I'm here as promised 🌝❤️

Whose ready for this one?💀

~DABI~

"You're off to somewhere?"

I had barely gotten my hands on the Living Room door knob when Mama Acha's voice came behind me, stopping me in the process.

And as a matter of fact, I was off to somewhere.

"Uhh... Yeah.." I murmured audible, awkwardly, as I turned back around to face the woman who was slowly walking down the stairs, observing me with confused frown of her pretty face.

Well, she ought to be confused. I mean, it was barely minutes after 9pm, and we had just come back from her Church's evening program, and there I was, trying to sneak out of the house.

"Where to?" She walked closer, asked.

"My friend's house," I answered her, truthfully, "Well, I.. err.. I wanted to spend the night there, and come back in the morning."

Mama Acha looked at me as if I had gone crazy.

"By this time of the night?" She exclaimed, "And you're going alone, Dabi?"

"Not, not alone," I clarified, "They're picking me up, so I'm not going alone."

I deliberately did not mention that I was walking by myself all the way to Wonder Coast Junction where the Twins were picking me up to Soma's house.

With the way Mama Acha was behaving, I figured that was a delicate piece of information to chip in. So I didn't.

"Oh," She nodded, slowly understanding, "And what about Marc? Why didn't you just ask him to drive you there?"

This woman didn't even understand.

"I don't want to stress him," I told Mama Acha.

That was a lie. Nothing would have stopped me from asking Marc to drive me there and stop a distance away from the junction so the twins wouldn't see him, but honestly, the only reason I didn't ask him was because just as much as he was actively not talking to me, I was not talking to him either.

Since what happened and all through out Church, Marcus actually wasn't talking to me, for real, and I didn't fully understand why he was being so dramatic. And if he wasn't going to say anything to me, then, I wouldn't force him. So, there was absolutely no need telling him I was leaving the house.

"So, wait...." Mama Acha backed up in the slightest, "If I didn't see you, you would have left the house without telling me or Marcus where you are going? You know that caused a lot of trouble for us last time you did that?"

There was a hint of offence registered on her face, ever so slightly. And for a moment, I actually felt bad and realized that it wasn't the right thing to do afterwards. 

I mean, I remembered the last time and it was still the same Soma's house. We had to turn off our phones to avoid distractions, and I was told that I was basically unreachable. And you know the worst part? At the moment, my phone was a whooping 5%.

"Marc isn't talking to me." I told Mama Acha the truth.

That seemed to take her off-guard.

"He's been giving me the silent treatment all evening," I reported to his mother.

Just because I did not allow him to kill somebody's child.

Mama Acha looked very surprised to hear that, and the furrowing of her brows and creasing of the fine, aging lines of her forehead that I had only but noticed until tonight, made me understand that she was also baffled to hear such a thing.

"It's not possible, Marc never holds grudges," The woman finally easily dismissed what I told her by concluding it as total bullshit.

Oh, wow. So, what was he doing with me then? Making omelettes? Great.

"You two had a fight?" His mother enquired.

She did more than just enquire if I was being honest, she almost sounded like she was certain.

"I wanted to come and check up on you two after what happened with JJ," She revealed to me, "But you two seemed to be in a heated discussion, so I let you have your privacy."

Oh, wow. So, she did hear us. I only wondered to what extent.

"I can't even call what happened a fight pe se," I told her my mind, "I don't even know what the fu-," I stopped myself from accidentally cursing in front of her and rephrased, "-what the hell to call what happened between us."

"And you're comfortable just leaving like that?" She asked me. Softly. As if she was trying to convince me otherwise.

In all reality....

I wasn't exactly comfortable.

I was extremely disturbed, and it was taking a toll on me. And in cases like these were Marc wasn't around and my mind started to wander far and think of the worst cases scenarios, I always concluded to myself to stop bothering about it...

Maybe, it was because that was that little part of me that always knew that he would still come back to me in the end.

"I will be back in the morning," I promised Mama Acha, "My friends need me right now, and I have to be there." And after ensuring I had her permission, I stepped out and got on my way.

When Marcus Acha was ready to talk to me, he could go ahead.

*****

The Best Residence - Soma's home - was literally a few blocks away from Wonder Coast.

As so planned, the Twins had picked me up right at the junction, and after giving a few directions here and there to their designated driver, we had arrived the big mansion that was Somadina's house.

