AMALA

When I was young, my father passed away, leaving the three-year-old me with my grief-stricken mother.

Not long after, she started selling herself and brought different men to our house. She called them her "clients". One of them got interested in me when I started growing a pair of boobs and he started fondling them.

But I got so pissed and repulsed with his actions that I stabbed his hand with a fork. My mother beat me with a belt afterwards.

Honestly, I didn't have any fond memories of my mother as she always spent her time either with her clients or drinking away with her misery. I tolerated her whims as she was the only blood family that I ever had.

Until when I turned sixteen, she got pregnant by one of her clients.

"Why wouldn't you just abort it, mom?" I said when she announced of keeping it.

"Why should I when he promised to marry me after giving him his pup, Amala?"

"H-his pup? Wait, you slept with a wolf? You know that wolves looked at us like pigs in a pen! Abort it, mom! That hound only made a fool out of you! He wouldn't marry you!"

My words only made my mother’s face give an ugly, old scowl. As she aged, she now relied on make-up to maintain her beauty. Now that she wasn’t wearing anything, I could see the wrinkles creased on her eyelids.

"You're the one who is making a fool out of me, Amala! You've never agreed to any of my choices!”

“That’s because every single damn choice you made was a mistake! Like wasting money on alcohol and drugs! Selling yourself even though you could have found other proper jobs out there!”

“So, you are embarrassed to have me as your mother, is that what you’re saying, Amala?!”

I gritted my teeth before I snapped. “YES! How many times have I almost been raped by your clients, mom?! Yet, you didn’t care if I was assaulted at all!”

SLAP!

My left cheek stung yet I am used to her physical abuse. I only gave her a cold stare as she returned it with her piercing glare.

“How dare you speak to your mother like that!” She bellowed then, a thought crossed in her mind before she scoffed. “Seeing that you are very ungrateful for questioning me as your mother, defying me like this…” Her clenched fists are now turning white while shaking violently in fury. “IF YOU WEREN’T JACK’S DAUGHTER, I COULD HAVE KICKED YOU OUT ALREADY!”

My heart throbbed and yet I continued showing off my calm demeanor. I won’t allow her to see me weaken with her words anymore. My hands clenched as my jaw tightened before I gave a deep, loud sigh.

“Fine. If that’s how you feel, I am better off leaving this house.”

“GO AHEAD, BITCH! I WON’T TAKE YOU BACK EVEN IF YOU COME BACK CRAWLING, YOU HEAR?!”

“HELL I WON’T, MOM!” My body trembled as I continued, “Or should I call you Amanda instead?!” My voice became raspy as I continued to keep my anger in place. “Good bye forever, Amanda.”

I had already turned my head around, avoiding a single glance at her as tears slowly streamed from my eyes. I thought I could control myself but I couldn’t as her words stung worse than the beatings, the attempted sexual harassment and the the insults I’ve faced all throughout my life.

At first, I wanted to turn around and apologize. I still loved her despite all of these.

Yet, the damage had been done. And I packed a few of my belongings and took all of my savings and left the house without a word.

That was our last conversation as mother and daughter.

Years of being homeless made me tick. I started sleeping under the gymnasium bleachers for the rest of my highschool life. My peers later found out that I had gone from the whore’s daughter to a homeless student that they enjoyed pestering me in my “home”. So, I kept finding sleeping places and a place to bathe.

But that changed when I started getting a job: street performance.

Because humans had now lived in the dirtiest and poorest parts of Twilight Hound City, we hadn’t watched any films or those cinema theaters that I’ve heard of. The only source of entertainment was the stage plays acted either from the school gymnasium or the streets.

After working hard honing my acting skills, I started getting more roles and more recognition around the streets. My acting troupe were the kindest people I had ever met and they offered me to live with them so we could practice and rehearse together.

Soon, we traveled from one street to another showcasing our ability to wow the audience.

For the first time, I experienced true happiness and I thought being with my troupe, I didn’t need anything at the moment.

