Chapter2

#Chapter2

The first attack took place along a dusty dirt road leading up towards the village. Three nights after the full moon disappeared from the sky, the air was still, hot and humid as the two young boys pushed the damaged bicycle up the road in the growing dark towards home, unaware that death waited for one of them in the high grass along the verge.

The killer had been unable to take down any prey for over a week, and hunger had brought him closer to the village, thanks to the scent of goat, cooking and the sound of humans.

Unaware the boys pass the lion in the long grass, talking as all boys do, and the killer steps out of the night, onto the road behind them, and starts after them, unable to hold back a low growl that carries through the air to them. As one, they turned towards the source of the growl, and in the twilight to their horror they see walking up the road towards them the dark shape of a creature of the night, death has come to visit under the moonless sky.

Rusted bicycle forgotten, their screams of terror ringing out towards the village, shouts of /"The Devil, the devil wants us,/" carry to the villagers, who as one rush to the boys aid, armed with sticks.

They turn and run towards safety but in a flash the killer is upon the two boys, one child is carried to the ground under the weight of the attacking lion, his jaws closing in over the child’s head, crushing his skull, cutting off his screams of terror. The other one is sent flying into the dirt by the force of the attack, knocked senseless as the group of villagers come upon the scene.

Horror runs through the gathered villagers as they see the killer standing in the road, the lifeless body of the child at his feet, his muzzle covered with blood, and in the torch light, only one eye glares back at them. The killer roars his defiance at the group, snarls in their direction, then in one quick motion, gathers the dead child in his jaws, and disappears into the long grass with his prey.

In darkness the killer feeds, it was an easy kill, and under the moonless sky, a man-eater is born. Back at the village, the wailing of a mother who has just lost a child can be heard. The frightened villagers converge on the hut of the chief as they are sure that witchcraft is at work here, for, did they not see the Devil with one eye, stand before them, unafraid. And did not the witch doctor that the chief banished from the village have one eye?

Superstition and fear sweeps through the village, for the witch doctor has returned in the form of a devil to take revenge on those who threw him out, and the people beg the chief to send word to the witch doctor and to have him reinstated within the village, before more are slain in his quest for vengeance.

The chief of the village calls a council meeting and addresses the frightened gathering, his old face somber as he looks out at his people. Choosing his words carefully he stands tall, hiding his own fear of the killer that walks the night.

/"My people do not let the devils of the dark enter your hearts, for the witch doctor is but a human, and tomorrow I will lead our young men on a hunt for the killer of Mubei, and we will kill it, and return to the village triumphant with the body of your so called /"Devil./"

***

Morning brings with it a party of men armed with spears, gathering at the scene of the killing, the air is filled with the excitement of the hunt, and their blood lust is up, and they are eager for a kill. The chief leads the group into the tall grass; they make their way slowly forward, as there is no telling what they might come across, spears at the ready.

The bloody trail is easy to follow in the long grass until they come to an open patch under a large tree that shows signs that this was where the lion finished his meal. The grass is stained with the blood of the boy, and what the lion left behind, the hyena has finished off, for there is nothing there but the blood stained grass.

Cautiously they look for signs that will indicate the direction the killer took, and move off into the forest following the tell tale spoor towards the river. They break out of the forest, onto a rocky area, a natural water pool with the waterfalls thundering ahead of them, and move across the rocks searching for any sign of his passage, but the trail end’s and they have nothing to follow.

An eye watches as the men turn and return back through the forest, a low growl escapes from its throat as the lion licks its lips in anticipation of the next meal to come, but for now, it has fed, and sleep claims the savage beast.