Arike’s point of view

8:59pm

Yep, my life is officially over. As I stare down from my school’s rooftop, my life flashes before my eyes. I guess the saying is true after all when you feel like you might as well be dead. That your life is never going to be quite the same again.

Not physically though because it’s not my body bleeding out on the pavement. That would be Deji.

My eyes don’t move from the gory site. I was the last person to be seen publicly before his fall.

God, maybe he is alive. I wipe my glasses with the end tip of my uniform white shirt. Wiping off a strain of blood and I quickly tuck in my shirt.

I hear someone running and turn back, adjusting my glasses closer when the rooftop door barges opens.

Be calm I tell myself.

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Samuel’s point of view

9:03

I rush through the door, my knee hitting the parapet walls when I make contact. My shaky hands slam against the surface for support as I look down at Deji’s body. The whole ground filled with his blood which doesn’t seem to end.

‘He is definitely dead,’ a soft spoken voice says. I almost forgot someone was standing there when I came in. I would have hardly felt she was there based on how till she was. She bites her lips as she plays with her necklace which has her name.

‘Arike, what are you doing here?’ I say, my voice giving out a surprised and almost accusatory tone.

‘I came to get some fresh air’, she says, her voice so calm as if she didn’t just see a dead body. ‘Before I knew it, he was on the ground. Should.. we call the police?’

My body freezes for a moment and I notice I have not said a word until Arike repeats the question.

I take a moment to gather myself. ‘Yeah, we should’. I reach into my pocket and notice my phone gone. I search my other pocket and feel nothing. I feel Arike’s brown eyes on me as panic fills my eyes when I remember who has it.

———————————————————————

Chioma’s point of view

9:30pm

I walk out into the compound of school from my hostel upstairs. I came as quickly as possible when I got a call from Samuel using Arike’s phone. I didn’t know the two of them even spoke to each other.

I came out with only a camisole and shorts even with the cold weather because I was told it was urgent.

‘I told you not to call me unless the school is on fire or someone is dying. I stop dead in my tracks when I see what had unfolded. ‘Oh my God,’ I scream when I see Deji’s body.

Arike, Samuel and Ayo stand next to each other. The boys towering over her.

‘At least we have a valid reason,’ Arike says.

I look at them and back at the floor in shock. I feel as powerless as I did earlier today with Deji. ‘Oh God, not again’.

‘Not again,’ Ayo, the transfer student shouts. ‘You mean this has happened before. I am so dead.’ He repeats over and over again as he paces around.

‘What do we do?’ I look up to them for answers as I dig my nails into my skin. Trying to stay composed but I don’t think look it.

‘We do nothing,’ Arike says with a calm demonur. ‘We go back to our hostels as quietly as we can. When the police comes, we say nothing.’

I want to add something but I keep my mouth shut. Too stunned to speak any further.

‘Not a word,’ she says and with our silence taken as agreement.