Hi guys! This update must be a big surprise to all of you! I decided to make this one come early so that you will all be happy. Also because my goal is to have the last chapter of TMBT Book One be dropped by 30th November 😂

So, yes, we ARE here with the second to last chapter! Also — if God willing and I finish up this book by the 30th of this month — I will be going LIVE on my new Tiktok or Instagram page where we can all interact and discuss concerning the book, whichever of them. Can't wait to see you all there! For now, let's get into this one. 😌🔥
{Well, fuck I forgot to edit this A/N💀}

Oh and peek the Image below...

{Bonus points if you can comment correctly when this happened. Hint: it is not Chapter 95}

BTW: Song for this chapter is MONSTER by Shawn Mendez and Justin Beiber. Check media to see the song video and enjoy.❤️

{PS: Trigger Warning in this chapter}

~DABI~

Pathetic.

Pathetic.

Pathetic.

Those were the words that were ringing all through my mind, echoing the loudest out of all the noise inside me, sounding the most distorted, the most aggressive and domineering out of all the fucked up voices that filled the hell that lived in my head.

Pathetic. The most accurate word that I had ever known that described, perfectly, a girl like Dabeluchi Orji.

And to think, I had almost forgotten how pathetic that I was, how utterly and shamefully pathetic my entire being fucking was. I had forgotten after I met Marcus Bruno Acha.

After I had made him make me believe that I was more than the dirt that I had soiled my own name in, after I had made him fill my head with words of admiration and adoration, made him speak his enthrallment of me into my own beliefs. After I had let him get into my head, believe him like he was my faith. And let him worship me too, like I was his religion.

I let him... Let him breath his air of healing into me like God gave us life. Turned a pack of dirt, dust and nothing into a living, breathing soul.

I made him my source of healing.

My saving grace.

My God.

See what I had done. I made Marcus Bruno Acha – a mere mortal like me, broken alike – my own God.

The voices that I had learned to shut down, to ignore, they all started coming back in whispers. Low creeping whispers that felt like they got louder by the second. Each second, from the moment that Marcus was 'confessing' that he knew about my friends' shadiness all along, telling me that just like my friends who had lied and betrayed me as deeply as they did, he was also not one to be trusted either.

"Dabeluchi..."

Before he had even told me the truth, I sensed the fear in his voice. The way his voice shook, the trembling of his hands too. It scared me. I had never seen him like this before, so scared. So fidgety.

"Dabeluchi..."

I felt chills run down my spine when he got on his knees in front of me, his hands vibrating from sheer dread as they carefully tried to hold mine, my breath deepening just as his eyes subtly watered, never leaving mine as they fluttered from pure trepidation.

My heartbeat had picked up, my hands shaking too in his' as I watched him.

"I think you should know something," he had said, and I felt my pounding heart skip at least seven beats.

At the same time, I wanted to hug him, and assure him that whatever it was, it was okay. And that I was there for him. Whatever it was that was capable of breaking the boy I loved this way, I would stand by him. The way he had always stood by me. I wanted to wipe off the tears in his eyes before they dropped, but at the same time, I was terrified. Terrified of what it had to be.

Nonetheless, the last thing I was expecting were the words that came out of his mouth.

"I knew about Chika's diary and your friends exposing that implicating video of your father on the Internet. I've known since the day after it happened, I—"

A shocking sensation, a deep repulsing trigger like lightening, zapped into my hand through his hands and I slapped it away, tearing myself away from him immediately as his words pierced into my heart like the sharp edge of a sword.

"Jesus Christ. Marcus!" I had screamed, repelling from him in total shock, the desperation to have him tell me he was joking being strong as ever.

I may have muttered a bunch of rubbish, it was hard to make sense of anything that came out of my mouth. My brain was in a lock mode, powered from the shock of his betrayal, and the whispers in my head with the many words I wanted to say were all gibberish. So, when I opened my mouth, gibberish spurred.

All the more, he talked and talked and talked, but I heard nothing. Saw nothing too. When I looked at Marc, I usually saw the world. Now, I saw nothing. Nothing but an angel that was morphing into a demon with every second that passed, the halo on his head changing into thick horns of red.

He was still talking. And talking. And talking. Like the Sisters had talked and talked and fucking talked, explaining why they had to betray me. And Marcus was here, doing the same. Talking and talking and explaining his fucking betrayal. Saying words that didn't comprehend in my head. Words that couldn't comprehend even if I tried. I loved no one in the world the way I loved Marcus, so my body shuddered as I tried to process everything.

Fuck.

I pressed a hand onto my chest, as it felt my heart was at its edge of failing, and shot up from the chair. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't even look at him. I couldn't hear all the bullshit that left his mouth, all the excuses, all the lies. None of that.

How could Marcus tell me he knew? He knew my friends' plans against me and he kept shut? He didn't tell me? He said nothing? Fuck. No, no, no, fuck! I couldn't— No— He— I—

"Please, listen to me, Dabeluchi—"

His voice had snapped something in me, and I wasn't even sure what. All I knew was that my head, my hands, my feet, my whole body felt hurt. My life felt meaningless, my being felt defeated. Destroyed. I was a wounded animal, hurt to the point of gore, enough to have them enrage the beast in them, while all the more, all I wanted to do was find an empty room and scream and cry like I had lost my mind.

He was still talking. Still trying to reason with me. Trying to make me understand. Marcus was talking and talking and talking, and no matter what he said, no matter how he pleaded sincerely, his words meant nothing. Fucking nothing.

I remember I had cried to him that day in Dance Class. Told him I was looking for the people who did that to me. And all the while he knew? He fucking knew! And he said nothing. Nothing! He pretended like he knew nothing. Could I really not trust any fucking body in this world?!

Everything he said was a fucking blur, my brain couldn't keep it in more than two seconds. Even if I had screamed and shouted at him, when he tried to appeal. Everything he said sounded like bullshit to me, and like he was on a mission to make matters worse, he had to let me in on one part of everything that gutted me the most.

Kelechi.

Kelechi fucking Uwa.

The fact that my boyfriend kept a secret away from me and shared with my worst enemy was painful enough. The fact that he knew my worst enemy was indirectly in on the plan all the more deepened the pain. The fact that she was in his house. The fact that the both of them had been running around the entire party night, talking about me, how to or how to not keep the truth away. The fact that he was even trying to defend her.

And the fact that he even knew that what he was doing was wrong and still did it anyway. He knew, he knew and that was why he could lie to me again that night without batting an eyelid. He knew he shouldn't have been talking to Kelechi, that's why he had to lie to me that he had gotten that glass of Vodka from JJ.

How easy it was for him to lie to me about something so big...

Was that how good a liar Marcus was?

Because as I looked at him, I felt like I couldn't recognize him. How do you look at a person who can deceive you so easily, how do you see a person whose words you can't decipher a lie or truth from?

And it made me wonder...

How many more times had Marcus Acha lied to me?

"Fuck..." The realization fucked me up. Bad. So fucking bad. Marcus had a way with his words, how he told them to me. How he made me believe them. Believe that I was perfect. Believe I was gold. How he made me believe that I was everything worth of adoration. Obsession. Addiction. How I was his whole world, how he loved me.

