It all began with a normal call from my boss to his office. I was so busy having lunch with my friends when Alfred, my austere looking boss. Called me and asked me to investigate and report a story about a missing couple.
For a second, I thought he was playing a plunk on me. Because, for so long I had been overlooked by my superiors. They usually gave me, minor tasks and gave the homicides and missing persons to my male colleagues. So it was obvious this came to me as a shock.
As I made my way into his office, a chill filled my whole body and I swallowed, the big man was sitting behind the table on a swirl chair. His hands were clasped on top of a file on the table and as I entered, his eyes moved up to me. I shivered.
The editor in chief, was a tall austere looking man that gave me goosebumps everyone time he called me to his office. I didn’t know whether it was his nature or it all came with the job, but he was not an easy man to impress.
He signalled for me to take a seat and I carefully did. No one knew where they stood with this man, it was best to be cautious at all times.
“ I have a meeting in ten minutes, so I will just cut to the chase.” He said.
“ Maya, you’ve worked here for five years and I know of your passion and diligence in this work . So am giving you this task to prove yourself if you’re worth your seat in this agency......”
I shifted in my seat and swallowed.
“ .....for the past six months cases of missing people has increased in number here in the southern region. What’s so suspicious is that all of these missing people are said to have been last seen going to the country.”
My blood was racing as he explained the details of my assignment. I realised that this was a big story. My prime guess was that it all had to do with some human trafficking group residing in Kankhobwe town and tracing newbies to shield the eyes of the locals. It was a possible hypothesis and I was getting extremely excited.
“......so, you have been assigned to go to the country and investigate . Keep a low profile and make sure no one suspects of your intentions.”
I was given all important info and I left for the country the following day. I arrived at a middle class hotel that the agency had booked for me and took no time to delve into the assignment.
The country was sparsely populated and most of its residents resided inside big live fences. I realised that my job was not going to be easy because the people seemed quite reserved. I started with the people in restaurants and other public places. I was being cunning with the way I asked for information. Chatty women were my target. They seized every chance to be friends with anyone who was willing to listen to them talk and I was a willing subject with a purpose.
A few days went by, the investigation was going no where. I had conducted a number of interviews and tried meticulously to gather evidence to prove that this was another human trafficking act. But nothing was working, the locals strictly denied any sort of strange activities going on. They claimed that this was the most peaceful place in the world and none of the claims were true.
Before I knew it they accused me of spreading abominable rumours. Despite of all of these setbacks, I succumbed to give up.
One day, after a long day of investigating. I sat down on my hotel bed and started rereading my files. I compared my findings with some of the cases that had took place some time back and there was not much to live on.
I decided to go on the internet and search for similar cases. And as usual, the internet did not disappoint.
I found a case dating back to five years ago. A family of four had gone missing for three weeks and were later found dead in their house . The autopsy results ruled out death due to strangulation. Another case was of a couple, two newly weds. They had just gotten married and decided to buy a house in the outskirts of the town. A week after they had settled in in their new home, they went missing for a good three weeks and were later found dead in their home. Cause of death, strangulation.
As obvious as it was , I was quick to spot the queer existence of the cause of death and of course the span of the victims' time of disappearance. However, I felt that I was missing something. I scrolled down for a good hour and as I was about to give up, I stumbled upon a creepy image of a crime scene. Even though the case was parallel to what I was looking for, something coaxed me to read the report. At the end of it, I was more terrified than ever, the scene was gloomy and just looking at it made my skin crawl. I went back to the two cases I had spotted earlier and something started working in my head.
I studied the pictures on the two cases , then went back to the one I had just found. All three pictures had one thing in common. An ordinary house with washed out blue paint .
I wrote down the location of the house and promised myself to go there the next day in the morning.
The sky shone brightly casting its golden glow upon the tranquil land of man. It felt like mockery to me as I felt it tingle my skin, there was no reason for the sun to shine so bright when I was feeling so dark inside.
There were a few houses on this side of the town and the few that I had seen seemed deserted.
