The Deepest Abyss

A 2004 Kia Rio drove along the quiet roads of rural South Africa, having just turned off the N0 highway and onto a smaller single-lane road. It’s occupants, a married couple and their taxi driver, were heading further away from civilisation. This road put the small town of Witmond directly behind them. Tall grass encompassed the plains around the car, and scattered trees passed them by as they drove onwards.

“We just passed Witmond. Not long now,” said Roy, attempting to sound casual. He and his wife, Alex, were both exhausted from the trip there and needed a good rest and a shower. Small talk was becoming more and more difficult as the hours of the journey continued to stretch.

“Yup,” she replied. There was a coldness to her response that he didn’t take personally. After all, the trip there hadn’t been easy on either of them.

“So, what’s the first thing you want to do in our... town?” Roy asked.

“I don’t know, Roy,” she replied.

“I’ll bet it’s going to be quiet there,” he thought out loud.

“Can you just stay quiet for a sec? I’ve got a headache.”

“Sure, sorry about that.”

‘Our town.’ It was a strange choice of words. It was more like a village, and it certainly wasn’t theirs. What really was theirs was the large manor on the giant plot of land next to the village.

The property just dropped into their laps, just like that. They actually picked it up at an auction. Who would have thought that people still do that? It was something organised through Alex’s work. They both work as realtors for a fairly reputable firm based in London, you see.

They spent a lot—more than they’d care to admit. The thing is, sometimes you just need to get away from it all. The house was in Roy’s home country, after all, and Alex’s parents came from there, too. In actuality, Alex’s uncle was the previous owner of the estate the couple had just bought. It seemed like a pretty nice idea to get to see another side of life. So anyway, one huge downpayment later, and they were both on their way to the heart of South Africa.

It wasn’t as expensive as you might have thought, either. The place had a sordid past, and most people wouldn’t touch it. Honestly, the couple didn’t really check. It was an impulse buy, and they didn't put a lot of stock in history or ghost stories.

The previous owner was a bit of a tycoon who owned both the property itself and the meat packing factory inside the adjacent town. Both of these places bore the same name – Isibane. The meat packing factory was the main source of income for the whole town, for a time. He had deep pockets and a heavy sway, but not a lot of popularity. You’d struggle to find anyone willing to talk much about him, even in the family.

“It feels like a dream. It’s just so surreal, hey?” Roy added quizzically.

“Roy, shut it. And it's not a town; it's a hamlet.”

“Same thing.”

“It absolutely is not. Now, quiet.”

Roy caught the taxi driver glancing at them in the rear view mirror. He thought about making conversation but figured he’d already caused poor Alex enough of a headache.

Some more minutes passed. The city was getting further behind them at this point, but they still had some time to go. There were no more people or villages on the side of the road. There were no farms, cows, or impatient drivers to watch out for. They were really “in the boons,” as they would say back in the UK.

“We’re really in the boons,” Roy said.

Alex said nothing. She went from looking out the window to holding her hand to her head.

“You don't look so good, Love,” Roy said while reaching over to hold her cheek. “It's bad, hey?”

“Yeah,” came the response, although the coolness from before had reduced a bit. That would have been reassuring, but he could tell she was now in too much pain to even be grumpy.

“Hold on,” he told her as he searched their bag for some kind of painkiller. He moved all of their stuff around and was getting ready to dump the bag on the floor. “Shit, sorry. I can't find any of these things,” he added, frustrated with himself.

“I've got some,” said a kindly voice. It came from the front of the car. The taxi driver rummaged in the side of his door, produced a white folded paper, and leaned his arm back to hand it to a surprised and relieved Roy.

“What is that?” asked Alex, not looking too convinced.

“Muthi,” said the driver.

Alex’s mouth just copied his: “Mu-thi?”.

“Medicine.”

“Ah. Thank you; that's really nice.”

“That's Grandpa. It's a South African thing,” Roy interjected, attempting to look cultured. "Yes, Baba, thank you so much!”

He took the parcel from the driver's hands and quickly emptied the fine white powder from inside the paper into a bottle of water that had been tossed out of the bag from the aforementioned rummaging. He then handed it to his wife.

