THE BLACK PANTHER

THE BLACK PANTHER

    It all started with the wretched pub. Of all the time I’ve been in this town, why did I have to start frequenting it right then? Even then, why did I have to approach her? Why the hell did I even care? Because, a small voice inside me answered back, because you knew all too well how it feels to be alone. You were just trying to be helpful. Well, that’s too bad, isn’t it? Look where it’s gotten me now. You didn’t know! You just wanted to help. Well, of course, I didn’t know! If I’d known that offering a helping hand would result in bloody murders, I would’ve just minded my own business.

      “OK, stop it now’’, I heard myself saying to the voices arguing back and forth inside my head for the past hour or so. I don’t know anything for sure, and for all I know, I could be imagining this. The past year had been like a journey to the hell and back, and an encounter; I shivered involuntarily at the very thought of it, like last night’s on top of that is enough to drive anyone crazy. I’ve been stressed beyond measure for the past year and maybe what I saw was too much for me to handle and I could just be making all this up in your mind. ‘‘Well, there’s only one way to find out, isn’t it?’’, I found myself retorting out loud, as I closed the room of my hotel door and made towards the stairs leading downstairs.

     As I started walking slowly to the place where it all started, I found myself thinking about the very beginning of it all. How excited I was when Ian and I first moved here. How desperately I had believed that it was a fresh, new start. I had thought that this move was all we needed to put the bitter past behind for good. Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. What happened before seemed like a walk in the park compared to the hell I had to endure here.

    The funny thing is, I found myself thinking, I didn’t feel anything, not even a tiny bit of sadness, when I found the bodies. ‘’Maybe you would’ve’’, I found myself mumbling,’’ if she hadn’t been lying a feet or two apart, buck naked, the pair of them’’. He must’ve have picked her up on his way home from the hotel, right after he made such a fuss in the foyer and begged for my forgiveness and for me to return home. He must have realized that I wasn’t going budge and everything was over for good. So, mere minutes after he realized that everything was over good, he had picked her up on his way home and decided to have some ‘’fun’’( as she had called it in that text she had sent him). Well, some fun it’d turned out to be’, I thought dryly. Still now I can’t feel a pinch of emotion for the pair of them, no matter how hard I tried. After all, at one point in my life, these two people had meant everything to me.

    Thinking so, I walked past the lake. Though it was early in the evening , it was still not dark yet and the water was a beautiful, sparkling shade of blue. I tried to momentarily distract myself with its beauty, but my thoughts went steadily back to last night’s encounter. So, I just gave in and let my thoughts run its course. It was around midnight that I went back home to retrieve my belongings. I had left right after the argument, and in the heat of the moment, I’d stormed out of the house and went and booked a room for a couple of nights in Mrs G’s hotel( it was more of a B&B, but she insisted everyone call it a hotel ). She didn’t ask me any questions, apart from the pitying and understanding looks that I’ve been getting from almost everyone in the town by then (it was a really small town and naturally, everyone was up in everyone’s business and everyone knew everything that was going on between me and Ian). And I was on my way up the stairs, towards the room, when Ian turned up and begged me to return and caused a whole lot of commotion.

     My head was swimming, when I finally entered the room and crashed into the bed. Funny enough, I didn’t cry like I had expected to, but felt a sense of relief instead, relief that I’m finally free, free from the monster that had made my life a living hell for the past years. And it was as I lay there, reveling in my sense of relief and freedom, I realized that I had left all my belongings back there including my phone and my purse; others I could do without, but I needed these, to call home and to let them know I was coming back and also, to book the tickets. ‘’Shit’’, I exclaimed out loud, sitting up. I contemplated whether I should wait until morning or if I should send someone else to pick them up for me. In the end, i decided that the sooner I’m done with this, the better. Also, I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of thinking that I couldn’t face him. So I decided that I have to go there and I had do get this done now. So, I borrowed Mrs G’s Chevy and made towards the place that used to be my home.

     Nothing told me something was amiss as I knocked on the door a couple of times and waited for Ian to open the door. It was a very dark, cloudy night( darker than usual, our house was located near the edge of a little forest, and always seems a little dark, what with all the trees looming over it), and the moon was shining weakly through the dark mass of clouds. I knocked a couple of times, and waited, steeling my trembling nerves. A couple of minutes went by and nothing seemed to even stir inside.

     He was pretty wasted when he came to see me, he must’ve passed out, I thought with a sigh of relief. I took the spare key from where we usually hide it and opened the door, relieved that I didn’t have to see him or put up with his drama. I’ll just take my things and slip out without a sound. As I entered the house, I could hear the TV blaring in the den (typical) and the house smelled vaguely of the lavender room spray I always use. But, I realized a moment later, my brow furrowing in confusion, the smell was different, like it had mixed with something different… something sour and coppery..

    He must’ve dropped the booze bottles or something, was my first thought as I saw the dark spots and splashes scattered on the carpet and sofa, as the den came into view, it was difficult to make out from the wavering light from the TV. Straining my eyes to get a better look at what had been spilt, I stepped closer to the sofa, and what I saw made my heart stop.

