Zoleka and Dumi walked further north, along the shores of North Beach, until they got to a place where they were alone and out of sight.

“Here we are,” Zoleka exclaimed. “Does this place look farmiliar to you?”

“Let me check. If I say ‘yes’, will you tell me why you brought me here?” Dumi asked, looking deeply into Zoleka’s eyes.

“Of course I will,” she answered.

“Okay, but if you think I’m going to join your church, forget it,” Dumi thought to himself. He tilted his head and looked around, thinking.

“Actually, I’ve been having the same dream about this place, not too long ago,” Dumi said to himself, still deep in thought.

“Ayt, that means you have a clue then. So listen, I will first explain what happened and why we are here. You’d better focus because we don’t have much time,” said Zoleka as she sat down on the sand. Dumi did the same thing. It was a few minutes before 17:00pm.

“Let me just get straight to the point. Stop me if you have any questions.” Zoleka took a deep breath and let it out. “My name is Sthembile Goge. Our father gave me that name. I suppose your first name is Sthembiso and Goge is your last name, isn’t it?” Zoleka asked.

“Well yeah, that’s correct,” Dumi replied.

“Right. And I suppose you didn’t know you had a twin sister, did you?”

“What?” He was surprised and confused.

“Of course, you didn’t. So what happened is this: our biological mother died just after giving birth to us. People believed it had something to do with our evil father, who gave us up for adoption, because he had done terrible things in the past.” She stopped and swallowed hard.

“Our Father was the founder and leader of some sort of a secret service,” Zoleka continued. “It seems he sold his soul to the devil and when he found out he was going to be a father, he knew things were going to go from bad to worse. And so he sacrificed himself for us to live, because if he hadn’t done that, he would have had to sacrifice us to do his church ritual. So that’s not a problem so far.”

“Then what is the problem?” Dumi asked.

“He conducted the sacrifice ritual alone,” explained Zoleka, “and it was her….”

Dumi interrupted her. “Wow, now I think I understand the dream,” he said, and nodded his head.

“Good. I was about to explain what the problem is. The fact that he didn’t pass on his leadership to his followers, or let me just say the members of his church, is our problem now. He gave his powers to us when he died. He wanted us to destroy the thing that he had invented when we grew up,” said Zoleka, as she hugged her knees and buried her head in her arms.

“Powers? You’re confusing me, Sthembile. And by the way, which church is that?” asked Dumi with curiosity.

“The one in town, on Smith Street. Almost everyone around Durban knows it. Read this thing quickly.” She handed him an old clipping from a newspaper article.

“But, let me finish my explanation first,” she continued. “It was our father’s wish that you should first grow up and understand the world before you’re exposed to this. As a male, our father thought that you would be thrilled and would use your powers in favour of the devil as you grew up. You are not an ordinary human being. You have powers, you just don’t know how to put them into action. Now, will you be honest and swear that you won’t misuse your powers to do bad doings?”

“What are you talking about? I have zero room in me to do evil things,” Sthembiso chuckled. He was interested now.

“Now, I’m going to teach you how to unleash your powers… It’s simple, have a look at this,” said Sthembile. She got up and simply transformed into a giant black and grey owl with huge, round bloodshot eyes, a yellow pointy beak and sharp talons.

After having successfully trained her twin brother on how to activate his powers, she then explained once more the plan for how they were going to completely destroy their father’s invention.

“Right, so what do we do now? I feel so incredible. I just can’t wait to make use of my new-found body form…” said Sthembiso, checking his body for any changes.

“You’re going to be careful out there, right?” Sthembile said. “Don’t mess with Pearl and her brother. Unlike you, they have experience. Don’t fall for their tricks!”

When Sthembiso checked his phone he saw that there were a number of missed calls and Whatsapp messages, all from Pearl.

Where are you now?

I’m talking to you.

I’m the last person you need to be ignoring. I have your girl at the stake for the sacrifice.

You have until 18:30 to get here, or you will never sniff your girlfriend again.

Time was ticking. The ceremony would soon be starting. They had to get there on time. Sthembiso was invited, which would make things a lot easier for the plan. Sthembile was not allowed to be there because she was their enemy, even though they all lived under one roof: her, Pearl and Richard. They had tried to persuade her to join the church all their lives, with no success. Her mission was to mercilessly bring them down.

Tell us what you think: Will Sthembiso get to North Beach in time to save his girlfriend?