The seconds seemed to drag by as the object moved lower and lower down her neck, sending jolts of pain as it trailed on. She took in deep breaths, trying to focus on anything other than the way her heart drummed heavily against her chest.
It was a struggle to remain still as her mind raced with thoughts—questions which seemed clogged up in her throat as she gasped for air. She had a vague sense of her trembling hand inching up when it happened.
A flash of light. That was all it took and the previous incidents could have as well been imagined.
Her left hand shot up in an attempt to shield her eyes with her head jerked to the side and her eyelids shut. It did little to reduce the effect of the assault leaving her blind for a few minutes.
Her eyes still throbbed as she reopened them slowly. It took quite a while for her to adjust to the blinding light and even longer for her to focus on what or rather who it emanated from.
Still peering into the darkness, she barely made out a feminine figure when she was startled by a voice.
"Hey, I have been calling out to you for so long now. Where are you going to?"
Her lips parted but the words remained trapped as she let the incidents from minutes before flood through her mind. She gave her head a small shake before turning back and looking around frantically.
There was no sign that anyone had been behind her. Even with the flood of light pouring into the darkness, she couldn't make out as much as a shadow.
"Neme? I'm talking to you!"
Chidiogo turned around slowly, still letting the previous incident sink into her head. Her brain felt slow, the questions and supposed answers muddled up. Only one question flashed clearly through the sea of confusion. What the hell just happened?
The images flashing through her head left her further disoriented, severing the small hope she had of getting the incident to make sense. Reality or not, she couldn't tell.
"MMACHINEMEREM!!!"
The high pitched voice startled her once more out of her thoughts, sending her heartbeat—which had just fallen back to its normal pace—sky high. It took a while for her to calm down and regain back her voice.
"Who are you?"
"You really don't recognize my voice?!"
Chidiogo shook her head. Nothing about the extremely high pitched voice ringing through her ears seemed familiar.
"It's me. Chikaima!"
As the words made their way out, the flashlight lit her face. Chidiogo squinted at the dark skinned girl for a long time, as if doing that would spark some kind of familiarity.
After a while, she let out a sigh already feeling tired of the routine.
"Sorry, I don't know who you are. I'm Chidiogo, not Mmachi."
The dark skinned girl blinked. She stayed quiet for a while thinking about what Chidiogo said. It was drawing near eternity when she finally heard her speak.
"Um... You aren't playing with me right?"
Chidiogo raised her brow at first, ready to question her when the meaning of her words hit her. It wasn't beyond Mmachi to say something like that just to throw the girl off her neck.
Although making up an imaginary twin sister would be overstepping some kind of line, even for Mmachi.
"No."
"Wow." The girl was quiet for a minute before continuing, "I really didn't know she had a twin sister. And I thought we were friends."
Silence settled between them after her words. Chidiogo wanted to tell her that Mmachi wasn't at fault, that there was no use parading a dead relationship but she just stared into space trying to get rid of the black dots that swarmed around her eyes.
It didn't take long before Chikaima regained her voice and the silence was gone sooner than it arrived.
"Well anyways, since we've met now let me introduce myself. I'm Chikaima Umeh but you can call me Kaima. You are?"
"Chidiogo."
"Of course!" Kaima said facepalming herself, "You said it earlier. I really don't know where my head's at. So what are you doing here?"
"I... I lost my way."
"Oh. Good thing I found you then. Let's head to the hostel now?"
Chidiogo nodded but made no attempt to move as her feet remained glued to the ground.
"Come on," Chikaima said pulling her by the hand. She made little attempt to resist Chikaima's action and soon her legs stopped shuffling through the dirt and fell in step with Chikaima.
They headed in the opposite direction, the flashlight in Chikaima's hand paving the way through the darkness while Chidiogo's grip on her hand tightened. All the while, Chikaima kept talking with Chidiogo barely chipping in a few words.
Her mind swirled with thoughts from earlier. Everything felt surreal. The feeling of someone behind her, the dryness in her throat which prevented her from screaming, Chikaima appearing all of a sudden. Something felt off.
She tried to replay the incidents in her head. Quinn creeped her out, she ran because she was scared.
She lost her way. Someone placed an object on her neck—a knife probably—still for reasons she couldn't understand. Chikaima appeared with a torch from nowhere and the person disappeared. Or did they?
She couldn't even tell if they didn't. 'But then the person had to know this for them to take such a risk,' she thought pausing to explore her options.
She couldn't have been imagining things. She could still feel the chill from the knife crawling down her neck. On cue, her hand found its way up her neck feeling around for any sign of the assault.
She could feel the sting of pain that emanated from her fingers threading over a particular spot. She wondered how bad the injury was. She was still engrossed in thoughts when she felt someone nudge her.
She frowned a bit as she turned to look at Chikaima whose face she still couldn't properly make out.
"What are you thinking about? I've been talking to you for the past five minutes and you've hardly been paying attention. You can at least tell me what room you're staying in."
"Sorry." She felt a little bad but there were more pressing issues on her mind. "I'm in room 10."
"We're in the same room!"
She could hear the joy in Chikaima's voice and she figured out that she was probably grinning even though she couldn't see it. She smiled a little until the words really took meaning in her head. They were in the same room.
She stopped walking for a minute trying to make sense of the situation. Her mind flashed back to earlier when Amelia had said they'd wake someone if they kept arguing—Kaima.
She stared at Chikaima again trying to figure out if she'd seen her before. Her face was much more visible at this point as they got nearer to the lighted parts though it was still a challenge for Chidiogo to make out her features.
Ebony black skin, slightly large cheeks with the prettiest set of eyes Chidiogo had ever seen. Her full lips were a mix of two colours highlighted by lip gloss. The bags underneath her eyes looked more natural than as a result of fatigue or sleeplessness.
She was a rare kind of beauty, one that would make an impression on first sight yet nothing about her struck Chidiogo as familiar. She tried to think back to the when Amelia talked about her.
It felt so long ago even though it was just earlier that day. She had glanced over at her bed but it was completely covered with a duvet. She didn't even get a glimpse of her.
She wondered if anyone was really under the cover. She didn't see her when she woke up either because the hostel mistress had woken her an hour and a half before everyone else and she barely had enough time to get the sleep out of her eyes even long after she left the room.
She didn't pay attention to anyone or thing for that matter as she left. She contemplated asking Chikaima if she'd seen her in the room before but changed her mind.
Rather she asked her another question that had been pressing on her mind.
"Um... Can I ask you something?"
"Sure." Chikaima's eyes were fixed ahead and Chidiogo could tell that they'd put quite a distance between themselves and where she was attacked.
"Did you see anyone behind me when you found me?"
Chikaima cast a quick glance at her, her brows furrowing slightly before she shook her head.
"I didn't."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah. Why do you ask?"
"It's... nothing. I just thought... I saw someone."
"Hmm." Chikaima didn't spare her a glance as she walked on. She followed suite finding it a little odd that Chikaima who had been talking nonstop since they met could only muster a guttural sound as a reply to her words.
She waved it off. It wasn't like she told her what happened. They walked on until she could make out a couple of students in a distance. She felt relieved though a bit cautious as they moved on barely taking note of how the crunching beneath their feet faded with each second.
She looked over her shoulder once more at the mass of darkness left behind, thick, almost able to be cut through. She started turning around, still unable to shake off the feeling that the worst wasn't over when it filled her eyes.
Barely a dot in the mass of black yet weirdly conspicuous to the extent even she could make it out, it glowed unwaveringly. The same color, the same reflective quality she'd ignored just a day ago.
An ominous shade of crystal blue.