EXOUSIA Book One

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER THREE

Introduction

"Are you alright?" The handsome man asked Ann. Ann was terrified and couldn't hide it. She was out of the hypnotic trance and had shut off the 'intuitive' voice in her head. A voice she had trusted most of her life that had never misled her, finally did.

Why had she come here? Who were these people? This felt like a "one chance" situation. One-chance is a term used in Nigeria whereby a person unknowingly

falls into the hands of bad people. These bad people would either rob or use the unfortunate person for diabolic rituals.

She stood up abruptly, "I, I, I need to be on my way." She stammered.

"But you just got here." One of the girls replied, "Hi my name is Cindy." She introduced herself.

Cindy had soft features. Although her hair was untreated it had a beautiful curl to it. It was brown under the sun. She was dark in complexion, slim with beautiful fingers and wide brown eyes that complimented her small pointed nose. Cindy stood up with a smile in a bid to stop Ann from rushing off.

"At least stay a while with us. We will like to get to know you." said one of the girls. "My name is Lola." She introduced herself and went on to introduce the rest.

"That's Omorinsola but we all call her Morin." She said pointing to the fairest girl among them. She had braided hair and wore a lot of cowrie-designed jewelry. She was beautiful. Morin nodded at Ann to acknowledge the greeting.

"That's Folake we all call her Flakes and that's Izu." She said pointing at the guy.

Ann just stared at all of them and began to feel very uncomfortable. She was scared her parents would be home before she returns and that will put her in trouble since her mother had not given her the permission to visit her friend in the first place.

Ann's phone suddenly started ringing. She took it out of her purse to see who was calling her. To her relief it was Morenike. She was about to answer when Khadija playfully snatched the phone from her. "Come on you'll talk to whoever it is later. For now, pay attention to us. Let's get to know each other."

Ann started freaking out then and there. "let me have my phone!" She demanded her hand stretched out towards Khadija, gesturing to collect. Khadija playfully passed the phone around.

"Relax!" Lola said, "It's only a phone."
Ann grew scared "It's my Phone! Let me have it." She cried.

"Oh stop crying. We were only playing with you." Morin said getting irritated with Ann's behaviour. She came closer to Ann and tried to pamper her. "We just want to get to know you." Morin said with a smile. This felt weird to Ann because she knew the girl was clearly irritated by her.

"Yes." Lola answered, "We know how distracting phones can be that is why we switched ours off. We promise we'll give it back soon. First, we want you to relax".