Darkness E. 2

Read Darkness E.1

It was almost midnight when her phone beeped. The number was strange. Thinking it would be her boss, she  had reluctantly answered. The voice was barely above a whisper. It had taken her a while to figure out who the caller was.

"Bola! Babe are you okay?" 

Mercy could sense that something was wrong. Ever since Bola got the job with the Presidency, their usual girls time out had taken the back seat, if not tucked away in an old trunk. Her calls were never returned so Mercy eventually stopped calling. Hearing her voice that night had set off an alarm in her head. But she was happy to hear from her long lost friend.

Bola was eager to drive over to her home that night but Mercy knew it would be too risky, so she promised to drop by her place first thing in the morning but that was when Bola freaked out. She said something about unseen eyes monitoring her movements and her home being unsafe. She then read out  some coordinates before hanging up.

Mercy stared at the paper in her hand. Same paper she had written the coordinates Bola had read out. Then why did her navi lead her to a deserted part of town she never knew existed?

She leaned forward to glare at the eerie looking abandoned houses and  what looked like a construction site with most of the equipment buried in debris. The deserted rain drenched houses with collapsed roofing were surrounded by a  sea of giant grasses swaying in the breeze. They reminded her of a horror movie she had seen a long time ago. Goosebumps sprouted on her skin and Mercy suddenly felt the urge to head home. She reached for the gear lever and stopped;

What if Bola drives down after you have gone? She never lets her friends down and Bola was more like a sister she never had. Besides whatever Bola wanted to say would be more interesting than going to sit at home, typing long reports after the daily dreadful zoom meetings with her boss or giving in to the internal battle of trying to resist the urge to beg Ben to rethink his decision of maintaining social distance at home. 

"I won't beg him. Not happening."

Grimacing, Mercy pulled down the mask covering part of her face and reached for the flask sitting in the bottle holder beside her. Taking a sip of the water, she leaned her head against the head rest and tried to enjoy the refreshing feeling of the cool liquid trailing a part inside her, until she felt the sudden pang of hunger. Her stomach growled. Replacing the flask she rearranged the mask and reached for her phone.

Bola had confirmed that she was on her way, but a glance at her phone screen revealed that the last message from her was the previous night. She redialed her number and raised the phone to her ear. Just then she caught sight of an approaching car in her rearview mirror. Ending the call, she studied the car.

When did Bola change her old Toyota Camry to a black SUV with tinted windows? Things must be getting better. She thought, turning in her seat to get a good look at the car gunning down the dusty pathway at an alarming speed...

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