Extracts from edition 13 Entrapped 13 Despair Chloe hits the steering wheel out of frustration while she screams and tears running down her cheeks “We are wasting time We are wasting time Help me”.Extracts from edition 13 Entrapped 13 Despair Chloe hits the steering wheel out of frustration while she screams and tears running down her cheeks “We are wasting time We are wasting time Help me”.
Extracts from edition 13 Entrapped 13 - Despair Chloe hits the steering wheel out of frustration while she screams and tears running down her cheeks “We are wasting time! We are wasting time! Help me!” The Script of Evil 13 – The Devil’s Den Terrified she enters the dark house Is she entering a lion’s den? Or far worse: a devil’s den? She now knows for sure that she will give her life to save Billy Via the Grapevine - The solution By Anna van der Walt A true story from my youth, only the surname is changed Entrapped Surviving the mysteries 13 – Despair Chloe is shocked and gazes into the mist and listens intently Can it be true or is this her wild imagination? Did they really tumble over the edge and survived? “Chloe hloe oe ” Her heart jumps There it is again! It’s Lyle’s voice that echoes from the cliffs She inhales deeply and yells on top of her voice “Lyle!” She listens to the echoes and feels endlessly thankful for the service they provide “Chloe hloe oe ” He lives! What about Zoey? It’s only Lyle who screams Why is she silent? She’ll have to use only basic words to communicate with him due to the echoes that mix and confuse messages “Zoey ?” The cliffs echo her question and she listens with bated breath Lyle cleverly answers in single words with silences in between after the echoes subsided Chloe anxiously listens to every word she can decipher “Help Abyss Hang on mer cy Zoey bad Hurry Help ” Then silence follows She yells back: “Going get help ” Like a lunatic Chloe rushes to the Cooper and jumps in Almost immediately after she turns the starter she moves off with tyres screaming She knows she must drive as soon as possible to where she will have a signal and calls for help Her family is hanging helplessly over a perilous abyss Something must have stopped their descent but it must have been a terrible experience And furthermore, they have been hanging there throughout the icy cold night! She hopes Zoey is still alive! Maybe she is just unconscious Chloe changes gears and rapidly works the clutch while she travels hopelessly too fast around the first sharp bends With intensive concentration, she dares almost too much because of the precarious situation of her family She must control herself but finds it difficult and races ever faster while the revolutions sing high in her ears and the tyres squeal around the bends Her heart jumps to her throat when she takes a few sharp, blind bends too fast and lands on the gravel on the other side of the tarmac Luckily there is no traffic from the opposite side I must stop at being so reckless, she warns herself But on the other hand, there is an urgency that frantically spurs her on: ‘Zoey Bad Hurry “ Chloe received the Cooper on her birthday and doesn’t know it well, but she handles beautifully thus far Tony taught her racing tips because the farm has a few dirt roads where you can overdo things with little consequences if you use special techniques She has however never gunned the Cooper so recklessly and can’t anticipate what the car will when she overexert She usually prefers back wheel drive because you can use the force of the engine to straighten when the back breaks away With front-wheel drive it is another story when the nose starts to break away when you go into a bend too fast and lands on the shoulder of the road With the front-wheel drive Cooper, she lands on the wrong side of the road frequently when she takes it too fast Again she takes the next bend too fast She drifts over to the wrong side of the road She gets a scare when she sees a BMW coming towards her and then misses it by inches She hears how the motorist angrily blows his horn to indicate his dismay but by then she is already taking the next bend She is now luckily nearing the end of the pass With yelling tyres, she shoots out of the bend but with horror she sees a Beetle right in front of her and right in her way Wildly she swerves and misses the Beetle within a hair’s breadth, but is still hopelessly going too fast for the hairpin bend in front Her heart is now thumping in her chest and she knows she is not going to exit the bend normally because the nose is starting to break away “Oh no, Chloe! Are you going to crash this car and leave them in the lurch? Why you drive so fast?” She has no choice but to throw the backside to the other side as Tony taught her on the farm She must succeed or write the car off She bites on her teeth and yanking the steering left and right, she pulls the handbrake quickly but cautiously Then she puts her foot down on the accelerator and feels the momentum pushing forward It prevents her from spinning out of control She is on the edge of winning or losing her control in the bend Her jaw is sore from tension and gritting her teeth If something now comes from ahead it will be catastrophic because she is on the edge of the tarmac on the wrong side of the road Then she shoots out on the straight road at the end of the mountain pass She is still on the wrong side of the road and a car is coming They are heading for a head-on collision She must get the Cooper back to her side She let