"I DON'T KNOW if I will be home early today," Father says when he parks his vehicle in front of the house, I know he means he does not know if he will be home at all today, but I just nod. Irekitan and Lebechi alight from the car first. They came home with me so we could discuss what our next move will be.

"Everything is okay at work, right?" Not having father at home regularly—even though I am glad since it keeps him off my back—is a little bit sad. Plus I want to know if there is anything I have to worry about since the plan is to go to the Gallery now.

He shakes his head and pats my back, "Some things were stolen again, I and some colleagues just need to make a list, that's all."

"If that is all, can't you do it from home?"

"It involves translating centuries old languages. Don't worry about me. Go and rest, and tell Eni I'll see him later." I give him a warm smile then step out. He drives away immediately which is my cue to enter the house.

Inside, Eni is beside a square shaped carton taller than he is, a paint brush and palette in his hands. He has on an apron and on his face is protective glasses too. I eye the mess in the sitting room, there are papers everywhere, ribbons and something like glass. Kitan and Lebechi are close to him, talking.

"Eni, what is all these na?" I fold my arm around my chest, I try not to close my eyes from the light pain I. If I do, they would not let me correct the disaster I have made.

"This, sister, is the work of a genius." My brother grins at me.

"No, you are making everywhere ugly. Is it because Mummy is not here? Where is Mrs.Gideon?" I look around in search of the nanny. I wonder how the woman has not gotten fed up and quit because of Eni. If I was his nanny, I would have done that a long time ago.

"You would not know genius even if hit you in the face," my friends snicker near him.

"Oh, so you both are on his side?"

"Are we supposed to not side the magnificent six year old?" Lebechi says with glee.

"Thank you," Eni tells her and I sneer.

"Well, whatever, you both can do what you like." I make my way to the kitchen where I meet the nanny, she is cutting plantain into small pieces and I smile at her before greeting.

"Oh dear, I actually thought I would be done before you came. How are you feeling? You are so brave, so very brave." I suspect Mother has already told her of what—the version she knows—happened.

"I am better, I'm not very brave." I tell her and it is a confession. I actually don't feel brave or anything close, I just feel guilty. And this is the feeling I have always had right from last year. I could not handle the incident with Kaka, so I browsed a lot of nonsense about awakening powers and one said push yourself to the limit. If I had powers, I thought then, maybe I would have been able to stop her and stop the vehicle. I thought of doing good, as a way to get all the guilt off my chest. But now that I have these powers, all I did was release a great—or a bunch of—evil.

"Nonsense omo, you are one brave child. Here, take a little because I know you came to steal this," she scoops some already fried plantain into my hands and I grin at her, grateful she actually never quit.

I make my way back to the sitting room, Eni is alone now and he is seriously painting random colors onto the weird box.

"I hope whatever it is comes out amazing," I decide to be a supportive big sister.

"Thank you," Eni smiles at me, it makes me remember when he was actually born and how much I cried after I was allowed to carry him briefly. Kitan and Kaka kept teasing about how I would grow up to be a woman who cried at everything. I was just happy my parents were extremely happy, because before him, I used to see Mother with sad expressions and Father too.

"It actually is already amazing, but you can't tell." I groan the next minute and go up the stairs regretting being a supportive sister, at the end of the day.

"I hope it destroys," I shout when I reach the top of the stairs and don't hear his response when I go into my room.

Lebechi is on my bed, eyes on her phone, while Kitan is by the window, his laptop open and with him. He has a serious expression, which makes me wonder what he is doing but I don't speak to him. We have not exactly spoken since our quarrel at the hospital.

"So, we go midnight and then find out if there is a material on this thing," I hold out the ring which I found in the outfit Mother brought for me. "My dad said there are in the office almost all night translating something that will help them find some stolen objects, which means we have to be careful. And now, I think I am the one who should go alone."

The statement makes Lebechi sit up, "No way, you need me. What if you have to translate something on the spot? Do you know languages?"

I nod, fair point. "Then Lebechi and I would go alone."

Unlike the girl who speaks first, Kitan just chuckles dryly, "Like you will be able to get in without me."

"Who says we can't? I know the entire place up and down. . . somehow."

"Yeah, you do. But have you ever gone there in the night? Do you know how many cameras are there? Do you know where they are stationed? Do you know how to disable them? Tell me, do you?"

He does have a fairer point, but I don't want to admit. "Do you?" I ask him, because if I don't he is not supposed to know. I go to the gallery more than he does, he has no Parent working there and I spend late hours there—if late is 7pm—with my father.

"If I did not, what would be the point of asking you."

"There is no way you can know, you don't go there often."

"Do I have to go there often? I am observant, unlike you apparently, went with Kaka one night to test my app once, I can remember easily."

What? Kitan and Kaka had night adventures? Without me? This makes me feel very much like the third wheel I always was.

