To The Grave

By Charity Nyoni
In the stormy night it’s only the brave and the troubled who have the courage to fight against the winds as they hunt for their prey. A woman clad in a black long coat that covered her from head to toe, climbed off a stallion. She then tied the stallion to a tree and then fixed her attention to a lifeless mansion that stood aloof and deserted in the middle of nowhere, in a place that only the howling of the hyenas filled the atmosphere.
She looked around to ensure that she was not being followed and when she was satisfied, she headed towards the mansion. She dug deep into the pocket of her coat and brought out a bunch of keys, she looked left, right and centre suspiciously before opening the door; getting in and closing the door behind her.
She switched on a lantern that sat next to the door, she picked it up and walked down the passage until she came into a locked room, that she unlocked. A chained old man spoke angrily,
“I thought you were coming a bit earlier than this, I am famished! What did you bring for me?”
He was chained in such a way that allowed him to have the freedom to move about, only in that room. There was a small toilet bowel for him to relieve himself when the need arose; there was a comfortable small mattress, a single plate gas stove, a few plates, two cooking pots, a tap and a bath-tub.
“Why don’t you just kill me, Mavis? I am tired of this life and besides, I am getting too old. I miss the outside air, why are you still keeping me alive?”
“I wish it was that simple,” Queen, Mavis said and turned around to discreetly wipe off a tear.
“Death is better than this prison!” the old man sobbed, “Just set me free, or kill me. I swear your secrets are safe with me.”
“I love you too much to kill you,” she said as she emptied a bag that she had brought; “You are just too nice, if I set you free I know that you will want to expose me in front of my people. The people who love me so much, will turn against me! Besides, you are the only person I can freely talk too, you know me since the day I was born,”
There was a moment of emotional silence between the duo as each of them reminisced on the good old days when Mavis was still a sweet little angel. They both wiped off a tear,
“I came to tell you about my medical condition,”
“What, are you sick?”
“Yes, with only a month to live.” She stood up, veered and blankly stared at the plain wall.
“That’s very sad, I am so sorry to hear that.” The old man seemed to be deeply hurt.
“It’s fine, I guess the heavens are also tired of wasting their breathe on me;” she wiped a tear off,
“And when are you going to tell Sammy that you are responsible for her current predicament?”
“I do not intend to tell her,”
“Mavis, why are you this cruel? Your daughter is going to die in the next two months because of something you did to protect your marriage and now you tell me that you can’t tell her! I blame my loins for planting you into your mother’s womb!”
“Calm, down!”
“You are dying of something you can still sort out. Just confess your sins and live.”
“I cannot do that! I swore to take my secrets with me to the grave!”
“The king has to know that you are not Martha but Mavis. Martha deserves at least a decent burial, her remains need to be gathered in once place, allow the king to mourn her. If you don’t do that, you will surely die!”
Mavis turned around, and left without saying anything.
The following day, the king stood by the hallway; staring at his and Mavis’s wedding picture. He seemed to be so deep in thoughts. His trusted friend, Timothy arrived and stood behind him,
“You seem to be troubled, my king.”
“I had another night mare,”
“Is it the Queen again?”
“Yes, today it was very real. It was as if she is dead,”
“But the Queen is alive,”
“That’s my question exactly! For these past ten years after I cheated on her with her twin sister, we just grew apart. It’s like I don’t know her anymore. She has changed, I miss the woman I married.”
“That happens in marriage, just give her some time.”
“The wait is getting too, tiresome,”
Later that day, the Queen went to visit Sammy. The Seven months pregnant Sammy sat on a sofa, staring blankly at the Television. Streams of tears flowed down her once jovial face, all she could see and hear were the Doctor’s words;
“We have two options and out of both options; I am so sorry because Sammy will die.”
“How about if we let the baby die instead?” the queen had asked the Doctor.
“Even if we do so, the baby is now human enough; we will need to conduct a surgery on Sammy to remove the baby. Unfortunately as we all know the risk involved, we will not be able to knit Sammy back together once we do that because the skin lightening creams have damaged her body so much that it is now too soft.”
“So are you telling me that I should just wait and watch my daughter dying like that? I should just fold my hands and watch her die?”
“Unfortunately, my Queen; there is nothing medically proven that can save the Princess. It’s only a miracle that we are hoping for.”
Sammy was taken back to her present day by the Queen’s hands that were wrapped gently around her. Sammy cried her heart out.
“You believe me mommy, don’t you? I swear I have never ever applied any skin lightening cream, mommy I swear;” she burst into mourning again.
“I believe you baby trust me I do,”
Sammy’s health continued to deteriorate by the day and so did the Queen’s well being. The Queen spent most of her time with her prisoner at the abandoned mansion.
One day as soon as the Queen left the mansion, someone walked in and tried to rescue the old man,
“I have been monitoring the Queen’s movements and I am here to set you free,”
“Who are you and how did you get in here?”
“I am a palace guard, let me help you so that you can get out of here.”
“Just go, okay. I don’t want to get out of here.” Said the old man and the palace guard was shocked.
“Why are you doing this? Does she have anything against you?”
“Let’s just say I am someone who is very loyal to the Queen,”
As they continued to talk, the Queen tip-toed slowly behind the palace guard and struck him with a stick on the head and that was how the guard lost his life.
“How many murders will you commit just to hide one sin?”
“Not today please dad; not today!” she shouted at the old man and stormed out, dragging the corpse out of the place.
Sammy became a shadow of herself, she no longer talked, ate or smiled not to mention taking a shower. Each passing day, the Queen watched her daughter sinking into the boat of death. The Queen became too worried and was desperate to make her daughter well again but this seemed very impossible because the Queen was now left with less than a week to live. As death lingered closer, the Queen was too stressed and because of her ego; she wanted to be the first to take part in her own death than to wait for God to do so. She sat down and wrote a letter before taking a strong rope that was going to be the weapon of her suicide mission but before that, she had to go and set her father free from the mansion.
The king walked in on Sammy reading the letter,
“ Dear Sammy and the king,
By the time you read this letter, I would have joined my ancestors because after what I will tell you here, you will both want nothing to do with me.
Sammy my angel, you were born as a little dark thing. I was so embarrassed that I had given birth to a dark skinned girl so I started adding skin lightening creams to your body lotion so that you become light in complexion. I was still doing it even now, The king is very light and a dark baby was going to raise eye brows and people were going to start questioning your legitimacy to the throne. The king is not your father, his friend Timothy is actually your father. I’m sorry for ruining your life; I wanted a better future for you but now I have killed you. Before you die, let me go ahead of you because I cannot afford to see you in pain.
My King, I am Mavis and not Martha. I killed Martha so that I can marry you. I killed my own sister and held my father captive for these years. Martha’s remains are under the king’s throne.
I signed a contract with the devil and now he is out to hunt me. I traded my years of living with the riches that our community is enjoying. The people get what they want because I sacrificed myself to the devil. I know it is very hurtful but if you can, please forgive me. I love you guys!”
The King and Sammy could not believe their ears and tears of joy flowed down their cheeks as the old man who was Mavis’s prisoner walked in. Nothing was ever heard about the ferocious Queen again.