I couldn’t stop staring at his face. The bruises on Silas’ face faded with just a sip of blood as if he had not been injured less than an hour ago. I cleaned up the remaining blood spots on his cheek and plopped on the chair next to his. “I don’t understand, how could I have missed this?” He asked while scrolling through the messages from Mpumi. My blood ran cold whenever the picture of her dead body popped in my head. “Well, considering how you were acting earlier, I doubt we would have found out about this if I didn’t have your phone.” “And Zamani wouldn’t have discovered Cas if it weren’t for you!” Esra barged into the kitchen, her nose flaring as her scorching gaze focused on me. “This is all your fault.” “Zamani would have found his way here with or without Yvonne, it was just a coincidence.” Silas looked up from his phone, tossing it on the table. “Babe, are you certain that she was killed by a vampire?” He asked, his eyes on me. I nodded. “I’m positive.” It all still fe
Gift had vanished into thin air, and his existence left a heavy cloud of apprehension hanging over us. I couldn’t stop replaying everything he said at that apartment building, and what echoed in my head every say for the past few days were the sangoma’s words: ‘I see a man here, he is not of this world. At least not in the case where life and death are concerned. He is bitter, angry, and he is evil. He would do anything to protect his kind, even if it means sacrificing his own children. He does not want his children to have a life because he fears that his coven will be exposed, he is not happy that you are a part of his son’s life.' It felt like her premonitions were coming to life, and all I could do was watch my boyfriend suffer in silence. He had quit his job at the lodge, he seemed to have lost interest in the restaurant, although I believed he was avoiding all these places because of Zamani. His latest hobby was to pretend to be
I jumped out of the car and raced into the yard as quickly as my feet would allow me to. There were police officers everywhere and they were turning the entire place upside down. My heart was beating fast in my chest as my mind raced to Silas, hoping he managed to get away since he was usually asleep around this time if he was not busy in the kitchen, with the latter being less likely since his passion for the kitchen had diminished these last few days. “Esra!” I called hysterically as I ran into the house, trying to navigate my way through the mess and the people moving all over. “Esra, Esra!” “Yvonne!” She ran out from the kitchen, panic written all over her face, and then she pulled me aside. “Cas managed to escape, but I forgot to move the blood bags, and now they are taking them. They won’t find anything that links them directly to Cas, but the police will definitely be investigating me, and Room 9 is going to use the blood as evidence.”
It was shameful to regard someone as family only when you needed something, but I had no other option, nor did I have a choice or say when growing up. As far as the world was concerned, my mother did not have any family left after losing her entire family to the grim reaper. What she never told anyone was that she had a sister who resided less than an hour’s drive away from home. My mother’s older sister, Meiki, was a traditional healer, but a witch according to my mother. As soon as the car pulled up outside her home, she was at the gate in seconds and assisted Karabo in helping me out of the car, and then she led me into the house while Karabo followed close behind with my bags. “Thank you for bringing her home,” Aunt Meiki said as she led my saviour out the door. Watching her was like watching my mother in an alternate world. They looked exactly alike, they had the same big round bodies, with my aunt being slightly taller and
Silas once said to me that he wondered if we would have met if he had not been turned into a vampire. It seemed impossible back then, I didn't believe that we would have somehow met because I believed we came from two different worlds. Today, however, I learnt that it was not true, we were not that different after all. If anything, we came from the same place and practically shared the same roots. Perhaps in a different world his father would not have been a monster, and our fathers' friendship would have led us to each other. Perhaps instead of being arranged to marry Gift, our parents would have arranged for Silas and I to get married; and since we were neighbours, who knows? Maybe we would have been best friends and childhood sweethearts. It felt like whatever happened, no matter what road life took us through, it would have still led us to where we were today, and that gave me hope. Despite everything that's happened, especially
I couldn't sleep, I kept turning and tossing, and it was as though I was sleeping on a bed made from rock. I was pacing up and down my room like a commander awaiting news from his superiors. I didn't where to touch or what to do, I couldn't even sit for longer than a minute. I felt really weird, at some point I even thought it was number two and went to the toilet several times, but nothing happened. It wasn't until 2a.m. when the first contraction hit, and I pursed my lips to prevent the scream that threatened to burst out. I recalled my wet clothes from earlier, and it finally occurred to me that my water may have broke during that prayer session. I sat at the edge of the bed, my head ringing like a church bell. "This can't be happening." I shook my head, breathing heavily. I was barely at six months, it was too early fir me to go into labour. I got up and unlocked my door for the first time since I arrived, making my way to m
My baby was hooked to all sorts of machines, and he looked so small and vulnerable, it made my heart bleed. I couldn’t hold him or smell him, I could only see him from afar. He was currently in the neonatal intensive care unit, and we had to wear hospital gowns, gloves, and masks in order to enter the NICU, it felt as though we were handling our child like he was some sort of a virus. I lost count to how many machines he was connected to, I desperately wanted to touch him through the holes on the incubator, and I so wished I could take his place. “I failed him.” “Don’t say that,” Silas said in a heavy voice. I shook my head. "But it's true. I should have taken better care of myself, I should have prioritised myself and my son instead of worrying over irrelevant things. I should have paid more attention to my body when he tried communicating with me.” I recalled all the times I was in pain and chose ignored it instead of calling the doctor or taking the necessary steps and res
The thought of Silas and what he did made my windpipes close every time, I was struggling to understand his reckless and selfish actions. Why would he sentence himself to death without even considering our son for a second? Was the idea of spending his life with me so horrifying that he would rather choose death instead? It would have been much better if my mother was also to blame this time, but she was innocent. He did this to himself, he did this to me. Seeing that note only infuriated me, and I deleted it. I didn’t want to know whatever story he cooked up to justify his selfishness and stupidity. I exited the app and proceeded to dial my sister, hoping a conversation with her would somehow ease my nerves, but I was gutted when it sent me straight to voicemail without ringing. Perhaps it was a network problem because of load shedding, that happened more frequently these days. I thought in an attempt to reassure myself, but my