Tigress Royale (On Hold)

Tigress Royale

TIGRESS ROYALE

CHAPTER 1

As soon as it hit me, I felt a wave of dread. The morning rays that were now drawing faint luminous lines across my face from the rising African sun meant that it was time to face the world again.

Time to run again.

I have been in this place too long and it was time for me to move to the next city, to look for my next hide out. A new wave of emotions rushed through me. Anger, Hate, Betrayal, Sadness, Loneliness…

I woke up from the park bench I had found in the back of a very dirty and neglected park and looked around in silence, trying to see or hear anything out of the ordinary. Yeah, obviously there would be nobody in sight. Why would there be? I was always an expert at making myself invisible, even in plain sight. Maybe its one of my powers? I wouldn’t know though, I’ve never been in front of a mirror long enough to test it out.

Depending on the day, it would always come in handy but on days like these I sometimes wish it didn’t. Maybe I would feel the least bit normal. I haven’t had decent human contact in the last year except for the odd deals I would have with the lowest type of human imaginable for sanctuary; the killers and criminals living in the dodgiest parts of every city I had come across in this country. I hated to do it but they were the only ones who would never find anything suspicious about me as they were also trying to stay under the raider.

I thought about the point of all of this. Sometimes I would be so close to throwing in the towel and letting myself get exposed. I mean they might not still be after me. It has been 15 years now. They might have given up or thought that I did not survive alone all these years. But I had promised. I promised my parents that I would try stay alive and find the answer to all of this. I frequently got frustrated with them for not telling me what it is I was to look for and more so for them to leave their 5 year old little girl to fend for herself as they let themselves get killed all those years ago. Almost as immediately as I would think it, I would feel guilty. They had fought to save me, to keep the last remaining hope of our tribe alive. But I could never erase that last day…

*Flashback *

“Zoxie! Zoxie baby you have to get up! You have to get up now!”

Slowly I came out of my dream where I was running round laughing and giggling in the garden with my friend Maul and opened my eyes to see my mommy standing above me with a worried expression. My room was looking weird; I couldn’t see the glowing animals on my wall from my Night-light anymore. My room was smoky and I could see a red glow from underneath my door dancing around in the rest of the house.

Fire. My eyes bulged as I jumped off my bed.

“Mommy! Mommy what’s going on? Where’s Daddy? Mommy I’m scared! Are we on fire?” I yelled out in panic.

“Shhh! baby don’t worry, Daddy is already outside. Listen now baby, we don’t have much time. We are under attack and you need to go. You still remember everything we taught you right?” she said as she opened my pink closet and started throwing out all my clothes. I stared at her in shock. What does she mean I have to go? Where am I going? Where are Maul and his dad?

“Mommy where’s Maul and Uncle Dennis? Are they back from their fishing trip?” she paused and looked back at me with pained eyes.

“You know baby, I don’t know.” She sighed, “But what I do know is that they were the only ones who knew about us and where we are. Your dad and I trusted Uncle Dennis with our all and he is nowhere in sight.” She said silently more to herself as she looked out into an unseen space.