Yet, I acted greedy. My passion for acting grew when one day, one of my crewmates found an old CD and DVD from the scrap yard.

“Will this be the first time you see a movie, Amala?” Steven, the director and leader of the troupe, asked as they started preparing the DVD into a small TV.

I nodded. After all, the wolves took over the world nearly thirty years ago. Humans were now in the lowest of the hierarchy and I grew up in this new generation when humans had to get “used to” this new life they called “The New Normal”.

Only a few families are lucky enough to own a phone or a DVD set at home.

"My mom didn't bother to buy a TV so I grew up never seeing a movie once," I told him.

“This movie is way older than me. It’s called “Streetcar Named Desire”. I am sorry you won’t be watching amazing CGI but the acting and story makes up for it.”

Gibberish words that were new to me were on deaf ears as my eyes glued at the screen for the first time.

But wow, after watching that movie, I was amazed, impressed and ecstatic! Never had I ever seen such amazing acting prowess that made these characters so…believable.

After that, I had a dream.

I wanted to become an actress and be as convincing as that Marlon Brando guy or to become as charming as Vivien Leigh.

I wanted to be like them. And since then, my new goal in life was to be a famous actress. I wanted to wow the audience with my skills.

However, my happiness was cut short when my "younger sister" came on that rainy day.

That was the day I later found out that my mother killed herself, leaving her four year old daughter, crying on the porch and a letter placed on her bunny backpack.

When I read the letter, I was mortified not because of the revelation of her planned suicide but also to warn me to get away from a certain loan shark agency.

And left me in debt of an amount of 1.4 million dollars.

My hands trembled after reading her suicide note and I crumpled it out of anger. I carried the child with me to the pub which I heard rumors Richard Bates would often go there to splurge money on.

It was luck that I caught sight of him exiting the bar and I screamed, “Mr. Bates! Please wait!”

A tall, regal man in his late 40s turned to me with eyes screeching with prejudice. “What do you want, human?” He was accompanied by two men in black suits and they were alarmed to see me.

It gave me cold feet yet I remained resilient. “My mother, Amanda Gaines died recently and her child—your child—needed you!” I gave a light nudge for the four year old girl to look at her father and she tried not to cry, yet her feeble little hand grasped on my finger and was trembling at the sight of him.

He stared at the child for a moment before bursting out in laughter. I scorned yet I remained silent.

“That whore? Serves her right for being deceived!” He roared another fit of laughter as he turned against us.

“W-Wait! What about your daughter?!”

“No daughter of mine has the blood of a human.”

Surprised, my mouth dropped as he continued while they retreated away slowly from my view. “Sell her to the black market, I don’t care. It will make you earn a lot, human.” He continued laughing as they slowly disappeared from my sight.

I felt my blood rising as I gritted my teeth. HOW DARE THAT DAMN WOLF—?!

“I wanna go home! Where’s momma?!” The child sobbed.

I turned to her in disbelief.

If I keep this child…the loan sharks would recognize my relation to my mother. It would ruin my chance of achieving my dream.

I c-could…

I could just ditch the child and move on with my life. My fury was impeccable and I hated my mother for leaving a child like this alone in this cruel world!

But my baby sister didn’t do anything wrong.

I knelt down as I smiled at her. “Hey, my name is Amala. What’s yours?”

“A-Amy,” she said as she eyed me, carefully. “I’m Amy. A-are you my big sis?”

I hesitated for a moment before I nodded. “Yes.”

Then she gave me the most adorable smile I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t help but feel warmth in my heart. “I like you, Amala!”

My decision had been made during that brief interaction.

So, I left the troupe. I didn’t want them to get involved in my family problems and raised my half-younger sister alone while we ran away from the loan sharks. I started working different odd jobs—jobs that could bring more money so I could slowly pay these loan sharks back.

And we had been running and hiding for three LONG years.

But I didn’t care.

It was all for her sake.

For my younger sister, Amy—I would do anything so she could have a better life than mine.