“Please, please, keep this for one hour!” my friend Sana pleaded while handing me quite a heavy black bag.

“I promise I’ll come and take this from you after an hour,” she said. I was about to give in but then I thought of asking her what was inside the bag.

“Sana what’s in the bag?” I asked but by then she was already sitting in the cab, which raced away. I sighed...

‘Well, it’s just for one hour,’ I thought.

Without noticing unusual marks on the bag, I put it inside my cupboard. And then, I started playing a game on my phone for some time. When I felt exhausted, I quit and called my friend Ayesha, and started talking about school and studies. We talked for about 10 minutes then I hung up.

Just then I remembered Sana’s black bag. Curiosity took over me and I went to have a look at the bag. I took it out from the cupboard. The bag had red spots; on closer inspection, I found them to be bloodstains!

I freaked out … the bag fell down on the floor. I left it there and didn’t dare to touch it again. My mind was almost numb so I sat on the armchair nearby and kept looking at the weird black bag which was giving me scary thoughts about Sana.

What had she done? What was she hiding? Then I remembered the weary look on her face while handing me over the bag. But to relieve myself from the troubling thoughts, I turned on the television. I was switching the channels when suddenly my eyes fixed to one news channel where I saw a picture of Sana being declared as a thief! The news said, Sana had stolen a bag filled with money; she had also hurt the owner of the bag with a stone who was injured and she then flew away from the scene.

I ran to my mobile and dialled Sana’s number but her phone was turned off.

‘Oh God what should I do?’ I thought.

Two hours had passed and there was no sign of Sana. I started panicking. I went closer to the bag lying on the floor and turned it over. After gathering a lot of courage, I unzipped it. The bag was full of money but there was a note on top of it too! I picked it up and started reading. It said.

“Zoha, I knew you would open the bag so I left a note in it which will tell you everything you need to know. Yes, I have stolen this money! I want you to keep this bag with you until tomorrow. Please do not tell the police anything or you will be in trouble. They will ask you that why did you accept the bag from me in the first place without knowing what was in it. I’m sorry that you got involved in this mess. But remember, I’m still your friend. Goodbye!’’

I was speechless. ‘She calls her my friend? A thief could never be my friend. She had planned this all along! I don’t care if I got into trouble by going to the police station! I had to inform them!’ I thought. Before I could make another move, the doorbell rang.

‘Who could it be?’ I wondered. I went and opened the door.

There stood Sana with two policemen! I was in deep trouble just because of her! Questions came whirling into my mind. ‘What will I do? What will happen to me?’ I thought.

“Sorry,” murmured Sana and this was the last thing I heard before tumbling down from my bed.

‘It was a nightmare! Oh, thank God,’ I was so delighted to find that I just had a bad dream and nothing else.

Just then the doorbell rang. I went down and opened the door. There was Sana standing with a black bag in her hand with the same weary look I had seen her in my dream!

But I was confident as I knew what I had to do the next moment!

Published in Dawn, Young World August 26th, 2017