Tenakahan-Story
Chloe L Batey

 

At a faded, pealing, painted brown wooden table, holding a dusty bottle of red wine in his hands Tenakahan sat menacingly, his dark brown eyes rimmed with red stared fiercely at a small, black spot. His dark mousey blonde hair messed up from a brawl. His face an angry red, his eyes squinting. His left eye swollen, and black, a greeny pus worked like glue to keep the eye closed.
His split lip purple and bleeding lightly. His black shirt was torn at the shoulder and was missing some buttons revealing a little bit of his chest. He wore jeans that were ripped at the knees and a visible hole in the pocket. He had a large muscly body, his image scared passers by. Tenakahan had no companion except for the bottle of wine that night.

If you looked at him, you could see several scars along his shoulder and one fine scar on his cheek. A long, worn, dark brown jacket sat waiting on the chair beside him. Tenakahan frequently looked over at it then would swiftly glance at the old, splintering wooden door. An angry voice was belittling him inside his head 'come on Tenakahan stop drinking, that's what will start fights. You're no good Ten! You�re stupid Ten!' Tenakahan's eyes narrowed and his hand shook as he raised the wine bottle to his lips. The wine had been watered down sufficiently by the barmen. Tenakahan didn't care, he drank anything that was sitting in front of him. His hands twitched frequently and moved about, when he leaves the bar it's like time has stopped, nobody moves, talks, or makes a single sound. He grabs his jacket and sweeps himself out of the room with a slight stagger. He leaves silently.

Once outside he looks up at the night sky. Millions and millions of stars twinkle in the velvety black sky. The night air is cold and Tenakahan pulls the jacket on. The long trunked trees look like strange creatures. Tenakahan breathes in the air that smells like freshly cut grass and dead leaves. As Tenakahan walks away from the bar he can hear the noise starting back up, everyone starts talking, laughing and goes back to their card games. He walks into the trees and disappears into the dark night. The voice in his head saying 'Why can't you be more like them?'

Tenakahan looked at the trees warily, always on the lookout for the fool who would take the chance to jump him. He was always careful during the night. There was always the chance that the fool might actually be a trained killer. Tenakahan stopped and looked down at hid feet, remembering the times, when he was just a young colt, and when he fit in with the rest of the herd.

When he was just a boy he was a lot bigger then a lot of the other children and everyone treated him like he was normal even though he was stronger and frequently ended up hurting someone. The children didn�t mind, if they were being hurt- Tenakahan was always just a whistle away.

But one winter afternoon when he was 16, the sun was shining in the west, the sky mixed with oranges, reds and purples, Tenakahan had killed someone. A two boys about 18 had thought it fun to start teasing him, but Tenakahan didn�t take teasing lightly and punched one of the kids in the jaw, broke three teeth and cracked his nose. The kid yelled out to one of the others �Oi, Jackal, kill�im he�s broke me nose, fuckin� lunatic. Kill�im� The guy- Jackal- came forward, Tenakahan cringed at the sight of him, Jackal was tall, well-muscled and had a well-known reputation that women and young ladies would run away at even the mention of his name.

He came and grabbed Tenakahan by the back of his shirt and lifted him up. Jackal put his mouth to his ear and whispered �I�m gonna hurt you bad, rip your skin right off your bones, pull your heart out and eat it in front of your mother, then once I�m done eating it, I�m gonna go an� kill ya mother-no one will be there to save �er. Cos your daddy�s out pokin� in the hen house.� Then he laughed, a laugh full of scorn and hate. Tenakahan was terrified, his heart pounding in his lungs so much that it was painful.

Tenakahan reached out with his hands and pulled Jackal�s head down so he could whisper in Jackal�s ear. �I don�t think so�, he brought jackal�s head down hard on his knee, Jackal screamed. And Tenakahan rolled Jackal over onto his back and started punching Jackal in the face as hard as he could. The other boy ran away to get someone to restrain Tenakahan, he didn�t notice.

