Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I hope you like this gift,
From me to you.

I gasped.

It was written in the same ink as the last, there was no doubt as to who it was from.

My eyes quickly scanned the room for anything unusual, I found nothing.

I retuned my attention to the note, apart from the four lines of words, it didn't hold any other information, but I knew better than chalking it up to nothing. This maniac, from what I learned so far, had never been one to play inconsequential pranks. If he wrote about a gift, it was something that would be ghastly and if it was in the room, I had to find it before my roommates showed up.

The time read 2:34pm.

Crap.

I didn't even know where to begin from. 

It was possible that he would hide it somewhere for someone else to see it first, especially when that person is a malicious gossip, so I began my search from Alero's end.

The room was as large as a classroom, so everyone had her own corner and decorated it according to preference. In dorm room 029, the amount of gadgets, furniture and whatnot you decorated your corner with determined how much wealth your parent commands. That was why  expensive wardrobes took the place of normal lockers, wallpapers replaced the plain paint of the walls, bunkers were displaced by Queen sized beds and loveseats, vanity mirrors and other frivolous things spilled into the empty corner that was meant for Tiny. 

All these superficial items were a major hindrance in my search operation, by the time I was just half of Alero's corner, it was already twelve past three and I knew I'll never find whatever the gift was in time. There was also the risk of being accused for theft so I retreated to my corner in resignation.

Maybe it was actually empty words to ruffle me up.

My fingers were crossed on that until I got to my locker.

I didn't need to go through the trouble of twisting and turning my lock combination. It was unlocked and slightly ajar.

The most appropriate place to keep a surprise gift would be somewhere the recipient checks often, right?

I held my breath as I opened the locker.

I couldn't help but wonder what the gift was about. All of the possibilities were sickening.

A pungent, eye watering stench assaulted my face with such forcefulness, that I almost retched the guts into the locker. I hadn't even seen was it contained as I was still trying to retrieve my vision from the temporary blindness the stench had gifted me with. It was a strong mixture of rot and alcohol.

From behind me, I heard the clicking sound of the lock, someone was coming in.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

I quickly snapped the locker shut and leaned against it as the handle twisted open to reveal non other than my sister, looking all kempt and smug, peering into her phone with rapt attention. 

She stopped abruptly and turned sharply towards me just when she was about to reach her corner at the adjacent end of the room.

My breath hitched when her eyes connected with mine. I averted mine immediately.

"Ella," she whispered softly in apparent surprise and hastily dropped her expensive bag to the ground without paying mind. What fell out of her mouth next shook me to the marrow, "are you okay?"

I blinked, once, then twice. Then I pinched myself to make sure it wasn't another nightmare.

She asked if I was okay.

Ideraoluwa Gabriella Adeoti actually asked if I —the scum, family disgrace and overall bastard— was okay.

And it didn't end there, she put a foot in front of the other continuously and made a way to where I was standing and asked the question again.

I must've woken up in an opposite universe after hitting my head that hard the day before, for she —not minding my shabby appearance— touched me, she brought my hands under her eyes and scrutinized it in wonder. My dumbstruck brain found it hard to process any thought at that moment.

The pretty face, like mother's, bore a look of worry and slight fear when her gaze fell back to my face. I was awed.

"Ella, don't tell me ...don't tell me you now do ...drugs," she whispered, her voice a semblance to the voice of a lazy, evening breeze. It took a few seconds for assimilation to take place.

I snatched back my hand when what she was trying to insinuate dawned on me.

It was on the tip of my tongue to deny her claims but then at the very last second, I thought better of it.

So I replied accordingly, "why do you care?" Maybe it was due to the aftereffect of crying hard, but my voice sounded like sandpaper scraping the back of a metal pot, and for some reason which I cloud not comprehend, it made my twin recoil.

"I never thought it would come to this Ella. I'm sorry." Her soft voice was solemn and trembling when she talked this time, with an added water-work effect. She whirled around and dashed out of the room without remembering to tend to her expensive shoulder bag that was probably made out of original crocodile leather.

