It’s finally time for Dorothea to escape the Aligator’s teeth. She puts her all into it, but is it enough to take her to freedom?
“Alulululululuuu, Aiiiiii Aiiiii Aiiiiiiii”, sarcastic shouts of joy are heard from the group of women surrounding Doro from all angles. Some shout from the top of the building, others shout looking out of their windows, and others shout lying on the floor drugged and unable to open their eyes. That building was scary and would give you chills. It looks abandoned and unused but it was still filled with women of all kinds and ages. This is when Dorothea could not hold back her cry anymore. She started screaming and crying in pain in a sharp child voice like she was being severely punished.
“Mamaaaaa, Mamaaaaaa”, Dorothea cries in pain while all the women around her, including the one who brought her laugh at her with no pity. The woman who brought her, held Doro’s hand to bring her into the building but she cried loudly in pain saying “No, I don’t want to go, leave me alone, mamaaa.” One of the women replied in a sarcastic voice to Doro’s call saying “Yes, my daughter, hahahaaaaaa”.
Dorothea’s heart was pounding abnormally. Her eyes had turned color to become red as tears fell out of her eyes non-stop. Her heart was torn in pieces due to the betrayal that she had received first from her birth mother, and now from the woman she trusted more than anyone else, MAMA MLEZI. It felt like she was in a nightmare. Her legs became heavy and her toes dug into the ground as she was dragged like an animal towards the Dorm. Wherever she turned her face, no one seemed to care or feel remorse for her. Everyone seemed to continue with their own things, or looking at her and laughing.
“Where is she taking me?’ Doro thought, “What are they going to do to me? Am I going to become like these women I detest? why are my legs out of strength?”. After thinking and asking herself all these questions, Dorothea decided to take heart and start her escape plan. Unfortunately, all her hopes were shut down by the loud sound of the gate closing behind her. There was no place she could run to. Two armed buff men stood at the gate while all around the compound was surrounded by a high brick wall with an electric fence on top. When the situation hit her, she knew there was no way to escape from this place!
The building was called “The Witches Dorm!”. It was a building located inside the Shabari forest. Shabari was a feared forest for it was a habitat for many wild animals. It was located far from the city. Only a few local tribes were able to live and survive in that forest. Because that was a dangerous location, the construction of the building was stopped after several engineers were attacked and eaten by wild animals. It was supposed to be a remote prison for notorious law offenders.
After the construction of the building stopped, Mama Mlezi and her associates took the place and founded a prostitution herding center. They used it to harbor prostitutes. To not be found out by the government, they also opened an orphanage to help young girls who were later the ones sent to the Witches Dorm after they had turned ten years old. They renovated the building and made sure no girl or lady could escape. It was a prison, in disguise. Although the door was opened daily, to take prostitutes to their clients, no one was allowed to leave without special permission from Beatrice (Bite).
Bite was the leader (matron) of The Witches Dorm. She was the one responsible for arranging clients, jobs, and payments. No one was more respected and befriended in The Witches Dorm than Bite. People tried to even befriend Bite’s friends to get favor from her. “Ko.. ko.. ko.. ko.. ko..”, heels are heard climbing down the stairs at a daunting slow speed. “I hear a lot of noise, what is going on?”, Bit asks as she looks at the door to see Dorothea brutally dragged in as she tries to resist. Doro raises her face to look up where she sees Bite looking at her intensely. She held Doro’s head, touched her hair, looked at her eyes, and walked around her to see her body. While all this is going on, the Dorm is as quiet as the night and you could hear even a pin drop. Only Bite’s heels are the ones heard as she continues to inspect Doro thoroughly!
She walks in front of Doro, opens her mouth inspects her teeth, and gets close to her to smell her hair. “Take her to room 5B,” she commands. “Room 5B?” the woman who brought asks loudly and surprised.” “5B, she is taking her to 5B!!”, murmuring is heard throughout the dorm as they are all surprised by Bite’s decision. “I have said, take her to 5B, do we have a problem?”, Bite asks. “No ma’am,” the woman replies as she quickly but gently grabs Doro to take her to room 5B. “Let’s go, Doro, you are going to room 5B, you are very lucky”, the woman says as she escorts Doro to her room.
5B is a room where the prettiest prostitutes were kept. It was also known as Paradise. Many women wished to be put in that room and others even tried to bribe, or use other methods to charm their way in but were unsuccessful. “How did this little girl with only ten years of age get a privilege of being taken to Paradise?”, they asked themselves. Prostitutes living in paradise were given VIP jobs and worked more frequently than others. Their clients were people with status and wealth. Some of their clients worked in the government, and others in the army. The type of clients they serviced caused them to draw in a lot of money which gave them special favors in the dorm. Their room had sufficient lighting, good beds, entertainment systems, and running water. Paradise was the heaven of the dorm. Paradise residents spent most of the time to themselves in their rooms until they had to leave for work.
“Ngongongongongo, open the door, Vero, ngongongongongo”, the woman who brought Dorothea, knocked on Paradise’s door. Vero opens the door and sees her with Doro beside her. “What?” Vero asks with an attitude while she chews her gum and pops a bubble. “Bite told me to bring this girl to paradise”, the woman replies. “This stick? brought to paradise? what for? mxieeeew, Rebeka! come here and be amazed!”, Vero comments sarcastically and calls Rebecah. Rebecah was a more mature lady compared to the others in Paradise. She was twenty-seven years old when Doro arrived in the Dorm.
