**✨ CHAPTER 8 — Whispers, Wounds & a Vanishing Girl
1206 Words
**✨ CHAPTER 8 — Whispers, Wounds & a Vanishing Girl
The next morning, the entire school felt like it was vibrating with excitement, fear, and juicy whispers. Rumors flew so fast that by the time Amani stepped through the gate, every eye had already turned in her direction.
The fight between Elias Black and Ethan Kelvin had become the biggest scandal Hillcrest High had seen in years.
“Did you hear?”
“They say Elias almost killed him—”
“No, Ethan swung first!”
“And Amani was crying, right in the middle—”
“She ran away after. Maybe she fainted!”
“Or maybe she caused it—”
“Figures. Trouble follows poor people.”
Amani kept her head bowed, clutching her bag like a shield. Her steps were fast, shaky, desperate to escape their eyes. She could still hear Ethan’s voice from the party, the words he whispered, the way he grabbed her arm, the memory that clawed its way out of her past and sent her running.
Why couldn’t they just leave her alone?
Why did her story always become entertainment for others?
She walked faster—then faster still—until she was almost running. She didn’t stop at her classroom. She didn’t stop in the hallway. She ran straight through the back gate and didn’t look back.
The sky was cloudy, heavy with grey, matching the weight inside her chest. Amani didn’t know where she was going… until her feet led her to the only place that ever felt safe.
Her grandmother’s grave.
The old cemetery was quiet, almost forgotten, hidden behind thick bushes and tall eucalyptus trees. She pushed through the leaves, her breath shaky, her heart pounding.
There it was.
A small stone.
A name carved with love.
Mama Nuru Achieng
The woman who loved without condition
Amani fell to her knees, her bag sliding off her shoulder. Her fingers trembled as she touched the cold stone, her vision blurring.
“Grandma…” her voice broke, soft as a dying flame. “I—I don’t know what to do anymore.”
The memories hit her hard:
The screams.
The betrayal.
The disbelief.
The hands that pinned her down.
The horrible silence that followed.
And the face of the boy she once loved—the one who destroyed everything.
Amani curled into herself, hugging her knees, letting the tears finally spill. She cried until her throat hurt, until her chest ached, until she couldn’t breathe anymore. But the pain didn’t stop.
It never stopped.
---
Hours passed.
Then a full day.
Then two.
Amani didn’t go home.
Not on day three.
Not on day five.
Not on day seven.
She stayed by the grave, sleeping on the cold grass, drinking water from the small bottle she carried, eating nothing but the snacks she bought from a kiosk on the way. Her phone battery died the second night, leaving her cut off from the world.
But she didn’t care.
The world didn’t care about her either.
---
Meanwhile… Elias was breaking.
The moment he heard she wasn’t in school, his heart froze. He waited at the gate the whole morning. At lunch, he checked every classroom. At closing time, he was still pacing, his jaw tight, his fists trembling.
“Elias, calm down,” Zariah begged. “Maybe she’s just scared. She’ll come back.”
“No,” he snapped, voice cracking with a panic he wasn’t used to feeling. “Something’s wrong. I feel it.”
Because he remembered her face that night.
The fear.
The shaking.
The way she ran like something was chasing her spirit.
He went to her house.
Her aunt shrugged. “She’s probably at school. Or with friends. I’m not her babysitter.”
He went to the girl’s washroom entrance and asked three girls to look for her. Nothing.
He searched the entire field, back gate, parking lot.
Nothing.
Zariah found him sitting alone on a bench, his face buried in his hands.
“She’s missing,” he whispered. “And I didn’t protect her.”
“Stop blaming yourself,” Zariah said softly. “Amani is strong.”
“No,” he whispered. “She’s hurting. Deeply. And she didn’t tell us everything.”
Zariah frowned. “Ethan said something that triggered her. Maybe it’s related to her past.”
Elias clenched his fist so tight his nails dug into his palm.
“I should have killed him that night.”
“Elias—”
“I swear, Zariah, if he did anything to her—again—”
Zariah froze. Again?
But before she could question him, Elias suddenly stood up, face pale.
“I’m going to find her.”
---
Elias’s search became an obsession.
Day 1:
He checked her home again. Still no Amani.
Day 2:
He walked through the nearby villages, asking strangers if they’d seen a girl with braids and sad eyes.
Day 3:
He checked police stations.
Hospitals.
Small shops.
Day 4:
He barely ate. Barely slept.
Day 5:
He searched the woods near the school, calling her name until his throat went raw.
Day 6:
He broke down outside the school gate at dawn, gripping the metal bars, whispering, “Amani… where are you?”
Day 7:
Something finally clicked.
Amani once mentioned her grandma lived far away. She mentioned a graveyard. A place she visited when she felt alone. A place that felt like home.
Elias didn’t know which cemetery—but he wasn’t giving up.
He searched three.
Then four.
Then seven.
Until…
At the eighth cemetery, a faint movement caught his eye behind a tall bush.
A girl hugging her knees.
Hair messy.
Eyes red.
Clothes wrinkled.
Looking heartbreakingly small.
Amani.
Elias froze.
His chest cracked open.
He couldn’t breathe.
“Amani…” he whispered, stepping toward her slowly, as if afraid she would disappear.
Her head lifted in shock.
Her lips parted.
Her eyes widened.
“E… Elias?”
He fell to his knees in front of her, hands shaking as he cupped her face gently, checking if she was real, alive, safe.
“Oh God…” His voice broke. “I thought I lost you.”
Amani felt something warm spill down her cheek — not from pain this time, but from the strange relief of someone who truly cared.
“I didn’t want anyone to find me,” she whispered.
Elias shook his head. “I was always going to find you.”
His thumbs wiped her tears.
His forehead rested against hers.
His breath trembled.
“Don’t ever disappear like that again,” he whispered.
“My heart can’t survive it.”
Amani’s chest tightened painfully.
No one had ever said words like that to her.
Not her mother.
Not her family.
Not anyone.
But Elias meant it.
She could see it in his eyes.
“Come home with me,” he begged softly.
“I’ll take care of you. I swear.”
Amani didn’t answer.
She simply closed her eyes…
And leaned into him.
For the first time in a long time — she didn’t feel alone.
And Elias held her like she was the most precious thing in the world.
- Writer