I rolled my eyes in wonder as to why she was majoring in science, she keeps getting better by the day with her classic theatrics. For a while there, she almost had me fooled.

I rushed towards the door to lock it once more, making sure to secure the inner latch before returning to my offensive smelling locker.

I understood why Dera had the impression that I might be into heroine; there were fresh injection marks at the back of my palm, I looked like a nut job with the scanty, dirty clothing I had on and my corner reeked of a mixture of strong alcohol and a kind of chemical I didn't understand. But she was just being too dramatic about it, it wasn't as if she cared or anything.

I quickly shoved thoughts of her to the back of my mind and reopened the locker once again, with more carefulness this time than before. I reached into the space and gently pulled out what felt like a silky bag, because the locker was like a typical highschool locker, deeply installed into the wall and coupled with the poor lightning in my corner, I wasn't able to see the contents in the transparent zip-lock bag until it was pulled out completely.

I actually thought of it as a possibility, probably envisioned it. I still wasn't prepared in the least for what I was holding on to with trembling hands.

'I have a gift for you. A special gift'. The words rushed back to me in a flash.

The air tight bag in my grasp contained thick layers of skin, immersed in a colourless liquid that was dripping drop by drop from a leak.

It was skin from the body. Skin of a human being.

I almost fainted from shock.

I didn't fail to notice tiny white cardboard was stapled to the edge of the bag, a flowery font scrawled upon it;

Tick says the clock,
Tick tick,
What you have to do,
Do quick.

♣

If I previously had any misconceptions about waking up in an alternate universe, I'd been thoroughly convinced otherwise. 

I'd never ran from the hostels to the main building as fast as I did that day.

I didn't bother with cleaning up, I just threw on the nearest clothes I could find, dumped all the contents of Alero's makeup-slash-jewelry box on her bed, placed the bag into the portable, metal container and vamoosed to the hag's office.

She was in the middle of a staff meeting when I barged in, she was about to scream profanities but when she saw the look on my face, her mouth snapped shut.

"Miss Adeoti. What brings you by?" She screeched instead, her voice on the verge of causing an earthquake, several teachers had to hurriedly plug their ears to save their poor eardrums but that was barely the weighty problem.

"There's bad news." I said without preamble and the tension in the air heightened to a new level.

"We'll get to it as soon as we're done with this meeting Miss Adeoti, kindly wait at the—"

"It has to be now. It's urgent!" I spat impatiently, raising the box higher for all to see. Mrs. Lawrence laughed nervously and looked to her right for something, I followed her gaze and it landed on the hot cop's.

"In that case then, Mr. Otabor and Miss Ruby will see what this is all about if you be so kind as to escort them to the lab?" Hot cop had already stood up and was marching towards me, venom voice joined him halfway. I returned my gaze to the hag to protest, but her desperate eyes pleaded with me. I gave a curt nod and left the room in long strides, ignoring the clueless members of the staff that shared perplexed looks.

I got as far as the reception before hot cop yanked me around to face him.

"What's going on?" He demanded, looking me straight in the eye. I snapped out out of his hold and met his eyes properly.

"You'll see," I replied and resumed my pace.

The rest of the journey was spent in tense silence.

The biology lab was deserted when she got there, I jammed the box on the tiled slab in the middle of the space and went to make sure that there were no eavesdroppers and the doors and windows were properly closed. 

I turned to the expectant glances of the two detectives.

"I got a gift," I began and pointed to the box I was currently as far away from as possible. Venom voice raised a brow as if to ask; 'and so?', hot cop eyed the box warily.

"We need to get it to a lab as fast as possible before it disintegrates. The next equation is on it," I finished and venom voice rolled her eyes in boredom.

"So tell me Sherlock Holmes, why would we want to take a paper to the lab? Do you even know anything at all?" She chuckled amusedly and hot cop stoned her a look.

