2021-11-12 07:31:09The voice, to Justin, sounded more like a man, or a rather hoarse-voiced woman. At this point, he could no longer guess. His mind was dazed and so were his eyes. ‘Justin,’ he answered. ‘And who are you?’
‘Necessity,’ the stranger replied.His eyes came together to form a squint. ‘What kind of a stupid name is that?’‘A necessary one.’Justin began to hear the sound of steel on concrete again but this time it was more of a light tap. It was coming from between the stranger’s feet. ‘What…what’s that?’ he asked the stranger, pointing between his feet. The boldness and audacity in his voice was abandoning him. ‘I said what’s…’‘You look like a strong, young man. Are you an athlete, Justin?’ the stranger asked him. There was a certain calmness in the stranger's voice.Justin nodded robustly, ‘Rugby…basketball…’‘That sounds like it takes a lot of stamina.’He nodded quickly.‘Good. You see that house over there, Justin? Way down there?’ the stranger asked him, pointing at a house about a hundred metres down the road to their right.He could only see the lights. ‘Y…Yeah, yeah, what about it?’‘That’s your hoop, Justin.’‘My hoop?’‘Your destination,’ the stranger explained. ‘Make it to the front door of that house and you’ll be playing basketball tomorrow.’Justin’s heart was pounding frenetically. ‘W…What? What are you..?’‘I’ll give you a three-minute head start,’ the stranger said.Justin, with a tremendous effort, managed to get to his feet. ‘You're kidding…you’re playing, right?’ His body was shaking uncontrollably in fear.The stranger chuckled. ‘Games, Justin, games. Do I really look like I play games?’Without further delay, Justin began to stagger towards the house. He was heaving and splashing saliva everywhere. His mind was a whirlpool. It ached and crunched and churned and so did his stomach. He really wished he was sober now. The only sound in the street was his shoes clacking onto the concrete as he made his way towards the house: his target…his hoop as the stranger had mildly put it.He would manage a few steps then slip to the ground. He had to move. He picked his body up and swayed some more. Come on, Justin! He yelled in his head. You can make it! I know you can make it! He turned his head around. He could no longer see anyone on the bench. ‘Oh, God! Oh..!’ Tears fell in rapids down his cheeks. Nevertheless, he continued to lurch towards the house. He was now at least twenty metres from the door. ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!’ he laughed. His tears had become tears of joy. He lunged some more. He heaved and panted. fifteen-metres left. He staggered. Fourteen metres. Two-three more steps. Only thirteen metres to the hoop. He laughed out loud. He was ecstatic.He suddenly felt something heavy and sharp fall hard against his right calf. He bellowed in agony. His bellow was not loud enough. The trip had drained his energy. He fell face first into the gravel. The pain was unbearable. He felt an identical pain fall on his left calf. ‘Help me!’ he yelled. ‘Someone, please!’ There was no answer. He was too weak to scream any louder. He rolled onto his back. Someone was staring down at him. He could make out the same structure of the stranger on the bench. Something long was slung over the stranger’s shoulder. Justin was in excruciating pain. ‘Whoever you are! Please, my family is rich; they’ll give you whatever you want. Please…!’ he pleaded some more. ‘I have a little sister! My mother…My sister, please, have mercy on me!’ The pain in his legs grew intense by the second.The stranger was immobile. Frozen as Justin’s screams and pleas for help dragged on and on. Finally, the stranger rose what was in their hands above their head and swung it hard towards Justin’s face.Sineas had been startled awake by a noise just outside his window. As always, it was wide open. He rubbed his eyes and allowed them to blindly scour the room hopelessly. It was just too dark to see anything. He rubbed his eyes and decided closing the windows for one night was not such a bad idea. He shut the windows and made his way back into bed. He got under the covers and drew the blankets to his chin.
‘Sineas.’Sineas sat up, startled. ‘What the hell!’‘It’s okay, it’s just me.’He groaned wearily. ‘What do you want? Can’t you see I’m sleeping?’‘Sleeping people don’t talk, Sineas…unless they have intense psychological problems concerning a mother in an asylum and a father who committed suicide.’‘So you just woke me up to remind me of the only parts of my past I’m trying to forget?’‘No, I just want to talk.’Sineas rubbed his face in exhaustion.‘You promised to take me to school today. Why didn’t you?’‘It was boring. I actually did you a favour.’‘What exactly was boring about it?’Sineas sighed in annoyance. ‘Some hotshot guy called Justin came over to my table at lunch and sort of…bothered me.’‘You mean bullied?’‘Bullying is something else entirely. What that guy did was just immature.’‘You want me to do something about it?’Sineas growled in anguish and said, ‘Damn, now you’re bothering me too. Did you really wake me up for that?’‘I just wanted to offer you a solution. Do you really think you can go through an entire year of high school with this kid doing this to you?’He laid his head back onto the pillow. He shifted to his left side. ‘Can you be quiet, please? It’s a school night.’‘ *Sigh* Fine. Goodnight.’Sineas mumbled a goodnight too.
