CHAPTER 3

"Who turned off the lights?" I heard a man shout.

I quickly but carefully moved away from the knife-bearer above me. There was no source of light coming from any angle. The moon and stars had taken a break for the night, the neighbours were probably scared and turned off their streetlights. I finally got out and moved further away from him, and thanks to the colour of my clothes, a black gown and brown wrapper I blended well with the darkness. Even my dark skin was to my favour today.

I removed my slippers and held them in my hands. Getting up slowly from the floor, I walked fast to the stairs leading to the ground floor. I had to find Ife. My cousin, although big mouthed, was scared of practically everything. Whenever she had a bad dream or was too scared to sleep, she would come to my room and beg me to make space for her on my bed. Now this was no dream. This was a living nightmare! The only thing was she couldn't come to meet me. I had to go and meet her.

Two sets of stairs led to the ground floor. I descended the first but on getting to the second, one of the girls laid there severely injured. She was stabbed on the lower part of her abdomen. Though injured, she was still struggling and trying her best to breathe. I knew her. Her name was Mayokun Johnson, one of the high class gossips of the school and because of this, we weren't friends. In fact, we had fought once when I heard that she had insulted myself and my parents. That didn't mean I was going to leave her to die.

I ran down the second stairs and stopped at the centre where she laid. I knelt down beside her and she immediately turned to see who it was. Nothing but hopeless fear was written on her face.

" Chidinma. Chidinma please help me." Her once dried face became wet with her tears again. " Please. I think I'm dying."

" No. No you are not dying. I'm going to help you. Can you try to stand?"

Eventually I was able to lift her up and support her while we went to get Ife. When we got to the door of Ife's room, I opened it and walks in with Mayokun. I put her behind the door and loosened my wrapper.

" Stay here. Don't make a sound no matter what. Even if anybody comes in, don't make a sound. I'll be back to get you before you know it. I'll get Ife and we'll find a way out of here."

She gave a little nod while I bent and tore a little, but enough piece of clothe out of the wrapper and put it in her hand.

" Apply pressure to your wound to reduce the bleeding."

I covered her with the remaining clothe I walked in to find Ife. The whole room was dark, bodies laid on the floor. The men were done with all the girls in this room. None of the bodies moved to show they were alive. Dead or alive I was going to find my cousin. If she was dead I had to make sure before I left.

I walked over to her bed side. There was a body there and it wasn't moving. Tears fell from my eyes as I stretched my hands out to touch the body. Ife couldn't die like this. I turned it over and made a sigh of relief when I realised that it wasn't my cousin. Then where could she have been? My heartbeat skyrocketed as I thought about her going to my room to look for me and being killed in the process. I was about to go back to my room when I heard a sniffle coming from Ife's wardrobe. One of the girls hid there so I opened it to look inside.

" Chidinma!" Ife whispered as she jumped out and hugged me.

"shhhh!" I covered her mouth after hugging her. " We are going to get out of this mess okay?"

" Everywhere is dark and these men are everywhere."

" I caused the blackout. I spoilt the main switch. As for the men, they are everywhere, but we need to be strong. We need to get out of here otherwise, we'll end up like them." I pointed to the dead bodies. " So trust me okay?"

" Okay!"

We walked slowly back to the door where I hid Mayokun. I remove my wrapper and tied it back. I picked her up and the three of us left the room.

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(IFE'S VIEW)

I was never the type to read during prep unless a test was coming up. I preferred reading my books in the middle of the night, that was probably the reason they called me 'the green snake under the green grass '. I always advised others to read, but if they weren't going to read, if they wanted to talk to me, I wasn't going to stop them.

That night, after lights out, I turned on my flash light and searched for my Government textbook to read. Our test was in two weeks time so I had a lot to read since Government was a very bulky subject. I was deep into my book when I heard bangs coming from the main door. I immediately turned off my flash light and got up from my bed. The bang was frequent and was getting louder. This wasn't a knock. It was more like a break in. I stood by my room door and listened. I would have moved but fear glued me to my door. It wasn't until five minutes later that the door fell down and there was silence once again. Then a voice spoke,

" Listen!" the male voice whispered for the other people to here. " The girls are fast asleep. While the others are at the boys hostel, we will work here. This is the Government's school. If they won't answer us, we will draw their attention. Go into the rooms, get the little girls you can and kill them! I'll start with the house mistress."

When I heard the last two statements, I gasped. They wanted to kill us and our house mistress because this was a Government school. Some of them were already at the boys' hostel, that meant that some boys were already dead, some were being killed and some were running about. Their house master was probably dead by now. I shook my hands as I thought of what to do. I couldn't run now, the men were there. I'll just wait for them to move in before I run.

"Two of you stay at the door. Make sure none of them run through this door." I heard the same man shout again "Move!"

Foot steps began to approach so I ran to my bed. I decided to hide under it but they could see the underneath of my bed from the door. I turned and looked at my wardrobe. It was okay for me, I could fit in and that was exactly what I did. I hid through the massacre in my room. I had to sit and listen to the cries of girls being killed. The sound of knife blades digging into bodies, the sound of bodies dropping on the floor, the sound of some lucky girls running out of the room. I cried! I had to cover my mouth not to make a sound. I had to listen to them for awhile until everywhere suddenly became quiet.

" Let's move to the next room."

The men left the room but I promised myself that I was going to stay in that wardrobe until all the men had gone. I was succeeding until after awhile, I heard foot steps approach my bedside. It stopped for a bit and I thought whoever it was had gone. Tears poured out more from my eyes as I imagined what it would look like outside this wardrobe and I sniffled. Suddenly the wardrobe opened and my eyes went wide.

"Chidinma!"

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Thank you for reading up to this point. The next chapter will be Ife's Point of View. Let's see how she handled the event or how she ended up in that wardrobe. New Character: Mayokun Johnson! Will she survive? Please keep reading to find out. Don't forget to vote my book. Thanks again.

Yours sincerely,

Just_Rufina.