Chapter two:cracks of silence
525 Words
Zera didn’t sleep.
She sat curled in a blanket on the floor beside her window, watching the city pretend to rest. The letter lay open beside her, mocking her stillness.
“You’re not crazy.”
Those words echoed louder than thunder.
She had spent years trying to convince herself she was normal—that her mother’s disappearance hadn’t broken something in her. She had buried her questions under work, under the sound of other people’s stories on the radio. But this letter had cracked open everything she’d locked away.
Her phone buzzed again.
Unknown Number: “He knows you’ve seen it.”
Zera’s heart froze. Her eyes flicked to the mirror, to the strange symbol.
He?
Who is he?
She stood quickly and grabbed her bag. She had to leave. She didn’t know where, but anywhere felt safer than home right now.
She stopped at her bedroom door.
A photo on the dresser caught her eye—faded, edges curling. It was her and her mother. They were laughing. Zera’s hand was in her mother’s, and her mother’s eyes were full of something she hadn’t seen in a long time: peace.
Zera took the photo and tucked it into her pocket.
She left the apartment quietly, locking the door behind her. The building’s corridor was dim. The landlord had stopped fixing the lights two months ago. As she reached the stairs, she heard a soft creak behind her.
She spun.
Nothing. Just the silence again.
But her instincts screamed. She ran down the stairs and into the wet, sleeping city.
---
The streets smelled like rust and wet concrete. Most shops were closed. She walked fast, heading toward the only place that felt remotely safe—Kwame’s.
Kwame was her childhood friend. The only person who had never doubted her, even when she doubted herself. He ran a small cyber café and lived in the back. Zera hadn’t seen him in weeks. She wasn’t sure why—maybe she was afraid he’d see through her silence.
She knocked hard on his door.
No answer.
She knocked again.
The door opened slowly.
“Zera?” he said, voice thick with sleep. He looked at her—hair drenched, eyes wide, fists clenched—and his expression shifted instantly. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “But I think someone’s watching me.”
Kwame didn’t ask anything else. He stepped aside and let her in.a
---
Inside was warm. Safe.
Zera sat on his couch and showed him the letter.
He read it twice. Then again.
Finally, he looked at her. “Zera… this handwriting. It’s not just familiar to you. I’ve seen it before. At the café.”
Her heart skipped. “What?”
He nodded. “Three days ago, someone printed pages of documents. The paper jammed. I pulled one sheet from the bin. It had that symbol. The triangle with the line.”
Zera swallowed hard.
“What did it say?”
Kwame hesitated. “It said, ‘Target: Zera Achieng. Phase one complete.’”
Her blood ran cold.
Someone didn’t just know her name.
They were hunting her.
- Writer
