Chapter 1 : Dead kid

_Just breathe_

Adam thought to himself, eyes on the ceiling, trying to get his mind off the stench that perched his nose, and the faces of the other unfortunate kids.

But then someone had to disturb him,

"Can you please give me a piece of yam?" the boy sitting close to him asked, stuttering

His lips and eyes dried out, his expression screaming sorrow.

Adam looked at him for long, contemplating on whether to give in to his request, he had four pieces of yam with him, saved Incase if the captors decided not to feed them.

If it was anyone else he would have lied he didn't have anything with him, but not this boy, Adam and him had both been captured on the same day, and yet the boy acted like nothing happened, kept his jovial character on his first arrival. But with time, hunger, and thirst, anyone hardly heard him talk again.

" I have four pieces of yam with me, I will give you two, but you better eat it fast before the other boys notice"

Adam drew near the boy and whispered to him before handing to him two pieces of dried yam and watched as the boy ate it.

Blood trickled down his chin due to the tearing of his lips, such a sight.

They haven't been fed for two days now, nor given water.

Looking around the room, Adam watched the other boys quietly.

In a huge room, ranging up to twenty kids all sitting in a circular form.

They were all boys, with sorrow painted on their faces along with hunger, pain, and despair.

Hours passed by and then the only door to the room was opened, men came in with trays of food and water, and Adam sat at a corner waiting for his food.

After being served, he started eating so did the other kids, all rushing to eat and if possible, eat the plates too. But along the way, Adam noticed that beside him, a plate of rice was left untouched and he knew that he wasn't the only one that noticed it.

On tracing the food back to the owner, Adam suddenly flinched, the boy he gave pieces of yam to, the boy that seemed to have life in him hours earlier, was completely lifeless now

He was a corpse, Adam knew that look all too well.

The expansion of the pupil, the motionless and pale body.

_Why? Why did he give up?_ Before Adam could even act, someone had already grabbed the untouched food, taking advantage of the dead kid.

Adam glanced at the culprit, then at the dead kid, then a tear row down his cheek. He even still had the strength to cry, he was so dejected and scared.

The doors opened again, and escorted by a gunman was a young woman in a simple dress, with clean and fresh skin, a complete contrast to the dying kids.

"Good evening, I'm back again to check your health." She said simply before gesturing to the gunman to hand her kit and go around checking on the kid.

On getting to where Adam was, she briefly glanced at him before turning her gaze to the dead kid, She knew once that he had died, but she still proceeded to check his pulse, and her eyes twitched a little.

" Come take this one out, he is dead"

She said curtly, before proceeding to Adam

"How are you"

"I'm fine ma"

"How do you feel?"

The medical conversation went on between her and Adam, but Adam's eyes, the entire time were on the dead kid's body being dragged away.

*********

Night came, the room was completely dark and little could be seen in the darkness. Even the opened entrance did so little to illuminate the room. Adam had come to realize that sleep was a luxury in this hellish place, that strength was needed for sleep.

Minutes passed by, and Adam's eyes were closed, but he wasn't asleep, he was reminiscing, about the life before he had before this.

Suddenly feeling cold all of a sudden,

_ don't tell me it about to rain_

Adam cursed, and slowly, he opened his eyes to observe his surroundings and then he was suddenly dumbstruck.

He remembered that to his left ought to be the space left by the dead kid, so who was there now?

Most importantly how did the person get there without him knowing?

It was dark, so he couldn't see the figure. Full of curiosity, Adam tried using his hand to touch the figure hoping to get the person's attention and it worked, the touching not the attention part.

_so cold_ that was the first thought that came into Adam's head on first contact.

_why would someone have such a temperature?_

But Adam didn't know any better, even more curious to know who the person was.

" Hey," he called out softly, not because he did not want to disturb others, but because his strength could only muster that volume. The little food they were given earlier only quenched his hunger a little but did nothing to give him energy.

He got a soft hum in reply.

_What am I supposed to say again now_

In the slowish voice of a dying man, he ask

"Someone just died there, why are you sitting there? Have you no shame?

Adam suddenly regretted saying such words because he could have conserved his energy to keep himself alive, a little longer.

To speak also was a luxury.

