SHADOWS OF KAYLA

MAN IN BLACK

Kayla.

“Go home now, thank you,” I told Festus while watched him nod and turn to walk away. I was grateful and hopeful that things would get better and Van would be put behind bars for k********g and would spend at least ten years in prison if the law was being lenient on him.

Sam started to bark fiercely at me as soon as I entered the premises of Van's house.

“I don't want to be here either, Sam. So shut up!” I scowled frustratedly at the dog who still continued barking and growling as I proceeded in.

I squinted my eyes to adjust to the darkness in the room my mum and Tom were held in, but the room was completely empty, causing me to panic whilst turning quickly around to make sure I wasn't imagining them gone.

What if Van had killed them?

“No no,” I cried and ran out of the room to look for them, promising myself that Van couldn't have done anything to them yet.

Outside the house was a car who's engine was revving loudly as the suited driver sat calmly behind the wheels, as two black sacks were being shoved into the car. It didn't take long for me to realize that it was mum and Tom.

They were moving them!

It got me wondering if they had found out about dad reporting to the police or if it was Festus whom they found out about. It scared me that I was putting the innocent guy in danger, I felt sorry for him and angry at myself. But what was more important to me at that moment was following them to wherever Van was getting them moved to.

What a conniving and wicked man he was.

While I sat with the two sacks in the back seat, one of Van's men who was seated in the passenger's seat kept looking back at his hostages every now and then, making me so irritated to the point of feeling the urge to gouge his eyes out of his skull. They were all wicked, both Van and his men.

There was nothing I could do to save my family and it kept hurting me. My abilities could get me nowhere and I worried if I tried anything funny, I might just put them in danger.

Poor Festus. He took the trouble of helping me report the k********g to the police even when we were not related in any way, even though I was the one who convinced him to, much to my constant regret. Now all his efforts had gone down the drain. The police would not find them at Van's house and he would not be arrested. It was back to ground zero.

I was near tears with frustration and my head ached thinking of ideas. I couldn't bring myself to go and beg for Festus' help again the second time when none of the mishaps were his fault. It seemed to me from the beginning that Festus himself was dealing with some kind of trouble, but I chose to ignore it because I wanted to put myself first and not pity him to the point I wouldn't be able to ask him for help.

“Where are we going?” The man who had been looking back asked the driver, breaking the silence.

The man continued driving and ignored the question that was thrown at him. The other guy looked at the silent driver for a while and looked back at the sacks in the back seat.

“I said where are we going?” He asked again, and the driver didn't as much as flinch in response to his question, his eyes were steady on the road ahead of him. I wondered if the other guy was a newbie, since he seemed to be asking questions. Or probably both of them where newbies and didn't know how to do their jobs well.

“Who are these people?” The young man queried further, I could sense the tenseness in his voice now. I searched the face of the one to whom the question was directed at and he still kept his mouth shut.

“What are we going to do with them?”

“You don't f*****g ask questions! How many times have I told you? You just don't get it? You do as you're told or you'll lose your life, okay? Now shut up and let me focus!” The man bellowed, panting after his words before he pulled the car over in front of a huge gate.

He took out his phone from inside he coat and out it to his ear, telling someone over the other end he was around. As soon as he dropped his phone back the where he had taken it from, the gates in front of us were pulled open. He started the car again and drove speedily into the premises, causing the tyres to screech loudly on the floor.

It was a house similar to Van's, obviously his other house. There were more men and dogs roaming around the yard and it seemed there was something else being guarded in the house since it was located in a more secluded area.

As soon as the driver found a random spot in the yard to pull over, a few other men approached the car and carried the sacks away into the house, with me following them into the house, full of apprehension.

Mum coughed roughly when one of the men in black pulled her out of the sack, she was slowly regaining consciousness. Tom on the other hand was still not awake.

“Tape her mouth before she finds her voice and starts to make a noise,” the driver from earlier who seemed like he was the boss around there told another. The latter nodded quickly pulled a tape over mum's mouth while she squeaked tiredly.

“Take them upstairs,” the boss commanded and walked towards to front door.

“And tie them up! We'll hear from the boss soon!” He added spunkily before shutting the door behind him. The other three men, helped themselves move their hostages up the stairs as they had been ordered to.

“I need to pee,” one of the three men said, hastily dropping mum's feet when they got to the landing, leaving the other man to carry mum.

“How many times have you peed in the last one hour?” Asked the guy on own whose shoulder Tom was slung over.

“None of ya business,” the chubby man scoffed and headed quickly down the steps while he loosened his belt.

The other man dragged mum by her hands towards the room, making me so angry I wanted to chop his hands off for doing that. The man with Tom walked faster, opening the door to the room they were going to be kept in while the other man was still trying to get mum to the door by dragging her backwards.

On opening the door, I saw something fly through the man's forehead, causing him to fall immediately dead to the floor with Tom. I froze where I as standing, watching horrifically how blood streamed quickly down the dead man's forehead. The other guy with mum turned quickly at the noise, trying to take out his g*n.

“Don't—move…” the masked killer whispered, coming slowly out of the room with a g*n pointed at the other man before he could make a move.

“Move, and I bury two in your head. They won't hear a single thing,” he threatened again, walking closer. The other man let go of mum and raised his two hands in the air, whilst the masked man rid him of his weapon.

“Don't shoot, please,” he begged fearfully, kneeling.

“It's my first day, please. I know nothing,” he added. The masked man hummed slowly and tilted his head before firing the g*n, having been aimed at the chubby man heading up the stairs. The man from the bathroom rolled down the stairs with a shot to his chest.

The young man froze in his sweat, shivering.

The masked man went over to mum and lifted her in his arms.

“Bring the boy,” he told the young man. The latter nodded amidst palpitations and shivers, carrying Tom and following behind the man before shutting the door behind him. And with chills still enveloping me, I slipped in through the door with them.

The man pulled the mask off his nose and wiggled his head quickly to put his hair back in place.

I recognised him, it was Zen.