Sunday 31 July
"Who was that?" She asked sarcastically, stepping further from the doorframe and pursing her lips whist pressing her left hand on her hip.
"Babes I'm not in the mood." He felt his chest tighten and slid into bed. To make matters worse she then pulled the blanket away and dominantly sat on top of him... Arousing his sinful nature to stand up to the challenge, imposed by her her big buttocks.
"Hayi Ke! I'm really tired of your nonsense." Her response to his shrugs; before briskly landing a massive slap on his left cheek... "Now look what you made me do!" The slightly remorseful words that slipped out of her mouth, as she rubbed her hand against his cheek, trying to rub away the sting of pain that her long nails had left embroidered across his cheek.
"Mxm! must you always though...?" He rolled my eyes, shortly before moulding his expression into duplicating her faint smile. The big lump on his throat holding back the anger that was pouring from my heart.
"This better be last time I hear you speaking to that Zintle," she asserted; her voice now consumed by an unusual, yet daring, depth.
She then kissed his cheek, slightly consoling him. "Now give me a goodnight kiss", she further demanded.
In that moment he then snapped out, after finding himself lost in her gaze, and tried to place a kiss on her forehead. Although she intercepted it with her succulent lips instead, her last words continued to pierce their way into his heart, injecting a serum of guilt.
"Here, it will make you feel better." Lihle's last words as she placed something sweet between his plump lips. He then slid closer and snuggled her, as the pill's sweetness dissolved all over his tongue. Her contagious smile jumping onto his lips as her hereditary, hazel eyes, which she shared with her twin sister Lindokuhle, peered into his as she pecked his cheek. Laying beside him, close enough to crush the space between them, he enjoyed the sensation of her leg rubbing against his.
Lihle soon summoned darkness into the room at the clap of her hands, as the warmth of her body crawled under his skin, just before her genial giggles filled the room while she pushed the blanket away and sat on top of him. The moonlight shining through the two afro buns above her grey silhouette.
Yet, within some heartbeats later, all it took was the warmth of her thighs rubbing against his waist to trigger the act in which Katlego would intermittently, but agilely, penetrate his way towards her heart. Her audible squirms and wriggles, as she moaned and squealed beneath him. Loud enough to remind him that he was the glue that held together the bars that caged and tamed her insecurities. His depleting stamina, escaping through his heavy breaths, as her long nails ticklishly ran all over his back, uncomfortably.
Before he knew it, the sweet sounds of her soft snores were soothing his eardrums as they drove adrenaline towards his heart, making him feel as though he were finally ready to escape the bossy woman he lived with. The more he thought about going ahead with it, the more his heart banged against his ribcage, begging to escape as though it could foresee the dire consequences of his imminent actions.
Nevertheless, he grabbed his phone and slipped out of her embrace before sliding out of bed. Even though the scent of her cologne clung onto his nostrils, he took short, calculated steps towards the door, but had to take a step back when the sudden streaks of light, crawled beneath the door, alongside the emerging sound of the maid's flip flops' rhythm.
In that second, He took a moment to reflect and soon looked back to Lihle. The moonlight now caressing her beautiful skin, hiding the malign, morose personality beneath it. Fresh tears gathered in his eyes, but the more he thought about Zintle's phone call earlier the more his heart soared with possibility.
"Katlego, hurry up, Lihle is indeded Lethabo, plus she and her goons are plotting to kill you. You once broke her heart before she shot you to make you pay. Sad thing is you survived the blast, hence she's had a change of plans. Leave that house at once, the choice to come and see me is yours Katlego..." her words had caused his heart's emotional explosion, just before Lihle's sudden appearance.
With the stealthiness of a cat he quickly scurried through the gallery of the passage, despite the headache which was now stressfully pounding against his skull. Closing the bathroom door, he paused to regain his breath, before embracing himself in pursuit of warmth. For his nostrils had been ambushed by a blast of cold air. Cold wind making the tiny less curtain dance to its rhythm as It barged through the open window, alongside some streaks of moonlight, before running its chilled fingers across Katkego's open skin whilst also whispering some cold words into his ears.
Words that left a chilly trail inside his eardrums before running down his spine, failing to cool him down yet leaving his knees trembling with fear. That's when he quickly washed his face, softly shrieking to the searing pain of water against his scarred cheek... Washing his eyes despite failing to was away scary images of Lihle which were now flashing before his eyes with every blink.
