LATIFAH'S DILEMMA

No one would have dared to think for a moment that the entire human race would be subjected to, and through such a menace. It beggars belief to think that they would be taken hostage and into servitude by creatures they barely knew lived and existed among. This is simply because they had managed to stay aloof and off the raider for donkey millennia. 

Only now, over  the last century had they been ruled and dominated by the wicked beast. 

His regime had been one of terror mingled with fear and uncertainty. Strict laws were enacted that must be adhered to by all and sundry. Violation of any of the laws would be met by a harsh punishment, much more terrible than death for such a person.

These beasts have been known to be able to transfigure themselves between beastly and human forms. 

They are the shape-shifted beast. They are the wolves.

Their nature had been gifted with such immense powers such as heightened levels of speed, strength and sense, much as they had the ability to facilitate their healing, ten times above the ability of humans.

In terms of their physique, they had the superlative advantage over humans in terms of height, especially the males who were considered more muscular than humans.

Poor humans!

They stood no chance with these strange creatures, and the beast would not hold back. They were cold-hearted, ruthless, deadly and brutal.

Once they took over the human population, they carried out a massacre of a majority of humans while the others were recruited into their lower ranks.

For instance, the aged, weak and sickly among the human race were brutally wasted in cold blood. Afterall, they had nothing to offer.  The younger folks between the ages of 18 and 45 were taken to different sections of captivity. The younger men were taken to quarters where they were constantly beaten to surrender and sometimes beaten to death, and disposed off to scavengers, while the women were taken to the houses of whoredoms where they were harassed, molested and raped viciously. 

As for the children, they were assigned to be brewed and trained to understand their do's and don'ts until they got to the age of eighteen. These little ones were told horror and frightening stories geared towards instilling fears and terror-filled into them, so as to keep them in check and control to the beastly empire.

The reign of the beast had seen the division of the entire empire into sub-kingdoms. Each kingdom had a leader assigned to it whom they called their ALPHA.  

However, all the tribes and packs refer to themselves by a class called the Royals, synonymous with the way humans had presidents and governors.

The Royals were considered the most powerful amongst them all as it is believed that they were gifted with special abilities that allowed them to rule with such unprecedented power and authority, as well as exercise dominion over the human race.

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Life had been unbearable for her so far. Yet, she had managed to keep a low profile on a daily basis, heeding strictly to the advice she had been given. Atleast, it had managed to wade off any form of attention from her.

This however does not mean that she had not been punished severally, despite her efforts in keeping to the rule. However, tenaciously, she had endured all of the pain and suffering with grit, as long as no one tried to take advantage of her. She must have had a way of trying to push through and get by everyday.

This had been her experience until more recently when she was reassigned to a more sensitive part of the Palace of the cruel King as his maid. This entails that for her, there was not going to be any means of avoiding him.

Sad as it had been with all the cruelty and terror meted out to the human race, it was nothing compared to him. 

He was the definition of dread, danger and darkness. He was the worst of them all, and he was referred to as 

Darken Rawl Luciano.

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LATIFAH'S POV

This is getting too much for me to handle. How long will I keep on bearing this untold pain and suffering. I didn't know when these questions kept ravaging the crevices of my mind as I sat there on my wooden bed, with my legs up and tightly clung to my body. I had for the last ten minutes struggled to keep the tears from flowing further. My eyes were still heavily red as blood, my lips swollen from the many tears I had had to shed, and my breath was cold as ice. 

I felt lifeless, broken and shattered. 

A part of me was being encouraged to get used to this. Afterall, it wasn't the first time such a harsh and unfair treatment was meted out to me.  I should get used to it. 

Oh Yes I should!. 

To think that I had also lost the only surviving member of my family seemed to be the last stroke that could have broken the camel's back. Albeit, this Camel's back has refused to be broken, regardless of the dire, unfavorable circumstances. My heart pounded so hard as though it were a construction site, and my eyes bawled out in pain and tears.

Life!.. Oh Life!... How cruel and unfair could it be?. I had lost every one member of my family, both parents and siblings to cruel and cold hands of death perpetrated by these inhuman captors. Helena, my last surviving sister was the last on the line, and now, she is gone. No more and nowhere to be seen among the living. 

The sight of her corpse sent nothing but cold chills down my spine. I was totally numbed. Or would I say speechless and dumbfounded. I looked at her cold, naked body laying lifeless on the floor after being brutally raped viciously and left to die without a iota of sympathy. It's been six days, but each time it crept up my mind, I wished I could scream my lungs out, yet I couldn't.

Everyone had been charged to carry on with their lives and assignment as though nothing happened, as though a girl less than eighteen had not been brutally raped and left to bleed without any form of care or attention.

I watched as her body was taken out by the hideous guards and thrown into one of the old cells as though it were never a human. I guess a befitting burial was the least thing on their evil minds.

Four days  after her body was dumped in that cold, dirty cell, her already decaying body was then returned to us to do as it seemed fit. This was two days ago. I managed to gather a few of the younger maids around, and with their little effort and support, we committed her to mother earth.

Sadly still, I couldn't shed a tear. I just found myself unable to cry.

I witnessed the procession. I heard the maids sing songs of farewell. I saw her body being lowered to the ground, and the sands pouring over her corpse like rain drops, as is the way of all humans who had gone to the great beyond.

 Yet, in spite of these, my eyes would not shed a tear drop.

But then, immediately I woke up in the wee hours of this morning, the reality of everything began to hit me like a thunderbolt, and I found myself shaken to my ilt. At that moment, it seemed as though all the backlog of tears that had been begging to be released, could not wait any longer. They just flowed down in torrents. It was then that the harsh reality of life dawned on me.

I was now alone in this cruel world.

It was as though there weren't any humans around me. But then, none could have replaced any family member I had lost. Blood is always thicker than water. Besides, I had developed trust issues. Everyone was a suspect. I had known that from a very young age, probably, about the age of five, to be wary of men. I couldn't commit myself to any of them. I knew that the heart of men can be evil and desperately wicked. One moment they could be laughing and smiling with you, and the next moment, they won't hesitate to betray you, if it would fetch them some favour from the beast or escape a punishment.

"Enough of the sobs and tearing eyes".  I said to myself. So, I began to dab off the tears from my eyes. It was time to get off that bed and get to the kitchen before the head maid, else, another bout of trouble would be brewing for me.

Madam Fegor was her name. And like all the other beasts, she was no different. 

I know what you would be wondering. Why would she be working as a maid if she were a beast. Your question is justified as I used to wonder like you until I discovered the reason.

I hope you get to understand as I explain further