“An unidentified body of a female student has been found on the Marang block rooftop of the University of the Witwatersrand, Education Campus in Parktown, Johannesburg. The police have no leads and are still investigating this tragedy. This is Mamoloko Setati, from Eye Witness News, reporting live from Parktown.”
“Modimo waka, ai khona,” Peterous Shabangu shook his head in disbelieve.
His morning patrols were filled with news of murder from all over the country, but today the hand-held radio spoke of one close to home. For the first time in his life, as he sat by the Olives and Plates canteen, he knew a lot more than the reporter, the unfortunate privilege that came with being the head of the Campus Control Division at Wits Education Campus.
Just another story for this woman… unidentified body? he thought. Sarah Ntshabeleng strangled… just like… His body crumbled under the realization. Just like Lila van Scholtz.
Unbeknown to Peterous, a mysterious figure was eavesdropping on the radio broadcast.
No leads on the suspects, he thought. Hulle het my nog nie gevang nie, hierdie een was nearby. Daai meisie het my amper gevang.
He continued to nurse his black sugarless coffee and found himself reminiscing about the night before. How his masculine hands, covered by black leather gloves, had wrapped themselves around her soft delicate neck. Her eyes were an ocean of pleasure for him, satisfaction oozed from him as he saw the sparkle in them disappear, the emotions they portrayed had him fixated.
At first they had broadcast confusion, then fear, once the fear had dissipated anger took over. At that moment he could have sworn she was trying to cast some form of infliction onto him. Despite her weak yet charming struggles, she came to the realisation that she could do nothing to him and began to accept her fate. Finally he was gratified by the hopelessness that possessed her, as the life left her body.
He recalled seeing her at the start of the semester, how she had lined her pens on the desk as she waited for the lecture to begin. How she began to fidget nervously, a desperate attempt to hide that she could feel his eyes on her. She had looked up and given him a nervous tight lipped smile. The formation of that smile opened the gates to the memories of his mother. The only woman he had some sort of affection for, not necessarily ‘love’ just a tolerance and admiration.
His mother, his only source of affection was tragically written off the on same day as thier old Ford. It had skewed off the road and hit a tree, on impact his mother was ejected from the car and landed in the tree. Her face betrayed the event. It looked so peaceful, only her body revealed the true horror and pain inflicted by the tragedy. Even in death she remained humble unlike, his father. The horrified look on his face was an exaggeration; he had conveniently died of a heart attack. It was nothing compared to the bloody ending his mother met.
His escape was nothing short of a punishment, strapped safely into the backseat of the car, he looked on as his world unravelled before him. The only physical evidence of his presence was a hideous scar on his arm. He would be lying to say he cried and he would be lying if he said he felt nothing. The only thing he knew about those feelings was that once they had been awakened, they engulfed him. They needed to be satisfied and first by the others, then Lila and now Sarah.
***
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