Awakening (Born From Shadows #1)

If there was anything she had learnt in her years on the streets, it’s how to steal, lie, fight, and run away. Every day was like a test, and every day she had passed it. A new day, a new adventure.

Tatianna decided to stay in her make-shift bed a little while longer that morning, her feet felt too numb to move. She was always wondering if her toes would fall off from the cold one day, but they never did. Then her mind drifted to where it always did. Her family. Or more precisely the lack of one. Where they were, if they were alive, why did they leave her? She closed her eyes and asked herself why more times than she could count. Still coming up with no answers of her own. Perhaps they thought she was a monster like everyone else? Saw her abominable eyes and absquatulated.

“You don’t have to run,” a familiar voice verbally expressed. Tatianna snapped her eyes open and was standing on her feet in an instant. Her legs almost collapsed beneath her, but she willed her body to stay strong. This girl must walk very quietly, and those who have such nimble feet are customarily an assassin of some sorts.

“Leave me alone,” she replied with a hoarse voice from not speaking in days. She turned in preparation to run once more. So much for finally having a nice corner to stay in. The search for a new place to reside in would take her days.

“Please, just wait,” pleaded the girl, “I want to help.” Tatianna ceased in her tracks and swivelled around on her toes. No one ever wants to help her so why now? What was the trick in all of this? Was she truly an assassin?

Tatianna stared into the girl’s frost blue eyes determined to pry the veracity from the girl. To discern if she was lying or not.

“Why would you want to help me?” Tatianna queried.

“I see you every morning from my window and no matter what, my day cannot be happy because I know there are people out here struggling for their lives,” she responded.

“I must be going, I have food to find,” Tatianna said, trying to get away from the girl who talked to her, while she was not used to having a conversation and she was not enjoying it at all.

“Would you like to join my family and me for a feast?” the girl asked before Tatianna could depart.

Without cerebrating Tatianna almost said yes but stopped herself before doing anything. Rule four, don’t trust anyone. She could have poisoned the food or done much worse, unthinkable things.

Tatianna shook her head, “No, but thank you for the offer.” The girl looked confounded that she turned down the offer. She was trying to be polite. Angering the affluent always ended with a new feast for the dogs, and a set of clothes for the first person to reach it.

“Are you sure? If you do not wish to eat, a warm bed may be nice,” the girl pressed on, perusing her goal.

Tatianna weighed out her options. She knew that she should just walk away, that it would be a sapient and safe decision to do so. But the offer was too hard to resist, and she hadn’t eaten anything worthwhile in days. If anything goes wrong, she could fight her way out and escape through the maze of streets.

“If I accept, where would you take me?” she wondered.

“To the white house just down the road, it is unmistakable,” the stranger told her. She knew of the house, had walked past it every day for eleven long years. It was a tall, immensely colossal house, at least four levels high, with massive pillars at the front entrance. Eleven years and not one day of comfort. The offer could not be resisted no matter how much her instincts opposed and her gut convoluted.

“I will go,” she declared. The other girl looked down at her smiling

“Wonderful, my family would be pleased to have the company. Well at least my mother would,” she told Tatianna, muttering the last sentence. Tatianna nodded her head and followed the girl down the busy street.

“What is your name?” the girl asked from beside her.

“Tatianna,” she replied, “And yours?”

“Freya,” she answered with a smile. The rest of the walk was silent except for the infrequent rumbling of Tatianna’s stomach as it anticipated the feast to come.

Don’t trust anyone. Her thoughts reminded her, and she listened warily, glancing towards the stranger.