Elsha reached for the door.
For a moment, his hand remained on the wooden latch.
The strange feeling in the room had not disappeared. His senses were still sharper than they should have been, and the quiet outside seemed almost unnatural. He could hear the faint movement of people farther down the narrow path, the distant sound of a vehicle passing along the main road, and even the soft rustling of a plastic bag caught somewhere in the evening wind.
But whoever was standing outside had not moved.
Another knock came.
Knock.
Elsha finally opened the door.
A familiar face stood outside.
"Are you going to leave me standing here the whole night?"
Elsha stared at him for a few seconds.
Then his expression softened.
"Steve."
Steve smiled.
"Finally."
He stepped inside without waiting to be invited. He looked around the small room, taking in the old bed, the wooden chair, the small table, and the few belongings Elsha had managed to gather since arriving in Nairobi.
He shook his head.
"You really weren't joking when you told me you were living here."
Elsha closed the door.
"I never joke about where I live."
Steve laughed.
"That is exactly what I remember about you."
He pulled the old wooden chair closer and sat down. Elsha remained standing for a moment before eventually sitting on the edge of the bed.
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
It was not an uncomfortable silence.
It was the kind of silence that only existed between people who had known each other for years.
Steve looked at him carefully.
"You've changed."
Elsha raised an eyebrow.
"I've been told."
"No. I mean it." Steve leaned forward slightly. "Something about you is different."
Elsha said nothing.
Steve continued studying him.
"You look calmer."
"Is that a problem?"
"No." Steve smiled. "Actually, I think it suits you."
Elsha looked down at his hands.
There had been a time when nobody would have described him as calm.
There had been a time when his name alone had been enough to make entire groups of people nervous. There had been a time when silence around him meant something completely different.
But Steve did not know that man.
At least, not the man Elsha had eventually become.
To Steve, he was simply the boy he had gone to school with.
The boy who had spent countless afternoons sitting beside him after classes.
The boy who had somehow survived poor grades, terrible decisions, and an unfortunate habit of getting himself into situations he had no business being in.
Elsha looked at him.
"You still talk too much."
Steve laughed.
"And you still don't talk enough."
That brought a small smile to Elsha's face.
For the first time that evening, the tension inside him disappeared completely.
Steve leaned back.
"Do you remember how we actually met?"
Elsha looked at him.
"Unfortunately."
Steve laughed again.
"You see? That's exactly what I'm talking about."
Elsha shook his head.
"We met in school."
"That's the short version."
"You want the long version?"
"Yes."
Steve pointed at him.
"Because I still remember it better than you do."
"That is impossible."
"You had already forgotten half the things you did."
Elsha smiled.
He remembered.
Jamhuri High School.
The classrooms.
The dusty paths between the buildings.
The noise that filled the school compound whenever classes ended.
The uniforms.
The teachers.
The endless assignments.
The pressure of examinations.
And Steve.
Always Steve.
They had not started as the closest of friends. Their friendship had grown slowly, almost by accident.
Steve had been the more outgoing one, always willing to speak first and somehow comfortable around almost everyone. Elsha had been quieter. He preferred keeping to himself and watching people rather than becoming part of every conversation.
Yet somehow, the two had ended up spending more and more time together.
They studied together.
They ate together.
They complained about teachers together.
And, more importantly, they grew up together.
"There was that day you nearly got us suspended," Steve said.
Elsha frowned.
"I did not nearly get us suspended."
"You absolutely did."
"You were there."
"Exactly. That's why I know."
Steve laughed as he remembered it.
"You remember when we were supposed to be in class?"
"Yes."
"And you convinced me to leave?"
"I did not convince you."
"You said, 'Let's go.'"
"That is not convincing someone."
Steve shook his head.
"You have always been good at avoiding responsibility."
Elsha laughed quietly.
The sound surprised even him.
He had forgotten what it felt like to laugh about something that did not involve death, betrayal, or survival.
Steve noticed it too but said nothing.
Instead, he continued.
