CAUTION: This story contains implied sexual activity between minors, mild violence, and profanity. Reader discretion is advised.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Masala Chai
by IndigoNeko and TaintedThylacine
Chapter 3
Friday, January 15th, 2016
After the last four days of being escorted around school by Mrs. Chambers, it felt weird not to be following her around. The heavy-set cottontail rabbit was one of the nicest people Alex had ever met. The tiger cub was currently taking a shortcut Mrs. Chambers had shown hir, through the upper-class hallways. They were mostly empty right now, due to the older kids having slightly different schedules.
The tiger cub darted down the hallway, backpack bouncing wildly behind hir, and reached one of the four-way intersections. As the young tigress was about to turn, shi saw striped fur out of the corner of hir eyes. Almost instinctively, shi turned and looked. At the far end of the hallway, walking away, was a young man in black slacks and a white polo shirt. His arms, head, and tail were covered in white fur with bold black stripes... and he had the trademark black-furred, white-spotted ears of a tiger. It was like seeing a younger, slender version of hir father. Alex came to an abrupt halt, unable to believe what shi was seeing. Hir heart suddenly started racing.
A heavy hand clapped hir shoulder, distracting hir. Alex turned around, then stepped back as shi recognized the large, gray-skinned elephant that shi had literally run into on hir first few days at school. The one who’d slammed hir against a locker. Alex’s mouth went dry and hir heart continued to pound, this time for a very different reason.
“Hey. Um... Alex,” the elephant said, looking down at the young tigress. Hir mismatched eyes were just as strange as the rumors said. “I’ve been lookin’ for you. I... uh... I heard what happened to you. Fuckin’ crazy. And sad, losin’ your grandparents like that the same day you met ‘em. Had somethin’ like that happen to me. Lost my aunt and uncle to a drive-by shooting when I was visiting ‘em. Gangs an’ shit, ya know?”
The elephant stared into the distance for a few seconds before continuing. “Anyway, I did some asking around. You’ve been through some rough shit for a ten-year-old. So... I apologize for shoving you. And, uh, if you need to talk to someone who’s been there, knows what it’s like to, uh, to have to move across the country, lose your friends, lose your family... call me,” he said, holding out a scrap of paper. “And, uh, if any of the older kids here give you any shit, lemme know. I’ll deal with ‘em.”
As Alex reached a paw out and took the piece of paper, the elephant clapped hir on the shoulder and walked down the hallway shi’d come from without so much as a glance back in hir direction. The scrap of paper had the name ‘Kalu Anozie’ and a phone number beginning with the area code 267. Wondering what the heck had just happened, Alex shook hir head and headed down the left hallway, heading to hir next class while clutching the piece of paper.
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Saturday, January 16th, 2016
Azalea ran her claws through the thin ruff of fur along Alex’s jawline, gently scratching it just like she did for her pet, Micro. Alex had spent most of the movie they were watching using the half-squirrel’s tail as a blanket and with hir head on Azalea’s lap, quietly purring. As the movie came to an end and the credits started rolling, Azalea twitched her tail a few times. “Time to get up, sleepy cat. The movie’s over and I’ve gotta pee.”
Alex yawned and stretched, throwing hir arms and legs out as only a cat could, then slowly rolled off the couch, hitting the floor with a thump and laying on the floor on hir back. Shi was wearing one of the oversized t-shirts that was hir usual loungewear. Normally it would hang past hir knees, but right now the hem was far from its usual resting place.
“Your panties are showing again,” Azalea pointed out as she stood up and walked around the tiger cub sprawled on the floor.
“I wore them just for you,” Alex said with a smirk, then laughed. Underpants had become a running joke between the two for months now, ever since shi had forgotten them once and Azalea had called hir out on it. The tiger cub kicked hir legs up in the air and flipped hirself upright, casually performing a kip-up. “I’m going to head downstairs for a snack.”
“Oooh. Good idea. I’ll meet you down there,” Azalea said as she stepped out of the combination den and guest bedroom, and headed towards the bathroom.
A minute later, the half-squirrel stepped back into the upstairs landing and quickly took the stairs down to the great room that occupied the front half of the house. The massive windows that made up the front of the house gave a wonderful view during the day, but at night they were almost pitch black. Everything beyond the front porch was barely lit by the half-full moon.
Both Alex and hir father David were standing on the far side of the great room, in the kitchen. The much bigger white tiger was wearing only a pair of sweats. Azalea had no idea how they survived in t-shirts and sweats. The house was barely warm enough right now, and they’d turned the heat up just for her. Crazy tigers, she thought to herself.
“Hey Azzy,” David said as the half-squirrel reached the bottom of the steps. “There’s trail mix in the bowl on the table and yogurt in the fridge. I’m going to turn in. Screens off and lights out in fifteen minutes,” he said. He then took several gulps from a glass of orange juice.