She grabbed it and shook the drink to mix the powder well. Once it had all dissolved, she drank it in one gulp.

“BLLEGGHHH!” Her face looked as though she had bitten into a sour lemon. “That is truly awful.”

The driver laughed heartily at this, seeing more or less what he expected to happen.

“You know, good muthi doesn't taste good! I'm shocked you've never had it before. Where did you come from? This man here,” he points to me, “He's from South Africa, I can tell. Boetie, you sound like you're from Joburg. As for the madam here, I can’t tell.”

Roy laughed at that. “Nah, I'm actually from Port Elizabeth—or Gqcbeca now. Sorry, I can't say it right yet, but I'll get there!”

The taxi driver and he exchanged another laugh, which brightened up the atmosphere a bit. Even Alex was looking better.

“I'm from the UK,” she said. “I was born here, though. My mum's Xhosa and my dad's Zulu.”

“Oh, really! Welcome back! You guys travelled far, sjoe.”

“Yeah,” Roy answered, “we… well, my wife here is the new owner of Isibane.”

“Ooohhh.” He let out a long and knowing sound that stopped the conversation. “I saw it was getting renovated.”

Alex clued on to his hesitance and so decided to probe a bit. “You seem a bit surprised,” she said.

“You don’t know? Ay ma’am, there’s ghosts in that place. Me, I come from around here. I grew up here in this area, and I work here. I went to school here, do you see? You know, back then...”

He trailed off. He didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

“Oh yes, of course,” answered Alex.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry. I don’t mean to make a fuss. Just forget that I said anything. I’m an old man, and I’ve heard too many stories... I hope you make it won-derful.”

He stretched out the sounds, partly to pick up the conversation and partly to quiet his own nerves. He went quiet again and kept his eyes dead on the road, while Alex and Roy exchanged a look of ‘what just happened?’

“Old stories?” Roy asked, his curiousity getting the better of him.

Alex gave Roy a punch and a disapproving look in response.

“Sorry,” said Roy.

“Eish, boetie. Just forget about it,” answered the driver, finally.

Alex leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She really wasn’t one for ghost stories. The taxi just went quiet then, same as before.

“Thanks for the muthi, baba,” Roy adds suddenly, afraid that he’d overstepped or insulted the driver. “We will be careful.”

The driver didn’t reply to this but met Roy’s eyes in the mirror. Their gaze locked for a second, and he could see the driver give him the smallest nod of approval.

* * *

After a while of driving along the dirt road in more silence, the driver suddenly pulled to a stop. “Alright,” he said, “this is as far as I can go.”

“What?!” Alex blurted out, “Are you joking around with us?”

“No, sisi, not at all. There’s no road from here. You need to go on foot,” answered the driver.

“The app says there’s a road just past there,"  added Roy, almost pleading with him to not let this be true.

“That road has been blocked for years now, Boetie,” he answered.

“It would have been nice if they had told us about this,” Roy began to complain to forces unknown.

“Yeah,” came Alex, in support.

The driver laughed. “Didn’t they tell you that? Eish...” His laugh died down, and that same solemn look returned. “I’m sorry to hear that,” he added, before returning to his silence.

They were dumbstruck but had no reason to doubt the man. It was clear that the main road had been completely shut down. That much could be seen with the naked eye. An impressive collection of rocks, branches, and other various pieces of scrap made any progress on that route, whether in a vehicle or not, completely impossible. They silently and resolutely exited the car, got their luggage, thanked the driver again, and quietly accepted their fate of walking the rest of the way there, down the dirt road.

* * *

“That taxi driver was having a laugh,” Alex said, after a time of walking. “Ghosts and goblins and all the rest,” she added with a “Hah!” for punctuation.

Roy chuckled himself before pausing and asking, “How’s your head now?”

She touched her hand to her head, although softly this time. “Actually, much better,” she replied.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she said with a giggle, clearly in a better mood than before. “I guess Grandpa is always here to help.”

Roy laughed. It was nice for him to see her in her usual joking mood. “Yeah, Africa’s grandad. He’s harsh but fair.”

