by Natavia
“Are these yours? Too bad because I didn’t know,” she laughed.
“I know you don’t like me but I do not bother anyone in this pride! I have never stolen anything from you, I demand the same respect!” I yelled at her.
“I’m not taking them off, so deal with it, slut,” she replied. Before I knew it, my cat was lunging at her neck. She tried to shift but it was pointless. My teeth were ripping her throat into shreds. The other females roared as they stood by and watched the horrifying scene. Riya jumped onto my back, sinking her teeth into my neck. I threw her off and she went through the wall. She came back and went for my throat again. My beast stood on its hind legs and swatted at her. My paw left three deep scratches across her face. Koja roared and it cracked the walls. Riya backed down and I shifted back. Elsey’s body was almost ripped in half. Blood was everywhere in the room. Koja walked downstairs and the pride bowed to him.
“Take her to the shed. She’s not going to heal,” Koji told Jinsi. Jinsi wrapped Elsey’s body up in a sheet and carried her out the basement. Riya shifted back to her human form and began crying.
“YOU KILLED HER!” she said.
“And you will be next,” I replied.
“Your behavior has been untamable lately. Go upstairs to my room and wait for your punishment,” Koja said. I wrapped a sheet around my body and headed up the stairs. While walking, I heard cruel thoughts from the pride of how they felt about me. They called me a witch and a demon. They hoped my punishment was a cruel one that resulted in death. Koja’s room reminded me of a forest because it was filled with plants and water fountains. His bed was made of pillows. I stood next to the fireplace and waited for him to enter the room. Seconds later, he came into the bedroom and locked the door behind him.
“I’m sick of your shit, Sy’noba. You are not a queen yet! Killing your own in front of everyone was against pride rules,” he scolded me. He walked over to me and sniffed the crook of my neck. A purr escaped his lips when he ran his nails through my mane.
“I know you went out to hunt last night. My son tells me everything. Not only did you leave the property without my permission, you brought Mekah a half-eaten goat! Mekah doesn’t eat before me,” Koja scolded.
“It won’t happen again,” I replied.
“You will have to be punished. A day in the hole. If you try to escape, you will have to spend three days in the hole,” he replied. He called for Jinsi and Lupe and they crawled through the window from outside. They came from the shed behind the house, putting Elsey out of misery.
“What did you do with Elsey?” Koja asked Jinsi.
“We burned her in the pit,” Lupe replied.
“Take Noba to the hole and guard it. She’s punished for a day,” Koja said.
“Come on, bruh. The fuckin’ hole? She killed Elsey because she stole from her. Elsey was a weakling anyway, she couldn’t hunt or keep a job because of her sarcastic mouth. She did us a favor. One less mouth to feed,” Jinsi said. Koja sent a gut-crushing punch to Jinsi’s abdomen and his eyes changed. Jinsi’s cat wanted to surface but he couldn’t challenge the king.
“Do you still disagree with me?” Koja asked Jinsi, and he shook his head.
“Thought so, little brother, now get this bitch outta my sight,” Koja said. Lupe and Jinsi escorted me out of the house and to the backyard. The pride came outside to watch my punishment.
“She killed Elsey!” Riya screamed as a pride member tried to calm her.
Lupe snatched the bloody sheet off my body then tied me up with thick rope. Jinsi went into the shed and came back out with a large cardboard box. He tilted the box over and dumped tons of Indian Red scorpions into the hole; they were the deadliest scorpions from South Africa.
“Scaredy cat,” Lupe teased me.
“I have more heart than you, pussy,” I replied. He placed a piece of tape over my mouth before pushing me into the hole. Tears stung the brim of my eyes when the scorpions began attacking me. A whole day of being bitten and stung was more than punishment. I closed my eyes and began imagining a life I would never have.
Asha
I sat on top of the house for hours watching the hole Sy’noba was in. Koja called out to me, but I ignored him. What kind of sister was I to watch my baby sister get that type of punishment? A whole day of excruciating bite marks and poisonous stings by hundreds of scorpions. Koja was the love of my life. He took me into his pride when he was just a prince. He promised me a better life outside of Africa. We were getting shot down from poachers while hunting. Our village was burned from a war between the people and the government, so we escaped on a ship that brought us to the United States. Before my father died, he told me to look after Sy’noba because she was the key to a better life for us. He said she possessed something very special. I let my father down. I let my little sister down. Koja wanted to impregnate her because of her strong survival skills. Sy’noba was the youngest but fiercest lion in our pride. She had many abilities but her beauty was captivating. Koja was always staring at her. He looked at her in a way he never looked at me or even Toyi. At times, it made me jealous of her because she had better. Our mothers were pride sisters, meaning my father had two wives. He treated Sy’noba’s mother better than he treated mine. Sy’noba’s mother was younger and prettier. He made my mother do all the work, she even hunted by herself. My mother was what kept the pride together, so seeing Sy’noba doing the same things my mother did gave me a tinge of payback. When my mother was killed, my father did nothing. He sat and watched her get mauled to death by wild hyenas. I was a cub when it happened, but I will never forget my mother’s screams for help. For some reason, I resented Sy’noba but I loved her at the same time.
