Lady Black and the mysterious creature of the night

Chapter 5

Her morning began like an ordinal young woman’s morning. On the first crook of the community’s master rooster, she bounced awake. Always confirming with her cell phone if she was up indeed on the right time, 5 a.m. She placed a pot of water on the fire she had just lit outside at the back of the tiny shack. Now, waiting for the water to boil, she went back inside to pick out an outfit for the occasion. She had to pick something dark to hide in well in the shadows, and it had to be her style, in a Mpho form, so that in case people she knew saw her she would not look suspicious at all. Manoeuvring around the tiny room, she kept her noise to a minimum as her brother Karabo was asleep. At 6 a.m. he would be waking up and preparing for school.

The water had boiled, she poured some into a giant flask for her brother and kept the rest for herself. She quickly made herself a bowl of Morvite porridge and set aside to cool while she stood beside a basin with her bath-water. She undressed her pyjamas tossing them aside at a far corner. Now, she began the ritual—rubbed the soapy dump face cloth over her skin. In no time, she was done and she set outside to pour out the water, splashing it across their small patch of grass. When she was dressed and teeth brushed, she then sat down to have her Morvite. She rinsed her bowl and put it back in place. Now, the young woman was double checking if she had everything she would need; a pocket knife, a pair of gloves, a balaclava and her phone paired with earphones. Checking the time—her brother still had 15min of sleep. She knew she had to leave him like that, he would wake himself up in his hour.

It was still cold outside; the fog of the night was only now starting to lift. She played music and plugged in one earphone, leaving the other ear for sounds surrounding. “I believed that I was born for greatness, that I would stand and fight for all my dreams,” she quietly sang the lyrics to her favourite song. It was a good boost for her day ahead. Oh, she loved Amanda Black. She felt that the singer spoke to her.

A few kilometres in and she arrived to her destination. She was standing above some roof, hiding behind the chimney and looking across to the Lantern Brothers’ mention. They were at the backside of their mention sneaking in some boxes from the mini truck. There she could see a fit, medium man with a natural scowl on his face ordering—with only his gestures—two slender tall boys to hurry in with the boxes. 15 medium boxes in total, she was counting. “I just can’t help but wonder if I deserve all of the pain. If all the sweat was all in vain. Will I survive all of the rain to see the sun shining again,” she was vibing to the powerful music playing through her earphone. It was a dragging, lifeless morning and so this upbeat song kept her awake physically and in her soul.

The truck had exited the gate and tiger had closed the garage door. She knew she had to get in there. It was risky, but for her brother it was worth it. She had to find out what was in those boxes. She had now descended someone’s rooftop and was now by the long fence. Mpho had her own special spot in which she entered this building, in fact, it baffled her how they still had not found it. First, she pressed her ear to the wall listening in on any voices, any footsteps and she heard none. All clear. Now, she went on her knees, pulled out the concrete tile and set it aside. There was a hole, she crawled inside going below the thick fence. She came out on the other side—inside. Now, the hard part. She had to enter the building; she was a short woman and hence jumping up to reach the horizontal beams on the veranda without sound was not easy. She tried a few times and she got it. She held tight and pulled her whole body up, she began crawling upside down. There were windows higher up the walls of the garage. She was no stranger to this place at all. In fact, this window was always her portal into the building.

It did seem easier when the windows were open and the curtains would tatter—she would easily make it in without raising suspicion of sudden light picking in. Hence, Mpho had to rely on luck. In these cases, she phrased the famous line, “Picky picky maybe mine, somehow somewhat be my gentleman,” and then pushed open the glass and wormed in at the end of the tune. She was lucky again this time, she was not caught.

Now, in there she hung up on the planks looking down to the men pack up the boxes according to their serial numbers. To her surprise, there were even more boxes of different sizes stored up in that room. “And so, we have a total 7 boxes of the bullets, 5 of g*n powder, 12 rifles and 25 pistols,” said one of the slender boys, Steve, he had a checkboard and a pen in his hand addressing Tiger. “The supplier said that the grenades will be here tomorrow.”

“Well done, Steve. We need to move these boxes out of here, fast, before the others catch-on. Um, Crisp?”

