I’m King

10) separate ways (paint balls apart)

Gia sat in the nursery under a pile of children. They had turned Saheti into the closest nursery by placing beds into the classrooms for convenience more than anything. Once the kids hit 14, they would be placed into a communal house that had people from varying ages up to 17. Once they turned 18, they could apply to move into their own homes. But, being in the nursery on a Friday evening was not unusual for Gia. For some unknown reason, Friday night was the one most people ditched their shifts, whatever they may be, and the council would have to step in with the very important tasks.

Such as looking over the babies. The 7- and 8-year-olds were still struggling with adjusting to the new life so were extra clingy to the housemistresses. Gia didn’t mind though. Her and Kiki would take the evening shifts together and once the nuggets were asleep, watch cartoons and eat junk food the whole night before, inevitably, dosing off. In fact, Kiki was snoring away on the other bed right now. Gia couldn’t sleep though. She kept thinking of Jessen and Leoni. f*****g b***h. Jessen had shouted it at her when she had told them what would be happening. And he wasn’t wrong. She was a f*****g b***h. That was why she had gone into the bathroom, when Conrad and defence had led them out, and cried. Not a soft tear, silent tear shed. An ugly, weak legs, can’t breathe kind of cry. She had felt both better and worse afterwards.

“Gia,” a deep voice called from the doorway. She glanced over to see Conrad and Jared. Jared walked over and crouched down next to the bed she was on.

“Tag,” he touched her arm softly before lifting children softly off of her.

“Nanna?” one of the little girls whispered drowsily, “What’s going on?”

“I have to go, baby,” Gias ran her hand down the soft little cheek before standing up and making her way to Conrad. Jared immediately replaced her under the mountain of kids.

“Where are we going?” she whispered to Conrad ad they marched down the corridor.

“It’s a surprise,” his mischievous voice made her heart clench. She did not like that at all.

“I don’t like surprises.”

“I know.”

He ushered her to the only SUV in the parking area. They drove through Bedfordview in silence. He got on the highway and they were still in silence. Gia didn’t mind. She leaned her head back and gazed out of the window at the scenery. Before long they were driving past the Johannesburg CBD. And Conrad took the exit into Braamfontein.

“Why are we going into Joburg?” Gia turned to him.

“You’ll see,” Conrad now had a grin that made Gia uneasy. They pulled in front of an old warehouse.

“If you are going to kill me, you have planned very poorly,” Gia said sarcastically.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Conrad got out the car and Gia followed suit. He led her into the building and they started the climb up the stairs.

“You have had a s**t time lately and today was the last straw,” Conrad explained on the second floor, “So, we thought you might enjoy a little fun.”

“If this is a swingers club, I do not want to go any further,” Gia stopped and leaned against the rail to catch her breath.

“It’s not a swingers club,” Conrad snorted. Gia kept going.

“It is something even better than that.”

They reached the 5th floor landing. It opened out into a massive open plan empty room. There were a few guys in their black defence uniform in the corner around a table.

“What is this?” Gia asked as they walked closer.

“As you know,” Conrad started and Grizz walked towards them with neatly folded clothes and tekkies on top, “We cordoned off Joburg for defence training. Well, every so often some of us get together to play catch the flag with paintball guns to simulate a real fight situation.”

“Conrad thought you might enjoy shooting someone with a paint ball gun after today,” Grizz handed her the clothes. Gia took the clothes and headed to the only door in the room to get changed. She emerged in her defence black clothes and walked over to the table. It had a map of the portion of city they were playing in.

“Gia and Grizz will move South on the outskirts and towards the Telkom Tower. Once they get in, they will head up to the 3rd floor and grab the hostage,” one of the women, Lethabo, said. She had been at school with Gia for years and yet the two had said all but a few words over the years. She was nice enough but scared Gia with simply her presence.

“Everyone take a gun and let’s move out,” Conrad said from across the table.

The seven people in the room all moved towards the tables at the back lined with… Gia laughed.

“We’re shooting each other with paintballs?”

“Good surprise?” Conrad leaned over her to grab a gun.

“Best surprise!” Gia smiled at him while grabbing her own.

“We’ll give the signal when its go time,” Lethabo said to Gia and Grizz as everyone left.

~

They had been sitting in silence for about 20 minutes before Grizz broke the silence.

“So,” he started but wasn’t quite sure how to carry on. The Governess was sitting by the window, looking out over the semi-lit capital city. They had started calling her that behind her back. She was like a governess. Supervising and kind. At least that’s what he’d been told. He understood it a little better after, what he could only describe as, the trial. She was by no means perfect but he could see she was trying. They all were.

