Chapter 1
"Mother! Mother, come see the flowers I picked!" I run towards my mother, anxious to show her my brand new peonies. "No! Mother!" I see a man on a pitch-black horse riding ever closer to her. I run as fast as I can, but I can barely move. It's like I am running through sand. The man nears her closing the gap between them. It seems like hours and seconds at the same time. My mother screams and she is gone. "Mother!"
I wake up in a cold sweat. I'm sopping from all the moisture. It was only a dream… I look around and remember where I am…the same old prison cell. The lime-stained stonewalls mocking my every action, I feel trapped. "He…ACK! Ha!" I hear a raspy laugh in the corner of my containment chamber. "You dreamin' about getting' outta hea'? I got news for you…you AIN'T getting' outta hea' no time soon!" Oh…it's only Herschel, my guard.
"You gonna ansa' me?!" He shouts at me, spraying his saliva, browned with chewing tobacco, all over my face. "No. I would never dream of getting out of this palace…" I reply sarcastically. I unintentionally smirk a little. I instantly regretted it. "You tryin' to use that crap wit me?! I'll show you Hell on Earth if you want it like that!" He yells louder, spraying my face again. He gropes for his rusty keys and unlocks my cell slowly, his fingers stumbling from his drunken body.
He comes inside and undoes his belt. He pulls it out of the loops and starts beating my back. I feel searing stripes coming along my back.. It hurts more than any of the other beatings. It's probably the whiskey from earlier working his system. "You wanna smart off about that, you insignificant piece of worthless filth?!" The beatings continue mercilessly, hurting more with each lash. I want to scream, but no sound comes from my mouth. I can almost bear it no more. Lucky for me tonight is my night, the night I become one with my nature.
Here it comes. My blood is pulsing and I feel my eyes focusing. My tawny brown fur emerges, and I feel exhilarated. My claws are coming out, painfully. Nevertheless this is euphoria. Herschel is cowering in the corner, making it better. Clutching his dip and bottle close, he whimpers pathetically as I saunter toward him and get in front of his nose. My feline face scares him. He lets out a horrible scream and I rip my claws through the air. I have finally repaid him for the pain he has caused me. I'm not the murderous type, but this is different.
I was captured by the LCD army one month ago…the night after my last phase. The LCD (Legendary Creature Defense) army is an evil organization and the reason Humans don't know about us…The legendary creatures. They particularly hate my kind…the neko-onis. Nobody really knows of the existence of neko-onis because we are very rare, created by humans and Chinese tiger ladies falling in love and having children. Anyway, my friends and I have been fighting the LCD since we were toddlers, and my mother was the one teaching us of their evil ways. We live in tiny villages according to the LCD scum's rules.
I hear a screech outside. I look down from my third-floor window and I see a silver car with electric blue accents that I would know anywhere. "Mike!" I shout. (It comes out as more of a feral growl). Mike is my mate…the one I'm destined to be with forever. I jump down and creep towards him. I rub gently against his leg and growl lowly, our sign of affection. "Good to see you too, Kat, but we gotta get outta here! I broke the safety perimeter and the LCD will be here any minute!" He says, obviously in a rush. I hop into the car and we're off. Mike drives really fast, which is just how I like it.
We pass through the forest at 170mph, thanks to his tricked-out car. We go home to Oakwood Prefecture and arrive to a horrible scene of burning and destruction. Mike falls to his knees and I could swear I saw him shed a few tears. "This is all my fault," he says "Why did I let this happen?" I kneel down and put a hand (well…PAW) on his back . I nuzzled his cheek and tried to comfort him. Purring gutturally I licked his face, but he pushes me away. He's never acted this cold to me before. His emotions were obviously colder from the scene, but I still felt stung.
I change back slowly, putting my paw on his back again and feeling it turn back into my pale, hairless hand. "Mike?" I say in my bell like voice. No reply. "Mike." I repeat, more imperative this time. Still nothing. I am about to repeat it again when a piece of parchment slips toward my hand. I remove my hand from his back and unfold the paper. Let's Go. That's all it says. I touch his shoulder and nod.
We stand up and walk back toward the car. I open my door and flop down on the seat, abnormally tired. It was cold outside. I hadn't noticed through all the excitement (the bad kind) the night had brought. Mike is just standing outside staring at the ruins of the place we once called home.