Something about the way she talked nonchalantly made me flare up.

"It's not just a piece of paper Ruby. It's a piece of human skin and I might not be Sherlock Holmes but I know that this isn't a cause for amusement." She rolled her eyes and lazily inspected her fingers again. I wondered how someone so feather brained could be a certified detective.

I turned to hot cop to find him doing that staring thing again. I sighed in frustration.

"Are you going to keep staring or your going to call those bozos from the lab to check this out for clues? We're running out of time!"

Hot cop stared me down for a few more seconds before starting towards the direction of the box. I had no idea why he looked like I'd pissed him off.

When he finally opened the box and inspected its content, his expression softened drastically and he turned towards venom voice.

"Ruby, you should check this out." At the mention of her name, Ruby peeled herself from the window and strutted towards him, making sure to sway her toned hips sensuously. I bit back a snide comment.

Her dramatic gasp when she got close enough to clearly see what was he was holding up reminded me of Dera. She then turned to me in incredulity, "did you see this?, did you touch it?" 

"No, I used my psychic powers to sense what it was and telekinesis to transport the bag from my locker to that case." I retorted and her expression hardened.

"This is not the time to joke around,"  She snapped and I nodded in agreement.

"I'm not one for jokes either, that was sarcasm. Clearly, you haven't studied your language properly." She tried to say something but it came out as a garbled mess. I ignored her and turned towards hot cop, "what are we going to do?" 

He dropped the bag, took determined steps towards me and pulled me into his arms. My heart did a double take because of the abrupt action.

"I'm so sorry you had to see that." His voice sounded from somewhere above my head. The feel of his firm hands around me was comforting and his voice soothed my emotional turmoil, but there wasn't time to revel in it.

"I shouldn't be your focus sir. We're running out of time!" His hands hesitantly let go of me and he returned to the bag of rotting skin. I sighed in exhaustion.

"We need back up. This is getting too much." Venom voice voiced out her concerns when she was done glaring grenades at me.

"We can handle this," came the quick reply from hot cop.

"In matter of days another body will show up. Do you still think we've got this? This is not some investigate-my-cheating-wife case. A psycho murderer is on the loose, it'll take more than the two of us to catch him." For the first time since I met her, venom voice actually said something that made a little bit of sense.

"You're not alone in this," I assured, "I'm with you. I'll help anyway I can."

A dismissive scoff came from venom voice, hot cop shook his head fervently.

"We won't get you involve in this, it's too risky." It was my turn to scoff.

"Oh yeah? Like I'm not already involved as it stands? This person we're talking about is very interested in me, isn't that risky enough? Please let me help." 

"And what will you help with? Making coffee or wrapping your sickly arms around men way out of your league?" I could feel contempt dripping out of her every word. I shook my head in pity.

"Maybe I'll begin by telling you the killer has members of the staff in his employ? If you aren't so focused on men, you would have stopped to think about how these 'gifts' keeps getting to my room without the notice of anyone." I turned to see the pale surprise on hot cops face, "we really have to get that ...thing to the lab soon. And afterwards, you have the non teaching staff of Lydia hall to question. You're welcome," I said and went over to open the door for principal hag, who was about to raise her hand to knock. 

Of course I knew that I was not exactly smart and might not be enough help to the currently flabbergasted duo behind me, but I was going to fight with the very last blood in my vein to prevent another murder from happening and bring the psycho, who thought himself invincible enough to play God, to justice.

That was my pledge to Tiny. My vow.

Another chapter for the new week💃, I did tell you frequent chapters will pop up from time to time🌚 and I guess I'm doing good on my word😌.

I hope y'all are safe and well.
Here in Lagos, a total lockdown has commenced since last night, no movement at all and all that. I had to rush to the market to stock up food supplies.

This chapter is for  InamorataFeels, thank you for voting on all  the previous chapters, y'all check out her books, she's a b add ass writer.

I implore y'all to stay safe, clean and healthy.

I love y'all as always,
✌illusionistic.