by Botha, Johan
Tubby thought of the young ox that he and Danny and his father had slaughtered the week before. It was very fat and they had cut a lot of it away to get to the red meat of the animal.
With blood and guts coming out of his stomach Tubby looked up and saw a figure looking down at him.
Dum….dum… dum…dumdummm…
The drums sudden and almost deafening as he felt a pleasant dizziness come over him.
The figure above him was laughing. Tubby shivered, feeling a deep hopelessness wash over him.
Faintly someone called his name and he thought he recognized his Dad’s voice far away as darkness overcame him.
Dad, I’m coming to you…wait for me…don’t run away again….Dad….
An icy feeling against his neck, then nothing.
A gurgling sound came from his throat as blood started to ooze out of the wound.
****
Danny was the first to reach him.
“Tubby! O, god, Tubby…what happened?”
Danny grabbed him as he fell forward from his kneeling position. Horrified at what he saw he jumped up again letting Tubby fall to the ground.
Stepping backwards he almost tripped David.
Lucky came onto the scene just as all of Tub’s guts poured out of the gaping wound.
“FUCK! WHAT THE FUCK!” Lucky screamed out, looking back and forth at David and Danny, jumping up and down. His eyes were wide with disbelief as he looked to them for an explanation. Danny just stared at the lump of flesh that was his friend, while David stuttered at Lucky.
Tubby stretched out his arm to them, or was he reaching towards someone else?
Danny was the first to react and rushed back to Tubby who was lying on his side with his knees bent underneath his body.
Danny stared into the open eyes and knew that he was dead. He bent down next to the mutilated body of his best friend and looked up at the others with tears rolling down his cheeks. His face, drawn in a mask of pain and sorrow. They were like brothers and now he was alone.
The two other boys came nearer. They said nothing.
Lucky went down on his knees. He started singing an old African song. A song of friendships. Tenderly he touched Tubby’s face and looked at Danny.
“Come… We have to cover him … fetch some help.”
His voice was soft and caring for his friend who just sat there looking into space and holding Tub’s head on his lap.
“Come on guys, we have to go!” David said, breaking the solemn spell they had fallen under. “Whatever did this to Tubby might still be here!”
The two boys got up and followed David, grateful to be able to follow his confident lead.
The plant growth was still thick on the slopes of the mountain and they decided to go back to camp to fetch Tub’s sleeping bag. They would then return and cover him up before deciding about getting help from town.
The farm was about 10 k’s from them and they all knew that Peter would help without a doubt.
Near the camp, David, who was still in the lead, suddenly stopped and showed the others to be quiet.
“I think I heard something.” He whispered.
“I thought so too but I was not sure.” Danny replied, feeling steadier.
“Let’s split into three and surround the camp.” David looked around and picked up a thick branch as he said this.
Lucky and Danny did the same but could not find anything strong enough except for a fist size rock that Danny gave to Lucky.
“I hope that the bastard is here! I’ll kill him with my own hands!” Anger started to take over the grief that Danny felt for his friend.
“Be careful, we don’t know what we are dealing with – man or animal… don’t put yourself into any danger.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“Danny, now is the time for you to be calm. We have always relied on you.”
Lucky looked at his friend and could see the hatred in his eyes.
“Come, let’s go… we’re wasting time.” David said just as a loud crack sounded from the camp.
They all rushed there with only one thing on their minds and that was to get Tubby’s killer.
The scene that greeted them was one of devastation.
Their stuff was scattered all over and the tent was ripped to pieces. The framework that held it together was broken and their sleeping bags were torn into shreds.
“Holy Shit…” Lucky expressed, looking around their camp.
They looked around for foot or paw prints but only wasted their time, there was nothing. It seemed as if some mad animal from hell had attacked the camp.
“Wait here.” Danny said to David.
“Lucky and I will take a walk around the camp and try to see if we can find anything.”
He looked at Lucky who agreed with a nod of his head and followed him.
“Let’s walk right around. Maybe we can pick up some trail or something that would give us an indication of what happened here.”
“No problem.” Lucky said nervously.
I’m sure that it’s the forefathers that David spoke about. It must be an evil spirit. We are not supposed to walk on this mountain. It belongs to them…
The hair in his neck was raised and he had goosebumps all over. A shiver went up his spine as he looked around.