"After school, everything changed."
Elsha's smile slowly faded.
"Yes."
Steve looked at him.
"You didn't do as well as you wanted in your exams."
"No."
"You were disappointed."
"A little."
"A little?"
Elsha looked at him.
"I was very disappointed."
Steve nodded.
"I remember."
Elsha had never been the academic type. While Steve had managed to perform well enough to secure a place at the University of Nairobi, Elsha had gone in another direction.
A small college in the city center.
A course he had never truly cared about.
A future that seemed uncertain.
At the time, he had thought his life was simply taking an ordinary turn.
He could never have imagined where that path would eventually lead.
"I still don't understand how you ended up in that small college," Steve said.
"Neither do I."
"You could have done better."
"I know."
"You just didn't care."
Elsha looked toward the window.
"Maybe I cared about the wrong things."
Steve became quiet.
There was something in Elsha's voice that made him stop joking.
"What happened to you after college?" he asked.
Elsha looked at him.
"Life happened."
"That isn't an answer."
"It is the only one I have."
Steve watched him carefully.
There were parts of Elsha's life he had never understood.
Even before everything had changed, Elsha had always carried something inside him. Something difficult to explain.
Steve had seen it many times.
The sudden silence.
The distant look in his eyes.
The way he could become completely lost in his thoughts while everyone else continued talking around him.
Back then, Steve had assumed it was simply Elsha being Elsha.
Now he wondered if there had always been more to it.
"So," Steve said, breaking the silence, "what about your love life?"
Elsha immediately looked at him.
Steve grinned.
"There he is."
"Why are you asking?"
"Because we never talk about it."
"There is nothing to talk about."
"That is a lie."
Elsha sighed.
"You haven't changed."
"Neither have you."
Steve leaned forward.
"Come on. You had someone."
Elsha remained silent.
Steve's smile faded slightly.
"You really did, didn't you?"
Elsha looked toward the floor.
"Yes."
"Who?"
Elsha did not answer immediately.
He could still remember how young he had been.
How ordinary everything had felt.
He had been attending college in the city center, trying to make something out of a future he was not particularly excited about. His days had been filled with classes, cheap meals, crowded matatus,s and long walks through Nairobi whenever he could not afford transport.
Then one day, he met her.
It had not happened dramatically.
There had been no thunder.
No strange voice.
No warning from the heavens.
She had simply entered his life.
And somehow, everything had become different.
Steve watched him.
"You loved her."
Elsha nodded.
"Very much."
"What happened?"
Elsha took a slow breath.
"I lost her."
Steve's expression changed.
"I thought you said you two were together."
"We were."
"So what happened?"
Elsha's eyes became distant.
"Things happened that I couldn't control."
Steve waited.
But Elsha did not continue.
There were too many things between that simple sentence and the truth.
There had been another realm.
Years that had passed like centuries.
Battles that had scarred the heavens.
People who had smiled while planning his death.
Power.
Immortality.
Betrayal.
And a fall that had ended everything.
Steve knew none of that.
He only knew the man sitting in front of him.
"You know," Steve finally said, "sometimes I wondered what happened to you."
Elsha looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because one day you were there, and then life just seemed to swallow you."
Elsha gave a faint smile.
"Life has a strange way of doing that."
Steve nodded.
For a while, they talked about smaller things.
School memories.
The teachers they remembered.
The ridiculous things they had done when they were younger.
Steve spoke about university, the pressure of studying law, and how different everything had felt once he entered the University of Nairobi.
Elsha listened.
He found himself enjoying the conversation more than he expected.
Steve's life had remained ordinary in a way Elsha's had not.
He had gone to university.
He had continued building his future.
He had remained in Nairobi.
Meanwhile, Elsha had crossed places where ordinary human beings had no place.
Yet here they were.
Two old school friends sitting inside a small iron-sheet house in Nairobi.
It almost felt like time had gone backward.
"You know what I still don't understand?" Steve said.
"What?"
"You're opening a nyama choma stall."
