As Chloe laced her shoe into a perfect bow as she had always done since she was five years old, all she could think about was the Lord Jesus.
After giving her life to Christ, she had been studying all she could lay her hands on that spoke about God and building a relationship with him. She was filled with new-found joy and purpose, though at times she felt bad and guilty for avoiding or totally cutting off old friends, like Alexandria.
Her thoughts paused as she heard the loud shriek of her phone. She groaned, remembering that she had been planning to change her ringtone to something less annoying for a month now. What made it always skip her memory, she couldn't fathom.
"Hello," Chloe said, not stopping to think about the fact that it was an unknown number that was calling.
"Hello." A cool chill ran down Chloe's spine as she realised that she just picked Alexandra's call.
"Hi," Chloe managed to sputter out.
"I see you are tongue-tied now, after letting my calls go on and on and on without you applying the common decency of picking up your phone, huh?" Chloe was silent, obviously confused about what to say.
"I've spoken until I turned blue, blue in the face, to convince you to come back to me, but you have insisted that it is over. How dare you, after all those times together? I don't blame you. I blame her and I'll get her." Alexandria spoke all of these words with bitterness and fury that kept and left Chloe mute. The call got disconnected.
As soon as some of the shock wore off, Chloe realised what the last words of Alexandria meant. Springing up, she ran out of her dorm with a cheetah's speed in search of Ifes. She knew the capabilities of an angry Alexandria.
"God," she cried in her heart. "Why did I give ifes details to Alexandria? I should have just told her that I had changed and no longer interested in the relationship and left it at that."
On her arrival at Ifesinschi's workplace, she discovered that Ifes' shift had ended and she had left for home. She hoped that, against all odds, Ifes' had made it home in one piece.
Still feeling queasy due to uncertainty, she started running in the direction of Ifes' dorm when she discovered she had left her phone on her bed in a bid to make it to Ifes speedily.
As Ifes darted back to her dorm room alone, she missed the company of Ayo. Talking about Ayo, didn't he say he was going to visit a friend in the hospital? She had been too cynical about herself that she didn't even ask the name of the patient.
Still walking back to her dorm room, the night breeze prickled her skin as her thoughts wandered wildly. Somewhere deep inside her, she felt this odd sensation that made her uncomfortable. Shrugging, she waved it off. Maybe it was because she was without the company of Ayo. As the night wore on, the odd sensation intensified.
Maybe the devil was trying to plant fear in her heart, she quickly remembered that God had not given her the spirit of fear but of power, love and of a sound mind.
Ifes was not paying attention to her path and pace anymore, too engrossed in binding and casting out that spirit of fear.
The loud hoot of a horn jerked her back to reality. The driver was a young, athletic-looking lady.
"Excuse me, please can you direct me to the gymnasium?" asked the stranger.
Ifes stepped closer to the car and started giving directions to the lady who had the company of another in the passenger's seat.
"I can't hear you clearly. Could you please come a little closer? I'm a little hard of hearing."
Something somewhere in her head screamed 'run!', but Ifes was immediately filled with compassion. She stooped low to the window of the car to speak to the driver.
"It's good to finally get to meet you," the driver said as she brought out a handkerchief from nowhere and reached out to Ifes, covering her nose with it.
Immediately, Ifes realised she had made a mistake as the smell of chloroform invaded her nose. Unable to resist the smell, she blacked out.
-----
"Who's that!" Mandy yelled, half annoyed at the persistent bangs on her door. "Patience is a virtue," she murmured to herself. On opening the door, she saw a lady who was panting hard, craning her neck in as if looking for something or someone. The face was somehow familiar, but where had she seen this face?
"Please, I'm looking for Ifes."
"She's not around."
"But she's supposed to be around, I'm just coming all the way from her place of work and I was told her shift was over."
Mandy drew back a little, studying the girl. "I'm sorry, who are you and why are you asking?"
"Oh! My bad. My name's Chloe Gilstrap." She paused for a while and continued. "I'm a friend of Ifes. I mean, a convert, rather.
"Okay."
Mandy stepped beside the door allowing Chloe enough space to enter.
"You look troubled, come in and let's talk."
Chloe hesitated for a while before accepting Mandy's invitation. Mandy slammed the door, whirled around and leaned on it. "Do you mind if we talk over a mug of hot chocolate?"
"Thanks, but I really don't have the appetite for anything right now." Chloe's body trembled as she spoke.
Sensing the urgency in her voice, Mandy decided to go straight to the point. "Okay, would you like to leave your message with me or would you like to wait for her till she returns?"
"I don't know, I believe she might be in danger, serious danger. Please, please, if you can connect me to her, I'll be grateful!"
