My great grandfather continued, “We went into the house and found that it was a normal shebeen with the usual drunk people mumbling chants in slow motion and weird voices. We greeted the bartender at the counter who was crouching down as though looking for something. When he heard us, he raised his head to make an upright posture. I was surprised by the familiar look on his face but one of the boys quickly patted my shoulder and suggested we waste no time, so I ordered beers and put them in my back pack. Surprisingly, the bartender offered us free bottles of beer.

“’Oh! We were lucky,’ we thought. He poured glasses for each of us but the intimidating look on his face and the creepy smile made me feel uncomfortable and worried me a great deal! The boys didn’t seem to suspect anything at all; they just held their glasses under their noses swallowing mouthfuls. I did not want to ruin the moment with my paranoia so I joined in. We finished two bottles and decided that that was enough and it was time to go back, but the strange, old man suggested we stay a little longer. My paranoia was starting to pick up again, as I had seen the strange old man call someone on his cell phone a while ago. One of the other boys, Lebaka, later told me that he saw the old man dial someone, as well.

“Suddenly, a silver-grey van parked at the gate: it was our priest’s car! I knew the old man must have dialled the priest’s number. Quickly, we all ran towards the gate because it was the only way to leave the shebeen. The priest tried to open the van door, but as I ran past, I pushed it back towards him. He pulled down the window and grabbed me by my wrist. I saw the door on the other side of the van open, and out stepped one of the boarding masters. I watched five of the boys run past the van and get away, when I heard gunshots from inside the shebeen, and Lebaka came running out of the building with a gun in his hand. I bit the priest’s hand so he would let go of me and give me a chance to escape. I couldn’t care less about what I was stepping on or what was happening behind me, all I cared about were the little lights I saw at the Catholic premises. My whole body was numb; I felt like I was running on air. The lights kept getting closer and closer. After what felt like an eternity, I snuck back into my dorm and got in my bed. The priest and the boarding masters were looking for suspects, but they got nothing. There was no evidence that I was one of the boys there were looking for because I had thrown my bag with the beers inside of it on the other side of the river.

“The next morning was a Saturday. Lebaka had been caught and kicked out of school in the middle of the night. His bed was next to mine, so as he was packing his luggage, he had told me that he shot the bartender. Lebaka was the only one of the seven of us who was caught, so six of us returned safe and sound. Right after lunch, the five boys and I went to the river to find my bag and finish all we had bought before someone found it. We smoked weed and drank a bottle of brandy. The water in the river was crystal clear; you could even see the fish swimming in the water. A moment later when we were tipsy, we heard someone yell…

“’Uh-huh, bafana! Did you think you would get away that easily with this?’ a voice called.

“When we turned our heads to see who it was, we saw the priest waving a sjambok in his hand. Our only way of escaping was by swimming to the other side of the river. When we turned our heads, we saw that the river was flooded with blood. On the other side of the river, there stood a man with blood streaming down his forehead to his white coat. His head was tilted to one side, and the look on his eyes was so intimidating and his smile made you feel so uncomfortable.” He stopped, stood up and went outside. He never did tell me what happened next.

Tell us: What do you think about this ending?