Fuck...

If he was such a good liar, then which part of us has been a lie at any point?

I looked at him, a figure of a boy that I could not even recognize anymore.

"Get the fuck away from me, man."

He didn't let me. Marcus reeked of desperation, his hands shaking as he latched them around mine, at the verge of crying in front of me.

"Dabeluchi, please forgive me," he said to me, and fuck, he sounded sincere. I saw truth in his eyes, he looked at me like the moment I made the resolve to leave, to ever leave him, he would die.

"Please," he begged, eyes sober and his voice shaking, hands trembling, "I will never lie to you ever again. I promise. Please..."

"I can't even believe anything that comes out of your mouth right now, Marcus," I said to him, because I was fucking trying. I loved him enough to want to try, to not just put this past me but believe him too.

But it was hard. It was so hard. And maybe it was my insecurities, but the fact that he lied to me about something so big – and I couldn't even tell – started to make me doubtful about many other things. He promised he wouldn't do it again. With words. The same words that he used to lie to me...

I couldn't believe him. I couldn't believe Marcus Acha.

"...Not when you've proven to me that your actions speak louder than your words."

And that was the last thing I said to him before things got even worse. Way worse than I could have ever imagined.

I felt petrified when I saw our classmates coming into the Living Room, all of them from wherever they were in their respective guest rooms, filling up the space of the room where I thought it was just me and Marcus.

The first thing I did was wonder if they heard us, if they heard our fight, but they sounded confused. As they all came down, in packs and troops, from the different stairways and the exit and entrance doors, they looked confused. It looked like a ploy, I was immediately able to decipher that someone had probably called them here...

But, why?

I hated that I had asked in my head.

Because the moment that I did, my questions started to get answered in an instant.

The projector screen... I saw it all.

Marc was there, on the screen of godforsaken projector, and the under of his eyes – somewhere around his left cheek bone – looked slightly bruised. Almost like he had gotten into a fight.

I couldn't tell where they were, but the school sports wear they was wearing – or at least, replicas or antis of what should have been the school uniform–made me understand it was probably somewhere in school. I couldn't tell where, but all I knew was that I could see Marc. And, he was surrounded by boys whom I recognized to be from Kaniru's group of hooligans.  The sight alone triggered nausea in the depth of me, somewhere deep in my guts; he didn't look like he belonged in such a group, such a circle that was polluted by the most sinister minded and vile teenage boys, boys who could do anything. Rape. Rob. Even Murder.

Marcus Acha didn't belong there.

My Marc didn't belong there.

But there he was, in their midst. His face, battered and bruised. And it was as though when I noticed it, cold whooshed through me. When I noticed that just like Marc, all the other guys present with him in the space they were in had some kind of injury on their faces too. So, was that why he was there? Did he do something with them? Something vile? Something that got him beat up, with those boys?

If I could now see Marc as a liar, it was hard to see him as a heartless, unfeeling dangerous animal too.

Marcus Acha was not a dangerous person.

Right?

"Fuck.."

I wasn't sure who said it, but judging that the only person standing beside me was Marc, I guessed he was the one.

Ironic how I could barely even recognize his voice anymore...

Speaking of voices, the voice behind the camera was laughing and charading sounded familiar. Painfully familiar. Whoever it was who was responsible for videoing the entire scene I– no, the entire room–was watching on the projector, he sounded painfully familiar. However, it for sure was the least of my interest...

It was rather the words that came out of Marcus' mouth that shot a bullet into my heart;

"Nothing is going on with me and Dabeluchi. I barely know her. She barely knows me. We're just two people who are never going to truly have each other..."

I staggered.

It was like a force had pushed me back, with a force as strong and heavy as a bullet, so the fact that I could still catch myself before I could fall to the ground was a miracle. A weight had sunk deep from my heart and to my stomach, dragging my weight down further to the ground, scattering my center of gravity even further.

Shockingly, I didn't fall.

I should have, but I didn't.

In a state of disorientation, I felt the space between me and Marcus pull further apart as my feet wandered without control in my trembling dread and shock.

Of course, the crowd was silent...

In the start of the video, what seemed to be its intro to something much worse, something that would have been much more damaging to me, the room was silent. Pin drop. And inevitably, all eyes were on us, on me.

I didn't have to look at them to know that they were all staring at me. I was the center of attention, the eyes boring into me from every fucking angle made that clear to me, and I was scared. I was fucking scared. My hands were shaking with sheer terror, and it was crazy that I thought nothing scared me more than my classmates...

But I was wrong.

So wrong.

My biggest fear was not the way that my classmates closed in on me, or the way the entire room stared at me, moping in confusion, quietness and shock. No... My biggest fear was losing Marc, having to realize that I meant nothing to him. And everything he made me believe were all lies. My biggest fucking fear were the words that I was afraid were about to come out of Marcus' mouth from that video on the projector.

"Aurora... Let's get out of here and talk..."

I heard him behind me, but I ignored it.

"What you're about to see on that screen will cause a big fucking misunderstanding—"

"Get your hands off me."

I writhed from his touch. Writhed. It didn't spark electricity anymore within me. It just triggered me now. His touch absolutely repulsed me.

My eyes stayed on the projector, and my biggest nightmare started to play before my eyes; as expected, what I had heard was just the intro of the video, the start of something way worse, and transfixing my eyes on the screen, I watched the rest of it with Marcus and the crowd around us, and my breath seized. We all watched the video, from the very beginning.

"Leave him!" Jagun, one of the boys from Kaniru's group had guffawed, "He's thinking about his girlfriend!" And with that, the entire room was filled with mad laughter, boys screaming and thundering with it, nearly falling over each other, slapping their thighs in thorough amusement.

Laughing at the idea of me being someone's girlfriend.

My heart cracked into two, hearing how their laughter resounded everywhere, sounding just like the distorted mocking voices that tormented me inside my head. Cackling at me. Scorning me. Screeching with laughter so intensely that their eyes watered and reddened, their veins bulged and popped, their breaths seized into a wheezing, breathless howl.

Laughter that even reverberated all around the graveyard silent living room, deafening me in the midst of classmates who for the first time didn't join to laugh at me. They just stood there, watching the projector, dumbstruck as I was.

Everyone in the video was laughing.

Except Marcus.

Only Marcus didn't laugh.

If anything, he looked annoyed. Disgusted even. What was he disgusted by? Me? The thought of me being his girlfriend? Was that what irritated him that much?

God...

God...

God, I pray you my soul to keep...

My whole body felt bare, naked. The way the cold whooshed through me over and over, I felt naked. So fucking naked. So fucking scared. I couldn't feel my heart at this point, I felt numb. And ironic, how the feeling of being numb is painful. In an inexplainable, gutting way.

The video continued, my breath doing the opposite.

"Abeg, no talk that kind thing! Don't say it again, please!"

The laughing person behind the camera was the one speaking now...

"I forbid that kind of girl for my guy, abeg!"

JJ.

That was JJ's voice.

JJ was the one behind the camera, he was the one videoing all of these, riling up the entire group around Marcus to laugh and laugh and laugh all the more.

Once again, except Marcus Acha.

