Two weeks later.

"Good afternoon. Please, I want to cut my hair. Please don't cut it too low. Also, give me a side parting," Clara said to the lanky barber once she stepped into his airy barbing salon.

This shabby place was the only barbing salon close to The Elixir College. Clara didn't know her way around very much, so she didn't have much of a choice.

Clara had to cut her hair before the following day, a Monday. Her curly, full hair might have looked healthy, but there were so many lice in her scalp that she had to cut her hair if she valued her peace of mind. Now, she could only hope that this barber would give her a nice haircut.

"Oya now, come sit down," the heavily bearded man swung the swivel chair slightly in her direction and tapped on it.

Once Clara settled on the chair, the barber brought out a large piece of clothing and tied the slimmer end around her neck while the rest of the fabric draped all over her body, covering all of her clothing.

Swiftly, the barber loosened the ribbons that Clara had used to tie her hair. Then he brought out a pair of medium-sized scissors and began to cut through the curly tips of her hair before using the clipper. The sharp click-clack sound of the scissors as they moved smoothly through her hair annoyed Clara.

It was hurtful to watch all of her bountiful hair go away as they started to fall in small fuzzy balls down to the ground. For all of her fourteen years of existence, she'd never cut her hair. But now, she had to cut it.

To keep her mind away from her disturbing reality, she decided to ponder on something much more critical and a lot more disturbing.

David.

This strange guy had only come into her life two weeks ago, and he'd already left such an enormous feeling and impact on her. At first, Clara thought of David as a psycho and an imbecile. At The Elixir College, no one really cared much for the other person. Hence, David came off as a fool when he appeared out of nowhere and gave her half of his allowance to buy whatever meal she wanted.

At first, Clara was excited and intrigued. No one had ever given her that much money before. Not even her older brother, Richard. Clara saw David's show of stupidity as one of those miracles that happened once in a Blue Moon. But when those miracles became frequent, Clara began to question it.

She became scared. The same David guy kept showing up in some way, and somehow, it was always when she needed something badly.

Thrice, he'd seen her in the lunch hall, dejected because the food from the turin had finished before it could get to her. On those three occasions, David had given her his food to eat. On another occasion, when a part of her slippers got detached from its sole, he'd helped her fix it. Heck, he'd even gone as far as to pay the cyber café fee so that she could have access to the internet to get one of her most urgent assignments done.

That assignment received the highest mark she'd ever gotten in all her years of being a student. One day, when he was about to give her his food to eat again so he could starve in her stead, Clara rejected the food with a stone-cold expression and sternly asked him why he was always helping her.

It was freaking her out. She'd done nothing to deserve his kindness. He didn't even know who she was, so why was he behaving like she was his everything?

However, Clara's anger dissolved completely when David, in a solemn tone, replied, saying that she was like a sister to him. He'd said she looked so much like his sister and all he'd just wanted to do was take care of her.

At first, the response sounded stupid and unconvincing to Clara until she remembered the day they met. On that day, the expression on his face held no ulterior or sinister vibe. Yes, looks and expressions could be deceptive. Still, he'd cried so much on that day — as though he'd seen something else in her—something beyond her physical self.

He was seeing the sister he'd talked about. Maybe that sister of his was dead. Clara began to pity David so much. Still, she didn't like the fact that she looked like his deceased sister.

If she didn't look like her, she wouldn't be in this tight position right now — in a situation where she was afraid to reject his kindness for fear that she would hurt him even more. Regardless of that fear, she couldn't let this continue.

Her older brother, Richard, was a monster. If he knew about this sudden kindness that some unknown guy has been showing towards her, that guy would have to pay dearly for it. Perhaps with his life.

David was so lucky that her brother wasn't present in the lunch hall on those three occasions when he'd given her his food, or on that day, she'd rejected his help and asked him why he was always helping her. Those occasions were so public, and word could have spread easily. Clara was afraid.

Richard's violence was a feral one, and this was what Clara had been trying to tell David. Each time she tried to warn him, he'd always interrupt her, saying that he was her brother and she didn't have any other brother asides from him and a certain unknown guy named Alex.

Truthfully, Clara also sometimes wished that Richard wasn't her brother because he wasn't always such a good brother to her. Yet, choosing her sibling wasn't something she had power over.

Still, she could understand Richard's impulse to protect her from some strange guy. It was the instinct of every brother. The problem was, there was no way she could make her brother understand that David wasn't a guy who had the intentions to hurt her or sexually exploit her. Men couldn't even trust their fellow male friends with their sisters and female relatives. How much more a stranger?

According to Richard, any man who wasn't Richard himself or Clara's father could not be trusted. Hence, Clara knew that it would be a bloodbath if Richard discovered David. Now, all that was left for her to do was to save poor David from the claws of her beastly brother and prevent him from danger before it was too late.

But how was she going to do that when David wasn't ready to listen or step out of his sad illusions?

