Blinded by love



Mistoffelees lay sleeping in the sun. The warm rays of sunlight danced on his night black fur.
His dreams were filled with a beautiful vision of a young cat, a beautiful cat, an angel of white, a goddess of beauty, Victoria.
Mistoffelees had always had feelings for her, but now that he became an adult, his feelings were stronger, more powerful.
His dream ended and blackness returned to his mind.
He soon awoke to an empty junkyard, no sign of Victoria.
I have to tell her today that I love her! Mistoffelees thought to himself as he stretched.
"Hey Mistoffelees!" A voice behind him said.
Mistoffelees rolled over on his back to see Munkustrap coming toward him.
"Hi Munkustrap!" Mistoffelees replied cheerfully.
"So, how does it feel to be an adult?" Munkustrap asked with a knowing smile. Munkustrap had matured almost two years ago. Mistoffelees had matured only two days ago.
"Pretty good actually!" Mistoffelees replied as he rolled over and sat up, facing Munkustrap. "Have you seen Victoria anywhere?"
"Um...no I haven't. Sorry Mistoffelees." Munkustrap lied. Of course he had seen Victoria that morning. He was on his rounds before the sun was up when he saw Victoria in the arms of Plato, kissing after a long night together.
He couldn't bear to tell his little friend that his love belonged to another. It would crush him!
"Hmmm... well I guess I'd better go find her. Thanks Munkustrap! Later!" and with that, the love struck tom, no longer a kitten, took off.
"You should have told him." A voice behind Munkustrap said. Munkustrap turned to see his darling mate Demeter behind him.
Munkustrap sighed and put an arm around her.
"I know, but can you imagine how crushed he's going to be when he finds out about Victoria and Plato?"
"I know. But he has to know Munkustrap! It's part of your responsibility to look after others. Mistoffelees is just learning about how to be an adult, he won't know any better! We have to tell him somehow."


Mistoffelees trotted to another part of the junkyard where he knew Victoria liked to play.
She was still a kitten, only weeks away from maturing, not too young for Mistoffelees.
Mistoffelees sat down and groomed his fur, making sure he was perfect for his angel of beauty.
"Hi Misto." A shaky, quiet voice said coming close to him.
Mistoffelees turned to see a young queen, around Victoria's age, it was Electra.
"Hey Lec! Have you seen Victoria?"
Electra's ears dropped as he said her name. The spark in her eyes faded and looked away from him. She had feelings for him and wanted to tell him, but her magical love didn't seem interested.
"No, sorry Mistoffelees." She lied to him. She too knew where Victoria would be exactly: in the loving arms of Plato.
She had talked to Victoria that morning and listened to her go on and on about her passionate night with her love.
"Do you know where she would be?" He asked. "I need to talk to her."
Why can't you need to talk to me? Electra cried out in her mind.
"Um...I'm sure she'd be around here somewhere."
"Hmm...thanks Electra! See you later!" And he took off running again, to another part of the junkyard where he thought Victoria might be.
"Electra, you know where Victoria is!" Demeter said as she came up next to Electra.
Electra spun around. "Have you been here the whole time?"
Demeter nodded. "I've been following him all morning."
"Dem, aren't you a little old to be stalking other toms? Besides, you're already taken!" Electra said.
Demeter laughed. "I'm not stalking him Electra! As the leader's mate, I have a responsibility to watch out for others just as Munkustrap does. I decided to follow Mistoffelees and tell him myself is no one else tells him about Victoria."
Electra looked away. She couldn't bear to imagine Mistoffelees after he learns about Victoria.
"But he loves her!"
"But does she love him back? No! She's found her love Electra, Misto just doesn't know that. Electra, I can tell that you have feelings for him," Electra blushed and looked away, "So would you want him to be embarrassed if he asked Victoria out if she were already taken by Plato?" Demeter asked.
Electra sighed and normal color returned to her checks. "So, now we have to tell him?"
Demeter nodded. "If not us, then who?"


