Wild Life: The Past

Inside a large city there was a teenage girl who had been homeless from a young age without a family. Surviving life in a city relying on the goodwill and charity of others, the girl learned through experience. Many of her days whenever she wasn't starving were spent watching people, just watching them go about their lives. Conversations, actions, every little thing whether it was the way a person spoke or even the way they moved while speaking. It was her hobby... the people of this city were nothing like the ones where she was born, they fascinated her... normal people.

When the girl was thirteen years of age she witnessed a crime and was caught on camera. A detective had decided to track her down in order to get an eye-witness. When the detective finally located the girl's shelter, she was shocked to have found a half starving homeless child was her witness. The girl, unused to the sudden attention she was getting from this stranger who was obviously some sort of authority figure ran. The detective gave chase and managed to corner the girl in a dead end.

"Why did you run?" the detective asked

"You'll send me back." the girl answered fearfully

The detective looked at the girl who was obviously terrified of going "back"

"I don't wanna go!" the girl cried out in desperation

"Did you run from an orphanage, or a home?" the detective asked

"I've never been to one of those... and home is gone." the girl said somberly

The detective thought long about what that could mean but decided not to push the issue, "Do you have a guardian? A parent?"

"No"

"Would you like to live with me?" the detective said without hesitation

"Why?"

"You need a ho.."

Interrupting the detective the girl said "I need a place to sleep and food but that doesn't have to be with you. You're a cop you can just pawn me off anywhere. People don't just take in strangers, so why?"

The detective was honestly shocked at what the teenage girl had just said. What had happened to make this girl so distrustful and the way she spoke... this girl was wise in the ways of the world, far more than someone her age should ever have to be. "I've always wanted a daughter you know and I haven't quite found the time to settle down... what with work and all." she said with warm eyes, her voice becoming more gentle. "You need a home and I don't want to live alone anymore. So once again would you like to live with me?" the detective said completely forgetting her original objective.

The girl watched the detective closely as she spoke and now a little less afraid she asked "You won't send me back?"

"No, we'll be family. Family stays together." the detective said holding out her hand

The girl took her hand and said "I'll go with you."

"I'm Julia Williams, what's your name?"

"I...." the girl looked at the ground then back up at Julia. "I didn't have a name, I had a number."

Tears formed in Julia's eyes as she looked at the girls pained expression. "Then how about this, we'll share my name. I'm Julia Hope Williams, in other languages Nadia means hope. How do you like the sound of it? Nadia."

The girl still not sure what to make of this woman said "I like Arundel..." just to incite a reaction.

Julia realized what she was doing and countered "Then you can be Nadia Arundel Williams."

Shocked the girl looked into Julia's eyes and began to laugh. "I'll take it!" she claimed

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Nadia became infatuated with Julia over the next few months as she settled into her new life. No matter what it was cooking, chores, talking about work, or anything for that matter Nadia followed her whenever they were together and watched everything she did. Julia didn't have a problem getting Nadia to study seeing as the girl loved to learn anything and everything that she could. Julia took to Nadia as fast as Nadia took to her. Julia took it upon herself to teach Nadia everything she considered most important. Morals, the difference between what's right and wrong, how and when to act, how to defend yourself. They became attached to one another like any other family and just like that more than two years had passed.

One day while they were on the way home waiting in the car at an intersection a larger vehicle crashed into them from behind. An airbag deployed and Nadia was relatively fine. Ignoring her pain she quickly looked to make sure that Julia was safe. Julia was holding her throat looking back at Nadia her eyes... scared. Her windpipe had been crushed by the steering wheel when the airbag failed to deploy. Julia steeled herself, she knew she was about to suffocate, she knew she was dying so she put her hand gently on the side of Nadia's face. "I love you." she said in a raspy voice

Nadia was silent, unable to speak nothing she had ever felt could compare to the sorrow of this moment. Watching her mother's final moments. She just looked into her eyes silently as Julia lost consciousness. Nadia struggled desperately trying to free herself so she could get help, just then two men approached the car from the driver's side. Feeling slightly relieved Nadia was about to cry out when one of them spoke "We weren't supposed to kill her..."

