A new story I came up with in March. It just couldn't escape my head and this story about this troubled lion cub who has anger problems has been dealing with a lot of things; having his parents who are assassins and expected to be in their palce. Joe 'Po' Navark helped me out with this and this is what I came up with.

Warning: this may contain violence and mild language. Enjoy!

Breaking Away

by: Terrell James

Chapter 1: Leaving the Cycle

Somewhere in China...

In a cool afternoon in China, a short young lion, about 13 years of age, hazel-green eyes, makes his way towards his home and when he got there, he seeks his parents; a male lion, mid-40's and a lioness; late-30's, standing in front of him while wearing black clothing and surrounding themselves with a barrage of weapons and the young lion was confused on all this and he asked, "What have you brought me here for?"

The father lion walks up to him and he said, "Kaleo...we've been waiting for this for a long time since the day of your birth."

Then, his mother came towards him and said, "For your 13th birthday, we decided that it's time for you to be in the family business...how to murder people and get away with it."

Kaleo just stood there, looking very appalled and disturbed to know that he's gonna enter the family business of private assassins and he was afraid that something like this would come, especially since he has disturbing memories of watching his parents kill innocent people growing up.

"Are you guys saying that I'm gonna...?" asked Kaleo, in a state of shock and anger.

The father nods his head and said, "We expect you to be a professional assassin if you wanna keep this tradition going. You've seen what we do and how we do it well and now that today's your 13th birthday, you are ready."

Just then, Kaleo looks at the black clothing that his parents showed him that reads 'future assassin' and just from looking at it, he knows that it's wrong to just kill someone and get away with it. Though it may not drill into their parents' heads, he doesn't want anyone to suffer the same way their victims did in the past.

Flashback

As a young cub, little Kaleo has grown up watching his parents hunt and kill innocent people that came across their way; whether if it's breaking in their homes, pouncing them in the forests or even in places where no one expects to hide themselves away from and seeing them happen right in front of him...triggered years of complete horror and a sense that the world is a cruel place. He used to see dead bodies come around; ranging from adults to kids to little infant children and all Kaleo could do is just watch helplessly as this happens.

Though his parents trained him for fighting skills, most times they demand perfection and how to kill right and in some cases, he would screw up some and they would end up scathingly scolding him.

"What can't you get it right? Do you want to be an assassin or not?"

Young Kaleo looks at his father and asked, "Why should I have to do this?"

His father growls at him and just shouts, "Because if you wanna be accepting of us, you're gonna have to do what we do! And do it right!"

They also oppose of Kaleo feeling sorry for the victims and their families because they convinced him that they shouldn't mourn for the loss because mourning is for the weak and spineless. And soon enough, when it came time for the test run at age seven, the parents ordered him to kill four young bunnies and from the looks of these kids, they were about as scared as Kaleo is and when he refused to do so, his parents grew furious and killed them all as if they want to teach his son not to show mercy to their victims.

But the assassination didn't stop there...not only would Kaleo watch in disgust to see his parent's jobs to kill by their claws, but their weapons; ranging from pickax, mace, shovel, knives, cannons and poisonous items would do the jobs and Kaleo could see mounds of blood, bodies being mutilated or cut up to pieces or even hung up in ropes and it puts him through sheer horror and panic.

But that's not the worst part. Even when Kaleo isn't around his parents, most of the villagers look at him and sees him as a dangerous predator that he'll strike and kill anyone if necessary, assuming that their parents sent him to do so simply because he's a lion. Kaleo tries to say that he will never harm anyone, but they just run away from him and call him names such as 'beast', 'young predator', 'innocent killer' and the one name that always seems to hurt him the most...'monster assassin.'

He secretly blames both of his parents for dragging him into this assassination business and held a long bitter resentment towards both of them for letting this unfold that lasted for years and there was immense pressure by his parents pushing him to be in the family business and figured that when he turned 13, he was to join the biz as they expected him to, but with all the years that he had to contend with, there has to be a point where he cannot take it much more.

Present day

Kaleo looks at the black shirt and he knew for a fact that if were to join them, he'd spend the rest of his life to be an assassin with his parents and he's reached his limit as he stared angrily at them and he said, "No."

Both parents were shocked to hear him refuse to join the ranks of being a future assassin and the father grew livid and asked, "What did you just say?"

"I said no! I do not want to be in the family business like you expect me to!" Kaleo shouted.

The mother could not believe what she was hearing come out of Kaleo's mouth and she lets out a snarl and shouted, "We've worked blood, sweat and toil to teach you how to be an assassin like us and you refuse to do so?"

Kaleo growls at her back and said, "You've put me through enough already! For 13 long years, I had to deal with watching you kill innocent people and try to put me in this! That is not the life I want!"

"That's enough! You don't have a choice! You're one of us and that is what's best for you!" his father shouted, with much venom as he could.

Kaleo then roars at his father's face in a fit of rage and shouted, "No! You only want what's best for you! Well, I'm not you anymore! And I will never be a part of your...murder business anymore!"

As Kaleo sets out to leave, his mother stepped in with an angry growl on her face and said, "If you think you're gonna waste your life by not being one of us, you've got another thing coming! Now put on that freakin' shirt right now! You're gonna be an assassin and you're gonna like it!"

"Never!" Kaleo spat out.

Both parents could not actually believe that Kaleo is rebelling against his parents expectations and his father growls at him loudly and said, "All of this work...preparation and teaching...for NOTHING!"

"I refuse to be a part of this family business anymore." Kaleo said, angrily.

And with that Kaleo turns to leave the room and while the parents weren't looking, he ran so far away from his parents that he didn't even care about looking back and that anyplace is better than staying at his home. Kaleo stops for a minute and sees that he's still holding the family business shirt and in a sign of anger, he throws it down to the ground, walks over it and then pees on the outfit, showing that this is what he thinks of the assassination business.

Then, he dusted them off with dirt and continued to make his way where he can hopefully leave behind everything his parents forced him to do while he was younger. He knew that this day was coming and that was the breaking point for him because he had lived off so much pressure of his parents forcing him to get into the world of murdering the innocent.

He could still hear the voices come out of his head as he was running.

'Kaleo, you're gonna be a part of us.'

'The innocent are just a bunch of weak saps. And we kill those people.'

'Someday, you'll be a natural born killer because it's who we are and what we do.'

'That young lion will murder us all! Your family, your friends, your children!'

'Let this...this...BEAST leave our home for good!'

'You're a future assassin! You're a future assassin!'

'MONSTER! This kid is a monster!'

'This is it, Kaleo...you'll grow to be a murderer in no time.'

As those voices kept crawling into his head, he collapsed down on the floor and just broke down crying...something that his parents call it as a sign of weakness, but to Kaleo...it was a sign that he had been emotionally scarred for years and all of those years of being in an environment where there was just murder all around and how to cope with being called a dangerous predator or future assassin most of his life by other people is enough for him to take and don't know how else to deal with it.

He gets himself up, lets out a few choked sobs and continued making his way...with tears in his eyes and that day for him...is a breakaway.

How's this? A little 'eh...' from the start, but at least it's starting. How's this so far? There's more coming up!