Lol, I would have updated sooner, but I literally couldn't get on the computer. My sleeping schedule was messed up. XD But, the next chapter is finally finished. Also, thank you, MidnightGypsie, for your review! This chapie's for you. XD

Kitten fell out of the air & onto her head.

"OW!" she yelled. When her voice echoed slightly, she stopped talking. She felt dizzy & her head hurt. Actually, most of her was a little achy. It was dark, she couldn't see much & the funnel was gone. She sighed. "Curiosity killed the cat." she reminded herself. Then, she thought how it fit, except she wasn't a cat & she wasn't dead. She sat up & looked around to examine her surroundings.

It was dark, but, somehow she knew where everything was. It wasn't like pitch black, it was more like the sun was being blocked so much that its light was barely visible. She wasn't exactly sure what it was being blocked by, besides the multiple trees above her. She couldn't see any sky, that was for sure. Too many trees. Everywhere she looked, there was either brush or trees. She figured she was in a forest, but, it didn't seem to have that feeling of life added to it.

Even at night, Kitten had always felt life when breathing the fresh air when she went camping. But, she couldn't smell anything. She couldn't heard anything either. No birds, no snakes, no nothing. Just her own quiet breathing. Kitten stood up & looked around again. Being any higher wouldn't make any difference. She figured she'd have to be above the canapé to see anything more. Then, she began to wonder what she would see.

She started walking towards…well, whatever bushes were in front of her. She stopped at the bushes & turned to the side to squeeze through them without scratching herself. She winced & fell out on the other side of the bushes. She cried out in pain. Those were thorn bushes. She looked at her legs. Scratches, & slight blood, but, nothing she wouldn't be able to fix when she got home. Or…wherever there was civilization. She got up & started walking again, but she felt nervous.

Everywhere she looked or walked, she felt like she was being watched from every angle. She looked around & still, she didn't hear a single noise besides any noises she was making. She was walking in the middle of another closing in of brush, when she felt a blowing breeze from behind. Kitten squealed quietly & yanked herself around. She just stood there, frozen until she felt it again, this time to the side of her. She turned towards it again. She began to get frustrated that it was hard to see.

She remembered her flashlight, but, she for some reason felt like it would attract attention. Even though she felt there was no one here, she didn't get out her flashlight. She felt the breeze again & each time, the sound of brushing leaves seemed to get louder. She turned around as she squealed again. She reached into her jacket pocket & pulled out her flashlight. She quickly turned it on & held it in both of her shaking hands, pointing it everywhere.

"SHOW YOURSELF!" she yelled, her voice echoing for what seemed like miles, repeating & coming back to her several times before it finally slowed down to silence. She heard the noise again, but, this time, stayed put. She turned off her flashlight & put it back in her pocket. "Weird…" she said, turning to her right to walk. She stopped when she saw a face really close to hers, looking just as surprised as she was. The only thing she could think to say was, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" The other person screamed as well, for just as long, until Kitten fell over in shock.

She started panting to catch her breath & stared in wide shock at the figure. It wasn't a person, really. It looked like a shadow. It was pure black, with only a mouth & eyes & a smoking black aura around it. She was staring down at kitten in what looked like curiosity. Shadows were so hard, yet so easy to read at the same time. Kitten at least figured she was a girl, due to what looked like long hair & two tiny little pigtails that gave her look a little more personality.

Kitten continued to stare until her panting died down & she was breathing normal again. Then, she began to think again & yanked out her flashlight. She shined it at the shadow, who quickly bolted out of the way of Kitten's light. Kitten at first thought she was gone, until she felt the shadow touch her hair behind her. Or at least, she felt her hair move up, like the shadow was fascinated by it. Kitten squealed & turned around again. The shadow quickly waved it's hands in the air, giving a face that Kitten somehow read as,

"No! No! Don't!" Kitten turned off her flashlight & looked at her. The shadow stood there & examined her. Kitten slowly began to put away her flashlight again, as the two's faces got closer & closer out of curiosity, both staring at the other, trying to memorize every detail of the foreign creature in front of them.

"Umm…" Kitten said, "…hi?" The shadow pulled away from her & slithered under her, quickly snatching her flashlight from her hands. "HEY!" Kitten turned around & saw the shadow, standing up straight & looking into the lens with one eye. She felt around the flashlight & found that she could move the on/off button. She turned it on. When the light hit her face, she shrieked & pulled her face away.

