The Switch
You never really know the moment everything changes.
Sometimes, it's loud — a scream, a shot, a slam of a door.
Other times, it's soft — a blink, a breath, a hesitation that costs too much.
This time, it was the silence after a name.
---
Maya said it first.
"Ayo… do you remember Kunle?"
I froze.
Because I did.
And I didn't want to.
---
Kunle was supposed to be dead.
We buried him.
We cried.
We moved.
But dead men don't make phone calls.
And Maya had a recording.
It was just five seconds long.
> "Tell Ayo the archive was never safe. The switch is done."
That voice?
Undeniable.
Alive.
---
We returned to the flat that night.
Everything was just as we left it… until I opened the bookshelf.
The safe had been tampered with.
Files gone.
Notebook untouched — intentionally.
Whoever did this knew me.
---
Maya paced. I stood still.
She asked, "Do you think it was Kunle?"
"No," I said. "I think it was worse."
---
There's a moment in chess when your opponent sacrifices a piece that should've mattered.
You think you're winning.
But really, they've just cleared the board for a checkmate you never saw coming.
That's what the switch was.
They didn't steal the notebook.
They planted something in it.
---
I flipped through the pages.
There.
Page 47.
A drawing.
A house.
Three windows.
A clock stuck at 3:17.
And a note written in Kunle's old code:
> We all die twice. You've only done it once.
---
I sat down.
Not out of fear.
Out of recognition.
They didn't just resurrect Kunle.
They turned him.
And if Kunle could be flipped, anyone could.
Even Maya.
---
That's when I turned to her.
Tested her.
Asked about something that never happened — an old job in Jos.
She nodded, "Yeah. You said it rained the whole week."
I never said that.
I never went.
---
So I did it.
I drew my knife.
Pointed it at the girl who once saved my life.
And said, "Tell me who you are."
She didn't flinch.
"I'm Maya," she whispered.
"But I'm not the Maya you remember."
---
The switch was done.
Not just files.
People.
Memories rewritten.
Loyalty rerouted.
Even faces…
used like masks.
---
I lowered the blade, heart numb.
Because the real Maya?
She never came back with me from the house in the woods.
Whoever this is…
She wears her skin well.
Too well.
---
So now?
Now I smile.
Now I wait.
Because if they think I'm still playing the same game…
They've already lost.