When the sun came up the next day, I hurriedly rushed to the hole, shifted into my cat and climbed down inside. When I reached in to pull her out, she was blue because of the poison. My teeth ripped the rope off of her and I shifted back to my human form. I uncovered her mouth and cradled her. Koja came out of the house and stretched his arms.
“Get away from her!” he yelled at me.
“She’s dead. I think she’s dead!” I screamed. He ran over to me and snatched me by the hair. He held me up in the air then sank his teeth into my hip. I screamed for him to stop but he bit harder.
“I’m sorry!” I cried. He dropped me on the ground and blood poured from my wound.
“She’s not dead. The bitch cannot die,” he said and went back into the house.
“Someone help me!” I yelled out but the pride ignored me. Sy’noba killed Elsey so the pride wanted nothing to do with her. Koja came back out of the house with a wooden bowl. He poured the hot liquid down her throat and her eyes shot open. She leaned forward and spit up blood mixed with poison.
“It’s an ancient remedy. Now, help her get ready for work,” he said. I helped Sy’noba off the ground and she was weak. She almost fell into the house when we walked in but I caught her. It was a struggle getting her up the spiral staircase. As soon as we got inside my bedroom, she fell to the floor. I ran to my bathroom and ran a bath, so the warm water could soothe her skin. I worked up a sweat pulling her into the bathroom and into the tub.
“It burns,” Sy’noba said.
“You gotta listen to Koja. You need to stop going against our king,” I said.
“He’s not my king,” she said.
“Yes, he is, so stop doing this! Just stop!” I yelled at her.
“Run away with me,” she said.
“And go where? I have cubs who need a home. They need their father. I can’t make decisions based off your unhappiness. You’re being a rebel for no reason,” I said.
“Do you love me?” she asked.
“Of course, I do, but I have to put the pride first. I took an oath and it must stick with me until I die,” I replied.
“I’ll die for you but you will never do the same for me! Do you think I would watch you suffer for a whole day and not do anything? I don’t do shit for him, I do it for you! I’m
your backbone because you don’t have one. What’s gonna happen when I leave and you’re left with nothing? Who’s going to hunt for you? Who’s going to make sure your cubs don’t die from starvation since they are the last ones to eat? Who is going to heal you when Koja gets mad and attacks you? You see, nothing good will come out of the oath you took with a lion who isn’t fit to be the leader of this pride. I know you think I’m the reason behind our father choosing my mother, I can see it in your eyes. Father loved my mother because she wasn’t weak. The same way Koja will choose me over you if I wanted him. Get a backbone before you end up on my bad side, Asha. I’m beginning to see you’re against me, too,” she said.
“I should’ve left you in the hole,” I cried and she laughed.
“You only want me around because you can’t survive on your own. It’s not because you love me. If it was, I would’ve never been there in the first place. You are the queen of this tribe, you could’ve fought harder against my punishment,” she said. When she stood up, she wrapped her hand around my throat and lifted me up against the wall. I scratched at her arms but my nails wouldn’t go through her skin. Sy’noba’s face formed into a lion and her teeth expanded from her gums.
“Sy’noba, this isn’t you. I don’t know what you’ve become but this isn’t you,” I pleaded. She dropped me on the floor and I gasped for air. She collapsed but landed on her arms. She spit up more blood and her nails scratched at the floor. Black drawings covered her back and traveled down to her arms but they disappeared. Koja came into the bathroom with a displeased look on his face.
“She needs to be at work in an hour. What are you doing standing there? Get her up and help her!” he yelled at me.
“She’s weak,” I replied.
“It runs in your bloodline. Get her up, clean her, then feed her. She’ll be fine and cut her hair. It’s all over the place,” he said. He grabbed a pair of scissors from the dresser and handed them to me. Sy’noba didn’t put up a fight when I cut her hair. As soon as I snipped a piece off, it grew back to its original length. Koja snatched the scissors from me.
“You can’t do shit right,” he said. He grabbed a handful of Sy’noba’s hair and clipped from the roots. Her hair fell on the floor and turned to ashes. The hair on her head grew right back.
“Must come from the meat she sneaks to eat. That’s why she’s healthier than all of us,” he said before he left out of the bathroom. Sy’noba weakly stood up and walked past me.
The legend can’t be true. The story my mother told me was a myth, I thought. If what my mother said about Sy’noba was true, our pride was going to die.
Eze
“A re you still here?” Janet asked when she knocked on my office door.
“Yeah, I’m trying to figure out these papers my father left behind,” I replied.
“Don’t stress yourself. Go home and I’ll help you in the morning,” she said. Janet was a middle-aged Caucasian woman who worked at Saber for almost ten years. She knew the job better than anyone.
