'Go on!' Sade said as she looked over the front passenger seat in the same black SUV that had taken Bayo to HQ. She was driving, and Chike sat in the seat she was overlooking. 'Bye, guys!' Bayo said as he got out of the car and held the door, ready to shut it. 'Oh, and we're called the Eko Sentinels.' Sade said, revving up the engine. 'Cool!' Bayo said, closing the door and placing his hands on the straps of his school bag. The car zoomed off, leaving Bayo staring at the house where he grew up. There were faint lights at the entrance and a burning lantern inside, which he could see through the open curtains. He was scared! What would he tell Aunty Mo? He'd never lied to her before! And how would he explain disappearing in the middle of a market square? He knew for sure that Mama Dede, whom he'd encountered at the market, would have definitely told Aunty Mo about everything she witnessed. Bayo was still contemplating the idea of running away when Aunty Mo came out of the front door and shouted while whispering, 'Run inside! Do you want them to catch you?' Bayo then suddenly overcame his initial hesitation and pushed open the gate, running towards the door. After he came inside, Aunty Mo took his bag from his shoulders and gave him a tight hug! 'I have been looking everywhere for you! I hope they didn't hurt you!' She said as he responded by shaking his head! 'I'm fine, Aunty Mo,' he said, accepting her hug warmly. 'What happened?' Aunty Mo said in a pacifying tone! 'Mama Dede told me what happened at the market square! I....I....I want to hear it from you.' She said, nodding her head in between words while her hands were placed on Bayo's shoulder. 'I....I.... ' Bayo stuttered, struggling to find a way to explain the most unbelievable story. Beginning to find comfort in Aunty Mo's grip, Bayo began to cry. 'I just....' he said, allowing the tears to roll down his cheek. 'It's okay,' Aunty Mo said repeatedly, embracing him. Aunty Mo had the confidence in Bayo that if anything out of the ordinary ever happened, he'd be sure to tell her. But on Bayo's path, it was easier said than done. Aunty Mo allowed Bayo to go to his room and freshen up, hoping he would be able to put himself together the next day and tell her everything. Bayo proceeded into his room situated directly opposite the corridor. The door was flung open, so he let himself in and closed it behind him. He heaved a heavy sigh when the door was shut and took off his tie, hanging it by the door handle. He then walked up to the standing mirror that was in one of the corners of his room and stared at his reflection for a minute. He then proceeded to undo his buttons, exposing his blood-stained singlet. 'That was probably from Wile's gang.' He thought to himself. 'What had even happened to them after they got shocked?' He continued thinking. After he undid all his buttons, he looked at his reflection some more. 'Ripped!' He uttered as he flexed his muscles. He soon walked into the bathroom, had a warm shower, and then went back out to tell Aunty Mo goodnight, as it was a family tradition. 'Hey, Aunty Mo!' He called out from outside his door, dressed in his PJ's. Aunty Mo then responded, saying, 'Yeah?'
'Good night!' Bayo said, running his hands through his hair.
'Good night, son!' Aunty Mo responded, already in bed.
'Um... Do I have to go to school tomorrow??' Bayo asked, using his index finger to caress the lobe of his ear.
'You don't have to if you don't want to!' Aunty Mo answered, Bayo hearing the reluctance in her tone.
He then turned around and entered his room, closing the door with maximum care. While going to his bed, he again glanced at himself in the mirror and said, 'Ripped!' Bayo was of average height for his age. He had dark skin, except on his palms and feet, which were light. His face was very symmetrical, and his lower lip was visibly pink. He had a sleeper build packs, and his leg muscles were firm. On his head, as his afro fade, which he had never cut his hair outside of. He had good looks, which made him sometimes wonder why he had no friends! 'People like good-looking people, right?' He often thought. He soon retired to his bed and stared at the ceiling. 'What a crazy day!' He whispered to himself. Bayo turned left to right on his mattress, trying to fall asleep. His thoughts had the better of him. Who would ever be able to go to sleep after discovering they have superpowers?
* * *
'Where is he??'
Bayo heard voices from afar! He squinted his eyes, attempting to block out the rays of sunlight that penetrated his pupils. He managed to open his eyes to figure out that he had slept throughout the night, despite his previous insomnia. He got out of bed, used the toilet, and got changed to something comfortable before heading out of his room to greet Aunty Mo. Along the corridor, he heard voices again coming from the veranda outside. They did not belong to Aunty Mo! 'But she always had guests over,' he thought. They did not sound like guests. Bayo stood in the corridor for a moment before proceeding to peek through the perforated walls. He observed two men standing in front of Aunty Mo. They held guns in their hands, and they looked really angry. Bayo speedily turned to put his back against the wall to avoid being caught. He began panting as he thought of ways to escape the scenario. He knew for sure that they were looking for him when he heard one of them say, ' Look, we don't want to hurt you! Just go in there and bring out the Ogbange you are hiding.'