"Mike, sweetie. Please get in the car. You don't need to look at this anymore." He just nods and steps into the car and thumps onto the seat even more carelessly than I had. He puts the key into the ignition and waits a minute to turn it. He looks at me through tear-stained eyes and smiles. Not the "Hey, this is awesome" smile he usually gives, but one that appears to say "I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me". I return his smile and grab his hand and squeeze. "Well," he says quietly "What do we do now?" he asks cautiously. "Well, this we'll think about that tomorrow. Right now let's eat. I'm starving."
Chapter 2
We stopped at an IHOP in Santa Monica. I ordered the chocolate chip pancakes, of course. I've always adored chocolate chip pancakes. I started off with one. Then two more. Then three more, and continued from there. By the time I got to ten on one plate, a waitress had fainted and Mike had to beg me to stop before I ran out the whole restaurant's supply of batter. Mike had to pry my fork out of my hand and take the plate away before I finally stopped and realized that I was full. I looked at Mike and he just stared back, dumbfounded. He stood up and helped me up then placed two hundred dollar bills on the table and we left before they could throw any forks at us. (The manager already had one aimed and ready to go).
Mike stepped into the car while I hobbled around to get to my side and fell into the seat. "Hot dogs." Mike said, staring out the windshield. "What?" I reply, thinking he was crazy. "Ice Cream." He says again, a serious look on his face. He looked at me and grinned, I knew what he was doing now. "Stop it, Mike! Don't do this to me!" He starts yelling. "Chocolate covered strawberries! Flan with sugar icing!"
He's playing this game we used to play when we were kids and one of us got really full. We'd yell names of foods and see how long it took the other to throw up.
"Banana split! Spaghetti carbonara! Tomato soup! Pizza! Fried ice cream! Fried candy bars!" Mike is such a jerk sometimes. "Mike! Stop or I'll throw up on you!" His taunting continued. "Chicken cordon Bleu! Melted parmesan cheese!" It was the last one that got me. I blow big, pancakey chunks all over his nice leather jacket. I wiped my mouth while he frantically wipes his jacket. "What the hell did you do that for?!" he yells angrily. "I told you I'd throw up on you." I taunted back. The universe works in mysterious, wonderful ways.
Mike just turns around and puts his key in the ignition. He turns it slowly and we back out of our parking space. Soon we're on the road again. I lay in my seat watching the lines on the road go by and I slowly drift into sleep.
When I wake up, red walls carved with hearts and stars surround me. I am still delirious from my long sleep (at least I assume it was long) and continue looking around from my hazy vision. I hear a hiss from far away. I wonder what it is. It just keeps going and as it does, I grow more and more anxious. I stand up and try to walk to the source of the noise. My wobbly feet almost fail me two or three times, but after about two minutes I finally make it to the source of the noise. I feel humidity choking me and begin to feel afraid of what this is. I look around the corner and instantly feel stupid.
It's just the shower. Mike must be taking one because of the vomit I inflicted on him last night. I assume he was so tired last night from all the driving and worry that he fell straight asleep instead of showering. I walk over and tap on the wall so he will hear that I am up. I can see his hand move to turn the water off. As he is doing that I think of a hilarious prank, so I grab his towel, run out to the car and lock the doors.
As look around outside while Mike is probably wondering about the whereabouts of his towel, I notice that it is very bright outside and that palm trees surround me. That isn't abnormal for the area of California where we live, but I instantly get the feeling that we are far away from home. The smell is different, the feel is different, and the whole environment here is different. Just then, Mike emerges from the hotel room, startling me, and wearing nothing but swimming trunks over his dripping body.
In his hands are my best bikini and another pair of trunks. He has a huge grin on his face and I am instantly worried about what he has in mind. He bounds over to the driver's side door holding his keys. Crap I thought, I forgot to grab his keys…
He shoves the key into the keyhole and unlocks the door. He lifts the door handle and the door pops open, exactly what I didn't want. He sits down in the hot leather seat and throws my bikini at my face. I wonder where he got this, but I'm not as worried about that as what he plans to do that involves bathing suits.
"Put it on." Mike says seriously. "Wait, what? I can't do that in a car, Mike." I reply. "I won't look," Mike replies sarcastically "If you're worried about that. Although…" He crawls over to me and puts his hand under my chin. "I am your mate, I should at least see what you look like." He says, breathing the words into my face. I'm trembling a little, despite my better instincts. "Mike," I reply. "I've gotta get something off my chest…" I say, looking at him meaningfully. "Yes?" he says, looking hopeful. "It's just…I don't know how to say it…" "Yes, Kat? You can tell me anything, you know." I begin again. "It's just…your breath smells. Bad." I reply smiling.
Mike shoves me a little and returns to his seat. I put the bathing suit on under my clothes (this was a difficult task) and return to my normal position staring out the window.