Alex leaned against the countertop near the fridge, holding a container of peach yogurt and lapping it straight from the cup using hir long tongue.
Azalea took a seat at the dining room table, pulling the bowl of trail mix over. She couldn’t help but giggle when she saw how Alex was eating the yogurt, thinking of the videos on the internet of feral cats lapping up milk from a bowl. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re just a brilliant feral,” she teased before popping a pawful of trail mix into her muzzle and crunching away.
“Oh. I forgot to mention,” David said, setting down the half-empty glass. “Alex hasn’t been sleeping very well. Shi’s been waking up with night terrors every night since, well... You know. If shi wakes up screaming or you find hir sitting up in bed, come get me. I’ve been sleeping in the guest bedroom so that I’d hear it, but since you’re sleeping there tonight-”
“I can crash in hir room. I don’t mind,” Azalea interrupted, picking through the bowl in front of her, attempting to create the perfect handful of trail mix. “Waking up to screaming can't be that much worse than the time Micro attacked my tail,” she said, holding up her tail tip and wiggling it at the two tigers.
David got a thoughtful look on his face. “If we had a bedroll or sleeping bag, that would be a good idea, but we don’t. I should put that on the shopping list,” he said before picking up his orange juice again. The kitchen went quiet except for the sound of the tiger swallowing.
Alex waited for a few more seconds, then a mischievous smile spread across hir muzzle. “Daddy, can Azalea sleep with me?” shi asked.
David coughed, spraying drops of orange juice across the kitchen island. “Absolutely not!” he said, as he bent over, hacking and wheezing. “You two have barely been dating for three weeks-”
“I didn’t mean sex, you pervert,” Alex interrupted, sounding affronted. The young tigress quickly turned away, both to hide the smile on hir muzzle and to set the yogurt on the counter. Shi grabbed some paper towels and wet them in the sink before holding them out to hir father as he continued to cough.
After getting his breath back, the white tiger peered suspiciously at his daughter while accepting the paper towels. “Fine. But no sleeping naked, no touching each other below the waist, and you keep the door open. I’ll be just across the hall and I better not hear any funny business.”
Alex frowned at the first rule, then sighed. Having to wear underpants to bed was a small price to pay. “Yes, Dad.”
David glared at his daughter again for a moment, then turned around and wiped down the kitchen island before tossing the paper towels in the trash bin and setting his cup in the sink. “Goodnight, girls,” he said, heading upstairs towards the guest bedroom.
The tiger cub smiled, then picked up hir yogurt and joined Azalea at the table, whispering “That was great! I didn’t think he’d actually spray it all over the kitchen. I wish I’d had my camera out for that.” The young tiger giggled.
“Tease,” Azalea chastised as she picked out another pawful of trail mix, having found the combination of nuts that she liked the most. “Man, the look on your dad’s face was so good.”
By the time the two cubs finished eating and went back upstairs, David had already pulled the hideabed out of the guest bedroom sofa and was in the process of putting bedding on it. Alex ducked into the upstairs bathroom, saying “I’m going to brush my teeth and stuff. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“Don’t fall in,” Azalea said. Realizing just how bright the room was, she walked around the bedroom, turning on the table lamps and turning off the overhead lights. The half-jerboa let out a sigh, sitting in the lounge chair that Alex had in the corner next to hir computer desk. She pulled at the hair band she was wearing, eventually getting it off and letting her hair fall free. She took a moment to stretch, using her whole body.
As the hairband slipped from her hand, falling behind the chair, she swore under her breath. Turning around and climbing over the back, her gaze followed the snowboard, resting against the wall, all the way to the floor. There was a lot more than just her blue hairband. Six plushies, including two tigers, a pig, a parrot, a snow leopard, and a lynx lay on the floor. “Shit,” the half-jerboa muttered worriedly as she realized what she was looking at.
Most of the plushies had been mutilated; given carefully hand-crafted death wounds with the normally white stuffing dyed red. The top of the pig’s head had been pulled open, and a tiny black derby hat lay nearby. The parrot, lying propped against the snowboard, was missing most of the side of its head, including one eye. The lynx’s throat had been torn open, and the snow leopard was missing almost as much of its head as the parrot, along with a foot. The two tiger plushies, one lying atop the other, had been liberally spattered with red dye.
“Oh God,” Azalea muttered, having completely forgotten the hair band. She slid down and sat back in the chair, reeling at the discovery of the diorama that Alex had made. It was probably the scene of what had happened to hir grandparents. Mind racing, she wondered whether it was something she should ask Alex about, or needed to talk to David about. Just as she decided on the latter, the light in the guest bedroom went out, followed by the rustle of cloth. Presumably, David was already in bed.
