Reece left open the door for her as he rushed out the room.
“Asi you’re looking for Nina?” a girl yelled from the kitchen. Reece didn’t bother to respond. He jogged to his room and banged his door open.
Clive, his roommate, looked up from his desk, where he had been reading with his comb firmly planted in his afro, and shouted, “What’s wrong Reece?”
“Has Nina ever come here?!” Reece said.
“Nina? No. Why?”
“Nothing…” Reece retired to the desk at his end of the room. He tried to read the textbook on Quality Management Principles, trying to claw back lost time but couldn’t focus, so he threw it on the floor and dropped on the bed and opened his chat with Nina on his phone. Last seen @ 17:37 it said. “About an hour before I went to her place…” Reece mumbled to himself. “So where did she go now?”
“Is everything okay back there?” his roommate said.
“Yeah, cramming some notes bro.”
The roommates broke into a lighthearted laughter. Reece tried calling Nina one last time, but it still wasn’t reachable. These bitches man, he thought as he tucked himself into bed to try and get some sleep.
*****
Reece barely slept. He was already awake before his 5am alarm. When it buzzed, he leaped out of bed and rushed down to Tendai’s dormitory down the same corridor.
“Tendai! Tendai!”
“Jeez man, Reece this early?”
“What I told you about Nina? One disagreement and she’s out with another dude for the night?”
“What?” Tendai was still yawning and stretching.
“Your girl Nina, she’s at a sleepover with some dude,” Reece said. “I went to her room last night, she wasn’t there and I’ve tried calling her numerous times. See my call log! She wasn’t reachable. Remember Laura used to do such shenanigans and come up with an elaborate story. I’m done with these uni whores!”
“But what did you expect bro?” Tendai said, trying to be the devil’s advocate. He was now fully awake, pulling his goatee beard as if he was concocting a plan. “The way you treated her was out of order. And it didn’t help that they were people watching, you embarrassed that girl man.”
“Does it matter?” Reece snapped back. “Does it mean you go out and sleepover with another guy?”
“Maybe she went home?” Tendai quizzed.
“Bullshit!” Reece’s rebuttal was quick and venomous. “Let’s go to their house and check if she’s back now. I want to break up looking that slut in the eyes.
Tendai didn’t bother arguing, he just followed his friend. The pair marched down to Nina’s house in their sleepwear and unkempt hair; who cared about aesthetics in this situation? They arrived soon enough, and found the door still unlocked and the room empty. The window was pushed inwards from the outside but it wasn’t properly closed.
Reece tried calling her again, this time using Tendai’s phone as Reece assumed his number was blacklisted. But her phone was still not going through. Meanwhile, Tendai knocked on door next to Nina’s.
“What are you doing now Tendai?”
“I know the girl who stays in this room. She might tell us when Nina comes back.”
A sleepy-eyed girl wearing pajamas and opened the door. “Hi?”
“Hey Lucy,” Tendai said. “My apologies for coming this early, but if Nina comes around please tell her I’m looking for her or just call when she’s back. Bho?”
”Yeah, yeah, will do, so no worries,” Lucy responded as she quickly closed the door.
Tendai walked towards Reece smiling.
“What’s with the smile?”
“I saw a pair of male cargo pants on the floor as I peeped into Lucy’s room. Another sleepover is going down!” Tendai responded laughing hysterically.
“You’re not funny sha,” Reece said with a straight face.
The pair went to back to their hostel to freshen up for the day. Tendai had managed to cajole Reece to cover ground on their studies. Amidst all this uncertainty, exams were only a week away and they had to fire fight their way to pass. Reece occasionally went outside though he was constantly on his phone, probably trying to call Nina.
They went to the food van by the gate at lunchtime and ordered their usual meal: sadza and beef stew with 500ml Pepsi drink, the perfect budget meal, going just for $1.50 each. They sat by some rocks next to the van and dug in.
“Bro,” Reece broke the silence, “I’m thinking maybe Nina didn’t go to that sleepover. What if something happened to her? It’s pretty odd for someone to be not on her phone for this long. I’m not sure about this more.”
“I still don’t believe she’s cheating on you Reece. I understand that Laura kinda scarred you, but Nina is different bro. She’s probably gone home,” Reece responded. “She’ll be back soon enough.”
“But man, leaving the window open, the door unlocked…” Reece took a huge gulp of his drink. “Nah man, I have an uneasy feeling about all this.”
“Don’t worry bro. Before you know it, she’ll be back.”
But the day passed and Nina didn’t come back. She didn’t message, and Lucy didn’t call with an update. The pair spent the rest of their day in the library trying to save their semester.
*****
“Reece! Reece! Wake up! Have you seen this?”
Reece woke up. Tendai was holding his phone before him. He couldn’t believe what he was reading: Evangelist Barry Mpofu is offering $2500 to anyone who’ll assist with any whereabouts of her second daughter Nina Mpofu.
“Nina is missing?” Reece kept on staring on Tendai’s phone as tears drenched from his eyeballs.
Reece stayed in bed and he was planning to stay there for the rest of day. But after an hour or so, a thunderous knock snapped him out of bed. He rushed to open the door. A tall and slim man was standing there. His face was serious as he looked right into Reece’s eyes and said, “Are you Reece?”
“Yes. What’s this about?”
“I’m officer Ernest Bvepfe. I would like to come us to the station for some questioning regarding Nina Mpofu. She was last seen talking to you.”
“I… I swear I don’t know where she is…”
“We’ll get to talk more at the station young man. Now let’s go.”
*****
Nina was sat on the floor, thick ropes bound tightly around her wrists and ankles. A rough blindfold covered her eyes. Cold permeated her skin. Nina screamed for help, but her voice merely echoed back. She shook her head, wanting to cry, but all her tears had been used up now.
The man in black treaded heavily down the corridor, into the room. He carried a chipped plate loaded with thick slices of bread and a two-liter bottle of already diluted, Mazoe orange crush. He slackened the ropes and pulled Nina’s blindfold away.
Nina blinked rapidly, her eyes watering against the sudden, dimming light. She looked up but still couldn’t discern his features as the man was cloaked entirely in black and his face was hidden deep in the dark hood he had on.
“Dinner time, baby,” his voice rumbled, cold as they come. “I don’t want to starve you. But this is not about you, baby girl. Your daddy should know that he’s not God and that the church is not his…”
