Eye of the Tiger

“Wake up.” Sean stood over the worn sofa looking down at his sleeping brother. Nudging the mattress with his foot, he repeated “Wake up!”
Jonas pulled the covers over his head, mumbling something that Sean couldn’t understand.
“Come on, bro. It’s going to be a nice day outside,” He knelt down and whispered in Jonas’s ear “and I’m taking you to the zoo.”
Jonas peeled the blanket back slightly and peeked at Sean with his one open eye. “I’m 15.”
“And?” His tone sounded slightly offended. “You love the zoo. Lions and tigers and bears.”
“When I was 5.” His voice was crackling with exhaustion. “I’m not a kid anymore, Sean.” He sat up, wiping the sleeps from his eyes.
Sean stood back up and nearly singing, responded “I’ll buy you ice cream.”
Jonas peered at his brother for a second, before springing out of bed like he had 10 years earlier. “I can be ready in 20 minutes!” he said excitedly while running toward the bathroom.
The look of satisfaction grew on Sean’s face as it did every time he saw his brother happy. “Never fails.” He thought to himself.
Jonas had an ice cream in one hand and cotton candy in the other, so it was up to Sean to hold the slushy.
“Where to next?” asked Sean. Jonas just shrugged. Sean stopped and looked around. “We did reptiles.” He pointed to his left. “Fish.” To his right. “And sugar.” He pointed to Jonas who just looked up and smiled with blue cotton candy teeth. “Okay. Let’s check out the lions and tigers and bears then.” Sean flashed his boyish grin. Jonas nodded and followed close behind.
A half hour had gone and so had the sweets. A few slurps of the slushy were all that remained from the $20 sugar binge.
“So, did you have fun today?” asked Sean as he leaned on the rail outside of the tiger cage.
“Yeah.” Jonas’s voice was solemn which caused Sean to look over at him.
“What’s wrong? Got a tummy ache?” He said jokingly.
“We’re moving again, aren’t we?” The question had been on Jonas’s mind all day.
“Why you ask?” Sean looked back at the tigers.
“Because every time we go to the zoo, we move afterward.”
Sean dropped his head. “We have to Jonas. I’m sorry and I promise that it won’t always be like this, but for right now, it’s the only way I can protect you.” His voice drifted. He then added “Just bear with me.” as he pointed to the bear cage behind them.
Jonas saw the look of anguish on his brother’s face. “It’s cool. I like travelling.” He nudge Sean’s arm. “Especially with you.”
They stood in silence for a few minutes, leaning on the rail.
“Do you think he knows where we are?” Jonas finally asked.
“No.” Sean glanced at Jonas and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Dad will never find us. But if he does, I’ll protect you.”
Jonas looked back at him trustingly. “Thanks, Sean.”
Sean gave him a slap on the back. “We need to lighten the mood a little.” He pulled out his cell phone and pressed a few buttons until music started to play.
“Music?” Jonas asked smiling.
“Not just music, dancing.” Sean climbed on top of the fence as Eye of the Tiger started to play.
“What are you doing? You’re insane!” Jonas shouted as Sean began to move in place to the music. “You’re going to fall.” Jonas laughed.
Soon a crowd started to form and Sean had to show off by moving his feet. Sure enough, as Jonas had predicted, Sean fell backwards toward the tiger cage. The audience gasped as did Jonas, but Sean quickly jumped to his feet and threw his arms in the air.
“Thank you!” He screamed as the group began cheering. Sean was so caught up in the moment, that he didn’t feel the breath of the beast behind him.
“Son of a bitch!” he yelped as the tiger had taken ahold of his hair. This was followed by other obscenities as the grip the animal had grew tighter. By the time Jonas had jumped the fence to aid in his brother’s rescue, Sean had already broken free at the expense of his golden locks.
“Are you okay?” Jonas said frantically.
Sean just stared at him. The dizziness from the pain had begun to set in.
“Sean!” Jonas shook his brother. “Are you okay?”
Sean, still feeling dazed answered quietly “Yeah, I’m good, bro.”
Jonas pulled Sean away from the cage and slowly helped him to his feet. The crowd started to cheer again when they saw Sean standing.
“It’s ok!” Sean yelled to his new found fans. “I’m okay.”
“Sean, you’re bleeding.” Jonas took napkins he had and pressed it on the back of Sean’s head.
“I’m alright.” Sean reassured him. “Let’s just get out of here.” The two then headed toward the parking lot. “Are you okay?” Sean asked as Jonas kept staring at him.
“I don’t know. You scared me”
“Sorry” Sean felt bad anytime Jonas did.
“It’s okay. I just never heard you swear like that before.” They had reached the car and Sean fumbled for the keys. “You don’t let me swear like that.” Jonas seemed aggravated.
“Well, when you’re 21 and attacked by African wildlife, then you can.” Sean was just as annoyed but too light headed to argue.
“Asia.” Jonas’s voice had become low.
“What?” Sean pretended not to hear him and opened the driver’s side door.
“Tigers are from Asia, not, uh, Africa.” He stuttered. “Just, uh thought you...” His voice drifted off. “Never mind.”
“Get in the damn car!” Sean exclaimed while throwing the blood soaked napkin to the ground.
Jonas knew when he could push his luck and this was not one of those times, so he quietly sunk into the passenger’s seat and closed the door.