In all honesty, I wouldn't say that I was particularly sure what exactly we were doing here, especially since the twins had just sent me a message out of the blue, demanding that they wanted to see me and we were off to Soma's place. I didn't ask why, neither did I object. As a matter of fact, I wanted to know how Soma was doing ever since everything that had happened, and a part of me had felt bad for forgetting to reach out since what happened, so this was an opportunity to redeem myself and wash off all the guilt.

And of course, understand in clear and concrete details what the hell went on that day with Soma, Kaniru's boys and that bracelet that caused us a whole lot of trouble.

"Walk with us. we're using the front door," Ebere ordered me and Ebube, and while her twin walked by her side, without arguments, I hesitantly followed suite.

We never used the front door to Soma's house, so this was all shades of strange. The front door was majorly for foreign visitors, and we were anything but that. I didn't really understand what was happening, but I didn't even ask too many questions either. I didn't think the twins would even permit me to, because they had a goal and in the next few seconds, one of them was ringing the door bell to the Best gigantic mansion.

We waited for what felt like an eternity and no one was opening the door for us.

Meanwhile, so many questions were at the tip of my tongue and I couldn't bring myself to voice out any one of them.

The door to the mansion was a double sided wooden door with glass panels and either the Best household had a thing for being fashionable or they were just overly dramatic, but there was a little bell - an actual bell - handing there in the rail of one od the large doors, with a loud little knob that made a noise as Ebere shook the little instrument. I was probably even overthinking their entire motive with that, it could just have simply been that the people of this family were just obsessed with bells.

However, Ebere rang it a second time, and a third, and a fourth, and nothing or no one was forthcoming.

"Maybe no one is at home," I suggested when it seemed like all we were doing was wasting our time.

"It's a lie," Ebere debunked, eyes straight ahead onto the door, completely stoic and undeterred, "There are people inside this house."

"Seconded." Ebube chimed in, the same expression her sister had married her own face as well.

"Then, why won't they—"

It was in mid speech when a loud voice coming from inside the house cut me off completely.

"Come in if you're rich and handsome!"

I backed up, taken off guard by the voice that I wanted to suppose was Soma, considering it sounded just like her. It was odd, because it sounded so much like her, but at the same time, didn't sound like something she could particularly say.

In the middle of my mental debate, one of the double doors started to creak open, and in no time, right before us came revealing the owner of the voice.

"Well..... Hi."

I'd only say one thing, it was not Somadina Best.

I mean, we could have been close enough, but she was not the one who came to us at the door.

"Hi." Ebere greeted for the three of us, a brief smile of respect and acknowledgement as she answered back, and I just could not deny the fact that it was indeed a big surprise to see her there, in front of us.

Well, if you must know...

Standing before us was Sopuru Kaimnekelechuku Best. 

And she was just a version of Soma, but in a different size - slightly thicker and healthier, different height - about a head shorter than Soma, and a different form with ever so slight changes in facial attributes, like their big identical eyes that had hers coloured hazel instead of brown like Somas', her hair just as long as Somas' but just darker and fuller and more kinky, and of course, that beauty mark, the tiny dot birthmark at the left side of her mouth that somewhat enhanced her features. 

Of course, while she was in Castron High some years ago and the misconception always arose, Soma always swore to everyone that they both were not made in a lab, neither were they twins, and somehow to prove her case, Soma always thought repeating the story that Sopuru always told her about how excited she, Sopuru, was on the night of her second birthday after her Mum had brought her a tiny little baby from the hospital, named her Somadina, and declared that she was her new sister, was going to do much to change people's minds that they could have as well been identical twins.

In order words, Sopuru Best was Soma's older Sister, and she had graduated from Castron High about two years ago, and as we thought we all knew it, she was currently supposed to be somewhere in Canada, doing her second year in the University.

However, much to our surprise and delight, she was standing in front of us right now, and we all were just moping at each other for almost the next ten seconds flat.

"Omoh!" Was the first thing that flew out of her mouth the next second as her eyes widened in exaggerated shock, and an overly dramatic jaw drop gesture, as though it took her a good minute to recognise our faces, and instantly, she blew into the most dramatic mock panic mode, "Do you guys know how late it is? Do you?? Noooo, you shouldn't be here at a time like this! It's like the sinful hour, boss! The dark hour! The HOUR of the WITCH!"

The amused chuckle left my lips before I could stop myself, and with the tiny smile tugging at Ebere and Ebube's lips, it was easy for me to tell that they were holding back some form of laughter and trying to be as serious as they could be.

