"STAY BACK BEFORE I blast you," my voice is strangely firm and my hands tinge with a strange kind of strength, power to be precise. I find myself beside a yellow and black Lagos bus that is somehow about to topple into the waters of the third mainland bridge, it is only held back by a bar that is soon letting go. The people inside of it are chanting 'Volcanic-Girl' instead of screaming at the fact that they will soon fall into the ocean. But I guess odd things happens in dreams so it does not bother me.

"You cannot defeat me with the lava you produce," before me is a masked man, way taller than me. He is clothe in all blue, from head to toe and only a space for his eyes are in his Villain outfit. "I am Water-Man."

"That is a silly Villain name and there is already a superhero named Aqua-man and he has a great outfit, yours is just awful." I scrunch my nose underneath the mask on my face.

The man growls, "then what do I say about that orange leather cape? Who is your outfit maker, pink and orange? Really?"

Now I become embarrassed, "This is my dream, whatever I wear here is the coolest thing."

"Then maybe we should question your dream makers?" That is it, I am mad. I raise my hands and steam come out, the lava is about to follow next.

"I am Volcanic-Girl!" I yell. I don't know why but I do that.

While I am about to blast the blue Villain, he speaks but not in his manly voice. "That has to be the most stupid name you could ever come up with." And then a cold feeling draws me from the unrealistic world in a snap.

At first, as I open my eyes, I think the Water-Man must have done something, but my brain resets when I take in my room. Th walls are painted a shade of blue while the window frames, doors, shelves are a deep brown. Hung around are posters of some DC and Marvel characters, and also some Nigerian Fictional superheros; Avonome, Eru, Ireti and Guardian Prime. There are three mildly average comic drawings by me and pictures of my family and I too.

By my bed is the most annoying six year old the world (or my family) has produced, in his hand is a bottle of water which made me realize my face and neck is slightly wet. "Good, you're up." He grins at me, he looks innocent and like he would never hurt a fly but only I know the truth. He is a Villain in the body of a child and to think his name means Saints

"Enikaro, what are you doing in my room? Did I not warn you?" I struggle to sit up, the back of my head hurts lightly.

"Watching over you. Why do you always talk in your sleep?" he blinks briefly and has his honey eyes on me.

I frown, "It is not your business."

"Daddy told me it is, and I should always make sure you are okay. . . in the head." I want to slap him, I really do, but Mother is over protective of him which means he always gets away with everything. This is because it took her ten years to get him after me.

"You are six, what do you know? Get out of here."

"Daddy says I know more than you and his doctor friend called me a genius the other day. They said I have the IQ of Einstein."

Who the hell is Einstein? "They are lying."

"But I solved your math homework."

"What math homework?"

"The one in your school bag."

"What?" I eye him, "Why did you check my bag? What did you loose inside of it that you had to find?"

"My patience. I had to watch over you but I got bored and checked around your room. You should hide your comics better, Daddy could easily walk in and find it."

The audacity, I think just as I get off of the bed. My entire body aches, like I carried a very heavy item which almost crushed me or I was flung into a wall. "Why were you watching me again?"

The boy who has skin color like mine cocks his head and raises his brow, "You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Daddy says you got scared of man in the office and fainted." I frown, trying hard to remember if it happened exactly like that. Of course I remember the man who gave me a ring and I remember my father, Mrs. Rabiu and the man leaving and I remember how I tested the ring. But I don't remember anything after that.

"I so did not get scared of any man," I defend a little late, my brother smirks at me. It's all weird when he does it because I know children his age, mothers friends children do not smirk, but Eni does.

"You so did."

"I did not," I argue back.

"You so did."

"You were not there, I did not."

"Ama is a scaredy cat, e-ya e-ya o," he starts to sing and out of frustration I grab his ear and proceed to drag him out of my room, that is when he begins to scream.

"Mummy, Amadin is being mean again," when no one responds, it is my turn to smirk, but he yells the more. "Mummy, Amadin is pulling my ear."

"Get out of my room, young man." I feel proud that no one came to his rescue and then I open my room door, only to see Mother in a Kaftan with a glare in her eyes.

"Have you no shame? Ozuo" She always adds our native language when she gets angry at my brother and I—actually mostly me—like we will automatically understand a language we have not been taught. I play with the sleeves of the night gown I just notice on me, "Your brother stayed in your room from the time you were brought till this morning, unconscious and this is how you show him gratitude?"

"He has no respect for privacy, he snooped through my things."

"What do you have to hide? All those your comic books? I could have you thrash them anytime I want, don't think you can play smart with me." She says with a stern tone while reminding me she knows about all my collections which I still choose to gather even though Father forbids especially after I jumped from the building. He says its demonic to have influenced me into doing something as stupid as that.