“Yes, boss,” he quickly brought himself over. He had been regrouping the boxes and checking if they were properly sealed.

“Have you got the youngsters lined up?”

“Yes, boss. They’ll be here at 1 a.m. tonight.”

“All of them?”

“Eish, not exactly, boss.” He was scratching his occiput, preparing to lay down his failed assignment, “It’s Mpho’s brother.”

“Mpho?”

Steve helped out his friend, “Bone-cracker from KK’s nest. She’s the kid’s sister, and the kid is Innocent’s best friend.”

Now, it was dunning in on Tiger, “Oh, my nephew’s boy? Wait, he’s the brother to that notorious girl in KK’s club. That is not what we want. I told you, pick only the best behaved.”

“Ow, he is the best behaved, known across the community. Even the police would never suspect him of anything. In fact, he is the most favoured around here. The g*n powder and the bullets are guaranteed to be safe with him. So, Crisp and I approached him…”

“And?”

“He’s very hesitant. We’re working on him.”

“We’re running out time. Just bring the boy to me even if you have drag him here.”

“Boss, I am sure we don’t want any run-ins with his sister. She’s not called Bone-cracker for nothing.”

“A bullet through the skull can switch her off. No hassle required. Bring the boy”

“Yes, boss.”

“Yes, boss.”

The community had many old abandoned buildings. These were once hotels, hospitals, churches and even storages back in the day when the community was thriving but shut down over the years due to the growing crime rate in the area. In this one old building was KK and 20 of his followers. Normally they were 22 collectively, but Mpho was not around on that day—she apparently, had her own agenda that day. This was known to be their dungeon, a meeting place where they gathered on occasions. They had soundproofed the particular room with the main purpose of trapping their words inside. The walls were well covered with egg trays.

That day they gathered to hold a meeting about the Eagle—a forma leader of the Lantern Brothers. “He is alive! Apparently, she never killed him. Gama has him in holding,” almost as though panic was rising among the young women and men. It was also rumoured in the streets that some two white boys looked for this infamous character, “in all of Gama’s warehouses but they couldn’t find him anywhere. Gama still holds the pride that he has him captive somewhere no-one will find him.”

It was questioned why anyone would want to free the Eagle. The streets had become quieter and the community could sleep peacefully now that he was gone. The Eagle was not a favoured character in the community and his fall brought joy to many. However, Nothile explained, “Mpho told me that those boys belong to Richie, he sent them to help the Lantern Brothers in retrieving Eagle back. Richie has some unfinished business with the Eagle, so in order to conclude their business he has to free him first.”

“And what business would that be?” KK—their leader wanted to know already. He sat at a high stool setting himself apart from all of them. He was big with his muscles hanging in the right places and, his voice was deep and almost frightening.

“I don’t know.” Nothile was an outspoken young lady whom passively demanded respect. She was a reliable partner towards Mpho, hence Mpho would share information with her trusting that she would relay it to the rest. “Mpho has been trying to figure that out for months now but it is near impossible from the outside. Richie is no ordinary thug; he knows how to remain extremely discreet. To find anything from his den, we may need a way in.”

Pedro suggested, “We can send one of us in. Boss, you go. We can organize you an expensive tux and a posh ride.”

“You think a cashmere fabric and fancy ride is enough ticket in? Boy, think again. Your identity will be questioned, your past scrutinized and those around you on high surveillance. And you know that the Eagle wanted to shut us down so bad. Everyone knows that. In fact, we were done for if only Great Black didn’t come to our rescue. If we go into that club, we’ll be practically handing ourselves over.”

Ntando proceeded with the agenda, “Gama will only release the Eagle on a fee paid upfront. The white boys are working with the Lantern Brothers to raise the money. It’s about a million Rands.”

As if the topic was released to the floor at large, another one spoke, “A million Rands? That’s nothing to the Lantern Brothers. They are the top dogs in the game.”

“Well, you must understand that the Eagle is their father, so to say,” Nothile continued, “As soon as he predicted his downfall, he took every penny they earned and went down with it. No-one knows where their monies went. To find the money, they first have to have him released. A game well-played, if you asked me.”

