Present Day…
Ntshepi manages to read and finishes the book within a week. So today is Saturday, her father is not busy with work. She is planning to give him this heart-breaking book today. She finds her father in his study.
“I guess you have read it. Give me a little review,” Realeboha tells his daughter and he is analysing the book that is in his hands.
“It’s about a girl who is raped by someone close to her. When she reports the crime, they don’t believe her. She decides to revenge herself by killing one by one all those who didn’t give justice to her.”
Realeboha’s facial expression has suddenly shifted from happy and eager.
“Dad, are you OK?” Ntshepi asks her father who seems to be not happy. With a snap, he asks.
“Where did you get this book?”
“At the book store, is everything alright? You don’t look OK.”
“I’m fine,” he says. Seeing that she’s not convinced, he cooks up an excuse. “It’s just work. It never ends. But I’ll start reading this ASAP. Thank you.”
Realeboha read the book every chance he gets, during lunch at work, he reads it until he finishes it. But it seems like the book is communicating with him. What shocks him to death is the note that is written on the last empty page of the book.
Moetsi wa lebala empa moetsuwa ha a lebale (the perpetrators forget but victims don’t).
He hurries to home from work and finds Ntshepi and her mother watching TV in the living room.
“Where did you get this book?” Realeboha asks Ntshepi.
“Au! Dad, I told you, from the book store.”
“Which one? Cause I come from the one that is at the mall, they said that they haven’t stocked this book. So from which book store?”
Ntshepi is now scared, her father is angry and she’s never seen him like this.
Ntshepi tells her father the whole story. She tells him about the lady from the library, how she gave her the book and how she disappeared on her. Realeboha feels like the world is spinning. He can’t believe what his daughter is telling him. To be sure, he decides to return to the book store and asks to see their CCTV footages from two weeks back.
He knows that they won’t allow that so he fakes a search warrant. He lies and says he is working on a case so he needs to be shown their footages.
All he sees is his daughter talking to a stranger wearing a doek that hides her face. So nothing is working out. Should he let this go? How he wishes that his friend Mpho was here. He would have given him good advice on how to handle this issue. The problem now is his friend is hospitalised, he was involved in a car accident that claimed five lives, leaving three badly injured.
He sits down in his study. The laptop is opened but the screen is sleeping due to non-activity. Realeboha is sitting here but his mind is not here. It is far away. He thinks if it is possible. Is it possible that it could be her? He asks himself. An email notification brings him back to life.
He clicks it to open an unknown email.
‘Revenge is served, sir.’
He leans closer to the screen and reads again. He types back with confusion.
Who is this? And what do you want?
Within five minutes, the email notification goes on. He opens the email again.
The revenger. To serve some revenge.
Leave me alone or I’ll report you to the police.
Did they believe Samantha? Did they believe her or did she have to get it for herself?
Samantha is the character from the book he was reading. He types again, roughly on his keyboard.
Just leave me alone or I swear I’ll find you.
Behold, the revenge will be ready in two, sir 😉
Who is this? What does he want from me? He questions himself as he is staring at the exchanged emails on his laptop screen.
***
Tell us: Who do you think this mystery person is and what do they want from Realeboha?