1 Chapter one

The hands of her wristwatch showed twenty minutes to ten. There she lay back in the chair, a glass of wine in her hand and listened to the loud music in one of the clubs in kabwe.

She was a cute dame, beautifully curved and blonde. She wore a thin red sweater which revealed her figure and a short, pleated yellow skirt. Her well shaped legs were bare and her feet were shod in yellow heels.

Lucia Williams sat motionless wondering where Manuel could be, for they were supposed to meet at eight o'clock and his still nowhere to be seen.

'Is he still at work, is he with other girls or has he decided to hung out with his friends and actually stood up on me again?' she thought.

Few minutes later she saw Manuel coming. His personality was so strong that he made the others seem mere paintings on the wall. He was tall, extremely handsome and with big powerful shoulders, tapering away to a small waist and very long legs. You could see at a glance how much he enjoyed the good things in life, and his enormous vitality for absorbing them.

As soon as Lucia saw him coming through the glass door, in her mind came the stealthy voice whispering to her, 'ran after him and hug him, hurry, go before another girl walks up to him.'

It's the same urgent, compelling voice that she has, which keeps on telling her strange things to do.

As she hesitated, trying to listen to the voice, she thought of how at times he could be so tense and introvert.

She thought: it would be better to just sit here and wait for him to walk up to me.

Suddenly she saw Manuel extending his hand to a beautiful blonde next to him and started dancing and flirting with her.

'See the way his dancing around with that stupid girl,' said the voice. 'his just trying to make you jealous, go and stop him at once, hurry you sentimental fool! If you don't stop him we are gonna lose him for good.'

As she was beginning to surrender to the urgency of the voice and trying to do the voice said, Manuel and the blonde got lost in the crowd of people.

When she couldn't spot out where Manuel was she felt blood mount to her face and her heart beat quickened.

'And now his gone!' the voice inside her mind raved at her. 'quick, don't just sit there like a fool, go look for him hurry.' urged the voice.

As soon as the voice stopped she stood up to go look for him. She searched and searched for him but to no avail and decided to go back home existing through the back door.

As she crossed over to the other side, she saw the same blonde standing outside by her self. 'there she is, looking so innocent that witch.' the voice said. 'we can't let her go away with this, we must get even with her,hurry now go after her.

Lucia walked over to the girl and said, "hey where is my Manuel?"

"What Manuel are you talking about?" asked the girl shocked and surprised.

"Don't play dumb with me senorita, the guy you were fooling around with is my boyfriend and husband to be, so am gonna ask you this one last time, where is my Manuel?

"Listen miss I know no Manuel, you must be drunk or something, get a chill pill and leave me alone." the girl said and started walking away.

'are you really going to let her go just like that?' raved the voice in her head. 'come on Lucia you can do more than that, don't let her make a fool of you. Hurry do something!'

"Wait before you go." Lucia said and held out her hand. "am sorry I must have mistaken you with someone else, can we shake hands and put this behind us?"

The girl hesitated and then came back to her. "alright yeah whatever."

Just then, two hands reached out and fastened themselves like steel hooks on the girls throat. "You stupid mouthing little fool," Lucia said, forcing the girls head back. "Do you think I would just let it go as you flirt around with my Manuel, huh? Do you think I'd have a moment's rest knowing you are going out with my Manuel? Say your last prayers bitch."

She had forced the girl on the ground with incredible strength and was kneeling over her. The girl struggled wildly, but she had no strength to get free. Lucia held her vice-like grip, one of her knees pressing against the girls chest, holding her flat.

"Die you fool, die!"