The notification was still glowing on Jasmine's phone.
Reminder: Saturday, 7:00 PM. Don't be late.
She stared at the words for several seconds without moving. The light from the screen reflected faintly against her face, but whatever she was seeing on that screen seemed to have taken her somewhere far away from Elsha's small house. Her thumb hovered over the notification, yet she did not open it. There was nothing more to read. The message was simple, but she knew exactly what it meant.
Elsha noticed the change in her expression from where he was sitting. He did not ask immediately. He had learned enough about her in the short time they had known each other to understand that some questions only made people close themselves further.
After a moment, he stood up and looked around the small room. "I need to buy a few things."
Jasmine looked up from her phone. "Things?"
"Salt. Cooking oil. Maybe some flour and a few other basics." He glanced toward the small cooking area. "If I'm going to keep making breakfast and lunch, I need something to make them with."
Jasmine slipped her phone into her hand and stood. "I'll come with you."
Elsha looked at her for a moment.
"You don't have to."
"I know."
There was something firm in the way she said it that made him realize she had already made up her mind.
He sighed lightly and reached for the door. "Fine. Let's go."
The night air outside was cooler than it had been during the day. Kangemi had not gone to sleep. It rarely did. Even in the quieter streets, there was always movement somewhere; the distant sound of a matatu accelerating away from a stage, the occasional horn from the main road, voices drifting from small shops that were still open, and the low hum of the city continuing its business long after the sun had disappeared.
They walked side by side, neither saying much at first.
Elsha kept his hands in his pockets as they made their way toward the shops. He was thinking about the price of the things he needed to buy and whether the money he had made that day would stretch far enough. Running a meat stall had taught him that small expenses had a way of becoming large ones when they were repeated every day.
Jasmine, however, was thinking about something else.
She looked behind them.
Then again.
Elsha noticed the first time but said nothing.
A few minutes later, she looked over her shoulder again, her pace slowing slightly before she quickly caught up with him.
Elsha glanced at her. "What?"
"Nothing."
"You've looked behind us three times."
Jasmine looked forward. "I thought I saw someone."
Elsha followed her gaze, but the street behind them looked ordinary. A few people were walking in the same direction, others were standing outside shops, and farther away, a matatu pulled away from the roadside.
"Did you recognize them?"
"No."
He nodded and continued walking.
He could have asked more. He could have demanded to know exactly who she was afraid of and why she kept looking behind them. But he already knew that Jasmine was carrying something she did not want to explain. He had no interest in forcing it out of her.
Still, he began paying more attention.
They turned into a slightly busier stretch of road, where several small shops remained open, and people moved between them. Jasmine's eyes continued to wander. Every few moments, she seemed to search the faces around them.
Then she stopped.
Elsha took two more steps before realizing she was no longer beside him.
He turned.
Jasmine was standing several meters behind him, looking toward the road.
"What is it?"
She shook her head. "Nothing. Let's just go."
But her voice had changed.
Elsha looked past her toward the road. He saw people. Cars. A matatu slowing near the side of the road. Nothing that should have concerned him.
Yet he could feel the tension coming from her.
For a brief moment, something inside him stirred.
It was not the first time he had felt it since returning to this life. That ancient presence had always been there, sleeping beneath everything he did. Most of the time he ignored it. He had promised himself that he would live as an ordinary man and leave that part of himself buried.
But as he looked at Jasmine, he understood something he had been trying not to understand.
She was afraid.
And whether he liked it or not, he was now standing between her and whatever she was running from.
Elsha lowered his eyes.
He did not raise his hand. He did not make any strange movement. He simply stood there for a moment, allowing the presence inside him to respond to his thoughts.
Something changed.
It was subtle, almost impossible to notice.
The air around Jasmine seemed to settle. The feeling was not like a wall or a physical barrier. It was more like the world itself had become slightly less interested in her presence. The people passing by continued walking. A man glanced in their direction and then looked away without giving her a second thought.
Elsha felt the power move through him quietly.
He had not intended to use it.
In fact, he had spent so much time trying to forget that part of himself that he had almost forgotten how naturally it could respond.
He looked at Jasmine.
"Come."
She hesitated before walking toward him.
As she reached his side, something unexpected happened.