Azalea pulled her phone from her pocket, dull claws tapping on the screen as she tried to think of how to google something like this. It took several different searches until she finally found an article that described it. She sighed in relief after reading that fascination with death was a relatively common thing for traumatized children, and usually harmless. No longer worried about Alex hurting someone, she relaxed, figuring she could wait to tell David until tomorrow.
The bathroom door clicked as Alex unlocked it and stepped out. Shi stopped by the guest bedroom for a moment, saying “Goodnight, Dad.”
“Goodnight, love,” David said, just loud enough for Azalea to hear.
The tigress stepped into hir bedroom, saying “Bathroom’s all yours.”
“Finally,” Azalea said, sighing dramatically. She got up and grabbed her bag before slipping off to the bathroom to go through her nightly routine, while Alex walked over to one side of the bed and flipped back the covers and climbed in.
Inside the bathroom, the half-jerboa brushed her hair, tail, and other fluff, then her teeth. With that out of the way, she changed into a long t-shirt and a pair of short shorts before packing up her things and heading back into Alex’s room. “How do I look?” she asked, seeing that the giant house cat was already under the covers.
The young tigress lifted hir head off the pillow. “Overdressed,” Alex immediately replied.
“Fair, but your dad said that we have to wear clothes,” Azalea pointed out, grabbing the hem of her shirt before pulling it off and tossing it at Alex. “This better?” she asked quietly, spinning in place, before making her way over to the bed and climbing under the covers as well.
“Much,” the tigress replied, picking up the discarded garment. After tossing Azalea’s t-shirt to the foot of the bed where hir own nightshirt was, Alex rolled over to face Azalea and waited until she’d turned off the light. “Panties count as wearing clothes, right?” shi whispered.
“Uhh... Yeah?” Azalea replied, hesitantly.
“Then that’s all we need to wear,” the tigress said, leaning forward to plant a kiss on Azalea’s lips.
The half-jerboa blinked. It was too dark to see anything, but the feel of Alex’s lips against hers was unmistakable, as was the smell of the minty toothpaste the tigress used. After a few moments the tigress ran hir tongue across Azalea’s lips, sending a chill down her spine.
The half-squirrel huffed as she closed her eyes and pressed her lips against Alex’s. Azalea shivered a little as she felt the tigress’ tongue teasing her lips. Azalea put her arms around Alex and held on tight as she slipped her tongue into the feline’s muzzle, letting it dance with the tiger’s. Feeling the barbs on Alex’s tongue against her own was a very strange sensation.
Alex drew back after a few moments. “I see you remembered your lessons on advanced kissing,” the tigress said with a grin. “We’ll see how much you remember again in the morning.” Shi reached over and snagged the half-squirrel’s far hand, then rolled back over onto hir side, dragging Azalea with hir. As Azalea’s chest came to rest against hir back, Alex held the rodent’s paw against the fluffy white fur of hir tummy before letting go. Shi fluffed the pillow shi was using and sighed. “That’s better.”
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Sunday, January 17th, 2016
Once again, Alex followed hir father through the halls of the hospital NICU. They were familiar enough now that the young tigress might have made it to Mom’s room without getting lost. David stopped at one of the doors and rapped with his knuckles on the heavy door. A moment later, Raenne pulled the door open and stepped aside to let them inside. “Hey Hun. Hi Kiddo,” the older tigress greeted them.
“Hi Mom,” Alex said, bouncing into the room while Dad gave Mom a hug. The young tigress walked straight over to the clear plastic incubator and peered in at hir baby siblings. Just as Mom had said, the tiny tigers’ fur was just starting to come in. One was mostly brownish colored and the other was grayish. Their eyes were still closed, though at least they seemed a bit more active than last time. They were also noticeably bigger.
“Well?” Raenne asked, leaning down near her daughter’s head. “Whatcha think?”
“I think they’re cute,” Alex said, nodding decisively. “They look much better with fur, and they’re getting bigger.”
“I agree,” David said, standing over them. “I’m shocked that Katherine’s got gray fur. It looks like mine did just after I was born. I’m pretty much certain she’ll wind up with white fur. Guess you’ve got one of the white fur genes after all, love,” the white tiger said, squeezing his wife’s shoulder. “I thought they were pretty rare.”
Alex turned and looked up at hir father. “Not that rare. I saw a tiger at school this week with white fur.”
David’s eyebrows shot upwards in amazement. “Really? I didn’t think there would be any other tigers in Winter Creek... Oh, that’s right. You go to school in Prairie Flats; They could live over there. Still, that’s amazing. I wouldn’t have expected there was another tiger at your school at all, much less one with white fur.”
“Yeah. Other than us, the only other tigers I’ve ever seen were a family in the airport and that kid I saw in school,” Alex confirmed, figuring that evolved tigers must be almost as rare as feral tigers.