I ignored the creepy feeling that was developing inside me. That feeling one gets when being watched. Yeah, I was having that. But I chose to man up, I needed to prove myself and this was my only way.
The blue house I had seen on the picture stood in front of me gallantry like a giant monster ready to swallow me alive. It stood far away from other houses and for a deserted house, the surroundings looked well tended to. It looked just like on the picture from six months ago. I took my small camera and took a picture of it before circling it.
“ looking for a house to rent?”
I nearly dropped from a heart attack. I was not expecting anyone to be around and his appearance came in as a shock.
The man was tall with a muscular
physique and chiselled features that made him look so out of place, almost like he wasn’t meant to belong in this part of town. His blackhair had been left unkept, his face was wrinkled with deep scars that were quite disturbing to look at. It took me a moment to compose myself. I put my camera inside my bag and looked down at the man. He was standing on the lane that passed by the house leading out of town.
“ Yeah, and this one looks quite interesting.” I said, trying so hard to hide the quiver in my voice.
The man chuckled and gave me a sinister gaze before looking away .
“ its under renovation. Come back after three weeks.”
The mentioning of three weeks made my legs quiver a bit. I cleared my throat and stepped away from the house.
“ I will do that then.” I said , I had the heart to interview the man. But he presented a dark aura that not even my ordinary self could miss.
I decided to leave and look some place else for information but as I was about to walk past him. He grabbed my arm and whispered.
“ we are waiting for you.”
I pulled away from him and flashed him a nervous smile before walking long strides away from him. When I turned to look at him again, he was not there. A chill went all over my body and it was worse when I saw movement by the window inside the house.
I went back to the hotel but did not go straight to my room. Instead, I decided to sit by the restaurant for a while and maybe have an early supper before going to bed. It was an outdoor restaurant for both people who were putting up in the hotel and some locals.
I sat quietly staring at the house on my camera. How could a person go missing and be found in their house? And why Was it the very same house for both crimes? I slammed my head on the table and sighed heavily. I was definitely going to lose my job.
“ excuse me, can I sit?”
I looked up and saw a dark skinned lady dressed in a floral dress. She looked to be in her middle ages and she seemed a little shaky and nervous.
“ is everything okay?” I asked her.
She nodded and gave me a wry smile. “ it is not, but please pretend to look like it is.” She said still smiling.
I was puzzled, I slid my hand down to my pockets and turned my recorder on before averting my attention to her.
“ Okay, am confused.” I stated.
She sighed heavily. “ listen, I know why you’re here. And am here for the same reason, however am afraid am in trouble.”
I shifted in my seat, this was getting interesting. “ what do you mean, you’re in trouble?” I asked.
“ My name is Dakota, I work with the daily news. A week ago, I was assigned to investigate the case of missing persons in this town. I willingly came because I wanted to prove myself. When I came here at first, it all seemed normal.....you know like a normal town with normal people, but as I went deep into my investigation I unleashed something I didn’t expect....” she paused and looked at me.
I felt myself get excited and chilled at the same time. I wanted to know what it was she found out.
“ what was it?” I asked.
“ did you find anything on the internet?” she asked.
I nodded. “A house where two crimes were committed.”
She clicked her finger. “ I uploaded that a few days ago....”
I found that hard to believe, I took my phone and checked the dates of the articles. The crimes were dated five years ago but the date of upload was merely four days back. I looked up at her and saw it all in her eyes.
“ these things have never been on the internet, in fact am sure they will disappear soon. But that will not matter, because I have everything here. She gave me a file under the table and I quickly began to study it.
“ That house, used to belong to a man named Mr Philip. He was as rich as most residents in this small town and he had two children, a teenage boy and six years old girl. They were an exemplary family, most children wished they had been born to this family , Mr Phillip knew how to spoil his children and wife, but little did people know that this was just an act of showing off. Behind closed doors, the wife and children were abused. This went on for a while until one fateful night when the mother was fade up. She poisoned her children, removed their eyes and dressed them in tattered clothes. It is said that the woman knew some sort of witchcraft and it is believed that she cursed the whole town using her blood and that of her children. Mr Phillip fled the town and the town’s people were left to deal with two angry spirits of children.” She explained.
