Tumblebrutus whipped round. Somewhere in the fog Electra screamed a second time. "Electra? Where are you? Are you alright?", he called out. There was no answer. "Electra? What's happened? Are you hurt?", Tumblebrutus yelled again, a note of panic creeping into his voice this time. Still no reply.

He set off at a run, heading back the way he had seen his friend go. Something had happened to her and it was clearly bad if she couldn't even answer him. Tumblebrutus fought to control the rising panic. He was supposed to be looking after her. If anything had happened, if Electra was hurt... It didn't bear thinking about.

"If you know what's good for you," a silky voice hissed, cutting through the fog and chilling Tumblebrutus to the bone, "you'll stay where you are."

The young tom stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes straining to make out where the voice was coming from. He knew that voice. Everyone in London knew that voice. "Macavity!", Tumblebrutus croaked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

Just ahead of him a dark shape moved in the fog. It came slowly closer, until it was stood under a street lamp being illuminated by the soft, yellow light.

Tumblebrutus gasped and felt himself shudder in horror. In front of him stood a tall, ginger tom with a very long, matted coat and terrifyingly long claws. A smirk was playing about his lips and his eyes were glinting dangerously. In his grasp he held Electra, who was whimpering with pain and fear. One of his claws was pressed to her throat, cutting into the skin slightly.

"Please," Tumblebrutus whispered. He seemed to have lost the ability to form coherent sentences. His mouth was dry and he could hardly swallow. The sight of Electra trapped in Macavity's grasp made him feel physically sick. "Please don't hurt her."

At that the ginger tom laughed. His laughter echoed round the empty alley, sounding like a thousand claws being scraped over a thousand blackboards. The mirth never reached his cold eyes, that were fixed on Tumblebrutus with a calculating expression, however. They stayed as cold and hard as flints, glittering in the light from the street lamp.

"How touching", Macavity sneered, "you're worried about your little queen friend. Quite right, too. It's not safe for kittens to be wandering the streets at this time and it would be tragic if something were to," he paused and his face twisted into a grin, revealing lethal-looking teeth, "happen to her."

"No!", Tumblebrutus choked, "you wouldn't!"

Macavity let out another laugh. His claws dug deeper into Electra's neck, breaking the skin. Blood began to flow, slicking down her fur. Electra whimpered and began to cry. "P-please don't h-hurt me!", she managed to sob, her voice quivering with terror.

With sudden brutality, Macavity wrenched her head back painfully, using his free paw to smack Electra across the face. The kitten let out a squeal of pain as her lip split open and her nose began to ooze blood. "When I want your input, kitten, I'll ask for it. Now keep your mouth shut," the large tom hissed, "it's not you I want to talk to." His red eyes flicked slowly up to focus on Tumblebrutus's face. "I have a proposal for you, Tumblebrutus."

The young tom trembled, unable to tear his eyes away from the trail of blood running down Electra's face. She had been hurt and it was all his fault. If he had looked after her properly this would never have happened. Now Electra was suffering because of him.

Macavity let out a low snarl. "Looks like someone needs to teach you some manners. When I speak to you I expect you to answer me, is that clear? Maybe this little lesson will help you to remember that very simple concept." He grabbed Electra by the scruff of the neck and smashed her into the lamppost next to him.

As she hit the hard metal Electra let out a choking gasp, the air being driven out of her lungs by the force of the impact. A white-hot pain exploded in her left side and Electra screamed. Blood was running down her forehead from where she had hit it on the metal post and her side was agonisingly painful, making Electra fairly certain that she had broken at least one rib, if not several. She let out a dull moan as Macavity pulled her back over to him.

Tumblebrutus leapt towards his friend. "Electra!", he yelled, his voice shaking with fury and fear at the same time. A ferocious look from Macavity brought him to an abrupt halt.

"Now, maybe I've got your full attention," Macavity growled, "as I was saying, I have an idea you may find," he paused and looked down at Electra, running his paws through her blood-soaked fur, before looking back up into Tumblebrutus's eyes, "interesting."

"Interesting?", the young tom manged to ask. He had a vague thought, that if he could keep Macavity talking, maybe he could think of a way of rescuing his friend. At any rate, he was certainly not going to risk making him angry again by not answering. Tumblebrutus trembled at the memory of what had happened a minute ago when he had failed to respond in time. He couldn't risk that happening again, not to Electra.

