A Lost Memory: Alitheia

Episode 26: Copycat Demon

"Can I have another one, please?" a voice repeated.

"Kacey I said its okay-" Mandisa began to say though paused as she was the only one in the room.

"Kacey?" she asked now sitting up at the edge of the bed.

"Kacey?" the voice of an old man repeated after her though with a cackle.

"Haai-ke," feeling uneasy, Mandisa rushes to the door and heads downstairs.

"Kida Devva is a demon that can copy the voices of the dead, experienced or high level Devva can copy the appearance of the dead," says Kacey to Mandisa while reading from the journal.

"So this Copycat demon was in your room?" Colchester asks his tone laced in concern.

"Are you sure it said the voices of the dead only?" Mandisa asks while rubbing the top of her lip with her finger.

"Yeah, that's what it says," Kacey reassures.

After supper, the residents camped out in Mandisa's room in case the Copycat demon made an appearance.

"Ngoba, Mandisa?" whispered a voice in her ear. She scrunched up her eyes, fearing that if she opened them it would make it all the more real that the voice she was hearing was indeed that of her grandmother.

[Translation; why in Xhosa]

"Go away," she groaned in her pillow; this caught the attention of Colchester on the floor as he asked her why was wrong.

"It's back," she stated and looked up to see him getting on the bed next to her. They waited for the voice to say something but it never did as they drifted off to sleep, Mandisa in Colchester's arms.

"Woo!" a voice squealed and Mandisa squinted to see where it came from after registering that it was Fitz and Eliza, she looked up to meet Colchester's gaze.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she recollected herself while getting out of bed and patted down her hair with her palms.

"Well, don't get shy now," Akira says while gripping the arm of a drowsy Jiro.

"What did I miss?" Kacey asks, rubbing at her eyes and Fitz explained what had occurred.

"It was so cute like watching the Titanic all over again," Fitz beamed as they all took the lift downstairs to get breakfast.

"The sleeping Titanic," Eliza giggled.

"Oh look what I read in the journal," Kacey says while pointing to the journal in hand.

"It's too early in the morning for this Kace," Fitz whined and Kacey swatted at her words with her hand.

"The Kida Devva can only repeat words it's heard while its 'victim' was still alive,"

"So, it can't make up words itself?" Akira asked and Kacey nodded.

During the evening the residents retired to bed though this time they didn't camp out in Mandisa's room. This time Mandisa tried not to fall asleep in order to catch the culprit, by midnight as she sat straight up in her sheets her eyes began to grow heavy.

A vision came to her like a dream or rather a memory that wasn't hers, the day of her initiation after she had ran away the music and ululating died down as her grandmother seethed at her absence. The occupants had left leaving her mother and grandmother draped in thick blankets, a spark in the corner of the room set the little hut ablaze.

"We are sorry ancestors," her mother called out. The exit was blocked by thick smoke and flames as they screamed for help to no avail.

"Why Mandisa?" the voice of her grandmother asked and this woke her up, searching around the room to see where the voice came from.