Raenne stood back up and followed her husband back over to the bed, where they sat and chatted for a bit, starting with the fact that Alex hadn’t woken up last night during the sleepover. Then they discussed allowing their daughter to sleep in their room, since sleeping alone must be what was causing the night terrors. Alex stopped paying attention when they started talking about bills and other boring adult stuff; the twins were far more interesting.
Unfortunately, the twins weren’t paying much attention to hir, even when shi called their names and purred at them. They’d smiled a bit when Alex had sung the Cossack Lullaby to them last week though, so shi tried that next, clearing hir throat before attempting the Russian song. Once again, the twins calmed a bit and smiled as shi sang to them.
A few minutes later, Alex snapped to attention as shi realized that hir parents were talking to hir. The young tigress turned around. Both hir parents were staring at hir. “Uhhh... what?”
“Alex, are you okay?” David asked, obviously worried.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” the young tigress asked, confused.
“You called them Viktor and Dina,” Raenne said, frowning with concern.
“I did?” Alex asked, flushing with embarrassment. “Sorry. I spaced out a bit. I didn’t mean to, I promise. Sorry Nicholas and Katherine,” shi apologized, turning back to the incubator.
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Monday, January 18th, 2016
As the office emptied and his coworkers headed out to lunch, David pulled out his phone and quickly dialed the number for Alex’s psychiatrist. The phone rang a few times before the secretary answered. He asked if the skunk was available for a quick question. She responded with an affirmative and quickly transferred the call. It wasn’t more than a few seconds before the Doctor answered, saying “Doctor DeLeon speaking.”
“Hi, um... This is David Andreyev. My daughter had a sleepover on Saturday with a friend, who discovered a bunch of... Well, I let Alex buy some plushies last week after your therapy session. Shi wanted them to remember the people shi met during the incident. Anyway, they’re currently sitting behind a chair in hir room, and they’ve been... altered,” the tiger said quietly, trying to be discreet while waiting for the last of his coworkers to leave the office.
“How so?” the skunk asked, already guessing the answer.
“Umm,” David said, watching as the last woman in the office finished putting on her coat and headed down the hallway past his cubicle. “Let’s just say that it’s probably a recreation of when shi last saw them. It’s... graphic.”
“Ahh,” the psychiatrist said. “That’s what I expected when you said they’d been altered. It’s a diorama. Children who witness violence often have a fascination with death, and that manifests in a variety of forms. Creating a diorama is probably one of the most benign forms, though it can escalate into killing and vivisecting pets or worse. Have you already talked to Alex about it?” he asked.
“No,” David said.
“Good. Don’t,” the skunk said. “I’ll bring it up during this week’s session, and ask Alex to make a diorama and bring it in during next week’s session. We can talk about it and establish some baselines that will help hir manage it. Anything else?”
“Well, shi didn’t have nightmares on Saturday when shi had a friend over. Shi asked me if shi could sleep in my bed last night. I figured…”
“If you’re okay with that, then it’s fine. It’ll help hir get over the night terrors faster, but they may come back when shi starts sleeping in hir own bed again,” the doctor explained. “I wouldn’t recommend letting hir sleep in your bed for more than two weeks.”
The white tiger let out a sigh of relief. “No worries there. My wife should be back from the hospital with the twins in two weeks. Thank you, Doctor.”
“It’s what I’m here for,” the skunk said. “I’ll see you two on Wednesday.”
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David stepped out of his SUV, snagging the messenger bag containing his laptop before shutting the door and following his daughter up the stairs from the driveway to the main floor porch. The forty-minute drive home from Prairie Flats had given them time to talk. It had been eye-opening to realize just how much of his daughter’s day-to-day life that he knew nothing about, from hir class schedule and teachers to the friendships shi had made.
As they stepped inside, Alex went straight to the refrigerator and pulled out a cup of peach yogurt. David followed, setting his tote on the kitchen island. “How ya feeling, love? Tired? Or would you be up for a workout?” he asked, remembering that shi hadn’t had night terrors for the last two days.
His daughter looked up at him, a dab of yogurt on the fur just below hir nose. “Uh… sure?” Alex said, cautiously. “Why?”
“Your mom wants you to start karate again,” David said, pulling out a jug of apple juice and pouring himself a glass. “You’ve gone almost a month now without regular exercise or karate practice. Also, you’ve got a drop of yogurt…” He gestured at his nose.
Alex blinked, then licked hir nose. “Yeah, I guess it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
The white tiger nodded in agreement. “How about we do yoga and kata today, then we can do weight lifting and sparring tomorrow. We’ll alternate days. Sound good?”
The young tigress lapped up another spoon’s worth of peach-flavored yogurt, then nodded. “Okay.”
“Oh, and Raenne wants me to start teaching you staff fighting. We don’t have room inside the garage for that, so we’ll have to practice outside on the driveway,” David said.