the handbrake go very cautiously and the Cooper responds beautifully and she pulls the Cooper back into her lane inches before they crash into each other She once again guns the Cooper on the straight while the other motorist angrily disappears up the pass Chloe sighs relieved and scolds herself She was hopelessly too reckless She could have had several accidents in the pass “How could you, Chloe? Don’t ever take such chances again, you silly ass!” She sees an open place along the road ahead and aims to pull off but the speed is still too high The Cooper wobbles over the rough terrain and she must pump the brakes to prevent wild spinning and even overturning The Cooper skids over the ground and disappears in a cloud of dust so that she sees nothing but dust around her Even before coming to a complete standstill, she grabs her phone and calls Richard Relieved she exhales noisily when the phone’s dialling tone tells her that she has a signal His voice sounds unnaturally calm when he answers: “Good morning, Richard Jordaan of the Mountain Valley School Hostel How can I help you?” She feels as if her voice is running away with her She scarcely takes time to breathe between her sentences “Richard, Chloe here; this is an emergency! I pulled over at the end of the mountain pass on this side and found a signal Lyle and Zoey went over one of the highest cliffs near the peak and are hanging at mercy from yesterday afternoon Your number is in my phone’s memory Can you help me to get help as quickly as possible so that we can save them before they tumble down into the abyss?” “What, Chloe, what are you talking about? How is this possible? Take it slowly You are going too fast for me and I don’t understand.” “You can see their brake marks all the way from the bend down to the spot where they went through the wall and over the edge I yelled out of desperation and against all logical thinking from the top and heard the echoes of my voice By Jove, I heard Lyle’s voice echoing through the cliffs when he called back Please, Richard, you must believe me Lyle yelled that they are alive, but just!” “Okay, Chloe, calm down He really answered your call? They must have been extremely lucky and surely had in time got strangled somewhere Maybe they had luckily bumped into trees on a ledge of a cliff.” Chloe hits the steering wheel out of frustration while she screams and tears running down her cheeks “Richard! Richard! Listen to me! Their lives hang on a thread! We must something quickly I feel so helpless and desperate We are wasting time! Who can help? We are wasting time! We are wasting time! Help me!” She bursts into tears and cries shamelessly “Chloe, calm down! Listen to me, Chloe Luckily you phoned the best person you could have Listen, I can help you I assure you, you've got the right person to help you immediately.” Chloe stops crying and grabs onto the little hope his words are bringing and she answers in a soft voice like a small girl that needs her father’s help “What you mean, Richard, how are you going to help?” “I’ll phone my son in law, Tyrell, directly He is the leader of a rescue team of mountaineers that usually go out and retrieve corpses from the mountainside in the pass I’m your shortcut to help Calm down There is hope Just hang in there, my girl.” Shocked she yells: “Corpses!” “Sorry, Chloe, it was the wrong word but never before has someone survived an ordeal like this I’ll phone him immediately Just wait there He’ll probably phone you directly with questions and instructions So, don’t use your phone He’ll need information” Relief comes over Chloe and some of the cropped up tension drains from her “Thanks, Richard, I’ll wait for his call.” *** Tyrell phoned and she told him where they went over the cliff He ordered her to stay put because it is dangerous to stop near the peak, but she insisted to go up and wait for the rescue team and to show them the right spot She yelled at Lyle and was relieved that he was still alive He yelled back they must hurry up because Zoey’s condition was serious Later she saw the helicopter hanging like Tyrell told her but it flew away Tyrell explained earlier that landing could be prohibited by wind, mist, fuel, height or accessibility and that the rescue mission might be impossible from the air Later no traffic passed and she realised that the pass had been closed Tyrell and his team of paramedics arrived and with ropes they went over the edge Later on, the helicopter returned and she saw how they evacuated Lyle and Zoey one by one in special stretchers and how they were hoisted into the chopper Then the helicopter flew away Anxiously she waited to hear what their conditions were and later on Tyrell arrived and told her that his team was back safely Zoey’s life hangs on a thread after they had to give her emergency treatment but she’s still alive Lyle is full of cuts and suffers from freezing and has bruises and probably cracked ribs but his life is not in danger The helicopter took them to the hospital in her town Chloe immediately drove down the pass The sunset looks so serenely while Chloe drives back She earlier phoned Hayley and asked her to inform Leo and Ronnie She now whispers to herself: “Hang on, Zoey and Lyle, my lovies, hang on! You are the last of my family I just can’t lose you.” Chloe thinks back with gratitude in her heart to the brave Tyrell She smiles when she remembers how he took her in his arms while she cried her heart out She pushes her car phone’s button to say