Everything about Sopuru reminded me of Soma in many ways - the baby-like excitement and exaggeration over the littlest things and the easy referrals to the most absurd and abnormal things; it was clear that this supposedly nineteen or twenty year old girl had not grown out of some things over the years. Well, I guess age was just a number after all.

"We came here to see Soma," Ebere declared.

"No shit, Sherlock, I thought you came here to see Rihanna." 

Sopuru's playful sarcasm dropped on us like a bomb before she burst the doors right open for us to come inside, and not expecting it at all, we all burst right into a feat of laughter that even seemed to startle her for a moment - as though she didn't even understand what she said that was so funny.

I had to remind myself how effortlessly and unintentionally funny Soma's older sister could be, and easily, my favourite thing out of many about her just had to be her insane sense of humour.

"Come on in, sweet cheeks," She chirped like a bird as she closed up the large doors behind us as we stepped into their grand, blue and white colour themed accent décor living room, "Be careful to not make too much noise, everyone in the house is asleep, and Joyce doesn't like to be disturbed."

It took me a moment for me to realize that Sopuru was addressing her own mother by her real name, but that was not even what was my concern at the moment.

It was the irony that defined the entire girl's person for me; Sopuru requested for us to be as quiet as possible for the entire household that was asleep upstairs, but then, walked us right into their Living Room that was blasting SpongeBob Squarepants from the huge, Plasma Screen TV all around the entire space of the place and beyond, as if the aim was to get neighbours three blocks away to hear the cartoon.

Oh sigh - the people from the Best family and doing the most.

I think it was safe at this point to note that there might as well be no normal person living here in the Best Residence.

As Sopuru led us down towards the two way stairway that led upstairs to the other parts of the house, she was talking nonstop to us, and while the twins responded to her, I didn't particularly listen to anything she was saying and instead, my eyes were busy roaming the ends of this large living room as though it was my first time stepping in here.

It wasn't. It was not my first time, or my second, or even my third, but for some reason, I could not get myself to get used to a place like the Best Residence. Everything about them was so dramatic and it showed in every way they even presented the arrangement of their house. The Living room for one, asides the general blue and white theme of colours that were splashed around the walls, there were so many chandeliers around the room that had beads of all sorts of lights that flashed a cool colour around the room and upon the white leather couches that were arranged in a semi circle pattern, giving the Living room an exotic feel. 

"Hmm," I hummed to myself as I looked around the place and noted that there was a lot to take in here. Like, a whole lot.

I mean, of course, to show that there were no kids that were anything close to 'normal' living in the house, the entire place had all sorts of weird stickers and drawings on coloured sticky notes all around the walls, the fridge in the diner by the left, and even on the front and back of the white leather couches and the wooden centre table, and while these stickers were cut outs of Disney Princesses and Nickelodeon characters, it was clear to me that the drawings on the sticker notes were all courtesy of Soma herself.

"These guys," I couldn't help but shake my head at observation of this entire place.

As though the hundreds of stickers and sticky note drawings were not enough, there were lots and lots of teddy bears on every couch, wrapped up in mini blankets and some of them, in baby cots, and it was as if they took their time to also take care of the very many gazillion stuffed animals they owned.

They took care of them like they were family, giving them their own habitat here in the Living room as, obviously, considering the loads of stuffed animals that I had even seen in Soma's room alone, there was no more space for the rest of them to be kept in their own personal rooms. Worse part of it all was that I knew they had another Living room upstairs for the kids, and if the main living room looked like this, then I only wondered what that one would look like then.

I mean someone left a whole Barbie dollhouse in the living room, and there was a doll tea cup set there too, right next to it, with tiny spoons and everything.

"-But, I didn't see you, yesterday, Dabi—"

Huh?

I was snapped back into my present as Sopuru butted me into the conversation as soon as she took the first step leading upstairs, and we followed right behind her.

I was confused for a moment, wondering if I was supposed to here yesterday, but she soon turned her attention to the twins when my response delayed, and carried on.

"And you, Ebere and Ebube, Soma was actually home when you showed up yesterday, but she made me lie to you that she wasn't—"

Oh, wow. I didn't know what surprised me more - The fact that the twins were here yesterday and I had no idea or the fact that Soma had lied so she wouldn't get to see them.

"But, yunno," Sopuru was still talking, "I expected you guys to decipher that I wasn't saying the truth, and well, press on, but you didn't."

"Well, Sopuru, contrary to popular belief, we're not exactly witches," Ebere replied and Sopuru instantly was dying with laughter that wouldn't stop.

"I know, but I'm a terrible liar," She said to them.