"I'm sorry Mummy," my brother chooses this time to make a pretend cry.

"I am not the one you offended, apologize to him, his ear hurts."

"But Mu--"

"Apologize!"

Fine, I don't say out loud, just because of my comics. "I am sorry."

"You didn't say it well," my jerk of a brother feigns a louder cry which makes my mother hug him and glare at me like I am the bad guy. Her eyes tell me; 're-apologize before I pull your ear too'.

"I am sorry for pulling your ear, Enikaro, I was mean and will not do it again," for now.

This pleases mother, she nods, mostly because Eni has stopped (fake) crying. "Good. I was going to bring your breakfast up to you but it seems you are feeling well so wash up for school and come down."

I groan, I totally forgot I am still a secondary school student. If mother did notice my mini feet stomp in regards to her words, she did not show. Eni went with her so I was alone in my room at last. I close the door, still annoyed at the fact that I can't miss school.

Good thing my homework is done anyway.

With grudge, I drag myself to the vanity mirror where my toothbrush seats in a cup among other things. I take a quick stare at my face and see it is normal, except for a stubborn pimple near my mouth that has not left in the past three days. I touch the back of my head when I feel a slight pang there and wonder what exactly happened at my fathers office.

"Strange," I say when I sight something among my jewelries. Its the exact shape, size and decorations as the object I was given yesterday, but today the color is a sharper green, like a leaf. I pick it up and examine it, "I could be living in some horror story," I mutter and pause briefly.

"So those downstairs could be blood sucking creatures who trick me into believing they are my parents?" my eyes are wide open when I look from the ring to the door and to myself in the mirror, and I stay like that until mother yells for me to 'Get to the dinning room in thirty minutes if I know what is good for me'.

"That is so my mother." I drop the ring and pick up my toothbrush then place the blue, white and red colored paste on it and rush to the bathroom. Usually, I take my time in the room with blue tiles, but not today. I brush in an instant and shower in the next. Dressing up was as quick too. I make sure to wear a uniform with badge and knot my tie. I look at myself in the mirror and nod, then try to smile, it came out weak.

"I really hate school," I bawl silently before my eyes lands on the green ring. It looks really pretty and I think it would look great on my fingers. I vaguely remember something about a warning to never wear it, but who cares right? I slip the item onto my ring finger and smirk at how it complements my olive skin.

"Maybe green is my color?" I am pleased at what I see and wish I can take it to school but decide against it. I would have to return it to father now, something as beautiful as this should remain in the gallery.

But as I try to remove the ring, I see that it does not slide. That is when I remember what happened exactly in fathers office. "This thing is demonic," my chests begins to heave when I can't get it to come off. I pull and push and do all I can but nothing happens. Mother begins to yell for me again, even father joins with threats of punishments if I do not get down in an instant. Although I am scared of that, I am more scared of him finding the ring on me, it would appear like I chose to hide the fact that his colleague gave me something and I did not let him know.

"Come off, you stupid..." I shake my hand with all the strength I can muster, but what happens is I am hurled across my room in a flash. It reminds me of how I was flung in fathers office but this time, because my hand is outstretched, I stop myself from hitting the wall. My heartbeat increases, I do not know what just happened. I look from where I stood a second ago to where I am and then at the wall, if being thrown at that great speed is crazy, then seeing the hole in my wall where my hand hit was much more crazier.

"What the fuck!" My breathing is rapid. Either I am seeing things now or possessed, but I needed to get to my parents pronto. I rush to my room door and bend the knob with all the pressure I am feeling, which turns out to be a mistake I cannot not control as it breaks. "What is happening na?"

My first instinct is to cry, because this feels too much for me. How can I break a metal door knob? Me, Amadin who would have failed any sport subject if it was a thing in my school and who gets tired just by holding a bottle of water?

"I rebuke you Satan," I say to the ring and try to see if I can fix the knob. My parents call from downstairs again, but this time, Father tells me he is coming up and if I am not out, I would be doing the 'monkey banana'—you hold up a leg with your arm and have that arms thump in your mouth—punishment. Because of that, I let go of the knob and try all means to have the door open. I turn the broken thing consistently, but the strength at which I had before is no longer there.

"Amadin Victory Nehi," the annoyed voice of father is not so far from my room now. My chest begins to tighten again.

"Open na," I struggle. Frustration begins to take over every other emotion I have, so I swipe my hand from right to left, just to gesture at the door "Open you frickin wood."

