"I could have taken mom's car but I do not have a driving license and hell no, Mukura, she would not have even considered giving it to me!" she says dragging herself close to the Mutirikwi river bank.
She falls on the river sand and breathes heavily for a while looking high up in the sky.
"It is about to get dark, better fill my bottle and keep moving!"
She remains on the ground with her hands spread out wide breathing heavily still. Stretches her head looking at the water in the river and it seems so far yet so close and she contorts her face like a baby. She is exhausted from walking. And using her magic abilities to enhance herself and travel faster.
"Please, God, lend me strength to take even a little sip of it!"
She faints at the spot.
Hours later at night wakes up and finds herself in sleeping and eyes lingering around her. She startles with haste rise from the ground.
"It is alright, there is no need for you to fear us! We saved you before the thing that haunts this village has taken you!" a little boy tries to calm her down.
"What thing?" Mukura asks with her lips shaking in fear.
The boy perceives the terrified look on her face and steps back with his arms spread to make the others step back from her, "It appears like a shadow or in the shadows and no one knows where it comes from or where it goes or where it takes the people it abducts from here but all we know is that it is the root of all the evil that is happening in our village!" the boy explains to her and his face is slowly becoming gloomier.
"What type of evil are you talking?"
He turns and the others behind him open a path for him, "Come with me!" he walks out of the hut and she follows behind him quickly.
"You seem to be afraid of the people!" he giggles, "Do not worry, they will not bite. The name is Munashe and what is yours?"
"Mukura! My name is Mukura." she answers in a soft tone still looking at the villagers who are looking at her.
"The chief of thus village was among the first that were taken when the beast first arrived and many other leaders followed and now, I am the one who leads the people of this village!" Munashe explains to her.
The villagers have not seen this creature that attacks and abducts people and they only see shadows. Is it only one creature or they are many? The god said the land she is to visit is being terrorised by creatures could it be that these are the same creatures he talked about? She pulls out her map to check if this is the place where she is supposed to be but it seems she still has a long way to go.
Looking at the map she stops walking, "Can you tell me what type of creature it is? The way the shadow appears? The sounds it makes?"
"It is a beast that growls and roars like a lion, it has horns of a bull and breathes fire! Why do you ask?"
"Nothing, I am just curious to know what it looks like!"
"Of course! Here we just hope that one day our prayers will be answered!"
"And to what god do you pray to?" she lisps the question.
Munashe laughs, "I pray to Yahweh, the God of the Israelites, the God of the Jews and the God of the Christians!"
Her facial face changes and she seems bored, "Really? Why did you not just say I that you are a Christian?" Mukura sounds annoyed.
"I just did!"
"Tell me more about what is going on in this village! You said there are evil things occurring here. What else is happening in this village and what is the name of this village?" she returns back to the major issue at hand.
"Follow me, Mukura and I will show you rather than tell you!"
"Alright then, show me!"
"Right this way, Mukura!" he leads the way, "You are at the Great Zimbabwe village, it is not much but it is worth a while, "I found you near the Mutirikwi river about to drink the corrupting waters."
"The corrupted waters? People in the city drink those waters!"
"Not ever since this creature came! I think something evil will befall everyone and that the end of the human race is near!" he sighs, "This thing corrupts everything it touches and it almost seems as if it is a corruption incarnate!"
"So, that is why the god send me through this region!" she smiles shaking her head, "I need some water and tomorrow please show me where the kidnapping started and then I will begin from there!"
Munashe is confused looking at her, "What can you possibly do? You are not God or an angel!"
"No, I am not but I have to help this village, purge whatever it is that is causing all these things because I am pretty sure that the demon is not only taking people from your village!"
"You are strange. How can you possibly help these people in this village and the.....?" he pauses and raises his hand and Mukura does not answer but is confused.
"Is there something wrong?" Mukura asks, "You are not about to go into that dark area, are you?"
"I need to find out what is over there!"
"Don't go there," she objects, "I can feel something dark there but it is faint."
"What do you mean by feel something dark!?" he lisps turning to look at her.
Mukura looks at him, "I, ummm, I can, ahh, I have magical abilities!" she squeals on herself to him grabbing her right arm with her left hand and rubbing it.
"So, you are a witch?" he questions her.
"More or less, I do not know! I just have the abilities. I will use them to help your people!" burst out looking at her hand turning around to look away from him.
Slowly, Munashe walks towards Mukura slowly and hits her on the head with a fist knocking her out.
"Stupid witch!"
A body appears to be dragging itself out of the shadows walking towards Mukura's body.
"Take her body back to hut and tomorrow we will burn this witch in front of the people. Early in the morning tomorrow apprise them on this development! We have found the witch that is haunting us." He commanded the person with a disgusted look on his face and the person takes her body to the hut and ties it with a rope and leaves her to sleep for the night.
Early in the morning!
Noise of great displeasure because of her presence in the haunted village awake her. Feeling her head ache as she slowly opens her eyes to see the angry faces holding ploughing tools, cutting tools and kitchen tools shouting with Munashe in front lighting the fire of the crowd's rage.
"Why am I tied up here? What is going on" Mukura asks in a faint voice.
Hearing her faint voice, he stops giving a speech enraging the crowd and comes to her, holds her cheeks squeezing them in with his fingers.
"So, it was you all along feeding the people with poison taking the women and children and the men from their homes?" rage is what is coming out of his mouth glaring at her with eyes of a killer.
