth like she was muttering something. I placed my ear close to her mouth but I still couldn't figure out what she was muttering.

“What are you saying? Talk to me Rera. You want water? Food? What? Just talk to me please, ” I asked impatiently

She became a bit louder and spoke again but all I heard was “Ji...Ji” which didn't make any sense to me. I patted her cheeks and asked her to repeat what she muttered. She repeated the same thing twice before collapsing her head.

“Rera! Rera! Rera!” I repeated as I held her head straight and patted her cheeks again. “No. No. No. Rera, please get up. Open your eyes, please.”

As much as I tried, I couldn't get her to open her eyes again. I placed a finger across her nose, placed my ear on her chest, but nothing. Life already left the body.

I didn't know how to handle it. I was in great shock and didn't know what to do. I raised her close to my chest, hugged her tightly, and let out a scream with tears rolling down my cheeks.

“Arrrrrggggghhhh!”

I trembled as I hugged her body tightly for minutes. And when I released her from my chest, I realized my clothes had been terribly stained with the blood on hers.

Shit!

When I imagined how sour and horrible it would be for me if a random person came to that scene, I sprung from the ground immediately. 
My body continued to shiver as I stood staring at Aderera's body on the ground, and at the same time thinking of what to do.

Carry the body? Leave the body? Get help?

I couldn't think of anything, just voices in my head telling me different things to do. But there was this louder voice that kept screaming, telling me to run.

Run! Run! Run!

And so I ran. I ran as fast as I could out of the woods. When I got out, I looked left, right, and found not a single person walking the street. The voice in my head screamed run again.

Without being hounded, I ran quickly from till I got home. I slammed the door, had my back against it, and shielded it like someone would kick it open from outside.

After what seemed like seconds, I had my back off the door since nobody was actually going to break it open. I curved my back and rested my palms on my knees, breathing from my mouth like I just ran a marathon.

I pulled my shoes quickly somewhere in the living room and hurried to Olamipo's room. She had told me she would return home quickly and not stay long at the festival.

I barged into the room while she was slightly naked. Of course, I was not thinking.

“Mister man! Learn how to knock,” she complained before she could notice my disastrous look.

“Oh my-”

With curiosity, she hopped down from her bed and walked close to the door where I stood.

“Hey. What happened to you?” She spoke slowly and quietly.

I stood in front of her, tongue-tied, and looking disconcerted. I was still in shock. As much as I tried, my body forsook me as it began to quiver again. My hands especially. The tears, I couldn't help either.

“Mide. Calm down. Tell me what happened,” she said.

“I didn't do it. I didn't do it...It wasn't me.” My voice vibrated as I finally broke the silence with words I wasn't sure should have been the right ones.

She raised her brows and held my shoulders firmly again. "You didn't do what?"

Her bathroom door creaked open and someone stepped out before I could give an answer. It was Dorcas.

Why is she here? God No! Not this talkative.

My heart skipped a beat. I guess hers did too when she saw me in my bloodied clothes.

"Jeeez! What the heck? Why do you have-?" Dorcas freaked out.

That's it!

"What's she doing here?" I whispered to Olamipo.

"Just girls' night stuff. No biggie. I will tell her to leave now," she replied at the same level of my voice before turning to Dorcas.

"Dorcas. I'm sorry but you have to go now. Like now."

"Wha- Why na? This wasn't our plan na." Dorcas countered.

Without having to explain, Olamipo helped with her bag pack and piloted her out of the house since she was resisting and nagging about whatsoever plan they had.

Olamipo returned to the room after taking her out and I was already seated in one of the plastic chairs she had in the corner of her room. The tension in me had already mitigated but the images of Aderera didn't stop flashing in my head.

She dragged the second chair from the same corner and sat in front of me after she had poured me a cold glass of water that I gulped down in a second.

"Mide, calm down now and tell me what happened to you at the festival? Who did you fight with? Those street boys?" she spoke.

After being lost in thought, I regained consciousness when I felt the warmth of her hands on mine. My body stopped trembling for a while and I was ready to tell her all that happened but...but again, the thought of my dad came alive in my mind. I thought of how much trouble I would be with him if he found out. He had warned me before.

"Dad must not know about any of this please," I pressed my hands against hers.

"What is dad not knowing about?" A rough mature voice from the door asked.

Dad.

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