📖 Chapter 17 – Whispers Behind the Mask
Boitumelo didn't sleep that night.
She sat at her window, watching the street, journal in her lap, pen ready — but the words wouldn't come.
How do you write about people who were never meant to be found?
How do you fight an enemy with no face — just shadows?
Her phone vibrated.
> 📩 Neo: They followed me. I saw the van again.
She replied:
> Keep moving. Don't go home. Crash at the taxi rank or hide near the old flats.
Then a second message popped up.
> 📩 Unknown Number: You're digging graves that aren't yours.
She didn't reply. She only blocked the number.
Her hands were shaking. But she wasn't scared — she was angry now.
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The next day at school, Kea slipped a note under her desk.
> "Meet me at the toilets. Now."
Boitumelo went. Kea was already there, pale and sweating.
> "Someone broke into my place. They didn't take anything. But they left this."
She handed her a crumpled photo — a printed screenshot from their tunnel visit.
Taken from inside the shaft.
They were being watched the entire time.
> "They knew we were coming. And they let us leave," Kea whispered.
> "Why?" Boitumelo asked.
> "Maybe they want us to tell the story. Maybe they want us scared."
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That night, Neo returned with something heavy in his backpack — a mask.
Plain. White. Plastic. With only a red dot between the eyes.
> "I found this near my gate. Just sitting there. Waiting."
Boitumelo took it from him, flipping it over.
Inside, a note taped to the inside:
> "You're invited. Come masked or don't come at all."
Below it, a location — a warehouse near the train tracks.
And a date. Two nights from now.
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> "It's a trap," Kea said.
> "It's a lead," Neo said.
> "It's both," Boitumelo said. "But we're going."
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Two nights later, three teenagers stood outside the warehouse — masked, dressed in all black, with nothing but courage and phones set to record.
Inside: silence.
Then music.
Not loud. Not happy. It was like a heartbeat… slow and heavy.
They stepped in — and saw them.
Other masked figures. Silent. Standing still. As if waiting.
Then one voice rose from the back of the room:
> "Tell us what you know."
Boitumelo stepped forward.
> "Enough to know you're hiding our people."
Silence. Then the voice replied:
> "Then it's time you saw who's really missing…"
A curtain lifted at the back of the warehouse.
Boitumelo gasped.
> "No. No way."
It was a photo wall — missing kids, classified files, and worst of all…
Pictures of them.
All three.
Already marked as "Next."
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