Must Read: The Claw, The Tail, And The Cross. - Season 1 - Episode 17

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: The Claw, The Tail, And The Cross. - Season 1 - Episode 17

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her, which as far as the creature was concerned, wasn’t fast at all. Luckily for it, she was so terrified she couldn’t use her voice. She had tried screaming the first time she saw it lunge out at her from behind a building and if not for the old ditch, overgrown with weeds which the creature had overlooked in its eagerness to satiate its hunger, she would have been dead by now. Her mouth had opened but no scream escaped her lips. The only thing that came out of her mouth was a pathetic whimper. She had immediately started running down the street toward her home as the beast thrashed about in the undergrowth. Even now as she ran down the abandoned streets on this cold dark night she had to struggle to stay conscious as she was hyperventilating from her terror. Why had she lingered at her boyfriend’s house for so long? Why had she decided to return home at 2am in the morning? She couldn’t even remember what she and her boyfriend had been quarreling about at that time that had warranted her leaving the house at such an ungodly hour. He had yelled after her, telling her to come back and stay, that she could leave in the morning, but she had stubbornly refused.


Her house was actually two streets away so she didn’t feel it would be too dangerous to venture out and she had considered that this part of town wasn’t covered by the vigilantes and at the time it was an added bonus to her since she would not be stopped by them on her way home. Now as she felt the snarl of the beast as it feed itself from the entanglement of weeds in the old ditch she prayed to all the gods that she would come across the vigilantes.

I stood there by the road, watching the girl running towards me, watching the deformed creature with two tails freeing itself from the shrubbery and turning in her direction. I could feel the hunger of the beast and the terror that had filled the girl’s heart. I called out to her but once again I was mostly an observer, watching events as they played out, my physical influence nothing more than the effect of fog blown on the wind of a cold dark night such as this one. In the girl’s terror she could not hear my still small voice and I definitely wasn’t going to be able to reason with the beast, not in its current state. I looked around to see if there was anybody who could help but alas, this time, they were alone.

As I watched, the beast began to lumber and then sprint towards the girl. Its speed was alarming despite the fact that the girl was way ahead already. As it sped past me I caught a glimpse of its body, a leopard body with patchy fur and barely visible spots. Its forelimbs partially resembled a human’s although its hind limbs were fully transformed. Its face consisted of the characteristic snout and teeth of a leopard but the forehead and eyes were still that of a man’s. Its teeth, unfortunately for the girl were fully formed and so were its claws. It zoomed past me, a miniature locomotive of destruction, two tails flying wildly behind it, intent on catching its prey.

She was making some noise now, not actually screaming, but enough wailing to attract attention. She had put on navy blue jeans trousers over a black “my money grows like grass” top and the jeans seemed to be impeding her movement. Her slippers had been lost to the race long ago and the adrenaline-

fueled will to survive slowly but surely took over and she ran faster than anyone in her generation had ever run before. In her blind terror she passed her street and headed into the wrong one, passing an old Iroko tree and into a cul-de-sac, a dead end street. A long time ago some idi0t had built his fence to traverse the road and now it stood solid and firm, a sure signature of death for the girl. She flung herself bodily against the gate and screamed loudly but nothing happened, no lights came on, nobody stirred.

“Somebody help me! Please! Biko!!!” she lamented but the only thing that answered her was a faint echo as her voice bounced off the cold hard wall. The effort, and its humiliating result, sapped her of all strength and she collapsed in a heap on the floor, crying the forlorn cry of those destined for desolation.

She dared to turn her head and the beast was there, blocking her path, advancing menacingly. Condensed air escaped its lungs in torrid breaths and she looked down its gaping throat as it snarled at her.

“Nnem o, nnem o, nnem o…” she chanted rapidly, her voice barely a whisper as the beast, confident of its kill, advanced. It licked its jaws once, twice, as it noticed she was on the fleshy side. This would do, this would do nicely…

I stood there in front of it, yelling and screaming and trying to divert the creature but it passed my form like I was made of smoke and closed in on the girl. She was still chanting her useless mantra as the beast pounced and she closed her eyes, expecting the worst.

There was a loud bang and the beast was thrown side-ways to the floor and away from the girl. The smell of gunpowder filled the air and I turned to see who had fired the shot.


From the dilapidated security post at the beginning of the street an old man advanced.

He was dressed in dirty brown agbada and his cap rested firmly on his head. His slippers made a flip flopping sound as he marched with them across the untarred road to meet his adversary. I stepped aside as he walked past me fearlessly, a determined look on his face.

He stepped towards the body of the beast, muttering something under his breath and making movements with his hand for the girl to get up and go behind him.

The girl had opened her eyes and saw the old man approaching. However she was still too much in shook to stand up. All she could do was point at the body of the beast and weep softly.

The old man looked the beast over at what he considered a safe distance, and decided to load his Dane gun and fire another shot at it, just to make sure.

His fears were warranted.

The beast suddenly stirred and got to its feet. The impact of the bullet on its skull had knocked it out momentarily but had not been strong enough to damage even the bone. It reared its head angrily and faced the old man who was still in the process of loading his gun. It let out a gutteral roar and dived at the old man who jumped out of the way, missing being torn to shreds by a hair’s breath. Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to load his gun on time, he hastily fumbled within his agbada pocket with his left hand even as the beast circled to attack again. He brought out an egg and threw it just as the creature pounced. It hit the beast squarely in the face and it fell to the floor paralyzed. Its eyes moved about wildly as the old man laughed.

“Creature, I recognize you. I am indeed honored to have seen your kind in my passage through this earth. It would be an even greater honor to send you out of it.”