"No arguments," Ebere quipped.

"Seconded," There was a little smile on Ebube's face as she agreed with her twin.

So, they did know that she was lying yesterday?

"And you know I feel Soma low-key wanted you guys to stay back, contrary to what she wanted to make me think. 'Cause you know, she really likes you guys. All of you. You know? Friends by choice, Sisters by heart—"

I don't think that's the saying, Sopuru.....

"She'd have wanted you all there nonetheless," She went right on, "You know? Friends looking out for each other and all that kind of stuff. I mean, it's like your place in the eco system of friendship, yeah?" 

"How is Soma doing?" Ebere asked Sopuru straight.

There was a sudden shift in Sopuru's behaviour that scared me; it was like, the question just completely took her so off guard and hit a sensitive spot. I couldn't help but suddenly tense up at such a reaction from her to a simple question that was asked.

"How is she?" I had it in me to ask myself.

Sopuru sighed tiredly, suddenly losing all the excitement and vigour that she was previously all just minutes ago, and she looked away from us.

"I don't know," She finally responded, "Maybe you should find out for yourself."

That response made me so uncomfortable and I could not even begin to explain just how it affected me, and I didn't even have much of a chance to ask more questions because Sopuru was putting her hands on the door knob of Soma's room and opening it slowly for us to go in and have a look for ourselves.

I was the last one to step into Soma's room.

There was just that tugging feeling of fear in me that made me not to have the courage to be the first one to step in after all the tension and anxiety that Sopuru had put into my body.

"Somadina?"

One of the twins, I wasn't sure which, was the one who had called her name as Sopuru slowly closed the door of Soma's bedroom, behind us. 

"Jesus." I couldn't help but mutter in outright shock. 

Soma's bedroom did not even look like Soma's bedroom.

"What is this?" I felt bad for being unable to hide the note of confusion and repulsion in the tone of my voice, because there was no other way to say it.....

I was utterly and bastardizingly appalled. 

Soma's bedroom did not even look like Soma's bedroom - not the fancy, aesthetic world in a world that we all knew to be 'Soma's magical kingdom'. It was now looking more like something that you would have called the Kingdom of darkness.

I couldn't understand what Soma had done in here, but it was not just funny. Most of the bright orange themed lights that were always giving her room a feeling of exhilaration was replaced with darker dim red and purple that barely spread across the entire room, and everything that her room was a constituent of her room - Soma's multiple drawing portraits, the vanity mirrors, the carousels, the teddy bears and stuffed animals, the dispensers, and the glass tables that usually had the shot cups she gave us ice-cream with - was all covered up with a dark piece of cloth, leaving just their imprint to be in sight.

It looked like a cult in here...

Was Soma a cultist for Gods sake?!

"And what the hell is that smell?" Ebere or Ebube commented, and I was already pinning my nostrils shut the moment that I had walked in here because of the pungent stench of what I supposed was vinegar or something of the sort; it basically made it so difficult for me to breathe in here. It was almost impossible.

I was so confused on this new setting....

What on earth was happening?

"Soma," Ebere's voice was clearly heard this time around and I looked onward to Soma's gigantic bed to see that it was empty and neatly arranged, but instead of having her on it, it was made comfy for the stuffed zebras and pandas that she had carefully wrapped around with blankets. She wasn't even there.

Where was she anyway? Where was Soma in all of this? Where did she-

"Soma!" Ebube's voice cut into my thoughts with a loud piercing voice that I didn't even know she had.

With the urgency in her tone, and the panic her body language entailed, she ran with a speed towards the foot of the bed and I watched the direction that she was heading for and at what I saw with my eyes, my blood instantly ran cold.

What in the-

It was a body.

It was a body.

It was a body.

And from where I stood, all I could get a glimpse of was the hand as it sprawled across the floor, weakly and with hardly any life in it, and with one glance at it, I made a quick notice of that familiar looking scar......

Ebere and Ebube had already ran to her, exigency in their bloods, and a surge of panic rushing through them and I just stood there, a wreck in my system, but my body still and unmoving, too stunned too even speak or react as I watched everything and felt my heart dangerously speeding up with beating as the worst anxiety attack was brewing up slowly within me.

And then, it felt like everything started to go down for me in an extreme slow motion.

"Soma...." I could feel my lips trembling as I faintly called her name, and as I stood there and watch the twins screaming and shaking her, I felt every bit of my sanity shattering and shattering to bits, and for a moment, all I could see and think about was blood and fire.

Blood and fire.

