"Where is he?" It wasn't until this boorish shout came out of her father that she then realized that each of her family members who had gathered at her front door held up one weapon or the other in their hands.
Tanya stood up, petrified and appalled at what she was seeing in front of her, and walked forward to her family while trying to appease the situation but what came out of her mouth was entirely different. "What the hell is all this? What's going on?"
Her father gently placed her to the side where her twins immediately formed a body shield in front of her; one armed with a baseball bat and another armed with an electric mixer.
"Don't worry darling," Her mother, who was holding a large pestle in her hands, said with a serious tone, "everything's going to be fine. Mommy's here now. Nothing's going to happen. We're going to find that nasty intruder and ki-… I mean… beat him till he's pap."
"Or till his half an inch from his life…" Daniel quirkily added, to which his twin nodded in concordance, earning them both a stomach jab from Tanya, causing them to whine in disagreement and mock pain.
"What intruder?" A question that was supposed to be inquisitive came out more exasperated and filled with disbelief. What were they doing?! She screamed internally.
This time, the twins spoke up, "You know? The one who was shouting something like profanities…" Daniel started, and David continued, "..and called you a witch, so you tackled him?"
As Tanya tried stepping out of her human shield to answer, her eldest brother, Nathaniel, suddenly stepped forward and asked her, this tone emotionless and flat yet cold and deep, "Or did we interrupt something?"
Tanya eyerolled with folded arms, "Well my movie… obviously."
Nathaniel walked closer to her, clearing the wide gap between them with just a couple of steps and immediately coming into her direct line of sight; a testament to his build, which slightly rivaled his father and yet was a replica of his genes. A child worthy of being the first son through and through.
Nathaniel leaned down to her eye level and said, "You know that's not what I mean, Princess."
"I apologize, big brother Nate, but I don't think that we are on the same page quite yet. You've always been bad at carrying people along outside of the military grounds that is."
The room went silent for a while and soon Nathaniel opened his mouth and asked, "Were you perhaps doing something before we came in?"
"Be specific, Big Brother."
"Something that you wouldn't like to be caught doing." Tanya's line of sight nervously moved to her study table, and Nathiel's eagle-like vision followed her movement.
Tanya, getting flustered, tried to get him to look away from the laptop knowing that this particular movement would cause a chain reaction, causing the rest of them to follow his line of sight to the study table and Tanya would be damned to allow them to see that she had been watching sitcoms that had a target audience of pre-teens.
Fortunately for the situation, unfortunately for her, her family eventually saw the laptop, and a strained groan flowed out of her lips as though her stomach was upset. It was humiliating.
"Tanya, were you…"
"…watching a sitcom with a pre-teens target audience?"
"Were you trying to start a cringe-fest by yourself?"
"Were you that desperate and backward for entertainment?"
Tanya's eyes saw red as she literally bunched up Daniel's lips with a fist and glared hard at Nathaniel while David squealed like a pig while trying to pry open the lips of the former from her vice-like grip in the calmest way possible while commenting on her impossible strength and unsavory behavior.
Nathaniel turned back to her with a cool look and then continued, "Then that sound we heard…"
"Came from when I was playing with my speakers during the movie and accidentally paired it with my laptop."
"Your laptop's BT was still on?"
"At the worst scenes? Unfortunately so, brother."
Nathaniel backed up, and Tanya finally noticed that he had armed himself with spiked knuckle gloves and not with a handheld weapon. His confidence was commendable but then again, Nathaniel was invincible in hand-to-hand combat since she could remember.
"So, that means no intruder?" Her mom spoke up with uncertainty and lowered vigilance.
"Or midnight rendezvous?" David asked cautiously as he tended to his twin who was finally released from her unforgiving grip but with the eyes of a cat that was both cautious and resentful.
Tanya moved her gaze to her eldest brother and eyed him for his reaction, but sensing that it was impossible without seeming suspicious herself, she gave up and sighed, "No, there wasn't. I'd like to go back to what I was watching before this terrible misunderstanding ensued."
Nathaniel eyed her blankly for a very brief moment before turning away and leaving the room abruptly without another comment. Somewhere within her, Tanya secretly sighed in appreciation at the fact that her eldest sister wasn't present. The thought of her being there caused a shiver to go down her spine. It was best to stop such lines of thought early.
The twins soon filed out but not before sending her vicious glares filled with weariness and resentment. She answered such an attitude with a smile and watched as they looked at her with disbelief but not before baring their fangs at her. Those foolish children…!
Her parents walked up to her back while she was busy with her display of childish sibling rivalry. Soon, two pairs of strong warm arms sandwiched her in an embrace on both sides.
Tanya was stunned at first, her instinctual fight or flight mode kicking in but then a familiar scent and warm, reassuring heartbeats that surrounded her on both sides calmed her instincts down as she slowly began to melt into the embrace.
"Mummy," she heard her mother's endearment for her, "are you alright?" Tanya nodded reassuringly within the embrace, and they broke up, but her father's hands had a soft grip on her shoulders as she inspected her, running his gaze from her crown to her soles in a panicky and flustered manner.
"What are you doing, Richard?" Her mother asked as she slapped his strong arms off her and then held her close to her person in a side hug and with a soft shoulder squeeze. She turned to her husband with a glare, but he raised his hands in total surrender while looking back at his wife with a flustered expression.
Tanya looked at her parents with a small smile. Her eyes stung with unshed tears as she recalled her past and she greedily savored the warmth of her mother's arms and voice along with her father's. This might have been a long night but it was worth something. Something worth much more than all the rest.
***
"Keuh!" That was the sound of all the oxygen leaving her chest at the absurd request, which sounded more like a child's spontaneous idea, that flower out of her boss's mouth shamelessly.
She turned round to glare at him as she silently screamed with the rage and shame that coursed her whole body like an inferno. "You want us to what?!"
Tanya wanted so much to scream in rage at the fools in front of her and at her past choices.
What had she thought, getting acquainting herself with such a crazy person? What inspired her to take such steps? Was it her desperation to live a new life? Or was it the fear of death?
Tanya doubted it was the last one. Because if it was, she wouldn't still be here as this trash kept on spewing bullsh*t with such a straight face.
And yet still, he dared to continue to open such a pretty garbage trap and spew more sh*t! "What's wrong, Tanya? Are you scared that your family mightn't accept me? Worry not, I'll talk to them on your behalf."
Tanya's head snapped to him with craze and madness filling her eyes and dying her orbs with despair, disbelief, and blood. Was he insane, or was she begging to die?
"Have you home mad in a last-ditch attempt at saving your dignity, sir?" Tanya asked with a blank face that held not even as much as a smile. She was angry, and he could tell, but he wouldn't be who he was if he left her like that without cracking her impenetrable stoic mask.
"I'll have you remember that I'm your boss, Tanya."
"And I regret the day I made such choices with every fiber of my being."
An irked smile reached his lips as his face distorted in anger and annoyance. This brat couldn't be serious, "Are you indirectly asking to quit, Tanya?"
Tanya felt like she had gone cold with still anger. Her eyes blazed with calm rage as she answered, "At this point, I don't need to fear my death flags in the future cause it seems the biggest one is right here in front of me."
Despite the fact that Alvise's expression hardly changed on the surface, he felt shivers up his spine as she mentioned death.
While Tanya was absentminded in her cold rage, she missed the expression that clouded Alvise's face at that moment.
Little did Tanya realize…
…Her nonchalance was slowly beginning to be exposed and she already had holes in her expression that could cost her eventually.
Something that she had sworn to avoid in her rebirth.