Chaos and painkillers

13. Cracks in the glass.

Someone was trailing Laila.

Cyber trailing.

Laila clutched the phone tighter to her chest as her body wiggled due to the impact the bus on the patchy highway was experiencing.

Whoever that was, probably some of Daddy's men, heard her voice and knows she wasn't kidnapped.

They know she was on the bolt.

Shehu had hinted that the Sultan and the detective were starting to suspect the issue. They were getting to the conclusion that she wasn't kidnapped. It was only a matter of time before they realized that. As such, he had given her the remaining cash she had sent to him while she prepared for her next move.

Now that she had bought time by staying right under their noses and still being undetected, she had decided to bolt.

They were out there thinking she was in a place far away from home, but she wasn't.

She was about to be though.

5 hours ago, she got on one of the busses in the bus station and was headed to the one and only state; Kano, chunkus dakin tsunma.

If her Dad thought he was smart with all his power and people, she wanted to see how he would find her there.

It wasn't a game to her but to him, she was was.

So, why not seemingly play against him?

Laila had spent the first 2 years of her junior high school in Kano, in an all-girls boarding school before she moved to Niger, Minna for the rest of her high school life. And, with frequent visits, she pretty much knew the state.

At the bus station in Kano, and with slightly narrowed eyes, Laila held a rickshaw and directed the man to an address to the cheap hotel she could find online.

Although it was Sunday afternoon like always Kano was packed like trees in a forest. It took an hour and a half long painful hours to get to her destination.

She numerously sighed and hissed. And briskly shook her legs, gritting her teeth just to hold herself back from screaming.

She walked amongst scattered people past the dirty and stenchy roads over the sound of the Magreb Adhaan being called toward the 2 story building with its light already shining.

She took a single room, paid cash for 2 days, and lodged her self.

At the room, which was okay for an 8k rental per day, she threw her hefty backpack onto the 1-seater couch, her flats and jilbab to the side, unclipped her bra, unpeel her shirt, and finally her pants.

She then proceeded to take a quick shower and hit the bed.

Laila woke up the next day at 7 Am with excruciating pain all over her body. She reached for the fridge to find it stuffed with only 2 little bottles of water. She brought the 2 out.

Against medical science, she downed 3 painkiller pills and 2 sleeping pills with the cold water.

She let out a loud sigh, stood up, peed, then offered her subh prayer. She wasn't going to pray her missing prayers, she was too tired.

On her last raka'at, Laila had to gather all her strong will to not let sleep take over her.

With slowed, altered state of consciousness, Laila let the drugs sack her body right after she had concluded her prayers.

How many hours did she sleep again? She didn't know. It did look at least afternoon.

And, she was surely not going to try that again. Her sleep was anything but good, nightmares threatening to consume her.