"Fine," I say instantly then go to my bed where Lebechi has her brows up and looks from me to Kitan continuously.

After some moments of Silence, Kitan speaks, turning his system screen towards our direction. Lebechi scoots from the bed to have a better view.

"So," he begins, "Getting in is not relatively easy."

"I could just go into the building and say I want to stay with my dad and then have you both pass the window or something. Or maybe I can make the walls part for us to go in, after all I do have powers." I say casually.

"Yes, Amadin, that is a very good plan, except you are forgetting you cannot walk into the gallery at midnight and neither can you make use of this powers because it is what started everything in the first place."

"Then you are saying I am at fault?" I don't exactly know what comes over me. Maybe the fact that he and Lebechi are bonding in the short time they know each other and he never tried to force me to befriend him again after all these months. Or maybe it is the fact I can't get the moments Kaka, him and I spent together and it feels like a betrayal to her just being together without her.

Kitan breathes sharply, "God, Amadin. Why are you being so irritating today? I would have said it was because of the cut you had but you are being unbearably annoying. What do you want to hear me say? That you are not at fault?"

"Okay, guys. . .let us all breath in," Lebechi, trying to get us to stop our attacks on one another, demonstrates by taking a deep breath. But I ignore her.

"I know I am at fault, I won't argue with that. . ."

"Good." He clenches his jaw.

". . .but what I want for you is to accept you are at fault too rather than allowing me pin everything on myself. You are as guilty as I am."

"And let's breath out. . ." Lebechi does her own thing.

"What?" Kitan has his mouth open, "How is anything my fault? You were the one who initiated everything, you and Lebechi. I don't even know why I decided to be a part of whatever this group of unqualified children are."

"Another breath, in. . ."

"Why then are you here?" I should stop, he really does not have to be with us, to do all the things he has done. I am being ungrateful, unreasonable. Maybe it is hormones due to incoming periods, but I know this action may spoil whatever friendship we have. "Why not take your things and leave? Everyone leaves when something goes wrong, they don't try to get past walls people build or try to look deeper and see that what they say is not what they mean. Go."

"Breath out. . ."

"What the hell are you talking about?" He wears a frown at first and then his face relaxes briefly, "Unless you are not talking about this." The boy gestures to the entire room like it is the Superhero thing we are involved in.

"I am talking about what I am talking about." I say.

I can barely hear Lebechi but she says, "Third time is the charm, in. . ."

"Make it make sense then. Ihaega ganda. you are being unreasonable, you are the one who avoids me and now you want to act like it is me who avoids you."

"Yes, I avoid you because I don't need you."

"Right, you don't."

"Last round. In. . ."

"I don't. Go away." Too much Amadin, too much. Just stop.

"Fine, you want me away? away I go." He shuts his system with so much anger that I think it may break. I turn my face from him as I hear him mumble words like 'stupid me', 'should have stayed away', 'stupid powers'.

"Go."

"Ou--" My room door slams shut and startles Lebechi out of her one man breathing exercise. "Wha. . . I swear they told me it works in calming tension!"

I don't reply because my anger has turned around from being at Kitan to being at myself. There was really no point in being irritating, as he said. Now we have no real plan to get into the Archaeology Gallery.

"What happened?" Lebechi finally asks, "Why have you been annoyed since you woke up?"

"Doesn't matter now, does it?"

"Yes, we three are a team. We cannot work well without each other, you know this."

"We three?" I look at her, my face scrunched up into the most annoyed look I can give. "Three? There is no three. We used to be three and now one is gone, you cannot in anyway come and take her place. You are an outsider and it can never work." I come out harsh and bitter and spiteful. Lebechi flinches at my words, her eyes her open, her mouth too.

"Oh," she finally says, her voice like a whisper. She gets off my bed and blinks briefly. "I'm sorry." With that, she leaves my room too, but unlike Kitan, she closes the door gently.

Why am I being unnecessarily mad? I fall on my bed, grab a pillow and scream into it. It is definitely almost my month. Usually, I cry all night, so this new way is weird. I groan all the more and wonder how Kaka would have done.

I think I sleep off in that position because I find myself the next moment being dragged on the red earth, my hands are tied, my mouth has a cloth stuffed into it also. It feels like me, only it is not exactly me since the body I am looking out from has unbelievable muscles and is dressed in—what I suspect to be—leopard skin.

The only thing I can think of doing is to yell for help, maybe someone in the bushes around me will come to my aide and stop whatever seems to be dragging me, but all I can manage is a choking sound.

From before me, I hear a voice say "Éna ugha ma ku, mé je okhianyaen." But my view is foggy. Although, somehow I understand what the voice just said and I begin to panic and thrust around. I try the power of the ring, but nothing seems to work. And I hear the menacing laugh of whoever owns the voice. I am doomed, I am very doomed.

