Macavity's claws were painful against Electra's neck as the ginger tom dragged her through the streets of London. She had long since lost track of where they were and in what direction they were heading. To start with she had tried to memorize the way, in case an opportunity of escape presented itself, but the young queen had had no such luck and had quickly become completely disorientated and hopelessly confused, not to mention hideously lost. She had never had a particularly good sense of direction at the best of times, especially not when in agonizing pain and being held in the claws of a mass-murdering psychopath. This, coupled with the fact Electra had never been this far away from the Junkyard in her entire life, made her chances of finding the way home very slim indeed, if not non-existent.
Not only that, her ribs were becoming increasingly more painful and troublesome. As time passed Electra had expected the pain to be dulled slightly and maybe be reduced to a throbbing ache, but the opposite seemed to be the case. The further Macavity forced her to walk, the worse her ribs felt. After half an hour it had been a sharp, stabbing pain, after two hours it had begun to make breathing difficult and by now it was almost impossible to move without causing herself extreme agony.
And still, Macavity forced her mercilessly on, never stopping or giving her any time to recover. Every time she stumbled he dragged her roughly on by the fur, making tears spring to her eyes, every time she fell he yanked her up again and cuffed her round the ears, making her walk faster than ever and every time she tried to stop he clawed at her back and neck which sent her scampering onwards, yelping with pain.
By now Electra's paws were raw and bleeding, her muscles were aching and her breath was coming in uneven gasps. Exhaustion was colouring her vision, making everything around her appear grey and slightly blurry and she was unbelievably thirsty, her mouth and throat cracked and dry. Also she was very hungry, not having actually eaten anything all day. The pain from her head, ribs and other injuries was overwhelming, making the kitten want to stop, curl up into a tiny ball and cry. Only the fear of Macavity and what he might do to her if she stopped or collapsed kept Electra hurrying on through unknown streets and strange surroundings, past odd-looking buildings and through tiny, filthy alleyways.
Never before in her entire life had Electra been as terrified as she was at that precise moment. As she ran Macavity's wickedly sharp claws were constantly at her throat, digging in painfully. It would only take a tiny movement on his part and he could easily slit her throat. This thought petrified the young queen and prevented her from doing anything that might anger him or give him cause to hurt her. She was too scared to even ask for a break, although she desperately needed rest.
The grey haze clouding her vision seemed worse than ever. Electra felt both hot and cold at the same time and black spots danced in front of her eyes. Try as she might, she couldn't breathe or even swallow, the pain in her side was too much. Desperately, the kitten fought for air and tried not to panic as her vision went from grey to black. With a shuddering gasp, she stopped running. Her legs trembled and her knees gave way, causing her to collapse in a heap on the cold stone of the pavement. As she hit the floor Electra was already unconscious.
Electra was cold. That was the first thing she noticed. Not the pain or the fear, just the cold. It seemed to paralyse her where she lay, unable to move or make a sound or think. It was unbearable and within seconds of waking, she was already chilled to the bone. The young kitten had never been this uncomfortable before in her entire life.
Ever so slowly, her brain seemed to start working again. She didn't know where she was or what was happening. Nothing made any sense to the dazed kitten. Vaguely, Electra's confused mind focused on the thought of finding out the answers to these questions. She had to know what had happened to her.
As she lay there the pain and the fear gradually returned. It felt like she was having a knife driven into her side and her paws felt like they had been shredded and were on fire. Electra's mouth and throat burned and her head felt like someone was beating out a rhythm on her skull. She gasped and let out a feeble whimper as the pain overwhelmed her. Again, thinking became impossible and all Electra could do was lie helplessly curled up, hoping for the pain to go away.
It took a huge effort, but after a minute of lying there, barely conscious, she tried to open her eyes. Her lids felt heavy and swollen, making it impossible open them more than a crack and to see more than a dark, blurry view of the world around her. What she could make out did nothing to comfort the frightened little queen.
She was lying on a hard, cold concrete floor. It was cracked and broken and in places stray weeds straggled up through the splintered foundations of the ruined warehouse, for a warehouse it was. The space was far too vast to be anything else. The walls, made out of heavy concrete blocks, seemed an immensely long way away. There were no windows and only one battered, rusty metal door. This was barred by a heavy plank of wood, preventing anyone getting in or out. High above her, Electra could only just make out solid looking iron rafters and above that what must be the roof of the building, lost from view in the darkness.
Closer to hand, the kitten could see dark red stains. Some were dry, but in patches the floor was still sticky and in some places even still wet. They seemed to be everywhere, covering almost the whole floor. Judging by the stench and the colour, Electra knew only too well what had stained the concrete. Blood. Some of it fresh. The thought almost made her retch and a new terror settled over her.
