Adam White
The deafening thunder rumbled the earth below along with the drowning noise of rain hitting the ground resounded in the almost empty streets. A boy could barely be seen within the dark and dreary downpour.
He is 175 cm tall, had pale white skin and black, messy hair, coupled with a pair of black eyes that were glued onto a shining surface on his hand, he is holding onto his phone with full attention even though the water droplets were pounding on his black umbrella.
Waiting on the sidewalk for the signal to walk across the road, he stood there with a white short sleeved shirt and black pants with white stripes covering his body, with black shoes that looked like sneakers.
He stared at his phone, a lady with short brown hair was speaking while her male associate was silent and still with his professional posture. The boy was looking at a recent news update on a tiger escaping its enclosure from the nearby zoo, it has been over two hours and it still hasn't been found.
He wasn't too worried, the tiger had a special tracking chip that allowed it to be found by anyone that worked at the zoo, the weird part was, why has it been two hours. It would usually take less than an hour to find a huge tiger within an urban area.
The signal light suddenly flickered from the open red hand to a white person walking. The boy immediately stopped paying attention to his phone and stowed it away back into the pockets of his black pants.
Walking across the asphalt of the road, the rain seemed to increase its relentless attacks on the umbrella. The boy kept walking until he reached the other side and passed another street after walking close to 20 meters.
Still, no soul could be seen, no cars passed, nothing could be heard except the thunder and rain. It was an extremely gray and dim atmosphere that could leave any person depressed from the thought of it.
The boy suddenly stopped in front of a two story house which was colored white with a gray roof, but no one could tell from the lack of any light except for that in the houses.
Stretching out his arm and ringing the doorbell, heavy steps could be heard, and the door was opened to the image of a 160 cm tall, black haired girl with the same pair of black eyes as the boy.
"Brother, you're late, get in here or else you'll catch a cold." The girl who is the boy's younger sister said while pouting.
"Sorry, sorry, I had to buy an umbrella at another store since the news said there wouldn't rain today." The boy took off his shoes at the entrance and stepped into the house.
The interior of the house looked ordinary, wooden chairs, a wooden table with nothing on it except a bowl with some noodles that looked half finished. At the entrance a portrait of four people was shown, a young boy, a baby, a woman and a man.
It seems like their family, the man had black hair and black eyes while the woman had black hair with blue eyes. The man had one of his hands on the boy while the woman was holding the baby. Everyone smiled excluding the baby who looked asleep.
"Mom is still out for work?" The boy asked, looking from the portrait to his sister.
"She said that she had some extra work she needed to do. She's never home and you're always at university so it gets pretty lonely. Can't you stay longer, could you not go back tomorrow, I'll die of loneliness." The girl said with bits of tears forming in her eyes.
"Hey, hey, calm down, this is the last year, once I'm done I can work here and live here so don't be so worried. I know you're a strong girl, you can handle it." The boy said in a gentle tone while patting his sister's head.
The tears in her eyes start to retract and she nods and heads back to the table to continue eating while the boy heads toward the kitchen which is near the table. Grabbing a cup of microwave noodles, he pours water and waits for two minutes for it to be done cooking.
He grabs a fork and walks towards the table and eats with his sister who still looks a bit gloomy. After eating he threw the empty cup away, a buzzing feeling could be felt from his waist, it was his phone.
Huge letters could be seen that spelt Mom on his phone along with two buttons that say accept or decline. Obviously he picks up and starts talking with the phone held up to his ear.
"Hello, mom, what's going on." The boy casually says.
"Hey honey, I'm going to be late because of the rain, I will be there within an hour, I didn't want you and your sister to worry so I called. Is everything fine with your sister?"
"She's a bit sad right now, but she's strong and she can handle almost anything."
"Alright, I'll try to be home as quickly as possible, be careful. There is a tiger on the loose so don't go outside for a while, okay." She was genuinely worried, even the smallest things can make her fear for us.
Ever since our father died from cancer a little over two years ago, my mother got herself a job because there was no one else who could support our family and she worked extremely hard everyday. That's why we don't see her much, the earliest she arrives back from work is usually 7:30 P.M and on late days she could come back at around midnight.
I am a highly respected student within my university since I get good grades and is always willing to help teachers with some tasks. I do this because this way I could help my mother relieve some of her stress.