    Lying sprawled half on the sofa and half on the floor in a weird position was Ian, only that his body was ripped open in slashes, his gut strewn half across him and half across the floor and he was lying in a pool of blood. Lying a couple of feet ahead, between Ian and the coffee table was Jess, the woman Ian’s been having an affair with, my former friend/ sister figure, someone I had looked up to. I realized that she was torn all over the body and was lying in a pool of blood, just like Ian with her guts strewn all about her as well. I stared at the scene in terror, my mind and body frozen from the shock. As I was looking at the horrific scene, unable to even move my eyes from the horrific scene, I felt a strange sensation picking at me, a sensation so strange, like someone was watching me. The very thought made me shudder out of the shocked reverie and instinctively, I looked around. There to my right, on the sofa, I realized with the help of the ever flickering TV light, was a panther: a sleek, sinewy big cat with a coat darker than the night itself. Its coat seemed to shimmer in the weak, flickering TV light. No wonder I hadn’t realized its presence till now, it seemed to camouflage into the darkness of the den. If not for the feeling of being watched, I would never have realized its presence. It was lying on the sofa, so lazily and was licking its paw in deliberate, slow motions. Its paw and muzzle, I realized, was covered in blood.

    As I was staring at it, rooted to the spot, it turned his head elegantly and looked straight at me. The words ‘this is how I die’ popped into my head instinctively. I tried to think of the door I had left open and decided to make a run for it. As I tried to back an inch, I realized that I couldn’t move, I felt rooted to the ground, frozen, and all I could do was stare at the panther. It was still looking at me. My eyes had adjusted to the dark by then, and I could see it clearly. It was looking at me with a still, cautious gaze, but, I realized, there was a hint of amusement in it, as if it was enjoying all this. There was an elegantness in the way it was sitting, in the way it was cocking its head to the side to look at me, and the eyes, the dark eyes, calculating yet amused at the same time, was a little too familiar, somehow. My mind was racing in confusion when suddenly I breathed out,’’ Kate’’, except it came out as a gust of air. And as I realized what I had said, my eyes widened in horror.

    Kate was my friend, the one I had made in the town's pub. At some point last year, I had gotten into the habit of visiting it frequently in the evenings. It was there I met her. She’d just moved to the town. She’d been coming to the pub around the same time as me and she’d just sit there, all alone, sipping her drink. She always seemed to look a little lost and she always had this…almost doleful expression on her face. This went on for a month and one day, she’d looked even more lost and sadder than usual, so, I plucked up the courage and approached her to ask her if she was alright, but in the end I had just asked her if she’d like to have a drink with me. She accepted my offer, and thus began our friendship. From then on, meeting up at the pub had become a ritual of ours. It was then, as I was trying to work out why I had blurted out Kate’s name out of the blue, a memory popped up in my head. It was so sudden and so vivid that I felt a little dizzy and felt the room spin around me a little. Me and Kate were at the pub, it was just after I’d found out about Ian and Jess. I broke down completely, telling her what I had found out and she was trying to console me.. And that was when my phone pinged with a text from Jess. Just looking at her flashing name had made my face heat up with hurt and anger. ‘’I wish the both of them would just die and leave me alone’’, I burst out suddenly, my voice seething with anger.

    ‘‘You’re going to be alright, Kay’’, she’d told me kindly, squeezing my hand. ’’ You’re better off without them. And also, you don’t mean that’’.’’ Yes, I do’’, I had told her crossly, childishly even. I was raw with humiliation and pain. ‘‘Hmm , she had put her index finger to her face in a mock thinking gesture and said, maybe I’ll just magically turn into something''...she paused as though thinking, '' why, yes, a black panther'', she had said, as her eyes fell on the picture of a black panther in the coaster near our empty glasses. '' I'll just turn into a black panther and kill them both for you’’,she said and made a clawing gesture with her hand and said '‘rawrr’' in an animated voice. I let out a weak chuckle, my heart warming with affection at her little attempt to make me laugh, and had said, ‘‘ yes please’’. Never in a million years did I think…We stayed there for a little longer and then I had gone home and confronted Ian.

    ‘’Is it you? Kate?’’ I tried to choke out fruitlessly. The panther was still looking at me, still with the amused expression, as if saying, ‘’Well, you asked for it!’’. ‘’Kate, is that really you or am I going crazy’’, I mumbled out loud. Suddenly I felt weak all over and felt myself come out of my frozen reverie. I’ve had enough for today, I said out loud in a deep, shaky voice that didn’t feel like mine. My head was pounding and spinning at the same time, I couldn’t take it anymore.’’ If it’s really you, Kate, I want this damned business explained tomorrow, at our place, the usual time’’, I said out loud, not caring if I sounded like a lunatic, talking to a panther while I should be running for my life. ‘’And if it’s not, I’m going turn myself into an asylum’’, I mumbled this last part to myself and looked at the panther; t had become quite still, its face devoid of the prior amused expression and was looking at me, as though anticipating.

    I must be going crazy, I thought faintly, it’s going kill me and I’m talking to it, thinking it’s my best friend. And suddenly, it stood up, crouched elegantly, and pounced straight at me. My heart stopped and I closed my eyes instinctively, thinking,’ this is it’. I felt a swoosh of wind and felt something soft brush my side. I waited for it to attack, my insides contracting in fear…but nothing happened. I opened my eyes and turned around, just in time to see the panther’s tail swish and disappear around the corner of the hallway that leads to the front door. After what seemed like years of being rooted to the spot, I slowly felt myself come out of the trance. I moved slowly towards the table, and with trembling hands I picked up the phone and dialed the emergency number.

     And now, that’s where I’m going, to the black panther, the town's only pub and the goddamned place where everything started, to know, once and for all, whether I’m losing my marbles or if the craziest encounter yesterday really did happen the way I think it happened. As I reached the pub, I took a couple of deep breaths to steady myself and pushed open the door, thinking: so, what’s it going to be?