Zander - The North Kingdom

Prologue

Corianna Kisner layed on her cot enjoying the rare peace and quiet. She was beginning to see the much-dreaded sun start to beam brightly threw the holes in her tattered and torn blanket used as a curtain to cover her window.

She occupied a tiny little attic room filled with dust and mice. The room had holes in the walls and the floor was most definitely not stable, but she was grateful to call it her own space. Her attic is not much but it was her own and she didn't have a lot to call hers.

She lived with her atrocious uncle who is the town's taxidermist and not a good one at that. In case you didn't know a taxidermist is a person that prepares the skins of dead animals and fills them with materials to make them appear like they are still alive. If that is what you're looking for then don't call Darrel! His exhibits will scare the breath right out of you.

Then there is Beatrice her spoiled and egotistical snot of a cousin that will step out of her way to stomp on Cori and make her feel small. Things are not always bad with Bea but when they are then living is really morbid.

Cori thrives for the day she escapes the abuse of her drunkard uncle and the verbal attacks from her miss-priss cousin.

Cori doesn't know it yet but today will mark the last day she will have to deal with the abuse her uncle and cousin dish out to her. Tomorrow a new journey awaits.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Uncle Darrel wrapped on the attic door in an obnoxious rhythm.

"Get up!" Darrel shouted in his over-exaggerated country accent. "Get your ass in here and cook Bea some eggs. She's starved."

I quickly sat up in my cot with my heart beating so hard that I felt it pulse all the way to my ears. He does that all the time so I should be used to it by now, but it gets me every single time.

"He always ruins the very few peaceful moments that I ever get," I quietly murmured to myself then I got up and walked over to my trunk of outdated and oversized hand-me-down clothes.

They were my aunt Teresa's clothes. She was a beautiful but plus-sized woman.

Teresa was my mother's sister and my actual family that adopted me when my parents passed away shortly after my birth. The same year my parents died in an accident was the same year my aunt met and married Darrel Gennings who had a small baby of his own.... that would be queen Bea.

Teresa was mine and Beatrice's mother figure till she passed away when we were six. Life has been tough for me ever since. The day my aunt died from heart failure was the first beating I had ever taken from Uncle Darrel.

Now that I'm thinking about it, he was not very nice to Teresa either. However, I know for a fact he would not be putting his hands on me in front of Teresa. She had that protective mother aura about her.

I reached down into the trunk and picked out an old powder blue dress with no sleeves. It was supposed to be a knee-length summer dress but on my tiny body, it nearly came down to my ankles.

I grabbed my white belt and buckled it around my bust so I could give the dress just a little bit of a flattering appearance. I pulled my hair tie from my wrist and put my waist-length dark blonde hair in a messy bun then wiped the sleep out of my deep blue eyes.

"This is as good as it's gonna get," I softly whisper to myself as I looked at the monstrosity of an outfit in the mirror.

I then turned to the window as I do every morning and tucked the ratty blanket back to let in some light.

I suddenly caught a glimpse of something that moved. For a slight second, I thought I had seen someone standing out by the tree that stood right outside my window.

I leaned forward and looked again. I see nothing but the leaves slightly blowing in the cool morning wind. I stood silently observing the tree. I was sure I had seen something there and it was almost like I could feel that someone actually was there.

Deciding I was not fully awake just yet I walked to the attic door. I grabbed the doorknob but stopped for a moment to pray silently to myself that today was going to be a good day. I then turned the knob and walked down the creaky steps that led straight down to the kitchen where Beatrice sat at the kitchen table.

My nose wrinkled to the strong aroma of wet polish wafting me in the face. Bea was sitting straight up and fanning her freshly painted talons.

"Where have you been?" Beatrice barked in a cold tone as her eyes squinted with hate.

I chose not to answer to keep my promise to myself that today was going to be a good day.

Beatrice looked down at her nails like they were magically going to dry with her scowl.

"I'm going to be late thanks to you! I have a day out with Tony and his parents." She spoke in an, I'm better than you manner.

Tony is Beatrice's boyfriend. The little boy is practically a whore that thinks he's going to get Beatrice to put out but, I got news for him.... whatever is up her twat is pure ice or hot fire...be careful or your likely to get burned!

