A/N: Ok, first of all, thanks to all of you guys who reviewed. I'm making sure I read all the reviews and I'm glad they're positive.
I've also got a review saying some characters look bit ooc. I'm sorry for that and I promise I will try to improve.
Now let's move on,
The cat in black and white, chapter 2:
Just bad dreams
Mittens woke up on Penny's bed. It was apparently night time, seeing as darkness enveloped the whole room. Only a faint beam on moonlight shone through the window.
But she quickly realized something was wrong. The room was empty. Bolt, Rhino and Penny were nowhere to be seen.
She tried to stand up, only to find out she couldn't. There was something holding her hind legs together and holding her front legs to her chest.
She was tied with bandages.
'What the heck is going on!?' thought Mittens, struggling in her confines, but with no success.
She kept struggling for another ten seconds, but froze as soon as her ears picked up a weird crackling sound. It sounded oddly familiar, like something she'd heard recently. She listened to it for a while, trying to figure out where it was coming from.
And then it hit her.
A fire.
She didn't want to believe it at first, but as the crackling sounds of rapidly growing flames grew louder and louder, she could feel the unmistakable heat of flames washing over her body. The scariest part was that she couldn't see the flames…yet.
As she helplessly lay on Penny's bed, she could only watch as the faint rays of moonlight were beaten in intensity by a bright orange glow that slowly illuminated the entire room. She still couldn't see the flames, and she deduced that they were behind her. Where the door was. Where the stairs were.
The house! The whole house is on fire!
Mittens' heart pounded wildly in her chest.
She began fighting against the bandages again.
"Hey! Is anybody here? Help!" she called out. But no response came.
'Where are they?' she thought. 'Did anything happen to them? Why did they leave me here?'
A dark thought flashed through her mind: Did her new owners abandon her as well?
The thought felt like a rock in her stomach. Fortunately, the feeling didn't last very long. Unfortunately, that was because the flames were now outside, brushing themselves against the window.
Its wooden frame almost instantly caught fire, and started spreading throughout the room.
"Oh no. No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening!" Mittens said frantically. But the more she fought the bandages, the tighter they bound her body.
Half of the furniture was now on fire. The room itself was beginning to fill with smoke and the air was so hot that it was becoming almost impossible to breathe.
Mittens' lungs burned, but she still managed to scream: "Bolt! Rhino! ANYBODY HELP ME! Please!"
She was quickly losing hope. She had no idea how she had gotten into this, but she knew she needed a miracle to get her out. And she honestly didn't believe in miracles.
Where did everybody go? Why am I tied up? Who would have done this? She thought, a sickening feeling welling in her stomach. It had only been a month since she had been taken into Bolt's family, and now she was going to die, tied up, without anybody knowing where she was. Would they ever find her body?
She forced the grim thought aside, knowing it wasn't going to help. She needed to believe. She never believed, but right now, there wasn't any other way. She needed to hope for a miracle.
Minutes passed. Still no one came to rescue her. The searing heat had distorted her vision, and she couldn't take more than a few ragged breaths through the suffocating smoke. Her hope was disappearing, like the house around her, consumed in the flames.
But at the point where she had given up all hope and resigned her fate to the world, something happened. The door suddenly blew open. A single man ran inside. He was dressed in the classic protection suit of a firefighter.
"Oh, looks we forgot someone. Better get you out before this place falls apart," he said as soon as he spotted Mittens, surprisingly calmly.
Mittens stared in disbelief. For a moment she thought she was seeing things, but the man walked over to her, and she knew he was really there. Relief washed over her, but it was short lived.
"Thank god, I already thought I gonna…Wait…w-what are you doing?"
To her shock, the fire-fighter took off his helmet as he stood in front of her, completely ignoring the fire. He had a long, pale face, with short black hair, wearing small rectangular glasses. He did not look completely sane.
A small metallic tag on his uniform said: 'Dr. Walsh'.
W-What?
He grinned evilly as he reached to his side, grabbing his axe and lifting it high in the air, right above Mittens.
No…No, this can't be happening!
Her pulse spiked again upon seeing the dangerous weapon. She tried to struggle, but once again it was useless. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't move, and the man, the man whom she hated was now going to not just be her tormentor, but her executioner.
She couldn't even scream. She could only watch as the firefighter that looked exactly like her vet twirled his weapon around before gripping it tightly.
"Don't worry, Mittens. I will help you, heheheh…Ahahahaha!" he laughed insanely.
