Chapter 1
It was a Friday evening in March 2022.
College was the same as always — friends, laughter, and my usual routine. Nothing felt different, until my phone rang.
It was my cousin sister.
“Hiii, I need a favour… I’m putting up a stall near your place. Can you help?”
Of course, I said yes. I always do. She owns a boutique and often sets up dress stalls in different cities. This time, it happened to be near my area.
Before I continue, I think you need to know who I am.
My name is Harry. I live with my uncle and his three daughters. He’s a church pastor — the kind who preaches kindness on Sundays but becomes a completely different person at home.
If I have to be honest, living with him felt like walking on broken glass every day.
One time, he beat up a little cat because he was angry with me and couldn’t show that anger directly to me.
That poor cat still stays in my mind.
When I was younger, he used to torture my aunt too. She didn’t deserve any of it.
She passed away last year…Cancer. May she rest in peace.
That was my home. My everyday life. A place where breathing itself felt heavy.
Now back to the stall.
The next morning, my sister, her husband, and I were arranging clothes, setting up hangers, adjusting lights — everything.
Hours went by in the hot sun, but we kept working. I was helping… smiling… pretending everything was fine.
But suddenly, something felt wrong.
My legs got weak.
My chest felt empty.
My energy dropped like someone switched off a light inside me.
I couldn’t walk fast. I couldn’t even stand properly.
That was the moment I realised —something strange was happening inside my body, something I couldn’t ignore anymore.
I didn’t tell anyone about the weakness I was feeling. Not a single word.
I kept pretending everything was normal — walking slowly, forcing my legs to move like nothing was wrong. But my body was betraying me. The weakness started showing on my face, in my steps, in the way I held myself.
People began to notice.
I tried even harder to act normal in front of everyone. But I couldn’t. I didn’t even understand what was happening to me.
I kept telling myself:
“It’s nothing. Just a small weakness. If I eat properly… if I sleep well… I’ll be fine.”
So that night, after finishing dinner, I went to bed hoping that by morning everything would magically disappear.
But life doesn’t work that way.
The next morning changed everything.
When I opened my eyes and tried to get out of bed, something felt wrong. I placed my foot on the floor… tried to stand…
And my legs almost gave up.
It felt like the strength inside my nerves was draining away. My whole body felt unfamiliar — like it didn’t belong to me anymore.
My uncle’s daughters noticed immediately. They looked at me with confusion and worry.
“What happened to you?” They asked.
I didn’t have an answer. How do you explain a pain you don’t understand?
I tried eating all the “energy foods” — eggs, glucose, anything I could think of. Nothing worked. My body wasn’t responding.
That was the moment I realised: This isn’t normal. Something serious is happening inside me.
I tried to tell my uncle… but life hit me twice that evening.
When I gathered the courage to tell him about my health, he didn’t even look at me properly. His anger came first — like always.
He was still furious because I got a tattoo and an ear stud. “Against the Bible,” he said. A sin. A shame. A reason to throw me out.
Ever since my aunt passed away, the house had become darker. His temper got worse. The silence in the walls felt heavier.
So when I stood there, shaking, trying to tell him something was truly wrong with my body…
He didn’t believe me.
“Don’t act in front of me,” he snapped. “You just want to avoid doing work.”
Those words hit me harder than the weakness in my legs. I wasn’t acting. I wasn’t lying.
My body was failing…and the one person I asked for help didn’t care.
At that moment, standing there with trembling legs and a fading voice, I realised I was on my own.
