Their Princess

Ch. 4- Needs

"Hey, baby!" Mama squealed, embracing me in a huge bear hug. I take in her sweet vanilla scent as I melt into her arms, the light peering in from the half-closed blinds.

"How was school today?" She asked, wiggling her eyebrows. With her arm wrapped around my shoulders, we walked over to the living room and plopped down onto the couch.

"I wanna cry." I sighed as I sank into the couch before dramatically waving my hands in the air. "Mrs. Moore is going to be the reason why I end up on the streets!"

"It's alright baby," Mama reassures me as she lightly patted my messy curls. "I also failed grade 8 social if that makes you feel better."

"It couldn't have been that bad," I say, narrowing my eyes at her as I sat back up. "How bad did you even struggle?"

"I mean," She began as she twirled a strand of my hair around her finger. "Till' this day I still don't get a clue when Canada became a country."

"Mama!" I exclaim with a horrified face. "We've been living here my whole life!"

"Stop overreacting!" Mama begins to laugh as she scrunches up her face, cracking me up as well.

Mama's laugh is contagious—no, her whole personality is. She brings a bit of sunshine into everyone's life. The sound of her laugh lifted my heart, like music to my ears.

Her laughs slowly morphed into small cries for help and her eyes changed again. They were empty. The ones I dreaded.

"Mama?" I whisper, trying to keep a steady voice.

The whole room darkens as she grabs onto my shoulders, shaking me as she cries helplessly.

"No, no, no..." My breathing became uneven as my eyes widened at the sudden change in the atmosphere around me.

My head snapped towards the loud banging and shouts of men before a pair of hands roughly manhandled me so that I was facing them. It was Mama desperately shaking me with a betrayed stricken face.

"Why did you let me die?" Mama demands as the both of us cry together.

"You left me to die!" She shrills as I tried to deny it but something was preventing me from speaking.

I feel my heart beating throughout my whole body, I cover my ears but it's useless. I can't breathe. I Can't Breathe. I Can't Breathe.

"One last chance!" Mama's killer's voice booms through the air. "Where is it?"

"Mama you have to tell him," I gasped desperately, clawing at her shoulders to listen to me. "Please Mama, you have to. Just tell him."

Mama's eyes meet mine, as her shrieks fill my ears. "You're going to leave me again?" She accuses me. "After everything I've done for you?"

Before I could deny it, a pair of strong hands yanked me away from Mama, dragging me against the familiar tiled floor as I screamed. 

The hidden figure then wrapped their hands around my throat and began to strangle me. I struggled as I gasped for air but they were too strong compared to me- I was frozen in fear. Mama's cries continued to deafen me as I clawed at the attacker's hands.

Everything around me began shaking like an earthquake, and it increasingly got more violent as Mama's screams slowly faded into whimpers which broke whatever was still holding up in my heart.

"No!" I screamed, gasping for air as strong arms held onto me tightly. "No, no, no!"

Thrashing violently, I attempt to escape their grasp but a familiar voice calls my name, snapping my eyes open.