She dropped the flashlight & stood up on one foot & stared at it like elephants were somehow known to stare at mice in fear. Kitten leaned over the flash light & her hand stopped over it. She looked up at the shadow, who seemed to just stared at the flashlight in fear, waiting for it to turn off. Kitten grabbed the flashlight & held it up. She turned it off.

"See?" she asked, putting it away, "No more." The shadow leaned over & looked at her pocket, as if she expected the flashlight to jump out any minute. Then, she stood up straight, like,

"Well, any who." She slithered away really fast & into the bushes. Kitten stood there for a minute. Then, she slowly followed the shadow. She stopped at the bush she'd slithered into & stared at the grass under it. A little red was visible under it. Kitten leaned over & felt it. It was wet. She raised her hand up; it was blood. She quickly rubbed it on her shirt. She stood up & felt the bush; no thorns. This one was soft.

She squeezed through it & found a little more blood on the other side. Then, she looked on, a little shocked. A blood trail was going through the next bush. She walked next to it, very slowly & listened for anything. It was then she wished she hadn't. She heard a blood curdling screech. She gasped & quickly ducked behind the bush in front of her. She crawled through the soft leaves only enough to see what had made that scream. Thank heavens, the bush was soft.

She saw another shadow. But, this one wasn't easy to identify. It looked closest to a boy, if shadows had genders. It looked a lot more vicious & it was a lot bigger than the feminine shadow she'd "met" back there. She was afraid to approach it. It had foot-long claws & took the form of a wolf or dog of some kind, with a fluffy tail & glowing red eyes. He had huge fangs. He was apparently sniffing out his prey. Then, she saw & heard it howl for a few seconds, before taking off to her right, where she saw the blood trail change course to where he was headed. She saw a couple other blurred, but, huge, shadows follow him. She stood up & followed them. Or at least, she tried to follow them. Darn, they were so fast! She ran as fast as she could behind the bushes & tried to keep the shadows in her sight.

She stopped when the wolf pounced on something. She watched it turn around & growl; apparently, it had missed by an inch. The next shadow stopped & was finally slow enough to describe. It was huge, of course, & looked like some kind of bird. More specifically, it looked like an ostrich. The last one was thin & curvy, with extremely long hair. It was obviously a girl, but, she was a lot more vicious-looking than the girl Kitten had run into. She had long claws, which she jabbed into the ground, apparently trying to catch something. Kitten was scared to look any further to see what they were trying to kill.

Then, she remembered her flashlight had apparently hurt the girl shadow who was actually nice. She pulled it out of her pocket & shined it at the wolf. The wolf screeched & bolted away. Kitten shined the light at the ostrich, but, kept out of sight. The ostrich stood up some-what straight & ran off. The other shadow looked right at Kitten. Kitten gasped & the shadow struck at her. Before Kitten could point her flashlight, she was attacked. And when I say attacked, I mean, ATTACKED.

The shadow ripped through her with it's razor-sharp claws & swung it's claws at Kitten, a mile-a-minute. Kitten heard its screeches of anger & more so, felt her large claws ripping through a different part of her every second. The shadow wrapped its tail around her waist & hoisted her up, smashing her head onto the ground before lifting her up to her level. The shadow seemed to grow as Kitten stared at it, weakly. She raised her claws, apparently showing Kitten her cause of death.

Kitten closed her eyes & expected the worst. But, nothing happened. She opened her eyes & saw a light go through the shadow. He shadow screeched loudly & disintegrated out of the air. Kitten fell out of the air, yelling out,

"WHOOOOAA!" Her yell was short, before she hit the ground with a thud, in a small puddle of blood. Kitten's arms shook as she looked up, slightly. It seemed to take all her strength to move, but, she quickly began to recover, but, only enough to get up. She sat up & gasped in fear & surprise. There was a person, laying on the ground, weakly, holding her flashlight. He turned it off & dropped it in front of her. She couldn't even think that she was staring. He was hurt badly, his clothes were also ripped, & he was bleeding. She noticed there was no more of the blood trail. Just a lot of blood in their spot. She had found their prey.

She had found Dr. Facilier.

She recognized him immediately. His hat was practically half gone, it was ripped up so much. And she would have laughed at the fact that his black hair was in a bigger wreck than usual if it weren't for the situation. Then, she wished she could have. She felt like being happy again, but, all she felt was shock & sorrow. His shirt had a huge gaping hole in it, or at least, that's what she saw of his back. He'd apparently been curled into a ball, because his pants weren't ripped too badly, but, he was still scratched up pretty bad on his legs. Kitten started panting.

