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Chapter 9 - *Chapter 9: The Whispering Walls*

The villagers thought they had seen the worst.

But that night, the wind didn't howl — it whispered.

It spoke in broken tongues, foreign syllables that slid between the cracks in the mud-brick walls of the hut where Nkosana was locked.

His grandmother, Gogo Zanele, had tied cowrie shells and sacred bones to every doorway. She muttered ancient prayers until her voice cracked. Still, the house felt... watched.

Inside, Nkosana sat cross-legged on the dirt floor, his head bowed, eyes shut. But the moment everyone left him alone, his fingers twitched.

He heard them — the *others*. Not voices in his head. These were louder, heavier. They echoed inside the walls.

*"We are close... so close."*

He opened his eyes. They glowed faintly — not red, not white — something darker. A shimmer like oil on water.

The walls pulsed. Cracks spread like veins. The air grew heavier.

Outside, Gogo Zanele dropped her prayer beads. Her old body trembled. "Not again," she whispered. "Not like his mother..."

A scream tore through the stillness. One of the goats burst into flames in the kraal without warning.And in the distance, a crow — with no eyes — cawed three times.

That was the sign. The curse wasn't waiting anymore.

It was spreading.

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