Thread by @ikentanzi_

I told him about all the dreams I had been having, the strange marks and bruises on my body, and the kitchen door incidences. My father was ashamed for having accused me of sneaking out at night, but he was more worried about how uMah would react to all of this.

We asked the prophet why uMah couldn’t join us as he was explaining how to break free from my capturer. He said that his guides didn’t want her in this space. He reckoned that my mother knew why. My mother denied knowing why the prophet denied her access to his indumba.

My father didn’t sleep a wink that night. He stayed awake the entire night, making sure I didn’t escape to spread evil in other people’s homes. I didn’t have dreams that night. I was sure the holy water and holy ash the prophet gave us, worked.

My dreams seized for about two months. In that time,uBaba had put burglar bars on all the windows. I felt a bit safe & secure, even though I forever anxious, not knowing when I would lose control & run off to whoever it was that was using me as her slave. I had my guard up, 24/7.

I had even stopped visiting my friend’s salon on weekends, and only spent time with her via phone calls. Of course I didn’t tell her the real reason why I wasn’t visiting her anymore.

3 months passed & I hadn’t escaped in the middle of the night. My father’s guard was also down,& uMah wasn’t hearing footsteps outside our yard anymore.We religiously made crosses on our doors and windows with the holy ash and holy water mixture we had received from the prophet.

Dwinky’s kennel had a new owner, and she wasn’t making strange noises at night. She also didn’t whimper when she saw me. 
My nights were no longer plagued by strange dreams. I was finally at peace.

One weekend, Percy came to check up on me since she hadn’t seen me for so long, yet she lived a few blocks away from me. We were planning on chilling outside since it was a hot day, but uMah forced Percy to come in for a drink and a saucer of choice assorted biscuits...

They had a small talk about Percy’s mom’s health,before I could have a minute alone with Percy to talk about the real reason why I was scarce.I told her the filtered version of things. As far as she was concerned,I was having bad dreams & weird things were happening at my home.

She wasn’t too keen on discussing the matter…she scared too easily.

We finished two litres of Coca-Cola by ourselves as we chipped away on the current headlines in our township. She always had hot tea to serve!

Ezakheni is a close knit community, everyone knows everyone and your business is everybody’s business, which is why I only told Percy half-truths and buried everything else in my closet.
I had such good laughs with her that day. She always sends me to the floor with her stories.

...at one point we laughed so hard she had to run to the bathroom before her bladder could burst.

Ugh, my best friend!

I accompanied her home later that day, but didn’t enter her house because I knew her mom would make me stay for tea and scones.

I went to bed late that night because I had taken a nap in the afternoon before Percy visited me. I was tossing and turning until midnight.

Sigh.

Just when I was about to finally fall asleep, my bladder rang the bell for the loo.

I dragged my feet to the light switch in my room and switched it on. It stayed on for a few seconds and then light globe went off.
/Yeah, we haven’t change this light globe since last year/; I said to myself as I walked to the bathroom in pitch darkness.

I turned the bathroom light on.

Ahhhh there we go!

/Eish, someone finished the toilet paper and didn’t bother to replace it. It probably my brother. Nx! He does this all the time!/

I got up & went to the kitchen,being careful not to drag my feet as I was passing my parent’s bedroom.I wouldn’t want them to think I was off to people’s yards again.I turned the kitchen lights on,opened the bottom cupboard by the sink & yawned as grabbed a roll of tissue.

When I turned around, I found the kitchen door open.Confused by how this could be,I quickly closed it but then a three fingered little hand blocked it.

I paused for a second & tried to slam the door but then a second three fingered hand appeared at the door,pushing it wide open.

That’s when I saw the two disfigured children in front of me. The one with a drooling mouth now has a huge scar across her face. It must’ve been from that huge fight with uBab’ Mkhize.

The one that pushed the door open has eyes as big as marbles and his ears as big and flat like those of a kangaroo. I took three steps backwards and then came to a stop when I felt someone’s cold breath on my neck, behind me.

That’s when I heard someone whisper into my ear.Her speech was slightly intelligible because it also sounded as though the person was whistling.Wait a minute! I recognize this voice! It’s the strange whistling woman from my dreams!

I got goosebumps all over me!

It’s happening!

I anxiously turned around to see her up close. I could see her naked body covered in what looked like white ash. I could see her breasts & her neck but,my eyes refused to look at her face.They just wouldn’t.

I screamed so loud I was sure someone would hear me.But no I be came.

I blinked twice & I was no longer at my house.I was in someone else’s yard. Fully conscious of what was happening,I started running to the gate but then the whistling lady who was using my body as her ship,turned me around and made me dig up a hole in the backyard, with my hands.

It’s a strange feeling to have your body do things you don’t want to do. You feel like you’re locked up in a room, while watching yourself destroy and perform heinous acts without having the ability to stop yourself. I’d never wish this upon anyone! Not even to my worst enemy!

When the hole was deep enough, the two little disfigured children appeared and poured inside the hole; black seeds, some bones and a paw of a skunk. I buried all of this and my accomplices peed over the freshly dugout soil so that no one would see that we had been there.

