University life came with its noise, colours, and faces — a whole new world Splendour had to learn to live in.
Between lectures, hostel gist, and late-night assignments, she found someone who matched her calm spirit — Enisa, a soft-spoken girl with curious eyes and a warm laugh.
They soon became inseparable. They ate together, studied together, and even shared secrets whispered under moonlight in their small hostel room.
But one night, Enisa woke Splendour with trembling hands. Her face was pale, sweat tracing down her forehead.
"Splendour… I just had a dream," she whispered, her voice shaking.
Splendour rubbed her sleepy eyes. "What kind of dream?"
Enisa took a deep breath. "I saw you, Splendour. You were standing in white, but your hands were bleeding… like someone had tied something invisible around them. There was a man standing beside you — his shadow was long, and his eyes were red, but he looked sad, not evil. And then I heard a voice saying, 'The covenant still speaks.'"
Splendour's heart skipped.
She tried to laugh it off, but the tremor in her voice betrayed her. "Ah, Enisa, maybe you've been watching too many horror movies abeg."
But Enisa didn't laugh.
She reached for Splendour's hand and held it tightly. "No, Splendour. This one didn't feel like a normal dream. It felt… heavy. Like a warning. Is there something you're struggling with? Something you need to tell me?"
Splendour looked away, her chest rising and falling fast. For a moment, she wanted to tell her everything — about Alfred, about that night before she left home, about the blood, the promises, the tears.
But fear shut her lips.
"I'm fine," she said quietly. "It's just stress. Law school is not beans, you know."
Sleep didn't come easily that night.
Even after Enisa's breathing softened beside her, Splendour lay still, her heart pounding against her ribs.
She tried praying, humming softly, even scrolling through old messages from Alfred just to calm herself. But when sleep finally came, it came with shadows.
She found herself standing in a wide empty field, the sky dull and grey.
In front of her was a shallow stream, dark like blood.
On the other side stood Alfred — smiling faintly, dressed in white, just like the day he'd held her hand and whispered, "Forever."
"Alfred!" she called out, trying to cross to him.
But as soon as her feet touched the water, pain shot through her hands. She looked down two red marks were glowing on her palms, like something burnt into her skin. The same spots where they had cut themselves years ago.
The stream began to bubble, rising higher, thickening like blood.
Alfred's smile faded. He stretched out his hand toward her but couldn't move closer.
"Splendour… you promised me," he said softly, his voice echoing like it came from another world.
"I still keep my promise!" she cried. "I still love you, Alfred!"
But the ground trembled.
A deep voice not Alfred's thundered behind her, "A vow once made cannot sleep forever."
She turned, terrified — and saw a figure cloaked in smoke, faceless yet familiar.
It whispered in her ear, "One must break… or one must bleed."
"Break what?" she screamed.
But before she could move, the ground split beneath her, swallowing the stream, the field, and Alfred's fading figure.
She woke up with a scream, drenched in sweat, tears rolling down her face.
"Splendour!" Enisa jolted awake. "What is it?"
Splendour shook her head violently. "It's nothing, I just— I just had a bad dream."
But inside her, she knew it wasn't just a dream.
Something was calling from the past something she thought was sealed and forgotten.
She buried her face in her pillow and whispered through shaky lips,
"God, what have I done?"