Kganya brought the staff in front of her to block the beggar’s advancement. The beggar fell. Kganya hit him in the head with its end, but he stood up still and held it with his free left hand. He yanked at it, and Kganya fell on top of her study desk, letting go of it. She quickly stood up and faced the beggar. She instantly felt naked without the staff in her hands.

The beggar snarled at her. He looked at the staff in his hands, shook his head, and threw it away at his side as if it was something of unimportance to him.

Kganya saw that it landed on top of the bed. She could get there if she could just dodge him.

The beggar jumped at Kganya again while she was eyeing the staff. He put his bleeding hands on her neck and tightened the grip.

‘I want to see life fade from you!’

Kganya kicked at his groin with her knee but that made no impact. Didn’t he feel any pain? She tried to claw at his face with her fingernails, but he just jerked his head away. She started feeling some type of dizziness that was foreign and new to her. She couldn’t breathe! Her lungs were filled with hot, poisonous air, and her eyes were teary. She could only see the silhouette of the beggar’s face in front of her. Then she heard a thud!

Suddenly, she could breathe.

Kganya doubled over and coughed. Her lungs appreciated the fresh air flowing through them. Her eyes were leaking with tears. Her neck was hot and throbbing from the severe strangulation.

She raised her head to see what could have stopped the beggar from finishing her off. Two figures were wrestling each other in front of her. By the tall stature, she could tell who was the beggar between the two, but the other one she couldn’t tell. He was short, and certainly moving a bit slower than the beggar.

Kganya wiped her tears using her shirt and looked again. Her breath caught. The possessed beggar was fighting with Mkhulu! How did Mkhulu get in here?

The beggar tripped Mkhulu and he landed with his head on the floor and lay there unconscious.

Kganya had to do something. She remembered her staff on the bed. She quickly reached for it and aimed it at the beggar, who was on top of Mkhulu, punching him vigorously.

‘Get off him. Get off him now!’ Kganya shouted at the evil beggar.

He stopped and turned his head at her.

‘What is that?’ he asked with his eyes on the staff pointed at him. ‘Is that supposed to scare me?’

‘Don’t try me, Zumba. I said get off—now!’

The evil beggar got off Mkhulu, who was bleeding on the floor.

‘What do you want from me? I didn’t kill you in 1910!’ Kganya’s anger was coated in her voice.

‘But you are one of them. You reek of their goodness. I hate that smell.’

‘Why did you possess that poor man if you are powerful? Get out of him and face me yourself.’

‘You call this thing a man?’ the evil beggar gestured at himself. ‘This is not a man; it is a shell of a man. He was wasting a good body by sleeping in the filth. He didn’t even put up a fight when I hid inside him that night. Even now, he doesn’t put up a fight for his body.’

Kganya was disgusted. ‘You are killing him with your evil soul. It is wrong to possess the body of another person while they are still alive.’

‘Who are you to tell me what’s wrong and right? I do what I want. I am Zumba Mbazo, and I am going to finish you now.’

He charged at Kganya, but she was quick at her feet and moved aside and hit him in the back of the head with the staff. He snarled in pain and tried to grab the staff, but Kganya moved backwards and poked at his stomach with its end, and he fell to the ground in pain.

‘You…ah!’ He cried.

The possessed beggar quickly stood up and went for Kganya. She wasn’t quick to dodge his fist this time around. It landed on her right cheek and nearly knocked her out, but she remained resolute to stand on her feet. He tried to charge at her again but something grabbed him. It was Mkhulu. He had regained his consciousness on the floor. Kganya used this distraction to dare something big.

She assumed her stance and closed her eyes.

‘My Elders, please grant me the power to remove the monster inside this poor man’s body,’ she chanted quickly in a low, determined voice. She felt herself being overcome by boldness and she took that as a sign from the Elders to proceed.

Kganya twirled her staff a couple of times and a white glow appeared on its end. She pointed at the beggar who was busy punching Mkhulu on the floor.

The possessed beggar was taken by surprise that he didn’t have time to move away. He was instantly trapped by the glow from Kganya’s staff.

Kganya’s staff felt heavy but she knew she had to hold on. The spell was working. The beggar stood motionless, and the black smoke came out of his ears, nose, and mouth.

‘Saaa-haaa!’ The hissing sounds came all over.

Kganya’s arms felt numb, but she held on like her life depended on it, and it did.

The black smoke hovered over the room formless, and the beggar’s body fell like a sack of potatoes.

Kganya knew she had to move fast before the evil spirit of Zumba Mbazo fully took shape and escaped, so she dared another huge spell that would take her out if she wasn’t strong enough.

‘My Elders, help me trap this evil spirit where it belongs,’ she remembered the coffin that Zumba Mbazo escaped from, and she held the image strong in her mind. That boldness came over her yet again and she opened her eyes.

‘Tswa-tsamaya, sethotsela towe!’ she chanted, twirling her staff vigorously.

A white circle that radiated yellowness appeared in the middle of the bedroom. Strong whooshing sounds emanated from it, sucking everything into it.

The evil spirit of Zumba Mbazo was nearly done taking the shape of a human being, with only the legs remaining. The spooky head, with its rotten flesh and hollow dark eyes, and with no nose and lips, was complete, but looking at Kganya with stark horror.

‘No! What did you do?’ It scream-hissed, attacking Kganya with weak hands, trying to claw at her, but the circle’s energy was just too strong.

The evil form of Zumba Mbazo was sucked in body-first, with its head last, screaming profanities. ‘I will come back and kill you! This is not the end!’ He vanished inside, and the circle got small in size and disappeared with a pop!

Kganya’s bedroom was a mess. The wardrobe’s doors were wide open with clothes on the floor. The curtains were torn apart on their rails, while the floor was painted with blood. Two bodies were lying on the floor, motionless. Kganya was the only breathing thing in there. She was standing but weak on her knees. Her staff was on the floor. The bedroom was calm and silent as if nothing had just happened in it.

Sirens wailed outside, getting louder and louder. Someone budged in the bedroom and threw themselves in Kganya’s arms.

‘You are safe, baby, the police are coming. You are safe now,’ Ntombi said, and Kganya cried like a baby.

***

Mkhulu had suffered a lot of trauma to the head and had died as soon as the ambulance arrived at the hospital. The beggar died on the scene with wounds that perplexed the paramedics. The police ruled the incident as a burglary that went wrong, and the beggar was painted as a perpetrator. Only Kganya, Lethabo, and Ntombi knew what really happened but didn’t bother to tell the police because they wouldn’t have believed them anyway.

Kganya had made up her mind: after school, she was going to open a Spiritual practice to fight the evil forces like Zumba Mbazo and Dark Souls that were out there because it was her duty as the Defender!