Aunty Mo, obstructing them from entering the apartment, shouted at the top of her voice, 'There's nobody there! I don't know what you are talking about!' She was exerting all her strength to push them out. But she was an old woman. 'Bayo, RUN!' she screamed as they gained access by pushing her to the floor. Bayo, still trying to understand the situation, left the corridor immediately and ran towards the backyard exit door. 'Catch him!' One of the men shouted, spotting Bayo running in a direction. Bayo could not control his breathing! He was scared! When he was about to pass a sharp bend leading to the front of their two-bedroom apartment, he spotted one of the men running towards him in the opposite direction. He turned around and tried to run the other way, but saw other men coming from that direction. He stood still, thinking about Aunty Mo. If he were going to die, he would die with her in mind. Instantly, he disappeared in a cloud of blue mystic power traces. The men who were previously pursuing him all fell to the ground trying to catch him. Bayo then appeared in front of Aunty Mo, who sat on the floor crying. 'Aunty Mo!' Bayo said, trying to catch his breath. Aunty Mo then opened her eyes, hugging Bayo!
'Omo mi,' she said, which translates to 'My child,' in the Yoruba language. 'What happened?' she managed to utter with a shaky voice, her hands on his cheeks. 'Aunty Mo, you need to run!' Bayo said, his voice still trembling! 'What about you?' Aunty Mo asked in the same manner. 'I'll be fine, okay! You, on the other hand, need to get going.' He said, pulling her up from the floor. Aunty Mo managed to put herself together and started running towards the gate of the compound. In no time, the men who were previously pursuing Bayo returned to the front of their compound, gun in hand. 'Wait, wait....take me!' Bayo shouted, seeing that the first man to appear in front of him was pointing his gun towards Aunty Mo, who was running for her life. Kpow! It all happened in slow motion in Bayo's eyes. The man holding the gun fired at Aunty Mo, and Bayo disappeared again. This time to move her out of the bullet's way. He was too late. Aunty Mo was lying on the floor, her face against the morning sun, and blood leaking from her body through her chest. 'Aunty Mooooooo!' Bayo shouted as the bullet hit her. He appeared before her body, almost dead on the ground. He then knelt, tears gathering like clouds in his eyes. 'No! No! No!...' Bayo sounded repeatedly as he struggled to lift her lifeless body off the ground. He squinted his eyes, making the tears roll off faster. The man who shot Aunty Mo then came to stand behind sobbing Bayo and pointed the gun directly at the back of his head and said, "Ẹ bá mi kí àwọn egún," which means 'Help me to greet the ancestors.'In a split second, after the man fired his shot, Bayo disappeared again.
* * *
Bayo ended up in the same alley he appeared in when he disappeared from the market. I was still very cold, and for some reason, he found comfort in the thought that the alley had a significant meaning in his life. He kicked the traces of dirt and other objects he found around him to express his grief and anger. He screamed at the top of his lungs multiple times. He kept thinking.... 'Why Aunty Mo?' She was a very kind soul and did nothing to harm anyone. Why didn't they take him instead? He ran his hands through his hair several times, also cleaning his tears with the sleeves of his sweatshirt. What was he going to do? How was he going to live? So many things were running through his mind at that point. He then managed to sit on the floor, placing his back against the briskly painted walls. His knees were aligned perfectly with his chest, and each of his elbows rested just outside the end of each knee. He buried his face in his arms, still in that position, and began to cry. Nothing mattered to him in the entire world. Nothing! Just his Aunty Mo! And now they took that away. He sat down there crying for a really long time and didn't know when he fell asleep.
