Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)
Chapter Twelve

“I’m an Elf,” she muttered at her reflection, “but I was human moments ago.” She looked at herself with pure confusion swirling through her eyes. How could this be possible?

“How are you feeling?” Freya asked for the final time.

“Confused, and as if I was finally complete. Like a hole in my life had been filled,” she admitted.

“I’ve never seen or heard of this before,” Freya muttered to herself, just loud enough that Tatianna could hear her soft voice.

“What do you mean?” she asked curiously to the girl standing beside her.

“Elves are very secretive, not much is known about them and their ways,” Freya explained, “whatever happened to you, or is happening. I have no idea what to do about it, if it is a normal occurrence or unique to you.”

Tatianna closed her eyelids and let out a deep breath as if it were her troubles escaping her...if that was even possible. Oh, how she wished it was.

“So, what you’re saying is that something amazing could be happening to me, or something really, really terrible,” she spoke. Freya nodded her head slowly as if in sympathy.

It’s fake, she’s just pretending.

The voice in Tatianna’s head that always came had arrived yet again to her and was always right. No one has ever cared about her, so why would a person she met only a day ago?

“Why is father hurt? And mother screaming-” A deep voice interrupted my thoughts, though he interrupted himself when he saw her. What she was. A monster, in plain sight.

“B-but,” he stumbled, utterly shocked by her transformation.

“Brother,” Freya warned at his words.

“How?” the man managed to get out from his shocked state, his mind grasping at the possibility of this all being a dream. A crazy nightmare that he will wake up from in a few moments.

“We don’t know,” Tatianna finally said speaking up for herself.

“We will worry of this later,” the boy said simply dismissing the unbelievable situation, “Why are they fighting?”

Freya looked towards her as if asking if she could reveal what had happened. Although Tatianna did not care what Freya told him, he probably already knew and was faking like everyone else.

“Father, he did something horrible,” Freya said, a decision made.

“What did he do now?” the boy said with slight anger in his voice that Tatianna could tell that he was trying to hide so desperately.

“H-he tried to...to burn Tatianna in her sleep,” Freya stumbled out the words as if just realising of how much of a monster her father really was.

“That sadistic- “the boy’s raging voice was cut off by his sister.

“Riley!” she exclaimed. They stared into each other’s eyes as if in a contest. Tatianna looked back towards the mirror, at herself. How could she be an Elf? She did not understand it, nor how it happened. Just yesterday she looked like a normal human. Had everyone else not pointed it out she may have thought she was hallucinating it.

“Are you coming?” Freya’s voice startled Tatianna out of her thoughts. She was unsure of where they were to go but she nodded anyway. This situation was so confusing to her. She didn’t know what to do, what would happen to her. The streets were a tough place before...now that she was, this, she knew she couldn’t return to the alleyways and corners that she called home. Whatever they were planning...she wanted to replace out, she wanted in.

“Good,” Freya replied smiling. Riley turned around and exited the room with Freya, Tatianna had decided to follow along.

“Leave! And never come back!” The demanding voice of Freya’s mother echoed through the wide hallways. The siblings looked at each other in worry, hoping that they themselves will not end up in poverty and live like so many others on the streets, like she had.

The group walked towards the room in which the two parents were in a heated argument. They shuffled past awkwardly, trying to not draw the two’s attention towards them.

Tatianna wondered where they were going on multiple occasions, cautiously following and constantly looking over her shoulder worried if something was going to hurt her from behind. Her eyes scrying for an escape route if anything went wrong. Paranoid it may be, but a necessity for her to survive.

She rallied her courage and finally asked, “Where are we going?”

Freya turned to face her, “to get food from the kitchen.” Tatianna nodded still not understanding, what was a kitchen?

They entered a large room, pure white like the rest of the house but contained multiple cupboards all backed up against a wall. A fire was roaring in the side of the room bringing warmth to Tatianna’s chilled skin, but also slight terror, remembering what just happened.