"…You-You-You…s-saved me…" she stuttered in shock. Her shock was both at him & at the shadows. Dr. Facilier pushed at the ground with his hands, trying to sit up.

"Yeah…" he replied.

"W-What…ARE those things?" she asked, still panting. "W-Where… the heck… AM I?!" Dr. Facilier managed to sit up & clap his hand over her mouth.

"Whoa, there, girl. You'd better calm yourself. You wanna attract more?" he said.

"N-No…" Kitten whispered, giving a frightened face as he let her talk.

"Ya'll are gonna wanna keep your voice down, then."

"W-Well, how come you're not all freaked out?" Kitten asked.

"I haven't felt so relieved in so long…this here flashlight; Now, I need one of these around here." Dr. Facilier looked at her.

"Yeah…looks like." Kitten paused, "I'm so exhausted from the surprises. Today, I woke up for fresh air & ended up in New Orleans. Then, I got chased by an alligator, teleported to this place, I met a shadow, then, got attacked by another one…it's a lot more freaky than it sounds." Kitten chucked. "Crazy day."

"Yeah…all my days are like that, now." Dr. Facilier looked up at the canapé, almost as if remembering something.

"You get attacked by those things 24-7?" Kitten asked, surprised.

"Girl, I get attacked so often, sometimes I don't even know which way is up & which way is down." Kitten giggled. "What?"

"I've always loved that saying. It's funny, even in a crisis."

"Lots of things are, huh?"

"Yeah." She paused, then, smiled, "Like your hair." Facilier looked up, then, they both started laughing.

"You're a funny little girl, ya' know that? Tell me, how'd ya'll end up here on the other side?"

"Oh, I…read one of the books I found in your emporium." She beamed, "I-I didn't break anything, I was just trying to get away from Tiana & Naveen. I finally calmed down enough to read & I read a sentence out loud. Something like Genie sea something…"

"Geben Sie der anderen Seite." Dr. Facilier corrected, "It means, 'Enter the other side' in German."

"…Why was it in German?" Facilier shrugged.

"Who can say?" There was a while of silence between the two. Kitten looked up at the canapé. She sighed. Dr. Facilier looked at her. "What's on your mind?"

"…There's no light here…but, I can see everything clearly. It looks like nighttime, when the moon shines enough to give me my vision, but there's nothing there…all these trees should block any light left in this world…" She looked down & saw one of Facilier's scratched up hands. He pulled it up to his chest & held his shirt pieces together, trying to close up the hole one of the shadows had ripped through it.

Kitten's head moved up as his hand did. She suddenly gasped as she saw a shadow rise from the ground, surrounded in smoke. She fell to the ground & covered her head up in fear. However, Dr. Facilier didn't do anything except smile, slightly. The shadow was the same girl Kitten had met earlier. She walked towards them, standing up straight, & half-closing her eyes in a serious look. She leaned over & handed Dr. Facilier a wet rag. He took it from her & she sat down, crossing her legs.

"Thanks, girl." he said. Kitten looked up when she didn't hear anything. She sat up & sighed in relief.

"Oh…it's just her…" She had never seemed to be vicious like the others. She'd just been curious & quiet. Then, Kitten started to wonder… "Do shadows talk?" the shadow sat up straight & looked offended.

"S'ok, girl. She's with me." Facilier said, turning back to Kitten, "Yeah, but, usually not very much. This one's shy around new comers. And she don't smell nothing familiar on you."

"At least she didn't attack me…" Kitten said, smiling.

"Yeah, she's like the soft one of them…" Facilier ruffled the shadow's hair. The shadow made a noise that sounded like a cat's purr & leaned against him. She rubbed her face on him, like a cat does catnip. She looked like a pet herself at the moment & Kitten couldn't help, but think how cute it looked that she was so sweet. It reminded her of her own cat when she wanted to be petted. Kitten giggled.

"She likes you." she said.

"Yeah, she's as sweet as puppy. Wouldn't hurt a thing…unless the thing happens to try to hurt me." They laughed a little & the shadow stood up, smiling with her eyes closed. Being a shadow, her eyes looked like slits when they were closed, unless she clenched them. Then, they were just black. "I call her Lynn Maureen." Lynn, as he called her, smiled & looked at him. He sighed. "She's really something."