"Look, she's not back from work yet but it's not anything abnormal. She normally goes to read from her workplace."
"I understand what you're saying, But please call her, please!"
"Is anything wrong somewhere?"
"I can't say much because I don't know much either. Just help me call her now!"
"What are you talking about?" Mandy asked, truly alarmed for the first time since seeing Chloe at the front of her doorstep. Considering the possibility that Mandy might not know her, she decided to elucidate.
"You see, I met Ifes for the first time close to the Students' Union building, one of the days that she went out for evangelism." Chloe paused to catch her breath. Then, she continued elucidating. "I came here because of Ifes. I can't let anything happen to her because of me, I'm so scared right now, and I'm confused as well!" The girl spoke so rapidly with a Northern accent that Mandy could barely grasp something important. "We've got to do something!"
Mandy darted away from the door pacing up and down the dorm room. She still couldn't bring herself to believe that her roommate was not back because of a threat from one random girl. At this point, Chloe's heart was thumping loudly.
Reacting on an impulse, Mandy picked up her phone and dialled Ifesinachi's number. After calling her twice without Ifes picking up her phone, Mandy almost exclaimed. But then, simple reasoning told her that she would not have her phone chiming out loud while reading.
"I have called her twice and she's not picking up. But don't get worried, she keeps her phone silent when she's reading."
"How could I not worry when an innocent life is in danger because of me?" Chloe yelled. "It seems like you ain't understanding anything I'm saying!"
"Okay, okay, I understand but please calm down." Mandy gestured with her hands.
"This is what I think we should do," Mandy continued. "Let's just sit out one or two hours, at least till the time she usually returns from the library. If she doesn't arrive at that time, we will both go look for her at the library."
"And what if we don't find her there?" Chloe asked.
"Then we will call the emergency number after twenty-four hours."
Chloe knew the drill quite alright but would she be able to wait out twenty-four hours? Twenty-four hours would suffice to carry out a hideous plan on a missing person. Weary and helpless, Chloe sank back in her seat with her hands on her head as she prayed silently.
----
Ifes woke up to the sound of muffled voices. Eyes still shut, she tried to recognise the people by their voices, but she wasn't getting anywhere. She tried to open her eyes but they were too heavy to budge. Their words drew her attention, so she decided to wrap her attention around their conversation.
"What are you saying to me, Alexa? What do you mean you don't have the rope?"
"What rope and what do they want to do with it?" Ifes asked in her heart.
"I'm telling you that everything happened so fast that it took me unaware."
"Oh! You've got everything messed up Alexandria."
Alexandria! Ifes furrowed the lines in her forehead. Where had she heard that name?
"My bad! I was so overwhelmed with the whole thing, but I swear I was keeping everything to plan."
"Oh, really? Like seriously, Alexandria, you plan to abduct a person and you get so overwhelmed that you lose focus. Is this a kidnap or a child's play?"
Alexandria inhaled and exhaled sharply. "This ain't the time to apportion blame. Let's look for a solution around this."
Ifes knew there was no doubt about it. She had been abducted.
"I don't know how I got entangled in your mess."
"Yes!" Alexa exclaimed, her voice drowning her friend's sentence halfway.
"What are you thinking of? And it better be something fast because she will soon be awake, and we do not know the level of her strength."
Alexandria gazed at the skinny girl who was lying down on the floor and stifled a grin. She could not even be a match for one of them.
"You know, Becky, I think I remember where I dropped the rope now."
"So, where is it?"
Oh, no! God, this can't be. Surely you won't let them get that rope and bundle me up just like that.
"It's in the main house," Alexandria said.
Main house! This meant she was currently inside a cottage. Dear Jesus, what to do now? How do I escape this?
Alexandria stood and walked across the room to the door, turning the doorknob. She yanked open and slammed it behind her. Ifes quickly told herself it was time to react. Giving into an impulse, she sprang to her feet, startling Becky. But Becky quickly composed herself as though she was expecting her to get up as soon as Alexandria was out of the room.
"So, our heroine has finally woken up?" Becky clapped her hands. "Hope you remember me?" She pointed to herself. "We met each other not quite long ago."
Ifes gazed speechlessly at Becky, calculating her next step.
Becky raised up a hand to her. "Oh! and don't look at me like you're watching a soap opera. I actually knew when you woke up, I intentionally asked Alexa to go get the rope because I wanted to see what drama you are up to."
"Wow!" Ifes exclaimed. This girl was more than who she thought she was.
"And do you know the second reason?" She looked to Ifes for an answer. When she didn't say anything, Becky continued.
"Alexa is more like a sister to me, and I love her so much. If you hurt her, you hurt me."
"But I didn't do anything to Alexandria!"
"Yes, you did, and it's high time I dealt with you."