"I'm sorry Bea, I slept in," I lied then walked to the fridge.

I started the eggs and toast for her highness who was sitting behind me still blowing on her fingernails.

I almost had her eggs done when I heard a knock at the front door.

"Go get that! It's my girls." Beatrice ordered with her royal nose turned up as she still sat at the kitchen table breathing on her almost dry nails.

I took the eggs off the stove and went to the front door to answer it. I opened the door to two of Beatrice's closest friends. I scoffed as they barged past me almost knocking me over. I followed at the rear as the three of us made our way to the kitchen.

I already knew how bad this was going to get. Beatrice always acted out in front of her posse. It made her feel superior and in charge to knock me down in front of them.

I put her eggs on a plate next to her toast and set the plate in front of her. I then turned to get started on the dishes, laundry, and my daily slave work when I heard a deep sigh.

"Oh eewww!" Beatrice complained in a high-pitched voice.

I turned around to see her sitting in front of the eggs with her nose turned high in the air and she had a disgusted look on her face.

"Is something the matter with your eggs Bea?" I asked in a very frustrated tone.

"They are cold! You would have me eat cold eggs?" she asked. "This just won't do! You will have to make them again!" she demanded loud and clear.

The sarcasm on her face was boiling my anger. I could feel my cheeks reddening. Her friends were snickering when I turned around and put two more eggs in the pan splashing raw egg on the front of my dress.

I almost had her next two eggs done when she spoke out yet again.

"Oh wait!" Beatrice yelled. "I forgot to tell you my ladies are eating breakfast today too. We want to be served at the same time so you will have to start again," she said in a fake apologetic voice that I wanted to smack with the hot frying pan.

I dumped out the two that were almost done and started the last six eggs in the carton, and I will be damned if she didn't clear her throat like she had another complaint....and of course, she did.

"Is something the matter Bea?" I turned around and asked with my eyebrows hunched.

"Did you put all the eggs in the pan without asking how my girls want their eggs?" Beatrice huffed out.

All I could do at this point is give Beatrice an...are you kidding me look.

"Mary wants her eggs poached so you will have to go to the corner store and get more eggs immediately," Bea says while looking at Mary out of the corner of her eye.

She was making sure that her 'girls' were paying close attention to her few moments of authority.

My face was starting to tingle and burn from rage at this point. I'm sure all of them could see the back of my neck brighten and my shoulders tense when I quickly turned back to the pan of waisted eggs.

I knew if I didn't go then things would be worse for me, so I took a breath and left quietly. After all, today is going to be a good day... right?

As I walked down the front steps, I decided to pittle so she would have to be even more later to Tony's house. This thought made me very happy and washed away the unexpected anger and rage that I was feeling.

I walked the three blocks to the corner store and put the eggs on Darrel's tab but also got myself a soda as usual. He never checks on what is bought.

His tab is usually a couple of hundred dollars in liquor. He runs it up till the clerk cuts him off and he has no choice but to pay it then he starts his tab all over again.

I love it when Darrel gets cut off. It takes him a few days to pay off the bill and that's a few days that he is actually sober. Darrel is cruel to me when he drinks, and he drinks just about every day till he has to pay his tab.

Darrel babies Beatrice but he has been known to snap at her when he's drunk as well. I can feel that she's scared of him too, but she will never admit it.

Things are not always bad between Bea and me. I get the feeling that she's jealous of me for reasons that I will probably never know. I don't think I'm prettier than she is, and she's got the most gorgeous blonde hair that I've ever seen but she's so much skinnier than I am. I at least have curves. Bea is flat everywhere and has kind of a stubby nose.

I had one block left to walk and had finished my soda when I suddenly got this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach. Something told me that someone was lingering behind me.

I pretended to look at the car in the street that I was passing so I could look out of the corner of my eye behind me. I got a glimpse of someone tall... roughly ten feet behind me.

I stepped up the pace just a little then I looked at the bushes on the other side of the sidewalk to look out of the corner of my eye again and the tall dark figure was still there.