Mistoffelees eagerly looked around. He could smell that heavenly scent of Victoria around here somewhere.
Demeter and Electra secretly came onto the scene as well.
"This is where Plato lives." Demeter explained.
"I bet he can smell her real good around here." Electra said quietly, but with anger as well. She was rather jealous of Victoria after learning that her crush, Mistoffelees, loved Victoria and not her.
"Do you think you should tell him?" Demeter asked, it sounded more of a statement than anything else. She knew that Electra, or herself had to tell the young magician about his white love.
"Will you come with me?" Electra asked, shakily.
Demeter nodded and stepped out into the open, Electra close behind.
Mistoffelees turned to see them coming.
"Hello ladies! How are you?"
"Fine thank you Mistoffelees, but I think Electra may know where Victoria might be." Demeter said, pushing Electra forward.
"Really Lec?" Mistoffelees asked, hopeful that maybe he could finally tell his love about his true feelings for her.
"Um...I...um..." Electra stammered. She couldn't tell him. She loved him! How could she break his heart? The one thing no two cats should ever do to another. But then again, he hurt her, but he didn't do it intentionally! Oh what to do! Electra thought to herself. "Mistoffelees...I...I..."
"Mistoffelees, we know where Victoria is." Demeter started for Electra, trying to help out the young queen.
"Please tell me." Mistoffelees begged the two queens.
Electra took a deep breath and horrified, she heard herself blurt it out: "She's with Plato now Mistoffelees."
"But why would she..." Misto began, but then stopped short, realizing what they said.
She's with Plato... The words rang in his head.
He wobbled a little bit but then, collapsed to the ground. His numb limbs unable to hold him from shock, his shattered spirit unable to carry his head high, his heart unable to love any more.
His ears dropped and his eyes became cloudy. His insides ached and his once shiny coat now seemed duller than dirt.
Electra watched in horror as her handsome young tom crumbled to the ground. She felt a lump in her throat develop as his body deflated with sadness. What have I done? I've crushed him! Electra thought to herself. She wanted to rush over to him and hold him, tell him everything will be alright, that she loved him and would never break his heart like Victoria did.
Demeter sighed and walked over to the now depressed magician.
She stroked his head once then backed away. "I'll leave you be Mistoffelees." Demeter disappeared, leaving Electra and Mistoffelees alone.
There was a long silence before Electra heard the young magician sobbing.
She quietly crawled down to him and sat next to him, her fur barely touching his.
He looked up at her with tear streaked cheeks and red eyes.
Don't cry over that bitch, please! Electra thought to him, wishing he could hear her. Look what I've done to him. I've crushed him! How could I ever do that to him! I love him! Why did I ever tell him? How could I? How could I crush his gentle, loving spirit like this?


Demeter watched nearby, her heart aching for the two of them.
Look at them. She thought. His bold spirit now crushed by his own blindness. His eyes and heart looked in one direction: towards Victoria. His ears only tuned in for one voice: that of Victoria. His whole body trained to detect any sign of her. Little did he know that the whole time another queen was screaming at the top of her lungs, and he didn't even look up. Another queen was standing in front of him, and he just walked through her. Oh Mistoffelees, look around you! Take off the blinders and look! She loves you! Listen to her trembling voice! Her voice that could make blind man see and a deaf man hear, a voice that could sing you to sleep and tuck you in at night, a voice that wants to say: I love you Mistoffelees.


How could I be so blind and deaf? Mistoffelees wondered to himself. Why did I let my inner, and now adult, feelings take over me? How could I let her go? How could I have been so blind? Why did I let myself get so worked up over her? What have I become? Sure, I'm an adult now, but what is a king without a queen? What am I without a mate? Just a tom, a normal, yet magical, tom. Who am I now without her?
Mistoffelees looked up at Electra, wiped his eyes and finally spoke. "Have you ever loved someone so much that you could feel the love like arms around you? Holding all the love in and never letting it go?"
Electra hugged herself genteelly. She felt that all the time whenever she saw Mistoffelees.
"Yes, I've felt that. And that it's always with you?"
"Yes!" Mistoffelees said, as he stood up. "And no matter where you go you are always wishing..."
"...Always wanting for that someone..." Electra chimed in.
"...to suddenly come up to you and say..."
"I love you." The two cats said together, looking into each other's eyes.
Mistoffelees thought he felt the same feeling he described as he looked into the young queen's eyes.
Electra blushed and turned away.
Mistoffelees crumpled back down to the ground.
The three cats all shared the same sorrow for the heart of one. It would be a long time before Mistoffelees finally gathered the last of his strength in his shattered spirit and go home. Not even noticing that Electra had followed him the whole way to make sure he was okay.