“Won’t it be kinda cold, practicing outside?” Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.
A grin slowly spread across David’s muzzle. “Very.”
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Tuesday, January 19th, 2016
The phone in Raenne’s pocket began vibrating just as she was closing the plastic cover to the incubator, having double-checked both of the twin’s ventilators. Frowning, the tigress pulled the phone out of her pocket. It was Special Agent Ericsson, the badger from the FBI who’d led the small team that had camped out at their house while Alex had been missing.
The fur on the back of Raenne’s neck rose as she wondered why the hell they were calling. Obviously it was news regarding the kidnapping, but if it had been something linking Brock or Sophia back to her, they’d probably have shown up to the hospital with a squad of people, handcuffs at the ready.
“Raenne speaking,” she said, after unlocking the phone and holding it up.
“This is Special Agent Ericsson, with the FBI. I just wanted to let you know that we’ve concluded our investigation into your daughter’s abduction, at least as far as it can be completed at this time,” the agent on the other end of the line said.
The tigress raised an eyebrow. “Well?”
“We were able to confirm that the abduction was performed by a pair of UK nationals who were working as private security on contract to your parents, Viktor and Dina Kaminski,” the agent explained. “They’d been on assignment to the Kaminskis for approximately seven years, though the contract itself was signed under a false name. There were two other private security agents on the same contract as well, another UK national and a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Peru, who we consider accomplices in the abduction.
“We don’t have any direct evidence that the Kaminskis ordered the abduction, but we assume that they did. Seeing as everyone directly involved in or accomplices to the abduction is deceased,” the FBI agent said, stressing the last word, “we will not be filing any charges and are going to close this investigation. Do you have any questions?”
“You said they’re all deceased. Is there a separate investigation into their deaths?” the tigress asked, pressing the agent for information. “I’d like to know what happened to my parents.”
The agent sighed. “Yes, that is considered a separate investigation. Normally I’d say I’m unable to release that information, but... Your parents and their four private security detail, the ones I just mentioned, were killed while leaving a restaurant with your daughter. There were at least two assailants armed with assault weapons and body armor. We weren’t able to identify either of them, even though we ran their prints through all available national databases. Given the use of exclusively Russian weaponry and the complete lack of any form of identification, we assume they were mercenaries or enforcers working in service to either Russia or the Russian mafia.”
Raenne raised her eyebrows. “You couldn’t identify them at all?” the tigress asked in disbelief. There was no way Brock and Sophia had managed to be that thorough.
“No, ma’am. We searched them for identification and took fingerprint impressions. Only one of the bodies was in good enough condition to obtain dental records and we didn’t get any results despite the extensive dental work she’d had done. The serial numbers on their weapons had all been filed off. We tried running their DNA, as well with no results.”
“Well, please let me know if you find anything. I may not have been on the best of terms with my parents, but having closure would be reassuring,” Raenne said, not entirely truthfully.
“Very well. Have a good day, ma’am,” the agent said, hanging up.
The tigress sighed in relief, saying a prayer of thanks to Brock and Sophia for remembering to use fake prints. If the FBI had traced the operation back to her... well, they took interfering with federal investigations very seriously. Spending time in prison was not her idea of fun.
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Wednesday, January 20th, 2016
Alex looked over the set of plushies shi had pulled out from their hiding place behind the chair. After today’s session with Doctor DeLeon, looking at them made hir feel uncomfortable. The explanation that the odd obsession was expected and normal after such an experience didn’t do much to counter the fact that it wasn’t normal for other children.
Years of trying to fit in with other kids before being outed as a hermaphrodite had made Alex acutely aware of the importance of blending in... being normal. The doctor’s odd request at the end of the session had been far too specific; shi had realized almost instantly that they knew about the ‘dead’ stuffies, and managed to wheedle an admission from Dad that he’d seen them. The blue hair-band shi had found near them, one of Azalea’s no doubt, was evidence she had been the one to find them in the first place. Azalea probably thought shi was a freak now.
The tigress frowned, trying not to cry. Shi was going to have to talk to Azzy about the mutilated plushies. Hopefully the half-squirrel would be understanding. In the meantime, shi had to call Elizabeth. It had been three weeks since they’d last talked. Shi owed the little stoat an apology and explanation. The last thing Alex wanted was to make Lizzy worry. While shi would never lie, maybe shi could skip the bad parts…
Alex picked up the new phone and pulled up the contacts list. A moment later shi held the phone up and waited for the ring tone. It took a few moments, but eventually the call connected.
“Stouffer Residence.”
“Hi Charlotte,” Alex replied, immediately recognizing the teenaged canine’s voice. “Is Elizabeth back from school yet?”
