Hello ghosties... At least vote and comment for this chapter. I am begging y'all. Thank you.

Get dressed in blue or black before you read the chapter😂😂😂

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El-mustapha checked his clothes and found out that he didn't come along with blue kaftan. He decided to wear a black one. He went in for a shower and in few minutes, he was ready to go. He didn't come with car, he used the public transport.

Adeelah and aunt Siddiqa had been talking nonstop since Adeelah went in.

"Adeelah you're not fine." Aunt Siddiqa pointed.

"Yes aunt. I am not fine and there's nothing I can do about it. I will be fine soon though." Adeelah admitted easily. She didn't even know what she was feeling.

"Be prayerful." Adeelah nodded.

"Let's go and cook. I have a guest, on his way already." Aunt Siddiqa told her.

Adeelah grumbled. "I just told you I am not fine plus I hate cooking, you of all people know I hate cooking."

"No wait aunt is that?" Adeelah sat up from the bed.

"What are you talking about?"

"Are you pregnant?" Adeelah asked. It's now that she just noticed the little bump. Then she noticed the glow.

"Yes. Your brother is coming soon!" She squealed.

"You're not even shy of me aunt Siddi!" Adeelah shouted.

"Ever heard of happy and proud mama to be? Get married girl you will understand better. And by the way, the baby wants to have cappuccino. That one you always make." Aunt Siddiqa lied. She just wanted Adeelah to make that cold and iced cappuccino for El-mustapha.

"Of course yes! I am so happy for you aunt. I am what? I am so happy." She jumped and faltered to the kitchen with her.

Abdallah her husband wasn't even at home. He had travelled and when she called him and told him that Adeelah was there, he called El-mustapha and told him.

"You know I barely enter the kitchen at home so I get to drink coffee most of the times when I am here." Adeelah told her as she stirred what aunt Siddiqa was cooking.

"I will be at the parlor Adeelah. Please put everything in the flask and bring it."

"Granted. And it's because of the baby inside you."

"Naji." Aunt Siddiqa went out with a smile. El-mustapha had arrived that's why she disappeared.

She went outside and asked him to come in silently.

"Elmusty lover boy." El-mustapha ducked his head down with a smile when she teased him.

"Heer is cooking for you." He smiled again.

"What does Heer means?"

He laughed. "It's for her to know." Aunt Siddiqa held her chest feigning hurt.

"How's Maami and work?"

"All fine."

Silence prevailed before Adeelah walked into the parlor. At first she didn't notice him but when she sniffed a strong yet calming cologne, she couldn't keep quiet.

"Aunt this place smells nice." She dropped the flasks on the dinning table and stepped to where the cushions were. There she noticed him.

"Uh, you didn't tell me your guest is here thank goodness I am wearing my hijab." She sighed and spied at him. Something lurched in her chest.

"That's El-mustapha Mahmoud Kabo." It clicked. Ya Nafeesah's crush. The man of the trend. She looked at him and immediately, he looked too. Adeelah suddenly yawed her gaze away.

Oh lord, he's so handsome. The image of a rabbit she saw last night on the net came to her mind. El-mustapha was more beautiful than that. He was more calm than that. She never believed in love at first sight but right now she knew she didn't even love Ameer. This was the man of her imagination. The type of man she had been sketching in her head. She never knew he could exists.

"Adeelah greet."

"Good afternoon Arnab." She said absentmindedly.

Both aunt Siddiqa and El-mustapha looked at each other. Arnab? What's that? Aunt Siddiqa became scared. Her niece was acting like she's possessed.

"I said El-mustapha not Arnab Adeelah." Aunt Siddiqa stood up and brought the iced cappuccino to him.

"She made it." And so, she left the parlor leaving Adeelah and El-mustapha together.

"My name is El-mustapha." He broke the silence, his heart hammering in his chest. He's afraid of being rejected as he knew, she wasn't an easygoing girl. She would say whatever was in her mind without fear of the outcome.

"I heard, too long. Adeelah is mine."

"I know." He said.

"How?"

"Aunt Siddiqa just said it." He answered and kept mum.

"Don't you talk? You're so quiet for my liking. You should be talking a lot to grab my attention since this is the first time we're meeting maybe I will be stunned but with the way you're so quiet I don't think we will flow." Adeelah complained.

"Heer..." He stopped.

"Who are you referring to?"

"You. You called me Arnab too."

"And so? I am speaking with all my honesty. You look like a white rabbit. This." She checked through her gallery and showed him the picture of a rabbit.

"It's so cute." She added. Adeelah remembered Salisu's words and swallowed something hard. She didn't know why she felt so free with El-mustapha. By Allah she's scared of what she's becoming this days.

"That means I am cute." He smiled. Adeelah didn't look at his smile. She knew she would be melted and it would be very unright. She jerked away and collected her phone from him. She sat on the other cushion and kept mum, Salisu's words still ringing in her head.

"Hope to meet you again." He said, a bit happy that he saw otherwise of what hr knew about her.

"If you don't, don't blame me because I am taken." He knew that.

"Thanks for the cappuccino. I love plain coffee more but seems like I have to switch."

