8:00AM
Friday, 10th March
Hostel Area.
Tade had left the room early that morning, hoping to find something to eat outside.
"I don't have that kind of strength to cook, lock the door if you are going out." He said as he stepped out.
Vic, being half asleep, got the message nevertheless.
So when he had gotten ready for the day, he skipped breakfast and left the room empty, lcking the door behind him. His plan that morning was to meet Vivian and probably just let the wind control everything after.
Deep down he wasn't feeling the need to do anything about the missing lecturers, he wanted to see the story all the way through, and confirm his hunches on the daily 9 newspaper being a future seeing device.
A black cat passed by his feet, without his notice as he got on the stairs' landing.
He grinned and sighed "My life starts now!"
He put on a face of optimism and grinned like a sick person. Then he went down the stairs, about to leave the hostel through the steel barred gate when-
"Hey Vic."
Someone called out to him.
Vic raised his hand and waved,
"Y-o rando-o, what is it?" He was direct.
"How is it going?" The guy was rather friendly for a stranger, but he was shaking all over, possibly from the sweat on his face and shirt. Did he run from somewhere?
Even if he did, the morning was too cold to be swearing like that.
"It's going smooth! Today's gonna be great. What is it?" He kept to his original question.
"Just wanted to know where you are going this early Saturday morning."
He had a light smile on his face, but the sweat ruined it.
His long-sleeved T-shirt was drenched in it, and his tight trousers weren't helping his image.
"Isn't it obvious? I'm going to Church. I don't know if you know, but I'm a devoted worker of Christ in the school chapel." He points at the direction of the chapel, then continued "What is it?"
"L-let me follow you then." he didn't sound comfortable at all.
"No way man," Vic said, waving his finger, "Go do something else with your life, bother someone else, yeah."
"But I want go to church, don't you want more members."
"No, go on Sunday. Nobody will count you if you go today."
"But-" he was getting annoying, Vic could only afford so little.
"Its alright, following the church bells now."
And so, he walked away, but the guy followed after him.
Vic started a jog, the guy ran after him.
Vic started a dash, the guy increased his speed, sweat leaking from his skin.
"Tell me WHO SENT YOU!"
He yelled, but the guy only wheezed and gasped.
Then Vic began to run, out pacing the guy.
The two ran through the path that divided the female and male dorms, leading to the bus stop.
At the bust stop, Vivian was waiting for him when the guy ran his way into the road path and coming to a rough stop.
"H-ey!" He said while his legs skidded on the ground.
Vivian had seen worse, so her expression didn't change from its blank slate.
"Oh, hello, let's-"
"Shut up, follow the bush path." He said with a rush.
"What…?" She looked bewildered.
"Followed it, go!" he pointed at the bush ahead.
"VIIIIC!!"
The guy was on his way there, almost collapsing on his run.
"Ah, a-h…" Vic ran out of breath on seeing him.
"Who is that?" Vivian looked over her shoulder.
"Human trouble!! He's after me!" His voice was scruffy now.
Seeing that he might be in trouble, she stepped in front of him, and glared at the guy running up to them.
Vic couldn't say anything.
The guy caught up soon after wards, then glared at Vivian's glare, "Sisi, get out of the way or I'll-"
"You'll what?" Her voice was cold.
"...Shift jor." He raised an arm, as if to whack her away, but she grabs the guy's hand before it reached her and tightens grip on it.
"Get away…"
And with that, Vivian held the guy's arm so tight until he started yelling in pain, she pressed her thumb in between the bones in his wrist, holding it in a way that the guy couldn't pull out his hand.
"Stop it! Stop!" He cried out.
The guy tried removing his arm from her grip but to no avail, then with a crooked smile, she yanked his hand from his wrist, pulling out the bone from the joint. And with a heavy kick to the chest, she hit him to the ground.
"You-you ripped off my arm!"
"I know, watch me do the next one when next you get in my way."
"Hey Vivian, VIVIAN WAKE UP!"
Vic's voice echoed through her ears as she came to.
Then she sprung up, her fists in front of her, like she was trying to pick a fight, "Huh? What??"
She looks around her to see herself lying on a bench next to a building, in the middle of nowhere.
"We're at Femi's shack," the words made her shriek inside, "What happened to you, you blanked out there."
