Don't Rain on My Parade, Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Coward, Any Day
  As one matures, they begin to understand the cost of being who they want to be- what they give up, or even who they give up. This may be premature, or even long overdue, but for some, life does not unfold in a linear sequence. It's a circular, spiraling cycle of lessons learned and retaught, feelings coming and going like the ebb and flow of an ocean tide.
  "Oribel, I'm scared," said Alex, as he rubbed his eyes to focus. The little bear climbed up onto the end of the teen hedgechidna's bed.
"Hey, bad dreams?"
"No, just scared."
"Well, there's nothing to be afraid of."
"There isn't?"
  Oribel-Ka frowned. There was everything to fear. She wouldn't be there to see Alex through it. It felt selfish, careless, and ungrateful to leave. She was weak because she couldn't do it. She couldn't kill the constable. Bear in mind, the Constable was an eagle of questionable morals. This was a shame, him being the first non-echidna officer to lead one of the world's finest security teams. Never mind the dingoes. It would be at least another century-and-a-half until they were allowed any position of significance in central government. At that thought, Oribel returned to her own feeble attempt at sleep in the attic.
  Lady Z had charged her with the task of assassinating the manipulative, money-laundering, womanizing, demon Constable Aries. Loved by all (who didn't know his true nature) he was recognized for organizing a team that with virtual success cleaned up the streets of Portal from drugs, prostitution, illegal gambling, and gangs (if he could do that for the outer districts, he'd be a greater hero than that irritating blue hedgehog). Essentially, what had this upstart ever dine to serve Oribel? Cheat Lady Z's best escorts out of paying them? Use the greater cut of the revenue from those one thousand kilos of the best smack to fund his campaign three years ago? It was Lady Z's word against his, and like a centuries-old vampire, the perfumed and painted Lady Z thought the better of making her affairs public. No, the soaring eagle Aries would be shot down. And by Lady Z's decree, Oribel would make it so.
  "I can't even shoot the broad side of Guardian Mansion!" Oribel banged her head against the cool metal of her locker as the first bell rang of a new school day. Victor the Cat showed his red-and-orange head over his bottom locker door, flashing a Cheshire grimace and replied: "You can't, or you don't want to?" Oribel slung her backpack over her right shoulder, and with a curt nod and sober, straight face, replied: "I can't."
"Too bad you can't," Victor said in mock solemnity.
"Go to hell." Oribel shoved him lightly and they walked off in opposite directions.
***
"Mama, I can't." Oribel stood in front of her adoptive mother in her grand study.
  Lady Z brushed long, wine-colored quills off her shoulder and looked up from her chair, the dark eyeliner between her pale snout and the whites of her eyes perhaps making her seem more harried than she was. Oribel may have been standing over her, but adoptive mother's stare made her feel like the smallest part of a single cell. Resisting the urge to gulp and settle into a hedgehog-in-the-headlights look, she managed her best defeated look.
  "My sweet daughter," Lady Z stood and took Oribel's face in both her paws, appearing to study her beauty. "I never told you this, but I pulled you out of your burning house when I found you." She continued to study Oribel's face, turning it left and right, ash hazel eyes staring into Oribel's amber ones, and all the young hedgechidna could do is stand there, feeling stupid and somewhat violated.
  "Evidence shows you were originally in the front driveway. I found you lying closer to the back of the house, a little piece of burnt toast." Lady Z let out a low, raspy snicker and continued. "I was part of the rescue team, serving time in community service. When I sprained my ankle on your smoldering chunk of porch, I was reassigned to assist the nurses at Tommy Turtle Memorial Hospital, or what was left of it. Lady Z smiled coolly, one paw now slowly stroking Oribel's quills. "I never regretted bringing you home with me." She then gripped Oribel's quills by the pawful and yanked back, hard, causing Oribel to shriek, then gasp in pain as deeply-rooted quills pulled back on nerve endings attached to the brain beneath.
  "I regret it now, Oribel! I made you as normal as I could, as strong, as pretty-as I could! Aurora help me, you are mine!" Oribel hitched a breath as the free paw rush quickly across her face, slapping hard. Tears fell down Lady Z's face as she choked out the last of her tyrade. "I will break you, if I have to." She let go, and Oribel crouched on the floor, coughing, trying to get her bearings as Lady Z walked away. Oribel knew what she had to do. There was no choice. Large tears fell down her snout as she quietly walked to her bed.
***
  "Vicky, I’m so sorry...you, Victor!" Oribel's shoulders shook with sobs as she cried on Victoria's shoulder.
"Why are you so upset? You didn’t do anything to us. And don’t worry; she’ll get over it.”
Oribel’s face rose, puffy with tears. “You don’t get it, do you? She’s sick! Where’s Victor? I have to-I have to see him!”
“He’s upstairs-hey! What’s the rush?” Oribel broke out of Victoria’s hug, leaving her with a tissue in paw as she ran, wiping her snout with her sleeve.
  After midnight, in the grand manor of Lady Zaija the Nameless, boys and girls were restricted to separate wings of the house. If caught breaking this rule, the punishment was often a whipping by belt, sometimes ‘public’ humiliation-36 kids and teens were a large group. The nannies, or tutors, were sworn to secrecy, and the older teens often speculated that they were Zaija’s submissives. High expectations made and kept by Victor and Oribel made them keepers of the attic and purveyors of all that went bump in the night. This was the lowest level; they hadn’t been sent off-island for any of Zaija’s missions. There was a time when they envied her older children, the 19 year-olds scaling the side of the island and jumping into various parts of the planet’s surface for adventures only legendary. Now Oribel found herself kissing Alex the Bear’s little head goodnight for more than likely the last time, feeling terrible for running away and leaving him with his bloodsucking adoptive mother.
  “So you’re leaving me here all alone.” Victor buried his muzzle in the roots of Oribel’s quills. The only thing visible in the dark attic were his eyes, lit by a sliver of streetlight cutting through a small window. “I’m sorry, I can’t-“ Victor placed a finger over Oribel’s lips. “You’ve never murdered anyone. I don’t want that to change.” He kissed her and then slid down to see her face fully. “She never loved you, or any of us. She adopts orphan children to train them to do her dirty work. We’re her slaves, and she’s the benevolent mother of the year, using her old money to save us.” Oribel let out another sob hearing this, because it was another push for her to leave. He couldn’t go with her, because leaving would mean running and hiding forever, and his heart murmur had cost him too much strength. He also had his twin sister, Victoria, to care for, since she could get herself killed in a child’s nursery room. Oribel was beyond words. This was the last time they would be together, privately.
  It had been two years, and longer before that of bickering and playing together as children. Victor had never known the love of a parent as Oribel had, but from listening to her speak, and observing her, he began to see the difference between a true mother and what Lady Zaija was. She too had never known the love of a parent. Her mother was unknown and therefore, she was nameless.