"You're welcome." She said and exited the parlour. She knew she's crazy, it's official. She liked him too. His looks were to die for.

El-mustapha knew if not fate, there's nothing that would stop him from getting her. From what's embedded in her eyes when they looked, he could say she's stunned. He hoped she wouldn't change the next time he see her because from what he heard, she's very unpredictable. If she's being nice today, one shouldn't expect her to be, the next day.

Adeelah left aunt Siddiqa's house late, after Isha. She walked out to find Salisu waiting for her. She went straight to the front seat. When he began driving, she looked at him in all his innocence. Adeelah didn't know when she started crying. She didn't know why she felt so stupid in the recent days. Her heart was just jumping and playing with her emotions. She didn't even know who she liked. That's why she didn't want to start this love game because she would be so confused and indecisive.

Ameer was nice. El-mustapha was perfect on the physiques. She didn't know if he possessed a nice character but from all indications he's a calm person.

Salisu stopped the car. "Why are you crying Dillaliya?"

"Salisu I don't know. I am just not alright. I am just having a wild feeling in my chest." Salisu felt bad seeing her that way. She had never been at her her lowest in his presence. She always try to be so powerful.

"You will be alright Dillaliya. Stop crying, you're stronger than whatever it is, I know." He said and ignited the car to life. Adeelah kept mum but it didn't mean she felt anyway better.

"Salisu?" She called. Here was he, her husband but she didn't even know why she didn't use to line him amongst the people she liked even though in all respect, he's already hers. And more so, she felt some wraps of protection and security when with him. Even hee racing heart jolt into a halt when he spoke to her.

Just why?

"Um?" He asked.

"Hold my hand please." She sought. Salisu looked at her twice. Was that real? So soon? It excited him alot. Salisu slowly laced their fingers together. Adeelah closed her eyes, feeling a sort of protection from him. His dominance over her.

"You looked so beautiful today. Calm and fierce, like a cat." Adeelah felt something warm crept to her cheeks. It's an animal day maybe.

She called El-mustapha a rabbit. Here Salisu called her a cat. She held his hand more tight. It was that way, they reached home. She knew she's done for. For, with Salisu, her soul find solace. She didn't want to believe it. But that's it, whether she liked it or not.

She would try to believe Salisu was her husband maybe that would cast all those fake feelings in her mind. No, she won't fall in love with Salisu. Just believe.

*****

Even though Beebo had went to see Malam in the last few weeks, she didn't feel satisfied. She knew the malam wasn't so accurate sometimes and he liked giving silly excuses. Her eyes had been on Ameer lately and she couldn't say that what wanted to be done had really work. So she called her friend who reminded her about the man she was supposed to meet in another state.

She remembered when the man worked for her indirectly. She helped Alhaji Rabi'u Danbatta without him even knowing, then. She didn't even know why she forgot about him.

She smiled and stopped a cab to take her to the car station. Many hours later, she was at Niger state and was sitting before the man in a thick forest.

"Find the girl's hair, find his hair. Put it in his leather. Find a bird and make the bird swallow it. Let the bird fly as far as it could. Remember you cannot undo this since you don't know where the bird will fly to."

"You mean I can't undo it? No matter what?" She asked with fear.

"The way is only one. You won't pray for the rest of your life. You will also sacrifice a foetus and it has to come from a woman you know." He laughed, his laughter shaking dried leaves. Fear enveloped her and she didn't know when she peed on herself.

"I...I..don't want...it... Anymore."

The man with the long beard laughed.

"It has already been done. Either do it or we take your life." And so, she gave up and collected all he had given her. The Hausa people said:

In zaka gina ramin mugunta, ka gina shi qarami. Now she understood it better. When you're digging a hole of wickedness, you should dig it small. Now she dug it big and she's falling into it. She crossed the limit she knew. Now she's sure, she's doomed. But when she remembered how broken Rabi'u Danbatta would be, she felt better.

She even broke her husband to bits not to talk of someone like Dbt. The man she met as per circumstance of life. The memory came rushing...

*****

It was a random morning when she's ready to go to lectures. She was clad in her normal outfit, a gown and a veil.

She had just came out from her house where she stayed off campus
when she heard someone calling her name. Habibah Ibrahim.

She stopped and turned. It was her course mate, Zee Kadir. They exchanged greetings and walked together.

They were about to cross the road when a car honked at them. They were used to entering lifts to school so it didn't matter.

"Habibah I am now afraid of entering lifts. You know they abducted one girl like that last week." Habibah smiled.

"It's fine, nothing will happen in sha Allah Zee. Let's go."

"Ameen." And they walked to the car. A new one it was, that type that wasnt owned by many people except the riches.

"Hi." They greeted.

He didn't say anything. That was the first meeting. She could properly remember that he came after her lectures. That's where it all began.

*****

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Me is tongueless. I mean Adeelah acted that way up there. Salisu well done!

El-mustapha😭❤ you too. I just don't know what to say sef.

If you read my books, you know I love to shade light on sorcery/black magic/ or whatever you name it because it's the reality which a lot of people overlook. May Allah protect us.

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