So saying he loaded his gun and stuck it to the ground, muttering some incantations.

I watched fascinated as fire came out from the ground and set the gun alight. The girl watched as well, transfixed to her position, although she wouldn’t have seen anything more than an old man digging the dirt with an old gun.

The beast must have seen the fire as well for it roared and struggled to free itself from whatever held it bound. And it succeeded.

As the man pointed the gun at it, the beast flexed its once paralyzed muscles and something like liquid mercury fell off its fur. It backed off just in time as the man fired a bullet which flew out of the gun leaving a trail of magic fire in its wake. It dug a hole in the sand where the creature’s head had been.

The old man stepped back, uncertainty making an entrance on his face, and he fumbled in his agbada once again but this time the creature was having none of it. It spun around and whipped the man with its tails and he was thrown off his feet and hit the trunk of the dried- up Iroko tree with a loud thud. For a moment I held my breath, for I thought the old man had died. The beast must have thought so as well for it went back to its initial victim who had remembered the use of her feet and was now trying to run past the two of them.

It caught her left leg and pulled and the jean material ripped loudly and rapidly became stained with blood. She screamed and fell to the ground and the beast was upon her and had her neck in his jaws, when a shout rang out in the still air.

“Here, beast! Your fight is with me!!!”

The beast looked up and saw the old man. He had struggled to his feet and had one hand on the Iroko tree and the other hand held his gun which was pointed straight at the creature.

“Great Iroko, lend me your strength!” he shouted, and fired. Once again the beast was thrown off its quarry but this time it was hurt.

Blood spewed from its shoulder and the beast howled as it struggled to its feet even as the girl got up and ran for her dear life.

It watched her escape, screaming down the road, and it turned full of fury towards the old man. Its skin glowed an incandescent red and as I watched it seemed to increase in size.

It rushed towards the old man and just as it jumped the old man threw another egg to the ground and disappeared. The beast hit the trunk of the tree full force and a large piece of it broke off with a huge snap. The beast whipped around and the old man was there behind it aiming for another shot. The beast jumped out of the way as the bullet fired lodged into the tree. It ran for the old man again but he quickly struck both his palms on the ground. Immediately large clay pillars rose up from the ground and surrounded him.

The beast slammed against the pillars and was thrown back. It fell on the ground and rose to its feet, looking even more ferocious. The man pulled his agbada and I could see he was adorned with various charms and amulets.

He pulled one from his neck now, even as the beast circled his apparently indestructible fortress. I knew the only reason I could see it was because of my gift, anyone else would have seen an old man standing in a clearing with nothing around him and a beast circling him with malevolent intent.

He poured the contents of a small gourd into the palm of his hand and blew it towards the beast. It transformed from a black powdery substance into a swarm of bees and they flew directly at the creature, attacking it.It roared and snapped its jaws about as the bees stung deep into its skin, then the incandescent red became brighter as it opened its mouth wide and blew at the insects which caught fire and fell to the earth disappearing as they touched the ground.

It stood before the man, panting, growling horribly and seemed to actually be waiting for whatever the man had to offer next. The old man looked at the beast for a moment and for a while it seemed they were engaged in a form of invisible battle of the mind. They kept staring at each other until the old man averted his eyes with as gasp. I could feel his pain. If he was a few years younger, he might have bested the creature but slowly it began to dawn on him that he was fighting a losing battle.

He pulled another gourd from his neck but the beast did not wait to see what he would do with it. It rushed the clay barrier again and this time it gave an ear-piercing crack. The beast drew back and launched at the wall again and one of the pillars broke. The man watched this with a mixture of horror and fascination.


At the third attempt three clay pillars fell at once and the man dropped the gourd he was about to use and opted for an egg instead.

As the beast launched at him he threw it to the ground and disapp-
But the beast got him by his scrawny legs and threw him away from the vortex he was about to enter. It flung him to the floor, raised him up and flung him down again. Blood oozed out of his nose and mouth as his skull cracked on the hard floor. The beast made for his neck but he stretched out a hand and the beast was immObilized, but only momentarily.


Every muscle on the beast strained as it slowly broke free from its invisible hold. The man stretched his hand further summoning whatever invisible powers aided him but it was no good, defeat was imminent. He looked the beast in the eye as its head came closer and closer to his.

“A fair battle and a good death. But my blood will be your undoing!” He shouted hoarsely.

And the beast broke free and tore his neck out.
I watched helplessly as the beast fed on the man. As it drank his blood, its insides glowed brightly and I knew instinctively that it was acquiring the powers of its vanquished foe.


As I looked on, the beast began to choke and scream. It clawed at the dust around it and scattered the earth everywhere. And then its bones began to move. At first I thought it was returning to its human form but then I saw that instead it was transforming into a real leopard.


The knobbly knees smoothed out, the patchy fur became more resplendent with a bright yellow color and very dark visible spots.

Its human face receded and its snout elongated as it began to resemble a proper leopard. Soon it stood before me, a beautiful creature, standing tall and proud, its chest heaving from the exertion of transformation, a small mane, like that of a lion, running down its elongated and straight neck. It would have been a magnificent sight if not for the blood that still dripped from its jaws.

Then it cocked its head attentively as we both heard the shouts of people coming down the street. The runaway girl had found help.

They came with machetes, clubs and guns, carrying bright torchlights and making a terrible noise. The beast snarled at them and seemed to consider attacking but thought better of it. It sneaked away into the darkness and as i faded away from this nightmare loud screams rent the air as the beams of light from the torches lit up the remains of the old man who had saved the girl’s life.