12/12/2025
⭐Part 1 THE DISAPPEARING BOY
Rain had been falling for hours—thin, cold needles hitting the rusted roof of Mama Nnenna’s motor park, drowning the noise of early morning bus conductors. But even through the rain, Ada saw him.
A boy.
No shoes.
Shivering.
Carrying nothing but a small blue bag that looked older than him.
He stood beside the parked bus like someone who had been dropped there and forgotten.
Ada wasn’t supposed to notice. She was only at the park to deliver a package for her aunt. But something about the boy’s eyes—wide, confused, almost begging—pulled her attention like a magnet.
When she approached, he flinched.
Not like someone startled…
More like someone used to being hit.
“Are you lost?” Ada asked softly.
The boy looked around quickly before answering, as if checking whether someone was watching.
“He told me to wait…” the boy whispered, hugging himself.
“Who?” Ada asked.
“My…” —the boy stopped, swallowed hard— “…my uncle. He said he will come back and pay for my transport. He said he’s coming.”
Ada frowned.
She had been at the park for almost an hour.
No grown man matching that description had returned.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
The boy hesitated again, then slowly replied:
“Chika.”
Rainwater ran down his face, but Ada wasn’t sure if it was rain or tears.
“How long have you been here?” she pressed gently.
He looked at the ground.
Then at the sky.
Then at nothing.
“I… I think… yesterday.”
Ada’s heart dropped.
Yesterday?
Before she could ask more, a loud shriek cut through the air. A conductor was shouting at someone across the park.
But Chika wasn’t looking at the commotion.
His eyes were fixed behind Ada.
She turned.
A tall man in a dark brown hoodie was standing by the gate, staring at them—coldly, sharply, like someone who had been caught.
Chika gripped Ada’s arm so tight she gasped.
“That’s him…” the boy whispered, trembling.
“…but that’s not my uncle.”
Ada froze.
The man took one step toward them.
Then another.
Then he smiled—slowly.
Not a friendly smile.
A warning smile.
“Madam,” he called out, voice deep and oily, “leave that boy.”
Ada’s heartbeat thundered.
Chika clung to her.
The man kept walking toward them, calm, fearless, as if he knew that nobody in the entire park would dare challenge him.
Ada wanted to run.
But the boy’s grip tightened.
“Please,” he begged in a shaking voice,
“…don’t let him take me.”
And that was the exact moment Ada realized:
This boy wasn’t lost.
He was being hunted
can continue with part 2....