The Ghost Cat
Disclaimer: I do not own Cats the musical or any of its characters.
Chapter 1: Murder
Summer is the best time of the year; most humans and cats could agree on that. The hot sunny days were perfect for having fun and running around while the nights were cool enough that you could sit back and relax without a single care in the world. At least that's what it meant to a human child or a kitten; for Wisp, summer was his favorite season because it was at this time last year he met Swansea, a beautiful calico queen. She was slightly shorter than him, about the same age and she lived near the park in Victoria Grove where Wisp had his home. At first he'd thought she was no different from any other queen in that area; kind of stuck up, snobby, with a little sprinkling of egotism thrown in for good measure. But she had proven him wrong; though her family was quite well off, she didn't have the usual air of cockiness that he'd seen in other queens; she was quite nice to him, easy to talk to and had a great sense of humor. They had started dating soon afterwards and after a year, they had mated.
One thing that had really impressed Wisp was the way she had accepted his powers. At a young age, he had discovered that he was in fact, a magical cat; he could shoot bolts of lightning from his paws, make things move just by looking at them, even make himself invisible among other things. She had been a bit wary of his powers at first; he couldn't blame her, he'd been absolutely terrified when he first found out he had them. But as time passed, she had eventually accepted them.
Tonight Wisp decided to take Swansea down to a fish restaurant just across the Thames River. He had discovered the place purely by accident; he'd been wandering around the area trying to summon up the courage to ask her to mate with him when he'd noticed the smell. Following his nose, he had crossed the bridge and come upon the quaint old building where he found one of the chefs sitting outside having a smoke break. The pungent smell of the cigarette had almost made him turn away when the human had noticed him. Normally, Wisp didn't have much to do with humans but this one seemed nice enough so he had allowed him to stroke his fur for a while before he'd gotten up and gone inside. Wisp had been trying to figure out the best way to get in when the human had returned with a fair sized piece of fish which he had laid on an old tin foil roasting pan. One taste had convinced the silver tom that he had to bring Swansea here.
"Here?" Swansea asked as they approached the quaint old building.
"Yeah, this is it," Wisp answered as he led her to the back door. No one was outside at the moment so Wisp scratched on the door. When that didn't work, he meowed loudly enough that someone inside would hear him. Swansea giggled at how kittenish his meow had sounded; he just shrugged and gave her a look that said, "Hey, it works." Sure enough the door opened then, gently pushing Wisp back and the same human chef came out.
"Hey, you're back again huh?" he asked as he brushed the fur on Wisp's head, "And you brought your girlfriend with you too I see." He petted Swansea before continuing, "We're pretty busy tonight, but I'll see what I can do for you."
As he disappeared back inside, Swansea licked her paw and wiped her head with it, shuddering. "Are his hands always that grimy?" she asked. Wisp nodded as he cleaned his own fur. "This is why I don't let humans pet me that much," he said with a note of disgust, "Yuck." The chef returned shortly after with a piece of fish and set it on the roasting pan. "Enjoy," he said and was gone back inside again. The pair settled down and ate the fish, Wisp chuckling to himself when he saw the look on his mate's face when she tasted it. It was like she'd died and gone to heaven.
Once they had finished, they started making their way, paw in paw, back toward the bridge. The moon was full and shone down upon the water like a pale sun. Wisp glanced over at her as they walked and with the moonlight glinting faintly off her fur, she looked even more beautiful than ever. She caught him staring and smiled, walking a bit closer to him.
"Well ain't this sweet," a voice sneered. Turning, they saw three alley toms heading toward them from the shadow of a nearby alleyway. One was brownish black, the second a tabby and the third was smoky gray. Wisp could hear the footsteps of a fourth but he chose to remain hidden in the darkness.
"Where you lovebirds goin'?" the brownish black tom asked, "Takin' a stroll by the water?"
"We were just leaving," Wisp answered evenly and started to lead Swansea away but the tabby and the gray tom stood in their way. The gray tom looked at Swansea and flashed a greasy smirk.
"Hey babe," he said taking her paw, "Whaddaya say you and me have a little fun?" Swansea hissed at him and yanked her paw away. "Don't touch her," Wisp growled.
"Ooo, lover boy's getting tough huh," the tabby said getting in Wisp's face, "What are you going to do about it kitten?"
With a snarl, Wisp hit the tabby in the chest but his paw was open instead of bunched up in a fist. As soon as he touched the other tom, a powerful blast of lightning shot through the tom's body sending him flying backward and Wisp heard a hiss of anger from the tom that remained hidden in the shadows. "GET HIM!" the tom shouted and the other two alley toms jumped Wisp from behind beating him to the ground. Swansea tried to help her mate but the fourth tom finally emerged from the shadows and grabbed her, preventing her from helping him. Wisp tried to get a look at this fourth tom but he could only see glimpses of him; tall, lean and had what looked like silver or black fur. He lashed out viciously at both toms but they were larger and stronger than him; they eventually overpowered him and ended the fight by cracking a rock over Wisp's head.
His vision blurry and his body nearly numb, Wisp felt next to nothing as the group dragged him and Swansea down to the water. He could hear something that sounded like her crying but when he tried to focus, it sent a sharp bolt of pain through his head and he nearly blacked out. He did however manage to clear his vision long enough to see a blurred image of the fourth tom lifting his paw to her throat, followed by a ripping sound which turned into a wet gurgle. Her body twitched then fell limp and though he was close to passing out, he knew what had happened.
"Swansea," he slurred almost drunkenly and the toms simply laughed. The blurry images began to fade as he heard a splash then an even sharper pain shot through his head and he knew no more.