SAME NIGHT
Murphy, the new teacher, took over Nwachukwu's room where he suppose to spend the night, while others used their various rooms. He stepped inside the very sanctum wearing a knicker and a singlet. In his hands were the devices. He had sprouting beards, a bit dark in complexion like an adult, but cut his hair totally low like a school-boy. As the gaurd was dressing the bed and changing the bedshit, so as Murphy was surveying the room critically. He dropped the devices on a table, walked to the bookshelf to see several books including the secret diary which he opened to see all their names and tags. "Teacher knows about Dave and Judith?" he thought still flipping the pages of the diary. When he saw his name-tag and that of Ada, he closed the book then turned to the guard who just finished dressing the bed.
"What do you understand by the word outstanding?" he asked him.
The guard straightened up. "It means standing out from others, sir" he replied with hands behind him. He was giving Murphy maximum respect like he did to teacher Nwachukwu.
Murphy stepped out from the bookshelf, directed his eyes to a bar inside the room but never went there for a drink. "Teacher isn't shot, tell me the truth." he requested.
The guards said nothing.
"Teacher is studying all of us, and since I'm outstanding, it was his plan to make me the next teacher. True or false."
"With all due respect, sir, I don't know what you're talking about. By tomorrow morning, you'll be free to visit teacher Nwachukwu in the special hospital to confirm that he was really shot."
Murphy exhaled. He didn't get it. He knew he was at the right track in finding teacher's plans but at the same time felt like his result was useless. Nevertheless, he glanced at the bar again. "May I?" he pointed at drinks over there, walking to take one. After having one in a glass cup, he glanced at the devices and back to the guard.
"Why would you tell someone who's still alive 'rest in peace?'" he asked.
The guard remained mute.
Murphy took a deep breath, sipped his drink and murmured. "What's teacher's full plan? Ada should be safe now. What could possibly kill her? Why the tag 'rest in peace?'" He looked up at the guard with a louder tone. "Everything is ending tomorrow. I must figure it out tonight." he concluded.
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On the other hand, other kids had assembled in one room to deliberate on abstract issues. One could see Judith holding Dave round the waist and rested her head on his shoulder. Cynthia stood closely with Daniella. Only Obi and Vivian seemed untangle like magnets of different poles.
"Why would Murphy command us? He said we should address him as teacher. Can you imagine?!" Daniella broke the silence.
"Who even made him a teacher?" Dave supported.
"A common guard did" Judith's voice whispered from Dave's shoulder.
"Like seriously?" Obi seemed upset. "Is this what we should be discussing now? We have the police tracking us for goodness sake! We should reason with Murphy and call him whatever he wants to be called not go against him!" He objected.
All looked at him in the silence that creepped in, thus, assimilating his statement.
"I kind off support Obi." Vivian broke the silence.
"Me too" Cynthia supported.
Three against three. That was the ratio of who was against Murphy and who supported him. Therefore disintegration gradually began to loop among them. Daniella walked out of the room angrily
"Ella!" Cynthia went after her.
Vivian had to also go into her room alone since her roommate, Ada, had become their enemy. Obi refused to go out rather sat down at the edge of a large bed found in the room, while Dave and Judith walked out to the darkness. They could be seen seated on a fallen tree like old village couple.
"If my biological parents hadn't thrown me away, I wouldn't be here." Judith placed her head on Dave's shoulder again.
He slid her hair down. "Being alive is the main thing. Look at me."
Judith raised her head, looking at him like he said. Dave held her cheek with two hands also looking into her eyes.
"I'll be the best parents you'll ever have. This will be all over soon, okay?" Dave encouraged her.
"I don't like the way things are falling apart; Ada is gone, teacher is shot and now we're disintegrating." she lamented.
"Come here." Dave embraced her.
******
However, Cynthia had met Daniella inside another room. She pulled her by the arm. "What is wrong with you?!" she yelled.
"As far as I'm concerned, teacher Nwachukwu is the only teacher I know." Daniella withdrew her arm.
"It's not a big deal if Murphy takes over from him! You would have done the same if you were in his shoes."
"But not by commanding us to address him as..."
A soft kiss from Cynthia put back the remaining words into her mouth. "Is okay. Let's go to bed" She sounded romantically.
****
Several minutes later, Dave entered into the room to see Obi shedding tears and spacing through a window. The poor boy wallowed in a deep thought coupled by his feelings for Ada. It was something he couldn't write home about regarding the information teacher Nwachukwu gave him earlier.
"Obi." Dave called him.
The young boy turned with tears in his eyes. "Dave, I'm so scared to lose Ada." He said.
"Ada is safe, very safe now she has found her biological father."
