A/N: Blood and slightly grisly death in this chapter.

...

I wake up the next morning and the sun is shining, to my surprise. A lot of the snow has melted away, meaning the air temperature is nowhere near as cold as it was last night. Also, after last night's meal, I don't feel as hollow as I did yesterday and the food helped me to sleep better, so honestly, I actually feel good this morning.

"Hey, YOU!"

Great…

I turn slowly to find an old rival of mine creeping towards me, his thin face even more gaunt than mine was yesterday. He's a cat like me, but with brown matted fur and a missing ear. We've been enemies for several months now, ever since he was thrown out of his last home. That's what word on the street is, anyway.

"What do you want, Tiger?" I demand, my claws very slowly beginning to unsheath.

"This is my shelter," growls the cat. "You stole it!"

"You weren't in it when I got into it last night, therefore you can't complain about me taking advantage of you leaving it alone," I growl back.

"Get out of my territory!" Tiger hisses.

Normally, I wouldn't let this hairball of a cat treat me like that, especially because that shelter was one of the best I've found in a long time, but I don't want to ruin my good mood with a fight.

"With pleasure," I spit, turning my back on him.

This is a risk, but thankfully, he's more interested in "his" shelter than me, so he doesn't attack me. I keep trotting down the street, ignoring the now-hidden hole in the wall. I'm hungry but not starving yet. And I want to find Julia.

"Hey, Anya!" calls a voice.

I turn, recognising the voice. It's not Julia, but it IS someone I know and like: a silver tabby she-cat called Alex.

"Hey!" I call back, smiling, as she bounds across the road to join me. "It's been ow've you been?" I look her up and down. "You look fatter. In the best way, of course."

"I have a home now!" purrs Alex, beaming. "I was caught by the pound a few weeks ago, thought that was it for me, but they took me to this super nice animal shelter and I got adopted pretty much the very next day!"

I stare at her in shock. "You have a home and a family? You're a PET now?!"

She nods eagerly, still beaming. "I can't believe it! If you wanted a home too, I could get the pound to come for you too. Where's Julia? She could come too."

"I can't find her," I reply steadily, though on the inside, my heart is beginning to speed up with excitement. "B-But that's definitely something I'd love, Alex, thank you so much!"

"You're welcome! When you find Julia, come back here and I'll arrange it."

"I will. Thank you again!"

I take off down the road, searching quickly in every alley I come across. I'm now beginning to feel giddy with excitement; I've never really seen the appeal of living in a house with a bunch of humans, but honestly, ANYTHING would be better than being on the streets right now. Julia especially doesn't deserve to live like this, so if nothing else, I'm doing this for her.

I can't find her in any of the alleyways, so I go down the opposite side of the road. As I'm walking back down, I hear an unfamiliar voice snarl something unintelligible in a voice that chills me to the bone. But what terrifies me is the next voice that speaks: Julia's. "P-Please l-let me go!"

I hurriedly try to follow the voices to find my friend, looking in every alley, nook and cranny, and shop that I can see.

"I hear you've found a nice place to eat," the first voice leers. "Tell us, and I might let you live."

"I-It's the grocery shop opposite the place with the red, white, and blue stripey pole outside!" bleats Julia's terrified voice. "P-Please don't hurt me!"

I hear a mocking laugh. Then: "You're so pathetic."

I finally manage to find the alleyway they're in, and the sight freezes my heart. Poor Julia is lying on her back, pinned down by a cat even larger than me who's holding her down with just one heavy paw. Two other cats-still bigger than Julia but not as big as the one pinning her down-are standing slightly behind their leader, clearly enjoying this, going by the mocking smirks on their faces.

Just as I'm about to take a step to help her, the biggest cat lifts his other paw, claws unsheathed, and slices a hole in Julia's side, causing my poor friend to scream in pain.

"JULIA!" I yowl, darting towards them. "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

I slash my claws over and over into the neck of the cat pinning her down, killing him almost immediately. Then I turn to attack the next cat, who leaps and bowls me over. I violently claw her in the face, drawing blood, and kick her off me. She flees, while I pin the last cat down and snarl directly into his face. "If you EVER hurt Julia again, you'll end up exactly like your DEAD friend over there! Got it?!"

His shocked eyes flicker to the bloodied body of the first cat a little way off, then he nods hurriedly. I let him up and, hissing aggressively, cut a nick in his tail with my claws, which causes him to yelp and take off out of the alley.

A weak cough brings my attention round to little Julia. Even though most of the blood around the alley belongs to her attackers, I can see a small pool of it surrounding her side, where there's a pretty deep cut. My heart beating fast and hard with fear, I bound over to her and nudge her to her feet with my head. She's leaning very heavily on me, which is very worrying in itself, but what's worse is that we don't even make it halfway out the alley before her legs give out and she collapses to the ground.

"Julia!" I gasp, dropping to her eye-line. "Can you hear me? Are you okay?"

I know it's a stupid question, but her eyes are closed and she's barely breathing, and I desperately need her to talk to me. "Julia!"

"An...y-ya…" Julia rasps, her voice extremely weak. "Soh...Soh...r...r…"

She's...trying to apologise!

"Save your energy," I beg her. "Oh, Julia, I don't blame you! I really, really don't, so please save your energy and don't talk again. All that matters now is getting you somewhere you can recover."

I slide my head under her body and then stand up and lift my head, letting her limp body slip down onto my back. With one last glance back at the horrific scene, I make my hasty way out of the alley.