"Life can be so tedious, don't you think," the ginger tom yawned, still stroking Electra's fur. She tried to flinch away from him but was yanked back by an ear. "Stay still, kitten," Macavity snarled, "move again and you'll have a lot more to worry about than a few broken ribs, understand!?" Electra nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Good girl," smirked Macavity, as he resumed playing with her fur. Electra shuddered.

He continued: "Sometimes I find I just need to come up with little distractions to keep myself entertained. At the moment I have nothing to do, so I thought I might think up a little game for us to play, Tumblebrutus. I hope you don't mind." An evil grin crossed his face.

"A game? What sort of game?", Tumblebrutus asked. He didn't like the sound of this at all and really didn't want to find out what Macavity's idea of a game was. He had a feeling that it wouldn't be anything pleasant. 'I'm scared! What do I do? If only I could get him to let Electra go', he thought, 'maybe I'd stand a chance of getting away from him. But I can't risk him hurting her. What do I do? I wish Munkustrap was here. He'd know...'

"It's perfectly straightforward," Macavity explained in an almost conversational tone, "I have your little friend here," he dug his claws into Electra's neck, who let out another cry of pain. Tumblebrutus flinched. "If you want her back you will have play for her. If you win my little game you get Electra back, if you lose she dies. Sound fair?" He smirked at the young tom, who looked like he was about to pass out. "What's your answer, Tumblebrutus? You know I don't like to be kept waiting." He raised his paw threateningly.

"Do I have a choice? What if I don't want to play, will you let us go?", Tumblebrutus stumbled over his words in his haste to answer.

Macavity sneered at him: "Let you go?" His lips curled back in a snarl revealing glittering fangs. "Let you go? What do you take me for? Of course I won't let you go." Anger filled the ginger tom's eyes. He suddenly seemed even larger and more menacing than before. Electra whimpered and Tumblebrutus shrank back a few paces. Macavity raised his claws as if to slash them across Electra's face, an insane grin playing about his lips. Suddenly he stopped, lowering his paw and his voice became soft and silky again. "But of course you have a choice, my friend. You don't have to play. I wouldn't want to force you to do something you didn't want to do! Just say the word and you're free to go. I promise you won't be harmed."

Tumblebrutus couldn't believe his ears. "So if I refuse to play, we can go and you won't hurt us?", he asked, relief flooding through him. There was a way out of this after all. Macavity would let them go. Electra was going to be alright. They...

"Us?", the Hidden Paw queried, "You seem to have misunderstood me, Tumblebrutus," a sadistic grin flitted across his face, "oops, didn't I make myself clear? How silly of me. What I actually meant is that you could go free. You're little friend," Macavity raked his claws down Electra's side, making her howl with pain again, "would not be so lucky. After all, if you turn down my offer, I'll still be bored and have nothing to do. So I do hope you accept my challenge. Otherwise Electra will have to do as entertainment and judging by all the screaming and crying torturing her would be no fun at all. Too easy, you know. But, as I said, the decision is entirely yours." He shrugged and casually licked some dried blood off one of his claws.

It had all been too good to be true! The young tom's heart sank. What answer could he give? There was no real choice, no way out of this situation. It was hopeless! Whatever he chose Electra was in horrible danger and would probably not survive. It was all his fault! How could he have been so stupid? Despair welled up inside him. Electra was lost! He had killed her. It was all his fault.

Macavity was still stood opposite him, an evil smirk on his face. In his eyes Tumblebrutus could see triumph. This was what he'd wanted all along! He was enjoying watching them both suffer. Anger flared up inside the young cat. He would not give Macavity the satisfaction of seeing him give up and lose hope. He refused to let himself be beaten like that. He could not give up, for Electra's sake! He had to be brave and fight for her. It was her only chance, Tumblebrutus realised that now. He drew himself up to his full height and stared Macavity right in the eye defiantly. "What do you want me to do?"

An almost surprised expression crossed Macavity's face. For a brief second he looked taken aback, before his features assumed a gloating grin once again. "Go home. Go home and wait. One of my agents will find you there when we're ready." His laughter reverberated round the alley again. "Good bye, Tumblebrutus. See you soon. Oh, and good luck."

With that Macavity was gone, taking Electra with him and leaving Tumblebrutus standing alone in an empty alleyway shivering with terror and shock.