He was the only one who didn't seem to find anything funny; he was the only one stared at the camera with death glares and heavily side eyed every other guy who hit him in their uncontrolled laughter, with a grudge. And, yet, yet... He said not a word.

Marcus didn't say anything while his friends were insulting and laughing at me, he didn't say shit.

"I swear, that one is a downgrade!" Another one of Kaniru's boys, Bobzee, had laughed hysterically, saying, "I can vomit for him, I swear!"

My heart was in two pieces, no many pieces. Pieces that were too many. Too many...

And I waited. I fucking waited. I waited for Marcus to defend me. To defend his Aurora. To say something, anything. But, Marcus was nothing but an angry ball of fire. An anger that I translated as disgust. He was disgusted that his friends were shipping me with him... He was irritated by the idea. That's why he was not saying or doing anything as such degrading words of insults spewed out of their mouths.

If Marcus loved me the way he claimed to. Just if. Would he be sitting there and watching these guys insult and degrade me like this?

One of those boys said they could vomit because of me. Vomit. I was something that disgusting, that spine-tingling, that nausea-trigging enough to make someone vomit... I swallowed over and over, legs shaking just as hard as my hands and fingers, and that feeling of nakedness was overwhelming.

It was like everything about me was suddenly in close up before the eyes of everyone, everything that made me disgusting. Pathetic. The air was suddenly colder, and even if eyes were fixed on the projector, they felt like they were boring into my soul. My dirty, disgusting soul.

I am a disgusting person.

In and out.

I've always been. Before Marcus, I was this, and after him, I will still be this. I will still be Dabeluchi Orji, the pathetic piece of shit. That's who I am. That's who I fucking am...

And that's why I was never capable of being loved.

Not even by Marcus Acha.

"The girl is fine o, no doubt," Another person had spoken, and instinctively my eyes went up to see Affah on the screen, a quiet tone in his voice as he spoke as though he wanted to calm the air.

However, judging the air and vibe around him, he seemed to pull back. Retreat. As though he knew that defending me was not something he should be doing in that moment, not with 'his guys'.

Affah's next words, however, was a powerful left hook to my face.

"But, no abeg," he said, switching up, "E get as she be. She behaves like someone who has mental problem."

My saliva thickened.

I watched Marcus, and nothing.

Nothing in my defense.

Absolutely fucking nothing.

My body was freezing, but my eyes were hot. It felt like they were burning, stinging me with every second that I stood there and watched Marcus do nothing in that video.

The fact that all these were said to the hearing of the boy that swore he loved me, that he would kill for me, live for me, and die for me. The boy who had put me first before anything else, given up everything for me, shown me that it was possible to love even when it was unconditional. Even when there was nothing to love about you. Tears stung and burned my eyes, my nose and ears hot with the burn of my brewing tears. My head heavy, my entire weight carrying a weight I knew was too much for me.

Fuck...

"No! No! I know the kind of girls Marcus goes for!" JJ's voice was still playing from the video, laughing like a madman all the way, "It's NOT girls like Dabeluchi!"

The knives that were lodged into my heart pierced deeper, and I pressed a hand to my chest, hoping to massage the pain inside me. This was just the moment that I turned back to look at Marcus who was six feet apart from me – figuratively and literally – with my breathing so unstable that the words I wanted to say were nothing short of shaky exhales and trembling lips.

He couldn't even look at me,

At least not for long.

There was a hopeless look on his face, almost like he wanted to explain something, but didn't know how. Didn't think an explanation was going to do justice, that hopelessness and brokenness evidence in his face, as his eyes begged me to trust him.

But how?

How could I ever trust him again?

Why did he even want me to trust him again? After all, JJ was right in that video when he said I was far from Marcus and his ideal type, I always knew him to be one struck with vanity. A shallow human being. Until I got to know him and he made me believe that he was different, he made me believe lies. Fucking lies.

And, of course. Of course, I didn't need much analysis to understand what JJ meant by that. I was completely abstract and different from the girls that Marcus had been with, in the past. They had one thing in common: beauty that was conventional. They were fucking stunning. And here I was, with my insanity wrapped in a body that looked beaten, bruised, tired and scarred.

Who would want a girl like me?

Why me?

Why have many other options and settle for Dabeluchi Aurora Orji?

Exactly.

I turned away from Marc's pleading eyes, and let out a shaky tired breath. Defeated.

"And, so what's the big deal if I have something to do with Dabeluchi?"

Gulp.

I froze. Right on my spot.

That was his voice...

That was Marcus' voice. He was the one that just spoke, that just defended me.

A little ray of hope shined, and the softest sigh of relief waited to be let out as I watched the screen with my breath, held. My heart, hanging.

We waited in the silence that ensued after, both in the video and in the entire room where we all were in as we set our eyes on Marcus on the screen, who looked like he was on a quest to fire back at those boys for talking about me like that. The tear that was hanging around the lids of my under eyes dropped down my face, a soft relief starting to wash over me.

If anyone else had anything shitty to say about me, somehow if Marcus countered it, it had a way of making my day. It made me feel like nobody else's opinion of me mattered, as far as Marcus thought otherwise.

All that I had learned to let matter to me was what Marcus had to say about me... My Clyde.

Unfortunately, I waited and the silence grew louder, as I waited for him to continue in his defense of me. But, no further words were coming out of his mouth. No more words. No more words until—

"—BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

The voices in the video scattered the peace and quiet in the air as they all laughed in all their hysteria, cackling with the loudest and most spine-chilling laughter I had heard from them yet.

"Acha is BABA for the girls na!" JJ came guffawing, "She's defs one of his conquests. That's all she can be! He's just leading her on to take what he wants from her. When he's done, he'll ball out! Is it not our guy again that knows how to get any guy he wants?! He's just playing games with her!"

"Exactly!" Kingsley shouted, concurring with JJ, "We know Acha!"

Beside him, Oshio with the red cap had shoved Marcus playfully and tried to fist bump him, but the later snubbed him.

Kingsley's words were resounding in my head...

These boys who paraded themselves around Kaniru George were assholes. Assholes who had no respect for anyone, men or women alike. They turned the school into a madder house than it normally was with their delinquency and cult-like practices: engaging in vices like drinking, smoking, drugs, even sexual assault. Threatening people. Beating up junior students and classmates. Bullying. Hurting others severely...

And they were proclaiming Marcus as 'one of them'? Claiming that 'they knew him'. Like he was their bro. Their 'guy'. When I could swear with everything in me that Marcus Acha was nothing like these boys... Yet, he was right there in the center of their midst.

"What else could he be finding in that – is it Dabu or whatever – girl?" Kingsley was still talking, triggering the others with more and more laughter, and I stood there, tearing into fucking shreds as I watched them all laugh at me like that...

Like I wasn't a human being.

I was many things, but did I deserve to be torn down like this, by them, by my classmates, by my friends, by everyone? Did I deserve to be ripped apart until there was nothing left, like I wasn't human enough like them to be treated as one too.

As if the torture that my father and my home life brought upon me was not enough.

I am a human being too..

Why didn't anyone treat me as such?

Didn't I deserve to be treated as one?

"Wait o!" JJ's voice was dominant again from the video, resounding above the laughter that dominated the rest of the entire group.