She shifted her gaze to him. She looked like a child. The realisation hit him like a bat to the stomach. Her eyes gave her away though; a gaze that was weary. He may have found her pretty at one stage of his life. But that gaze would unsettle him.

“Uhm,” he sounded when she raised an eyebrow at his silence. He looked away and rubbed the back of his neck, “So...”

“I think you’ve already said that,” she mocks him with a smile. Grizz did not expect that- for her to be playful. Such a difference from earlier.

“Earlier,” he once again let his sentence trail.

“Ah,” Gia leaned back against the wall, “I hope that you use your discretion before talking about it.”

What did that mean? Was she threating him?

“I don’t really want anyone knowing what I did,” she said, “Conrad knows about it so you can talk to him or me but I would prefer if you didn’t talk to anyone else about it.”

She studied him for a moment. It made him feel uneasy.

“I’m not ordering you not to talk about it,” she eases her tone, “Just asking nicely. Please.”

Grizz laughed, “You are not what I was expecting.”

“I get that a lot.”

A bright light went off outside. Gia immediately stood and watched it moving. Grizz moved to stand next to her. He could hear her talking under her breath, ‘3, 2, 1’

“Let's Go,” she grabbed the gun at her feet and started running for the stairs. He quickly followed suit.

They started to run down the mostly dark streets towards the Tower. He felt like he was in one of those dystopian movies, he always did. Gia looked the part too. She ran a few strides in front of him. She halted them a few blocks before the Tower. Grizz could see Conrad and Faith behind the building adjacent to their own. Grizz now stood so close Gia, he could hear her singing to herself as they waited for the signal.

Here we stand

Worlds apart

Hearts broken in two

Two

Two

Conrad gave the signal and they started moving again – shadows against the monstrous buildings. Grizz hated Joburg CBD. They took a school tour of it once and heard the most awful stories of the aphertheid architecture. He felt like he was in a prison when he walked through the streets. They stopped again about a block from the entrance. He could see Rutendo and Seren standing guard at the base. Conrad and Faith branched off to distract them. Once again him and Gia were left alone in almost silence.

Sleepless Nights

Losing Ground

I’m reaching for you

You

You

2 shots fired. Then all hell broke loose. Bullets flying from everywhere, luminescent paint coating the surfaces and people all around.

Someday love will find you

Gia must’ve heard Lethabo’s shout as she began to run. Instead of going straight into the building, like they planned, Gia veered left down a small alleyway. She then went straight through the building to come out the other side. Grizz kept close on her heel. If she blew this for them, she would NEVER be allowed back.

She paused on the doorway threshold. To listen.

True love won’t desert you

She sung a little breathy as they once again ran. Across the street and towards... the basement parking of the building.

Gia turned her head and Grizz looked to see Conrad searching for her in the dark. Gia strategically pulled down her dark sleeve to reveal a silver bracelet.

You know I still love you

Grizz could see the exact moment Conrad caught Gia. She signalled with her hands and Conrad nodded. He begun to move into the building.

Gia took Grizz into the basement parking and up the stairs. She was humming the tune to the song the whole way up the stairs. The stopped at the main floor door. She pressed her ear to the door.

Though we touched

He heard gunshots and Gia carried on up the stairs.

And went our separate ways

They carried on up the stairs to the 3rd floor door.

“Okay,” Gia whispered. Her face was uncomfortably close to Grizz’s ear, “They are expecting an entrance from the main stairway.be as quiet as you can. Stay by the door and cover me.”

He nodded once and they slowly crept into the room. Grizz crouched behind the nearest desk and kept his gun aimed, constantly watching for anyone. They could see their hostage in the corner of the room. Gia slowly crept to towards him. She was so silent and stealthy that even Grizz lost her movements. Grizz aimed his gun as the opponents came back into the middle of the room. But a shot went off before he had the chance to squeeze his trigger. Lumo paint sprayed across the chest of one of their opponents. Grizz took the opportunity to shoot the other as well. Gia then raised her hand with the hostages and shouted, “Victory!”

Grizz stood and shouted with them. The radioed the win in and started to head back downstairs.

“Suck it Andrew,” Gia said as she walked past our opponent shaking his head with a smile, paint crusting his chest.

Conrad and Faith met them at the base of the stairs, both of them covered in paint along with a few people from the opposition.

“That was fun,” Gia beamed at him.

“You are such a brilliant woman,” Conrad beamed back, “Going underground and sending us in as a decoy, brilliant!”

“It’s what is do,” Gia shrugged.

“Now,” Faith said to everyone in the room, “I believe yellow team is owed some ice cream.”

“I am so down for that.”