“Uh, yes. She got in about an hour ago. Give me a few moments to get her on the phone,” Charlotte said.
“Thanks, Charlotte,” Alex replied. The phone clicked and went silent for several seconds, then clicked again.
“Hi Lexi!” Elizabeth exclaimed.
“Hi Lizzy,” Alex replied, smiling to hirself. It was nice to hear the little stoat’s voice.
“I was going to call you this weekend if you didn’t call me first. Why the long silence?”
“I, uh, didn’t have a phone for a couple weeks. It’s a long story. Are you sitting down?” Alex asked. “You might want to sit down for this.”
“Yes,” the little stoat replied. “I’m at my computer right now.”
“So, the day I was supposed to go back to school after vacation, I was walking to the bus stop when I was kidnapped by my grandparents’ bodyguards...” the young tigress said, retelling the tale for the fifth time, trying to leave out most of the bad parts.
Several minutes later Alex reached the end of the tale. “When we were leaving the restaurant, we, uh... We were stopped by some people with guns. Everyone started shooting...” The tiger cub stopped speaking for a moment, staring at the mangled plushies on hir desk.
“Lexi?” the stoat spoke into the silence. The rest of the story had been normal, other than the fact that it had started with a kidnapping. Elizabeth almost stopped paying attention, until Lexi went silent after mentioning a shooting.
“Sorry. I, uh... I was the only survivor. Both my grandparents and their bodyguards were killed. It was all over the news in Philadelphia, about two weeks ago,” Alex said.
Elizabeth was barely able to process the sudden ending. That had definitely not been what she had expected, and she had no idea what to say. “That’s horrible,” the little stoat said after a few moments. “Are you okay?”
“Well, I’m alive. I wasn’t injured,” Alex answered. “But I don’t remember much after that. I’ve been having blackouts where I don’t remember anything. Apparently I just stand there, like a doll or something. I, uh... I’ve been going to therapy. I think it’s helping.”
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt,” Elizabeth said, imagining Alexandrea standing silently, like a doll, unmoving. She shivered at the creepy image. “I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“Anyway... That’s why I haven’t called you before this. I needed some time to... deal with everything,” Alex said, then decided to change the subject. Shi was thoroughly sick and tired of talking about what had happened. “Anyway... How are you doing? Are you still hanging out with Chris?”
“Yeah, I’m doing fine. I managed to convince Mother and Father to make friends with Alyssa, Chris’s mom. Only, now Mother and Father have been acting odd for the past few days. I don’t know what’s going on yet...”
Alex relaxed, leaning back into hir computer chair as shi listened to hir best friend chatter on. For the first time in the past two weeks, shi felt almost normal.
__________________________________________________
Thursday, January 21st, 2016
Alex finished adding the contact info into hir phone, then crumpled the scrap of paper and tossed it into the trash bin. Shi tapped the phone number and held the phone up to hir ear.
“Kal here. ‘Sup?” the voice on the other line said.
“Hey. Um… It’s Alex.You gave me your phone number on Monday…” the tigress said, hesitantly.
“Oh, right. You, uh, doing okay?” the elephant asked. “I know how much it hurts to lose family like that.”
“I think so,” Alex replied, unsure how much to say. Kalu was mostly a stranger after all. “I was a mess for the first week. I’m seeing a psychiatrist now. I think it’s helping.”
“Good,” Kal said. “It took me a couple weeks before I stopped crying. The damn nightmares didn’t stop for fuckin’ months though.”
“I, uh… My Dad's been letting me sleep in his bed at night. I don’t get nightmares if I’m alone. Actually, that’s not right. I do get nightmares, but when I wake up and I realize he’s there, I know it’s in the past and I can just go back to sleep.”
“Fuck. I wish I could have done that,” Kal said, enviously. “It might have helped. My parents would never have let me, though. Dad would have called me a pussy. Maybe beat the shit out of me.”
Alex could barely believe hir ears. The thought that a parent would insult their kid and even beat them just for wanting reassurance was absurd. No wonder Kal was so easily angered. Having nobody to comfort him after losing his aunt and uncle must have sucked. “So… I looked up your area code. Are you from Philadelphia?”
“Yeah. Kenso. Er, from Kensington,” the elephant said. “It’s a bad neighborhood. Fuckin’ gangs, prostitutes, drugs and shit, everywhere.”
“I didn’t see it,” Alex said. “I was only there a day or so. Saw the zoo, the aquarium, the Franklin Institute-”
“No shit! I love that place,” the elephant interrupted. “They’re always changing up the exhibits and shit. Always somethin’ new…”
Alex smiled, listening to the older boy reminiscing about the museum. Shi hadn’t expected to find him so talkative. Maybe calling him hadn’t been such a bad idea after all.