His focus was on a quiet Marcus, a look of mixed shock and disbelief on his face as he came closer to ask him in all incredulousness;

"You and Dabeluchi... Is something really going on between you two?"

It felt like the room had stilled on this question.

Like the air had even come to a standstill too, the silence in the room thick and heavy with its concentration. With a heart heavy and hanging high, I waited to hear from Marcus...

I waited to hear from my Marcus...

But he say there, staring around the group like it was the toughest question he had ever been asked. And each second that passed and he seemed to 'think', I felt my heart speed up dangerously, the beating even resounded from inside my chest to the sides of my head. My entire body, shaking.

I was so scared.

So fucking scared.

Then, he finally spoke.

Marcus finally spoke, his words breaking the silence in the air and causing my entire world to come to a halt, crumbling right before me and shattering into broken pieces that pierced at my feet.

Those words;

"Nothing is going on with me and Dabeluchi. I barely know her. She barely knows me. We're just two people who are never going to truly have each other."

Those words came out from Marcus Acha's mouth.

"God... please," I said, begging a God I barely believed in, "God, please I am begging you, this can't be happening..."

It couldn't be happening. Fuck. It couldn't be happening. This was a pain that was cutting too deep, an ache within me that surged through every part of me, causing my body to start to tremble in what I supposed was a brewing panic attack.

I wanted to be dreaming. I wanted to close my eyes, drop to the ground and bang my head against it until I had passed out. Then, woken up to see that this was all just one bad dream. A living nightmare. I wanted this to not be real; how? How could I bring myself to accept that Marcus – the only person that I was ever truly learning to release my heart and soul to – could deny me in the presence of his friends?

This was a boy who swore that I was gold brought to life. A boy who looked at me like I was worth every treasure in the freaking universe. A boy who made me feel safe. Secure. Happy. One who I ran to for escape, for help. A drug to me. My fucking survival. And those awful, gut wrenching words were coming out of his mouth?

Those words were coming of the mouth of the boy who swore an oath to fight with me against the world... So, why then? Why would he switch sides? Why would he switch sides and join the world – our mutual enemy – to forsake me?

I was living a freaking nightmare, a terrible dream that I wanted to wake up from. And worse still, right here in the midst of my watching, menacing classmates whose eyes had long moved away from the now paused video on the screen to rest on me, an eeriness daunting in their silent stares. Piercing through all the holes in my body, almost like they were watching my every move, every shift in my emotions, ever hair on my body; I had never understood what it felt like to literally want the ground to open up and swallow me whole until this very moment.

"Dabeluchi..."

I heard his voice behind me.

Marcus' voice.

Fuck, it echoed in the silence of the room, the entire attention thick on me and him.

His voice still had a grip on me, an unforgiving brutal hold. The only difference was that now, it was a voice that sent chills crawling down my spine, slithering through the marrow of my bones like a wet, trickily snake. Not the usual sweetness, choking sweetness that accompanied it when I was deceived that he actually loved me in the past.

"Dabeluchi..."

I took three steps back when he moved one step forward.

That made him stop, a soft look in his eyes of desperation as he halted his movements. It was almost like he was aware that him getting closer made me uncomfortable. Like he didn't want me to feel unsafe. Or at least, that was how I knew Marcus. As a person who would do anything for me to feel safe with him, a person who would cross any length for that cause. But now, I wasn't even sure what I knew anymore. Wasn't sure what to think or believe anymore, or how to analyze even his littlest actions. Everything he did confused me, every move he now made terrified me.

Marcus terrified me now...

Even more that the first time that we had met.

And with every fragment of hope that diminished from those big brown fearful eyes of honey brown the longer that they stared at me, the more certain I was the he could see that too.

"That video, Aurora, its... Aurora, it's not what it looks like. Not at all..."

His voice was nothing more than a weak strain, hopelessness heavy in his entire demeanor. Like he was well aware of the fact that his words were making very little effect. Much too little. There was truth in his eyes, fear also prevalent, but a lot of truth. I could see it. But fuck it... What was the 'truth' anymore when it came with him?

"You have to believe me, please," his voice was child-like when he asked, shaking with a desperation that was both pitiful and painful to watch, "Please, Dabeluchi... If you have even one last bit of faith left in me, please, don't let it waver..."He asked like it was his last hope, wrecking me with the defeat in his entire being, the brokenness of his urgent pleas.

And, I tried. Lord knows I was trying. With every second that I stared at him and forced myself to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth, I was trying the best I could. But, all his words were just sounding like a different language. A incomprehensible rubbish. Meaningless words that tried to break through the walls of a shattered heart and deaf ears.

Marc looked all the more hopeless, eyes moving with dread from me - the girl he was losing with every second that ticked and tocked - and to the entire crowd around us, our classmates, that suddenly seemed to grow a conscience, staring him down in absolute appall and even near disgust, like he was a seven horned monster.

Lips quivering, hands trembling, breath ragged, eyes flustering and lids flickering, he reconsidered taking another step closer, a hesitance in his movements.

Or maybe it was just an extreme carefulness.

It was all bizarre to me though. I was hurting. I was the one hurting, the one ashamed, the one humiliated, the one shaking with this haunting, daunting dread that grew by the second as my brain was trying to comprehend this treachery, but somehow... Just, somehow, Marcus managed to look more terrified than me.

The fear in this boy was absolutely difficult to watch, he looked like he was on the verge of tears. Absolutely petrified. Like if I had made the decision to turn around and walk out on him right this second, a nerve would have cut in his already pounding heart and on the spot, he would have collapsed to the ground.

He looked like he was terrified to fathom the thought of me leaving him...

It actually almost melted my heart.

Almost.

"I want us to talk, Dabeluchi," he insisted softly, glancing roughly at the crowd around us as she added, "In private."

"No."

"Please."

"I said, no."

He heaved a heavy sigh, the sweat on his forehead drooping down to the sides of his face.

"I have never lied to you about how I feel for you, Dabeluchi," he said to me, he swore, "Not for one second. I have made mistakes in the past, and believe me, I was a different person before I met you, but never, not even for once, have I thought of you and me as charade.  Not even for one second, babe. That video– fuck, that video is just—"

"—Stories, stories, stories."

Marcus' words were drowned down his throat in the intrusion, his body freezing over in that instant.

"Fucking stories, brah."

There was the most dreadful realization in his eyes; his body slightly spasmed with chills, as though someone had drenched a bucket of cold water seemed to splash against his back.

Obviously, I wasn't the one who interrupted.

It was general knowledge that right there, in the midst of Marc's desperate bid to explain himself, a snarky, mocking voice – a devious and taunting third party – that cut him off in mid speech. The silence in the room was golden, so in the intrusion of the new voice – a scarily familiar one – that had brought themselves into our business with Alpha confidence, the crowd in the room started to turn their heads towards its direction.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion: with Marc frozen on his spot, not daring to look back and confirm his brutal suspicions, a disbelieving look in his eyes even in the face of the shocking reality. His pupils were the size of the mouth of a needle; his entire body, suddenly rigid. And his guard, up. Almost on the defense. Or even offense.

Well, I looked.

Inevitably.