Blood and fire.

Blood and fire.

Blood and fi-

"Relax, she's okay."

The new voice would have startled us if we didn't already recognize it in a heart beat.

Whipping my head immediately and fast to the door of the bathroom, in surprise, I saw whom I knew to be the owner of the voice and someone who I didn't expect to be here, stepping out of it, unbothered and absolutely calm, shutting the door of Soma's bathroom right behind her like nothing, absolutely fucking nothing was happening.

For a moment, everyone in the room actually froze up on sighting her.

"Soma's fine," Chika repeated again as she packed up her brown hair into a bun, and walked into the room, paying no mind to the shock on our faces.

I couldn't not notice that the light skinned girl was dressed up in one of Soma's night wear - a sign that she had been here longer than we may have even knew.

Meanwhile, Soma was still 'lifeless' on the ground and Chika was walking towards her on the floor, a straight face on her and a pack of baby wipes in her hands, completely oblivious to me and the twins reactions as she went ahead to Soma on the floor, squatted down close to her and started to wipe off the white powder that was all around Soma's face and neck, with one of the baby wipes in her hand.

We must have looked like total idiots standing there because if we say we had a clue what was going on, then we were the worst liars on earth.

But, through all I was deducing from all these, the only explanation would have been that Chika was also a cultist.

"What the fuck, Chi. What's happening?" Ebere questioned the light skinned girl who was busy wiping off what looked to me like baby powder off Soma's neck.

"Soma needed to sleep," Chika told us, her voice was calm and subtle, almost too calm that it was a bit suspicious, "She's just really deep in sleep, but she'll be awake in the next few minutes. Don't try to force her to wake up, whatever you guys do won't wake her up now."

Can someone please slow the fuck down....?

"I don't understand." I voiced out.

Chika seemed to swallow hard for a moment and I wondered why that would have been so. However, it barely took her the space of the next second before she was able to get back her composure once more, took a gentle seat on Soma's bed, and faced me and the twins.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys...." 

That was how she started and I was so scared.

"But, I have been here in Soma's house, since yesterday," She revealed to us.

Oh. There was that little note of relief in me.

"I wasn't in School, but I heard what happened with Kaniru and everything, and I tried reaching out to Dabi and Soma, but none of their lines were going through...." Chika explained, "So, I started off by paying Soma a visit and when I saw that things were a lot worse with her than I expected, I decided to stay."

Okay, that explained what she was doing here. But, I still didn't understand why Chika wouldn't have told us to come over too, since she was already here with Soma?

"Soma had been having trouble sleeping," Chika told us, she continued, "So, I let her take some stuff that would help her sleep. So, in about the next two minutes-" She glanced at the fancy clock at the top right corner of Soma's room, "-She should be awake." 

"Oh." Ebere realized, she and Ebube stepped away from a 'sleeping' Soma.

There was yet another sigh of relief from me. I mean, for a moment, I thought something worse had happened to Soma. Now, that had been cleared up....

"Did Soma tell you anything?" I asked Chika.

I had to be straight forward. I wanted to know.

Chika was quiet and for a whole moment, she said not a word. She looked like she had a lot to say, but restrained herself a whole lot from talking as much.

"Did she?" Ebere prompted, raised a brow at Chika.

I mean, at this point, it was as clear as day.

"Soma told me everything." Chika told us the truth.

There was a thickness that suddenly filled the air.

"Really." Ebere tilted her head to the side as she absorbed the reveal.

"She did," Chika nodded, "Yesterday, when I got here, she told me everything." 

There was a way Chika spoke. Like she was too overwhelmed to say much more. And from the looks of things, whatever that Chika knew about Soma, I could tell that it was something that was too strong and too much of a blow for her to even contain.

It started to make sense to me why Chika seemed so guarded and quiet when she walked in on us here. She barely acknowledged us, she barely showed emotions. There was probably a whole feat going on in her mind, I could tell. And all I wanted to know was....

"What did Soma tell you?"

That was me, to Chika.

If Chika was going to say, she didn't even have the chance to. Just then, at that exact moment that she had barely even opened her mouth to speak, we heard a weak moaning sound coming from the ground, beside her.

"Soma?" 

We couldn't have been wrong. 

The girl was awake now as Chika had predicted, and she wa trying to stretch the sleep off her by stretching out her hands and adjusting her long legs, and by the looks of things, I could say that she was yet unaware of that fact that we were all present in her living room.

Either that, or she wasn't just registering it yet due to the after effect of sleep.

