THE POWER PLAY

THEY COME FOR HER

Inside the two bedroom house, a peculiar house with a concrete base but walls of iron sheet. It was a double wall, outside being made of iron sheet and inside were boards of wood,it was only the small washroom adjacent to the kitchen that had concrete walls it also acted as the bathroom. The living room was right in front of the washroom,which also acted as the dining room.A curtain had been placed on the door to the sitting room, to hide the awful site of a toilet from guests. An elastic rope had been tied to the door preventing it from fully opening as an additional measure. Past this door to the left was a TV stand, an expensive one, on it a 32 inch flat screen TV. On other compartments it had two speakers connected to one box like structure that had some buttons and an antennae, but this was non functional, broken. Next to the box like thing we're some books, on the furthest left of the stand was a monitor for a desktop computer, connected to it's hardware inside a cuboid casing placed lying vertically on a piece of wood. This just like the speakers, was also non functional, however the monitor still functioned, only that it is useless considering it's age and the fact that it couldn't process anything but only show processed information. Directly above it was the light and a wall clock, the were functioning, however the wall clock had no battery, so it hang there, lifeless and useless. Further to the left, at the corner was a black stool, on it a very tall tower of books, self help books, accumulating dust,functionless,lying on the wooden wall painted red and yellow. The wall had a window immediately in front of which was a red coach, on the coach was sitted one tall, brown Paul, busy on his phone, talking to the one person that captured his heart. He skipped to the extension and plugged in his phone after realising it was about to shut down.

"Paul," his mother called out from her room.

"eeh,"

"Nisikuambie tena uende ulale,"Paul remained silent, a sign that would usually mean he complied, or at least this was what his mother thought. There was no way Paul could sleep at 10.30 pm,He planned to call Ashley, the girl that had made him crazy, and probably talk till around 2:00 am before sleeping. He went to the washroom. He always did it before he went to bed, a habit he had developed in in hopes that he would stop bedwetting, but to no avail, however the habit stuck. He flashed using some water from the bucket at the corner. He was happy to find it full, that way he wouldn't have to refill it, however he had to add some washing powder, and some drops of downy, it helped clear the bad smell from the toilet. He took his bedding which were placed on the other smaller couch, after being removed from the hanging lines. He took his phone and the charging cable and went to his room. He climbed to the top of the double decker. The bottom spot was for his brother, who was abroad studying medicine under a scholarship. He carefully placed a nylon cover over his mattress before placing the bed sheet, so as to prevent the mattress from soaking up in case he bedwetted. The habit was unpredictable, sometimes he woke up dry and fresh, but sometimes wet. He lay facing up on his bed, looking to the roof which was only an arm's length away. He got up to turn the lights off, take the power bank, his phone and cable before going back to bed.

"Mom," he called out lying on the bed.

"mm," he herd her respond.

"Good niiiight," he said stretching prolonging the 'i' sound perhaps to show his affection, or just to be childish.

"You too baba," the mother struggled to say with all the sleep.

"mm," he said before tucking into his duvet. He connected the phone to the power bank. He hid the power bank in his duvet since it produced a bright light while charging or being charged.

Before starting his 'night shift', he opened the bible in his phone to read it for a while, quite an odd action, especially considering that he was about to disobey the only commandment with a promise. He smiled at this thought, he saw his mother as impulsive and outadated, and so preferred to keep his life issues from her to keep the peace in the house,although he never had any bad intentions. After reading a chapter, he decided to text her. He hesitated for a little, remembering that he had planned of telling her about his bedwetting. It was scary, but he had to, he knew he couldn't keep some secrets if he wanted it to work out.

"Hey, can we talk."There was no reply, she was offline,after about ten minutes of patiently waiting, he got a reply, but it was not what he expected.