In a panic and despite the agonizing pain she was in, the young queen tried to struggle to her feet. She needed to get away, to get out of here, before it was too late. Whatever had happened to the cats who had been here before her, Electra didn't want to know, but she knew she needed to escape, before a similar thing was done to her. Even without knowing the details, the kitten could imagine what had happened and was petrified. Dread gave her new strength and she managed to start clawing her way to her feet, all the while sobbing with pain and fear.
She hadn't even made it halfway up, however, when she was yanked roughly to a halt. Dismay filled the young kitten's heart as looking down she saw her paws were manacled together and attached to the nearest wall by long, thick chains. Until that point, she had been too distracted by other sensations to notice the chains, but now she had seen them, Electra realised they were painfully tight around her wrists and ankles, chaffing away the skin every time she moved, leaving raw, red wounds on her arms and legs.
Crying out in misery, frustration and anguish the little queen let herself sink back onto the cold concrete, as tears streamed down her face. It was no use. She was trapped here with no way of escape.
From behind her, just out of her line of sight, Electra heard a soft giggle. "It's awake!", a quite, female voice hissed. The sound of claws tapping on concrete was audible and seconds later a cat strolled into view. It was a tabby queen, relatively average height and build, with a slightly manic grin on her face. She walked twice round Electra, then suddenly appeared inches from the frightened kitten. The queen took a long, deep sniff at Electra's fur, letting out another giggle. "It's afraid."
Electra flinched and cowered away from her whimpering. She had assumed she was alone in the abandoned warehouse and seeing the other queen made her wish she was. For some strange, inexplicable reason the tabby frightened her. There was something unnerving about her face, a bizarre normality, that made her instantly forgettable like some sort of shadow.
"Laisse-la tranquille. Tu ne vois pas qu'elle a peur?", a second voice, this one belonging to a tom, drawled from out of the shadows behind her, dripping with sarcasm. "Le pauvre chaton." He let out a low, soft laugh and Electra heard him coming closer until he was stood right behind her. "Jolie, n'est-ce pas?" She could feel his breath tickling the back of her neck and felt the urge to pull away from him, but was paralysed with fright. A paw, claws out slightly ran down her side, stroking her fur and she felt the tom behind her move closer, until she could feel his muscular body pressed against her. His tongue flicked out and licked the side of her face as his paws continued to roughly stroke her fur. Electra shuddered and let out a squeak of disgust and terror, trying to squirm away from him. With an angry growl, the tom pulled her back against him and continued running his paws over her.
"Aurélien!" A dark grey Persian queen sprung into Electra's line of vision, claws out, teeth bared. The kitten let out a shriek of terror and backed away, only to bump into her tormentor and be sent reeling forwards again with a shove towards the angry Persian. "Enough!" The queen slashed her claws across Electra's face leaving deep cuts running from her left ear down to her chin. Electra let out a howl of pain and clutched at her face while the french tom merely snorted with laughter and moved away to snuggle against the angry queen.
"Pas mal," he commented examining the cuts across the kittens face with a disinterested gaze. At that the grey queen laughed and lost the furious facial expression, turning away from Electra, as if she was no longer of any importance. The pair moved away and settled down in a corner, curled up together watching the kitten.
When she had been hit, Electra had fallen to the floor and there she stayed, not daring to move. If she had been scared when she woke up, it was nothing in comparison to how she felt now. She was chained up and outnumbered by hostile cats, all of which seemed determined to terrify or hurt her. Not for the last time, the young queen wished she was safe at home and tears began to roll down her cheeks again as she thought of her family and friends. They would all be missing her by now, probably panicking about what had happened to her. Her mum and sister would be getting hysterical, Pounci would be sat in a corner pretending not to care, but really worrying just as much as the others and her dad would be trying to calm them all down and organize a search. She could picture them all perfectly and in her mind's eye could see exactly how they would react. Jem would be crying, Vicky would be clutching at Plato for support, while trying to appear grown-up and confident and Plato himself would be overwhelmed and unsure as to what to do. Tumble was the sensible one, he'd be sorting out all the younger Jellicles and making sure they stayed out of the adults' way while the search got under way. It was all that time he'd spent with her father and Skimbleshanks that had made him so sensible. Despite herself Electra felt the corners of her mouth twitch as she thought about him. Tumble would surely come and rescue her. He'd been there when she was kidnapped, he'd think of a way to get her back. Of course he would.
Electra's thoughts were rudely interrupted by a giggle right in her ear. The tabby queen was bent over her, so her muzzle was almost touching Electra's ears, giggling madly. "So, little princess, how do you like our palace?" She gestured grandly around the falling-down, blood-stained warehouse. "Not good enough for you? Shame. I think it's rather nice here." She sniggered to herself again and grabbed Electra by the fur, yanking the kitten roughly to her feet. The tabby was stronger than she looked and the sudden jerk made Electra's wounds split open and start to bleed again. The kitten whimpered. "Oops, silly me," the older queen gasped in mock horror, "did I hurt the poor little princess? How terrible of me. There, there. Don't cry." She raked her claws across Electra's face in a horrible parody of wiping away tears.
