Just like she predicted, after what seemed like a flash process, when with a superhuman effort we’ve locked the big guys for life, and we’ve put away the rest of the gang behind bars for many years, I had to let Sade go. There was no other way for her to find her peace. I knew it happened the moment I received the call from the Witness Protection Headquarters (WPHQ).

  They were escorting Sade, under her new identity, to the airport. She was to live in another country, as a different person with a divergent background and life history. A new start for someone who had such a rough and unfair entry in this lifetime. They didn’t inform me of her destination; I didn’t even have the chance to say goodbye to her after the verdict.

  The message received was short and professional. Its brevity surprised Liam and the lack of emotional transparency in it made it heartbreaking.

  “Captain Blessing, we are sorry to inform you that they had declared number 43561311 dead this morning after an explosive attempt that ended her life and injured gravely all protection staff.”

  “Can I see her… body?” Liam asked.

  “I’m afraid there is nothing left to see, Captain. The car she traveled in was turned into ashes by a military racket. The explosion was so great that the surrounding cars were thrown into the air and injured all her protective staff in the other cars. We are still calculating the losses and the impact of this failed mission.”

  “The life you were supposed to protect is gone. What are you calculating? How much the cars and hospitalization costs?” Liam raised his voice, but then he knew it didn’t matter anymore. He closed his eyes, thanked them, and hung up.

  Goodbye to the greatest chess player I knew. Now we can all finally rest, thought Liam, suddenly heavy-hearted. He didn’t know when he started liking the blonde girl in room 1311, at the Zanzibar Resort. During these long years of investigations and the following sleepless nights that followed after she signed her cooperation, he thought he would like nothing better than to be rid of her.

  Few people attended her funeral. She had no friends or family. She was the loneliest human being on the planet. All the people that accompanied her since birth were now in jail and wanted her dead.

  Now the news will tell everyone the story of the sick baby abandoned in hospital, raised by a cartel involved in illicit businesses across the globe and how she helped to send everyone to prison because they assassinated her biological family, and which probably had her murdered in the end.

  Liam and Elon were the only ones that laid flowers by her picture on an empty grave.

  “It had to be done!” Elon commented.

  “It was her wish. God rest her troubled soul!” added Liam.

  “Shall we have a drink in her memory?” said Elon after a moment of silence.

  “I thought you hated her,” said Liam.

  “I still do, but she is in a better place now and she helped us solve the case in the end. She had us go through hell a thousand times throw, and for that I will always hate her.”

  Liam smiled. “She made us walk through the valley of sorrows.”

  58

  “No, this is not a new chapter in my life; this is the beginning of a new book! That first book is already concluded and tossed into the seas; this new book is newly unraveled, has just begun! Look, it is the first page! And it is beautiful!”

  How did I write this story? I had a thousand emotional wrecked experiences, in different other places. I’ve annihilated soul eating parasites and dismembered some of the fiercest nightmares to stand here today and write about each one of them. You may choose not to believe me that this is a true story, but that’s alright. I kind of count on human skepticism to stay anonymous and guard my secrets.

  I want to give this story a happy ending, because all experiences are just steppingstones to better yourself. A piece of advice: never turn your back on friends and count on your enemy to extend his hand in your final act. It helps if that enemy has a military racket launcher that could turn your previous life into dust and blast you to an improved version of it.

  It’s never too late to start over!

  For the sake of it…

  THE END.

  A final word from the Author

  I wrote this book in about a month, the amount of time I spent in a 5-star resort in Zanzibar. What an amazing experience that was! So new, so thrilling, like a homecoming for a soul that didn’t know what to expect when firstly travelled to the African continent. Since then, I returned to that land over and over just to recreate the same emotions and engage the African muse.

  Imagine paradise built on many hectares, with gorgeous green gardens, luxurious suits, and state-of-the-art fresh food from the sea. I don’t think I ever ate so well or had been so happy in a time that humanity was fighting a Pandemic and a war about to start.

  I discovered Swahili was such a warm language and so beautiful to speak. Every day inspired me to write more, and it thrilled me to see how this story developed before my eyes.

  I cannot disclose the name of the Resort, because too many people in this book are real and recognizable, yet I want to offer them the benefit of anonymity and to you, the reader, a challenge to discover where fiction starts and real-life ends.

  It will excite you to know that I’ve met part of the characters in this book (yes, they are real, only their story had been changed to accommodate the narration). The Indian lover, John Singh (not his real name), actually suggested the title. The room number is also real. I lived there for the duration of my stay and if you are passionate about numerology, maybe you can contact me and share the power of this combination (1311). The blond girl isn’t me. She is pure fiction created by the exotism of the land and the mirage of the Indian Ocean. Sitting on the beach, sipping from my mango with passion fruit mocktail (my favorite!), I just happened to see her through the veil of imagination, like a dream, just like a Morgana girl (translated as circling sea, great brightness, or bright sea dweller). How well she fit in the African sun; but as she was a stranger to the land, just like me, elusive most of the times, I thought that something must have happened to her here and she wanted me to tell her story. She wouldn’t even disclose her name, so I had to invent one (not a good one, but it had to be a South African name, as the story went).

  As the story moved and I covered page after page of it, guided by Detective Liam Blessing’s investigation, I knew not what awaited me at the end. This was a mystery for me as well, and a big surprise at the finish line when all was revealed and I found out who this girl was and how much need she had to be free of the world, prejudices, suffering and injustice.

  At this late hour, when I write the last words, knowing that I’ve already written THE END, I’m grateful, and blessed that I was given the right to tell the story of a tormented soul, one in the sea of women who fall prey to the cruelty of men, neglected by the blindness of justice, and the indifference of society. How much violence and death pass us by, and we do not see it, because we are too scared to look, or we simply do not care?

  To all those people buried (take it metaphorically) in a nameless grave, please find peace knowing that Detective Liam Blessing (also metaphorical) will not rest until he gives you justice in this world and the next.

  God bless you all, people of all colors, who love and suffer and feel alone in a world shared with over 9 billion souls (humans and animals).

  Yours truly,

  Sylvie Danielle Matias

  Find me on Instagram @sylviedaniellematias and Facebook as Sylvie Danielle Matias.

 

 

  S.D. Matias, The Girl in 1311

 

 

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