A few months and a few states had passed since the zoo incident. Sean’s wound had healed and his hair had mostly grown back. Jonas sat at the kitchen table that September morning eating cereal and enjoying a glass of orange juice when Sean walked in and poured some juice for himself.
“A toast,” Sean raised his glass and motioned for Jonas to do the same, which he did hesitantly. “to my not-so-little brother on his 16th birthday. Or as some might say,” he opened the door to the fridge “SWEET 16.”
Jonas sat stunned, staring at the 3-tier cake inside.
“Surprised?” Sean asked smugly.
“Uh, yeah!” Jonas screeched as he jumped up and hugged Sean. “Thank you. Oh my God, thank you so much!” He paused for a moment then looked at his brother. “Can we afford this?”
“Nope.” Sean laughed, patted his brother on the back and said “Don’t you worry about that. Happy birthday.”
“Yeah, happy birthday.” A deep, raspy voice had said from down the hall.
Sean knew that voice. He had nightmares about it. They froze as the figure made its way toward them.
Sean stepped in front of Jonas and grabbed a knife off of the draining board. “How did you get in here?”
The man stopped at the entrance to the kitchen. “Is that anyway to talk to your father? I mean, what ever happened to ‘hi dad’?”
“Go to hell, dad.” Sean replied.
Jonas ran towards the cell phone sitting on the table. “I’m calling the cops.”
“Go ahead.” Clay Breckman was a cocky sort and it showed in his tone. “But, Sean will go to jail for kidnapping.”
Jonas stopped in his tracks and headed back to stand behind Sean.
“That’s what I thought. I’ve been searching for you two for 5 years now. Lucky for me, I was reading the newspaper a few months back and read of an attack at the zoo.”
“What do you want?” Sean gripped the knife tighter.
“I want my boys back. You two are very special to me, Sean.”
“Special how? For your occult? For human sacrifice?” Sean took a step towards his father.
“I’m unarmed, Sean.” Clay put his arms out in defense.
“Don’t care.” Sean’s tone was calm and self-assured.
“You gonna kill your own father, son?” Clay taunted.
“You’re not my father. Or Jonas’s. You stole us when we were babies for your little rituals you sick freak.” Sean was flinging the knife around as he spoke.
Jonas was still standing beside the fridge, eyeing the front door for a quick escape.
“Either way, I raised you. But hell, you’re 21. I can’t force you to come back. Jonas on the other hand, well I’ll be taking him with me.” Clay took a step sideways to look at Jonas.
Then there came a low, deep groan from within Sean.
“Did you just growl at me?” Clay mocked.
“Don’t push me right now.” Sean warned. He felt his pulse race. His breath became shallow. He could also smell the fear that Clay was feeling and he enjoyed it.
Clay took another step towards Jonas, which turned out to be the worst mistake of his life.
Sean pounced at him. Pinning him against the wall, he tore at his throat. Blood splatter began to fill the room. The walls and floor went from eggshell white to blood red in a matter of seconds. Jonas stood in shock as he watched what was unfolding before his eyes.
Finally, Sean released his grip on Clay and his lifeless body fell limp to the floor. He turned to Jonas who looked at him in disbelief.
“What the hell just happened?” Jonas probed his own brain to find a logical answer when he realized that he already knew it.
“I lost control.” Sean stood traumatized for a moment trying to gather his thoughts. “I’m sorry, Jonas. It’s just,” He looked down at the pool of blood and ripped flesh “he was going to hurt you, so I stabbed him.” He had an apologetic look on his face.
“Stabbed?” Jonas questioned “No. You didn’t stab. You threw the knife before you even attacked him. You did that,” he pointed to Clay “with your claws and teeth.” He moved closer to Sean and placed his hands on His brother’s face.
“My claws?” Sean asked stunned.
“Yeah. Your claws, Sean. I think a little more happened at the zoo then we thought.” Jonas was trying to remain calm.
“So, what? You saying I’m some kind of a Werewolf?” Sean chuckled.
“More like a,” even he knew how ridiculous it would sound but he said it anyway “Weretiger.”
“A Weretiger.” Sean repeated.
“Yeah.” Jonas kept his hands on Sean’s face as to not break his focus.
“Seriously?!” Sean was astounded by the mere suggestion. “There’s no such thing as a Weretiger, Jonas.”
“Go look at your reflection, if you don’t believe me.” He released his brother and motioned to the kitchen.
“My reflection?” Sean made his way to the toaster and bent down. “Please let me have a reflection” he muttered to himself. And he did. He stared at the face before him. It was his but those were not his eyes. “I know those eyes.” He said to Jonas. “It’s the eyes of a tiger.”
They both stood for a moment, then Jonas finally spoke. “We’re moving.” He made his way to the bedroom and packed the little bit of belongings that they had.
“What?” Sean was dazed.
“Come on.” He grabbed Sean by the arm and led him out the front door to the car.
“Where are we going to go?” Sean exclaimed. “I’m a felon and obviously a freak of nature.”
“I don’t know, but it’s my turn to protect you now.” Jonas opened the driver’s side door and climbed in.
Sean stood in amazement at what was transpiring. Jonas opened the passenger door from the inside. “Get in the damn car!”
Sean smirked at the irony and sunk into the passenger’s side without saying another word.