“I’m cool, appreciate it. I’ll leave in an hour,” I replied.
“Okay, I’m leaving. See you tomorrow, oh, and before I forget. Did your father ever talk to you about wearing suits?” she asked. I looked down at my black V-neck shirt, denim jeans, and black Balenciaga sneakers.
“Suits ain’t really my swag, if you know what I mean,” I replied.
“Whatever you like. I’ll just keep that in my mind when I don’t feel like wearing this tight-ass pencil skirt,” she joked.
“Whatever you want,” I chuckled. After I heard her get on the elevator, I poured myself a drink from the mini bar in the corner of the office. Images of Sy’noba’s beauty filled my head again. I should’ve followed her when I saw her in the woods. Her hair covered her breasts but I could tell they were nice, round, and succulent. The thought of her curvaceous body and pretty full lips gave me an erection. There was a knock on the door, and when I turned around, she was standing there carrying a bucket of cleaning supplies. Her skin looked pale, her eyes droopy.
“Don’t mean to disturb you but I’m scheduled to clean this floor tonight,” she said. I poured another drink and passed it to her.
“I put in a request for you earlier. Sit down and have a drink with me,” I said.
“I don’t feel too well. I would like to do my job then go home,” she replied.
“Immortals don’t get sick. You can be honest with me, Sy’noba. I don’t bite unless you want me to,” I said. She was ready to respond but covered her mouth. She ran to the trash can and spit up dark blood that almost looked black. She leaned against the wall and sweat beads formed on her forehead. She fell into my arms when I rushed to her. She was weak.
“Are you poisoned?” I asked. Poison was the only thing that could make an immortal sick.
“Yes,” she replied.
I locked the door then helped her onto my desk.
“I’ll be fine in a few days. You’ve done enough by letting me steal your goat,” she weakly smiled. She almost fell off the desk but I caught her. I ripped her shirt off and felt the veins in her arms. She winced when I squeezed my belt around her arm. When a thick vein popped out of her arm, I sank my teeth into her. She almost screamed but I covered her mouth. The poison went into my body as I healed her. Her skin began turning back to its normal complexion. I came up for air after I was finished.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m cool. It burned a little bit but it won’t affect me,” I replied.
“You had a ritual a week ago. Is that why the poison won’t harm you?” she asked.
“How do you know?” I replied.
“I can see visions of one’s life when coming in physical contact. You died during the ritual, your old blood was cleansed from your body so you could become stronger. Oh, and you enjoy thinking about my scent and nice ass. I can go on because I find you quite interesting,” she said.
“I think mine is better. A few thousand years ago, a woman from a village called Madaja was appointed to guard a village. She was the only child born to a king. After her birth, her mother couldn’t conceive. The king of Madaja made his only girl a warrior. One day, a lion came into the village while the princess was out fetching water for her people. The lion slain all the villagers, including her parents. The princess defeated the lion and won. The lion’s soul possessed the princess. Later on, she discovered the lion was sent from the cat god to test her strength. She was the chosen one. She became half human and half lion. I can see through you, too, Queen,” I said.
“Wait, okay you got me. Tell all the lies you want but you and I both know I’m not a queen and I damn sure don’t remember any of that,” she laughed.
“The woman I speak of is named Y’kiki. I think you have her spirit. There are gods above us and being a shapeshifter is a gift. We aren’t just born to be born, we were chosen to carry out their legacies. That’s what makes me and you different. What if our souls met before? I sense something familiar about you. Your scent, your eyes, the mark on your face and your beauty is familiar to me,” I said.
“You’re crazy,” she said and I chuckled.
“If that makes you feel any better,” I replied. She touched the medallion on my neck and it glowed.
“I saw this before in my mind,” she said.
“There are many others like me who have the same symbol,” I replied.
“So, where is Lynx?” she asked.
“Not in my back pocket,” I said. I sat behind my desk and Sy’noba turned around to face me. She sat Indian-style and rested her chin on her hand.
“You’re not as tough as you look.”
“I’m always in good spirits until you get on my bad side. After all, you gave me food and you sucked poison out of me. I’m very grateful of you,” she said. My eyes fell on her round breasts and hardened nipples. She wore a bra but it didn’t do her breasts any justice.
“Is Lynx your mate?” she asked.
“Hell
no, she told you that? Lynx is my annoying little sister,” I said.
“So, y’all are trying out inbreeding?” she asked.
“Fuck no. Lynx isn’t my real sister,” I replied.
“But she loves you. You two actually look good together,” she said and I chuckled.
“Next time, I’ll leave the poison in you,” I replied.
“I gotta get back to work,” she said. She slid off my desk and grabbed her bucket.
“Put that down and come sit back up here. I was enjoying the view,” I said.
“Animals,” she mumbled.
“You’re one, too. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you eyeing my package. We are sexual, it’s okay to embrace it.”