'Um... Hi?' Bayo heard a voice call out. He woke up, looked up at the person above his head, and replied, 'Hi!' His face carried no expression. His eyes were red and sunken. His nose is drippy with catarhh. He looked delapitated, depressed. The person who stood above him was a girl. Bayo, being very observant regardless of his sober state, immediately noticed peculiar things about her. He could tell she was Nigerian. But he also knew she was biracial. She owed that to her skin tone and distinctive facial features. There were too many discrepancies between her and an average Nigerian girl of the same age. She also had a mole on her chin. Too tiny to be easily noticed, but it was there. Her hair was packed into a low bun. It was curly and had traces of brown. Another feature that further confirmed his thoughts that she was not fully Nigerian. 'Are you okay?' She asked with a corresponding facial expression. 'Yeah, I'm cool! Just waiting to get picked up.' Bayo said, shrugging his shoulders. He, in fact, was telling no lies. He was actually waiting for Sade and Chike to find him, as he could vaguely remember the way to HQ. 'By the side of a trash can?' the girl asked.
'Um.... Who are you?' Bayo asked, attempting to dodge her question.
'My name is Ashake. But my friends call me Ash. And you are?' She said, raising an eyebrow and holding her hand out for a handshake.
'I'm Bayo!' He said, returning his head to its original position, ignoring the gesture.
'I have the feeling that something happened to you.' She said, tilting her head sideways.
'I'm a random dude sitting in a place where people come to dump trash. Of course, something happened to me.' Bayo said, his head still buried in his arms.
'Well, I know you're not mad, cause' we've had a normal conversation so far. And I know something happened to you because no one comes here to throw trash anymore.' She said, pointing to a poster that read 'NO DUMPING OF REFUSE HERE!!' Bayo looked up, observed the poster, and thought, 'We're in Nigeria for God's sake!' before burying his head back in his arms. He then asked her 'So, what are you doing here?' Ashake let out a sigh and sat on the ground with her back against the wall, just like Bayo, and said, 'I come here every Friday to let loose and take a break from all that is happening around me! Which could be what you're doing!' Bayo lifted his head and looked directly into her eyes. He thought, 'Why was somebody his age talking to him?' It had never happened so spontaneously before.
'Do you have powers?' Bayo asked, imagining the possibility of her being part of the Eko Sentinels. After all, that was where Chike found him. Ashake squeezed her eyebrows together to give an expression that meant 'That's weird.' Bayo then understood her reaction and quickly rectified the situation by saying, 'I'm just joking.' She then chuckled and said, 'Haha! Very funny.' Bayo found her expressions funny and didn't know when a smile landed on his lips. Ashake noticed his spreading lips and took advantage of it.
'Soooooo, are you going to tell me what happened?' She asked!
'It's nothing!' Bayo insisted, waving his knees left and right.
'I know a lot of people, Bayo. And I happen to have an instinct that tells me when a person is lying!' She said, making her eyebrows dance. This amused Bayo and made him cackle once again.
'Lagos is not a real place!' He said after laughing for a while.
'Why do you say so?' She asked inquisitively.
'Look at us! We're random strangers, sitting together near a dumping site, talking and laughing like we've known each other forever!' Bayo said, gesturing with his hand and giggling in between words.
'Oh, yeah! Blame it on Lagos. We're only here because I have an amazing personality and you just don't want to accept it!' Ashake said, tilting her head left and right to the pace at which she produced the words. Bayo laughed some more, and after the laughter subsided, he decided to tell her what had happened.
'Oh....My....God!! I'm so sorry you had to go through that!' She said after he told her everything, leaving out the part about his superpowers. 'So they just came to your house and shot her?' Ashake continued.
'Yup! And I ran as fast as I could to this place cause' it felt.... safe!' Bayo responded!
'So, what are you going to do? Where are you going to go?' Ashake asked him
'As I said earlier, I'm waiting for someone to pick me up.' Bayo said.
'Okay then!' Ashake said, with a pitiful look on her face and tone in her speech. 'I'd better get going!' She added.
'Um... well, Bye!' Bayo said, wishing she had stayed longer.
'Where's your phone?' She asked him.
'I.....don't have one!' Bayo said, laughing thereafter. It'd never really crossed his mind that he'd needed a phone.
'Well,' She said, taking out a sticky note from the pocket of her black jeans and a pen from the other. 'Here's my number! Make sure you find a way to call me!' She said, handing it out to him while he was still sitting on the ground.
'Thanks!' He said, smiling once more. 'Do I stop a cab for you or.....' He continued.
'No, silly! My driver brought me here!' She said, turning around and walking away.
'Dri.....' Bayo whispered to himself. A black Toyota Land Cruiser was revealed after the person in the front seat, whom Bayo perceived to be her driver, reversed. She opened the door, stepped into the car, wound down the window, and waved to Bayo, who was obviously still in shock at the fact that she had a driver. He waved back at her, and the car was soon out of sight. Now, where the heck are Sade and Chike?