" HELP! PLEASE HELP! "

" What's wrong? Is everything OK? "

" Call help, pls,I'm being kidnapped. PLEASE! "Paul was confused. Thousands of questions ran across his mind as he thought what to do. He took a deep breath," it's probably just a prank, "he thought to himself, however he still had fear in his heart, could it be real? He decided to check Ashley's location, this way he would definitely know. After some time of looking for a free app to find a person's location, he finally found one. It required the other person to also download the app and input a code. He sent the code to Ashley explaining what to do. It didn't take a minute before she responded, "done."he sat up on his bed. His face became stiff, his heart beat faster by the second as the thought of Ashley being in danger became more and more real. He quickly traced her location. To his surprise, she was moving closer and closer to him, to their house,now he was certain it was a prank, but he was still tensed a little, was she coming to him? Had she gone nuts and forgotten the right time to visit? Was she with her mother? Cause it would certainly be inappropriate if she wasn't . He thought all of this as he climbed down his bed. The rustling sounds of the nylon and the opening of the door woke up her mother who asked where he was going.

He took a deep sigh before responding. "Mom, tulia ulale," he said in a gentle tone, hoping to avoid the question thrown at him.

He then slowly walked to the metal door. The clanging sounds as he opened the door woke his mother up again he manged to soothe her, bur he still had a second metal door, the outer one which was locked. He opened it and waited for his mother's disturbance but none came, he was glad. He headed to the gate, past the hanging line to the left, and a compound to the right; after which followed a small garden to the left and a brick house to the right. .

He checked my phone and she seemed to be approaching the gate. He got out the gate only to meet a probox, heading down passed him towards the nearby forest. He looked carefully at the back to notice the human like shadow at the boot, trying to grab his attention. Was it real? Was Ashley really kidnapped? Or it was just a pretty good prank? Only one way to find out, though the it wasn't quite preferable. He followed closely as the car navigated through the stony murram road leading into the forest, it turned right, and so did he. He stayed on one side of the road, using the tall untrimmed bushes that acted as fences to the adjacent land to hide from the drivers view. However, the bush was not continuous. Suddenly, the car came to a halt. He could feel every nerve of his body pushing him to run,but he wouldn'tdare, it would be the most foolish move since he wouldn't go far before they caught up, especially if they decided to reverse the car. He only had a few seconds to think before one of them, who had now already opened the door got out. There he saw the maize farm on the other side of the road that had not appeared to him till now, he ran and tossed himself to the ground, hiding under the tall maize plants. He heard the guy's footsteps as he came down to the maize farm. He stood right above next to him, one step and he would have stepped on him. He ran the flash light of his phone across the farm, forming a shadow of the gun he held in his other arm, before yielding to the pleas of his partner to come back. Paul couldn't even process what was happening, he was still thinking about the near death encounter he had just had when he suddenly heard a warm liquid splash onto his ear. He quickly turned his head, but stealthily to prevent the liquid from entering his ear. He endured in silence as the urine flowed though his face to his nose before trickling to the ground, all he cared about now was his life. After the man was done relieving himself, he went back to the car and continued, but they had suddenly become quite, not as chatty as they both were before.

Paul decided to wait a little before he could follow, or may be even abandon the chase, losing his life would take less than a second, the gun assured him of this. He came to a concensus in his head to call police, but his phone had died out. "Oh great, just the perfect timing ," he whispered to himself trying to quench the fire of anger and anxiety that was quickly devouring him. He took several deep breaths and made a choice that might as well have confirmed that not only had he lost his heart to the girl, but also his mind!" I'll follow the car, till where it stops, Mark the place then head back home." The plan seemed perfectly safe, but there were over a thousand ways it could go wrong. He got back on the road, the car was quite some distance away, but still on the same road. He quickly ran after the car, but this time kept a large, very large distance. The car took a left turn to a path filled with grass, and stopped some a little farther. Before he could reach the corner, The two men were nowhere to be seen, not to mention the car also. He took the corner and then continued on a little farther, trying to find the car, but to no avail. He stood there, confused,trying to think what he would do next. Suddenly, there came a shadow of a man from the dark path. The closer he got, there more Paul got scared, he was about to run when the guy's calm deep voice stopped him.