Elsha smiled.
"Why?"
"Because you hated cooking."
"I don't cook."
Steve looked confused.
"You literally sell food."
"I roast meat."
"That is cooking."
"No."
Steve laughed.
"You haven't changed."
"I learned."
Steve looked at him for a moment before nodding.
"I actually heard people saying your meat is good."
"People talk too much."
"Maybe they're telling the truth."
"They are."
Steve laughed.
"There you are."
Elsha stood and moved toward the small table.
"You want something to eat?"
"You have meat?"
"I always have meat."
Steve smiled.
"That is probably the first useful thing you've said all night."
Elsha prepared a small portion of the meat he had brought home earlier. As he worked, Steve watched him.
There was something strangely peaceful about the scene.
The smell of roasted meat filled the small room.
Outside, Nairobi continued moving.
A matatu passed somewhere in the distance, its engine fading into the night. Voices occasionally drifted through the neighborhood. Someone laughed outside. A dog barked once before becoming silent again.
It was an ordinary night.
And Elsha wanted it to remain ordinary.
When he handed Steve the food, Steve took a bite.
His eyebrows rose.
"This is actually good."
"I know."
"You're becoming arrogant."
"I've always been arrogant."
Steve laughed.
"You know, if someone told me back in high school that one day you'd be selling nyama choma in Nairobi, I would have laughed."
Elsha sat down.
"If someone told me where my life would take me, I would have laughed too."
Steve looked at him.
There was something hidden inside those words.
Something much heavier than he could understand.
But before he could ask, Elsha changed the subject.
"How is your family?"
Steve told him a little about them.
Elsha listened carefully.
He asked questions.
For once, he was not thinking about cultivation or the strange power sleeping inside his body.
He was simply listening to his old friend.
Hours seemed to pass without either of them noticing.
Eventually, Steve stood.
"I should go."
Elsha looked toward the door.
"It is late."
"I know."
Steve walked toward it, then stopped.
He turned around.
"I am glad I found you."
Elsha looked at him.
"So am I."
Steve smiled.
"And don't disappear again."
Elsha remained silent.
Steve opened the door.
"Come by the university sometime."
"Why?"
"I'll show you around."
"I don't belong there."
"You used to say that about everything."
Elsha smiled.
"Goodnight, Steve."
"Goodnight."
Steve stepped outside.
After a few seconds, his footsteps began fading into the darkness.
Elsha closed the door.
The room became quiet again.
He stood there for a moment, his hand still resting on the door.
Steve's visit had stirred memories he had spent a long time trying to bury.
Jamhuri High School.
His younger days.
The small college.
The crowded streets of Nairobi.
The days when his biggest concerns had been money, exams, and finding something meaningful to do with his life.
And then there was her.
The girl who had entered his ordinary life and changed everything.
Elsha slowly walked toward the bed and sat down.
He stared at the floor.
For the first time in a long while, he allowed himself to remember.
Not the battles.
Not the people who had betrayed him.
Just her.
Her face.
Her voice.
The way she looked at him.
The feeling he had whenever she was near.
His chest tightened.
He closed his eyes.
Sasha.
The name appeared in his mind like a whisper from another lifetime.
The girl he had loved before everything was taken from him.
The girl who had remained somewhere inside his heart even after countless years, countless battles, and a life that should have erased every trace of his former existence.
Elsha opened his eyes.
His gaze drifted toward the small window.
Outside, Nairobi continued breathing.
But his mind was no longer in the city.
It was somewhere far away.
Somewhere at the edge of a cliff.
He remembered the wind.
He remembered the ground disappearing beneath his feet.
He remembered falling.
And as the memory returned with frightening clarity, Elsha's fingers slowly tightened against the edge of the bed.
He had always wondered what had truly happened that day.
Who had betrayed him.
And why, after all those years, he had been given another chance.
His eyes darkened.
The cliff.
He could still remember the moment he fell.
And this time, he could almost hear the sound of his own body cutting through the air as he plunged into the darkness.