Lady Black and the mysterious creature of the night

Chapter 3

“Look!” cried the Angel… My Guardian Angel. The Angel of mercy. “Your body has recovered!”

My finger had just flicked and only he saw that while I was fixing up the room. We were in the old abandoned warehouse. It was dusty and empty. I blew winds, soft winds across the surface to push the dirt aside. My Angel had told me that my powers were a little weak considering that I hadn’t gone through transformation. Wait till I bounce back to life, oh, I will wreak havoc! It had been months since we got here and all I’d been doing, except the wait, was clear up this new mention of mine. Oh, and I had vision, I had ideas on what this building should look like but unfortunately all I could do in that state of mortality was clean up.

It had been months since the Angel and the young soul arrived back on earth. They had been waiting on the body that stretched on some piles of hay to recover. After it had recovered and become strong enough to carry a soul, the young soul could only then step inside and come to life again. Upon the Angel’s gasp, she immediately stopped what she was doing, of which was something involving the bending of the wind to blow away the dirt, and she quickly rushed to the body. Standing there, watching it. She was expectant to see something but there was no mobility. “Um, recovered, you said?”

“Yes!” almost as though excited, “Recovered!”

“Pardon me, kind one. Have me learn what you mean by recovered.”

“Your finger just moved! And we talked about this, you need to change the way you speak if you want to fit in just fine around here. We are in the 21st century now.”

“Right, right,” she quickly went aside, picked up a book from a scattered pile and schemed through a few lines. “Oh, why! My, my that is quite—no. Wrong. Oh, wow! That is great news, I wish I had seen that!”

“And by the looks of things, you might start inserting back in there in a few hours.”

They had moved into this warehouse as soon as they left the gate of the afterlife. They were in a small community known to many as Khayelitsha, Cape Town. They had been hiding in there all along. The Angel would stretch the woman’s body and rub on it some herbs during specific intervals of time. Amidst those time intervals, he would take the woman’s soul out for a walk around the new world. She would marvel at some things and mock at a few. This new world was very fascinating to her. She had expected people in the same old rags, chasing the wild life for food and tribes in unending wars. Instead, what she saw a ‘peaceful’ generation, dressed decently and going to work. She saw computers, cars and fancy buildings. She picked an interest in the structure of the buildings, the wires that ran through walls to bring light and, the pipes that brought in water and flashed out waste. It was amazing to her. Indeed, her memory was wiped off, but she did retain some. And from the little things she remembered, none of what she saw in the current century was there before. In fact, she had a flashback to when she was chasing lion cubs around the jungle, on her was dried animal skin for clothing and her hair wild like the Greek’s Medusa.

“Did you hear that?!” she turned to the closed door far aside.

“Yes, yes, there’s a girl on the other side of the door.”

“There is?”

“She frequently comes here for just few hours. We must have been missing her the past few months.”

“Well, what is she doing here?”

“Now-now, my dear. Have you become so territorial? This is her ‘spot’.”

With her head high now, a new level of confidence had just activated, “I am here now, she must leave! There cannot be two queens in one castle.”

She marched through the door, after pulling it with a summon of the wind, and was then on the other side. There she saw a girl, Mpho, sitting on the ground with her back rested against the wall. She saw her in deep thoughts, almost as though bothered by something. “Why does she look so familiar?” she asked the Angel who was then standing aside her.

“You could’ve just walked through the wall. Why would you open the door, do you want her to come and see your body laying down there?”

“Focus, damnit! Do I know her from somewhere? Her aura, something’s so… The same but yet changed.”

“She used to be a bad person but she has changed now. Changed for the better.”

“A cat… A cat, that cat.” As the black cat walked in and headed towards Mpho.

She now focused to listen in on their conversation. “You need to leave this place. There’s a bad omen I just had.” The girl was only focused at feeding the cat, “Hey, it’s your favourite.”

“Listen to me! This place is no longer safe for you. Leave!” the kitten maintained the intense gaze at Mpho. It slammed away the biscuits in Mpho’s fingertips. “There’s no time for this right now. I don’t want the biscuits; I want you to save yourself. This building… In the other room, I…”

Suddenly, the kitten turned to the side and saw a young woman and the angel standing there, “Oh, God of all things living!” Mpho started patting the kitten but the kitten pushed away her palm. “You cannot see the danger staring at you.”

“Hey, what’s wrong? Are you sick? Should I take you to a vet?”

“Is there a way I can make you understand me?

The kitten pounced off her lap and started heading out. Almost showing an attitude, “You’ll be dumb enough not to follow me.”

“Hey, you’re leaving? But you just got here. Should I come along?” she was getting up and the kitten screeched, “Why, of course, you should come along!”

“Okay, okay. I’m not coming. You’re acting weird today. Come back tomorrow then!”

“Ow, brother!” the kitten was gone by now. She was alone again to decipher her thoughts by herself this time. She got on her palms and began on push-ups.

