THE GIRLS WERE awake by six in the morning and ready to leave the hotel.
They had each taken a turn to bath. Tina gave Solomon a bath while Chinyere rummaged through the bag for the phone.
"What are you looking for?" Tina asked as she walked out of the bathroom with Solomon dressed in fresh clothes.
"The phone," Chinyere grunted and then sighed a sigh of relief when she found it.
"Where did you get the phone?" Tina asked.
"I got it from Chibinobim," Chinyere answered. "I thought it would be of help to us."
Tina nodded and said, "Call whoever you're calling fast. They only live a few minutes away from here. If we don't hurry they'll catch up to us."
Chinyere nodded and punched in her mother's number. She lifted the phone to her ear as she waited for Chioma to answer the call.
"Sorry, the number you are calling is not available. Please try agai
CHINYERE NOW KNEW how it felt to be so close and yet so far.They were so close to escaping and yet so far from escaping as Mr. Oko and Amadi had already caught up to them."Get over here!" Amadi yelled.She could not explain how she was feeling. Her heart was beating irregularly and as fast as a race car. It was as though it wanted to jump out of her chest. She had never been so scared in her entire life."What do we do now?" she asked Tina.Tina took a deep breath before answering, "I guess we listen to them and follow them.""Biko, don't waste our time," Mr. Oko said."Is that it?" Chinyere asked. "We came this far only to end up back with them?""When we get out of the bus, I will run and I want you to run in the opposite direction and find help," Tina said. "Don't forget to run only after I do, that will cause a distraction.
WHITE LIGHT WAS all Chinyere saw when she opened her eyes."Ugh," she groaned as she used her arm to block out as much light as she could from her eyes."Sorry," she heard a deep voice say before the lights were turned off.Chinyere lowered her arm and she studied the room where she was.With the beeping heart monitor next to her bed and the intravenous tubes connected to her arm, Chinyere concluded that she was in a hospital room."What am I doing here?" she asked no one in particular."You were shot and you've been down for two days now," the deep, manly voice said again and Chinyere looked at the person who spoke."Daddy!" She yelled and tried to jump off her bed but the pain that flowed through her left arm restricted her from doing so.Her father sat beside her on the hospital bed and looked into her eyes before giving her a tight hug, one th
CHINYERE SIGHED AS she thought about all that happened in the past four months.Four months had passed since she had woken up in the hospital and one month had passed since the court case.Amanda was sentenced to thirty five years imprisonment with a five year probation for first degree murder, kidnapping and human trafficking.She pledged guilty to all her charges and no further investigation was carried out on her part.Amanda had also given away Tobi's and his father's location and they – and their minions – were sentenced to twenty years imprisonment for human trafficking.Tobi was furious that Amanda betrayed them by revealing their location and Amanda bluntly stated, "If I'm going down, I'm not going down alone."Several of the trafficked/sold people were found and returned to their parents while their buyers were arrested and made to pay a fine for the damages caused.
CHINYERE GLANCED AT the clock on the wall of her classroom every few minutes.She tapped her fingers impatiently on her desk as though it would make time move faster.She took a glance at her English Language teacher for the third time in the entire period.His light brown eyes complemented his dark chocolate skin and his large bald head blocked a large proportion of the black chalk board. He was dressed in an oversized white shirt and blue jeans with green suspenders.The man, who went by the name Teacher Johnson, spoke ever so slowly that sometimes he even bored himself to yawning and dozing every once in a while.Chinyere wondered how he did not notice that everyone else in the classroom had their heads down on their desks and were probably in dreamland by now.The sound of the bell ringing made the sleepy heads to jolt their heads up, suddenly energetic.The
CHINYERE GRABBED THE towel that she hung on the door of her room.Her mother had scolded her about keeping her used towel inside the house but Chinyere had refused to listen.She grabbed a pair of black, high waisted jeans with a fitting grey T-shirt.Upon opening the door, she saw Ikechukwu standing outside the door with a toy gun in his hands.Ikechukwu was her eleven year old brother – the second of her mother's three children."Where are you going?" Ikechukwu asked.Unlike eight year old Onyedikachi – her father's second wife's only son – Chinyere liked Ikechukwu.Ikechukwu was home schooled like most of Chinyere's others siblings.Only Onyedikachi and Chinyere had the desire to go to a real school."What are you doing here?" Chinyere asked her younger brother."Daddy said I should watch over you and make sure you don't leave your room.""Well, I have to wash m
TUNDE UNPLUGGED HIS phone from the charger and turned it on.He had stayed up studying all night and had left his phone off.Tunde wanted to pass his final examinations and make his parents proud. He still had two years before his final examinations but his father could not tolerate having his son fail at anything, not even a simple class test.His phone buzzed immediately he unlocked it. It was a message from Chinyere.Tunde opened the messaging app and saw that it had been sent the previous night.I'm going to meet Mystery Boy. Wish me luck. Chi Chi 08:07 pmThere was no use in respondi
CHINYERE FELT STUPID. She felt foolish. She felt like an idiot. No amount of insults could describe how she felt about herself.Her hands were tied behind her back and her feet were tied as well. Her hair was all over the place but that was the least of her worries.Where was she? Was she far away from home? Where were they taking her?Chinyere huffed as she struggled to sit up. She had faked being asleep for the past three hours and not only her head, but her entire body, was aching."Look who's finally awake," the man who had knocked her to the ground said and walked up to her.The truck was large and it hadn't stopped moving since she had woken up.She wasn't the only person in the truck. There were other several kids and teenagers, both boys and girls.Some were crying, others were sleeping, while others were shaking with fear.There were two benches on both sides of the truck. Muscul
CHINYERE'S HEART BEAT faster as the old man walked up to her. He grabbed hold of her arm and looked at Tobi. "I want her.""Ah, that one," Tobi's father climbed into the truck with help from Tobi. "She's our newest. She's a golden egg, so we're picking the price.""But I'm your most loyal customer," the old man said, "at least let me choose the price.""Sorry," Tobi's father said, "but that is impossible. Eight million Naira.""Eight million?!" the old man yelled. "All that money? The last one I bought wasn't this expensive!"The last one? Chinyere pulled her arm out of the old man's grip. Chinyere could feel the ropes around her wrist dig into her skin.The old man didn't seem to mind. He rather focused all his attention on Tobi and his father."This one is even thirty five percent off, oh," Tobi said without looking the man in the eye. "Take it or leave it."The old man was not pleased. Chinyere could tell from the frown