Chapter 1:
Chapter One: The Empty Seat
The first thing Nia noticed that morning was the empty seat.
It was the seat beside hers.
Zara's seat.
Nia stared at it for several seconds.
"She's late again," she whispered.
She smiled to herself.
Zara was always late.
Sometimes by five minutes.
Sometimes by twenty.
Once, she had arrived halfway through a mathematics test and blamed the rain, even though there hadn't been a single cloud in the sky.
Nia expected her to walk through the classroom door at any moment, drop her bag onto the empty chair and whisper something ridiculous into her ear.
But the bell rang.
The teacher entered.
And Zara didn't come.
"Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, ma."
Nia glanced at the empty chair again.
Something felt wrong.
Their teacher, Mrs. Adeyemi, opened the attendance register.
"Samuel?"
"Present."
"Chidinma?"
"Present."
"David?"
"Present."
Nia waited.
Then she heard it.
"Zara..."
Mrs. Adeyemi paused.
Nia looked up.
The teacher frowned at the register.
"Zara who?"
Nia's smile disappeared.
"Zara Okafor," she said.
The entire classroom went silent.
Mrs. Adeyemi looked at her.
"Who?"
Nia laughed nervously.
"Zara Okafor. She's sitting right there."
She pointed at the empty chair.
Everyone turned.
Nobody said anything.
Mrs. Adeyemi's expression became confused.
"Nia, there has never been a Zara Okafor in this class."
Nia stared at her.
"Yes, there has."
"No."
"Ma, she's my best friend."
A boy sitting behind Nia laughed.
"You have a best friend nobody has ever heard of?"
Nia turned around.
"Shut up, Daniel."
But Daniel wasn't smiling anymore.
He looked genuinely confused.
"Nia, I'm serious. Who are you talking about?"
She looked around the classroom.
Thirty-two students.
Thirty-two faces.
None of them looked familiar when she mentioned Zara's name.
Her heart began beating faster.
"She's been sitting beside me since the beginning of the term."
Mrs. Adeyemi shook her head.
"The beginning of the term was six weeks ago."
"I know."
"There has never been a Zara in this class."
Nia stared at her.
"That's impossible."
Mrs. Adeyemi sighed.
"Let's continue with the lesson."
But Nia couldn't concentrate.
She kept looking at the empty chair.
There was a small scratch on the desk.
Zara had made it herself during one of their arguments.
Nia remembered exactly what she had said.
"Stop scratching my desk."
And Zara had laughed.
"It's our desk now."
Nia touched the scratch.
It was still there.
If Zara had never existed, why was the scratch still there?
At break time, Nia pulled out her phone.
She opened her messages.
She searched for Zara's name.
Nothing.
No conversation.
No contact.
Nothing.
Her heart dropped.
She opened her photo gallery.
She and Zara had taken hundreds of pictures together.
Birthday parties.
School trips.
Selfies.
Random pictures of food.
Everything.
She scrolled.
Nothing.
Nia's hands began shaking.
She searched again.
Still nothing.
She opened her social media.
Zara's account was gone.
Not deleted.
Gone.
As though it had never existed.
Nia stood up so quickly that her chair fell backward.
She ran to the bathroom.
She locked herself inside a stall and tried to breathe.
"This isn't happening."
She took out her phone again.
Maybe she had saved Zara's number under another name.
She searched through her contacts.
Nothing.
Then she remembered something.
Zara had once given her a bracelet.
A thin silver bracelet with a tiny star attached to it.
"Keep it," Zara had said.
"So you don't forget me."
Nia had laughed.
"I could never forget you."
Her fingers immediately went to her wrist.
The bracelet was there.
She stared at it.
Then she noticed something.
There was a tiny engraving on the back.
She had never noticed it before.
Three words.
REMEMBER ME, NIA.
Her breathing stopped.
Someone knocked on the bathroom door.
"Nia?"
She froze.
It was Daniel.
"What do you want?"
"I need to talk to you."
"I'm busy."
There was silence.
Then Daniel lowered his voice.
"I remember her."
Nia's eyes widened.
She opened the door.
Daniel stood outside.
He looked frightened.
"You remember Zara?"
He nodded.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you say anything in class?"
"Because I wasn't sure."
"Sure about what?"
Daniel looked down the empty hallway.
"Because yesterday, I saw her."
Nia's heart pounded.
"Where?"
"At school."
"Where?"
"Room 17."
Nia frowned.
"There's no Room 17."
Daniel looked directly into her eyes.
"Exactly."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
He handed it to her.
Nia unfolded it.
There was only one sentence written on it.
STOP LOOKING FOR ZARA.
Below the sentence was a name.
Nia's name.
And underneath it was tomorrow's date.
Nia looked up at Daniel.
"Who wrote this?"
Daniel shook his head.
"I don't know."
Then the school bell rang.
Both of them jumped.
Daniel stepped backward.
"Nia..."
"What?"
His face had gone pale.
"Don't go looking for Room 17."
"Why?"
He stared at her.
"Because the last person who went looking for it..."
He stopped.
"What happened to them?"
Daniel swallowed.
"They disappeared too."
Nia looked down at the note in her hand.
Then she heard a voice behind her.
A girl's voice.
Soft.
Familiar.
"Nia."
She turned around.
Nobody was there.
But the voice came again.
This time, closer.
"Nia..."
She knew that voice.
It was Zara.
And she was calling from inside the locked classroom at the end of the hallway.
