Chapter 9

At noon, as some of King's men are taking a nap, and no one was on guard at the back entrance, Leah took the opportunity to escape, seeing as King's men are on low alert. She managed to get out of the house and found herself inside the busy part of the village. Not knowing where she was or anyone around, she kept walking around. After some minutes of walking, she realized she was getting nowhere, and was not going to get anywhere, especially without any help. But she didn't know who to ask or how to even start. She let out a sigh of frustration and was about sitting on the ground when she turned to her right saw an MTN umbrella with a lady sitting under it. At first it didn't click when she saw the umbrella and she squinted her eyes to see clearly, maybe it was the sun or the that she was already tired of walking but whichever it was, it didn't matter to her anymore as hope seeped into her heart on realization that it was a call centre.

She quickly rushed over to the call centre and began to plead with the lady at the stand to let her call a friend, even though it was a flash. She tried to appeal to the girls feminine said, telling her that she was new to the place and was stranded and needed help. After much pleading and persuasion, the woman agreed to give her one free minute she would use to flash who she wanted to flash. Then a free call, as she would not charge for when her friend called back.

She took the phone immediately, not wanting to waste one more minute. Delay they say, can be dangerous. She couldn't call her parents and tell them what was going on because she had lied to them as to where she was going and why, so she decided not to dig another hole for herself by calling them. She also could not, or more still did not want to call Jude. Asides from the fact that she didn't want him to be disappointed in her for not being to handle something as little as a trip down to the mainland, she remembered that she had called him severally yesterday and he did not pick. She didn't want to waste her lucky card on probabilities, there was no time for guess work. With that, and the fact she didn't want this news to spread round the office and they see her as incompetent, she had already made a choice on who to call. Knowing just who to call, she quickly dialled Esther's number. After a couple of rings, Esther picks up.

"Esther please call me back, it's Leah. And it's urgent" Leah said in a rush as though there was hot food in her mouth or she was being chased. She ended the call. After some seconds, Esther called back.

"Esther" Leah said as she answered the call, with so much relief, that one would think she was just placed into a drum of ice, after spending days under the hot sun.

"yeah, it's me Leah. And I'm also on with Simi" Esther said.

"ah, thank God. You don't know how good it is to hear your voice right now" Leah said, and it was evident in her voice that she was truly happy to hear her friend's voice.

"what about me?" Simi asked, about to get into her drama mode, completely unaware of the situation Leah was in.

"you too Simi. See I don't have much time. Guys, I'm in a bit of a pickle, in fact this is worse than a pickle. I need your help".

"what happened?" Esther asked eagerly.

"I saw something I shouldn't have. Just bad place, bad timing" Leah said.

"you sound tensed, are you sure you are not on something. Or you and Jude want to use us and play some kinky hide and seek romance stuff" Simi said, already in joke mode.

"not now Simi" Esther cautioned.

"sorry. So what happened?" she asked, getting back to her seriousness.

"I was off to the mainland to meet our client, but at some point I took a wrong turn. I began to ask for directions from people on how I could get back on track to Oshodi, but it felt like I was going nowhere. Even with the directions I was getting from people, I was just driving forever. So at night, I turned into this road and my car started acting up and the head light wouldn't come on, then…" Leah was saying then she trailed off as she saw some men standing on the other side of the road looking at her.

"then what?" Simi asked as eagerness mixed with a bit of fear began to set in.

"Leah! Leah are you there? Hello?" Esther called.

"Leah!" Simi shouted over the phone, her and Esther in full panic mode.

"huh? Yes, sorry. What?" Leah asked as Simi's shout over the phone brought her attention back and she looked away from the men looking at her.

"you were saying something then trailed off. You scared us" Esther said sounding scared.

"sorry. Look, I will tell you the rest when I get back but now, I need to get out of this place" Leah said, not wanting to dwell on what made her trail off, she didn't need to alarm anybody for no reason. Maybe it was just a casual, totally unplanned glance at her. Maybe.

"where are you? We will just tell your dad and he will have you picked up" Simi said.

"that's the thing, I don't know where I am. And I don't want my parents to get to know any of this. Look, I just sneaked out of this place I was at, and to make this call I had to plead seriously. I don't trust anyone here, so I'm scared of even asking around" she said and she looked up again and saw that those men who were looking at her, started taking slow steps towards her, then she yelped. Partly because of the person she felt grip her shoulder, which then made the fear for those men heading to her set in fully.

"are you okay?" Esther asked, another pool worry threatening to set in.