And, fuck, the very second that I made that decision, it took me less than two seconds to regret every second of it. Every second that I had peered in, to see him right there, in the middle of the crowd that parted avoidantly at his sides, every second that I watched that spotlight of dangerous clouds and heavy, unsettling darkness hovering over him as he took steps forward, a sharp shark-like smirk growing unnervingly at one side of lips with every formidable step he took...

Towards us.

With each space he closed between us as he came closer and closer, my heart learned a new beat rhythm. It either pounded or suddenly just stopped, my mortification driving me on and on in between a stroke and a heart failure. Face flushed and pale, as though I was coming face to face with a ghost. Or my worst nightmare. Or the fucking devil. Nonetheless, none of them were even as close as petrifying as the feeling that washed over me as he got closer and closer.

Sean Ayomide was, by far, the most terrifying human being I had ever encountered all my life.

"I reckon you must be sick of hearing them already, Dabi," he said, shaking his head with a chuckle as he inched closer to us, "Girl, I do feel you. Nothing sucks more than when the person you trust the most gives you a reason to doubt everything, to question the bond you thought you had with them. And, at the end of it, all they have to say for themselves is nothing but excuses..."

I swallowed hard when he got to us, my heart hanging in the air.

"Excuses upon excuses upon fucking excuses," Sean said, bitterness rolling off his tongue and a dangerous death glare following Marcus when he reached us and brushed past his best friend, shoulder to shoulder, heading the direction of the projector with an arrogance in his steps.

I couldn't speak. Not when my already shattered heart was in my mouth. Marcus stared at Sean, shock that I couldn't even explain sharp in his eyes as the darker, possibly psycho boy mounted the centre of the living room, his shadow casting against the projector as he dominated the floor like it was his own stage.

Marc was still solving equations in his head, the disbelief his face expressed was one that no one could have even brought themselves to comprehend. Frankly, I was still trying to see where all of this was going – what Sean had to do with all of this – and why he was even involved. My ex boyfriend, however, looked like he simply couldn't believe what was happening, dumbstruck that his 'best friend' was the one happily and excitedly pouring gasoline into the growing fire.

And something told me I only even knew the half of it. Something told me that I understand little about the gravity of what was happening, why it seemed to take Marcus off guard like this. But, I couldn't place it. The confusion and curiosity that lingered in the air from the crowd made it clear that I was not alone. We all were still trying to understand what was unfolding before us.

And, Sean was glad to clear up all the confusion with one revelation;

"I was the one who made arrangements to put this video implicating my own best friend up here on the projector tonight for our entire set 'mates to watch."

He announced this with the prettiest smile on his dark face, his eyes crinkling with nothing other than pure joy, and the entire crowd of classmates has burst into a chaos of gasps and exclamation.

I stepped back a bit, confused and shocked myself. The public confession came at everyone like a slap on their faces, not excluding me. Everyone seemed to be choking on air at the astonishment of Sean's 'betrayal' of his best friend, Marc, and whispers of 'Jesus' were springing up from all angles around me.

Needless to say, with the most joviality in his demeanor, Sean showed off his pearly white thirty-two, anticipation flickering maniacally in his eyes as he watched hell and brimstone fall upon the now disoriented crowd of classmates like the catastrophe unfolding was a shiny pot of leprechaun gold, psychotic excitement fizzling like gas in a coca-cola bottle in his wide eyes.

"Surprise, surprise," he sang to rile up the crowd even more, and I saw Marc step up immediately.

"Sean, what the fuck are you doing?" He fired at his best friend, incredulously, moving with an aim towards Sean who barely looked like interested.

"And you know why I did it, my dear classmates?" Sean further announced, ignoring Marc like he was a damn ghost as he shouted on to the crowd, "I did this tonight, because I believe that it is high time that everyone saw Marcus Bruno Acha for who he really is; yes, classmates, my dream tonight is for all of you to see the kind of vile human being that my ex best friend, Marcus Acha truly is.—"

"— Sean, if this is a childish quest for revenge—"

"— And, maybe," Sean cut in, deliberately interrupting Marc in mid speech as he focused on the listening crowd, "Maybe, we all can learn a valuable lesson from all of this. Lessons about humans being humans: lying, backstabbing, hypocrisy, and all shades of two facedness that we all can offer to the people who trust us the most—"

"— You're making a mistake—"

"— Furthermore," Sean cut in again, a broad smile on his face as he announced publicly, "Allow me to to introduce to everyone the person who helped to make all of this possible. If not for his help, I wouldn't have gotten my hands on this video exposing Acha tonight."

I watched, with breath seized, as he savored the silence in the room for a while, enjoying it as he knew that we all were waiting to hear who else had a hand in dragging Marc's name to the dust.

Without waste of time, Sean broke the suspense;

"JJ Jarah, come and say hi to your fans."

Collective gasps were heard again from the crowd as a whole new raucous was created on the reveal. Soon, there was a noise situating all around a single spot in the crowd as they all, in that area, shoved and pushed someone from inside it out into plain sight. All too soon, there was JJ, out in the open, his red face like a tomato and eyes, pale. Like he had seen a ghost.

He looked speechless. Confused, even. Humiliated.

And all the way, I knew he felt Marc's eyes boring into the side of his head, judging him.  Looking at him like he had pulled a dagger stained with poisonous rust deep into his chest, the glare of indignation. Unbelievable betrayal.

The light skinned boy was just scattered.  With the way that he seemed disoriented, looking everywhere, but at Marcus who simply could not believe him, I knew that he wished to have the ground open and swallow him up. Anything to run away from this kind of shame and guilt.

"JJ, you were the one who sent that video to Sean?" Marcus asked him, his voice hard and cold, "Man, you were there. JJ, you were there with me that day when this happened and you know that everything I said could be misunderstood if taken out of context, so why did you let things get to this?"

The latter barely looked at Marc, his eyes avoiding him carefully as he rather faced Sean.

"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone I was involved in this shit," he said to Sean, his breath shaking slightly as he spoke – an indication of his growing nervousness, "Guy, what's all these na?"

"Are you fucking me, JJ?!" Marc snapped at him, and he was pulled back by some of our set boys when he made an aggressive move forward to get to the lighter skinned boy, "Are you seriously playing with me, guy?! Tell everybody the fucking truth about what really happened that day, Jeffery!"

"No de shout for me, abeg," JJ hissed irritably.

Marc was bamboozled. Utterly discombobulated. He looked between his two friends, from Sean to JJ, with the most horrid look of appall in his eyes, like it was the worst nightmare for him to watch his two best friends doing this to him.

"Sean, you know I am in love with Dabeluchi," he faced the other, desperation laced a little into the anger in his voice, "You know I love her, so why are you doing this? Is it because we fought, guy? Does it even cross your mind that you may be making a huge mistake doing all these?" He turned to JJ, helpless yet seething, "And, you! You! What the fuck have I ever done to you? Are we not friends? You came to my room last night and we were cool, bro! We talked. We laughed. I even told you how much Dabeluchi meant to me! So, when did we suddenly get on bad terms and I didn't know? What did I do to you for you to decide to go so low and humiliate me like this with shit that you KNOW is nothing but lies! Why would you do this to me?!"

