The twins went back to North Beach. The venue was packed with people. It was one of the biggest annual events in Durban. There were DJs, real deal artists and it was all playing live on the local radio station. Speakers were blaring with noise. The people were excited, but little did they know that they were out at a ritual ceremony, celebrating the devil.

Sthembile pointed to a small white tent which stood alone a few metres behind where the DJ was playing music. It was the actual place where they were keeping Sthembiso’s girlfriend hostage, and the ritual too was going to be held down there. They were only waiting for Sthembiso to begin. He went round the crowd towards the tent, where he found two husky security guards. He told them his story and one of them escorted him inside.

Inside the tent was a hole in the ground with a sand staircase. They climbed into the hole and it led them underground. To Sthembiso’s surprise, there were even more people in there than the crowd up at the beach. They were focused on what looked like a pastor of a real church. As soon as the pastor noticed Sthembiso standing there, he motioned with his hand to his people to get out of the way. They all bowed down and made a passage. Sthembiso made his way up to the man who was behind the podium.

“ALL RISE! Today is indeed the biggest day for our family. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our king in the house,” the old man announced, and with these words the people all rose and clapped and cheered.

“Your king, my ass,” said Sthembiso under his breath.

Sthembiso was their new king – at least, in their minds he was, so they asked him to say a few words.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry, people. I’m not your king. I just came for my girlfriend. Does anyone know where she is?” he shouted as he looked around to see if there was any sign of Zeh.

He turned to confront the old man and boom, out of the blue, his girlfriend Zeh was standing right behind him. She touched him on the shoulder and said, “Hush now, I’m here and I’m OK. Thanks for coming.”

Something about her just wasn’t right. Sthembiso panicked as he thought they might have made her one of them. He had seen how they did things at their church. They worshipped the devil, fed on the blood of humans and animals and practiced organ trafficking, which they believed made them rich with money. He let those thoughts slide. He was happy to see his lover unharmed and talking to him again.

“Babe, I’m so sorry. It’s all because of me that you ended up in a place like this. But I’m here now to take you home, so let’s go.” He looked around to see if there was anyone who was going to try and stop them.

“No baby, we don’t have to go now, and I’m not mad at you anymore. I mean, you are a king now. Doesn’t that mean anything to you? Your father left all of this for you and these people here need you.”

“Don’t try to talk me into this, Zeh. My father didn’t want me to live like he did,” he snapped, quickly losing his temper. “And these people right here don’t need me. They need God – they have the right to live free!” He was now shouting at his girlfriend.

He was surprised by the sound of his own voice. He had never spoken so loud before, not even when he really wanted to scream out loud or call to someone at a distance.

“That bitch Zoleka has already fed you so much nonsense in such a short time? Well anyway, there’s nothing you can really do to free them. And if you aren’t so keen to take this offer, somebody else will,” said Zeh with a smirk. “Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

This definitely wasn’t Zeh, Dumi thought, surprised by her attitude and how she was so into this crazy thing. His thoughts were distracted by some men who were walking down the aisle. They had Sthembile, who was now unconscious. They dropped her right at Sthembiso’s feet. She was going to be fine, Sthembiso concluded after checking her pulse, or maybe not, as this meant their plan was doomed.

Shortly after that, Richard – the white man – followed, wearing a red coat with a huge hoodie that covered almost all of his face. He walked slowly down to where Sthembiso was kneeling near his twin sister.

He removed his hoodie when he stopped by Sthembiso and with a weird voice he said:
“You should make up your mind, time waits for no man.” He looked at Sthembiso, sending shivers down his body. Sthembiso kept quiet, his eyes glued to his twin sister for quite some time. He had to act, he knew that.

“After tonight, when I’m done with you, you’re so going to wish that your Mom never got preg…” A punch hit Sthembiso on his jaw, so hard that he slid against the rough sand floor of the cave. He lost his sight, he couldn’t see a thing. Tears burned in his eyes and he was close to crying. But this wasn’t the time to be weak. Tonight was the night he would put an end to all of this, although without Sthembile it wasn’t going to be easy at all.

“You know what? That’s the second time you hit me! Why don’t you just face me like a man, instead of throwing invisible punches at me!” Sthembiso screamed. His sight was slowly coming back. He tried to get onto his feet.

“Careful what you wish for, young man,” said a voice above him. A huge bat was hanging upside down with its feet on the roof of the cave. “Because you might just get it!” continued the bat as he came down to face Sthembiso.

Tell us what you think: Does Sthembiso have the strength to fight Richard, Pearl and the old man all on his own?