However, Pedro did not agree, “I think it was stupid. Now they need the same money to free him.”

“Pedro, my guy, you need to understand that with all that money they would never bother trying to free him. And besides, what they have to gather is far too little from what the Eagle has stacked up. He is worth raising the million for.” Nothile continued to explain why the Great Black would not finish Eagle, “Mpho thinks that there is so much going on. More lies, secrecy and deception in that group. And of which we may have some connection to. There’s a reason why the Eagle wanted to shut us down. It is much more than the need for absolute power, she thinks it is revenge. Bottom line is, the Eagle cannot die. At least, not yet.”

This was news to KK; he was impressed with how much Mpho had gathered. He always considered her very valuable to the team but her only problem, in his opinion, was her morality. He understood that when she started this g**g, her main purpose was to protect the community and she seemed very passionate on that. Years may have passed, but her passion for good never withered in time, instead she became even more determined. And possibly even stronger, wiser and alert. For some reason her ability to gather information so thoroughly was beginning to scare him. After all had been said, KK now wanted way forward, “How do we make sure that the Eagle doesn’t come back?”

A silence. Almost as though everyone was cracking their brains for a solution. There went Pinky, the quietest one in the g**g, the observer, “We should call on the Great Black. She helped us before, maybe she can help again…”

“It is worth a try. Leave it to me, I called her once and I will do it again,” and that was Nothile reassuring everyone. KK ordered Nothile to take Pinky with. And asked Pedro, Ndaba and Gladys to stay behind while the rest dispersed. With that, the meeting was dismissed. It was kind of odd to Pinky when she heard KK ask the trio to stay behind. He always asked for a few minutes with them, and recently they spent an awfully lot of time together. To Pinky it did not seem like a usual hangout among friends, it seemed more like a plot but she said nothing and only continued to observe.

Mpho had exited the Lantern Brothers’ premises. Now she was in the warehouse she often visited. She found no-one—except the lifeless body on the hay. She almost called the ambulance but soon remembered the kitten’s warning, ‘She has come back. There’s a Lady Black in our vault.’ She slotted her phone back in her pocket. She went around the sleeping body examining it. She almost could not believe her eyes. In fact, a part her wanted to doubt the kitten’s words and deem herself a none believer of the occult. But here’s the thing, she believed in such practices, she knew they were real and constantly occurring in the world around them. She began letting go of the doubt she had on the kitten, she began to accept that the previous night did happen—she did hear the kitten talk.

Staring at the woman lying there was a wonder to her, she had read many books about her and even watched documentaries in her teens. Through her, Mpho got introduced to the 5D and many of its mysteries. Now, she could not wait for the cat to come back and tell her all about this legendary woman’s return to her era. Mpho was beginning to feel like a child again who easily believed in fairies and bigfoot. She drew out her hand and gently touched the skin on the woman’s cheek—it was warm and soft. Now, Mpho was convinced that the body was alive somehow.

By now she was back to her usual side of the room. Sitting on a chair at her desk, she was sewing the torn-up parts of her black costume. She always stored the costume beneath the floor under the table. Tonight, she would need it but it was all torn from her last battle. It was a habit to her to talk to herself, that way she could decipher her thoughts thoroughly, “So, he’s not after me. He just wants the boxes stored. Boxes of g*n powder.” She sighed, “He’s just a kid. What monster would do that to young aspiring kids? So, you’ll shoot a bullet through my skull, huh? I would love to see you try.” A pause. And then, “Maybe, I should involve the police in this.” Just like that, she got packing—she took the bag with and hung it at her back. She wrote a shot message on a piece of paper, folded it into a tiny square and slid it in her pocket. Out she went.

It was approaching evening. At a local police station. Mpho was hiding outside in the shadow and could see through the vertical blinds. It was a good view towards Officer Zukisani Mdali’s desk. The windows where open, even. She waited until she could hear Zukisani’s voice and then pulled out her catapult. Carefully, she placed the folded piece of paper on the device, she drew back the rubber-bands and let go shooting the paper through the window to his desk. Soon, she saw a hand of a man pick it up.

This man unfolded the piece of paper, LB @ 1a.m, backside. “Hey, Zukisani! You have a message here!”