But then I feel a heavy shake and a more familiar voice call out to me, "Amadin, Amadin." My eyes open widely in an instant and I jump out of bed, still afraid.

"It is not real life," I breath out and face Mother for the first time. She is still in her uniform and has a worried look on her face.

"What isn't?"

I rush to hug her because I am thankful I am not being dragged off by some mysterious creature. It could have been a human or it could have been those things which came out from the ground. Still, I am grateful for real life.

"My Din Din," Mother pats my head and I coo into her body. Call me a Mummys girl, but I miss always having her to myself. Now I have to share her with. . .

"You know she is sixteen, mummy. I am embarrassed for her if she is not." Enikaro stands at my open door, one of his eyebrows raised.

"Nobody is too old for a Mummys hug, Victor." Mother laughs at my brothers statement and uses his middle name.

"Well, you may be right. It is a theory that needs to be researched. Does that mean you are forgiving her now?" Eni quips, raising a brow at me and Mother. I, on the other hand, is confused about what is there to be forgiven and as to why my brother would go that far, reminding Mother of something she forgot about. Now that I have powers, I should get rid of him or something.

I pull out of Mother hold, although occasionally, I fear a knock on my head may come any second. "Forgive?"

"Oh, yes." The womans face lits up and then a frown finds its way to her forehead, "You left your friend downstairs all these while and came here to sleep. Is that how I raised you?"

"Obviously not mummy, she is growing wings."

I chose to ignore all of Enis statement because I am more confused than before, "What friend?"

"The one you are having a sleepover with na," Mother says with a mix of disbelief and joy. I have more disbelief than joy.

"I have no friend!" the words just come out because I cannot think of anyone who matches the description at the moment. Who exactly is my friend? Kaka and Kitan were, but one is no longer here and the other one has officially (maybe) been dis-friended.

"Amadin," Mother scolds, a little anger in her eyes. "This is what you do to someone who watched over you all night when you were in the hospital? I don't know what has come over you, but since you sound okay enough to say things like that. Go downstairs and make that girl comfortable."

Girl? I close my eyes temporarily, I would have been happy to close it longer but I don't want a case where I would annoy Mother longer. It is Lebechi alright, she never left when I told her to. Now I am more annoyed than ever.

"Yes ma."

Sure enough, the Capatain of my class is perched onto the chair in my sitting room, a small tote bag by her feet. I am sure she did not bring that with her while we came from the hospital. I glare at her while Mother goes into the kitchen with Eni trailing behind her. He likes to act like he is not a baby but he does like one around Mother.

"What are you doing here?" The anger from before grows slowly.

"I. . .well, I was going to tell you but you were very annoyed ."

"So, making my mother annoyed at me will not make me more annoyed?" I ask her, my hands folded around my chest. My injury has not healed completely so I push down a wince that is about to come.

"No, I'm sorry. I just. . . no excuse. It was shitty for me not to tell you before your Mum came," she bends her head and plays with her fingers. I feel terrible, especially after remembering she and Kitan were with me almost all night while I was unconscious.

With a sigh, I say, "Why did you not go home?"

She perks up, a small smile on her face. "I told my Dad to tell my Mum I will be staying with him tonight then told him I will be staying with you. At first he did not agree but I guilt tripped him, it is kind of my one string to get things out of him. . ."

I was confused but maintained my straight face.

". . .at the end, he did. He mainly thinks I am here to watch over my friend, but the real reason. . ." she looks around and then whispers, ". . .is because I can't go to the gallery alone and I want to watch that you don't make use of the power and release more Possession."

"Back up," I say at last, confused and curious. "What the hell is Possession?"

"Oh, it is the name curated for those creature things by me and. . ." She stops, knowing she has now stepped on thin ice. They were at it again, him trying to force Lebechi to take the place of Kaka and her trying to take that place.

I scoff, "You and Kitan. Of course. " I have the urge to walk away, mostly because I have the urge to reach into my pocket, grab the ring, wear it and have the earth squeeze the life out of the chubby girl before me. I hate that that is the thought which comes to my head, but it is. Mother uses that time to make an appearance, stopping me from doing any one of the two urges.

"You know your way to the room, so help yourself." 

•••

hey heroes, how have you been?

So, today is actually my last day of self discipline, lol. and by this, I mean, the last day of having chapters before hand.

I really wanted to finish this book this month, but things happened and I couldn't write. And for November, I'll be participating in Nanowrimo for the first time. I know you can actually write old projects for Nano, as long as the new words added are 50k, but the actual planned word count for this book is only 50k, and I've written and published 30k+

yes, the book is coming to end sooner than expected (or slower than I expected).

point of this is to tell you, updates would be like blue moons.

you can follow my Nano project (I'll be posting the forward next) and support my journey. I'd really appreciate that.

thank you for reading,
lots of love
Omonigho.