But what happened next made his mind blank

He got a reply but the voice that gave that reply was no different from the one who asked him for yam earlier, only there was no stuttering, and even the content of the reply stunned him even more.

"This is my spot" a short and quiet response

After a few seconds of blankness, some thoughts started rushing to Adam's mind, his thoughts were slowish though, side effects of hunger.

_Is that Oni?_ Oni was the poor kid's name

"Aren't you dead?" Adam asked, but got no response.

Then he stared at the figure for a while and the more he stared, the more he could make out the figure in the dark.

He recognized the figure all too well, it was Oni's.

Adam's eyes widen in surprise

_am I imagining things now?

He wanted to confirm but had no strength to move.

Still looking at the figure, Adam managed some words.

"Oni, you've turned into a ghost now? .... Ah, please help me out, at least get me food and water, go through the walls or something"

But he got no response,

He sighed, he was probably imagining things, and then he resumed to close his eyes again, wishing he could fall asleep and accumulate some strength.

After some time Adam opened his eyes again, it was still dark, everything stood motionless, and that was expected, who has the strength to move anyways.

The spot close to him was empty,

_so I was imagining it earlier, it's probably death calling me_

Adam lamented, cursing the whole world for his current suffering, and mildly wishing that he could be the next kid to be slaughtered or whatever they do to the kids they took outside alive.

Then in the dark, motionless room, something moved or rather was moving, a tray, carrying a plate of food and a bottle of water was moving.

The floor was carpeted and the tray moved noiselessly towards Adam and suddenly stopped at his front, then a dark figure materialized in Oni's previous spot.

Adam stared at the tray, then at the kid with a blank expression.

He froze trying to register what just happened, A lot of questions needed answering, but before Adam could assign answers, his instinct had already propelled him to take the plate of food from the tray, it even had a spoon, and started eating.

He tried not to rush the eating and ate without making a sound, his eyes not on the food but his surroundings, trying to see if anyone was moving towards him.

****

Adam ate it all with deep satisfaction, it was way better than the food they had eaten all week combined and even much too.

He had eaten while observing everyone else, anticipating a movement towards his side but no one moved, he was sitting in the darkest corner and he knew too well that the rest couldn't see him but they ought to have perceived the aroma or seen when the food had moved across the room, yet no one move,

_maybe they were all asleep or didn't believe, probably thought they were imagining thing

He knew that he wasn't imagining it cause he could still feel the taste in his mouth and the coolness of the water.

_Wow_ he screamed in his head, then glanced at Oni with gratitude and a grin surfaced on his bony cheek, It kinda looked scary tho, believe it or not, that was the happiest Adam had been in the past weeks of being capture.

"Oni, where did you get the food from?"

" From the gunmen's room." A short reply came and Adam sighed, now he had little strength and his hunger had subsided a lot, he could talk more now. He didn't know why and how he had gotten the food, but who cares anyways, all that matters was that he would live a little longer.

Slowly licking his lips, his eyes wandered back to the tray and a sudden realization hit him.

_how am I supposed to hide the plate, the men will surely notice it tomorrow_

Adam blinked a couple of times before his face fell, a portion of food for a death punishment

If he got caught, he was going to get beaten up, like they did to the stubborn kids, and with his current state he wasn't going to survive it.

_what to do?, what to do?_

"Oni" he called out softly not wanting to be heard by others and thanks to their proximity, that was possible.

"Can you please take the tray away?

But he got no response this time, Adam started panicking, how was he going to get rid of the tray.

But before he could come up with a solution, the dark figure of Oni, which the corner of his eye was monitoring suddenly vanished, and the cold air intense, then the tray moved, just the way it silently came, it moved back to the open door and then out of sight.

Due to the dark, it was very hard to notice it, but Adam's eyes had been on the plate the whole time.

His heart was tense and fear gripped him, he saw it this time, the tray moved by itself.

_did the ghost possess the tray and move it? Was that how he moved it the first time, did I just eat food possessed by a ghost?

The next day came - earlier than usual the men came accompanied by the woman. They checked the room and the kids, it looked like they were looking for something, which caught the attention of the other kid.

" Did you find anything?" The woman asked, resuming her work.