Chapter 12
At the camp, David rolled himself a joint and was taking the first pull on it, while waiting for the boys to patrol the camp.
He blew out a cloud of thick smoke and looked up. Through the haze of the thick smoke he saw something.
A shadow lurking towards him.
It came straight at him!
He went numb. He tried to scream but nothing came over his lips as he looked into the ugly distorted face of a dwarf -like figure that grew larger and larger. His vision seemed distorted.
Everything was hazy and in this trancelike state as he sat there - frozen in fear and revulsion.
His eyes followed its movement towards him and he noticed with dread the unearthly nature of its penis, dangling almost on the ground. Its legs bowed outwards and warts stood out like small scaly humps all over his body.
The eyes seemed to glow as he stared at it and for a moment he thought that he saw an actual flames flare up inside the eye sockets. Its claw-like warty hands had long fingers with dagger-pointed nails growing out at the end of it.
The joint fell from David’s fingers and he tried to stand up. His body did not co-operate. He could not move a muscle. The only part of him that could move was his eyes!
His energy was drained as if the creature fed on it!
Nearer it came, this monster-thing from his nightmares, until it stood right in front of him. The rotten stench from the creature reached David first, as if to suffocate him.
He retched almost gagging in his own vomit. It filled his mouth and spread down over his chin.
The thing moved in slow motion.
It raised an arm into the air.
Once again David tried to move away!
Move man! Fuck move!
David’s last memory of his life is the huge penis dangling grotesque in front of his eyes.
Shiny, horrible…deadly …snakelike.
****
Dum … dumdumm… dum …dumdummm.
“Do you hear drums?” Danny asked as they circled back toward the camp.
Dum…dumdummm…dum…dumdummm…
It echoed through the mountain and sounded from within its bowels.
“David!” Lucky shouted as he began to run, “David is in danger!”
Danny’s eyes opened wider and he ran after Lucky with renewed energy and dread.
They skidded into the circle of light in the camp to find David sitting as still as could be, like a statue… staring straight in front of him.
Smelling the marijuana, the boys relaxed, figuring David was relieving the stress of the night with a joint.
“David! Come let’s go!” Danny shouted at him, hoping to rouse him from
his stupor, “We gotta get out of here.”
There was no response.
Lucky turned back toward the camp and looked again as David had not moved. “David! Come on man…”
Danny turned his head, Lucky gaining his attention, and they both circled David’s unmoving body.
Just then a gust of wind blew through the torn camp and it lifted David’s bloody shirt where it was ripped through.
From the cast of the moonlight the boys could see the dark red stain over David’s chest, and his lack of animation was clear now.
“God! No! FUCK NO… Not again!” Danny screamed.
Danny rushed to David’s aid and tripped over the rocks that held the ashes of the fire.
He fell right onto David and as he tried to stop himself he heard Lucky scream. At the same time felt a hot wetness as something fell onto his shoulder and rolled down right next to his face. He rolled onto the ground, across the hot ashes.
As the pain in his face and shoulder subsided Danny opened his eyes to crawl up off the ground and found himself looking straight into David dark eyes, his face surrounded by flames. Danny screamed and jumped up to pull David out…but his body wasn’t in the fire…
All he saw there was David’s head. The eyes staring in horror as the hair lit up in flames!
Danny kicked it out of the burning coals with a whimpering cry, vowing to block this from his mind at the nearest possible moment. In his mind it registered that the cut was clean as if someone had chopped it off with a sharp sword.
Someone touched him and he screamed again before he realized that it was Lucky.
“I think that we better get away from here before we die to!”
There was no answer from Danny.
“Come on!” Lucky shouted and shook his friend.
****
They started walking down the slope, exhausted mentally and emotionally. They felt nearly beaten. However, the further they moved from their camp, the stronger they felt, and the faster they started walking until both of them were running as fast as they could.
Something at the camp drained their now returning energy.
“Slow down!” Danny said through spurts of breathing. “We are going to hurt ourselves then we would be of no use to a search party.”
They stopped in their tracks and Lucky sat down against a tree. Their breathing was labored and their bodies were sweat -drenched.
“Listen!” Lucky said as he suddenly jumped up.
“What? What is it?” Danny was startled with this sudden reaction from Lucky and was ready to run again.
“I hear drums. African drums.”
“I can start making them out. We better move. I am sure that is the same sound that we heard every time something happened. FUCK, Let’s go, go, GO!… ”
“Yebo, let’s move.”
