"Adeoti." I groaned in frustration at the mention of my name. Of course senior Dave would be waiting outside my hostel to walk me to classes. Again.

Sometimes I just fucking want to be invincible.

" You shouldn't waste your time chasing after me senior Dave." I spat as he caught up with me, "chase after a girl that actually wants you."  A girl that deserves you. My subconscious added.

I knew quickening my strides or even breaking into a run was useless when he meant to follow me. He'd proven that the day before.

"I'm not chasing you." His ever sugary voice replied calmly.

Ugh!

"It wouldn't seem so to everyone around." I looked around to give credence to my point. Sure enough, there were numerous eyes on us, all glaring daggers in my direction.

Joy.

"You don't strike me as someone who would care about other people's opinion of you." He said with an amused brow raised.

"I don't care." I gritted back for the second time in forty eight or so hours, hot cop asked the same question with the same countenance two nights ago. Isn't that what they call déjà vu?

"Yeah. Right." He said sarcastically and walked past me.

I sincerely didn't understand why I'd been talking to him in the first place, it wasn't like I was under compulsion or something.

I remained mute till we approached the classrooms. Then he said something that really did upset me.

"You're on a killers radar Adeoti, you shouldn't fight that I am protecting you." The speed at which I whipped around made a bone in my neck crack.

"For a 'five time award winner of the national mathematics competition', you don't have common sense. In your own comprehension now ehn, following me like a psycho is a measure to protect me? Why don't you attend the same classes I do, stand outside the bathroom while I have my bath and move in with me because 'I'm on a killer's radar and you want to protect me'? Ode."  I retorted before walking away to my classroom in angry, determined strides.

Thankfully, the class was empty but eerily silent when I walked in. I walked towards the back of the room and closed my eyes after sitting down to calm my nerves.

"Do you know how qualified for hell you are now?" I almost jumped of my skin by the sudden question.

How on earth did I miss his creepy presence in the first place?

Of course Mr. Balogun was slightly resting his weight on a nearby desk when I flung my eyes open, his bloodshot eyes trained on me.

"And you're the devil's PR manager, yeah?" I attempted a snide comeback but was only replied with an amused grunt.

He stood to his full length still eyeing me, his attempt at intimidating me was perfectly working.

"What else do you want to remind me of asides my special place next to the devil in hell." I yelled but he didn't reply, he just kept staring at me like I was an art piece in a gallery.

I wondered what happened that made people suddenly interested in me.

The wrong kind of people.

He finally moved when the bells for morning assembly chimed. I exhaled a breath I didn't know I was holding when I saw him take large strides towards the entrance. A breath that hitched when he stopped by the doorway and smiled creepily at me.

"You don't have to die before you go to hell my dear," he began, his creepy smile not faltering for a second. "There are some kinds of hell that you go through here on earth, you know the ones that is even double the pandemonium because you have to go through it alone?" He didn't wait for a reply, he shoved his hands into his jeans pocket and said; "have a nice day Isabella Adeoti," before walking away in his giant strides.

By the time I was able to decipher the meaning behind his words, he was long gone.

Even as students started flooding into the after assembly concluded, I was still immobile in a state of total shock.

♣

"I quit." I announced when Miss Tina was in the middle of scolding me for arriving late for training.

Gasps filled the air when I made the declaration. Even the coach who hated my guts wasn't less shocked than my team mates.

They knew how much I valued the game, they knew how I'd fought when the hag wanted to take me off the team and replace me with my twin sister, they knew was the last thing I would do in my life. But they all didn't know what I knew, they all didn't know that I was burdened with a hell that was much more than I could bear.

They all don't know that you're on a killer's radar.

So here I was, facing chirping pigeons of oasis of saints bla bla bla, and telling them that I was quitting the team, quitting basketball.

Miss Tina -the young basketball coach that hated my guts- was the first to recover. Her face morphed into a blinding smile within seconds.

"That's good news, the head girl has always wanted to play. Now we have a place for her."

And that was just about it. It didn't matter that I'd scored the number of points for the team than the entire players put together, it didn't matter that my sister didn't know a tiny bit of anything at all about basketball. What mattered was the fact that Dera was loved more than me.

It had always been that way.

"But why now? The inter school championship is coming up next month and there going to be scouts from the Nigerian professional basketball league. This is your ultimate chance to be scouted Ella." A concerned Hajarat –the basketball captain– explained. 

She wasn't wrong, it had been my dream to be scouted and ultimately play for the national team, but basketball was the least trouble I had to deal with at the moment.

"I have to focus more on my studies for this session Hajarat. But thanks all the same for your concern." She shook her head and opened her mouth to say something but miss Tina was eager to get rid of me. She ushered me out with a fake smile and went back in to continue training.

Well, that was easier than I thought.

With that box ticked in my mental checklist, I made my way towards the staff quarters.

♣

Mr. Balogun, or as everyone fondly called him; Badoo, (because he looked too much like the animated bean) was that one of those stereotypical teacher that had a nut or two loose upstairs.

 He was a full foot taller than my 5'11, had bloodshot eyes sunken deep into his skull, shiny bald head and greying beards. And he wouldn't stop stop talking about hell and listing the candidates of hell.

"....you abuse your teachers Femi, you're going to hell."

"....you're a truant Jamiu, your hell is waiting."

"....you don't know ohm's law Simon, your hell is waiting."

"....you're a trouble maker Isabella, your place is next to the devil."

