Chapter 73 CONSPIRATORS

Both Sobrina, Miraya and Pastor Melvin hailed from the same state. His village and local government were just after Sobrina's, while Miraya came from a different area of the state.

Sobrina's parents lived in the capital city of their state. Pastor Melvin had helped her rebuild her relationship with them over the years. Not that things ever got perfect, but it remained on a manageable level.

Home wouldn't have been her first choice owing to the fact that she still had debts to clear in school, but she believed she was engaged to a man she actually loved - which required staying faithful - and would soon be married. Therefore, there was no better option than to wait for him at home.

Sobrina needed to belong in a church. She couldn't return to the church where she was born and raised, because of their history - they had hammered her until she almost died as a Devil Worshipper.

She requested for church suggestion on social media, she asked to be directed to any christocentric - as they generally called themselves - church in her state. Saint's Perfection church came highly recommended.

Saint's Perfection was not a new name to Sobrina, it was the church pastored by Pastor Sheddy, and was constantly mentioned in Gracedome. Therefore Sobrina knew Saint's Perfection was owned by Miraya's elder brother, but it was the closest christocentric church she could access regularly, and on foot, as she was now very broke. That, plus the fact that she thought that what happened back at the University remained in the University. And also strongly believed the man's younger sister couldn't have so much influence over him, using her own relationship with members of her family - where nobody cared about what happened to her, and where the talk of men and premarital relationships were a taboo - as an example.

Sobrina innocently started attending Saint's Perfection, but not without letting Pastor Melvin know about her intentions. She had long discovered that even though her mobile number was completely blocked on his phone, he still was able, in some way, to receive and read her text messages.

"I have decided to join Saint's Perfection. I can't continue in this church where I was born, my spirit does not feel very comfortable with them. I will join Saint's Perfection very carefully so I don't have the same experience I had in Gracedome", she texted him.

Even though Sobrina couldn't bring herself to totally trust Pastor Sheddy, she began to think that he must be a true child of God - judging from the way he spoke - and therefore he and his church had no part in whatever games WUCC or Gracedome played. She refused to believe there could be such organized crime oriented Christians, far across many states, and probably all over the world. Surely one must be true and this could be it.

Pastor Sheddy warmly welcomed Sobrina, pretending he didn't know who she actually was. In fact he shouldn't have known who she was, she should have been like any other random new comer in his church. But Pastor Melvin had intimated Miraya on Sobrina's decision to join her brother's church, and she had in turn informed her brother. Therefore, it wasn't difficult for Pastor Sheddy to identify Sobrina from the very first day she entered the small building. It was actually he who had sponsored Pastor Davies in funding Osano, and convincing him to murder Sobrina back in the University of Science, while using his anger and emotional instability as their main weapon.

After a month, Sobrina began to notice Pastor Sheddy was well informed about her, by the ways he channeled his messages. She thanked her stars for her earlier decision to be very careful in Saint's Perfection. She gradually began to discover that Pastor Sheddy was building Saint's Perfection into a cult, hiding under the cloak of Christocentrism. He also promoted the message of the preacher Sobrina had heard in Lagunde, and claimed the preacher was his mentor. He was combining Hero worship, church business, Religion and Christocentrism, with the cult as the underside.

"Saint's Perfection has turned out to be no different from Gracedome. In fact, I think it is worse, from all I can see. I have also discovered Pastor Sheddy is well informed about who I am. I will continue to stay because I have no where else to go, but I will be careful with what I assimilate ", Sobrina texted Pastor Melvin.

Pastor Sheddy was of course reading Sobrina's text messages. Pastor Melvin forwarded everyone of them to Pastor Davies who in turn forwarded the ones that concerned him and his church to him. But he perfectly pretended in Sobrina's presence.

He began trying to get Sobrina to begin to trust him, and regularly encouraged her to begin to confide in him. But she had learned the hard way from all that had happened back in Gracedome. She kept her distance, and even though Saint's Perfection was almost two kilometers away from where she lived, she walked to church regularly, and was never late for activities.

She regularly reported back to Pastor Melvin as always, telling him about her experiences.

Sobrina's mother had a provision shop somewhere close to the house. Sobrina had taken it upon herself to constantly help out at the shop. It was the only source of income for her family, since her father had just recently retired from active service.

She was surprised one day. She had returned home from the shop, and her sister informed her that someone had called her cell phone, asking after her. She told her sister to contact the person and she did, the caller called back minutes later, and Sobrina took the call.

"Hello",

"How are you Sobrina?",

"I'm good", she responded in astonishment, it was Pastor Davies.

"Pastor how did you get this number?",

"I was worried about you, so I got it and called you",

"You got it in what way, sir?",

"Is anything hard for God?", Pastor Davies questioned, trying to claim the holy spirit had revealed her sister's phone number to him.

"But my number is active. Why call my sister?",

"I didn't know your number was active",

"Alright", Sobrina decided to let it slide.

"I just wanted to know how you're doing",

"I'm okay",

"You didn't inform me before you left",

"I informed your assistant. You weren't around",

"Alright, have a great day",

"You too Pastor, and thanks for calling".

Sobrina couldn't figure out what had happened, what sort of miracle could reveal her sister's contact to Pastor Davies? Definitely none that she was aware of. Who then could have given it to him? Osano had the number and so did Pastor Melvin. She concluded that it could have been Osano since he lived in the same compound with Pastor Davies, plus she would never believe Pastor Melvin would do such a thing - play their game against her, and that they would never let him know what they were doing. She argued that it wouldn't cost Pastor Melvin anything to call off whatever she believed they had between them. He was a grown man for crying out loud, therefore why decide to play pranks? She also understood why Pastor Davies had called, even though he never mentioned it, neither did he speak in a quarrelsome manner.

The Long Tennis Court of the University of Science was a very large area. It had over ten indoor games facilities built within the area, including an Olympic sized swimming pool, two different large indoor game stadia, three basketball Courts and over five different Long Tennis Courts. But the area was generally called the Long Tennis Court. The entire area was surrounded by very thick overgrowth due to lack of care.

The members of Gracedome and other churches chose different sections of the area as prayer ground, they also performed other activities around there. Few weeks before Sobrina's departure from the University, she had attended prayer meeting at the Long Tennis Court, but had decided to leave earlier before the end of the meeting. She'd slowly developed fear of the dark around the members of her church, she feared they could collectively murder her - because of how they were behaving - and would get away with the crime, by hiding her corpse somewhere in the large area, and successfully denying it if it was found.

The prayer meeting regularly started in the evening hours and always ended around when the day was very dark. Therefore Sobrina decided to be leaving before dark. She had been doing so on one occasion when Pastor Davies had blocked her path.

"Go back Sobrina", he had ordered.

"No Pastor, I can't", She responded pleadingly, while struggling to smile a little. She wasn't the lying type and therefore couldn't find any excuses to present.

"Go back", he commanded, looking angrily at her.

"No Pastor. It's getting dark, darkness makes me uncomfortable",

"But you attend midweek services regularly, and it usually ends at night",

"Yes. The church building is close to where I'm presently staying",

"Where's that?",

"Darlene hostel, just by the church",

"Stop texting Pastor Davies!", he commanded, to Sobrina's amazement.

"What?",

"If you text him again, I will call your parents. I will call your mom and then your dad", he threatened. He saw the unbelief in Sobrina's eyes. She was wondering how he was going to get her parent's contact. "I will call your sister", he added.

"I don't understand",

"Get away from here", he had commanded. It was the last discussion Sobrina'd had with him before she traveled home.