Frankly, I started to get conflicted, and a part of me was stuck between wanting to believe Marc had a solid explanation for this, but I couldn't fight to fill the emptiness left of the trust I had for him with a little hope. I just couldn't.

And, I could not pretend like I did not understand how betrayed he must have felt by his friends right now. Not when I also had first hand experience on what it was like to be betrayed by your friends. I couldn't lie to myself that this entire thing had not smacked me yet again in the face, on his behalf. And, no, it was not because I rated any of them – Sean or JJ – it was more-so the fact that the both of them were his friends. His best friends. And together, they were ganging up against him, to bring him down in front of everyone? And make him lose everything and everyone around him.

Including me.

Especially me.

And, it was working.

"JJ, please tell them the truth," Marc said to him.

At this point, he had resorted to begging. It was pitiful to watch, it was gut wrenching. Still, I couldn't tell if this was all an act or if he was sincere. But, Marc was there, pleading with JJ – the last hope, the only hope that he had.

"Guy, please," he pleaded still.

JJ still didn't look at him. Didn't even blink in his direction. His mouth, sealed shut.

"Go ahead," Sean said to JJ, calm smile playing across his lips, "Tell them the 'truth', JJ."

Only then did JJ's gaze transfer to Sean, his eyes asking him questions. The two of them seemed to have a quick communication between them using their eyes, and finally, JJ opened his mouth to speak.

To speak the 'truth'.

"It all started at the opening party in Yure's house," he said to the hearing of all, "We all booked a room together: me, Sean, Acha, and alongside Kaniru and the boys..."

I felt constricted of air again. Any thing that connected Marcus to Kaniru or any of those devilish boys was just a hard pill for me to swallow. A strong, bitter pill.

"Continue," Sean urged him.

"We were messing around and shit. Vaping. Drinking. Getting high. Comparing Maranatha girls' to CH girls'. Calling dibs on the girls we wanted to tap before the end of the night—"

Blood of Jesus.

"— And, one of the guys started teasing Acha," JJ continued, "Well, I joined in too and —"

"Teasing Acha about what?" Sean chipped in to ask, eyes wide in anticipation.

JJ gave the answer;

"About not being capable of pulling a girl as low class as Dabeluchi Orji."

Needles pricked the little spaces left in my heart that had not been pierced through already, my body remaining rigid and frozen on its spot.

"Repeat that again."

Sean said to JJ.

He took in a deep breath, avoiding Marc's eyes as he started to repeat himself again.

"We made a bet with Acha—"

"— JJ, if you're going to betray a friend, you might as well look them in the eyes while you do it."

Sean said to him, eyes solidly pinned against him.

JJ actually complied. With a heavy sigh, he raised his head up, making the bold move to look Marc in the eyes as he spoke this time around.

"We made a bet with Acha," he repeated, "He wanted to prove that he could live up to his name as the girl magnet. As 'Man Like Acha'. And so, he would make the most disassociated girl in our set fall in love with him – that girl was Dabeluchi Orji."

"That's not true!" Marc immediately came in on the defense, shouting with a fury that fired up the entire room, "JJ, what the fuck! That's not what fucking happened!—"

"— Prove it." Sean interrupted Marc calmly.

"I–Fuck, I can't, but I remember that night clearly and that's not what happened! That's NOT how things went. We NEVER brought up Dabeluchi that night for even one second!"

"Then, what happened that night?" Sean asked him, giving him the mic to speak, "If that was not what happened that night, then tell us what happened, Acha."

Marcus seemed to bite on his own words, his words betraying him as he stuttered.

"Sean, you know I can't talk about what happened that night and you KNOW it had nothing to do with Dabeluchi!" He insisted still.

"You go explain tire, no evidence," Sean mocked him.

"How can I have evidence?" Marc argued, "It's not like I had my entire life on record or some shit.—"

"Oh, but we do," Sean interfered confidently, "We have evidence, and you don't."

"That video did not even happen on the night of Yure's party," Marcus kept on, "It's broad daylight in the video and what happened was that —"

" — You were embarrassed to let your boys even have the misconception that you and the rubbish girl they dared you to pull on the night of Yure's party were actually a thing. You'd rather vomit. You said it yourself, you and Dabeluchi Orji are two people who would never have each other."

God...

God...

God...

My hands pressed against my chest, the pain too much to bear. This was a fucking nightmare, a heavy one. The humiliation that washed over me, the stupidity that enveloped me. The way that the clouds started to form over me all over again, hovering over my head like a wet hood. A dark, deathly feeling of doom that I had not felt for a long time after falling in love with Marc. It was all coming back, all over again.

Fuck...

"Dabeluchi, don't believe them," Marcus rushed to me, and this time, he was more interested in reasoning with me than arguing with Sean. "Don't listen to them. That video was long, long ago. Before we even learned about each other. Before we started to love each other. And it was not from a place of disgust, I genuinely felt like I was not going to have you. Like I wasn't good enough for you. Dabeluchi, please, don't let what they are saying get into your head. I NEVER placed a bet on your head! Never! Everything part of me falling for you was real, as real as it could ever be! Aurora, you are everything to me! Remember what we promised each other! That we would NEVER let the world separate us! Thats it me and you against the world! Please, believe me!—"

Sean laughed, shaking his head at the bloody waste of time that everything Marc was doing was.

It was like he knew. Like he could tell that the damage was already done. And no matter how Marc bared himself to me right now, no matter how much blood he cried out from his eyes, nothing he said would make a damn difference. Nothing. Not a single damn thing.

"You know it's crazy how life is," Sean said, tsking, and no one could miss the chuckle in his voice, "You meet someone, you bond with them, you build so much trust in them and you can swear on your fucking life that these guys are your ride-or-die. They can never so anything wrong, they will never let you down..."

He stopped, laughing over his own words, and for a split second, I saw anger in his eyes. A bitterness lingering in it that was so dark, so heavy to look at. Yet, he somehow managed to still laugh.

"And then, at the end of the day, they just stab you in the back and shove the bond you shared right in your fucking face," he said, pinching the tip of his nose as he yet laughed it off all over again. Bitterly, still. "What a way to close a chapter of your life with a person you genuinely gave a shit about...

It is a pretty fucked up way to end a story, if you ask me."

Marcus stood behind me, yet I couldn't even bring myself to look at him. I could barely even stand being in the same room with him right now.

"We, human beings are really shitty creatures," Sean said, shaking his head in pained amusement, "Shitty fucked up creatures. We hurt others. We lie. And lie. And lie. And fucking keep lying..."

On cue, as if my instincts were on the alert, my eyes turned to the other end of the room, the entrance door...

Where I saw them walking into the Living Room.

Chika Chioma.

Somadina Best.

Ebere Onuoha.

Three of them, accompanied by Casper Bassey.

They were walking into the Living Room, confusion and a big of anxiety stamped on their faces, getting the attention of the few classmates around them, as they made such an entrance.

Seeing them seemed to break me even more, all over again. It further reminded me of all the reasons why I truly had no one. No one.

Chika was quick, her eyes darting around the room like a jaguar. And, the moment that her eyes met mine, she looked absolutely horrid. The others followed her gaze and all of them had the same look of doom on their faces, Casper for one looked like he was going to pass out on the spot.

