Twinkle's Story: Chapter 7

The moment I see the stars shining in the night sky, I know it's time to start going. To the abandoned tall building's roof. The Tall Tower.

 As I exit the hospital doors, I skip along the path that's so usual to me now. We've done this for three days already, anyways. I also planned out what I'm going to ask Duke. I was uncertain about when to ask, but now I'm sure. What did he mean by 'world on fire'? How does he escape to go to the Tall Tower's roof so easily? So many questions are bubbling in my head. The building comes into sight, and I open the door and climb all the stairs to the roof. As always, Duke is there before me. I see him leaning against the wall that surrounds the roof, and he isn't facing me. I hear him sigh, but I don't know why. More questions bubble in my head. I shake my head trying to push the thoughts away.

I clear my throat and kick away a speck of dust that remained on the abandoned building's roof. I see it fall over the wall and down towards the ground. It amazes me how a dust speck can fall so gracefully down from so many stories up. Almost floating, it seems. I can't see the dust speck anymore, so I turn from looking out and beyond the roof to looking towards the center of the roof. One eye there; the other glancing back at Duke. "Hey, Duke," I start. Duke turns towards me. I see that he hid something from me because he quickly hid it again so I couldn't see. Yet I did see a glimpse of whatever Duke is trying to keep away from me. He pats down a fur sticking up awkwardly on his tail tip, and slowly walks closer to me. Worried, he glances in every direction. I have no clue why. Duke never acted this way before ever since that day in the hospital. "Hi, Twinkle," Duke says not in his usual happy cheerful voice. I give him a suspicious look. "You okay, Duke? You seem a bit unusual today. Is everything okay? You're always wondering about me, so I want to know-" Duke interrupts me mid-way through my sentence. He pushed down even more the sleeve of his T-shirt; where he kept whatever it is away from me. Duke looks wildly around in all directions.  Then for just a brief moment, I see terror in his eyes. Then the moment passes and his eyes are almost back to normal. Not quite though because now I see him fidgeting. "Uh. Oh yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine. Nothing to worry about. Why are you asking so many questions suddenly? I'm fine. If you won't stop, just leave me alone!" Duke swishes his tail around and goes towards the edge of the roof. He sighs as he sits down and puts his feet between the spaces in the roof. He kicks them back and forth for a while. Something about Duke today troubles me. He seems agitated and feared of something that must have happened. But what?

I walk to where Duke sits, and I also sit down next to him. I put my feet through the space in the edge of the roof's wall, and swing them slowly front and back. For a second, Duke tries to get farther away from me, but then he gives up and sits back down again. I say, "Duke, please. I know something's wrong. You know you can just tell me. It'll be alright. Anyways, if you tell me we can solve whatever it is together." Duke yells back at me- not in anger or even frustration, but of fear.  "No, Twinkle. It'll never be alright. It'll never be! It's more complicated than you'll ever understand. There is something wrong. I'm not fearless, Twinkle. I'm also not that fox with that all-so-perfect life.  I'm just not. Especially not now. Look, it's not you, Twinkle. You're fine the way you are... no, you're perfect. Okay, I'll tell you what it is, only if you promise you can trust me and don't think any less of me." Bewildered, I simply nod my head. I tell Duke 'I promise'. Duke takes a breath and speaks again. "Okay, I'll admit it. I am terrified. She found me last night. She found me. Dad took me away from home to live with our cousins. With Sparkle and her family. We live all the way on the other side of fox territory. Dad took me there to protect me. To protect me from her, but she somehow found me. This was so I lived as far away as possible from her. Oh, it didn't work. She found me! She found me! She knows where I live now. She knows!" Duke takes a breath, and I look at him. Tears rushing down his face. "Whoa, whoa, whoa," I say. "Who found you? Who is she? Who?" Duke continues. "I tried my best to hide who and what I really am to her. Foolish of me to believe that it actually worked. I knew she would find me somehow- even if I disguised myself to be one of the most popular foxes at school. But I didn't know when. It happened to be between after we left last night and this afternoon. Look, I know it must be weird to you and all. Me feeling like the happiest fox in the world to being the most terrified fox in the world. Okay I'll tell you, Twinkle. The person I'm terrified of is... is my mother." Duke has a tiny smile for just a second and continues. "My mother. Ah Twinkle, let me guess. You're probably thinking, 'Oh my Zios! Really, Duke? Really? You're terrified of your own mother! You are hilarious, Dukey!'" I laugh. That's exactly what I've been thinking! When I finally stop laughing with Duke giving me a worried/suspicious look, he continues again.

 "Well, it's true. I am terrified that my mother found me. Hey, if you know my mother, and she found you after trying so hard to avoid her, you'll be terrified too. She is the biggest traitor for all fox kind, and she's cruel and violent. She may look all normal and innocent

, but she's not. I swear to Zios, my mother is not. She's betrayed every single fox. Every single one. Before the major fox and arctic wolf battle, she ditched my family and moved into the arctic wolf territory to live/side with them. Going against her own species. No, she wasn't at that battle where your sister died, my mother was too much of a coward to go. Too much of a coward to see her own family again. I've heard rumors that ever since she heard of the arctic wolf leader, she never actually loved my father. She actually loves the so called 'handsome and majestic' arctic wolf leader. Yeah, right. He killed your sister, Fauna. I hate the arctic wolves just as much as you do- perhaps even more."

 Duke pulls up the sleeve of his T-shirt which reveals what just minutes ago, he tried so hard to hide from me.  A deep scratch (maybe a scar) runs from Duke's shoulder blade to his forearm. Dried blood borders the edges of the scratch/scar.  I feel my pupils grow big and wide- dilated. "Oh my Zios, Duke! Did your mom do this to you? What happened!? Oh my Zios..." Duke pointed one of his claws at his now wounded shoulder.  "Which leads me to this. When my mom found me in Sparkle's house, she raged.  She was so furious.  All this time she thought I lived with my father, so she'd go there. And now that she knows I live here instead... My mother kicked open Sparkle and her family's front door. She looked everywhere for me. No, she didn't give a poop about Sparkle and her own family. Just me. In my bedroom in Sparkle's house, I could hear the stomping of feet, glass vases falling off tables and shattering into a million pieces, tons of papers being thrown off of tables, my mother threatening Sparkle's parents to reveal where I was..." Duke shudders.  They revealed where I was to her. My mom pulled me by the ears out of the room and into the hallway. No, the pain of feeling your ear tips throbbing and feeling like they might come off any moment, wasn't enough for her.  She tore off the tiara she proudly displayed on her head, and she used the part of the tiara where the blade- I mean where the most sharpest part of the tiara (the gem) is. With that, she scratched my shoulder with it. I remember she scolding me as she did it. 'Don't ever try to get away from me ever again. You hear me son? This is to make sure you respect me- forever.' Even when I cried tears of agony  as she left me a scar with her deadly tiara weapon, she ignored me. Ignored my pleads for mercy.   Finally, she let me escape back into my room at Sparkle's house. I only had nightmares when I went to sleep last night. I only got two hours of sleep last night. Two! But I promised you, we'll meet again tonight, so I decided to leave earlier than usual. Way earlier. It was so hard for me to get out of the house knowing your wicked mother is now there, too." Duke got up; so did I. "Okay, Twinkle. My dad and I are nothing like my mother. Now you know the true and real me. Not the average perfect guy that doesn't have any problems of their own. Not that fairy tale prince. But remember, Twinkle. No matter what, I love you. No matter how hard it is, I'll find a way to see you. No matter what."

 I feel breathless.