He didn�t notice when Jackal stopped screaming, or when Jackal�s nose was indistinguishable from the rest of his face, or that there was dirty red blood splashing everywhere. He didn�t notice any of it, until somebody pulled him off Jackal�s unmoving body.

Tenakahan looked up at the sky. He didn�t want to remember that night, he looked around and realised he was home. It wasn�t much of a place to stay, but he had carved out the inside of a tree and slept in the hollow at night. He stumbled into the tree, removing his jacket, rolling it up as a pillow. He removed his shoes and placed it just outside of his tree, letting everyone know he was home. His gun under his rolled up jacket.

He fell asleep quickly, his hand clutched around the gun. Tenakahan dreamed of the events after his fight with Jackal.

Three men had to pull Tenakahan off Jackal�s body, then another two to hold his fists still. The men carried him off to his house. His mother was waiting for him when he got home. He grabbed hold of his apron, flinging himself onto his knees crying into the apron. Them men left him alone with his mother to decide what was going to happen to him. His mother looked down at him �Ten, standup.� Tenakahan stayed on his knees �Ten stand the hell up, if your big enough to hit somebody then I think you�re big enough to stand up in front of your mother and tell her why the hell you did it!� She was angry, she didn�t yell when she was angry, just kept a neutral voice, but Tenakahan knew she was angry.

�Mamma, he said that dad was out with the town whores, he said he was gonna kill you, but before that he was gonna tear my skin from my body and eat my heart in front of you. He scared me mamma, he hurt me� he looked his mother in the eyes, tears still falling from his eyes, but his voice held steady. His mother�s face changed from one of anger to one of sadness. �Baby, there not going to let you get away with this, you killed Jackal, you did. Ten! Stop shakin� your head, orite? You killed him. He may have had it coming but you shouldn�t have done it� She sat down heavily on a stool �why couldn�t you have been like the others Ten? Why couldn�t you have been?� Tenakahan looked at his mother as if she had just stabbed him in the heart and twisted the knife around so he couldn�t get it out.
�I�m not like them mamma, If you wanted one like them�� He trailed off and ran to his room, he was going to leave, before his mother could stop him and before the men returned to take him away. He picked up everything he was going to take, including his dad�s gun and knives and left silently through his window.

He ran as fast as he could to get away from everyone he knew, everyone he loved, and everything he knew. After he had run a fair bit it started to rain heavily. He sat down on the wet grass. Replaying in his head his mother�s words �Why couldn�t you have been like the others Ten? Why couldn�t you have been?� anybody looking at him couldn�t have said where the rain ended and his tears began.

Tenakahan woke from his sleep with a roar, his gun coming up before his body had time to function properly. A voice nagging at him �Yeah Ten. Why couldn�t you have been like them?� he hated that voice. Hated it so much that sometimes he wanted to shoot it. He looked around for something to drink, his wine stash had disappeared, so he walked to the stream.

He had an answer for that voice. �Because I�m different. Because I�m not them. Because I am what I am� Because I�m me. Hear that Mamma?! Do you hear that mamma?!� He yelled into the trees. �You hurt me the most mamma, you hurt me the most� He dived into the water, and when he surfaced he was clear headed.

He got out; He knew where he was going to go.

He sat At a faded, pealing, painted brown wooden table, holding a dusty bottle of red wine in his hands Tenakahan sat menacingly, his dark brown eyes rimmed with red stared fiercely at a small, black spot. Tenakahan had no companion except for the bottle of wine that night.
An angry voice was belittling him inside his head 'come on Tenakahan stop drinking, that's what will start fights. You're no good Ten! You�re stupid Ten!' Tenakahan's eyes narrowed and his hand shook as he raised the wine bottle to his lips. The wine had been watered down sufficiently by the barmen. Tenakahan didn't care; he drank anything that was sitting in front of him.

The voice in his head �Why can�t you be more like them?�
�I�ll get rid of you� Tenakahan thought to the voice, and took another sip. �Why does it hurt to know me Mamma? Why?�
And still the voice went on �Why? Why couldn�t you be more like them?�

 

 

Copyright © 2008 Chloe L Batey
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"