Within a single heartbeat, Katlego drew a quick breath before scratching for the heavy brown bag which he had hidden in the laundry basket, just before he raced against his quickening pulse, out into the passage, towards the stairs. Fumbling into his pocket he found the keys to the red BMW Nandipha had allegedly claimed had been given to Lihle's for her 20th birthday.
Halfway down the stairway, while uncontrollably yawning, his dizzy eyes picked up the lounge's light reflected upon the glass stairs. Perhaps it was the dreams dwelling within his eyelids. Nevertheless, his dizziness spiralled out of control, stole his balance and plunged his existence off the staircase. Before he landed beside the hexagonally positioned crimson couches, just before a sharp pain pierced beneath my kneecap. It was the car keys.
Struggling to get up, as his painful shriek ensued, he crawled through the hallucination and blurred vision. Leaving the glass table smudged in hues of red, but keeping his bag behind him. "Going Somewhere baby boy?" The voice that slowly rose above some soft shuffles just before he caught a faint glimpse of her yellow, duck-shaped slippers flying towards his face.
_______________
By the time he opened his eyes, Katlego found himself in a slightly dim room, warm water running, as the sweet-scented steam ascended to his nose and left my nostrils nourished. Failing to find enlightenment on the current situation as he could not feel his legs at all, he was suddenly startled by a blowing of kisses just before a purple trail of candles lit up around him, illuminating the pentagon-shaped bathtub in which he was. When he pierced his gaze past the the thick fog of steam, he spotted a silhouette coming towards him...
"Aren't you just predictable? You seem to forget that I'm a psychologist in the marking". Said she, turning around and laying against him. The warm sensation of her body against torso seemingly complemented by the foggy steam, as her fluffy afro buns tickled his neck while his heart slammed against her back. "What will she do now?" The question that invaded his mind, despite the tape that covered his mouth. Its weight and voice amplified by the darkness lurking around the circle.
"Look what I found!" She pressed her buttocks against his third leg, leaned back and placed her head against his neck, while facing up just enough for his eyes to pick up the smile that was playing on her lips, a smile filled with serene contentment... As she showed him the picture of Zintle, Catherine, Caroline and himself, if not Karabo; taken hours before the ball.
A question that was hard enough to knock him down an imaginary journey back to the previous night. When he'd finally succumbed to the pressure and snuck his way to Nandipha's secret room again, leaving Nandipha's appetizing meal behind. Only to find himself before the big red door, which stood between two big paintings of Nandipha's parents. Until a sudden rush of adrenaline rushed through his veins towards his hands, making hom squeeze the picture of Lethabo in my hand, before hastily grabbing the door's handle.
Sweat running down his forehead, as memories of Zintle floated all over his mind while I squeezed my black bag and scrupulously dawdled towards the coffin-shaped, transperent safe's that stood abreast... Only to rush out later after hearing Nandipha's voice emeging alongside the click-clock rhythm of her high heels hitting against the glass stairs, inducing scary thoughts to barge past my other thoughts . Causing fear to swirl within, before leaving my heart shunted by a tornado of guilt and rendering me breathless, before sprinting to the bathroom...
"Babes, you seem terrified. What's wrong? " She'd said a minute later after bumping into him at the end of the stairs, dramatically pulling her head back, before shooting him a sharp look that stuck a dagger through his brown eyes, down to his soul. Only to paint it with hazel-tinted shame using her lashes.. Instinctively making him reach for her shopping bags in a chivalrous gesture, before romantically clasping her other hand with mine even though she hadn't been smooth to the touch. All this while timidly trying to dodge the enigmatic frown that was now displayed across her facial expression, in response to his heavy breaths.
Making his heart press against his breastplate, hanging its ears before her harsh, imminent response. For her lips were already parting, her brows beautifully furrowed above her suddenly squinted eyes...
"Katlego maan! Say something... After wanting to run away from me in spite of our upcoming 14 month anniversary?" She sarcastically smiled at him, leaving him lost in her enchantingly distant eyes. Until she painfuly rid him of the mouth tape before fervently planting a tongue-tying kiss between my lips. One that left his tongue itching with discomfort alongside her rebald laugh. She then brought her glass of wine onto his lips, which were now coated with her make up. Before her red wine gushed down his throat and washed away the sour taste off my guilt-tripped tongue.
