Anthem, Silent

Ivy

I pulled my car into the shade port, noticing the immediate absence of Lorna’s BMW X1. Lorna had informed me, just as we were all heading out around the same time, that she was going to take the kids to the zoo, before wishing me a good day and we all left in our own respective directions. I let out a long sigh, sitting in the car in silence for a moment as I was coming down from the high of being around people who distracted me from what was going on in my life at the moment. I felt my index finger lightly trace my bottom lip, flinching in pain at the memory and wound that Schalk had left behind with his teeth. 

I sighed, shaking my head as I grabbed my bag and gripped my phone, going to dial Reeva and tell her that I made it home safe. Distractedly, I dialled her number at the same time as I was removing the keys from the ignition and closing all of my windows, stumbling to shove all the mints that we had gotten from the bar into my bag. The phone rang four times before she finally answered, “Hello?” 

I furrowed my brows as my thumb hovered over the key, halfway to pressing the lock button, “Benny?” I immediately recognised the voice to be his. “What are you doing with Reeva’s phone?” I asked him, straightening up. 

He chuckled, “this isn’t Reeva’s phone, darling.” 

“Oh shucks,” I gasped, bringing my phone to my face to see whose number I had accidentally dialled, and lo and behold, I had dialled Benny’s number. “I’m so sorry,” I immediately apologised as I began to make my way towards my apartment, “I thought I was calling Reeva.” 

“Sure…we can run with that,” he teased, as if I was lying. 

I flushed, laughing at his comment, “stop, I swear it was a mistake.” 

“Mhm, or maybe you just missed me so much and didn’t want to seem any way and thought to try the ‘oh no, I called the wrong number approach’,” he continued to tease while I felt my face turning hot as I laughed, shaking my head. 

“I swear it was a mistake! I thought I was calling Reeva because she made me promise that I’d call her when I got home,” he laughed with me. 

“Okay, let me stop teasing you. You must be as red as a tomato at the moment,” he said knowingly and I giggled as I dug through my purse searching for my house keys as I stood outside the door. “So, you home safe?” I hummed in agreement as I finally found my keys with all the other one thousand key rings that I had adorned it with. They jingled uncontrollably as I pulled them out and began to unlock the burglar gate first. 

“Yes, I did. I’m unlocking the door at the moment.” I was still feeling a bit buzzed from the alcohol but it wasn’t serious. “Thanks for today, Benny. I had a good time.” 

“You have less than one minute remaining…” the female automated voice chimed in suddenly. 

“You were great company, Ivy–” he began but I cut him off as the door swung open. 

“Oh my God, I don’t have much airtime left, Benny. I’ll s–” I rushed out to explain to him but I suddenly let out a surprised scream as I entered my apartment and sitting on my sofa, sprawled out with his legs wide open and his arms stretched along the length of the sofa was Schalk du Toit. The TV was on and the movie John Wick was playing, on my coffee table right beside the folder of work that I decided to bring home to complete over the weekend was a bottle of half empty Corona. 

Schalk sat like he was in his own place, as if it were natural for him to be sitting on my sofa, faced in the direction of the door. He watched me with those unnerving eyes of his, his stare unyielding as it took me in from head to toe. His eyes graced over every bit of skin that I had showing, and I could see the darkness in those eyes spread like the slow slithering of a lazy snake. Bit by bit, his dark blue eyes almost became a pitch black, and I was horrified.