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Friday, January 22nd, 2016
“Yeah, I’m all caught up on my homework now,” Alex said, keeping hir voice low. As was becoming the norm on Fridays, their art teacher had given them free reign to do whatever they liked, as long as it was art-related. Azalea and Alex had more leeway than most, given their artistic inclinations.
Both of them were using acrylics today. That was fine for Azalea, seeing as it was one of her favorite mediums, but Alex almost exclusively used colored pencils. They weren’t great for dark scenes, though, which is what shi was currently working on. So the tigress had decided to give them a shot, with Azalea’s guidance.
“Cool. I don’t have anything going on with the guild this weekend… Since you’re caught up with school, do you want to come over to my place this weekend?” the half-squirrel asked, using broad strokes to apply the purple paint she had chosen for the evening sky of her fantasy landscape, leaving plenty of empty space in the middle for the wizard’s tower.
“I’d like that,” Alex replied, quickly covering most of hir canvas in a very thin layer of dark gray, the base for the dark street, black cadillac, and old grey buick. Shi left the center and bottom of the canvas white for now, since the lamplight reflecting off the wet concrete where hir grandparents bodies had been was much brighter. That reminded hir… Alex pulled the blue hairband out of hir pocket and held it out. “I, uh, found your hairband. Behind the chair in my room. I hope you weren’t too creeped out when you saw the plushies. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
Azalea froze, then glanced sideways at the tigress, unsure what to say. She cautiously accepted her hairband back.
Alex continued, trying to express what the psychiatrist had explained. “Apparently kids that see really bad stuff, can get obsessed with what they saw. Doctor DeLeon said I need to, uh, get it out somehow. There’s some fancy term for it that I can’t remember.” The tigress paused for a moment, wiping off the brush before dipping it in the lighter gray shi had chosen for the old car across the street.
“What, like exorcising a demon or something?” Azalea asked, switching to gray as well, for the stone tower that was going to be the focus in her latest masterpiece.
“Yeah, I guess. Modifying those plushies to look like them when they died kinda helped me come to terms with it, I guess? Not quite,” the tigress said, dipping the brush into the black, for the big SUV along with the two bodyguards, lying in the street beyond hir grandparents’ bodies. “So Doctor DeLeon said I should maybe draw what I saw. I figure painting counts, right?”
“Of course it counts!” Azalea said, sounding affronted, then sniffed like a snooty art critic. “Painting is the finest of arts, after all.”
Alex smiled in amusement, then leaned forward to plant a kiss on Azalea’s nose. While the squirrel blinked in confusion, the tigress straightened back up. A moment later, she frowned. “Anyway, now I feel miserable that I ruined those plushies,” the tiger cub said, hanging hir head dejectedly. “I’m gonna have to buy new ones, cause I’d rather remember what they were like when they were alive.” Shi sniffled, then set down hir paint brush as shi felt a wave of grief wash over hir, tears forming in hir eyes.
Azalea stopped painting as well, as her friend began to shake in silent sobs. Unsure what else to do, the half-jerboa stepped over and wrapped her arms around Alex, holding the tiger cub tightly.
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Saturday, January 23rd, 2016
The passenger window of the white SUV scrolled down just as Alex was starting to turn away from it. “Don’t forget to tell Beth and Cora about the Lorazepam, in case you have a blackout,” David called out.
“I won’t,” Alex replied, twirling and waving. “Love you, Dad.”
“Love you too,” the white tiger replied, waiting as his daughter reached the house and knocked on the tall front door, holding a canvas painting in hir other hand.
Alex adjusted the strap of hir backpack over hir shoulder as shi looked over the front entrance while waiting. The Winters family had kept the driveway and walkway surprisingly clean of snow and there was a new wreath hanging from the front door.
The deadbolt clicked and the tall front door swung open. Beth stood in the front door, wearing jeans and a sweater. “Hello Alex. Come on in,” the malabar squirrel said, motioning the young tiger cub inside while waving at David.
Alex turned and waved at hir father as well, watching as he drove away before stepping inside, setting the canvas against the wall before taking off hir hiking boots.
“Azalea’s up in her room,” Beth said, smiling gently.
“Thank you,” Alex replied, picking the canvas back up. “Oh, and before I forget... I’ve got some Lorazepam in the small pocket of my backpack here in case I have a blackout. Two pills to start, then call Dad if I don’t snap out of it in an hour. Just pry my jaw open, put the pills on my tongue, squirt some water in my mouth and clamp my muzzle shut.” The young tigress swung hir backpack around and tapped the tiny pocket on the back.
“Okay,” Beth nodded. “We’ve given medication to the feral cats like that. Shouldn’t be too different; Just a bigger cat with sharper claws and teeth. I’m sure we have a blanket we can use,” the squirrel said, bolting the front door before heading towards the kitchen.
