CHAPTER 1: THE SIXTH POSITION
232 Words
The snap of Daniel Nwosu's pencil echoed through the examination hall like a gunshot.
Graphite dust snowed across question #23: *Calculate the escape velocity required to break orbit...* The numbers blurred as sweat stung his eyes—not from the Lagos heat, but from the weight of the silence pressing down his neck.
Across the room, through the chemical-straightened curtain of her hair, *she* watched.
Evelyn Carter's storm-grey eyes tracked the tremor in his fingers with clinical precision. Her lips—painted the exact shade of oxygenated blood—curved when his pen stalled mid-equation.
Three rows away, Emeka Onuorah scratched out answers with the steady rhythm of a metronome. First place. Always first.
When the rankings were posted that afternoon, Daniel's name sat neatly at position six.
"Admirable."
The voice slithered through the chatter of students, velvet-wrapped and scalpel-sharp. Evelyn stood close enough for him to smell the jasmine oil behind her ears, see the faint scars along her wrists—six parallel lines, precise as surgical incisions.
Her fingernail tapped his name on the glass. The *click* resonated in his molars.
"But we both know..." She leaned in, her breath warm against his ear. "...you're capable of so much more."
As she walked away, the fluorescent lights flickered. For half a heartbeat, her shadow stretched too long—twisting up the lockers like smoke—before snapping back into place.
- Writer