"Alright mom, see you later." He hung up and stowed the phone back into his pocket and walked towards the living room around the kitchen. Turning on the Tv while sitting on a brown couch, news about the tiger was still being announced.
"What's up with this tiger, aren't they making a huge deal out of this." He complained and almost switched the channel before his eyes widened at the words coming out of the news anchor's mouth.
"The tiger has been tracked to this neighborhood, but the tiger can't be thoroughly tracked because it seems that it ripped out the part where the chip was." The anchors kept spewing more information about how the authorities are dealing with this and how the tiger knew where the chip was.
"Holy sh*t." No wonder this thing hasn't been seen for two hours. It led these guys on a goose chase and came here. Wait isn't mom coming in around a couple of minutes, he looked at the time on his phone and was sweating bullets.
They didn't have a garage to park their mom's car so she usually parks on the sidewalk on the opposite sidewalk from their house. Even though it's not even six meters, the tiger is still out there. He ran out of the house with an even paler face, he worries about his mom like how his mom worries about them.
He looked out a window near the table, his sister looked at the weird action her brother took and continued eating. He saw a slick, black car entering his vision and it parked on the opposite street like always.
He grabbed the umbrella and darted out the door and arrived where the car was in less than five seconds. He saw his mom exit the vehicle and looked at him with a look that said are you okay?
Before they could even say anything, a soft hissing noise was heard through the rain like an arrow. It grew audibly closer and closer, an orange silhouette with black stripes was barely visible through the abundance of rain in front of them.
It grew closer, it hissed and growled at them, it could clearly be seen, a tiger with its knife like fangs out and bladed claws ready to pounce. It slowly circled them once it deemed it was close enough and observed its new prey.
Its green eyes was like a bullet filled with terror that could be shot into any and all hearts that look at it. The rain made it look much scarier like a final boss fight while you are still wearing beginner items.
Ideas started swirling within the boy's head, call the authorities? No, If I move it might attack, maybe run? No, it could catch up in less than a second, maybe distract it while mom runs? This is the only thing I can do, if mom is gone then my sister and I won't have anywhere to go, but if she lives she can take care of my sister.
Alright, I'll distract it. "Mom, I need you to run, run as fast as you can to the house and call the police when you get there alright." I whispered, but in a loud enough way so she could hear in the rain.
She looked reluctant and looked at me as if I was crazy, she obviously wanted to help me, but she knew she would only get in the way. Instead, she looked at me, I could tell that she would like to be bait instead while I leave.
The tiger got impatient and jumped towards us, I pushed my mom out of the way and rolled to the left. It didn't hit anyone and crashed into the car, a large dent was made and the tiger looked like it was in some sort of daze.
I helped my mom up and pushed her into the direction of the house, she was surprised and terrified. In that moment, I looked at her with a smile, it took all my courage to actually smile while in the presence of the tiger.
It snapped out of the daze and looked at me and jumped towards my direction, I rolled out of the way again and swung the unopened umbrella into the face of the mighty beast, it did nothing, but make it angry.
I got up and jumped backwards, it leaped towards me like it did before. When I reached the ground, I slipped, I slipped, why did I slip, out of all the times of my life I slipped when it was life and death.
I saw the tiger get closer and I fell, time seemed to have slowed by a 100 times, I could see each individual raindrop, I can clearly see the details of the tiger's face, it looks like it's really pissed.
My eyes wide, I can't look away, so this is how I die. I can't die, I still have my sister to take care of, didn't I promise to be with her next year, mother is still here though, I guess it's fine as long as she takes care of sister.
"ADAM!" A voice stronger than the thunder was calling me, I couldn't see who it was, my eyes still glued to the beast who was not even ten centimeters away from my face. My last question before I die, who called me, my mother, my sister, who?
I couldn't tell if it was a woman or man calling me, like the voice was almost robotic. My senses are slowly shutting off one by one, I couldn't feel the cold of the rain anymore, my smell stopped next, then the bright purple of the lightning from the sky passed by, yet I couldn't hear anything. The last thing that shut off was my sight, I witnessed everything.
A large orange hand could be seen going through my body like a stone dropped in water, I coughed out blood, couldn't feel a thing, the tiger opened its mouth and aimed at my neck.
So, this overgrown street cat dares try and kill a god. A weird thought appeared all of the sudden in my mind. It didn't sound like my words at all, it was almost like a totally different person was living in my head. Anyways, before I could think of anything else, I went unconscious.