“Uh... Okay,” Alex said, wondering what the blanket was for. Shi watched the squirrel’s tail bob as they walked away. It was still a bit odd to think of Azalea as having two mothers, even knowing that Beth was a hermaphrodite like hirself. Star Dreamer’s words flitted through hir mind, about having children of hir own. It was entirely possible that shi could wind up having kids in the future. They might have two moms, like Azalea. Or a mom and a dad. Alex couldn’t imagine being a dad, though; that would be weird.
Sighing, Alex pushed those thoughts from hir head and made hir way up the stairs that led to the office and Azalea’s bedroom, careful not to drop the half-finished painting. The tiger cub stopped at the threshold to the half-squirrel’s bedroom and knocked at the door frame. “Hey, Azzy.”
“Alex!” Azalea said as she got up from her desk and made her way across her room. “Welcome to my room,” she said, turning in place with her arms out. The last time that the tiger was in the room, about the only thing that it had was a bed... or at least what Azalea called a bed.
The long, narrow room had a workbench and desk along the left side and bookshelves along the right. The pile of pillows and blankets that the half-squirrel used as a bed sat at the far end of the long room under the window. The TV was hanging above the computer monitor, angled so Azalea could watch movies in bed. “Much better,” the young tigress said, approvingly. “Also, I just told Beth that I’ve got some Lorazepam in my backpack if I have a blackout. Only your moms are allowed to give it to me.”
“Don’t worry, I didn’t plan on trying… I’ve seen what you do to walls,” Azalea said, walking over to the bed and flopping. “I’m sure we have a blanket big enough for you.”
Alex was seriously starting to wonder what this blanket was for. Shi mentally shrugged. The tiger cub looked around for a moment before choosing the bean bag chair near the bookshelves. Shi took off hir backpack and set it next to the bean bag, then propped the painting against the bookshelf before dropping onto the bean bag chair. “So where’s Micro?”
The half-jerboa lifted the edge of a blanket next to her. A patch of deeper darkness under the fabric lifted its head and blinked, then extended a pair of paws stretching. The feral feline meowed and dropped its head again. Azalea smiled and let go of the blanket.
“So, what’s the plan for today, besides painting?” Alex asked.
“Movies, video games, and cuddles,” Azalea replied, nodding decisively.
“Mind if we do something else first?” the young tigress asked, hesitantly.
“What do you have planned?” Azalea asked, squinting suspiciously.
“Well...” the tiger cub said, picking up the backpack and unzipping it. “I was thinking I need a new look,” Alex said, pulling out a fur bleaching kit.
Azalea tilted her head. “So... are we bleaching your stripes? White stripes would be kind of cool.”
Alex glared at the hybrid. “What, you think I’ve been growing my head-fur out for nothing?” the tiger cub asked before standing up. “Come on!”
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Azalea and Alex thundered down the stairs following Cora’s call that dinner was ready, heading towards the kitchen sink to wash their paws. The tigress let the half-squirrel go first, seeing as this was hir first time having dinner at the Winters family’s new home.
Azalea didn’t have paint on her paws for the first time that Alex could remember, and finished washing them in record time, all while Alex attempted to distract the squirrel with smooches against her cheeks. The tigress then followed suit, drying hir damp fur on the towel that Azalea provided, then followed the half-jerboa through the large kitchen to the dining table.
The tigress sat down between Azalea and Jenny, the half-squirrel’s older sister, and across the table from Beth and Cora. Neither of the two adults looked up until they’d finished their silent prayer of thanks. Then both the jerboa and squirrel’s eyes went wide as they caught sight of Alex’s newly bleached hair.
“Uhh… That’s definitely a statement,” Cora said, staring at the tiger cub’s snow-white head-fur. The jerboa tilted her head, contemplating it. Between the white hair and the mismatched eyes, Alex definitely cut a striking figure. She wondered if the young tigress would be willing to pose for a portrait after dinner.
Beth raised an eyebrow as well. “I assume you obtained permission from your parents to dye your fur,” the malabar squirrel stated, clearly expecting an affirmative.
“Uhhh, Dad didn’t say anything when I bought them at the pharmacy on the way over here,” Alex said, prevaricating.
The squirrel leaned forward slightly, glaring at the tiger cub over the large bowl of caesar salad in the middle of the table. Mustering every ounce of authority shi had earned from years of experience as an attorney, Beth asked point blank “Did you ask your father for permission to dye your hair?”
The tiger cub shrank in hir chair, looking half a foot shorter. “No,” shi whimpered, barely audible in the deafening silence.
The squirrel sighed and pulled out hir phone to call the young tiger’s parents.
“You tried your best, but Mom B’s ‘mom look’ is just too strong,” Azalea said, laughing. She leaned over and planted a conciliatory kiss on the tiger’s cheek, earning an “Ewww” from her sister and an “Awww” from Cora.