"Forget me," she said, sitting properly on the bench, "How did we get back here?? This evil forest!"
"Uh, well I told you that we had to follow this path but then you looked at that freaky person and just hooked like you crashed or something, I had to carry you all the way out here so… you are welcome." He said all that, looking proud of himself.
She didn't want to hear all that.
Her delusions were leaking out.
"But… but I don't like this place." She struggled to say.
"It's fine, I was going to collect a newspaper from this guy anyway." he brought out a newspaper, folder and tucked into his jacket. "Check it, it says we both succeeded in saving the lecturers."
She collect the paper without energy, and glanced at the main story,
"What are you talking about? It just said they 'Later showed up at the school'. We aren't even mentioned."
Vic's smile flinched.
"Maybe, maybe we chose to remain anonymous." He suggested.
'With the little i know, you will never do that. Come to think of it, every time this Dotu is mentioned… could it be…?'
He got up and jammed his fist, "This makes me feel motivated, let's be going, it's still early so we can avoid attackers no problem."
Whatever she was thinking, was no longer there.
"Uh-what about the guy that was after you?" She said after shaking her head.
"Oh, forget about him," he started jogging at a place, "The coward couldn't even lay a foot in here."
'I wonder why…' she thought.
"...Hey, thanks for-"
Dak!
Dak!!
Dak!!!
"Yo Femi, can you teleport us out of here like last time?" he yelled as he kept on knocking on the door.
Vivian, a bit startled, stood up and tapped the side of her legs. "If he's not answering, let's just go."
"Fine then," he didn't bother fighting for it, that was new, he stopped knocking and walked from the door.
"S-o which way is the back gate?" she asked, expecting him to know, but he just shrugged.
Then, like a whisper in the wind, a voice seeped out from somewhere.
"EAST, WALK EASTWARD." It said.
Vivian, jumped up, taking a few steps away from the shack.
However, the guy grinned and with a thumbs up at the building, "Thanks so much Femi!" was what he could say.
"Ha hah ha, you children should be careful! You're gonna need it! Hehehe."
"…"
To Vivian, Femi wasn't worth interacting with.
Her reason being the guy next to her - he would always be around to do such work.
She hoped so, at least.
"All alright Vivian, onward, to the rising sun!!" optimistic as ever, Vic pointed and started at the horizon.
Vivian, following after him, only wondered where such enthusiasm came from.
"You're like a walking bulb."
"The perfect human being, yeah?"
"I wish you wouldn't believe that..."
…
9 minutes later
After a short stride within the scrub lands, they got to the small empty road that lead to the second gate. It was much earlier than expected, but Vivian couldn't call that place a shortcut.
The small, one way road was eroded with scrubs by the sides, it stretched across and down the earth,
Quiet,
Lonely.
For a moment, it felt like there was no time there, its eeriness made it them lookout for anything that could jump out at them from the outstretched bushes.
After wandering for another while and getting to a larger road with the gate at a distance, the two of them heaved a sigh of relief because their journey had advanced a bit, but deep down, neither of them knew where they were going after they crossed the gate, so they both planned that Vic would ask the questions along the way, while Vivian would be the one to piece the answers into something coherent.
"Yo, not trying to be rude, but where the heck are we going?" Vic, looking around the place, had a face that screamed 'disinterest'.
"Stop asking me that question, it's getting bothersome to repeat stuff." Vivian replied without looking from the ground. "Try reading that newspaper, the letter to be specific."
"I did read it, which is why I say we start looking for the owner of that handwriting."
"Are you doing that on purpose? It isn't funny." She was thinking his stupidity to be real at that point.
"Fun events are ahead."
He wasn't listening to her again.
"Save your breath, by the way, you're the one who would ask for directions."
"Abeg, we don't need to look for directions when I technically know this hood of a town."
She stared up at him, but couldn't reach her face, "You stay in Port-town?"
"Carnival site." A suburban area at the outskirts of the town, "But I still know this hood of a town."
She found that intriguing.
"Come to think of it, why would Dotu leave an address on a letter like that," he was referring to the picture of it from the newspaper, "Does he want to be found or what?"
"It's not a letter without one," she fixed her eyes in front of her, "That isn't really an address, It's just a stupid sentence saying 'Dotu's Domain' and nothing else. But still, I must commend his class."