"Fine geh, I don cut your hair finish," The barber's hoarse voice interrupted Clara's chain of thoughts.

The barber untied the piece of clothing from around her neck. Clara stood up from the swivel chair and dusted off the strands of hair that stuck to her shirt. Then casually, she raised her head to look at her new haircut in the mirror. Almost immediately after she saw her reflection in the glass, a loud, piercing, horrified scream erupted from her lips when she saw what the barber had done to her head.

"WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE YOU DID ON MY HEAD?! I asked for a side parting!"

Clara could feel hot, fresh tears in her eyes, ready to flow down her cheeks as she gazed at her new, ugly haircut. Instead of a side parting, the stupid barber had cut her hair so low and then shaved off the hair in the middle of her head instead of the side.

As she turned to glare at the barber whose eyes looked so bloodshot, she wished the anger in her eye would convert to a ball of fire and strike the man dead. She should have known from how haggard the barber looked that he was no sane man. He'd clearly been high on weed.

"But na side parting be that na?" the barber, who still wasn't seeing any wrong in what he'd done, defended himself innocently.

"SHUT UP! Do you know what I look like with this new haircut? I LOOK LIKE AVATAR!" Clara demonstrated as she used the tip of her finger to touch the linear bald spot in the middle of her head. "Shebi, you know Avatar, the legend of Kora?"

"Ehn? Avatcha? Wetin be avatcha?" the barber squinted his eyes, confused.

Clara hissed and rolled her eyes, not bothering to explain who Avatar was to the dullard of a man. She should have known that an idiot like him would be clueless. Instead, she asked him a valid question:

"How many years did it take you to learn how to barb?"

"Omo. I learn how to barb for six days ooo. Walahi, I learn am for only six days and I dey barb better style pass barber wey learn work for six years sef."

"You mastered the art of barbing in six days?" Clara laughed. "It shows in the way you barbed my hair."

"Eh eh?" the barber's eyes brightened as he chuckled, utterly oblivious to the sarcasm that dripped from Clara's remark. "You for don talk say you like the style wey I barb na. Why you con shout like sey you no like the style? Aunty, you be drama queen ooo!" the barber laughed out loud.

His guffawing was like a cacophony in itself — an unpleasant mixture of sounds that ranged from the growl of a tiger to the squealing of a mouse. Clara watched the man laugh with sheer disgust.

"Thunder fire that your brown teeth!" Clara cursed before she stormed out of the salon.

As she walked down the road, her mind drifted back to David. Tomorrow will be Monday. David was going to see her in her terrible haircut, which would render her in the position of someone who needed help. A position she was trying to avoid right now.

Clara began to hope that David wouldn't see her tomorrow. She prayed that their paths would not cross. If he sees her, he would want to help her. She wouldn't be able to say no, and that would put her in a tighter spot. Once she's in a tight spot, she will not be able to warn him about her brother.

Clara made up her mind to avoid David at all costs tomorrow. And the day after tomorrow. And the next. Until her hair grows back, she would carry her cross alone — even if the students of The Elixir College laughed and mocked her haircut. She would rather be embarrassed than accept any more help from David.

***

Unknown to Clara, David already knew her scent.

Clara had been able to avoid David for two days successfully. During lunchtime, instead of going to the hall to eat, Clara would skip the lunch period and run to the girl's toilet to hide until lunchtime was over. Then, she would rush back to her class. Clara knew that lunchtime was the only period when she saw David. Hence, she decided to starve as she waited in the toilet for lunchtime to be over.

David, on the other hand, was heavily tormented during the two days of Clara's absence. The demons in his head never ceased to accuse him of being such an incompetent older brother, even with the second chance that had been given to him. The numerous voices in his mind blamed him for not protecting and taking care of his little sister.

On the first day he noticed her absence, he looked around the lunch hall frantically. His eyes darted several times to the spot where she usually sat, and he didn't see her there. It drove him crazy. The second day, he didn't waste much time checking around the lunch hall.

He walked out and began pacing around every corner in the school. Everywhere down to the area near the girl's toilet — where Clara was hiding.

On the second day, Clara almost got caught. When David walked past the toilet arena, Clara peeped out from the toilet door and tried to step outside. The door squeaked as she tried to open it. David turned his back to hear where the sound had come from, and quickly, Clara stepped back into the toilet.

In that brief moment, David perceived an odor similar to Clara's. It was the smell of soap. But he wasn't sure, so he turned and walked away.

On the third day, however, Clara wasn't so lucky. She was already getting tired of hiding. She wondered how long she would keep skipping lunch without developing an ulcer. Clara was mad that her hair wasn't growing quickly even though she'd only cut it three days ago. She wondered why The Elixir College prohibited students from using face caps and scarves. Using a sweater to cover her head would attract too much attention and suspicion.