Well, until she did....

Soma paused, her long hands outstretched in the air and drowsy, sleepy eyes that were still trying to adjust to wakeness, squinting and narrowing at all of us as if her brain was trying to decode who exactly we were.

"Soma." One of the Sisters had called again, and that was all it took for her to instantly recognize us on the spot, and there was a huge grin that spread across her face immediately.

"Oh, hi, guys!" She waved at all of us in all her vigour and as much as we didn't intend to come off as mean, not a single one of us gave her back the same energy.

Somadina Best was not about to wake up and act like nothing happened..

God forbid.

"I had a weird dream about Unicorns and ponies, and-"

"Soma, what's happening with your room?" Ebere cut her off with the most straight forward stare and the most basic and unimpressed tone of voice.

Soma didn't even falter for a bit, her demeanour remained bright as ever, like an innocent little child that had been woken from sleep to see the people she loved all around her.

"Oh, the lights were upsetting my eyes," She answered Ebere lightly and brightly, "So, I dimmed them out."

I stared at Soma, and decided that she was crazy if she thought that we were actually buying this shit. 

Soma sat up right and steadied herself, leaning her back on the wall behind her as she smiled wholesomely at us. The scary thing was the I could not look at Soma and say that the smile on her face was fake. It looked real. Very real. As real as it could be.

However, for the slightest second that I stared at her, I notice something oddly different about the way she looked.

There were bags under her eyes - something that I had never seen before. But the lines were ever so faint and dark under the dim light that I started to wonder if it was really there or if I was just seeing things under this terrible lighting that hovered around Soma's room.

"And why is everything in your room covered like we just walked into a shrine?" Ebere was not even taking it easy with her and the questions.

Chika was quietly sitting on the bed and not saying anything, like it was not in her place to speak a word. I stood there, observing the scene and listening attentively, and the twins were folding their arms in an identical manner, obtaining the same posture as they kept the same look of deadpan on Soma who seemed to blatantly want to act like nothing was happening.

"Do you know how scared we were yesterday, Soso?" Ebere asked Soma. "Are you really going to sit here and act like you don't know why we are here?"

Soma didn't say anything to Ebere, and for the slightest moment, I saw something akin to sadness flash in her eyes as it seemed her demeanour was slowly mellowing. Ever so slowly, I almost did not notice it.

"We're really worried, Somadina." Ebere said to her, and even though there was that general stoic to her attitude, I could hint the littlest bit of softness in the twin's voice. One that made me know and understand that indeed, she was concerned.

Soma could sense it too, it seemed so. Because she completely stopped with her act.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, her voice, although soft, was slightly deeper than usual.

There was a look of understanding on the straight faces of the twins.

I somewhat felt bad for her and I didn't even understand why.

"And, to you too, Dabi..." She unexpectedly called me, "I am sorry about what happened with Kaniru, and I can only imagine how confused you must have been. It was all my fault."

"That's okay, Soma, but if it means anything, I'd love to understand what exactly was your fault," I said to her, "I mean, I got attacked for something I had no clue of."

"Everything all balls down to that night of Yure's party," Ebere spoke, she didn't ask it as a question, she spoke it as a fact that she wanted to hear Soma confirm. 

Soma's nodding was all we needed.

"Does it by any chance have anything to do with the Dares and Pledges?" 

It was Ebube who quietly brought that up.

For the longest time, I had suspected that too. I had suspected that everything - all the looks of terror that I had sensed Soma giving Kaniru since the entire academic year - was not a coincidence that it all started right after that night at Yure's party.

Soma's dare task was rather extremely silly, but quite daring. After some deliberations here and there, one of the twins had suggested that she should slip in a love letter into whatever room that Kaniru and his boys were supposed to be staying in for the sleepover, and the twist was that it was supposed to be an anonymous letter from an anonymous 'guy'. It was supposed to be a seemingly harmless prank and that's why Soma had agreed to it with ease.

But, then, things got tacky when Soma came back after allegedly doing her dare, and told us that she was almost caught by them. 

"I already completed my dare task b t dubs," Soma had proudly bragged to us that night of Yure's party. "It was a lot easier since someone already helped to wreck Affah's car, easy access."

And then, Chika had gotten worried hearing that and she had asked Soma is any of the boys saw her, and Soma's response was, "Nope, but it was sooooo close. I left seconds after Kaniru and Affah walked in on the scene. If they saw me, I would have had a seizure!"

And then, days after that event, Soma suddenly started looking at Kaniru like he was the devil and he was out for her-

Wait-

Wait a second.

