On the night in which Anele disappeared, Rob was at work as usual. Neighbours saw Anele entering the house, but they never saw her leave. The truth was, Anele had gone out of the house at eight o’clock at night, and when Ncedo asked to walk her out, she refused. She had other plans that night, and she wanted to visit her boyfriend. Unfortunately, the night was not as cosy as she had expected it to be, and she had a fight with her boyfriend.

“Are you cheating on me, Anele?” Anele’s jealous boyfriend asked.

“Ncedo is my friend and classmate,” Anele responded. “There’s nothing more beyond that. I visited him because I wanted him to help me with Science because I had missed class the whole week.”

“You visited him?” Anele’s boyfriend furiously asked, and it was her first time seeing him in that state.

“Believe what you want to believe,” Anele angrily responded while moving toward the door.

“Hey, don’t talk to me like that!” her boyfriend said while furiously running towards her. He roughly turned her around, wanting her to look at him.

“You’re hurting me!” Anele said, trying to push him away.

“You’re fighting back?” Anele’s boyfriend questioned curiously.

After a while, Anele noticed that her boyfriend was drunk and excessively furious. He then pushed her to the floor, grabbed the penknife close to him, and stabbed her to death. By the time he noticed what he had done, Anele was already dead, and after noticing it, he knew he had no other option but to dispose of her body. After doing that, he ran for his life and never returned.

The following weekend, Mary visited Anele’s family after hearing about the incident. She knew that Anele and Ncedo were close friends, and she wanted to see how Ncedo was coping with the news. On Sunday morning, Ncedo’s parents were burnt alive.

After a while, Ncedo remembered that his sister was sick back home. Time was running out, and he had no choice but to rob a Chinese shop. He went in as a person who was looking for something. The owner of the shop lost focus on him the moment three noisy guys entered the shop, and Ncedo used the opportunity to grab the bread and ran away. The shop owner shouted for help, and the three guys then ran after Ncedo while shouting for assistance from the outsiders.

“Isn’t that Ncedo?” one of the guys questioned.

“Yes, it is him,” one of the other ones responded.

Ncedo ran as fast as he could, and when he arrived home, he found Eli crying and shouting Amanda’s name. “Amanda … Amanda, wake up … Amanda!” she shouted.

“What happened?” Ncedo asked while breathing heavily.

“Amanda doesn’t want to wake up,” Eli responded while sobbing.

“Amanda, I brought us bread. Wake up so we can eat,” Ncedo said. “Amanda? Amanda?” he continued, trying to wake Amanda up. “No … no … no … this cannot be happening!”

“What’s happening?” Eli asked.

“Go and eat the bread outside,” Ncedo responded. “You’ll be back in no time. Don’t worry, Amanda is fine. I think she’s just hungry, so I’ll wake her up.”

As soon as Ncedo was done talking, Eli moved out, but then burst into the house as soon as the chant was commencing outside.

“What is happening?” Ncedo asked. “Close the door!” he commanded as soon as he remembered that he was being chased. Eli made it late to the door, and the group of people chasing Ncedo entered the house forcefully.

“There he is!” the owner of the shop said. “Get him!”

While the shop owner was shouting, he noticed a child lying on the floor. He moved closer to her and slowly brushed her face. “Stop!” he shouted, but the crowd was already uncontrollable, and Ncedo was being beaten almost to death. “Stop, I command!”

Silence thereafter …

“What’s happening here?” Mr Zhou, the shop owner, asked.

“My sister, Amanda, is sick,” Ncedo said with a bloody face. “I went out to find something for her to eat because our breadbasket is empty. I’m sorry, Mr Zhou, but I was trying to help my sister. Sadly, the clock was ahead of me.”

“Is she alive?” Mr Zhou asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Ncedo responded. “If only I had made it in time, she would be still alive.”

“Let go of him,” Mr Zhou commanded. “I’m sorry for your loss, son. But where are your parents?”

“Dead.”

The crowd mumbled!

After a while, Amanda was taken to her temporary resting place while waiting for her funeral. Mr Zhou offered Ncedo a job at his shop, and Eli was taken back to school. That was the draining chapter of Ncedo’s life, the end of his chapter.

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