My body was so frozen on the spot. However, I was curious as to what any of this had to do with the disappearance of the people.
“ I know you’re wondering what all of this has to do with the missing people and the crimes I uploaded. Well.....before the woman died, she made sure that her children put the people of this town in misery. It was her way of accusing them for not seeing what was going on . So, the spirits of the two children appeared after every five years to feed. They entered homes and killed the whole family without mercy. The town's people got restless and went seeking help from a man who knows some sort of magic from a near by town.......you might guess his help..”
“ sacrifices?”
She nodded. “ after every five years, the towns people should offer a sacrifice of about six people in that house. Then they would live in peace until the next five years ...... The people could not sacrifice one of their own, so they decided to take new comers and offer them as sacrifice to the children. They even went as far as renting the house so that it would be easy for them to kill their victims. The town's people are so discreet about this, it was easy for me to find this information because I bumped into an old companion......but am afraid she will not let me go out of this town.”
“ Why?” I asked.
She smiled. “ I don’t think she would want their big secret out of here.”
“ Then do you think they will let me?” I asked.
“ That is why you need to leave now. Call for help, it takes three weeks for the spirits to kill their victims. Definitely if you hurry, I might survive.”
After this new revelation, I went back to my room. The darkness had already creeped in. I packed my staff and made a quick call to my boss. I requested a ride immediately and they told me to wait for forty minutes. To me forty minutes was a long time but I chose to wait. Thirty minutes went.
As I waited, a cold chill swept through me and my body froze. The bulb began to flicker and without warning it turned off, darkness filled the whole room. I crunched my back and sauntered to the door but midway I felt a hand touch my shoulder.
I jerked and screamed . Adrenaline coursed through my veins that even in the thick darkness that was almost touchable, I managed to find the knob and opened the door .
The burst of light into my eyes almost knocked me off but the terror inside was so great that I did not stop. I galloped out of the room into the dim lit corridor of the hotel unaware of where I was going.
Suddenly, a bloodcurdling laughter echoed through the corridors causing my legs to go stiff. I was breathing so hard my lungs ached, I turned back to the direction I was coming from and my breath caught in my throat.
My eyes widened with fear as I welcomed the sight in front of me. I was staring at a human being, a teenage boy with black hollow sockets for eyes, he was wearing shredded clothes and beside him was a more terrifying sight of a maybe six years old little girl in a tattered white dress soaked in blood. Yes, it was definitely blood dropping on the floor.
I could not scream, I was so scared my stomach lurched and bile filled my mouth. The two strangers stood so still, their hollow gazes at me and a sickening grin on both of their lips. So it was true.
“It’s your time to play with us.....Maya” The little girl said with a giggle.
I started moving backwards while shaking my head. “ Please.....don’t hurt me.” I cried.
“ We don’t want to hurt you.....we just want to play.” They said in unison and the way they said it was creepy.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I turned on my heels and made a run for it. Their unnerving laughter echoed through the hall, I could feel their presence behind me and it was obvious they were just letting me off.
I reached the stairs going down but an invisible force pushed me and I went rolling down . I had never felt such pain before, every bone in my body felt broken and I could not move. As my consciousness slipped, I heard voices all around me. Then darkness settled in.
“Congratulations Maya, you’ve nailed it.” My boss' voice welcomed me back to consciousness. I was in a hospital and I could not tell how I had gotten there.
“ Your findings have helped the police catch the most notorious human trafficking group in this country. We are all waiting for your recovery then we can celebrate this wonderful news....”
What human trafficking group and which findings ?
I tried to speak but my voice could not come out, I wanted to ask about Dakota? Did they find her or was anyone out looking for her?
“Well done, Maya.” With that he went out.
Alone in the room, I felt a familiar chill cover my body. A wave of frisson swept through me and looking in front of me, there they stood hand in hand giving me the most sinister grin.
“Hello Maya......let’ play.”