"I take it Mistoffelees knows about Victoria?" Munkustrap asked Demeter later that day.
"Yes, Electra told him. Why?" Demeter replied, curling up next to her mate.
"Because I talked to him today, he didn't seem his normal, peppy self. He seemed depressed, crushed really."
"We all knew it was bound to happen Munku, it was just a matter of time before he knew the truth." Demeter said.
"How did Electra take it?" Munkustrap asked, now stroking the back of Demeter's head. Demeter sighed. "Not so well, I'm afraid she won't get over it. Her spirit is so fragile already that something like this would crush her for a longer time. What if she doesn't get over it? It was her who told him, and she loves him. She knows she's the one who told him and she knows that she's the one who made him this sad."
"Dem, it's not really Electra's fault. It's Mistoffolees' own fault for letting himself not see the facts first."
"I know that, but Electra might not."
Little did the two lovers know that Electra had been listening the whole time.


A little while later, Electra found herself by the shores of the Thames.
"A cat will always land on its feet. But water isn't solid, I can't land on water!"
Electra said to herself as she looked over the edge of the bridge...


"Mistoffelees! Mistoffelees! Oh Everlasting Cat, Mistoffelees where are you?" Demeter frantically shouted around the junkyard.
Etcetera had come up to Demeter a little while ago saying that she saw Electra headed toward the river.
"Mistoffelees!"
Mistoffelees popped his head out of his tunnel near where he heard Demeter frantically shout his name.
"Demeter?" He asked, coming out of his tunnel.
"Oh dear God!" Demeter said racing back toward Mistoffelees. "It's Electra! I don't know what kind of trouble she's in for, but it can't be good."
"So, why do you need me? Shouldn't you go find her?"
"That's just it Mistoffelees, she doesn't need me, she needs you! Mistoffelees please don't tell me you are really that blind! She loves you Mistoffelees! She wanted to tell you, but..."
"I kept brushing her aside and dreaming of Victoria, haven't I?" Mistoffelees finished for her.
"With her being so young I'm afraid that she didn't take the heartbreaking news very well. To her, all there is to life is love. Without a love..."
"There is no life!" Mistoffelees finished again then horrified thought of what that could lead to. "What do you think could've happened to her?" Mistoffelees asked.
"Cety said she saw her headed toward the river." Demeter said.
"Dear Everlasting Cat." Mistoffelees said as he disappeared into the air.


The stars had begun to come out and a thick fog began to rise from the moist grounds of the shores.
"Why would anyone miss me? No one will, especially not him." Electra said as she took another step toward the edge of the bridge.
Then as she was about to take her final step, she saw a beam of light come toward her from across the river.
The light came closer and closer then stopped just before the bridge.
The light grew brighter and brighter to a point that Electra had to cover her eyes and take a step back.
When she took a step back the light dimmed down. She opened her eyes to see Mistoffelees on the water, surrounded by a soft light.
"Electra, don't do this." He pleaded, his voice soft, but on the brink of tears.
"Why would you care? You didn't care about me before. Why does it matter now? What difference would it make?" She spat.
"Because I know the difference between a lost love and a lost life." he replied.
"But the love I lost IS my life."
"I know Electra. I was too blind and deaf and maybe stupid to see it. Electra, come away from the edge, please, let me tell you how sorry I am that I didn't love you before. Electra, dear, sweet, darling, beautiful Electra, no one, including myself, never realized that you needed someone to love you this badly. No one noticed you before, no one cared about you before, and no one loved you before. Until I opened my eyes, ears and heart and saw you. I took off the blinders and instead of seeing just one small image of a distant fantasy being, I saw all around me a simple heavenly being who cared about me. I never knew Electra, I'm sorry. Please, let me love you know and help you live on Electra. I love you."
There was a silence, but Electra's eyes were streaked with tears, so were Mistoffolees'. "I'll catch you Electra. I promise, come down into my arms. They'll hold you, they'll keep you warm, they'll love you."
Electra leaned over the edge and looked into Mistoffolees' eyes. His deep brown eyes told her that she had nothing to fear, nothing to be afraid of, they told her that he would love her and never let her go.
She felt herself fall down off the bridge and the strong arms of Mistoffelees catch her.
The light surrounded them, keeping them warm and safe from harm.
Mistoffelees held onto her with all his might as he guided the light out over the water and back to the junkyard, safely back home.


When they landed, the stars were out and the only two cats awake at the time were two new lovers: Mistoffelees and Electra.
"God Electra, I'm so sorry I didn't see your beauty, your face, your love before." Mistoffelees said, nuzzling her all over her face, head and neck.
"I'm sorry Mistoffelees, I didn't tell you sooner, that I caused your pain, that I..."
"Nothing will ever be your fault. It will always be mine."
Electra started to cry and held onto him, crying into his fur. "I love you Mistoffelees, don't ever let me go."
Mistoffelees kissed her head. "I love you too Electra, my dear sweet, lovely Electra, I'll never let you go."