I took a deep breath to brace myself then I quickly flipped around to face the person that gave me an odd feeling, but nobody was there. I stood and looked for a few moments.

Something in my head was telling me that someone was there but where did they go? I decided to jog the rest of the way home.

I walked in the door and noticed right off that Bea was extremely pissed. I could see her sitting at the table tapping her now-dried fingernails on the flat surface in front of her.

She heard me close the front door then she jumped up from the kitchen table and closed the distance between us then got straight in my face and began to yell.

"Thanks to you taking your sweet ass time, Tony's parents just canceled on me," She squealed. "What took you this time Cori? It is not the first time you have purposely done this!"

"I'm tired and not feeling right today, that's all Bea," I murmured.

Which was the truth. I've been feeling strange the last few days. I don't think I'm sick or anything, but I have most definitely not been feeling like myself.

My answer seemed to anger her more. She reached forward and knocked the paper bag out of my hand and I could hear the eggs break from the impact with the floor.

I don't know what's gotten into me today, but my temper started to flare up instantly. I could feel my body start to tremble I was so enraged.

"I hope you're not too tired to go get more eggs!" Bea boldly stated with a snot-nosed look on her face.

She turned to walk away but chose to keep running her foul mouth.

This was a mistake...

"Oh, and hurry up this time! You may look like a dirty slug but you don't have to move like one too!" she said as she walked to the other side of the table and then started putting her nail polishes away.

That was it! I had enough. I slowly looked from the bag on the floor to Beatrice standing on the other side of the table.

"I'm not going to do that Beatrice," I said calmly.

"What?" She asked and looked at me in complete disbelief.

"You heard me!" I answered back with a little more firmness. "Go get your own eggs. Then you can cook them yourself!"

I couldn't believe I had just said that. I've never stood up to her before. I knew what I had just done was going to cause a big issue. I was going to pay for it dearly but the damage is already done.

I just couldn't allow her vial and barbaric pie hole to continue spitting venom. I just could not tolerate it any longer.

Beatrice slowly leaned forward and laid her hands on the table and glared at me.

"You will do your job which is to serve me or I will have to teach you what defying me gets you!" she threatened.

"Why do you act like this?" I asked. "You know this is why Tony cheats on you! You're an insufferable bitch!"

Beatrice looked like her head was about to blow off of her shoulders and her friends were standing at the other end of the table whispering back and forth.

"You know why your parents are dead Cori? It was better to die than live with the sheer disappointment of having you as a daughter!!" Beatrice snapped back.

"Oh, hell no she didn't!" I thought angrily.

She did not just go there. I never knew my parents so that comment shouldn't have hurt as bad as it did but I'm tired of being her doormat. I'm tired of taking insults and orders from her. I'm tired of her disrespect. I am just plain tired of her shit. I've put up with it for seventeen years and I wasn't going to anymore.

At that moment my feet took a step on their own and I reached a crossed the table and punched that brooding blonde-haired cow right in her nose.

"Oh, m-my gosh!" I said stuttering my words as Bea fell to her knees with her hands tightly holding her nose and lip.

I had just punched her in the kisser so hard that her head flew back, and blood spattered on the counter behind her.

"I'm so sorry Bea!" I pleaded. "I just lost control. I don't know what came over me."

"OH MY GOSH!!" Beatrice screeched as she held her crimson-gushing nose and mouth.

Her friends tried to help her off the floor. One stood on each side of her trying to pull her up by the underneath of her arms.

"GET OFF OF ME!" she shouted at them even louder and got up on her own then walked to where I stood and leaned up in my face and screamed at the top of her lungs

"YOU ARE DEAD CORI! DO YOU HEAR ME!!" She screamed and then spits blood directly in my face.

I thought for sure she was going to hit me back. I had never done anything like this before, so I had no idea what to expect.

I stood there in front of her and waited for her to give me a solid blow to the face. After all, I had just busted her in her nose and she was bleeding profusely. Not to mention she has been in karate classes for the last year so she knows how to defend herself.

However, that's not at all what happened. What did happen was much worse. She said something that reminded me exactly how much trouble I was actually in.