Then he swung the axe.
Mittens jumped as she awoke from her nightmare. She could hear her own heart hammering in her chest, and her breath was labored. Standing on all fours, she quickly scanned the room with her eyes, searching for any hint of the man's presence.
Silence.
The room seemed to be completely normal, as it was before. Everybody was still there, sleeping on Penny's bed: Bolt, Rhino, and of course, Penny.
Mittens sat down again, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. She soon realized there really were bandages wrapped around her, but they covered only her wound and they weren't binding her down.
It…was just a dream…
She let out a sigh, "Why it has to be always me!?" she said to herself, hoping she didn't wake up anyone else.
Throwing a glance at the clock beside Penny's bed, she saw it was 4:18 am. There was no way she could fall asleep now.
Moonlight passed through the window, illuminating a rectangular patch on the bed. Mittens moved into that patch and sat down again, letting her eyes rest on the moon momentarily. She closed them after a while, allowing her fur to absorb the light. It wasn't anywhere nearly as nice as sunbathing, but it was enough.
Suddenly she felt something. Somebody was approaching her from behind, and she knew who it was. A weak smile appeared on her lips.
"Hello, Wags. Did I wake you up?" she asked.
"Almost," said Bolt as he yawned, then added: "But I'm glad to see you areawake."
He walked up to her and sat close to her left side, a little bit too close for Mittens. She felt his fur brushing against her bandaged side slightly, but it didn't hurt; in fact, his body was actually warming her up. And she wasn't sure if she was supposed to enjoy it or pull herself away. Bolt was probably too tired to notice her awkwardness, though.
In the end, Mittens decided to just not move an inch and continued to 'moonbathe' with her eyes closed.
"I heard some screams, though. Are you alright?" asked Bolt, his voice filled with concern.
Mittens opened her eyes, but didn't look at Bolt.
"It was just a bad dream. I'm fine now, don't worry."
"Are you sure?" Bolt asked, skeptical. "You were out for quite a long time…"
Mittens closed her eyes and shook her head.
"You worry too much, Bolt. Everybody has nightmares sometimes."
"I know, but I think you'll feel better if you share them with someone," Bolt said in response.
Mittens didn't feel like telling her dreams to Bolt. Or anybody else, for that matter.
"Just go get some more sleep, Wags. I've had many nightmares, I know how to deal with them," she said, closing her eyes.
But even with her eyes closed, she could still feel his eyes on her. She knew Bolt was still worried about her, and knowing the dog, he wasn't going to give up until he found out what it was.
She sighed, opening her eyes again…and nearly jumped in shock. Bolt was crouched to her level and his face was now less than inch from hers. His beautiful brown eyes completely filled Mittens' field of view.
Wait…did I just say 'beautiful'?
"But that's it, Mittens. I don't want you to have any nightmares," he said softly, "I want only the best for you. Really, I do. But I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong."
He pulled back from Mittens' face and sat back down in front of her, waiting for her response.
"Bolt, I-I..." she tried to think of something to say, but she saw his pleading face—it might as well have been the dog face—and she couldn't think of anything.
"Okay, Wags, okay. I'll tell you what the dream was about, but could you…just come back here, please?" she said, motioning to the now empty place at her left side.
She would never have admitted it to anybody, but she missed the warmth Bolt's body had provided.
Bolt gave her a surprised look, but sat back by her side again.
Mittens started talking. She narrated the dream to Bolt. She told him about the bandages, the fire, the helplessness she felt, and the crazy vet-fire-fighter that ended her life.
Bolt listened carefully, stopping her only once while she was describing the doctor's appearance.
"I thought you were out the whole time. How do you know what he looks like?" he asked curiously.
"I've seen him. I woke up few minutes before the operation, and I had just enough time to see his face and name before they actually put me to sleep."
She shook her head.
"Anyway, after he came in, he took his axe and t-threw it into my face," she finished, shivering slightly as the dream replayed that horrific moment in her head.
"Wow, that sounds terrible," Bolt said quietly. "How do you have nightmares like this?" he asked.
"Basically every time I visit the vet," Mittens answered, sounding a bit frustrated.
Mittens was finally starting to open up to Bolt, and he used the opportunity to ask: "When did it start? Why does the vet scare you so much? I know, you were declawed, but…weren't you asleep through it? Did it hurt a lot?"
Mittens could see the sincere concern in Bolt's eyes.