"Lihle, or should I say Lethabo, you shot my brother and sister, and destroyed m my family, and for what?" His words didn't seems to touch her.
"Katlego don't forget you cheated on me, I loved you unconditionally and you know this... Yet after all I've done for you choose to repay me by stealing from me?" She paused to take another sip, her anger had clearly swelled within her heart, and was now pouring out alongside her tipsy words.
"I've nothing to say to you Lethabo, y'all pretty rich girls are all the same"
"You seldom forget that If I hadn't rescued you from hospital you'd be in prison right now, you know you've got a crime pending."
"A crime which you are fully responsible for and you know..." His words were followed with a smack that soon stamped his cheek.
"So now that your little memory is back I guess its time I tell you what you fully did, before I stepped in and made it disappear by letting your precious Zintle take the fall..."
"You shouldn't have done that" his tone rose to the ceiling.
"Oh! then maybe I should just let the Detectives, Divvy Jaas and Dee Monique, bring some dockets into existence, and let you inherit the fall from Zintle then..."
"All this money and yet you still can't buy sanity, you need help Lihle or Lethabo or whatsoever name belongs to the demon which's possessed you." Katlego shot out those words without thinking twice.
"Mxm!" Lethabo clucked her tongue in response
That's when her nudity emerged as she rose from the water that had now reached Katlego's shoulders. " Dumb enough you can't even redeem yourself and pretend to be sorry, or say that you love me too ...And to think that I loved you... You've clearly left me with no choice."
Her expression intensified before she disappeared into the dark. leaving a rhythmic trail of slippers' shuffles.
Nandipha emerged from the dark, walking resolutely and without qualms, with quick and powerful strides just before her solid figure, whose hips seemed accommodated by the same tights that choked them, cast a shadow above him. Tears welled within her eyes as she held what seemed to be the heartfelt poem which he had slid beneath her pillow hours earlier. Her eyes devoid of their usual sparkle and her gaze hung above Katlego, penetrating past his brown gaze, through the depth of his pupils before peering down the very landscape upon which his naked soul resided, whist leaving "Scarred" engraved across it .
"Babes I can explain.. She's my ex, nothing more, I didn't mean want I said!" He blurted out, finally envisaging the painful, inevitable act that would imminently ensue, his strength ebbing from semi-numb body as blood tainted the warm water that currently engulfed most of his body... An epheral vision that portrayed her etching: "Broke My Heart" across his epigrammatic epitaph, as blood-red tears poured from the pregnant, crimson clouds.
"Too late... You're up to your neck in it, already." She exhaled and dabbed beneath her eyes, wiping away her tears from the steam, before cocking her gun and pressing it against his temple. Pulling his gaze from her small breasts, whose brown nipples were gently pressing against her wet top.
It was then when he saw my cynism and disbilief reflected in her teary eyes, making him budge enough to dismiss his previous thoughts, for he could no longer delude myself into believing that he'd survive her mind games. For the water had now reached his neck, ticklishly grasping it. Until her cheeks squeezed her genuine smile away, leaving a juxtaposed grimace of hate and sympathy across it.
That's when she placed diagonally-crossed tapes upon his lips and nostalgically brushed her thumb against the small goatie on his chin ... Almost Inducing him into pouring out the whole half-truth and rid him of the anxiety that now plagued his soul, and hopefully dry out the morbid flood of thoughts that had now overthrown his conscience.
Katlego's eyes nearly succumbed to the pressure of the sorrowful lake beneath them just before he shut them to deter his tears from escaping. For Nandipha's red and fiery eyes had done more than warm them up. Now wondering what it felt like to be dead, he stoically subjected to the curiosity, confusion and bewilderment which had now colonized his mind.
Despite all this he clinched on to the bitter truth, that the condom had broke and that her eggs would soon be inseminated by his soldiers. Yet, before he could giggle to the irony, if not to her long nails running all over hie bare skin, a gunshot literally pierced his eardrums, leaving behind a tranquil, yet deadly dirge...
Leaving behind a scattered memory of a tarnished love story