However, the moment that I had made eye contact with her, with all of them, I looked away. Even the sight of her, the sight of all of them, I could not stand anymore.

"The backstabbing will never end, would it?" Sean said, laughing yet again humorlessly, "Till the end of time, we will continue to live in a world where we lie to and break the people who love us deeply..."

Again, on cue, my eyes diverted to Aaron Godson at the top of the stairway. The tall boy had appeared out of the blue, like his instincts immediately knew the second that Chika had walked into the room. A soft look lingered in his eyes when his eyes met hers, and through his eyes, I could literally see his heart light up.

It was only in that moment it occurred to me that he possibly had no clue what she and his best friend, Casper were even up to. Needless to say, when it came to the things that Chika Chioma was up to, Aaron barely knew what's up.

And the poor boy was deceiving himself, thinking he was in 'love'.

Each time I remembered I was part of this deception Chika was playing with Aaron, it reminded me brutally how I was in no place to judge anyone for being a backstabber or a liar. I was no different from these people who were hurting me.

"Well, I am not a saint either," Sean spoke, almost like he was a mind reader, "I have proven tonight that I am just an asshole too, like my fucking best friend. I stabbed him right back in his back with the same knife, fucked him over tonight and made him look like a terrible person in front of all of you tonight, because he fucking deserves it. Every bit of this. If he can be an asshole, then I will be an even bigger one. So, best friend, once again, cheers to assholes like us." He mock saluted Marcus, a wicked grin on his face.

"Sean, you don't know what you're doing—"

"— And, you know the biggest difference me and him?" Sean cut him off, an arch in his brows when he raised them.

Marcus was breathing hard, exhausted and tired of fighting, watching his best friend with pure appall.

Sean, still determined on doing his worst, descended from the stage he mounted for himself and started to walk towards Marc. I stepped back, horrified to be in such close proximity with Sean, but Marc did not even move a muscle, didn't budge as his best friend got closer to him.

"Wanna know the difference between me and you?"

Sean said this as he closed the space between him and Marcus, squaring him up eye level, forehead nearly touching as they both stared each other down, neither backing away.

"The difference between me and you, Acha, is that I have the balls to stand in front of you and be an asshole. The audacity to look you in the eyes and tell you to your face that I am the one who fucked you over. That's something your cowardice ass could never do in the first place."

Marcus said nothing, his eyes red and bloodshot, almost dangerous as he glared back at Sean.

"So, tell me," Sean said to Marc, "How does it feel to be stabbed in the back? To lose everything?"

"If I lose Dabeluchi because of you," he retorted to Sean's face, a scarily flat undertone in his voice as he spoke, "I will never forgive you."

"Frankly, I'm not interested," Sean calmly responded, "I don't want your bloody forgiveness."

"I can't live without her," he said, "You know this, and yet, you want to ruin everything for me."

"Wake up, brother, you can live without anyone," Sean easily countered, "I mean, look at me. I lost Ada. I lost you..." A sickening smile came upon his face as he made sure to add, "And, I survived. It felt like I would die, man. But I didn't. I survived it. It scarred me, but I survived. And I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, wish you feel worse than I ever felt. I wish you more suffering and sleepless nights and blood tears, more torment that I had to go through..."

"And how would that make you feel about yourself?" Marc asked Sean back.

"I feel nothing about myself, Acha," Sean answered him, "Nothing but emptiness. Occasionally, disgust. I mean, for one, that's why Ada probably left me to go fuck you. And, why you felt our friendship meant nothing at all, I meant no shit to you that you could go sleeping with her behind my back and making a mockery of me with her—"

Sean was cut off by the collective shouts that filled the room in that reveal, shrieks and screams of shock filling the room like voices from Hell.

I felt like I had been struck by lightening.

What the fuck did I just hear?

"Oh, I didn't tell you guys," Sean shouted above the noise, a hysteric laugh coming with his next announcement, "Your boy, Man Like Acha, was also sleeping with my girl while we were dating earlier this year. Not only is he a wack boyfriend, he also does a TERRIBLE job in being a good friend!"

Sirens were playing in my head, loud wails deafening me as my brain tried to come to terms with all of this.

And maybe Marc was even ashamed to look at me, because this time, he didn't say anything. Not to Sean. Not to me. He didn't even try to explain things to me like he had been doing the entire time, neither did he try to avert Sean's accusation.

"The bastard gave me signs, but I ignored them," Sean was still talking, "I should have known I meant nothing when he cut me off his life, untriggered. Scouts from abroad came to watch me play, a chance for me to be drafted into the NBA and after begging him countless times to be there, he ghosted. Simultaneously, on the day that was also my birthday. And then, to make matters worse, he further accuses me of being a murderer. Throwing insults at me because his daft ass believed I poisoned his drink that hospitalized Ghadafi!—"

Multiple arrows were being thrown, all at once; all I knew was at the mention of Marc ghosting Sean's big day, I felt a prick of guilt hit me. I couldn't help it.

"Dabeluchi, you are dating a monster!" Sean faced me, spitting that line with so much venom on his tongue. "And, you look shocked? What were you even fucking thinking, that Marcus Acha would sincerely take a girl like you seriously?! Are you fucking delusional? Marcus would never look at you even if you were the last fucking girl on this mo'fucking planet!—"

"—Sean, I am warning you. If you don't shut the fuck up right now!" Marcus growled, shoving Sean aggressively as his rage was building up.

"You deserve NOTHING!" Sean snapped back at him, pushing him right back, "NOTHING! That's why your fucking father hates you! Good for nothing bastard! You're not fooling anybody, brah! You really want to stand here and lie to everyone's fucking face that you really fell for a low budget piece of crap like Dabeluchi Orji!—"

"— That's enough, Sean Ayomide!"

The air stilled instantly, the fiery voice that shouted in the midst of the hot back and forth between Marc and Sean suddenly seizing all the spotlight.

I knew that voice. All too well.

And my suspicions were validated; all eyes were diverted with the speed of light, gazes finding their way to the one girl at the end of the room, with Aaron Godson holding onto to her both protectively and cautiously.

"Fuck off, my gee," she said to Sean, eyes hard and heavy with growing anger, "Leave that girl alone."

Sean was barely fazed by Chika, a subtle look of berserk surprise flickering in his irises as he watched the light skin girl.

"You have some damn nerves putting your mouth in all of these, Chika Chioma," he said to her, chuckled dangerously, "You, Chika. You. You?"

Chika's stare on him was firm, Aaron's hold on her, firmer.

"You sneaky, lying bitch," Sean cackled at Chika, actually laughing hysterically, "If I need an Oscar for being an asshole, you deserve a fucking world cup. And an extra creativity award too. Because I mean, 'Dares and pledges'? The idea is just as goated as it is implicating, if you ask me."

Blood of Jesus...

Chika looked like she had seen a ghost, the color draining out of her face. It was like her entire fight died down, eyes wide in terror, the breath absolutely knocked out of her.

This was the first time that I had ever seen this kind of horror on her face. And in her defense, this was a terror moment. Because how the FUCK did Sean know about the Dares and Pledges?!

I had no time to even brainstorm on anything. Before I knew what was happening, Soma jumped in, throwing herself on the cross.