"Soma." I called out to the girl as soon as sense, in a thousand folds, clicked the second that I had analysed the entire things and found out the tiny loophole in this entire Soma case that could have been an answer to all our questions. 

Soma looked up at me, blinked big brown innocent eyes at me, and answered in a soft, quiet tone, "Yes?"

 I started off by stating the plain facts that I had just figured out in a heartbeat.

"You didn't do your dare task that night."

Soma seemed to be taken off guard by such an accusation.

Even Chika who I thought already knew the A to Z of this entire thing, looked shocked in the slightest as she narrowed confused eyes at me.

"What are you talking about?" Chika asked me.

"We dared Soma to slip in a letter into their room, didn't we?" I reminded the Sisters who seemed to have forgotten, before turning back to Soma who looked like a fish out of water, "So, to think of it, Soma, your dare didn't have anything to do with Affah's car."

There was a still silence in the room. One that almost made me hesitant to continue.

"So, what got you there then?" I threw the question at Soma, "What exactly were you doing there that made you notice that Affah's car was thrashed in the first place?"

All eyes were now on Soma, confusion and mystery was all in the air and I couldn't believe how long it had taken me, it had taken all of us, to put this piece together.

Soma looked like she had seen a ghost, and although she clearly looked like a girl fidgeting, she surprised me by having an answer to my questions.

"I needed to ensure I was safe enough," Soma said to us, "I wanted to make sure that Kaniru and his boys weren't in any close by at the time I wanted to carry on with the dare, and that made me want to find out exactly where they were."

Okay...

".... So, I found them downstairs at the car," Soma continued, we listened attentively, "They were wrecking so so loud in anger, bantering and accusing themselves, and it was so heated and I figured that they wouldn't be in their rooms any minute. And since the coast was clear, I did my dare."

"That's understandable," I quipped, stopped for a moment before carrying on, "But then, Soma, if I am recalling correctly......"

I felt so bad for having to do this, but Soma needed to be completely honest with us and if she was not going to do that on her own, then we might as well just force the truth right out of her.

"Kaniru and his boys booked room 50 that night, and that was the marked room for your dare," I reminded her and everyone else,  "And that room was in the second floor, at the right wing - exactly the same wing where the parking lot downstairs was located in Yure's house..... And, if the boys were indeed loud enough as you suppose, there's no way you wouldn't have heard their racket coming from the room 50 Hallway the moment you walked in..."

I mean, when I went there to look for my headband before getting trapped in that room with Marcus Acha, I could hear all the jeering from the Ballers downstairs, but I was too much in a frenzy to take much of that into clear details. So, if Soma had walked into that same hallway, as she so claimed she did, then she would have also heard Kaniru and his boys from downstairs too. 

And for her to not know this, then that only meant one thing....

Soma never walked into the room 50 Hallway in the first place.

"And, you said they were accusing each other too in all their ranting, right?" I brought back Soma's words to her, "That means, you would not only have heard their loud ranting, you probably also must have heard them calling a few names amongst themselves too - names that would be enough for you to decipher and confirm that it actually was Kaniru and his boys that were screaming downstairs. You would have heard all these from the hallways in the second floor, Soma. That means you would have already known where they were, and so there was no need having to look for them."

Soma looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her completely.

"Let's imagine for a second that you did go to the Hallway, Soma, all you needed was 30 seconds tops to drop what you had to drop and get out of their room," I went on, "And, if you could hear them all the way from downstairs, their racket could have also been your timer, so why would you still have to go all the way to search for their whereabouts when you would have clearly already known where they were and known on top of that that you had more than enough time?"

"Well, I-"

"Soso isn't saying the truth and I think that fact is as crystal clear as it could be." Ebere deadpanned.

"Seconded," Ebube quipped.

Chika looked speechless.

I now started to wonder what on earth it was that Soma even told Chika in the first place.

"I'm not a thief." Soma was quick to get in on her defence immediately.

I wasn't even thinking in that line at all, and her sudden urge to redeem herself in that dark light reminded me of the bracelet that she was being accused of allegedly 'stealing'.

"Soma, the Sisters would never accuse you of that," Chika assured her.

"All we want is to understand what the hell happened back there," Ebere said.

"And why Ajiro was accusing you of theft," Ebube chipped in, "It must have been a misunderstanding."

"Maybe you all should take it easy on Soma...." Chika mediated at that point.

The light skinned girl stood up from the bed and took the taller girl by the hand, gently pulled her up onto the bed to sit with her.