thanks once again to Richard When she brings Lyle to school one day in the future, she’ll visit him and thank him face to face and she will bring along huge presents for him and Tyrell Continue next week in edition 14 The Script of Evil When Evil brings Love 14 – The Devil’s Den Anxiously Billy waits after the scraping sounds stopped It is awfully quiet His heart is racing and he is giddy from fear What now? He comforts himself that the book must be so important that they will have to keep him alive They cannot torture him until he gets in such a state that he can’t return it They don’t know where it is Something yowls through the air and connects with his back and Billy’s yelling reverberates through the empty warehouse as the shock and intense pain overwhelm him A terrible burning pain bites into his back and his muscles contract involuntarily and painfully The ropes cut into his wrists and he realizes that his calves aren’t supporting him anymore and that he hangs on the rope He tries again to balance himself on the front cushions of his feet while he gasps for air and he feels his shoulder muscles and those around his ribs are stretched to their limit It’s like a cat o' nine tails, a multi-tailed whip, with hard knobs that tortured him all over his back The pain is intense and it makes him feel queasy “Your last chance to come clean or else it’s going to get much worse.” Billy struggles to get the words out: “Just give me the opportunity to get the thing for you, please ” Again this yowling thing cuts through the air and slashes into his back and this time it is much worse Wildly and severely shocked he plucks on the ropes and his screams of pain echoes through his ears while a burning fire overwhelms him He realizes that it will get algorithmically more severe because this thing doesn’t only injure new flesh but also the already injured flesh on his back How is he going to cope if this continues? He prays the man would talk again The pain is unbearable Again this sickening yowl and the thing torture him more severely this time and then again and again It doesn’t stop Billy jerks from side to side from shock and the hellish pains that are unbearable It feels like red hot irons burning his flesh His shoulders are paining and the tightness on his writs bites deeper and deeper The torture continues unabated and the yowls come with monotonous regularity and the pain increases with every slash He feels dizzy and is hovering near unconsciousness He wishes that he can just pass into oblivion so that it becomes dark and his misery ends His bowels turn and his intestines contract and also his bladder and excretion and urine flow freely down his legs Now he knows what the function of the plastic is He tries to get balance on the front of his feet cushions but slips and the mess of blood, shit and urine Eventually, he passes out “Billy ” Billy hears his name and a blurry image in front of him stays out of focus The pain is strangely different from before as if it was decreased by a strange trance Billy realizes it is adrenaline, his body’s own drug that always let him feel on top of the world after a strenuous squash match His body must have been pumped full of adrenaline as a natural drug against this brutal torture “Billy, wake up “ The person in front of him slowly comes into focus and Billy is shocked and looks away It is the wizard He was unconscious “It is so unnecessary, Billy, you only have to look into my eyes and I will spare you all the pain and suffering You are caring much about her?” Billy hears his own voice and it sounds unnaturally slow: “I really want to give the damn thing back Why don’t you just give me the chance to fetch it and return it? I don’t want you in my life and when I’ve returned it, you can leave me and my family alone.” Suddenly the wizard’s hand comes in sight with a bunch of keys and Billy feels again how fear clamps around his heart when the wizard remarks: “24 Park Drive, Billy Shaw We are going to make sure it’s not at your home In the meantime, think about this: your back is cut open and when we return, you’d better tell us everything because that thing is going to cut away at your flesh up to the bone and you will not survive, Billy We now are going to throw salt on the wounds to curb infection, but also to let you experience the severity of the damage to your back Does that girl mean so much to you? Enjoy it, you wanted it so badly Billy Shaw’s own little hell …” The wizard walks away and disappears and anxiously Billy waits for the next torture Why did he forget that his mother had written his name and address on the front pages of his school books for if he had lost his school bag people were able to find him? Now they are going to visit his home and the alarm’s remote is attached to the keys Why hasn’t he thought about this? They are totally in control now! He is just thankful that his mother is in England for the next two weeks for marketing but even then she is not out of danger His fear becomes even greater when he thinks about another problem Kadin will be worried about his whereabouts What if she goes to his home searching for him and walks right into these devils? Something like sand hits his back but it is clearly not sand but salt Billy’s outcries again reverberate around the warehouse while the salt like fire burns into his flesh The pain is excruciating and he jerks wildly before he passes out again *** Kadin pushes the button on the front door of 24 Park Avenue and