Somebody Else (Christian Romance)

SEVEN

The low battery notification made Stephanie groan inwardly as she placed her phone on the empty bed space beside her. After leaving the party last night, she'd arrived at her hostel by 1:00 am, by then the gate was already locked. She'd knocked and knocked until the gateman finally opened the gate. He'd let her in, but not before giving her a stern warning. Getting to her room, Magdalene and Vanessa had been fast asleep. Teni had been away, as usual, probably in the reading room. Stephanie had and closed her eyes to sleep, but sleep never came. How would it, when her mind had been occupied with Charles words? She'd spent most of the time on Chinasa's Instagram page, going through her posts. Chinasa had posted countless photos of herself and Williams at last night's party. It was amazing how even at night she could still get such a high number of likes and comments.

You look hot, girl.

You both look cute together.

You're such a goddess.

Your boyfriend is so hot.

The more Stephanie scrolled through the comments the more inferior she'd felt. She'd felt like laughing after she'd scrolled through the comments twice and not seen any comment from Jamil. He hadn't even liked the posts. Jealous much? The big crush Stephanie had on Jamil had dissipated when she'd met Charles and Williams. Jamil was nothing compared to those guys. Stephanie had been browsing through work-out tutorials for hip enlargement when the low battery notification popped up. With the power outage, she couldn't charge her phone. The generator won't be put on until 5:00. What was the time? What? She gasped. 4:58 am. The night was already gone and she'd gotten no sleep. How did the time go so fast? She closed her eyes in hoping sleep would come this time. If sleep came, she'd sleep like a baby, after all, she wasn't going to attend today's lectures. Chinasa had texted her saying that she was sleeping over at Williams' and was skipping lectures. Stephanie felt there was no harm in missing today's lectures. She could read-up whatever she missed and she'd be fine. She'd wait for all her roommates to go for their lectures, then she could use the space in the middle of the room to start her work-out sessions for today.

Vanessa's alarm rang, making Stephanie look in her direction. Thanks to the moonlight, she could see Vanessa dismiss her alarm, yawn, and stretch. Vanessa had just sat up when the power was restored, illuminating the whole room. Stephanie squinted and laid still, not wanting Vanessa to know she was awake. And just like Stephanie had predicted, Vanessa came down from her bed and picked up her bag. She did this every day. Every day, at 5:00 am, Vanessa always woke up, picked her bag, and went somewhere. Being a light sleeper, Stephanie always knew when she woke up and left. Vanessa's consistency in doing this was becoming a matter of suspicion to Stephanie. Where did she always go at this time? Was she a cultist or something? Maybe she was going for cult meetings. If Vanessa was a member of a secret cult, then she was a good pretender because she acted like anything but a bad person. It was a good thing Stephanie was fully awake today, she'd stealthily follow Vanessa and see where it was that she always went to at this time.

As Vanessa left the room, Stephanie waited for a few seconds before gently climbing down her bed. She opened the door as gently as she could. After successfully closing the door without making much noise, she spotted Vanessa just going down the stairs. She stealthily crept at a considerable distance behind Vanessa. When Vanessa got to the bottom of the stairs, she walked out the door. Stephanie silently hurried to the door so as not to lose her. Peeping from the door, Stephanie watched Vanessa walk in the direction of the hostel's main gate, but when Vanessa had reached the end of the building, she turned and walked to the side of the hostel, the road leading to the back of the hostel. She wasn't going out of the hostel's gate? Stephanie hurried to the edge of the building and peeked into the direction Vanessa had followed. She spotted Vanessa climbing up the stairs at the side of the building. Those doors were locked, nobody entered through them. Why was she going there? When Vanessa had climbed up a considerable distance, Stephanie hurried and began climbing the stairs silently. She stood behind a pillar and watched Vanessa sit down on one of the stairs. Vanessa was the only one here. She hadn't come to meet with anybody after all.