Two Worlds: a epic of Shadow and Rouge

Chapter 17

"When my mother became pregnant with me, my father bought a small house, where we would live together, as a family. The house was nice and well located in the city. Great neighbors."

"My father was a brown bat, with long, pointed ears, eyes like mine and a leaf-shaped nose... That nose. He told me that when I was a baby, I liked to play with his nose. And it hurt when I pressed it, but he didn't care, because he always loved playing with me."

"But then, the country where I lived, went into a terrible crisis. Companies went bankrupt. Many became unemployed. Among them my father. Years went by, my father was still looking for a job, but he only got small temporary jobs."

"My mother was the main provider. And she was already getting tired of my father. He considered it a burden. She humiliated and beat him. He said he was useless, for not bringing real money home and that he should act like a man. My father never fought back, he didn't even raise his voice to her."

"My mom was a white bat like me, only she had yellow eyes and long hair. She told me that I should marry another bat. That he didn't want to see me get emotionally involved with any other species. She even told me how to dress."

"I had two neighbors, who were great friends of mine, Thuu, a hyena boy, we were the same age, and Flap, a butterfly girl, who was older."

"Thuu was my first love. My first kiss was with him. We were secretly dating, I explained to him about my mother and that the less people I knew the better. He accepted.

"Flap was very beautiful, and she used it to her advantage. At school she always played a charm for the boys, for them to do something for her. Many received detentions in her place."

"It was she who taught how to use makeup. She always said that I was also beautiful and that I should enjoy it, as she did."

"One day I commented on my father's situation, and she suggested I steal to help him. She said she was doing it in time and showed me objects she stole. He suggested that I tell my parents that the money came from a scholarship that the school was giving me. I denied it at first said it was wrong. But then I accepted. We invaded houses at night and stole expensive objects, then sold them in another city. She chose the day and the house. We always flew in and out without making a sound."

"When the day came for another robbery, I ended up hurting my wing in the morning. I talked to Flap and showed my wing. She said that we couldn't cancel it, it had to be done today, because there would be no one in the house and that house was from a very rich family ... I decided to go with her. During the robbery, we were caught. She fled flying. Left me behind. I was taken to the police station. I confessed to all the thefts, but I didn't mention Flap."

"My father went to get me. He didn't say a word to me that night. But I could see on his face how sad he was."

"When I got home, my mother hit me. She also screamed and hit Dad. He said it was his fault. He did not say anything."

"Thuu didn't want to talk to me anymore. I think that even today, he doesn't know that Flap was also in the robberies with me."

"I spent the next few days thinking about the future. I thought about my family, the friends who abandoned me. My life now was just going to school, coming home and staying in the bedroom. Dad and I didn't talk anymore. My mother cursed me every day. At school nobody spoke to me, but I heard what everyone was whispering about me."

"Then one day, I decided to leave. My father asked me not to go. I replied that I would not achieve anything, for my future, staying here. And that, unlike him, I would not be a weakling, just like him. I left my father, in that house, with my mother."

"It was difficult at first, I was alone, stole to survive and slept on the 13th floor of a building. The owner was superstitious. The floor was abandoned."

"But over time, I got better and better at my thefts. I did legendary robberies. Until G.U.N. captured me. I had been sought out in time. But then, our old commander, Abraham came to see me. He offered me a deal. He said he was impressed with my skills and that I could serve as a spy for the government."

"With the time and rewards I earned for each successful mission, I felt that I had achieved as much as I could in my life. Then I thought about my father and what I had said to him. I decided to go back to see him and talk to him again. When I got there, I just met my mother, she told me that my father had died 1 month after I left."