I then heard the woman’s whistles again, and then I immediately walked to the front veranda, and that’s when I was hit by what felt like lighting just when she stepped on the tiles with my bare feet. I tried to move, but it felt as though my feet were now glued to the ground.

I signaled for my two accomplices to help me but, they just vanished in-front of me. This is when I started to freak out. What scared me the most was the fact that I knew this wasn’t a dream- and I wasn’t in full control of myself, though I knew what happening.

I whistled for the woman from the bushes to help me. She instructed me to hit the floor with my hands, saying it would release me from the protection spell at this home. I did this, but then my hands also got stuck on the floor.

I was now on my knees, with my hands glued to the white tiles, right at the entrance of the veranda. I can’t even remember when I was stripped naked. I don’t remember how we left my house. I don’t remember how I got to the house I was now at.

My body started itching and that lightning hit me for the second time. I couldn’t help by scream out loud. My entire body felt as though it had been set on fire. The lights in the house came on. My heart sank right to my gut. I had been caught.

Someone peeps at the window, it’s a man. “Who are you? What are you doing in my home at this time of the night?” He asked from the inside.

I didn’t answer him. I was too ashamed to even speak. I kept my head down to prevent him from seeing my face. What if he knows me?!

“You will stay like that until the morning then!” He said to me, before disappearing from the window. I could hear him talking to someone else inside, and then some children started crying.

Every time I tried to get up, that lightning would zap me again and render me weak.

After an hour of sitting out in the cold, fully naked, I heard the whistles again.

Hope resurrected in me!

I thought she had come to help me. I had no idea that she was calling out her spells and spirits to depart from me.

As she was whispering into my ear, I could feel freedom on my fingertips. She stopped her whistles and all that was left was silence.I realized that I was fully in control of my body again, but I was still stuck on the veranda. I started crying & begging for help,but no one came.

The man came back to the window hours later and asked me who I was and why was in his home. I gave him my name, but I couldn’t say why I was in his home. It’s not that I didn’t know. I just couldn’t bring myself to utter it out to him.

“Uthakatha umncane kangaka ngan’yam?!” He exclaimed. I wanted to explain to him that I was being used by someone else- the whistling woman from the bushes, but I also knew that he wouldn’t believe me. He told me that he wasn’t going to let me go until morning.

By 5am in the morning, people that were meant to be rushing to work were starting to gather up at the gate because my behind was completely exposed,as I was kneeling.The floor was now flooded with my tears. My body was trembling from the morning cold.

My voice was gone from screaming and begging as I got zapped by the lightning each time I tried to move.

By sunrise, the entire community was gathered up in this family’s yard. The police were called, and sjamboks had already been introduced to my back.

I wept.

Some women that were there, covered me with a smelly rugged blanket so that children couldn’t see what a grown naked woman looks like. Some were praying over me. Some threw insults at me, while others cursed me. Like a lamb at a slaughter house, I kept quiet.

The man of the house came out carrying a black cow’s horn wrapped with red beads and threatened me to confess everything that I had done in his yard or face death. I told him about the hole at his backyard and that I didn’t even know them. That I was being used by someone else.

He didn’t believe me. The spectators also didn’t believe me, so he blew into the cow-horn and i literally felt as though I was being split apart from my body. He stopped blowing and asked me to confess everything I had done again. I told him the same story and he blew again.

I was sure he was going to kill me, and then from nowhere, Bab’ Mkhize appeared and convinced the crowd to burn me. No one was against it. In less than 20mins, a car tyre was necklaced around my arms.Petrol was poured over me. They all chanted MAKAFE!

The crowd was hysterical!

The man with the horn instructed me to stand up, and I was finally free from what had glued me to the floor.They all ushered me out to the street, where they were ready to burn me. I was bleeding & coughing,when out of nowhere, my father fell on his knees next to me...

My mom was wailing with her hands on top of her head while the prophet tried explaining to the crown about my situation. The crowd wasn’t budging. They were even insinuating that our entire family was evil. Thank God! The police arrived just when things were about to get worse...

Bab’ uMkhize had suggested that the Prophet was not a real prophet, but a warlock. The crowd was slowly starting to believe him, even though Prophet Binda was a known prophet in the township. Bab’ Mkhize had a way with words, perhaps his words were enchanted. I don’t know...

After much struggle, the police managed to safely put me in the van and off to the hospital we went. To be frank with you,I never even went back home after that. There were no charges against me because the man with the cow-horn wanted to deal with me “THOROUGHLY!”

I got on a taxi to Durban, then took a bus to the Eastern Cape where I lived with my aunt for a while, before standing up on my own feet. I can’t tell you how many cleansing rituals I’ve performed. How many churches I’ve gone to, just to make sure I am squeaky clean from my past.

It still hurts though, I won’t lie to you. Especially when I see the sjambok scars on my back.

I tried getting my parents to move in with me, but they never agreed to it. Well, my father was willing to move. But uMah didn’t want to hear anything about it.

The end.

Who do you think the mysterious whistling woman from the bushes is?