Chapter 2

Seven collapsed on his bed. The lights were still down.  He uncomfortably adjusted the pillow supporting his neck so he could stare directly at the ceiling. The conversation he earlier had with his sister replayed and he dissected the dialogue word for word to find the hidden meanings as it is a habit of his.

Remembering what his sister said made him sigh heavily. He wished someone believed in this relationship as much as he did.

He fell into a deep sleep after plugging his phone into a socket, hoping that electricity comes back on.

So he could talk to the love of his life.

***

A light haze flickered before two purple-hued entities. Then a sudden warped space appeared where the two hues danced about like two distant fairies. Everything began to move closer before it disappeared. A white room materialized. Someone was inside, wearing a white robe. The floor of the room tore apart, having a form similar to a mischievous grin. It swallowed the figure into infinite darkness. Screams were heard inside the darkness. Woes, cries, and pleas to be set free.

Their voices made Seven realize that he was falling into the darkness. Fear gripped him. He looked around, calling out to someone. Janet's face materialized out of the darkness and he found comfort knowing that she was there with him.

He reached out to her with a hand. As he touched her, the image broke into a thousand pieces and drifted off as if carried by the wind. Seven was petrified and perspired when he woke up from the mare. His heart rate was climbing panic but the sound of the television stiffened him back to reality.

There was light.

His phone was charging. 32%. He powered it on, swiftly opening F******k Messenger. He has been off for hours; surely babe must have dropped hundreds of worried text messages, probably attaching angry emojis to hide her panic as usual.

The excitement of watching her messages pop up never got old. The messenger opened and...

Strange.

He clicked her chat head. But the last text there was his, and it has not been delivered. This has never happened before. Maybe it was the network over there, he thought. However, the network has never been shocked.

On the other hand, maybe it was his network. So he decided to wait for fifteen minutes, and he got messages from other friends, but not from Janet — it was weird. She was always online around this time.

Damn, I hope you are all right, babe.

He left his phone to charge and went to the living room to sit with Angel. She was watching The Thundermans on Nickelodeon. Seven joined her. He wanted to get his mind off things. So he occupied himself by thinking of a new twitter thread idea.

Three days now, and still no message from Janet.

Seven was not eating right. He was not focusing in class. He spent most days staring at his phone. Expecting a call or a text or anything. He missed her badly. Everyone noticed the change in his countenance.

Especially his mother, she asked if he knew any of her family members so that they could reach them. Perhaps there has been a power outage in their area or something happened to her phone that she could not reach him.

Seven highly doubted that was the case. Plus he did not have any of her relative’s number or social media page. He never asked and she never gave. His mom gave him an odd look when he told her. After which she walked out on him.

He heard her later yelling at his father: “How can you be in a serious relationship with someone and you don't have any of her relatives, a brother, a sister, or a cousin's contact? He is over there beating himself up over this girl. Unbelievable!”

“Nkem, calm down.” His father was pacified.

Seven wondered why his father never attacked him.

He sighed.

Janet never gave him her line. She always called from a public phone. Because whenever Seven tried to return her call it was always redirecting. He wished he knew another way to reach her. He felt like a goof for not probing her to know more. Now in dire situations like this, he is unable to take action.

In a panic, he picked his phone to make a call.  The number picked on the second ring.

“Milkos, what's up?”

“Dude, what’s up?” Michael Kome, a Computer Engineering major at the University of Benin, was Seven's childhood best friend and a god when it came to web development and machine learning. Seven believed Milkos could help him find Janet's direct line number or at least help him find a way to reach her family.

“School and other kinds of stuff. I’ve been a little bit preoccupied with some personal projects.” Seven said.

“Well, I understand that. But you could check up once in a while.”

“Normally.” Seven had nothing else to say.

“So what's the levels na?” Translation: you certainly did not call me just to check up on me.

“Well, you remember Janet?” He began.

“Your babe? Why of course. How is she?”

“I don't know man. She's been inactive for days now and that's not like her.”

Milkos shifted to a serious tone too. “Hmm. Why don't you call her line directly? She might be caught up in some things; I remember you told me she's studying medicine or something?”

“ICT.” Seven corrected. A short pause, “And bro, I don't have her direct phone number.”

Milkos was silent.

“Guy, are you kidding me? You do not have YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S phone number? Did y’all ever talk over the phone or were those stories just lies?”

Ouch.

Mildly offended by the remark, Seven managed to let out a fake chuckle. Finding Janet's whereabouts were of paramount importance, so he ignored the inquisition and answered his friend straight. “No, I never lied to you. We spoke through F******k, moved to W******p calls. She called with direct lines but they were public ones.”

“Hmm.” Milkos’ voice was heavy with a liter of skepticism.

“Please bro,” Seven continued, “I need your help. I cannot sleep at night. I can't brush off the feeling that something terrible has happened to her and it is freaking me out.”

He noticed that his friend was not pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing but…

“Alright. I will help you run a search. I suppose there is no need to ask you about her family members?”

“Yeah, I don't have any of their contacts.”

“I thought as much. Do you know their name? What's your girlfriend's last name?”

“Kwesi.  Janet Kwesi. Her elder sister's name is Joe.”

“How can a girl answer Joe?”

“It is possible. I've heard of a few Joes.”

“Alright, bro. Got it. I'll look her up and then I'll get back to you, alright?”

“Thank you so much, bro.”

“No wahala. Just don't stress yourself too much. Sha school palavar is enough to weigh a nigga down don't let woman weigh you down o.”

The fool, haha.

“Alright, Minister of Women Affairs. I hear you. Oya get out of my phone!” Seven said with a grin.

“Your papa!”

He dropped the call but he was still staring at his phone. This feeling, similar to warm feathery pillows, lighter than clouds, this is the Milkos Effect. And my, did he miss it!

With a cyber-beast like his friend, he was very confident that there would be positive outcomes and so, he was able to rest that night without panic.

Still, he said a word of prayer for her before going to bed.