They both laughed this time. They weren’t even thinking of the long walk ahead of them. Roy was not a walker. He hated walking at the best of times, but he felt oddly at ease on this walk—at least in the beginning.

As they kept walking, though, things started to change. They began to feel anxious, not just tired. Alex’s headache kept coming and going in waves, too. Though they didn’t want to admit it to each other, they both felt like shit.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity, they arrived at a fork in the road. The landscape had changed from the typical plains of the South African countryside, and in its place was dense forest.

“I didn’t know we were moving into the woods,” Alex remarked to Roy.

“Me neither,” he replied. “I’ve always liked the forest, though. It might be a good thing!”

“Roy, you’re too positive. But yes, the trees are very nice.”

They had not yet started down this second path, but Alex was looking weak, and Roy also needed a rest himself. It was time for a break.

“Alex, is your head okay now?” Roy asked.

“You don’t need to ask so much, Roy. But thank you. It’s on and off.”

“Sorry, I’m just worried. Should we sit down for a while?”

“Sit where? On the ground?”

“Well...” thought Roy, suddenly realising that the floor is not a great place for a sick woman.

“You know what? Yes. Let’s sit on the ground,” exclaimed Alex, throwing her hands up.

Without another word, she places her suitcase down and sits next to it. He moves over next to her and takes his own seat. He puts his arm around her and pulls her close.

“Hey. I know these few months have been awful, but we are almost there. It’ll be a new chapter. We can just forget about the outside world here. We’ll be happy.”

“Do you think so? Like I said, Roy, you’re too positive... Thank God someone here is, though.”

“Well, that’s good. We can balance each other out. I’ll remind you of the good things, and you-”

“-and I’ll remind you that the world isn’t all sunshine and roses.”

She smiled. Roy always appreciated her dark sense of humour. It was true what she said, though. She had always been the realistic and sturdy one in the relationship. Her strength and resilience were the things he was most in awe of.

“It sure isn’t,” he said. “Remember, it’s our town.”

“Hamlet. And yes, it’s ours. I wouldn’t say that to the locals, though. They might wonder who these strange foreigners are—coming in and claiming their land for themselves.”

“Indeed. Before they know it, we will have taken over the country clubs.”

“I’ll bet there are so many of those, too!”

They both had a good laugh at that, which was in itself a kind of medicine they both badly needed. They were just joking, of course. They owned nothing in the town. They were just privileged people living on the outskirts. Truth be told, they were nervous about how the locals would receive them.

Just then, they heard something snap from far behind them. Roy swivelled his head around and caught a glimpse of someone standing by the trees. He felt a cold wind cut through him as he stood to call out to the onlooker.

“Hello! Are you from here?” He shouted to them.

There was no reply. They just stood by the tree line, silent.

“Creepy,” said Alex. She had now turned to look at the person watching them. “Is that a man or a woman?”

“Woman,” he said, although he couldn’t tell much else at that point. He squinted to get a better look at her. She was African and definitely an adult, but her exact age was hard to make out. Her hair was matted with dirt and leaves. Her clothes were old and filthy, and, although he couldn’t be sure, he thought she had a smile on her face.

“Hey!” Roy shouted, more aggressively than before, “Can I help you with something?”

Still, he got no reply. Instead, the strange woman just raised a hand and pointed—first directly at Roy, then at Alex. And, even though they were too far away to hear it, they could both see her open her mouth and start laughing.

“Is she-” Roy began to ask.

“-laughing? Yes, right at us,” Alex answered.

They continued to watch her as her laughter went on, dumbstruck for the second time today. The woman grabbed at her sides, as if having heard the greatest joke ever told. Finally, she fell over, laughing, and disappeared under the long green grass around her.

“Jesus Christ... Roy, maybe we should get out of here,” said Alex shakily as she staggered to her feet.

“Yeah,” Roy agreed as he helped up his wife. “Let’s go.”

Roy picked up Alex’s suitcase as well as his own, and they continued along the path. He kept a close eye out, glancing back as often as he could without giving away how nervous he was to Alex. He didn’t want to ask, but he was quite sure she felt the same sense of unease. Thankfully, they saw no further sign of the woman. Neither of them had a chance of relaxing until they reached their new home; they could still feel her watching.