"Hey, mambo, kwani umepotea?"

"ee, natafuta njia ya kwenda..." he hesitated a little, after realising he had chosen a dumb lie. Where could a path leading into the forest be possibly heading to?

"Kihara?" he asked. He instantly remembered that at the other side of the valley, past the forest, was Kihara sub location, he had once been there.

"yes," he responded quickly without thinking. It was the only hope he had of getting out of there alive, since even good people turned savage upon meeting a stranger roaming around around their place at such a time.However, he was surprised at the man's kindness, but most of all calmness, he was smart enough to keep alert."si hi njia," the man started,paul nodded to show he followed, "it's the one you've just past." he stopped, after realising it was probably useless explaining it. He decide to take him. He said he would guide him to the river, after which he would cross to the other side of the valley and hike his way to Kihara.

Paul followed him back through the road he came, he turned right at a certain point and he followed, he hadn't seen that path when he passed there. The darkness was all over he was given refuge by the lights from the compound of an adjacent mansion it was being guarded by a dog. He watched the man as he charmed the dog to allow them to pass when he noticed the protrusion on the waist of his blue jeans, covered by his green old dirty t-shirt as he bent. He didn't need to be told it was a gun, but he couldn't do anything for now, if he wanted to survive, he has to be smart. They continued down the forest as the path got narrower and narrower, as the lights faded away, as the trees got more and more,as the slope got steeper and steeper, as they moved faster and faster.

They came to a maize farm next to the river, which at this point looked like a stream with violent waters and strong currents, however it was no the bottom most part of the valley yet.

"hapa ndio mini ninafika, now you just keep this route, cross the river and yeah, you'll be good." Paul wasn't listening to the man blabber, he was busy looking for a potential weapon, he found a log, not too , not too big, just the right size to smash a head! Which was exactly was he did, before the guy noticed it swinging, it was too late to react, however this only made him dizzy. It was the opportune time for Paul to run the fastest his legs could take him, however it was not so fast, considering the steep slopes. He ran across the farm to the other to another path then then started his marathon up the hill, back to where he was from. He ran passed the stair like structures that were formed by the roots of trees, along the narrow path as he traced his way back home. Just when he was getting tired, he heard fun fire and the sound of the bullet crashing into wood the way it would smash his skull,the thought of death gave him the extraordinary strength to run through the woods with unbelievable speeds. The path he had chosen came to reconnect with the one they were previously on. He stopped to look back, only to see the man getting close fast. He ran even faster, despite the fatigue, his legs would have to break first before he stopped! He was relieved to see the light. He didn't even think of stopping, he ran past the dog so fast it couldn't bite. He heard the second gunshot, this time it hit the metal gate. Paul had lost his strength, but kept running,by good luck the dog slowed down the killer,he got an opportunity to gain some distance.

Paul was now sweating profusely, his heart was threatening to give up, but he continued, he wouldn't stop for anything. He saw the other other light, the light of a street lamp near their home, his hope to see the next day was gaining life.

Paul flashed through the gate at lightning speed, struggling to make a turn, once he had, he ran to the house at full speed, the good thing was that his mom had turned on the fluorescent bulb that lighted the compound, she was talking to the neighbour at the compound. Out of nowhere, Paul grabbed her arm, and dragged her to the house, the mother was still wondering what she saw. Quickly he locked all the doors then came to hold on tightly to his mom. He was breathing heavily, drenched in sweat, not to mention the awful smell of urine that emanated from his hair. The mother remained silent, it was as if somehow she could feel the paralysing fear of his son. After some time, after relaxing a bit, he checked out the window to see the very picture of the devil in a man, standing there, with a devilish grin, and blood oozing out from the side of his face. His very look sent a wave of fear that pushed Paul to the couch and kept him there. When his mother looked, he saw nothing, nothing at all.

Without any questions, she slowly lifted him from the couch and placed him on her bed, she lay beside her, and held on to him like she did when he was a little baby.