There was a brief silence in the room as the two of them just looked at each other.
'He wants to help you Mittens. You should give him a chance,' she thought.
She looked down, down to where her paws were, and let out a sad sigh.
"The vet…The one I used to know was a very nice person. He always helped me, always smiled at me…I trusted him." She said, "Then one day...one day I was told I needed to get checked. I was happy to see him again, because I liked him."
Her voice was beginning to shake. "But then... he... he just put me asleep...and w-when I woke up…my paws…my claws..."
Her voice broke down. She closed her eyes in pain, trying not to let it take over, but the first tears had already begun rolling down her cheeks.
A feeling of guilt washed over Bolt as he watched the small cat cry silently.
He wrapped his paw around her back and pulled her close to his side. Mittens didn't try to resist. Bolt's fur felt soft and warm, and the feeling comforted her.
"Please Mittens, don't cry," said Bolt softly, almost in whisper.
And surprisingly, it had an effect; Mittens' sobs slowly stopped.
She stayed in Bolt's arms for few more seconds before actually saying:
"Bolt?"
"Yeah?"
"First of all: Why are we hugging each other?"
Bolt's face turned bright red. He let Mittens go. She pulled away, but still stayed close.
"Sorry, I just wanted…" he started, but was interrupted.
"Yeah, thanks, but…Let's pretend this didn't happen. Okay?" said Mittens, apparently blushing as well, though it wasn't so visible through her black fur.
Bolt nodded. "I'm fine with it."
He watched Mittens wiping some the last tears from her face, still looking rather upset.
He gave a rather frustrated sigh.
"I'm sorry Mittens, I shouldn't have asked." he said, as if angry at himself.
"It's okay, Wags. I'm actually glad I've got this one out," she said, giving Bolt a weak smile.
"But... there is one more bad dream I should share with you, I guess. Since we're already talking about dreams…" she said hesitantly.
"I'm listening." Bolt nodded, inviting her to continue.
"I had this one shortly after I moved here. Remember when Penny went with her mom back to Hollywood to visit some of the people there when you were quitting the show?" she started.
Bolt nodded.
"They took you with them, so me and Rhino were alone in the house. He went off watching TV and I fell asleep..."
The studio was on fire. Heavy black smoke poured through the windows. Firefighters were unsuccessfully trying to get the fire under control and to calm down panicking people.
People ran about screaming, some in sheer panic, others calling out for their loved ones. It was chaos.
But all of it was a distant hum for Mittens, as she watched the building burn. The building Bolt was in.
She and Rhino watched it with bated breath, never taking their eyes off it. Bolt was in there way too long and they were beginning to fear the worst.
Suddenly a single sound cut through the noise of the crowd: a bark.
One of the fire-fighters called for silence.
A spark of hope flashed in Mittens' heart. It was him, she was sure it was him and he was alive.
'Come on, Bolt. Just one more time!' Mittens pleaded.
The silence grew longer. It lasted for ten seconds... fifteen seconds...it seemed like an eternity to Mittens.
But the bark never came. The firefighter just shook his head slowly and continued the evacuation.
Mittens just sat there, watching the building burn, not believing her eyes.
"...and then I just woke up." finished Mittens.
Bolt looked slightly shocked. "So, you were so worried about me, that you dreamt about my death?"
Mittens rolled her eyes, but smiled. It was her first real smile in few days.
"Of course, because my favourite superdog was running around studios, instead of protecting me," she said jokingly. Her sarcasm felt a little forced to her, but Bolt didn't seem to feel so. He returned her smile.
"So are you feeling better now?" he asked.
"Yeah, I do. It seems you were right, Wags."
"How's your wound feeling?" he asked, remembering about it when he looked at her bandages.
Mittens had completely forgotten about the wound by that point.
"Wound? What w…oh. Ah, it's fine. It hurts only when I breathe." she stated flatly.
"Okay, now you're fine." Bolt chuckled, seeing that Mittens' sense of humor was back.
"Yeah, thanks a lot, Bolt."
"Anytime, Mittens. I'll be here anytime you need me." Bolt smiled.
Mittens lied back down, letting the moonlight shine onto her back.
"Well, I just hope I won't have to see vet in a long time."
Bolt's eyes widened as he heard the sentence.
"Uh…Mittens? How long do you consider a week?" he asked.
According to Mittens' sudden expression; not much.
The end of second chapter!
Again, reviews are appreciated!
