CHAPTER 15:ANOTHER PATH

"But what,you don't like the idea" Nikkie asked hoping Alicia didn't reject her offer

"Erm,I do" Alicia responded looking intently into her eyes. " B-but you guys said you resumed three days ago right"

"Yep,that's right"

"So how come you guys know each other so well" she blurted out

"Oh " Mia answered " we all attended the same high school,ha ha ha" she chuckled,. " we've been friends for so long,for about 5 years now right" she asked looking at Bianca

"Yeah, November is gonna make it 6 years"

"Oh I see" Alicia replied. " Well I actually like the reading idea but where do we do that"

" We aren't sure about that yet,we could meet in one hostel,the library or perhaps even the hall when it's less of people, we'll decide on that later"

"Okay"

"Sooooo could we please have your contact so we could be at reach"

Alicia nodded and then they happily exchanged contacts,it seems university life was gonna be good for her.

Just then,a lot of students started packing into the hall at once as they started to settle down, even the ones inside, Alicia presumed that the authorities were here and true to her guess, two bulky men,a lean man and a middle aged woman dressed in formals suddenly walked in, although they looked friendly,but they also bore in their faces a hint of strictness.

Soon,the students were all seated filling almost all seats in the hall and as soon as everywhere became quiet,the meeting started with the tall lean man clearing his throat.

He walked in to the middle of the hall greeting the students who in turn greeted him back,he then took his time to welcome them all to Montgomery after which he began to address them on the do's and don'ts in Montgomery.

He also went went ahead and shared them into groups for a future reason,and numerically using the order in which they were seated,he shared them into groups A-F which contained about 100 students each.

After the introduction was done,an hour had already gone by and Alicia's stomach had already began to grumble as she glared at the man in front of them,the man was probably talkative as for the past one hour since they were here he'd basically done nothing but to repeat his words over and over again as though they were deaf.

To her greatest relief,the man finally ended his long speech in the next five minutes,after that,they all were given forms to fill in a little information of themselves in the required spaces and without wasting time,they all began to do as they were instructed.

About 6 minutes later,Nikkie and her friends were done filling their forms and had submitted but Alicia was having troubles in filling out two blank spaces which asked for her father's full name and her mother's occupation.

Her father left when she was quite young and as akward as it may sound to any soul,she never knew her father's name,no one ever told her and she never asked especially when she noticed her mom would always cry whenever she brought up the matter of her father.

The second space there was Alicia's mother's occupation,she didn't know which one to put that would look presentable,her mother was into different kind of jobs so what should she do.

She was still in her pool of thoughts when Nikkie tapped her.

"Do you need help with that,is there something you don't understand"

"Erm,no I understand everything"

"You sure"

"Yeah"

"Ok then" standing up with her friends. " Since we're heading different directions, we'll be heading back to the hostel now,cause I'm really hungry right now,we haven't had breakfast yet" she said as she glanced at her watch which was only a quarter to 10:00am

"Okay then" Alicia smiled as she looked up at them

"See you tomorrow in class then"

"Yeah sure"

"Bye Alicia" they all waved as they whisked away.

"Bye"

As soon as they left, Alicia took out her phone and called Tammy that she was already done,she then cut the call as soon as Tammy said she was already on her way with Sophie.

As soon as the call ended, Alicia buried her face in her form as she tried to make haste in thinking of what to write because most students were already submitting and leaving the hall and also because she didn't like the way a group of girls ahead of her were staring at her,whispering amongst themselves.

Alicia filled the form with the first thing that came to her mind and she quickly submitted and left the hall which had become rowdy again.

As soon as Alicia got out,she noticed that the stairs in which she'd taken to come up here was crowded with people, especially boys who had their eyes shinning like torches.

Looking at the Crowd, there was no guarantee that she wouldn't be pushed or stepped upon, something she hated to the core,just as she was thinking on what to do,her eyes darted to the right and that was when she noticed that there were also stairs that led downstairs there and it wasn't that much crowded.

Without thinking, Alicia turned to her right and hurriedly walked untill she got to the stairs, coming down to the next floor,she was really surprised to not find any soul there, 'what, didn't they know of this exit' she wondered as she continued making her way through.

On getting to the second floor,she discovered that the end if it was also blocked with people as well leaving her no choice but to find another path downstairs which she was quick to find.

At first, Alicia was quite happy that she found a free way downstairs but she soon almost began to regret it,that was because this place seemed deserted and didn't look like where people had been for a long time.

At first she wanted to go back but she immediately called Tammy back and described the direction in which she was Coming from so that they would meet and it seemed Tammy knew the place quite well.

The soft patter of footsteps echoed through the hallway as Alicia made her way round to the stairs clutching her bag tightly against her chest. With the floor being empty and void of any soul, Alicia couldn't shake the feeling of unease that crept over her,why was this place looking like an abadoned section in this school?.

Alicia picked up her pace as she hurried towards the last stairs that would finally bring her out of this scary place.

As she hurried along,her thrusty pen slipped from her grasp clattering noisily to the floor and it rolled ominously towards a darkened class room void of any single light.

Alicia at first wanted to leave it and just get out of this place but then she figured it hadn't rolled too much inside and was just at the entrance as she could literally see it.

Swallowing her unease,she crept towards the pen, her eyes darting nervously towards the yawning void of the unlit room.

But just as she reached for her fallen pen,a pair of gnarled,calloused hands suddenly emerged from the darkness and gripped Alicia's wrist with a chilling intensity causing the hair on Alicia's skin to stand up.

The hands cold and waxy to the touch ferociously pulled her fragile self into the dark room

"Ahhhhhhhhhh, please,no, don't touch me!!" She screamed as good bumps crawled on her skin.