Stolen story; please report.

"It's not our fault the airbag didn't work, or she didn't have one." the other man said as he opened the door

"Jakes gonna be angry..."

"Shut up and help me find the laptop... never mind got it." he said pulling it out from behind Julia's seat then closing the door and running away

Nadia was stunned, shocked, mortified and angry but none of that compared to sorrow she felt as she looked down at Julia's limp body. Nadia had managed to free herself as the airbag gave way, she closed Julia's eyes then got out of the car ignoring her broken left arm.

Julia had been murdered for what was on her laptop and Nadia intended to find out the truth. She made her way back to their apartment and pulled out Julia's back up hard drive then connected it to her own laptop. She meticulously searched through all of the information until she found it... Jake... Jacob... Nadia recognized him immediately remembering his name. He was a fellow detective, a friend that they'd even had dinner with a few times. Here he was on Julia's work hard drive, caught blackmailing witnesses on two separate occasions. The file even had his name on it. Knowing that this information as well as overhearing a nick name wouldn't be enough Nadia took one of Julia's recording devices. She than took a few pain killers and walked out towards the station.

It had been a few hours before she arrived and by now everyone knew what had happened. The station was in chaos but there he was sitting in his office, Jacob. Nadia walked straight in and closed the door behind her. She knew that if she didn't take him by surprise and get some semblance of a confession quickly she would never get one. "Jake!"

"Nadia? Are you okay I hea.."

She cut him off "They said your name Jake! I knew it was you when they said a cop told them to do it so they had leverage to protect themselves!" Jacob gaped at Nadia in fear

"Why?! Jake tell me why! Shes dead and I need to know why she died Jake!" Nadia said her eyes on fire

"She wasn't supposed to die!" he cried "All I told them to do was hit the car and take the laptop! They weren't even supposed to be going that fast! It's not my fault!" he began to panic as the door swung open.

"Nadia! Your safe!" Peter the chief of police cried with relief.

Nadia reeled in her emotions and said "Tell him."

Jacob was silent, then Peter spoke "Tell me what?"

"Tell him!" she yelled

"Shes been through a lot Peter, you should get her to a hospital." he said calmly

Nadia pulled out the recording device and handed it to Peter as Jacob looked on in horror "This is a confession, he murdered Julia." she said barely containing her rage

"What!" Peter yelled looking towards Jacob as two more officers who had been standing in the doorway moved in to arrest him.

"I... I... she wasn't supposed to die Peter it was an accident I swear." he said

As they began to lead Jacob away Nadia remembered what Jacobs favorite thing in the world to do was... at that thought Nadia lost control and swiftly pulled Peter's gun from its holster with her good arm then shot both of Jacob's knees in rapid succession before tossing the gun on the floor. Everyone gaped in shock not only because of how fast it had happened but also because of the way Jacob was screaming. Nadia's face was... clear, empty, almost like she couldn't feel anything at all.

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Three days later Nadia sat in the hospital as Peter questioned her about all that had happened. After he was done with the formalities he pulled out a sheet.

"This is your X-ray." he said "At first we thought that Julia had taught you how to shoot... then the docs told us what all this means. Julia said that you were an orphan. She never said war orphan and she certainly never said child soldier." he said with a painful expression

"I never told her. She knew something, I'm... not sure what but I never told her." Nadia said

"You could've killed Jacob, why didn't you? he asked

"Julia wouldn't have wanted me to." she answered

"Why shoot him at all?"

"Jacob took from me what I loved most, so I took from him his ability to do what he loves most... jogging. He got the better end of the deal." Nadia said acidly

"That was brutal... and premeditated, if you want any chance to get out of this you'll need to claim a psychotic break. It won't be easy." he said

"I can do that." Nadia answered coldly

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After this Nadia separated herself from society and spent years with very little human contact. The start of my story picked up when she is 23 and this happened when she was 16. I had a hard time writing this since I was crying for most of it...

:TT_TT:

I wrote this because people were asking about why my character acts like this or that... The general idea is that she suffered but she spent the last 7 years remembering the good and trying not to dwell on the bad...

:TT_TT:

Proofread by lomie0.