At night when the full moon was vivid and the surrounding was dead quiet, the woman’s soul was starting to fade. One could almost see through her diminishing opaque form. The moon was so territorial of the night sky that its blaze chased away the near stars. Not even a chirp from crickets, a bark from stray dogs or hoots from Great horned owls was heard that night. This was done so to pay respect, for the Great Lady Black was awakening again. The undying one was coming to life again. This was the time she had been waiting for, it would be understandable if she jumped with tremendous joy. However, she paid no mind to any of that. Rather, she was rummaging through her microscopic memory, “Who are they?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, the transformation has begun. My child, you are coming to life!”

“That cat…”

“Are you still pacing in your ghost mind about those two we saw earlier?”

“Angel, tell me something! I know those people, right? Our paths have crossed somehow.”

“Hey, it’s a… It’s a new world, new people, and new life. This is your first time in this era. Hence, it is highly debatable that you know anyone around here.”

“I know that I know that cat. I just know it!”

The Angel was by the body’s side, watching it slowly come to life. He may had seen all this before but it was still fascinating to him. His ears with a sharp sense of hearing could clearly hear her heart begin to take a few pumps. While listening to that, he was also listening to her talking while pacing around completely oblivious of what was going on. She was in deep thoughts trying to join the bits of information together. “Somehow, I don’t like those two. Are they my enemy?”

“You had way too many enemies. How do you keep track of all of them? You probably just don’t like that they found this place first.”

“No. That’s not it. I know there’s more. And there’s something about that cat.”

“Okay. I’ll give you a hint. Somethings are not as we see them?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean somethings are not as we see them.”

Highly disappointed in the Angel’s response, she rolled her eyes and was about to ask more questions to seek clarity on what he meant by, “somethings are not as we see them,” but just like that, she vanished into thin air. Right at that, the body that had laid on the hay for months now, pounced to life in a sitting position. A few breaths, and she started looking around, studying the room. Finally, as her head turned, she saw the Angel’s face brimming with a huge smile almost as though marvelling at what he saw. “Well, hello there,” said he.

She began getting up but the Angel gently held her down, “I wouldn’t advice that. You need to stay put. Rest more.”

“I’ve been on rest for months. No, years. I think I have taken all the rest there is on this planet.”

“Alright, how about you rest a few more hours? Just so your body and soul become intact again. I know you have things to do, but you have to take this rest.”

She laid back down. He stood up and went aside. He came back with a bowl of brown liquid, “I prepared soup for you.”

“Soup?”

“What, you want porridge? The last time, I gave you porridge, you couldn’t take in a single spoon in. And then you passed out from not eating.”

“Ow, yeah. I remember that.”

“You remember?!”

“Yeah, and you had to feed me through some pipe. I remember… Wait, I remember?”

“Yes, that’s what you just said! Black, you have unlocked a new memory!”

“Ah, I guess, I have. I think I may love this memory recovery deal. Wait, that is all I have to do to pass the gate of the afterlife, right?”

“What? Are you telling me you’re tired of living already?”

“Hey, apparently, I have lived 1100 years in this planet. It’s about time I go see the other side.”

“Well, if you pay the debt quickly then off, you’ll go.”

For centuries, she roamed on the surface of the earth crashing lives and causing destruction on every path her feet walked on. In the current century, back to life again for the third time, she was surprised that her story never died. In fact, she was a mystical creature in fiction novels and children’s story books. There may had even been a few historical documentaries that discussed “mythologies” surrounding her. She realised that some believed in those mythologies and some dismissed them as fantasy.

Her life had begun again and this time it would not be so easy, it seemed. By now, she was pacing through her mind how she would go about settling her spiritual debt. The Angel had now told her, “you’re not only back here to recover your lost memory, but you’re also here to find and free the missing spirits.”

She mocked the ‘idea’ with a gasped laugh, “What do you think I am? The Grim Reaper?”

“The Grim claims these spirits and erases their existence, but you will only be freeing them so that they can reach the gate of the afterlife. Many of them have been trapped here someplace and so they are stuck. Some have been stuck for thousands of years and some only recently.”

“So, where do I find these… These ‘trapped souls’? Where do I go, who do I suspect?”

“Give it a day or two, some memory regarding this might just pop in,” he stood up and started heading towards the door. “And you be careful, okay? And no havoc this time.”

She was surprised to see him glisten in his blaze as he created distance between themselves, “Wait, you’re leaving? I’m supposed to do this alone?”

“I am always here. I will show when you need me the most.”

She could not bear the thought of him leaving just like that. Black had grown fond of her Angel now, she never anticipated him leaving at all, “You can’t just go, just like that. I order you to stay!”

“What am I? Your servant? And I must advice you to be kind to that girl, she is very valuable to you succeeding in this match…” and with that his shine faded and evaporated to nothing.