Clara despised her helplessness and lack of choice. Staying in the toilet every afternoon was getting exhausting. The small space was always so stuffy, and today, the toilet smelled so strongly of urine that even flushing the water closet didn't get rid of the smell. So once the time on her wristwatch showed 1:00 pm, which was the end of lunchtime, Clara didn't bother to wait for a few more minutes before stepping out of the girl's toilet as she usually did.

Once lunch was over, she opened the door and stepped out.

Then she saw David standing outside by the block in a melancholy mood.

He was waiting for her. As if he'd known she was there.

Clara's heart thumped wildly in fear. Quickly before David would turn and see her, Clara ducked and turned in the opposite direction and made a move to hurry down the corridor, but she stopped in her tracks when a hand firmly gripped her arm.

With a shiver, Clara turned slowly and saw that it was David who'd stopped her. Her head began to throb and ache in trepidation.

Why was she this scared all of a sudden?

Her fear was no longer coming from a place of the unimaginable danger that awaited David once Richard found out about him. Before, Clara was scared of her brother. Now, she was scared of David. She'd never seen him as someone to be feared until now.

David was a tall guy, but right now, as he cornered her, with his hand firmly on her arm, he looked like a giant who was going to destroy her and crush her into nothing. Suddenly, David began to give the vibe of those psychopaths who loved subservient little girls that always did as they said. Be a sweet little girl, and you will see their sweetest, loving sides. Run away, and you will have yourself to blame.

In this case, she was the little girl who'd tried to hide from her master, and now, she was so frightened of what David was going to do to her.

But the look on his face said otherwise. In his orbs were tears that would flow down at any moment. There was the expression of a genuinely concerned and worried brother.

"Why did you hide from me? Have I been a bad brother to you?" David's voice cracked as he asked the question. Tears flowed down his eyes.

Those tears again. Clara swallowed thickly. She suddenly felt guilty for thinking of David as a psychopath. How could she ever fear that he would hurt her?

Then she remembered why she'd ran away in the first place. So she braced herself up, cleared her throat, and spoke in the most emotionless way:

"I noticed that you've never called me by my name. You've never bothered to know what my name is. And I must tell you my name. It's Clara. I don't want a situation where you'd start to call me by your sister's name."

"You've lost your memory, my little sister," David used the tip of his fingers to tap her cheek affectionately for a moment. Clara stiffened beneath his touch. "But when you regain your memory, you'll remember your real name, and I will freely be able to call you by that name," he said with delirious hope in his voice.

"You're much crazier than I thought," Clara stared at him in disbelief. "Look, I have a brother who will kill you if he finds out about this nonsense you're doing."

All along, Clara had thought that David was sane enough to know that she wasn't his sister and had merely looked like her.  She didn't know that David was treating her like his sister and not in the way he wished he would have treated his sister.

Treating her in the way he wished he would have treated his sister was still somewhat acceptable because it was one of those aftermath effects of guilt. You feel the impulse to protect and take care of the people who remind you of the person you lost. That behavior was somewhat understandable, even if it wasn't normal. At least, there's hope that you'd heal someday.

Also, that feeling usually comes after coming to terms with your sad reality, after accepting the fact that your loved one is gone forever even though you still miss them greatly. That kind of acceptance helps you act like a normal human being. You don't freak people out even while you're still trying to look out for them in one way or the other.

But David's behavior was different. He was still seeing his sister. He didn't believe she was dead. He thought she'd reincarnated as Clara and didn't even think Clara worthy of her name until he could give her his sister's name.

That was absolutely nuts and was even an insult to her person.

The craziest thing was, the signs had always been there. David had always said he was her brother, but she didn't read a deeper meaning into it. Clara felt that he called himself that because he helped her in ways that a brother would help his sister. She felt that David was only her brother during lunchtime.

Clara saw David as a mere school brother despite his sad past. School Brother/School Sister relationships were common in secondary school. Looking at David in that light made it easier for her to accept him.

But she didn't think of what could happen if she ever opened her mouth to say she wasn't his sister. Now that she thought more of it, there was no reason for her to hide from him if David was supposed to be her "school brother." Clara had had a few male friends and school brothers that Richard didn't have a problem with, so why was she so scared of what Richard would do to David?

The signs were there. Clara had just actively chosen to be blind to them, but her subconscious knew the truth.

David was a creep, and that was the fact.

"I'm your brother, little sister. Yes, I killed you before, but now, I'm going to make sure nothing ever happens to you again. So don't say things like that. You don't have a brother who will kill me. I'm the only brother you have!" David's voice was beginning to rise as it brought her back to her reality.

Clara was going to open her mouth to scream – louder than she'd screamed at the barber, but another voice came in.

"You are not her brother, YOU CREEPY LOSER!"

It was her brother, Richard. Although Clara had been scared of this very moment, now she couldn't be more grateful for her brother's timely appearance. He stormed in and tore David's hands away from his sister's. He pushed David till the back of his head collided harshly with a wall, causing the wall to crack slightly. Then Richard raised a fist and threw it across David's jaw.

The punch sent David falling to the ground with a loud thud.