"Just wait till my father gets home," she gritted out spitefully.

"Oh shit! Darrel!" I say out loud to myself.

Darrel had taken a poodle to its owner. I knew exactly what was going to happen when he got home and heard about what I just did to his precious Bea. I was waist-deep in shit and this was going to be one of the worst punishments yet. I don't know what has come over me.

I felt this rage take over me that I couldn't control. I've never felt like this before. I had to leave the room. I was just as shocked as Bea was.

I turned and ran to my attic as fast as I could. Up the stairs I went then barreled through my bedroom door and threw myself on my cot then covered my face with my raggedy pillow and just cried.

I didn't know why that just happened. I had wanted today to be a good day. I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe so I took a few deep breaths to try and calm myself.

I could hear Beatrice yelling at her friends like it was their fault I hit her. I know she was humiliated beyond measure. Surely, they could now see that her tough-guy attitude was a front.

Once I calmed down, I lifted my head out of my pillow and sat up. I then pulled up my dress so I could sit indian-style on my cot.

I knew I had to come to terms with what just happened and what was going to happen to me because of it. I just branded daddy's little princess with my nuclear prints. I'm in big trouble, this is going to be so much worse than when I back-talk him in public.

Mouthing my uncle is something I do frequently but one time in particular, I told him to go to hell at the grocery store. He beat me endlessly with a leather belt. I know he's going to leave more braided belt scars on my backside or worse.

"Could I have not waited till I turned eighteen next year? I could just hit her then leave and never return to this hell hole?" I thought to myself.

That was always the plan. Just one more year from now and I could have made a clean break from this place.

Bea looked hurt when she spit in my face. She didn't look mad she looked very hurt and embarrassed. "What was that about," I thought.

What she said to me was brutal. She knows how it feels to have a deceased parent. Her mother died when she was a baby too.

Now I was having resurfacing thoughts about my parents. I may not have known them, but I always daydream about what they were like or who did I resemble most. I pictured my dad's blonde hair with my mom's blue eyes.

I laid back down and reached over the cot and down to the floor then pulled up one of the pieces of broken wood to grab the necklace that I had hidden under the floorboard.

Aunt Teresa had given it to me before she died. She told me my mother gave it to her to pass down to me. I always thought it was strange because it almost seemed like both my mother and my aunt knew they were going to die.

Why else would my mom give it to Teresa for me or why did Teresa pass it down when I was six years old? You're not exactly careful with your belongings when you're that young.

My parents were in a car accident I assume. Nobody has ever specified what happened to them, just that it was a horrific accident.

The necklace reminded me of a broach. It is oval-shaped and glitters like it's a piece of the galaxy captured and placed into a silver necklace to be preserved. I kissed the oval galaxy-colored broach thinking of them and put it back under the floor so Darrel or Beatrice couldn't take it from me.

Darrel has taken and burned everything I've had over the years as punishment. It is the only thing sacred that I hold dear to my heart. I would probably fight my uncle if he tried to take it from me.

I don't know when it happened, but I had dozed off at some point from several exhausting emotions that I had experienced in such a short amount of time. I remember thinking about how the fairytale Cinderella and I had so much in common.

We both had a mean-ass stepsister, an abusive adult figure, and we were treated like slaves. My mice are unwanted pests and not good company but still something in common. She got a happy ending though.

When will it be time for my happy ending? When will my day come to go to the ball and dance with my prince charming?

After all, that is every girl's dream...

Hello, just a friendly reminder that this is my first book and I have not had it fully edited yet. With that said if you notice a mistake then please kindly bring it to my attention. My heart and soul are in this book, every emotion I wrote I personally felt while writing it. I'm excited to share it with you. Also, this is for mature audiences only as there are many triggers in this book...Even for me. Thank you so much and please be kind in this forum and to everyone in your daily life. Stick around and take a chance on my book... It's a five book series...There is so much more to come.

As time goes on I will be fixing the book to flow better...the first chapter is the only one that I can see that needs a better flow. Please feel free to communicate threw the comments. I will enjoy comments and to learn more about the audiences opinions. Thank you ladies and gents.