When Love Sprouts

Chapter 10: Shifted elements

Everyone back home, wondered where their beautiful Black Rose was. It had been weeks since Azania had gone missing.
Mrs. Buvoir and Danika were getting better by the day, not knowing where Azania was prolonged the pain that sometimes lingered. Joao's life had had took a turn in a bumpy road. He couldn't handle the black and white life he had been living; his colour had gone missing. He searched high above the clouds and deep into the mouse hole for Azania, even putting all his life savings on the line for her beloved, Black Rose. 9 Million Rand's worth of life savings to be exact.
Joao tried finding Javas - hoping that he could help him find her, but, he had faded into the outer space with the night stars.

Each day, he would rush to the police station praying that they'd found her sister, alive and kicking. Hope diminished day by day. Carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, he walked into the police station near Centurion. He sat on the uncomfortable leather seats, hanging his head down. Streams of people flooded the station, waiting to be helped. Finally, an officer called: "Next!"
The moment Joao looked up he saw the lady Shakespeare spoke about in his poems. Defined eyebrows, contour perfectly blended, glossy lipstick popping. Oh, her edges her eyes, her nose, her hair, her smell, how could she be this perfect? Joao looked at her in awe. She was a clear and exact definition to the word: perfect. That had to be her.

"It is her, right," he asked himself walking closer her.

"Uhm, morning," he cleared his throat. "Have you found Azania, yet," asked Joao.

"Case number," said the officer coldly.

Joao couldn't hear a word she was saying. "Why is she even wearing make up, doesn't she know I'd still love her without it," he thought.

"Sir, case number, please," repeated the lady.

"Right, right, the case number," he said. Joao took out his phone from his back pocket to read the case number sent to him. The officer wrote down the number on her notepad.

"Let me go look for it and I'll be with you, now, now," said the officer. She left him at the counter, while she went to search for the docket. A few minutes went by, before he knew it she was back.

"Sir, what crime are you reporting," she asked.

"My sister's missing," he said sadly.

"Ah," she said, then turned back and yelled: "Tyriq, who deals with the missing persons cases," she asked.

"Detective Bulwayo," said a man with a really deep voice.

"Sir, your case will be handled by Detective Bulwayo, so I'll give you his numbers, so just call him if you need anything and he'll do the same," she stated.

"Can't I have yours instead," he asked raising his thick eyebrows.

"No," she exclaimed.

Then she showed him her huge blue sapphire gemstone mounted on her ring finger. "Pshh, you're just on lay-by with that ring, I still say we could be the couple everyone dreams of. Joao and. . .what's your name, I need to know my queen's name," he muttered.

"Well, for you to know, you need to go back in time and ask the queen of Egypt," she said.

He placed his finger on his chin, and took a moment to figure out her riddle. "Harriet Tubman," he asked.

"She's from American history," she said.

"Cleopatra? Yes, Cleopatra, that's it," he exclaimed.

"Ah. Ah. Ah. We've been waiting for God knows how long, and you are busy there flirting! Get on a Dating Site and flirt there. Some of us came here with actual problems," grumbled a middle-aged man, stained with tiny drops of blood on his creased formal shirt.

Days went by and by. Azania was still not found. Drops of sweat dripped on Azania's damp forehead as she sat in misery on the mattress. The tiny glimmer of hope that once sparked her heart, as the days of torment became weeks, dissolved into the river of tears she shed daily. Day and night she begged him to just put her out of her misery; she asked Ludo to just kill her. Ludo let her suffer, he knew the suffering wouldn't just hurt her but would hurt all of the Buvoirs, if not now, then soon it surely would.

Ludo changed like the weather, on some days he would be kind enough by letting her catch an ounce of fresh air. He would open the window and let the cool summer breeze fly in. Other days he would leave her in complete isolation; he would let Azania sink into the destructive darkness.

"Why, Ludo, why? Why don't you just go ahead and kill me, huh? After all your plan would go perfectly, right," she asked letting out a sob.

Ludo became mute. He replied with the loudest quietness she had ever seen. He uttered no word. Reaching her breaking point, she yelled: "Answer me!"

Again, he kept quiet, and put on the cornier smirk imaginable. He left her sitting on the mattress bawling her eyes out.

"Oh, Joao, Dad, Mom, Danika where are you guys? Javas how about you, where are you," she sobbed rocking back and forth.

Her phone had been vibrating until it turned off. It was underneath one of the seats in the hatchback car Ludo used when he kidnapped her. Javas had been calling, each day hoping that she will have a change of heart and pick up her phone. One day he called and sent him straight to voicemail. "Well, Aza, if you've moved on it's okay, I understand I just hope that whoever you're with knows that you are a gem, but a beautiful diamond.
Diamonds cut diamonds, maybe that's why we couldn't be," he laughed lightly. "Anyway, I guess I'll see you next lifetime," said Javas sadly.

"Is this it," he asked himself.

He stared at his phone briefly. Maybe if he did, she might call back. Sadly, the only change on his phone was the time moving from one minute to the next. No text message, no calendar notification, nothing. Just a dry phone.

"See you soon Azania," said Javas, having a sigh.

He threw his phone on top of the bed and headed into the bathroom. He stepped into the shower. The flame hot water was what he needed to wash away all their short-lived happiness. Elements shifted in everyone's life, for how long, no one, absolutely, no one knew.