ECHOES

Chapter 34

Tunji

I walked into the large office, meeting with the chestnut colored book shelf with different books arranged neatly in them. Walking further in, I was met with my fathers office desk with different paper works scattered around it. Mum's picture rested on the desk, cladded in a big frame.

It had been a long time the office had been graced my presence. I had always avoided going into his office as it brought back many memories but I had to do what had to be done. He was a lawyer and a business associate with Timi's father. If anyone had the evidence I was looking for, he had to be the one.

Several drawers were pushed and pulled by me as I searched for what was on my head. He had to have it! He had to! He should be useful for one thing for a first time.

Yelling in frustration, my feet's met with the desk as I gave it a hard kick. This was starting to get on my nerves and I was starting to get pissed. I hit the desk again when I heard a rustling tweaking sound at the front of the desk, near his chair.

I walked straight down to the front and I was met with a hidden drawer with the keys tester in the key hole inside. That feeling washed over me again, slow anticipation rose on my skin as the drawer opened and I was met with several documents. Illegal tradings, illegal money laundering and lastly, my vision was greeted back to the reason of my search. The evidence I had been hoping to find. The final destruction between Temi and Timi.

Temi. I had known everything about the incident as I had seen her picture as she screams her lungs off in front of a burnt car. Even then, she had been the most alluring thing I had ever set my eyes on. I had found out more information on her, leaving it as a silly crush only for her to walk down the gates on daylight two weeks after as a new student.

Taunted. Her face had been that of a taunted and scared little girl as she passed by me, not even in the slight timid but also not wanting to attract attention. It had been me and her. I was the only that cared enough to notice her. As she was always hiding. Always seated at the back of the class and always making hairstyles that covered her face.

Her beauty had captivated me into something morbid. I noticed her, when she was reading, eating, twirling the mouth of her pen in her mouth, walking, running. And so it turned into my obsession. My little obsession. The salvation to my soul. She was a welcome distraction. A thought to feel myself with whenever I was clouded by the darkness surrounding me.

An innocent smile and laughter that reminded so much of her. Different characteristics that compared to that of my mother. My late mother. The only one had showed me love when I thought I had no one. The very one I had lost when I had been little.

We had once been a happy family. Three sets of individuals living together surrounded by love. It had come as a surprise when we had found out mum had cancer. Breast cancer. They had told her, the doctors had told her all would be well. They had assured us that all they needed to was to cut the breast away.

I remember how she had cried, trying to her hide her eyes away from me and how she had still lulled me to sleep even when she was in pain. I couldn't take it. The doctors that had assured us all would be well had all come out to say their normal, we are sorry. But we couldn't save her.

This night brought back unwanted memories. It was meant to be my night of victory. I had won. This was the total end of it. The secret Timi had been hiding for so long would finally be revealed and once again, she would be mine to proclaim.

What about Sarah?

A taunting whispered voice asked in my head and I tried to shake off the guilt that was starting to clench me in the guts. I wasn't one to feel that. The tears that had rolled down down her broken face and the dejected look she had given me before disappearing from my sight had been a sore sight to my vision.