Red Lace

Chapter 12

NICHUME TSHAWE MNGUNI

Having lived in this environment I have become a stranger to fear and panic attacks but looking at the man that killed my best friend walking closer to me I can hear my heart beating heavily in my chest almost painfully against my rib cage. I am overcome with this overwhelming fear and anger, he took away my best friend from me, and now he wants to take away my womanhood because what else does he mean when he speaks of leaving me with a parting gift? He removes something from his back pocket and throws it on the bed. The handcuffs land right in front of my feet.

"Put these on, I don't want you to go around saying I raped you," he says, I look at the shiny handcuffs sitting on my bed and then look up at him blankly.

"As long as I don't consent to it it's rape!" I spit out angrily at him.

"If I do it, I'm only going to hurt you, little dove. You've spent three years here, you should know how we do things here. This is not a request, put those on little dove!" Adeyemi says, I still don't budge. He walks over to me and grabs me by the back of my neck pulling my face closer to his staring right into my eyes, "put the damn handcuffs on!" he commands and I find myself grabbing the cuffs from the bed and putting them on. He smiles proudly and takes a step back from me.

He strips out of his clothes, "You know Nichume; from the minute I laid my eyes on you something in me sparked. I have never had a woman make me feel something like that before more especially a human being of all things but you came in here with those big brown innocent eyes and made me go against everything I believe in." He chuckles but it's not out of happiness or excitement, there's an underlying tone of anger behind his chuckle. His eyes bore right into my soul and I feel this strange warmth, some kind of assurance that I am safe. "Immortals cannot be compelled and yet I find myself compelled by you Nichume," He explains but I am only confused and have no words, I am calm and at peace with him being this close to me. He kneels on the bed left in nothing but his briefs, he cups the back of my head and looks into my eyes, my mouth parts involuntarily to which he takes that as some kind of invitation to kiss me. His lips are soft as he takes my mouth into his, his kiss alone is soft and unrushed which is something I never imagined he of all people capable of, and his hand massages my scalp so gently before he lays me back like the most delicate thing he has ever touched on the bed. My senses are aware of what is happening, my brain is alert and yet I can't stop him, I don't want to stop him because all of this feels right.

"You are mine, Nichume, always!" He claims and for some reason, I find myself nodding to what he is saying. He removes my sheet swiftly exposing my nakedness to him, he holds my hands up above my head before he commands me to "Keep them like this," he says and I nod keeping my hands over my head.

NTANDOYENKOSI ATHINI MNGUNI

Life without my sister hasn't been the same. I miss her every day. The first year was the hardest considering she and I were roommates, having to get used to living without her was nothing but a nightmare, not that things are any better now but the pain has decreased I guess. That year she disappeared, a few days later dad found her body remains with her things but after some tests, we found out it wasn't her which was good news but with her having disappeared we have had to live with the possibility of her being tortured or even worse, dead in a country where nobody could bring her back to us. Her disappearance hit our family very hard and badly, I think mom took her disappearance the worst because this wasn't the first time she lost a child. Seeing her go through all those emotions, where some days were better than others and some were worse was heartbreaking, it made me realize that maybe you never get over the death of a child, and losing Nichume only brought back that kind of pain. It did cause some kind of rift between her and dad. Dad blamed himself for losing her and mom blamed him too for a while. I don't know how my brother and I managed to pass that year or the following years but we made it and next month we are starting university. It's bittersweet because I never imagined I'd have to start my university without her. We are back in Joburg to fetch our statements before I return to Cape Town and leave Yethu here. I will be studying computer science at UCT and Yethu will be studying business at Wits, Nichume would have probably applied for language or something to do with literature or creative arts.