"Chika didn't think of the Dares and Pledges, it was all my idea!" She shouted, confessing hysterically.

"Shut the fuck up, Somadina!" Ebere snapped at her.

This can't be fucking happening...

"Look, I don't know what the hell this is about, man, but keep my girl's name out of your fucking mouth," Aaron came in, warning Sean.

"I don't know, man, it's giving Will and Jada Smith," Sean said, "Ready to die and put your life on the line for a woman who cares little to nothing about you."

Aaron frowned, looking Sean up and down as he stepped up in offense immediately.

"Run that comment back for me again, I no hear you well the first time.—"

"— Control, man." Casper came in immediately, acting as a pacifist immediately. "Control, guy. He's not worth it."

I noticed Casper share a conversation with Marc with his eyes, but I couldn't pick anything else other than disappointment in Casper's eyes. With a sigh, he turned away and pulled Aaron away, whispering something to both him and Chika and I suspected he was trying to pull them away from the drama.

"At least, it's not in all cases that women are the assholes too..." Sean said right behind Chika as she walked away with Aaron and Casper, his gaze moved back to Marc right after, scoffing humorlessly as he added, "Some men do deserve their fucking spot in hell. Abi? Clyde?"

Marc seemed to be in an overdrive, a heat that had shut his entire body down. He wasn't saying a single word, he wasn't making a single sound, but his eyes darted at Sean like an eagle, dangerously following him around with a deathly carefulness. His hands, his fingers, shaking. Vibrating. His glare, tiger-like. Sharp. Precise. The red veins in his eyes so thick that his lids were twitching, a blood thirst heavy in that death stare.

I had never seen him like this before...

So angry. An anger from Hell. Fuck, nothing about this brooding calmness his demeanor acquired while his body shook and vibrated was normal. Every vein in his head and neck was popping, his hands a vernacular horror show.

And how...

How was he this angry and yet so quiet?

It was scary.

It was fucking scary.

He didn't say anything. Didn't react. Didn't shout. Didn't fight. Nothing. I was fucking terrified.

"I guess I am done here," Sean said, unfazed by Marc's fury, a mocking smile playing on his lips, "I guess this is a solid way to declare you're officially dead to me." He looked at Marc, laughing tauntingly at his rage as he further said with a mock salute, "RIP, my friend."

Marc never cut eye contact with him, his eyes following his every move with an unsettling focus.

"Likewise."

Sean scoffed, turned around to leave.

"When Nana comes back from wherever he went to with that Ebube girl, tell him his laptop is in Guest room 14," he announced to everyone in the room, "I'm sure the Media Boys have looked everywhere for it and got frustrated. I guess I'm done here. Let's go, JJ."

Marc's eyes followed Sean like a menacing spirit as he attempted leaving the Living Room.

And that's when I saw it...

His vibrating fingers hard curled up against each other, shaking vigorously as they balled into a fist by his sides, his body heating up with each step that Sean took, one after the other.

JJ was at the corner, shuffling through the crowd to get to Sean, and that was when things went wild.

Brutally wild.

"Sean?"

That was Marc, calling out in a low tone to his best friend.

Shockingly, the latter heard. Sean stopped, turning around to see Marc's death stare focused darkly on him.

"One more thing before you go."

For the first time in my life, I saw actual dread flash in Sean's eyes, an unspeakable and shocking fear, but my focus on the petrified expression his face bore was short lived.

Very short-lived.

Marcus was not the Marcus I knew anymore, his eyes harbored a sinister look that was borderline psychotic as he dashed towards Sean Ayomide like a truck that had lost its brakes, diving head first into the other kid and throwing him into the giant loud speakers with the force of his bare hands

The entire room was immediately a mad house, people screaming and shrieking as they watched Sean collide so hard into the speakers that those giant heavy things detached from their stands and came falling, crashing down on him.

"What the fuck!" I screamed, horrified at the freak accident, hysterical screams were all about me and a number of set boys were rushing to what looked like a murder scene.

Unfortunately, every effort to hold Marc back was futile, because it didn't matter that half the strongest guys in our set were lunging at him to stop him, but he still managed to get his hands on the hem of Sean's collar, a manic, wicked laugh escaping his lips as he brought him out of the mess and flung him like a handbag onto the bare ground, following his disrespectful manhandling with a dangerous, bone crunching elbow to the side of Sean's face.

"Jesus Christ! Someone should stop him!" One of our classmates – a girl – had shrieked, she sounded like she was on the verge.

I was traumatized, absolutely mortified by the obscenity and Marc was angry, too angry to even think straight, see straight, or even feel straight. He had gotten off the hands that were pulling him away, hold strong on Sean, as he plowed fists upon fists into his face, each time his knuckles staining with more blood than the last time. He was a fucking animal on the guy, slamming his face into the tiles and viciously dragging his body across the room like a fucking rag doll, gnashing his face against the ground enough to drag along slime, blood and spit across it, and all the while, the most dead and unfeeling look in his eyes, like his brutality didn't faze him at all.

Tears were spewing out of my eyes, trauma unfolding as I watched the man I loved – Marcus Bruno Acha who could never hurt a fly – ravage his best friend like he was a wild animal. The aggression, the brutality, the sheer barbarism, these were things that reminded me of my father. Things that I would have NEVER associated with Marcus.

The entire room was begging him, terrified to witness a murder scene, and every time he was held back, he somehow found his way back to Sean. How Sean was still alive in all of this, using every time Marc was held back to crawl away desperately from the assault, coughing blood and spitting out teeth. It was pitiful to watch, it was devastating to witness. His look of helplessness, his instant regret, the way he begged for mercy, it was fucking difficult to watch... I started crying, I fucking started crying.

Fuck...

Fuck...

Fuck...

I took one step back. Then, another. Then, another.

And, from there, I ran.

I ran and didn't stop.

Goodness.

That was so difficult to write...

I don't know, I felt like crying at many points in this chapter. And this ending guts me. To be honest, I'm a little scared of Marc now and a little disappointed that he let himself lose control to this extent. Damn it. God knows how they will both heal from this... If he and Sean will ever heal. What are your thoughts? Is Sean justified for coming at Acha with a revenge quest like this, even lying and implicating him in the process, just to make him lose everything? And Acha? What's your take on his response? On everything? Lemme hear your thoughts. Everything. I feel so devastated.😪

And then, Marcus Acha and Dabeluchi. At this point, they seem unredeemable. Lemme be honest, if I was Dabi, from her perspective, I think I'd pretty much be done with Acha. Omoh. But what do you think? Do you think that video is what it seems? And do you feel Dabi should have had more faith in him? Lemme know you thoughts.

And if you want to read what actually happened in that video on the Projector, refer to 'Chapter 26b: More Games' and see for yourself at the ending of the chapter.😪❤️

And the Igbo Sisters... Close one. Aaron almost found out the truth. 🥲 Omoh.

What do you think of this chapter? I need all your analysis. Everything. Tell me everything. And while you are downloading your thoughts in the comments below...

Anticipate the ✨CHAPTER FINALE ✨ (Last chapter) of Too Many Broken Things on the 15th of December, 2023.

#Lovetori_xo walks away quietly...