Somehow it does open without me touching it, and with force. Because I am standing right behind it, my face and the door connects. Next thing I am on the ground, my hands on my face as I try to stop myself from screaming a cry. I lose.

"Amadin you ar--" father stops the speech he is about to say and rushes to my side when he sees me on the floor. "What happened? Are you okay?"

I mumble my words, my nose hurts like hell.

"What is it?" Mother is up also, she must have heard my cry.

"I don't know, she opened the door as I came and I found her crying on the floor." Father tells mother who kneels beside me also.

"Amadin, what is it? Menstrual pain?" Every time my month comes, I get a nasty pain that drives me insane, probably since I take way too much sugar than my body can handle. But this pain feels worse and its not that time of the month so I shake my head, sobbing lightly.

"Then speak, I can't help if I don't know what is happening," Mother tells me calmly, using the tone she uses on her patients. She is a nurse.

"Thedooropenedandhitmyface," I do as she says.

"What?" It is father this time.

I suck in the new wave of tears that threaten to come. "The door opened and hit my face."

Both my parents don't speak for a minute and I feared something was wrong with them but father proves me wrong.

"That is it?" Disbelief is in his tone which makes me flinch. "You just hit your face on the door and you are doing like crayfish?"

"Honey!" Mother scolds as he stands.

"What? Who opened the door for her? Me?" I want to cry the more but father gives me a glare and walks out leaving mother and I alone inside of my room.

"What really happened, dear?"

I sniff and sit up with mothers assistance as the pain subsides gradually. "The hand of my door broke and I tried to open, but somehow it opened up by itself and hit my face."

Mother raises a brow at me, "It just opened? By itself?"

I nod, "This ring did it," when I try to show her the strange object, I notice it is not on my finger again.

"What ring?"

"It was on my hand, it threw me across the room and made me break the door knob." I explain but without proof, I know the look of disbelief in Mothers eyes will not clear.

She nods calmly and says, "You're probably having a concussion from the hit, maybe you should go with me to the hospital today."

"No!" It came out in a rush, "I mean, No mummy. I have a test today, forty percent Cumulative Assessment." I lie. Anything to get out of being watched like a hawk at the hospital she works in. She touches my head one more time and then agrees.

"If it is so, you are already late." She gets off the ground, "I'll pack your breakfast for you so you can take to school. Don't want you to miss that test." She watches me briefly before leaving the room.

"Where is that damned ring?" I ask myself when she leaves, I check underneath my bed to see if it flew there, underneath my vanity table, and places where I know objects could have been thrown to but don't find it. "That thing is really demonic, I should get an exorcist."

Then I put my hand into my pocket and feel something in it, when I bring it out, lo and behold, it is the thing I was searching for. What shocks me is how it left my finger and went to my pocket. "What are you?" I stare at it, turning it around so I can see all the inscriptions crafted into the small thing.

"Why are you talking to yourself? Have you finally gone crazy?" Outside my door is Eni, he is all dressed for school, and looks more innocent than normal. Only his words betray that look.

"None of your business," I simply tell him and shove the ring back into my pocket like I have been caught red handed with a stolen object, which basically is what is happening. "What do you want?"

"Daddy says he will leave you if you are not downstairs," I temporarily forgot about school.

"Fine, I've heard," I sneer at him like he is the cause of all my problems, because maybe he is. If he was not born, I would have still been the only child and will be pampered. He at first makes attempt to move, then he points two fingers to his eyes and then to me before turning to go down the stairs.

After he leaves, I grab my schoolbag and rush out of the room, still shaken by what just happened in it. Definitely demonic. My house is a duplex which means it has two floors, there are four rooms on the upper floor and the lower floor houses the living room, dinning room and kitchen.

Mother is already at the entrance when I get downstairs, in her hand is my breakfast packed in a pink plate. I cringe at that and would pass on breakfast if I could, better to starve than to carry that plate with me to school, especially when I know I am late for the assembly and likely to get punished. But Mother says breakfast is important and will literally shove it into my mouth if she could.

"Thank you ma," I tell her and rush towards the black Tundra where Father awaits. I enter the back seat where Eni is, seat belt on. I do the same and catch—what I suspect to be—a glare from Father before we drive out of the compound.

•••
Let's just say I could not keep my hands to myself and so I edited and pasted on Wattpad and stared and stared at the publish button then decided, what the hell, let me post.

Anyways, what do you think of Amadin and Enikaro?
I'm sure, like me too, Enikaro won your heart.

How would you react if you had the ring Amadin has?

I have a word goal I need to get to before I post the next chapter, so pray I don't lazy away.

Lots of love
Ciao