Mpho could only hear their voices as the blinds had begun tattering, obscuring her view to their faces. "It says, Lantern Brothers at 1a.m. through the back. I found it here on your desk.”

“As you can hear yourself, on my desk. So, stay away from my desk. Your desk is over there, I don’t come and rummage through your things.”

“Wait, is this a date? Is that why you’re so uptight about this?”

“Oh,” another voice, “a date? Him? Eddie, don’t make me laugh. And you just said that it happens at the backside of the Lantern Brothers. At 1 a.m.…. So, it obviously cannot be a date. I think something big is going down tonight. Should I prepare a big crew?”

“No, Natasha. That is unnecessary. And keep it down, you guys.”

Zukisani had received the message, now Mpho was headed home. By the time she got there, it was dark. She shoved the door open, turned on the light, “Karabo?” Headed to their room and he still was not there. Now, she tried calling his phone but he was not picking up. She started looking around—his uniform was not there and so was his backpack. That meant only one thing: Karabo did not pass by the house. Usually, he would go by the house and change to casual wear, have some little thing to eat while doing homework and only then go out to play. She burst out of the house running. Her bag along.

“But you said at 1a.m.” the girl complained. She was being led into the garage with the other kids around her age—late teens and early 20s.

“We had to shift plans. In this line of business, you need to be flexible because you never know what might go wrong,” said Steve dishing out the packages. They had packed them in backpacks to makes things less suspicious to onlookers outside. All 11 of them left carrying a bag.

Tiger had Karabo in some room. Crisp had dragged the kid in there, “Here he is, boss.” Karabo kept rocking back and forth in Crisp’s tight grip, “Let me go!”

“Let him go, Crisp.”

Crisp released the boy from his grip and the boy fell, but quickly picked himself up. Karabo had no time for any of this, he immediately aimed for the door. The door was locked. He tried kicking and screaming, to no success. Tiger was only sitting at the desk pouring his coffee from his flask to his cup. He was calm. He served Crisp and a third cup for the boy. Crisp brought down and sat too sipping with his boss, both watching the boy. They watched him until he got tired.

Now, Tiger spoke in his soft voice, “Have you come to your senses now? In here, I have the key and no-one will find you. I could keep you here for the night or maybe…forever.” He had a soft soothing, low yet audible voice, “Come join us. I just want to talk.”

“I already told you, no. I am not going to store your things!”

“Hush now, you don’t need to yell.”

“What is that stuff, anyway? Bags of cocaine?”

There was a moment of silence because Tiger was having a sip of his coffee. The man took his sweet time. In fact, he was kind of slow in his gestures, generally. He became even worse whenever he was sipping on coffee. It was almost as though coffee was his tick. He would savour every sip. “You know we can never have a descent conversation until all parties calmly sit down. Sooner we have this talk, the sooner we can all go home. What do you say?”

It was only then that Karabo brought himself closer. He still would not sit. “Sit down. I mean you no harm.”

That just angered the boy, he slammed Tiger’s cup and the hot coffee splashed against his chest flowing down to his thighs. A man in his senses would’ve jumped and tried to wipe off some residue but not Tiger. He only grimaced through the burn while sitting on his chair still. Crisp had jumped and grabbed the boy. Before he could do him any harm Tiger ordered him not to, with just a show of his palm. Crisp let go of the boy and launched back to his chair. “You mean me no harm?!” Karabo was enraged at the hypocrisy, “What exactly do you mean by that when you’re here forcing me to store your dirty merchandise?! What if I get caught by the police? Worse, what happens if I get caught by another g**g? My life will be in danger. In harm’s way!”

“Your sister is Mpho, am I right?”

“Oh, trust me. I am not scared when it comes to her. She’ll just fix you herself.”

“Okay then,” Tiger took out his g*n and got up. It was only now that the boy was complying, he quickly sat down, “Wait! Let’s… Let’s talk. Man to man.” Tiger did not want to seem so desperate, he paused stretching time. Mostly, he wanted to hear the boy beg. “Let’s sit down. Calm our nerves down. Put away the g*n. And talk it out,” Karabo used his sister’s tone instead, as if he was talking to some angry little child. Each sentence was dragged towards the end to give off that dramatic effect.