They started running again not knowing, but fearing what is behind them. They ran into a natural dip and suddenly felt as if they ran straight into a freezer.
“It’s here!”
Lucky could feel the goose pimples on his skin and tried to run faster. It felt to him as if there were a thousand eyes watching them as they struggled forward.
“Watch out!” Lucky screamed with horror on his face.
“What’s going on?” Danny asked as he tried to see what his friend was screaming about.
“Don’t you see it?”
“What? I see nothing!”
“Blood… there is blood around us.” Lucky seemed to falter in his stride but was grabbed by Danny who pulled him forward.
“Come on, Buddy. We don’t have far to go.”
“I’m tired... My legs feel lame. You … carry on. Get help ... come and get me.”
“You can forget about that. I’m not ...”
Danny grabbed a tighter hold on Lucky and with strength coming from somewhere in his body he half carried his friend.
“…Leaving you here!”
“Come on, Lucky! I have lost two friends today and I am not going to let you die too!” Danny encouraged.
They carried on like this for another 15 minutes. Breathless and tired they stopped. Falling onto the ground.
Danny closed his eyes against the sunsets glare and tried to regulate his breathing. Lucky was very quiet and Danny knew that he was still in shock after what had happened earlier with Tubby and David.
He sat up and opened his eyes.
Lucky was sitting there, staring straight in front of him. He did not even seem to breathe as his rigid body sat there like a statue.
Danny looked in the same direction and tried to see what it was that caused this.
“What is it Lucky!”
The silence was eerie as Danny tried to make out what his friend was seeing. His breath was short and hurried as he tried to fill his lungs...
A slight breeze allowed the tree leaves to talk to each other.
Then silence again.
A cricket wants to rub his hind legs together but decides against it.
Nothing moves. Even the clouds stand still.
Not far from them a small jackals pricks up its ears. There is no sound for him to hear. It lets out an anguished yelp and puts its tail between it legs. It rushed into it hiding place where it curled up, not making even the slightest sound.
It seems even if the ghosts in the woods knew that something is wrong.
Time is still.
A soft rumbling starts up from the inside of the mountain, like a lover’s moan upon a first touch, then a second. Softly … slowly it grows into an orchestra of sound. The mountain shook slightly then suddenly it seems to get a life of its own.
The clouds are moving again, coming together like an angry pack of lions. They merge, and crush each other, bursting from their confines and whipping themselves into froth. Their darkness suddenly kills the sun in all its glory.
Lightning throws its spear into the woods and a huge old Oak gets split in the middle. Its sap turning so hot from the strike that it causes the old trunk to explode in a thousand pieces of shrapnel.
This seems to wake Lucky up out of his trance as he lifts his arm pointing towards a small cluster of trees in front of him.
“It’s there… the Tokoloshe… it’s going to kill us too!”
“What? No. Come on. We have to go… we’ve wasted enough time already!”
He pulled Lucky up and they started walking. Slowly at first, picking up the pace as they realized that salvation might be around the next bend.
Once Lucky looked around and seemed to have an adrenaline surge through his body as he picked up speed.
“The drums are getting louder!” he said.
In front of them Danny could see lights ahead. Peter’s farm. Even with his broken heart, Peter was a good man, and would help them. Everyone trusted Peter and Danny knew they could go there anytime they were in need.
Danny focused on the lights ahead, holding Lucky and ignored the world exploding around him. Lighting pierced the earth behind each step, as if playing a game of dare with a sharp knife. Danny shoved out all the unimaginable terror he had witnessed this night and focused on salvation.
xxx
“Huh…what the hell was that?” Bert shouted in shock.
He was awake instantly and the echo of the thunder was sounding through the little town. He scratched his crotch absentmindedly; he could feel his erection there. He took a moment to rub it thru his dingy shorts. Hot and hungry…he hasn’t had a woman in years.
Bert looked at the window as he switched the bed lamp on.
Oh God! Not again…
The blood on the windows darkened giving the interior of his room a mysterious glow.
Instead of his erection fading with shock it only became harder. The wetness of his head glistened in the night as he gripped it harder.
Mmmmmm
He looked down and saw that his big stomach was full of scratches, he wasn’t surprised or afraid. He had no reaction. His eyes seemed to tilt into his head as he got u
p from the bed.