After obliterating his plate, he went straight to the outdoor bathroom. Kazeem’s house was pretty modest compared to his parents' position. It was just an average house with two bedrooms, one kitchen, one living room and two bathrooms, one in the master bedroom and the other one on the backside of the house. It was made with beautiful red brick, acting as a natural temperature regulator and has windows big enough to make the house cozy but also very airy. It was just an average house, always clean and breathing of hospitality.

  The cold water made his skin sting a little bit, but it helped him sort out his thoughts. Standing still, Kazeem let the droplets trinkle from the top of his head to his chin. He wasn't thinking about what happened anymore, but instead what he must do.

  He breathed.

  His main thought was about what he would do “tomorrows”. He wasn’t able to observe all the scenes of the day because of all his daydreaming and his “special” encounter with Old Meza. So, he had to go out again to spectate with the risk of seeing her again. The shackles he felt in his encounter with the spirit watcher weren’t the one brought by the scenes. However, it doesn't matter because being able to identify them wouldn’t help him break free. All he could do was avoid this situation. He decided to go out early and identify the main scenes before seeing Old Meza.

  He paused.

  Why would he still see her? Why can’t he avoid this traumatizing scene? Well, the answer is simple. Kazeem wanted to exploit the loop for his plan against the old woman.

  I'm not strong enough to take her head on but I can at least try to find out more about her. I need to grab her habit, the way she walks, the way she talks, her unconscious behaviors, I need to grasp anything I can... even if I need to do this loop multiple times.

  Silence.

  Zokou’s saying, “do it right or don't do it at all” was supposed to be applied in all situations and Kazeem was ready to listen to it in this situation too. Like an experienced hunter, he was determined to study his prey to the maximum of his ability before acting.

  While drying himself, he thought about what his father said earlier. He started to whisper to himself “if she is strong, be stronger. If she is smart be smarter. Everything will be alright as long as I'm better than her. And once I am...”.

  His amber eye became ice cold thinking about what he will do.

  He exhaled slowly.

  This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  He knew that his revenge wasn’t his priority right now. After all, he still needs to understand the vivid “dream” he keeps having. He already assumed that this might be a premonition instead of a simple dream. But at the end of the day, he can't do anything with his current self, weak and extremely lacking information. Multi-tasking wasn't his best, and his memorization ability was clearly lacking, so he decided to do things step by step. After studying the old spirit watcher, he plans to exploit the loop to his full potential. After all, if managed correctly he could have three to four time the time to train and memorize new information. After a while doing this, he would try to find the clue to the forsaken day that he keeps dreaming about. He noticed that the dream was more vivid the more he escaped the loop, so he wasn't too anxious about finding new details, although the feeling of being pierced made him uneasy.

  Going out of the bathroom Kazeem was suddenly thrown out of his daydreaming by the chilly wind of the night. With a towel on his hips, he started to run to his house. The fence was high enough for nobody to see him. The cold was unbearable, especially for someone just going out of a cold bath. He wasn't unfamiliar with this feeling, but it caught him off guard every time.

  Barging into the house he ran past Zokou who was eating with Yassena in his laps, like a young couple in her honeymoon and jumped into his room to put the cacao butter on his skin before putting his clothes on. He didn't forget to yell: “EWW” while thinking about what he just ran by.

  Laying down on his bed, he looked at the old clock on his wall.

  8pm.

  It was still too early for him to feel sleepy, so his mind started to wonder again.

  He thought about what had caused his daydreaming.

  “It was as if something called me…” he mumbled.

  The feeling was deeply uncomfortable. It felt like the “djinn” was pulling him in its direction, trying to draw him back. But when Kazeem imagined facing that strange faceless being, he violently shook his head. He was far too inexperienced. It was far too dangerous.

  Still, he knew that one day he would have to face it again… even if he hoped that day wouldn’t come anytime soon.

  He let out a long sigh and forced his thoughts elsewhere.

  Old Meza had spoken to him twice, and both times it had been about the mask he found. Yassena had already warned him about it, and the old woman had somehow sensed it on him.

  “Did she expect me to die because of it? Maa called it an artefact…”

  He knew things like that were dangerous. He just didn’t know how dangerous.

  “The only thing the mask made me do when I got it was dance in a dream… can someone even die from that?” he muttered.

  Then again, that dance had left him exhausted when he woke up, and it was the only time he’d had a different dream since the beginning of his curse. So maybe it wasn’t harmless after all.

  For now, he treated the mask like an unreliable lifesaver. The only time it had acted was when he was about to die inside a loop.

  “If only it could appear when I think about it…” he grumbled.

  Suddenly, the air in the house turned unnaturally cold, making him jolt upright. Then a voice echoed through the walls — a voice that made him immediately relax and fall back onto the mattress.

  “THIS OLD BITCH!”

  It was Yassena yelling.

  “Honey, we said no bad words in the hou—”

  “OH, YOU SHUT UP! AND YOU LET HER GO?!”

  And that’s how Kazeem fell asleep… under the strangely comforting lullaby of his mother shouting.

  closing thought: If he couldn’t overpower the world yet… he would outthink it.

  how long should the chapter be ?