"end that call now. Nicely" D whispered to her ears. She gulped and then tried to collect herself before she spoke to her friends again, she needed to sound convincing. And they could tell when she was not.

"yes. Um… guys, I'm okay. I will just find out where I am and then find a way back home. I should be there in a couple of days. I'll just ask around and get things in order" Leah said, taking the most convincing tone she could fin within herself. Esther being confused at her friends change of tone asked,

"are you sure?".

"yeah. Just tell mom and dad not to worry. I'm okay. I'll get Oshodi and settle everything" Leah said.

"when will you be back?" Simi asked.

"I'll be back when I'll be back. And if I'm not back, then I got unto something else" Leah saying, her tone almost sounding rude. She was trying to control herself, but her friends had to just see "end the call" when it was spelt for them. And she hoped that Simi wouldn't take it personal and get offended by it, though that was impossible, but a girl could hope she thought. Simi, clearly hurt by Leah's out bust, decided to just ignore it and move on.

"okay. If you say so. Bye girl" Simi said.

"bye" Leah said mentally thanking hope for being on her side this time and made a mental not to thank hope when all of this was over. She ended the call and D grabbed the phone from her hand and hands it over to the lady at the call centre and gave her some money.

"now, you see those men approaching us?" D asked and Leah nodded her head. "we are going to run away from them. Just turnaround." D said and they turned around. "now, run!" D said and if for nothing, for the urgency and the depth of D's voice, she was going to run like her life's nightmares were chasing her. She began to run and as those men saw her running, they picked up their pace and ran towards the direction where she was at, but King's men stopped them as they reached there. They tried to resist and push further so they could get past King's men and head after Leah, but to no avail. They get angry and as one of the men wanted to speak, the one who appeared to be in charge, D beat him to it and spoke first, stopping him from speaking.

"we fit settle this thing peacefully, or we fit carry una head, go drop for your oga domot" D said, with a serious tone. There were only two options, die or go back, and he made that clear with his tone.

"but we been see her first?" the man who intended to speak earlier on said.

"but na we wey carry last. And no position dey again after last position" D said, wondering why he was still talking.

"boss, this no fresh" one of the other men said.

"e just dey follow you, you too no fresh. I go comot now. If my boys tell me say fem happen, casala go burst" D said amused as to how they didn't know when it was over and time to move along had come. D refusing to join their lack of understanding turned around and left. some of King's men followed him, while the others waited till those other men left before they left too.

Meanwhile, Leah was still running, not daring to look back once, even though she was unsure as to where she was going to. She just kept running. As she was about running past a narrow open path on her left, J dragged her into the path way. She screamed at first like she wanted to bring her lungs out but when she saw and recognized it was J, she calmed down. He whispered to her to be quiet as they saw some shadows approaching them. She nodded her head and shut her mouth tightly. As the shadows got closer, Leah could feel her hear race, it was like her heart was beating outside her chest, so loud like it was right next to her ears. Seeing the shadows stopped right by the side of the pathway they were in with one of it about to turn the corner they were in, she gulped and shut her eyes tightly, even tightly than the first time if that was possible. The shadow then showed up in front of them, revealing it to be D. Leah opens her eyes slowly and seeing that it's D, she lets out a sigh of relief and then breaths out. J is relieved too.

"guy, you don fear me finish" j said to D as he shook hands with him.

"no vex. I no mean am, no so e just be. Everything dey alright for here?" D asked.

"yes" J replied.

"you this babe, why you run? you know as the who place scatter as you no dey?" D complained. She was unaware of the amount of trouble she had put them in by running.

"Why were women so stubborn?" D thought.

"I'm sorry. Why? You guys could have just let me go" Leah said as though suggesting that letting her run off would have been netter and less trouble than running after her. King's men looked at each other and laughed. D shook his head.

"you know get am. You be boss guest. If he hear say something like this sup, e don be for all of us. As you see us so, we too, we like life. And you no sabi wetin boos K fit do persin" D said to her. For that moment that he spoke those words, fear set into Leah. Shivers ran down her spine and her heart that had calmed, began racing again. What was more surprising was the fact that all of that happened within seconds, so she was unsure of what to make a concern. Was it the fact that King, though he appeared calm, was more dangerous than his look gave or how fast she could exhibit fear in different ways?

D turned and looked at everyone.

"boss K must not hear about this. No matter wetin sup, him must no find out" D said and they all nodded their heads. "let's go" D said and they all went through the pathway.