"But I guess nobody has told her." he swallowed hard. "Teacher told me that i will never see her again. I've been trying to figure out the meaning of the statement but all to no avail. I don't even know what's going on!" he broke down in more tears only to discover that he was doing it on Dave's shoulder.
"Everything will be fine" he consoled him like he did to Judith. Dave was a boy of hope and courage but easily angered...
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2:00a.m. in the midnight, like winter, the weather grew cold with gentle breeze. It rattled on the roof of the building like the presence of a moving ghost. The quietness in the premersis made it so audible. Suddenly, a knock came on Daniella and Cynthia's door. They rushed up half naked and half asleep, wondering who that could be at that hour. They looked at each other surprisingly.
"Who's there?" Cynthia asked.
"Guard!" A male voice replied.
Daniella grumbled. "Oh, what again?"
"What do you want?" Cynthia asked the guard.
"You both. Teacher wants all of you in the sitting room now!"
They heard the footsteps of the guard as he was leaving. Cynthia looked at her sexual partner intensively. "Which teacher is he talking about?" she whispered.
"Who else if not Murphy." Daniella replied sarcastically, standiy up from the bed.
The two girls came out to the living room to see others already standing like soldiers. They joined them, waiting for the so called teacher to come out. Suddenly, the sound of a door paved into their ears. Murphy stepped out with a box like suitcase and the secret diary. His eyes darkened like a weed smoker as an evidence that he had not had some sleep. His footsteps were like that of teacher Nwachukwu. Carefully, he placed the box on the glass centre table, giving it a breakable sound in the ears of his fellow kids. He looked at them one after the other to detect sleep in their eyes. He cleared his throat, told the gaurd to give them some privacy and began:
"A night before Jesus Christ was crucified, he met his disciples sleeping instead of praying."
Daniella and Dave glanced at each other after hearing that.
"You were sleeping when you're being planned to be killed by the police." Murphy continued. "I've found out the content of the devices and teacher's plans" he opened the box. The kids could see a screen on the open part like a laptop and a space created for the devices on the lower part of the box. Murphy fixed them in it, pressed a button and a particular event began to display on the screen. The kids watched it like a horror movie, their attentions couldn't be compromised at the moment. After five minutes, the event ended.
"I saw people in the government looting funds. Adopting and killing children. But what for?" Obi broke the silence.
"The answer is simple; for rituals." Murphy replied. "When the mass sees this, they will go against the government, and boom, revolution occurs. When that happens, teacher Nwachukwu emerges as the new president when he will have the chance to execute his plan legally." he substantiated.
"So teacher was using us anyways." Daniella clarified.
"I think so."
They became quiet. Murphy's eyes didn't leave any of them expecting more questions from them.
"But Murphy... I mean, teacher." Cynthia realized herself. "I also saw some number readings on the screen which is abstract to what was displaying. What are they for?"
Murphy cleared his throat and opened the secret diary. "This is teacher's secret diary, he knows everything about us." he showed them.
"Why is Ada's name tagged 'rest in peace?'" Obi became curious.
"Because her life is attached to the number readings you saw on the screen. Immediately it gets to zero zero, she dies likewise Stephen." he replied.
"Why?"
"The landmines. Though they are mines but have some kind of life deductive totems. Which is to say, if they don't die by explosion, they must still surely die after the readings on the screen."
"Then how did it reflect on the device found in a government house?" Dave wanted to know.
"First, teacher produced these and captured..."
"Wait, wait, wait," Judith stepped forward by interrupting. "The presence of Stephen and Ada on the landmine was teacher's plan. Which is to say that he purposely sent them there to die but lied to us." she substantiated.
"Exactly! Think of a landmine only one person can defuse. It's not only technological but also diabolical even these devices are something else"
"I still don't get this whole thing!" Vivian stepped forward.
"Teacher is not human!! Think!!" Murphy flipped his fingers. "He has no family. He was reported dead sometime ago but he's alive today. What gives him life? People who reason like him. That's why he studies us like a book, train us to reason like him and finally kill us using..."
"The landmines" Obi completed, while Murphy nodded his head.
"So, he tests our knowledge, if you can reason like him, he sends you to the landmines to take your life and add to his. This is why he wants to become the president to legally train people for the exchange of his life." Murphy clarified.
Ghoose bumps escalated on the body of the kids. Hence they became scared. Judith held Dave's hand tightly.
"I'm so fuckingly scared right now." Cynthia confessed.
"How are we even sure that we're orphans?" Vivian asked rhetorically.
"We have three enemies to defeat now; the police, the government and teacher Nwachukwu." Murphy closed the suitcase....