" No" a gunman - they were called gunmen because they carried guns - responded weirdly before adding, "But what could have happened to that tray? It has to be them"

" Since you didn't find any trace, what will you do?"

" Maybe they dumped the tray outside, the door was opened the whole time," the gunman said, slowly raising his voice.

"Enough! Try to watch your things next time, okay?"

The woman continued her work.

And everything went back to normal, Adam looked at the empty corner where Oni was supposed to be, it all felt so surreal, but he knew it wasn't, the taste of the food still lingered in his mouth.

After the usual check, they were asked to go outside for a bath, where twenty bony kids, misery plastered on their faces got to wash off

The night came, and the room looked more creepy and silent, death lurking in the air, but there was only one exception, and that was Adam.

He wanted to see if Oni would do the same as last time.

And he did, the ghost boy went to bring another plate, more luxurious than the last one, although the ghost boy went for a long.

With full joy, Adam started eating, very quietly to avoid losing the attention of the other poor kid.

" Did you see something moving in the dark" a boy at his right, far away from him a little asked, which made Adam freeze.

_did he notice anything?_

Adam decided to play dumb and see what would happen next.

" What tray? Moving where?"

But he got no response, the poor boy probably thought he was imagining things. Adam resumed eating, this time more quietly, he didn't want to share with other.

The gunmen came in the following morning, like last time they checked the room, this time more thoroughly, no one knew what they were looking for except Adam.

After their futile search, one of them frowned and left.

Adam breathed a sigh of relief and praised himself for making sure there were no crumbs around.

The next thing happened but this time, the aroma was more alluring, although most of them were too weak to even perceive, but still in the dark abyss he noticed some eyes lurking towards his side and some sounds, Adam quickly ate the food and gave the plate to the ghost who was ever so quiet.

_such a helper_

The next day came but the gunmen didn't search the room like the previous days, they just followed their daily routine making Adam wonder if Oni took the food from somewhere else.

Night came and Adam was drooling on the soup full of chicken meat, _ Am I finally seeing luck?_

Smiling like a fool, Adam dug into the food and started eating but before he could go halfway, an unexpected thing happened, a bright light shined into the room, making Adam cover his eyes with his arm.

_what the heck_

" Hey, you idiot, you much be must be mad"

A furious roar resonated in the room, Adam couldn't see anything, and the next thing he knew, he was being dragged by his two hands vigorously out of the room, his soup plastered all over the floor, and only one thought process in Adam's head.

_I have been caught... I have been caught_

After being dragged on the floor for a while, Adam got thrown into a wall, bright light still blinding him, he could only make out a figure who kept raining curses on him.

" So you were the culprit, ehn? Your own is finished" A heavy blow landed on Adam's abdomen who was trying to get on his feet, the pain assaulted him, he was so pained, with his weak body, even with the food he had eaten in the past days was still far for making him reach his peak.

Even at his peak, just this blow will make him puke.

"Osas, go get me the whip, let's finish this bastard of"

Adam's face twitched and then fell, he was as good as dead now, a painful death.

He was going to be beaten to death, tears slowly trickled down his bony cheek.

Before he could fall into deeper despair though, a lifesaving voice was heard.

" What is going on here?" The check-up woman asked

"This is the culprit who has been stealing our food."

"How did he manage that in his condition and health."

The woman and the other engaged in a conversation which led to a more pressing question.

'how did he steal their food under their guard and get passed unnoticed.'

"Give him some space, lemme talk to the kid."

" Hey you" the woman approached Adam and the bright light blinding Adam was removed.

The woman got closer to Adam, her facial expressions could hardly be seen in the now-dark room.

" How did you manage all that? If you are truthful, I can help you avoid being beaten to death"

Adam gritted his teeth and clenched his abdomen harder, he wasn't afraid of death, he had already given in, but he was afraid of pain, after all the suffering, a painful death was the last thing he would want.

"It was a ghost, a ghost! He was the one who helped me bring the food and took the tray back."

Adam yelled with anger, he was expecting to see confusion on the woman's face but he did, but the woman next words shocked him. 

" Oni, you mean the kid who died three days ago that sat close to you?"

Adam's eyes widen in shock, _ how does she know that?_