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93. Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
For a Sunday morning, the weather felt very unforgiving. The thick grey clouds had completely concealed the sun and there was an icy wind in the atmosphere. The kind of wind that leaves your face feeling like an ice cube at each gush it takes at you. This was completely different to Justin’s funeral. Justin’s funeral had many willing participants but this time, people looked like they would rather be somewhere else. Anywhere else. Doreen, Trevor and even the teachers were there. Just two days ago, Inspector Charles had announced on the news the death of the notorious Axe Killer. The inspector had not looked as excited as Clarissa had expected. It almost sounded like he had been pronouncing the worst news ever. She had not even wanted to watch the news. As soon as the inspector had begun talking of finally getting rid of the “plague of the nation”, she immediately left the room. She even felt that her parents understood her pain. They had apologized to h
92. Fireworks
She tried to switch on her phone. It only flickered for a few seconds then turned off again. The shadow was now making its way towards her, dragging a long object on the floor.‘Come on!’ she yelled into her phone, attempting to turn it on again. It flickered twice then switched off again.The shadow was now in reach. It pushed away the desk between it and Clarissa.She slammed her phone four times in the palm of her hand, tears streaming down her face. She tried it again.The shadow swung the object onto its shoulder.Clarissa’s phone finally switched on. She quickly turned on the flashlight and shone it upwards in the direction of the shadow.Standing right above her, soaked from head to toe, was Sineas, a long axe resting on his shoulder. He did not say anything. He just stared back at her, his eyes holding no expression whatsoever.She wiped the tears and water from her face. She boldly decided to stand up. ‘Sin?&r
91. To Catch a Killer (Part II)
Clarissa was running up the street, screaming and yelling at the top of her voice with the cold, heavy rains beating down her body. She had first tried Mrs. Lancaster, their neighbour’s gate but the loudness of the rain obliterated every other sound. Gasping for breath, she looked down the street. Her house was now just a glimpse. She could not see anyone but she was positive she was being followed. She continued up the street, kicking every gate and yelling for help. A wild and delusional thought leapt into her head. She could climb up one of the gates and call for help from the inside. Fear quickly ridiculed this idea. She probably would be dead before she made it to the top of the wall. Another thought leapt in. School! But of course. It would be hard for anyone to find her in such a giant building. Fatigue lowered her pace. She could not increase her speed past a jog. School was now only about ten minutes away. As she jogged, she kept turning her head behind her. The
90. Epiphany
Clarissa lay on top of Sineas, a small red blanket covering their completely naked bodies. They had switched on the TV and turned to a sports channel, but they were not watching it of course. They had lowered the volume. The heavy rains could be heard beating on the roof from outside. Sineas was stroking her back, gently. ‘So…who taught you?’ he asked her.‘Taught me what?’‘Don’t play dumb, Claire. The moves.’She smiled, then said, ‘When you hang around sluts like Sabrina and Doreen, you pick up a thing or two. Not implying that I’m a slut too but when all your friends can talk about is how to catch a man…how to pleasure him; that stuff tends to stick to your subconscious.’‘So you’ve never..?’‘Had sex? No. That’s actually the reason why Justin broke up with me. Sabrina and Doreen hooked up with some of the members in Justin’s crew but Justi
89. Heaven's Delight (Part II)
WARNING !!! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS VERY STRONG SEXUAL CONTENT !!!‘I don’t think you needed food for that,’ he said.‘What do you mean?’ She raised her head.‘Your personality made it to my heart first.’She smiled and reached for his hand from across the table. ‘Dessert?’He nodded once. ‘Yes, ma’am.’She got up and walked towards the fridge and moments later, she returned with a small, pink ice-cream lunchbox and two glass dessert cups. It was a mixture of strawberry and vanilla.Sineas licked his lips when she pulled the lid off of the container. ‘And the night just keeps getting better and better,’ he said.She laughed and scooped the ice-cream with a large spoon into the two dessert cups. She placed spoons on top of the ice-cream. She clapped her hands. ‘Shall we, Mr. Murphy?’‘Yes we shall, M
88. Heaven's Delight (Part I)
Inspector Charles had just finished having supper when the doorbell rang. He told his wife and daughter to sit tight while he went to investigate who was ringing the doorbell so late in the evening. Shorts, vest and all, Charles opened the door. He looked around but there was no one in sight. He looked down. There was a brown envelope lying at his feet. His heart skipped a beat and his hands trembled as he stooped down to pick it up. The previous envelopes had been written the words: “To Inspector Charles” in both uppercase and lowercase letters but this one was written in all caps and bold letters: “TO INSPECTOR CHARLES”.He wanted to open it there and then. He had ripped it halfway open when he stopped. He looked around again, apprehensively…and vigilantly. There was still no one. No sound, save for the faint barking of a mongrel miles away. A stray, black cat ran silently along the sidewalk, probably chasing a rat. Even though he could see no one, Charles decided not to risk i
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