Owned?

Caesar [8 years old]

When a person says tribe. A very old image comes to mind. Like those people who lived in the forests in tents but our tribes here were different.

One could say they were clans but they stuck to their ideologies like tribes and their ideologies were shit.

People in the head families played games to secure themselves.

I was the heir to my tribe and lived in the main mansion in the city. Being the next successor I was given everything. The best education, the best teachers, me and my mother had the best chef all for ourselves but like i said, people loved playing games here.

Games that ruined lives.

I was the first son from the second wife of the head of the tribe while the first wife had only three daughters.

Although I had a younger sister, Maya,too. The fact that I was the only son gave my mother the upper hand and so my sister got all the luxuries too.

That although did not appeal to the first wife. She was furious, she hated my mother for taking her place.

It was no doubt sad that the tribes went by old rules and thought only men could lead the families because without doubt my half sisters were quite capable.

But as a child I didn't think much about these things. I had no idea how pure jealousy could eat a person alive.

How hatred can burn away your everything in moments.

My step-mother was that kind of person, filled with jealousy and dissatisfaction. It was probably another one of the reasons why my mother had an upper hand. Not only was she beautiful but innocently soft hearted.

What a person might call, 'an angel'

And because she was like that she couldn't understand the schemes of the first wife while she secretly filled the ears of the people along with my father with lies.

At first it was hard for people to believe anything but as they say, when you continuously keep telling a convincing lie, it starts to look like the truth.

And finally when she was able to give birth to a boy when I was eight and Maya was barely two, step mother played her final move and proved that my mother was of ugly character, that she was a whore and disloyal.

Just because she was in her cousin's room early in the morning, she was charged with adultery and banished from the tribe along with Maya and I.

We were standing at back gate and a few meters away was a cliff.

There was only confusion in my head when we stood outside the gate wondering what had happened while mother kept slamming her hands against the gate begging to be listened to.

She continuously screamed about how she was innocent but there was no response.

She yelled about how she had nowhere else to go because her father and mother would never take her in when she was charged with such lies.

The tribes were that kind of place.

A woman's worth only laid with the man she was with and if he decided to throw her away she was done for.

It all was complete bullshit.

It was as if their world hadn't modernized even though they had all the modern stuff.

After watching her for hours I let go of Maya's hand and walked to her.

"Mom." She looked at me with tear streamed eyes, bloodied hands and messed up hair.

"I'll talk to dad." I told her and wiped her tears, "Wait here. I know another way in." 

I told Maya to stay with mom and ran to a secret entrance hidden among the bushes.

Careful not to get spotted I reached the head office.

I knocked on the door.

"Enter." It was my father's voice.

I opened the door and went in ready to talk but my resolve wavered a bit when I saw him sitting on the sofa with step mother right next to him.

He glared at me as soon as he saw me, "What are you doing here?"

"Father! You made a mistake! You know mother would never do anything like that!"

"She was caught red-handed."

"She wasn't caught doing anything! She was just paying uncle a visit because he was sick."

"Oh child!" Step mother said, "As a child you wouldn't understand adult stuff."

"I understand every-"

"Hush!" She cut me off, "Know your place boy. You, a child will not understand what your mother has been up to."

"She hasn't done anything! Father please!!"

"But father… This is too cruel… We don't have anywhere-"

"Oh shut up boy!" Step mother cut my words again, "Guards!!" She walked towards me, "I'll take care of them dear. I'll make sure they never come back."

The guards came in and grabbed my arms, "Father!! Please!" I tried resisting while I was being dragged out, "What about Maya and Me? What did we do?!"

He ignored me and I was thrown out again.

"Caesar!" My mother came to me while I was on the ground but I didn't give her any response.

To me nothing made sense. I had studied the rules yes.

But I did not know they could be applied like this.

"Guards." I turned my head and looked at step mother, "Throw them off the cliff."

My eyes went wide, "Why!??"

"Well why not? I did say I'll make sure you never come back."

The guards were a bit reluctant but they now had to listen to the lady of the tribe.

"Wait!" Mother came in front of Maya and me, "We'll leave on our own!! Please."

I had never even imagined that a person could be so evil until the time I saw step mother shake her head, "On with it." She ordered.

"You're being too cruel!" Mother yelled at her.

"I am?" She seemed shocked, "Oh no darling. You will survive the fall from the cliff, it's not that high but you will definitely die if I ordered them to shoot you which I won't because I want you to suffer." It was as if Satan himself was smiling down at us because that is exactly how the step mothers hideous grin looked like.

"Kid!" Mother turned and grabbed our hands, "Run!!" 

On instinct we all sprinted and the guards ran after us. 

We do all things we do because we hope we might just make it.

But most of the time, we don't.

That is exactly what happened here. We did manage to run down to the lower part of the cliff but in the end we couldn't make it all the way out.

The cliff at that point was about 50 meters high and just when I thought we could make it till the end we pushed off.

If there was one thing I was glad about, it was that there was a forest down there instead of a flat surface. 

Falling through branches the impact was lessened for me and my mother mostly. I got away with some injuries, bruises and cuts while I think my mother hit her head a bit too hard on one of the branches.

Weakly, I got up and walked to my mother, she was unconscious and there was light bleeding coming from the back of her head.

"Mom?" I tried shaking her but she didn't wake up.

I then looked around. 

When I was trying to focus on my surroundings I noticed something horrifying.

The image of which got burnt in my mind.

The terrifying picture of my sister displayed itself in front of me.

Unlike me and my mother she had fallen right above a rough boulder which was being painted red with her blood that made its way out of her badly brushed head and body.

I can not explain the feeling I felt then but I instantly turned my head away in fear.

In a matter of hours, our lives had turned upside down.