Alacrimia | √

Chapter Fifteen

She almost died with relief when on reaching the front she saw the boy still on his feet, albeit the bonnet of her car was less than two centimeters away from his body.

'Oh my God, why did you do that, kid? Do you have a death wish or what? If you want to die, why choose me? Are you . . .'She trailed off, opening and closing her mouth like a tilapia out of water on seeing the boy's face.

Tears made fresh tracks down his cheeks and they kept flowing without pause. He had such a look of pain, despair and horror on his face that China's heart pulled. Had she hit him after all? But then . . .?

Then she noticed he kept pointing to the side of the road, opening and shutting his mouth, trying to form words but his vocal cords refused to make any connection to his brain.

She moved closer to him. 'Son, are you okay?'

He started to shake his head and then finally said, 'No!'

'Why? Wha—?'

'My sister!' he shouted, still pointing to the side of the road. 'She's unconscious. Please, help her! She's barely alive!' He stared at her pleadingly, more tears filling his pained eyes and spilling down. 'Please, ma.'

China's heart skipped a beat at this. She peered into the distance where he was pointing but everything there was cloaked in the shadow of the night.

She unconsciously took a step back. Was this a set up? What if there were a gang of evil men in the darkness, waiting to pounce on her? She looked at the boy and bit her lip. Either he was telling the truth or was a very good actor. But what if he was a bait to lure her in? She had numerous tales of people who were preyed on on lone roads by robbers, ritual killers and Yahoo boys — a pregnant woman who seemed to be in labour and her distraught husband, on the side of the road and an innocent person or family would stop by to offer them a lift to the hospital only for armed men to appear out of nowhere and rob them or abduct some family members for ritual purposes, and, if the remaining family members were lucky they'd be left with their lives.          .

But her instincts were telling her the boy's expressions were genuine and there was really a sister in need of help. She glanced back at her baby in the car as she started to follow him off the road, wishing with all her heart that she wasn't wrong. She was dead meat if it was otherwise; her baby lay vulnerable in the car and her phone was somewhere on the floor of the car, if anything happened to her she wouldn't be found at all.

She mentally cursed at herself for being such an idiot. She should have gotten back into her car when she had the time and zoomed off madly. Or locked herself inside and asked the boy to bring this sister out himself.

It wasn't too late to turn back now, she knew that, but her intuition rarely mislead her. So, throwing all caution to the wind, she followed him off the road.

Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness she was able to make out the figure of a little girl lying unconscious on her back on the ground. She quickly moved to her side to check her pulse. She sighed in relief, she was still alive.

'How long as she been out?' She looked up at the boy.

He sniffled. 'Not long, ma. Is she going to be okay?'

'As soon as we get her to the hospital,' she said, already picking the girl up and cradling her in her arms.

'Open the back door there and carry the car seat to the front,' she ordered.

The boy did as she said then went back off the road to get something. She lay the girl over the back seat, pushing up her legs a little to make space. Once the boy came back over, a backpack in his hand, she ordered him to sit down at the other end of the seat and cushion his sister's head.

'Thank you, ma.' the boy said softly when she started the car.

She glanced back at his tear-streaked face through the rear-view mirror and smiled. 'You're welcome, son.'

Instead of taking the next exit, she U-turned to the other side of the road and sped off.

Lastborn tried to stop his heart from beating so wildly as he kept his gaze on the supine form of Eniiyi. She was going to be okay now, everything would be okay. They'd get her to the hospital and she'll be as right as rain. Then her parents would be found and things would be back to normal.

This, he was sure of.

*NOTA BENE: This back matter will be removed in a number of days as it is not part of the story*

This end matter prolly should be a chapter on it's own but I'm not one for writing a chapter titled Author's Note. 😏

So, we have come to the end of the first half. 🥰🤗

I am going to take a twelve-day hiatus to wrap up some other stories before I start the second half. 😊😁

I want to use this medium to thank those awesome human beings that have voted and commented on my story, you guys are the best! 😘😍

And as for those who were silent readers, thanks too, your reads mattered lots. 😚

Toodle pip!