Riley reached up to a cupboard door on the highest level with ease, so high that Tatianna could never reach it.

“Here,” he said and passed Freya a handful of apples. Freya gracefully took them and passed one onto to her who took it hungrily. She bit into it and nearly moaned in delight. The juices seemed to roll out of her mouth, the sweetness unimaginable. Her tastebuds seemed to yell with happiness. Tatianna closed her eyes and enjoyed the apple until only the core was left. She was too preoccupied to notice them placing a few of the apples into a bag.

“You eat faster than anyone I’ve met,” Riley commented.

“You’ve never met another homeless person,” Tatianna countered. Riley tilted his head to the side in thought before nodding his head in agreement and taking a bite from his own apple.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but why are you homeless?” Freya pried warily.

“I don’t know,” she replied, not really answering the question. She didn’t remember much of her life before the street. Nothing actually, it was as if one day she just appeared, only remembering her name and age. She was six, so she just assumed it was because she was too young to remember anything before that.

“I’m so sorry for you to have to endure through everything,” Freya whispered.

“I have to go now,” she told the two and excited the room. She didn’t know where she was going to go. The dangers in the world just escalated for her. Humans did not like the Elves all that much, that she knew.

She walked out of the room, yet again passing Freya’s father who lied down on the ground. He was still alive, but unable to move very far. She sensed that both Freya and Riley had followed her out of the Kitchen but

The three teenager’s heads snapped towards the person storming into the room.

“This is all your fault you feral beast!” Freya’s father screamed at Tatianna in anger. His voice was cracked. “Everything was perfect until my horrible daughter brought you here!”

“Everything wasn’t perfect if it could be torn apart so easily,” she responded.

“Leave!” he ordered.

“No. You leave,” Riley spoke from behind her, his voice calm and collected.

“Quiet boy, this has nothing to do with you,” his father spat.

“Where is mother?” Freya dared to wonder.

“None of your business,” he said turning his attention back to the Elf, “now if you don’t leave, I will report you to the Hunt.” Tatianna looked at him in confusion not knowing what the Hunt was.

“Where is mother?!” Freya demanded.

“Shut up!” he screamed.

“You did it again, didn’t you? I don’t know how you did, but you still did it,” Riley asked the man anger dripping from his voice, Freya turned towards Riley wondering where this was leading to.

“Leave,” is all that the two’s father could reply with.

“Not denying it, father?” Riley interrogated. When the man didn’t reply Riley walked over to him and kicked him in the gut, releasing a yelp from the man’s mouth. His arms flopped uselessly beside his body, still incapable of moving them without feeling mountain loads of pain.

“Where is my mother you sick bastard!” Riley shouted. The man smirked at his son.

“Where your sister is,” he replied. Tatianna turned her head to Freya as she stared at the two curiously. Riley paced around the room before freezing at the sight of something.

Freya walked forward curious at what he was looking at. “Oh my god,” she whispered in shock. Tears fell down Freya’s face and Tatianna was left wondering what was going on. She walked over and saw the mother lying motionless on the ground with bits of blood on her clothes. Riley remained still, with the same rage she experiences moments before. “How?” Tatianna asked, the only one able to speak. She was truly curious how someone as incapacitated as him killed another person.

He smiled at the question, “first, I bit her ankle which sent her tumbling all the way to the floor. Then I bit on her wrist and ripped her veins,” he replied, “she tried to crawl away but ended up bleeding to death over there.”

Riley turned towards his father’s smug face, lowering his fist upon it. Over and over again. Neither Freya nor Tatianna stopped him. They just stood by and watched the boy beat his twisted father to death. Tatianna realised that it wasn’t just the poor that were messed up, everyone was. Everything was just one chaotic drama after another, there were no good people. Anyone good died...anyone who was pure evil and psychotic died. It was those with a balance of each one that survived this cruel world.