"You're palming your hair miss Tina, you'll gnash your teeth in hell…"

Hell was his favorite word, he wasn't tired of preaching it and he always made the X symbol with his two indexes whenever he mentioned the word hell as a sign of respect.
People said he was crazy and Alero took it as far as suggesting that he'd read the seven books of Moses and had encountered something he wasn't supposed to, hence his creepy kind of crazy. I'd laughed it off when she said it, but I didn't entirely rule out the possibility. 

That, and our earlier encounter was the reason I was breaking into the quarters he shared with two other teachers.

I was convinced that Badoo knew something, so I wanted to discreetly search for a proof to give credence to my suspicion while he was away in a classroom, lecturing innocent students, with the impression that I was in the basketball court, training for an upcoming match.

It was barely a wise thing to do because I was going to be in so much trouble if I was found out. But I wasn't one to think before action, or I wouldn't be standing by his desk, holding a leatherback journal in his room and reading a hazy writing from a date ten years ago, when he was apparently still in the university.

-------------------------------------------------------------
12th, August 2010,

Lagos university of technology, Lagos.

I saw her again today, I saw her with him. She seemed happy dragging me through this hell, she was—

"Fancy seeing you here Mi amor."I gave an embarrassing squeak in surprise and jumped a full feet in the air, bringing the idiot that'd just scared me to bits into fits of laughter.

"Corper Jide." I said in a monotone, after calming down and collapsed on the empty bamboo chair in front of the desk I'd picked the book from.

"I see you've been up to your truancy yet again love." He smiled and leaned on the table in front of me.

"I see that I'm not alone corper Jide, what are you doing here?" Although they shared the same lounge area, their rooms were very much different and apart from the other, hence my question.

I could see uneasiness seep out of his pores. But he quickly masked it with a mischievous look.

"I should be the one asking that question Mi amor, what are you doing here?" I shrugged my reply and stood up from the chair.

"You do know how much trouble you'll get in when I report you to the authorities, right? Because I will." I could see the delicious mischief dancing in his smirk, but I wasn't anywhere near fazed, I knew just what would dampen that mood.

"You do know, my dear corper Jide how much trouble you'll be in if I posted that video of senior Queen handling your dildo right? Because I will. I have the video." The smirk was wiped entirely off his face and replaced with a gory expression.

Mission accomplished.

"And you think you can fool me into believing your lies? I know you don't have the video because I didn't do what you're insinuating." He babbled out in weak defense. Seriously there was a limit to someone's stupidity, corper Jide's brain was as short as he was.

"Why don't you report me and relax if you're so sure?" I questioned with an amused smile. His expression hadn't improved.

"That's because I don't want to report, not if it'd give me the chance to smash you. I won't tell as long as you agree to a round or two." I shook my head in pity for this sex-driven idiot, wondering how in hell he made through university with all his fuckboy with no brains antics.

It wasn't the first time he was spouting gibberish about sleeping with me, and I knew it wouldn't be the last time I would be rejecting it either.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you once again Mr. Jide, but I'm not interested in sex with you. Go on to report and watch how I weave through it unscathed and incrim–" I was cut short by the sudden push over the desk and was swiftly pinned there with a powerful grip and his body weight.

Bile crawled up my throat when I realised he was unbuckling his belt to free his fly.

I won't let it happen again... I won't let it happen again... I won't let it happen again.

"You're the most stubborn bitch I've ever seen, I'll have to take it myself if you won't give me." I heard the unzipping of his trousers as I tried squirming out of his surprisingly powerful hold. How he managed to pin me down to the desk with one hand and uncage his fly with the other was miraculous. But I wasn't going to let this happen. I couldn't let it happen. Not again.

"And it's not like you don't want it ooo, you're just playing hard to get. Don't worry, I'll make it nice and slow."

" …..you know you want it baby….shhh, I'll go nice and slow…"

I wasn't going to let it happen again.

His had barely made it to the hem of my skirt before I located an empty Scotch bottle.

"Wait Jide. I'll blow you." I croaked in a voice that was anything but erotic but that was just about what I needed to disconcert him enough to grab the bottle.

It all happened in a split second; I turned around and bashed his head so hard that the bottle smashed in little fragments.

I watched in horror as Jide fell on to me, the scarlet of his blood marring the cream colour of my school shirt...

*_*_*_*

"You're a home wrecker Ella, how can you say Liam did that do you?" Mother yelled in tears as she helped her recovering husband to a couch.

"He–"

"Shut up Ella, you're trash, just like your father. He would also go out of his way to ruin my happiness."

"Mum, list–"

"There is nothing to listen to Ella, I denounce my relationship to you this moment. You're no longer my daughter!" She'd exclaimed before walking out of the room with her favorite daughter tailing behind.

My attention drifted the monster in the guise of sheep's clothing staring amusedly at me with a sinister glint in his eyes.

"Bitch," he'd mouthed, still too weak to use his voice.

"I'll make sure to kill you the next time you try it. I swear on all the things that's holy. I won't let it happen again." I'd said with grim determination and left with a tearstained face to the garage that was going to be my new room.

I wouldn't let it happen again… I didn't let it happen again…..I wouldn't let it happen again… It didn't happen again.

I pushed him off me and walked out of the room in a daze, mentally chanting my soothing mantra and ignoring the painful slur of the man who'd just tried to rape me.

It didn't happen again, I didn't let it happen again. It'll never happen  again

♣

Glossary:

Ode: fool (Yoruba)
Ehn: in this context, it's just for emphasis.

Hello people, sorry about the  late update, I got stuck with writing the author's note🙈.
I hope you did enjoy the chapter,  even if not much happened in it.
What do you think about Badoo😏?
Vote and comment if you like the book.
Feedbacks and reviews also very welcome.
Till the next chapter cupcakes.
Love,
✌illusionistic.