The Shadow
201 Words
Back at the yam stall, Amara stood still, watching the horizon as though she could see something no one else could.
“Did you deliver it?” she asked.
Kemi hesitated. “The mayor wasn’t there.”
Her jaw tightened. “Then we have less time than I thought.”
By late afternoon, the shadows had stretched long over the streets. The wind carried a strange scent — not harmattan, not rain, but something metallic and sharp.
“Who are you really?” Kemi blurted out as they walked.
Amara didn’t answer right away. Finally, she said, “I was never meant to come back. But there are worse things than death, Kemi. And they’re already here.”
From the end of the road, the tall man in the dusty coat appeared again. This time, his smile revealed teeth too sharp to belong to a human.
“Run,” Amara whispered.
And they did — weaving through alleys, knocking over baskets of plantains, leaping over gutters. But no matter how fast they ran, the sound of the man’s footsteps stayed right behind them.
At first they didn’t know what to do so they stopped.but they could still hear the foot steps
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