"Is she the only one who's actually nice?" Kitten asked.

"Yeah, but, she makes it a lot easier to live here." Lynn turned her feet into a tail & wrapped it around his arm. She smiled & looked at Kitten. Lynn apparently read Kitten's thought through her blank, but, asking expression. Lynn hugged Dr. Facilier & smiled at Kitten with that cute expression where her eyes where crescent moons.

"Friend…" she said. Kitten was taken a little aback by hearing her voice. It was feminine & beautiful, but, at the same time, it sounded slightly like hissing.

"For real this time?" Kitten asked.

"Huh?" Dr. Facilier asked.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot…about my not being from here…"

"Umm…" Lynn uncoiled from Facilier's arm & stood up straight.

"Kitten." she said, giving a friendly bow. Kitten was shocked.

"How does she know me?" she asked. "She can read things about people. She knows your name, age… ya' know, those simple things. She also knows how to respond when you're in that situation where you know what you're confused about, but, you don't know how to ask."

"That's cool…" Kitten said. Lynn leaned over a bit & put her hand on Facilier's shoulder. She pointed at Kitten.

"She knows." Lynn said. Kitten became confused.

"What do I know?" she asked.

"She says ya'll know how I got here." Facilier smirked at Lynn, "Lynn…"

"She knows." Lynn insisted. Dr. Facilier gave her a confused face.

"What do you, she knows…?" Lynn pointed up & screeched, before bolting into the bushes. Kitten gasped as she looked up. A bunch of shadows were surrounding them. They each had razor sharp claws, fangs & mean looks on their faces. Kitten flew back onto her butt & pushed herself into the bushes, but, she couldn't push through. The shadows very well saw her. She gave a terrified face. Half of them were glaring at her.

"Uh-uh, Dr. Facilier, how do we get out of here?" Kitten stuttered.

"If I could, do you think I would be here?" Dr. Facilier asked, before a few of the shadows got right in his face & growled. He covered up his face. "Well, I got here! How do we get out?!" Kitten practically shouted.

"I can't remember!" Some of the shadows saw her flashlight on the ground. Lynn was hiding in the bushes still. She gasped.

"The light." she said. She shot from the bushes & snatched the flashlight so fast, no one recognized her before she bolted into the bushes again. One of the shadows went down to Kitten's level & screeched in her face, as it raised it's claws.

"Can you remember, now?!" Kitten shouted, desperately. The shadow scratched her arm, & she cried out in pain, grabbing her arm. "Uh…uh…" Dr. Facilier tried desperately to remember, as one of the shadows struck its claws through the air & knocked his hat right off his head as he ducked. "OH!" He quickly crawled over to Kitten. "Come here."

"What?!" The shadow that wanted to attack her smacked him in the face.

"Move! Get out of here!" Dr. Facilier said, swatting it away. The shadow screeched & moved behind him. "I remember." He grabbed her waist & pulled her to her feet.

"What's--" Kitten began.

"Duck!" They both ducked as one of the shadows swooped down & tried to grab them. They shot back up.

"Make it fast!" Kitten said, looking desperate.

"Ok, ok… LYNN!" Lynn shot out from the bushes & coiled around them, handing Kitten back her flashlight. "You're with us." Kitten allowed him to hold her waist. "Hold on." Kitten looked around. Then, she threw her arms around him, the only "hold on" she could think of. She felt the atmosphere change & peeked to see a green mist in the air. Lynn squeezed slightly, making sure not to let go.

"Avslutt den andre siden!" Dr. Facilier shouted. Kitten's eyes shot open as she saw the shadows, the forest, & everything, but Lynn's face in front of her, disappear. She looked at the green funnel, like she was in a tornado made from limes. It was beautiful, but, she felt nauseous. Lynn smiled widely at Kitten & hugged her. Facilier leaned over to keep a hold of Kitten while Lynn let go of her & squeezed her head out into the air to breathe better.

Kitten peeked at her, but, quickly shut her eyes & buried her face in Facilier's chest as the light got too bright for her eyes to handle. Lynn shot back into her hiding place to get away from the light as it flashed. The funnel began to disappear, slightly. Kitten felt sudden change in the atmosphere & gasped, before the funnel exploded. Facilier released Kitten, as Lynn coiled off of them. Kitten breathed hard as her world started to get blurry.

Then, she passed out.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

Lynn Maureen is my shadow girl. XD MINE!! But, she acts like she's Facilier's pet, sometimes.