Tiger was somewhat impressed with this boy. For some reason, he began liking him. He sat back down. “So, what do you want me to store for you?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

"So, why me anyway?”

“You’re the chosen one.”

“Right. So, where is this…you know…”

“Crisp will take you to the other room where you’ll be given a bag and you are required to hide the bag well. If anything goes wrong, your sister will go wrong. Don’t think of taking it to the police, I will find out and you together with your sister will pay. You will pay with your lives.”

A woman in all things black including the mask on her face and the long coat that dragged on the ground appeared out of nowhere like some mysterious creature. Great Black. She was named the Great Black by those who may have seen her. She had hair so wild and puffy, it went all the way to her back. It was in the Lantern Brother’s garage. She was searching for Karabo. Soon, she went through to other areas of the huge building all the while keeping out of sight.

By 1a.m., the three officers—Zukisani, Natasha and Eddie—budged into the Lantern Brothers’ garage. There they started searching the place, unsure of what they should be looking for. It was with hope that they would find something. Meanwhile, Tiger stood aside very confident in himself, and he stood with a smirk on his face even. That smirk angered these hard labouring officers even more. In fact, it was because of this smirk that they stayed so long searching for some unknown. Maybe, if they found something, they’d have the last laugh. Sadly, they walked out empty handed.

Zukisani dropped his two colleagues off at the station and made a turnaround, he did not want to miss his meeting with a special someone. He always met up with this individual at night at some rooftop far away from eyes of the public. A long distance through the empty silent street, and he was where he wanted to be. Every part of him wished he would find her there. He did not want to miss her again. It had been long since he last saw her. And he had burning questions for her that only she could answer.

The mystical woman, named Great Black, had accepted that she would not find Karabo anywhere in that building. She left the building. Now, she had a new agenda. She had a good friend to meet with at some rooftop. She wanted answers. Her coat tattered in the wind behind her and her big hair bounced on each of her jumps from one trough to the next. She had such skill at leaping atop people’s roofs like a cat—silent and steady. When there were no more roofs to spring on, she began racing through the open street. She was so fast that she had almost ran into the woman strolling across. It was a close flash past her, the woman did seem familiar, almost as though she saw her somewhere. Great Black was one alert young woman, she caught on that the woman had began chasing behind her. Like running from a tumbling building, she raced so fast that the wind pierced through her fabrics landing on her skin. Great Black managed to leave her somewhere among the houses.

Great Black was glad to have found Zukisani at the rooftop. “Took you long to show up,” he had an attitude. “I received a letter from you. My trusted team and I went there but we found nothing. I think Tiger moved whatever we were supposed to find just in time before we got there.” He paused for the woman’s thoughts on this. The woman said nothing. He continued, still all grumpy about another failed detection he had recently had, “I also wanted to talk about the Eagle. We had an agreement. You were to take down the Eagle and hand him over to me. But you went and gave him up to Gama, as the rumours say. Gama of all people?! What, do you work for him now? Listen, you work for me—”

She would not have his attitude like that. Immediately, she pounced at him and had his neck in her palm—pinning him against the wall. He heard her speak in his mind in different voices all at once, “I do not work for you.”

She had loosed her grip around his throat a little bit to enable him to speak, “How did the Eagle land in Gama’s cage? How did that happen?”

“I did my part. You took your own sweet time. Gama and his soldiers flooded the area and I flee.”

“You’re confessing that you saw Gama actually take the Eagle? You have to come to the station and make a statement so that I can get a search warrant to his home.”

Now, she let him go. It felt good to be free, he loosened up and quickly brought his attention back to the business at hand. He had made an important request from her and he hoped she would grant it. However, a big part of him already knew she would never agree to that. Her identity was everything to her—the woman had her face hidden in a mask, and communicated her words through telepathy. Now how could a woman like that agree to such a request? “I don’t work like that,” she leapt back to the fence on the roof. She spread her arms and let herself fall over. He may had seen her do that many times but it still seemed as new, and each time it scared him for her life. He quickly ran to look over, but like always, he saw nothing but a tiny world down below.