hears its crow like a rooster on the inside The place is dead quiet and her heart sinks into her shoes Where is Billy? She tries again and again but only silence follows Why did they become so casual because it seems that he landed in wrongs hands! What now? She is dispirited The sun is setting and dawn is stalking the city like evil This is symbolic of the evil that exponentially encroached on them Kadin decides the best to is to run home and tell her father everything because she needs help desperately Billy’s life could now be in her hands and she needs her father’s wisdom She turns around and starts to walk down the path to the gate but stop dead in her tracks She now sees this strange man who blocs her way He must have entered while she was at the front door and closed the gate quietly behind him For how long has he been standing there and watching her? The sunset is behind him and she only sees the strange figure and dark form in the smart suit Then she notices the heap on his head and his wild grey beard and her heart races She remembers Vyasa’s warning and his description of the wizard She freezes while the man is coming closer slowly He stops right in front of her and she now realizes how distinctly Vyasa’s description was The longer the hair; the stronger the magical power! There must be a lot of hair hidden in that cloth It will easily reach his feet Cold shivers run down her spine and she remembers the warning in Sanskrit: ‘Put me back immediately where you found me before the world comes to its end and when the devil visits you, don’t look him in his eyes.” Could this be the devil? He starts to speak with a strange, foreign accent so that she has to concentrate to understand him His voice sounds unworldly It is a coarse, hoarse voice that gives her goosebumps “I recognize you, you are Billy’s friend What is your name? He refused to tell me your name.” She feels her chest contracts when all her suspicions are instantly confirmed The devils caught him Her brain scrambles for the right answer She realizes that any wrong action she takes now can endanger Billy She just hopes that they didn’t torture him for not telling them her name She answers quickly but carefully: “Kadin, my name is Kadin, where is Billy?” “Does Billy mean a lot to you, Kadin? How eager are you to see him again?” It feels as if a heavy weight is pressing on her She remembers how they just earlier today looked in each other’s eyes passionately and looked forward to an enjoyable time at the fort with the beautiful view across the bay “What you mean: I want to see him again? Where is he?” “Turn around and walk to the front door.” “Where is Billy?” “Walk to the front door or you’ll never see him again.” The wizard is blocking her way to freedom She knows she will be fast enough to avoid him The gate is low and she can jump over easily The wizard looks like an old man with his grey beard and she is young That’s the only option because the rest of the premises have high fences But is it wise to try it? What will become of Billy then? Eventually, she listens and turns around and walks towards the front door with the wizard right behind her She becomes ice cold and horrified when the front door opens and a dark entrance awaits her His accomplices have been inside all the time! She was surrounded and didn’t know it! She realizes they work subtly They could have opened the door and overpowered her but instead, the wizard stalked her and manipulated her so that she willingly walked into danger She finds a strong association with Michael’s words to Billy The marionette master is right behind her and she is the willing puppet on invisible psychological strings She only hopes that Billy is inside the house Terrified she enters the dark house Is she entering a lion’s den? Or far worse: a devil’s den? She now knows for sure that she will give her life to save Billy Continue next week in edition 14 The solution By Anna van der Walt A true story from my youth, only the surname is changed Mister and misses van Helsdingen loved each other to no end when they got married They dreamt of roses and moonshine and a happily married life Unluckily the euphoria ended soon They differed on almost everything and both had very bad tempers It was like war between them Irreconcilable! Divorced! But then came the longing They missed each other terribly Married again, but oh my, soon it was like before Nasty quarrels soon erupted Here you had two people that could not live together or apart from each other They simply had to fix this unruly situation and made a plan A proclaimed farm road divided their farm in two The original homestead was situated near the left side of the road Then they simply built a house for the dear lady on the other side of the road, exactly according to her specifications Problem solved! Two people married and living in harmony and peace, together and apart! ... on the edge of the tarmac on the wrong side of the road Then she shoots out on the straight road at the end of the mountain pass She is still on the wrong side of the road and a car is coming They... is another story when the nose starts to break away when you go into a bend too fast and lands on the shoulder of the road With the front-wheel drive Cooper, she lands on the wrong side of the. .. all the way from the bend down to the spot where they went through the wall and over the edge I yelled out of desperation and against all logical thinking from the top and heard the echoes of my