AISHA AND THE BLACK BRACELET

Noor Qolam Suspense/Thriller

She can hear what people really think, but every thought costs her a piece of her soul.

Aisha is 13 and invisible.

In her house in Barnawa, Kaduna, everyone loves Sadiq who gets A in school, and baby Fatima who everyone calls Angel. Nobody hears Aisha, who writes stories under the mango tree.

Until her grandmother Kakuri dies and leaves her a black bracelet.

Baƙin Mundaye.

It is not jewelry. It is 100 years old, from a river spirit in Zaria. When Aisha wears it, she can hear people's true thoughts.

Her mother saying "delicious kosai" but thinking "it's burnt."
Her father shouting "who stole my money?" but thinking "I used it myself."
Her crush Khalid saying "what are you writing?" but thinking "I like quiet girls."

At first, it feels like power. Finally, someone listens to her — because she hears what no one says.

But Kakuri left a warning letter: _"Use it once a day only. Never wear it to sleep. And if it turns red, throw it into the river immediately."

Aisha uses it three times a day. And the bracelet starts turning red.

Now it is hungry. It eats her happiness with every thought. Soon she hears thoughts even without wearing it. Soon she hears jinn.

And an old woman with one black eye and one white eye appears at her gate — Kakuri's 100-year-old sister — saying: "That bracelet was mine. You must return it to the river before it turns fully red, or it will never leave your wrist."

Aisha must go to Zaria, to the river that hears thoughts, before she goes mad like Kakuri's other sister who jumped into the river.

Unfold