“krooooooo,” Rebecah opens the door and looks outside the room while Vero goes back inside. “Aaaaaah our neighbor, please come in, do not be afraid. Eh, your eyes are very red, have you been crying?”, she asks Doro as she helps carry her bag and takes her inside. “Fwwuufwuuu,” Doro sniffles as she enters the room, where she instantly starts crying again loudly, “iiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiii”. “Eeeeeh, shut up, don’t you see Anna is sleeping?”, Fifi says in an angry voice as she continues to do makeup on her face. “I don’t know what Bite was thinking to bring us this little girl in here”, Vero adds. These words cause Doro to feel more pain and despise. She sees herself as worthless, unloved, and unneeded. She was first resented by her birth mom, then Mama Mlezi, and now these ladies in paradise.
“Don’t worry Doro, it will be alright”, Rebecah speaks in a calm voice. Rebecah, Fifi, Vero, and Anna were the only remaining ladies in paradise before Doro arrived. Two other ladies who used to live there died, one due to HIV (Aids), and the other was murdered by a violent client a few years back after she was punched and had internal bleeding for days without treatment. All ladies in paradise had learned to love and appreciate their life of prostitution. No one among them thought of ever escaping. This was not the same with Dorothea, she knew in her heart, that one day for sure, she would do all she could to escape her enslavers. “I swear upon this land, one day I will escape this place and be a free woman and destroy my enslavers,” she told herself.
. . . TEN YEARS LATER . . .
Dorothea is now a woman of nineteen years old. She stares at herself in the mirror looking side to side and appreciating her beauty. “Khokho, khokho,” a cough is heard in the room from one of the girls. “Oh sorry Vero, are you alright?”, Rebecah asks with concern as she gives her a glass of water. Vero was HIV positive and her health had started deteriorating. Fifi and Anna had tried to escape the Dorm of Witches a few years earlier and died in their attempt. It was only Dorothea and Rebecah who were taking care of Vero as she awaited her death. The three of them were the only ones remaining in paradise.
“Today is my last day in this awful building”, Doro thought as she continued to apply makeup. “”Piiiii Piiiiii, Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii Piiiiiiiiiiiiii”, a loud horn is heard outside as the driver notifies Doro that it’s time to leave. “What is wrong with Athumani?”, Rebecah asks as she looks at Doro. “Aaah, he will wait, if he is in such a hurry he should go to the client in my stead!”, Doro replies and they all laugh. “Haha, Kho, kho, kho, guys please don’t make me laugh,” Vero says as the pain in her lungs wipes out her smile.
“Get well soon Vero”, Doro says as she hands her a beautiful necklace on the bed. “Doroooo”, very speaks emotionally, “You have truly decided?”, she asks in fear. “Vero, I can’t continue to stay here, there is a life out there for me. I am not happy leaving you bedridden but I know Rebecah will take very good care of you”, Doro replies while holding Vero’s hand. She then turns to look at Rebecah for a while, tears on the verge of crying then looks back at Vero and they all hug to say goodbye. Their little sister was now all grown and ready. It wasn’t that she was leaving that made them cry, but the fear of what could happen to her if anything went wrong. The witches’ dorm was financed and used by top people from all branches of the government and important organs of the country, no one would allow anyone to escape and stay alive to tell the story!
“Doro, Doro, Doro open the door right now!”, Bite shouts angrily. “Krooookoko, Doro opens the door ready to leave. “You are all grown now eh? So you just do things as you want and the whole world should pause and wait for you?”, Bite screams at Doro. “The driver is waiting for you, and the client is about to head out of the country for a meeting in two hours. Quickly go Now! before I get even more angry!”. Doro stands for a while staring at Bite intensively who stops talking and wonders where Doro got the courage to stand up with this attitude. Doro then smiles at Bite and gives her a hard hug that almost feels like she is trying to break Bite’s borns. She then holds Bite’s hands and says smoothly, “Goodbye Maam.”. She then walks with style moving her shape from side to side as Bite remains puzzled and amazed by what just happened.
“Let’s go”, Bite tells the driver as she gets in the car. It is only then that Bite who was staring from her bedroom window realizes that this might be the last time she will ever see Doro again. “Waaait, waiiit!!” she shouts as she runs down the stairs and towards the building door. She soon realizes that she is a bit late and needs her phone to call and alert the driver to turn back immediately. “Vroooom, vooooooo”, the car rushes through the rough road and in between the bushes in Shabari Forest, the most dangerous forest in the country. Any driver with the right mind would not open the window or stop the car while in this forest, not unless they had a death wish. Unfortunately for this driver, his passenger was ready to die rather than remain a slave sold for her body, her eyes changed as she turned from cute to fierce-looking in front of the car as her hand reached for a razor blade in her purse. Since she is now trusted, she gets to sit in front of the car with the driver.
She turns and looks at the driver’s throat and calculates the distance and the strength she needs to make a deep enough cut in one go! Her hand trembles but she pulls it out slowly and is ready to go for the kill when suddenly the driver’s phone rings. “Kkrrrrr, krrrrrr”, “it’s Bite! I wonder what she wants,” he says. “She knows”, Dorothea thinks as she turns to look in front for one last time before she makes her move”. Will she have the strength to kill him in one go? If she fails, will he kill her instead? She closes her eyes for a few seconds as she summons the killer she knows is in her. “I can do this she says”, “What?”, the driver asks. “Aaaaaaa, Dorothea screams as she pulls out her hand from her purse, razor in her fingers, open and ready for blood!”
