Rage

I sat on the bed with my legs crossed, watching her pace the room. The muscles in her shoulders rolled with the movement. Her claws gently tapped across the wooden floor. Click, click, click. She huffed as she continued. I sat silently, my eyes tracking her path.

“Let me out,” she growled.

I didn’t have to answer. The golden light filtering from the far window danced across her fur, setting it alight like red-gold flames. Her long tail flickered behind her in irritation. She couldn’t sit still. She was too restless. I had kept her in here for too long, but now I could not let her out. She had gone without eating for too long.

“You deny me blood. I crave the coppery taste on my tongue and the warm drip of it down my chin. Let me out. Allow me vengeance.” Her voice was gravely from disuse. “Let me roar!” She cried, propping up her front paws on my lap. Her claws dug into my thighs and her long white teeth glinted in the light as they came close to my face. I felt her hot breath as she panted in my face. Her golden eyes burned with frenzied desperation. I winced at the pain of her claws but I did not flinch back. She would not hurt me. 

“You know I cannot,” I said softly. She huffed and hopped off of me to resume her pacing. 

She paused as footsteps sounded outside the door and someone barged in without knocking. “You’re needed,” he said. 

She stalked up to the door, snarling and growling at the intruder. The stranger did not balk as he would have, if only he could see the tiger snapping at his calves. If only he could hear her growling and threatening to rip out his throat. I didn’t turn around as I said “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I waited to hear the door click back into place and the footsteps retreat. She reached up and pounded on the door with her massive paws, her claws leaving deep gauges in the wood. Splinters fell to the floor and the door caved and straightened with impact, but it would not open.

“Let me out,” she bellowed. “Why do you suffer while they continue to walk free, unburdened by their crimes? Let me devour them. Let me savor their fear as I tear into their soft flesh.”

I tucked my knees into my chest and wrapped my arms around them. She jumped onto the bed and curled up at my side. Her long tail curled around her body as if shielding her. I reached out a hand and stroked it through her soft coat. I sighed as my hands found the bump of her ribs, more prominent now than they had been a few months ago. She was always so hungry. I feared if I let her satisfy her craving now she would ravage a city before she finished.

“It’s too late. Everything has been righted,” I said as she began to settle. 

“You have been righted by your own doing. They have not changed.”

“That is no longer our problem.”

“No, but still I crave their blood,” She purred as she dozed off. I curled up beside her, feeling her soft fur brush my cheek. I felt the weight of her frenzied state drag me into a deep slumber.