"What the hell are you blabbering about?" she raises her cold eyes, "If it was me, you would be dead already!"
Munashe releases her cheeks spreads out his hands looking at the crowd, "Exactly what a witch would say!" he continues his campaign to get her executed and the crowd supporting him.
Returns back to her and places his mouth right next to her ear, "After you are gone, there will be no one left to stop her from destroying this world and right after you gone!" he laughs softly, "All hail her that represents death!"
"You, you are the one who is responsible for everything that is going on here! What are you?" she deepens her voice and ask in angry tone.
He moves back a bit, "Who, me? I am but a normal human being witch!"
"Listen to me, people of this land! You have been deceived!" she shouts in desperation to make the people spare her life but the people shout at her throwing stones and other objects at her.
"He lies to you! Tell me, when did he first appear? Was it not after the mysterious occurrences began?"
"Actually, he appeared before it all began!" one of the people shouts from the crowd.
"And that is not suspicious to you?" she presses on and some of those in the crowd begin to wonder.
Munashe rushes over to her and beats her with the back of his hand, "Silence you witch!" he turns back to the people, "You dare doubt me? Me who has protected you from the day the .....!"
"Protected us from what exactly" a man comes out of the crowd, "Every hour that passes by the number of people that disappear increases and yet here you are proudly saying you are protecting which makes me wonder!"
"You have always been against me and everyone knows that you are jealous and was hurt when I was made the leader of the village, the people trust me more than you!"
"True, I was hurt and yes, I will never be one of those who support you but this is not about me and you but the people! The barrier was set to prevent the demon from entering and the holy fire still burns but people are still disappearing on sacred land!" he mentions the root of his doubts and the people wonder more and the crowd noise has stabilized.
"Listen to me people of this village, I can help you rid off the evil spirit that has caused you unrest!" she turns to look at Munashe, "But this man here is not who he says he is and if I am right, he is the one who has been giving the demon people!"
"A demon? So, the thing that has been terrorising us here is a demon and he is the one feeding us to it? I can't believe he would do such a thing he is such a caring! And how does she know that it is a demon? But If she is corrupted how come she was able to enter through the holy barrier!"
The people debate continuously among each other.
"I am Itai by the way and you are?" he looks at her with a smile.
She thinks of her name, Mukura, which might pin her to the wall, "The name is Divine!"
"Nice name, who gave it to you?" he asks again cheerful.
She is looking at him now comparing to how he was before he asked her for her name and the facial expressions are making him seem like a different person.
"I do not know who did maybe my mother or father!" she answers shying away from looking at him.
"Okay! Nice to meet you."
"Likewise!"
Preparing to utter something to Munashe, and is disappointed to find that he has disappeared. Where did he go? With fierce eyes he searches the crowd and still cannot find him.
Steps back with haste and unties Mukura, "We need to find him, he will tell us where the people who disappeared are or they will be lost forever!"
After finishing untying her, he goes in front of the crowd, "Good people! Anyone seen where Munashe went?" he shouts out his question but no one heeds him.
"Good people!" he shouts louder and this time Mukura blows a strong wind through the crowd but makes sure no one notices her.
"Now, has anyone seen where Munashe went!"
The crowd starts searching for him but no one can see him and they all reply to him 'no'!
"Tell them to search for him all over the village before he gets away!"
"Yes, you are right!" Itai, gathers the people around and gives them orders and they depart to look for him in groups and he goes with Mukura to search for him.
A bawl is heard on the northern side of the village and immediately the two rush over there fast. And beyond the boundary, Munashes' neck in the hands of a rotten faced demon with pale skin and two black horns wearing a big black robe smiling looking at them. He breathes a little darkness into Munashe's nose, similar to what Gwanhoya does.
Horrid eyes on Itai's face but Mukura's stare is rather knowingly fierce.
"The descendant of Gwanhoya herself! What an honour it is!" he says coming closer to the boundary, "Sad, I cannot greet you personally! If only you can come out so I can give you a hug!" he says mockingly with sad puppy eyes on his face.
"Who are you?"
"You must have already known that I am a demon and my name is Astaroth!" he divulges to her.
"What did you do to Munashe?"
He looks down at the body, "Who him? He is alive but I just did something to him to make him a bottomless pit and serve me and my endings without question or failure like he did!"
"It always comes down to that when you play with a demon!" Itai interjects murmuring.
"I am sorry to have to cut our little limit short but I have some issues I need to attend to!" he vanishes from the spot.
Itai exhales loudly, "You can't say he was rude. He did apologise for cutting our meeting short!" he tries to be funny but Mukura does not show any sign of smiling.
"This is why I am here; I need to figure out what he has actually done so that I can undo it!" she sounds infuriated as she turning to look at Itai.
"He has corrupted everything outside of the boundary! Be it water and food!"
"Okay, we will start with him then! We need to come up with a plan to send him back to hell." She looks thoughtful putting her hands on her own waste.
"You are not thinking of going out there to fight that thing, are you?"
"If I do not do this, a lot of people will die!"
"If you go out there you will die, do you not value your life?"
"And if I do not go out there a lot of people will die!" Mukura shouts at him, "It is fine if you do not want to help, I will do it alone."
He does not answer after feeling an intense emotional vibe from her words and she walks away headed for the village with him just staring at her.