"Soma, you're going to have to tell them what you told me yesterday," I heard her whisper to the girl by her side.

The Onuoha Twins actually sat down for this. 

They took seats on the chairs that were on Soma's reading table, just a few feet away from the bed that Chika and Soma were sitting on.

I didn't sit. I stood there and watched them all. I was too curious to want to sit down.

"Did you steal the bracelet from them, Soma?" I asked her.

"I am not a thief," She only repeated.

"I know you're not," My voice was almost sounding frustrated at the point as I tried to reason with her enough to get her to open up, "I just want to know what you did that made them so riled up that day."

The room was silent yet again, and we all, like it was a verdict of our fate, waited for Soma to talk.

"What did you do, Soma?" I pressed on, softly, lightly, pleadingly.

Soma seemed to break for a moment. 

I heard a light groan come out of her and it barely escaped her lips as a little whimper as she looked away from us and onto the tiled grounds beneath her, hugging her own body frame and whimpering softly to herself.

We remained quiet. No one pushed her. We just waited and watched Soma break slowly, slowly, slowly, ever so slowly, until she was in thorough tears there, crying and shaking in her own arms as she tried to hold herself together, releasing from her full lips the most heart wrenching sobs that I had ever heard.

The twins moved to her first, squatted on the floor by her, and I stood there, confused as to why it was so hard for me to move a muscle as my heart bled for my friend who was having the worst kind of mental breakdown that I had ever seen live.

"You... You don't understand," Soma's voice was weak and faint as she spoke through tears that were choking her every word, much to the extent that she was almost unheard, "It's not just what I did-"

Chika was rubbing softly against her back as she quaked in her tears, burying her quickly swollen face in her hands.

"-It's who I am." She revealed to us.

I didn't understand what she meant by that, but I wanted to. I stayed quiet as the tears Soma cried slowly broke me with each drop, sob, and groan.

"Chika, please tell them," Soma pleaded almost inaudibly as the tears drowned her and her words mercilessly, she was shaking in her arms, begging Chi to take over and say whatever it was that was torturing her to confess to us.

"Tell them, I.. I c-cant say it all over again, I can't please," Soma sounded like she was in physical pain, like there were nails and hot irons on her back and she was fighting back the urge to scream in her tears by biting so hard on her lower lip to the point that I think I saw blood.

"I want to, but it's not mine to tell, Soma," Chika tried to reason with her, softly.

"Please," Soma shook her head adamantly, "Please, just say it to them, I can't say it myself. Please, Chika..." Soma was crying out loud now and so hard that her body was vibrating in so much pain and Ebube had gently dropped a one of the baby wipes on her laps when her nose started to run and that bit of catarrh was so close to the top of Soma's lips.

"Chika, just tell us," I conceded for Soma, watching how badly she didn't want to say whatever it is she had to say, "Tell us, Chi."

Chika looked so conflicted as she watched between Soma and me and the Twins.

For almost a whole minute, there was silence and she couldn't bring herself to say it too.

"Fine," She finally accepted, and while all our attention was turned to Chika who kept looking at Soma like she wished she could stop her any time soon, Soma was backing slowly away from us, as though she was battling all sorts of horrid shame at the thought of having Chika say her truth.

I watched Chika and watched her and watched her and watched her...

And then, she told us in five words that completely obliterated our senses and sent us into stupefied shock. Gave us a thunderbolt out of the damn blue.

"Soma is an addict."

*Sprinkles water on your faces*
Oya, you can breathe now😂🌝❤️

Tell me the truth, who saw that one coming??

And how do you think this piece of information connects to the bracelet, and Kaniru Dem? Ten million for whoever can crack the code before I update the next chapter and let it all out 😂❤️

Well, I know it's a shocker, having that Soma has always been the 'innocent' one in the group, but sadly, it's far from that. Way far from that. This chapter wasn't supposed to stop here but the moment I saw the number of words it had and analysed how long that rest of the scene was going to be, I decided to divide the chapter Biko oo. So, in the next chapter, hopefully soon, I will break down everything to you all so you'll see what has been supping since the beginning of this book, and how much hints that I had dropped that all of you had always missed out on😂😌❤️

This should be fun.

Prepare yourselves sha, because you're going to find out a LOT of things that had been happening right under your nose through out this book and you didn't have a single clue. Soma is going to stun you beyond words 😂🤏

Oh well, until then, lovelies! BYEEEEE!!!❤️❤️❤️