Chapter Five

Vada later settled down on the floor of her room, resting her back on her bed as she unwrapped the package, it was exactly what she ordered, grilled turkey and croissants with french rice, the package also came with a promo gift of a lovely China ceramic plate for shopping and trusting their company even as a first timer. She started eating and she appreciated every detail of the food, it was quite sumptuous, just then, the laser on her MacBook started blinking repeatedly signaling her of an incoming call, she licked her fingers neat and brought down the MacBook as she opened it, it was her father dialing her on FaceTime, she immediately picked it up and was surprised at herself when she realized how much she misses him.

"Hey, Mr. Williams."

She greeted, her lips were traveling up to her eyes, she was so happy she couldn't help the feelings.

"Hey honey, how have you been?"

"I've been good as you can see."

She replied with a loaded mouth.

"What are you eating?"

"Oh, french rice, grilled turkey and croissants."

"That's rich, I bet you didn't make that, where are you ordering from?"

"What do you mean, Dad? If you challenge me I will definitely register for catering classes online. Don't dare me, you know better."

She replied amidst her laughter, she was wedging the meat crumps from falling out of her mouth with her left hand.

"Haha, you can't sit through it, you hardly sits through anything, Vada."

"Okay now, Dad, let me blow your bubbles, are you ready?"

Her dad sat up keenly as he replied with a nod.

"M-hmm?."

"I got a job."

(Few moments of silence)

"Hello? Are you with me?"

Vada playfully asked her dad who got frozen in shock of the news.

"No way, you gotta be kidding."

"Nooo! I am not, I work at the Falcon Crest as a programmer, trust me it is so boring and annoying, but I have been sitting through it."

"Oh my God, you are improving impressively."

"Yeah, I have been practicing."

"Vada, I have something I want to show you."

Vada on hearing that, dropped her turkey back as she looked on through her screen, however there was poor network interference and the call dropped.

"Jesus! Are you serious right now!?"

Vada angrily exclaimed as she took her MacBook outside hurriedly searching for signal just so the FaceTime would connect.

At the balcony, she met Liam working on a router service pan. She went up to him, he noticed her presence then asked,

"Hey there, I guess you are experiencing the poor network already, yes?"

"Obviously, what else is wrong with this place?"

He looked at her hands and nodded impressively at the MacBook she was carrying.

"Well, just a few things average people can handle. Don't worry though, I got this router on my way back today, I will connect you once am done with the installation. I recharged for the whole year and it's madly expensive."

"How much?"

"Uhh... A thousand dollars?"

Vada's eyes twitched at the sound of that.

"That's unbelievably half of my house rent."

She replied, then continued,

"What if I pay you fifty percent of it, so I don't feel indebted when I start using it?"

"Thoughtful, don't worry, there's another way around that, you will be recharging by next year."

They both laughed at the wise opinion.

"Fair enough, thanks by the way, I guess I will just drop my password with you for the connection?"

"Sure, go for it."

Liam replied as he handed her his phone and got back to screwing the last nuts.

Vada punched in her password and left for her room, she loved the way Liam was warming up to her though she hardly allowed that, she knew she was changing, slow but steadily.

***********

She took her shower and sealed up the remaining food for breakfast tomorrow, she is going to microwave it and flush it down with a fruit juice by morning.

She texted her dad to call her again by that time tomorrow, she was sure they wouldn't be interrupted again, the artificial service router was going to be up and running then, she listened to her cool musics for an hour, it helped her to unwind, she slept off with her lights on, she was still adjusting to the apartment and the process of living all alone, she had to help her sleep by not turning off the light.

Morning came and she woke up with a hard head banging ache, she had a very terrifying nightmare last night, she jerked up with her heart pounding so fast in the middle of the night with sweat pebbles all over her face upon the air conditioner, she had to pour water on her head to cool her burning brain, she went back to bed but she looked up the ceiling all through, hardly blinking for two straight hours before the call of nature forcefully swept her away again, but it was dawn already and in the next one hour, her alarm woke her up, it was a very long night and she had to ask herself, how much longer would she live with those unending nightmares that hunted her sleep and life? she managed to drag herself out of the bed, she had a tempting urge to sleep again that morning but work calls, going to the restroom to brush up, she caught her image in the mirror and waved her head side to side in agony, she had purple patches below her eye lids, she was going to be wearing makeup to work that day and she dreaded it, she started keeping makeups actually because of emergencies like this, if not, she would undergo a serious interview from the newest self made journalist in town, Karen of course.

Getting to the FC that morning, Karen was not on her desk, she had to ask Ally, Karen's nearest neighbor, who informed her that she doesn't come to work every Wednesday, it was a new information to her but she wanted to know why it was so.

"Is she working at the extension too?"

"Nope, she is not among the staffs that work there, I don't know what her reason is actually but it has been so for like a year now."

Just then, another female co-worker ran up to Ally with a wide dreadful eyes.

"Ally, have you seen the news this morning?"

She asked amidst her roughed up breathings.

The surprised Ally waved her head side to side as she listened on.

"Balor records another female kill in the space of two years, this time two sisters, murdered in cold blood."

She quoted the news headline, Vada read it from her phone just in time when she said it.

"Oh, no. I thought it stopped?"

Ally asked in bewilderment as she subconsciously held her cheeks with her hands in cold astonishment.

Vada brought her head up from her phone and noticed the drop dead silence the workers were observing, everybody's head was bent to their phones, obviously responding to the shock of the news, one of the older staff worker who identified as the neighbor to the victims fainted immediately and was rushed to the ambulance by the paramedics that arrived within the space of five minutes.

Vada wasn't sure if she was dreaming or awake, she has been stalking this city for many years, how come she didn't even hear about the news of two years ago?

Instantly her phone rang and she picked it up, her father.

"Honey, I heard the news. You need to come back home, I can't have you two more minutes in that deadly City."

Vada was almost considering the idea, she was so used to security and all this was so new to her, and the fact she was just hearing about the first murder case of two years today, she felt gaslighted, but straight ahead, something that looked like Karen's figure walked into the company.

"Dad, I will talk to you later."

She dropped the call and looked on as the figure got clearer, she was right.

Hi Fam

enjoying this book?

let's discuss about it in the review section.

xoxo😌

Omah✍️