The tension in her shoulders began to disappear.
The fear that had been sitting heavily inside her seemed to loosen, almost as though someone had taken a weight from her chest. A strange warmth spread through her body. It was gentle and comforting, unlike anything she had felt since she had run away from home.
She breathed in slowly.
For the first time that night, she felt safe.
She looked at Elsha.
He was simply walking beside her, his expression calm, as though nothing had happened.
Jasmine frowned slightly.
There was something different about him.
She could not explain it.
She looked around again, expecting to feel the same fear she had felt moments earlier, but it was gone. The street was still the same. The people were still there. The noise of Nairobi continued around them.
Yet she felt as though she had stepped into a quiet space that only she could feel.
"Are you okay?" Elsha asked.
She looked at him.
"Yes."
He nodded and continued walking.
Jasmine watched him for a few seconds longer.
"Why do I feel..." She stopped.
Elsha glanced at her. "Feel what?"
She shook her head. "Nothing."
He did not press her.
They reached the shops and bought what they needed. Salt, cooking oil, flour, a few vegetables, and other small things Elsha thought would be useful in the house. Jasmine carried one of the smaller bags while Elsha carried the rest.
For a while, the evening became ordinary again.
They talked about what they would cook the next morning. Jasmine suggested something simple, and Elsha told her that whatever they made should not cost too much. She laughed at that, and for a few minutes the fear that had followed her seemed forgotten.
But it never disappeared completely.
As they walked back, Jasmine found herself thinking about the warmth she had felt earlier.
It had come when she was beside Elsha.
She looked at him again.
He did not look unusual. There was nothing about his appearance that would make someone think he was anything other than a young man trying to survive in Nairobi. His clothes were simple. His shoes were worn. He carried groceries in one hand and walked with the relaxed pace of someone who had nowhere important to be.
Yet something about him did not make sense.
She remembered the night he had saved her.
She remembered the strange way those men had disappeared.
At the time, she had been too frightened and too exhausted to think about it. She had assumed they had run away. She had never questioned him because she had been more concerned with getting away from them.
Now, however, another thought entered her mind.
Who is he?
She immediately pushed the thought away.
Perhaps she was imagining things.
Perhaps the warmth had simply come from finally feeling safe around someone.
She did not know.
When they reached the house, Elsha placed the groceries inside and began arranging them in the small kitchen area.
Jasmine stood near the doorway watching him.
"You really live like this every day?" she asked.
Elsha glanced back. "Like what?"
"Simple."
He shrugged. "It's enough."
She smiled faintly.
There was something about that answer she understood.
For Elsha, perhaps enough really was enough.
He did not seem interested in expensive things, attention, or whatever existed beyond the small life he had built for himself. He worked, cooked, slept, and woke up to do it all again.
Jasmine envied that simplicity.
Her own life had never been simple.
She took out her phone again.
The notification was still there.
Reminder — Saturday, 7:00 PM. Don't be late.
Her smile disappeared.
Elsha noticed.
He was standing with his back toward her, but somehow he knew when the mood in the room had changed.
"What is it?"
Jasmine locked the screen.
"Nothing."
He looked at her for a moment before turning back to the groceries.
He could tell she was lying, but he had no intention of forcing her to speak.
Whatever was waiting for Jasmine on Saturday was clearly important to her.
And whatever it was, she was clearly afraid of it.
That was enough for him to know that he wanted no part in it.
He had spent too much of his life surrounded by things he could not control. He had already died once because of people who had decided that his existence belonged to them. He had no desire to repeat that kind of life in another form.
He wanted his stall.
His small house.
His quiet evenings.
That was all.
But as he looked at Jasmine sitting quietly on the old bed, he knew that peace was becoming harder to maintain.
Trouble had found him again.
He had not searched for it.
He had not invited it.
Yet somehow, it had walked through his door, sat at his table, slept in his bed, and now followed him through the streets of Nairobi.
Elsha sighed and sat down.
Outside, the city continued moving.
Somewhere beyond the walls of that small house, cars passed along the roads, and people continued with their nights, unaware that two people inside a modest room were standing at the beginning of something neither of them understood.
Jasmine looked down at her phone once more.
Saturday was coming.
And whatever had been planned for her was coming with it.