Vic put his hands behind his head.
"So that's where we're heading?"
"I hope it is," she sighed, "If they aren't there, or something goes wrong, we'll just call the police."
"Cool, but... I don't actually know that place... the Dotu's domain."
She sighed, then put a hand on her forehead.
"Which is why you'd be asking the questions."
"Oh," he said, "Haah."
"It's not funny…"
When they got to the gate, Vivian had an idea of seeing the school's security.
"Go and ask for directions." she said, then stopped moving for Vic to walk on ahead.
But he stops after a bit of distance.
"Why can't you do it?"
"You're the people-person, we talked about this."
"Yeah, you're not wrong there," he put one hand on his waist, "So what should I ask him?"
"… The location? Where the 'Dotu's Domain' is?"
"Oh please, that's simple enough to ask, you should do it."
What was he trying to do?
"Never!" she called out, to which Vic shook his head,
"Okay, how about we go together yeah?"
"No, I'd only be a distraction!"
"Really? Okay, Suit yourself then." Then he went on to the small shack by the gate.
His failed manipulation annoyed her, she wished it worked so he wouldn't have had to see it.
"Oaf."
Vic headed to the tollgate-looking gatehouse and stood in front of a huge window facing the road. He looked at Vivian as if checking if she was still there, he smiled and proceeded to knock on the glass that covered the window. Not too long after, a man whose face was covered in hair and wearing a bright blue security uniform opened the window and stuck his head out.
"Yes, young man?"
"Oh hey, good morning, you look… fine."
He looked like a young old man, if he was being honest.
"Hmm I see, any problem?" he was glad he wasn't a talkative type, at least time would be saved.
"Well, you see, I and that girl over there," He said, then points towards Vivian, "Are looking for a place called-"
"Wait first,"
He stuck his head and half the top of his body from the window, and looked at a Vivian, kicking stones towards the sides of the road. "HEY MADAM."
"…"
"MADAM!"
At that she looked up, and her eyes felt like they sank into her skull.
"O-h, crap!"
"Come abeg." the man signalled her with his fingers.
"Me?" she pointed at herself.
"Madam, there's no one else but you."
She bites her lips and dragged her feet as she walked up to the gate house.
"Good morning."
"Good morning, sir."
"Yes, how are you doing?"
"..."
She was regretting everything she ever was till that point, so her replies were on auto pilot.
"Who is this brother to you hm?" the man asked.
'Dead'
"Sh-he's my course mate." she only said out.
"So, nothing more." he asked.
She wanted the questions to close already...
"Look, guy, sir, we are just looking for 'Dotu's domain', just tell us where it is-"
The gate-man shouted and cut him short.
"Are you two mad? Why are you going there?"
"..." They couldn't utter a word.
Well, till Vic opened his mouth.
"Assignment, yes! GST to be uh… sure." He said, smirking.
Oh, all these assignments of nowadays … that place is a dangerous place in Port-town." The man looked satisfied, Vic felt a bit glad.
"Breaking news."
"Oh and yeah," Vic jumped in, "Did you happen to see anything suspicious pass here yesterday morning?"
"Hmm… some group of vehicles drove out of the school building sha, but I'm not allowed to tell you that, that's the only thing."
'What a waste of bribe money.'
"Hm-hm well thanks for the info guy, we'll be going to the market to buy fruit now." he started towards the gate, leaving Vivian and the man.
"Hm, okay oh, you two should be careful o."
That was all they said, but Vic felt like there was nothing to ignore.
Vivian, however, could see the man staring at her.
Scared, she made to follow Vic.
"Madam?"
"EEEK!" she shrieked, almost inaudible.
The gate man pointed at Vic with a wooden stick, "Be mindful around that one oh, he doesn't look okay in the head if you understand, he said this and laughed at himself, "Okay?"
Vivian only nodded, she didn't get him.
"Okay," the man made to close the sliding window, "Bye bye!"
With a frown on her face, she made it Vic's side.
"Sup?" he greeted.
"...NOTHING FROM THAT MAN WAS USEFUL!" she said after she hit his shoulder, "And you went ahead and dragged me into it."
"Hey?" he brushed off the side she hit him, "It's not all bad, at least we knew they were kidnapped."
"Shut up and be punished!"