Queen Of The Beasts

23|Her

Third POV

Connor, Emi and Flora stood in front of the grey little home. Well Flora wasn't exactly standing up right, as she was leaning against the walking stick she borrowed from her grandma.

"What if she rats us out? " Emi asked the two.

"Then we'll all have to go down fighting. She rats us out, we rat out the zoo. " Connor replied, smirking. He walked up to the door, Emi and Flora dragging behind.

Connor knocked and stepped back, confidently. Emi scolwed at him. Flora studied the door, already knowing who would open it.

A big buff fellow opened the door, and cocked a brow at the three teenagers. "Yes? "

"Maya Rodriguez?" Connor asked.

Flora cringed but said nothing.

"Who's asking? " The big men shot back.

"Well Maya, you called us remember..." Connor was an idiot. Emi wanted to slap him in the face or bury him alive.

"Baby who is it?! " A women's voice called from within the house. The Buffy man plastered a scary smile on his face and turned to the woman who the three recognized to be Maya Rodriguez.

Maya stopped in her tracks and recognition flashed in her honey coloured eyes. "Connor, is it? "

The named waved a hand nervously. Connor couldn't help but think Maya was even more gorgeous in real life. He was so phased by the woman that when Emi and Flora walked in, he was still outside. The big guy had to slap him ever so slightly back to reality.

The home was a bit plain from the outside but the inside was definitely not. Colourful walls, house plants, and shelves filled with books, the smell of lavender wafting through the air. It felt and smelled old but new simultaneously.

"Take a seat, kids. " Maya said, beckoning them over to her purple couches.

The three kids sat on the longer couch, uneasily staring about the room.

Maya sat opposite of them and smiled sweetly.

"Let's cut to the chase, shall we?" Emi nodded."We—"

"Who'd like something to drink or nibble on before we get started? " Maya interrupted, grinning as she showed off her perfect white teeth.

Emi couldn't place the irking feeling Maya gave her. She narrowed her eyes but let it go and played along. "Yeah, soda would be nice."

Connor eyed Emi with resignation. She smiled back brightly.

"Yeah we got soda. Babe! Can you get us some soda," Maya called towards the other room.

Flora cringed at the large man who would walk in with a bunch of sodas for a bunch of annoying kids and his girlfriend.

And just as Flora saw, he walked into the living room with soda, and sat it on the coffee table. Emi popped one open and took one large gulp, she dropped it after a while and wiped her lips with the back of her hands carelessly. "Now! Let's get down to business. Why did you release the tiger?"

Connor thought Emi was pretty blunt. That could either be a blessing or a curse, to him of course.

"Of course," Maya replied. She sighed deeply and intertwined her fingers. "I was scared for her."

The three kids listened in quietly.

"They were going to hurt her." Maya's gaze stared at the wall behind the kids, and glassed over. "That dinosaur attack a few days ago, that was their doing. One of their experiments. They've been bringing in animals to use as lab rats. To mix their DNA. To create new beings. Much more superhuman than the ordinary individual with an ability. They've been all over Lightsville, collecting specimen. I couldn't let them have her, no, she's too precious, too endangered, they'd hurt her too much."

"So you released her? She could hurt a lot of people y'know." Emi wanted to be as sad as Maya but that feeling just kept bugging her.

"I knew the zoo would want her back, and they'd do whatever they could to bring her back. The million dollar prize money would have people nuts, searching for her. Someone would find her sooner or later and they'd find out how she escaped, one way or the other."

"What makes you so sure someone would be curious enough to ask how?"

"How long has it been since she's escaped?"

Emi pursed her lips. "That still doesn't prove anything."

"Whoever could capture her would probably care a lot about her safety. Someone with a love for animals. Someone who knew sacrifice. She's a difficult creature, that girl. She doesn't like many, especially people who want to touch her."

Emi pondered on that. She held Maya's gaze, waiting for her to flinch, slip-up, say something that she could use against her.

"Why didn't you ever report the zoo yourself?" Connor asked, joining the conversation.

Maya met his eyes and she leaned back on the couch. "I was already all tangled up in the experiments. I fed them the drugs."

"But you didn't know," Connor encouraged.

"Does it matter," Maya replied, her voice cracking at the end.

"How did you leave then?"

"I couldn't keep doing that. Not when they toyed with human lives too."

The three teenagers went stiff, they gazed at each other and turned back to Maya.

Emi's suspicion had yet to subside."That was their doing?"

"They're monsters, creating monsters. All they want to do is put them under a microscope, despite the chances of chaos. I've worked along these scientists and if there's anything I've gathered it's that they're a danger to society."

"Are you willing to be investigated?" Flora asked.

"If it means justice will be served then by all means, yes." Maya nodded.

Flora expected that answer. Though that proved something else, Maya was hiding something.