Jalleed woke up the next morning. A significant amount of all night work on the nearby house had caused his sleep to be interrupted several times. This was the day it would all end. This was the day Jalleed would get his revenge. He left his sleeping racoon wife to sleep until she was ready to wake. He knew she would wait for his return. Jalleed stumbled through the woods, a mad rage building up inside of him. Entering the field where the house was, he spied several men working on installing eaves trough on the roof of the house. Another group of men stood by the front door smoking cigarettes. He ran toward those men. Until this moment Jalleed had not figured out how he was going to obtain the fire he needed for his plan. Now he had a rough idea at least.
“Hey trash teeth!” said the man who had insulted him the day before. Jalleed stopped. The man bent down, smiled, and proceded to light his tail on fire with the end of this cigarette. He laughed maliciously and gestured to the other men he was with.
Seizing his new found opportunity Jalleed ran off as fast as he could. He was in extreme pain but he had one shot to pull this off. Throwing himself through a newly installed basement window a bloodied and burning Jalleed landed in a large, unfinished room. The wood was dry so it did not take long for the materials to catch fire. Jalleed was quickly consumed by the growing fire. Just like that his life was over. Subsequently the unfinished building began to cave in on itself. Workers were understandably frightened and fled the scene, but by the time fire fighters were able to come to their aid, the entire house was burned to a crisp. Due to the dry weather the fire had also begun to spread to nearby trees in the park.
***
Onyx awoke to the startling smell of smoke. Where was Jalleed! She couldn’t stand how he always left her in the morning with no explanation of where he was going or what he would do while he was there.
Emerging from under the tree she saw it. What looked likie a large wall of fire was steadily eating up everything in its path. There was no time to look for Jalleed, she had to escape. Running as fast as she could, motivated by her sheer will to survive, Onyx made it safely through the front gate of the park, hissing at everyone as she walked by. She was back on the street and the old instincts were coming back to her. She would hunt garbage cans for food and watch the park burn from a distance. It was clear by now that Jalleed was not coming back for her. She would either have to come to terms with being a widow or find another male to take his place. It had been a frustrating, impulsive relationship for her. If they had communicated a little better, perhaps he would still be here by her side. Nonsense, she thought to herself, he was too bent on revenge to really care for her. It was time for Onyx to go back to the life she knew so well. She slunk around a familiar corner into an alleyway. Onyx was home.
END