From somewhere behind her out of sight, the young queen heard laughter. It sounded like at least several more cats. Terrified by the thought of yet more of them, Electra tried to pull away from the tabby, but found she couldn't move. The queen was holding onto her arms too tightly, her claws digging painfully into the skin and the chains allowed her no freedom of movement now she was on her feet. Electra felt panic choking her and gulped down yet more sobs.
"Let me introduce you to the team, little princess," the nasty queen hissed and as she did so, she pulled Electra roughly round to face the wall she had had her back to before, twisting her arms behind her causing one of Electra's shoulders to let out a sickening crack. The young queen shrieked and tried to free her arm, only managing to cause herself more pain. After a second she stopped struggling and hung limply in her captor's grip, staring at the wall. Four toms were lounging against it, all smirking at her. One of them gave the kitten a sarcastic little wave and broke into a fit of laughter. "See them? That's the rest of the team. Black and white one, he's Rico, he's psychotic. Then there's Aidan, the white and orange and the Abyssinian is Tocho, they're fighters, insanely strong." She giggled and buried her nose in Electra's fur again making the kitten shudder. "The white bastard is Deimos. Sadistic maniac, he is. He's in charge of torture." The tabby seemed to find this immensely funny and doubled over clutching at her side, laughing. It took her a few minutes to regain control and when she did, she gasped: "You'll be getting to know him a lot better later.", before dissolving into hysterical laughter again.
Electra studied the four toms, trembling with fear. The black and white one was playing with a wickedly sharp knife, tossing it in the air and catching it in his teeth. He didn't seem to be taking any notice of her at all. The Abyssinian was eyeing her up and down with the kind of look you might give something particularly unpleasant you had just stepped in and the white and orange tom was still staring at her laughing. It was the white tom that frightened her most of all. His eyes were electric blue and his unblinking gaze met her's, his eyes seeming to bore their way into her very soul. Ever so slowly, he tipped his head on one side, never breaking eye contact, his face completely expressionless. Electra felt cold shivers running down her spine and a sense of foreboding and dread settled over her. Quickly she looked away from him again and down at her blood-covered paws.
The tabby queen noticed and pounced on her, crying: "Well, say hello then! What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?". She grabbed Electra's jaw in her claws and forced her head up again. "Downright rude, that's what I call it. We go to all the trouble of waiting here with you and you won't even say a simple hello. Kittens these days." She tutted and shook her head, an exaggeratedly disapproving look on her face. "Deimos really needs to teach you some manners, doesn't he." A small snigger escaped her lips.
Lazily, the orange and white tom, Aidan, got to his feet. "I'll do it. You know Deimos won't. The boss hasn't told him to." He advanced menacingly on Electra who shrank back. "What d'you think? Beat her up a bit?" With a casual shrug he ran his paw down her cheek. "Seems almost a shame."
"Almost," the tabby queen giggled. She reached her paws round the kitten to get a firm hold on her. "Go ahead, I've got her. She can't escape." And again, the queen began to laugh.
"Oh, shut up, Lyssa, will you," the tom snapped, "or I swear I'll hit you instead." His words had the desired effect and the tabby fell silent as Aidan paced round Electra, considering her as if deciding where to start.
"Laissez-moi tenir le chaton," a voice called suddenly and a blue-grey tom appeared from nowhere. Electra recognized him as the french tom who had spoken to her earlier and shuddered, flinching away from him as he shoved the tabby queen roughly out of the way and grabbed hold of her. The kitten let out a noisy sob, earning herself a slap from the Chartreux. "Silence!", he snarled, before nodding to his college.
With careful consideration Aidan pulled back his fist, claws out and punched it into Electra's side. The punch was aimed directly at the kitten's already damaged ribs and the orange and white tom's aim was perfect. His fist hit with a huge amount of force, smashing all the air out of her lungs and splintering her ribs. Electra let out a choking gasp and crumpled against the grey tom holding her. She couldn't catch her breath, agony was radiating from her side into every single part of her body, she couldn't move, she couldn't even scream or cry. The kitten couldn't do anything apart from lean against Aurélien fighting for breath.
As she finally managed to get some air into her lungs, the french tom pulled her up again and held her towards his friend. Again, choosing his target carefully Aidan smashed his fist into her face, using his claws to scratch at the already open wounds as he did so. Electra screamed and tried to pull away as blood began to pour down her face from her now presumably broken nose. She didn't get very far, not even managing to take a single step and all the screaming achieved was to fill her mouth with blood, making her choke and gag. Both toms laughed at her feeble escape attempt and the grey pounded her on the back to stop her from choking, a little too hard leaving large, angry bruises already forming under her skin.
"Don't damage her too much, will you," the Persian queen purred, stalking up next to the trio, "I don't think the boss would be very pleased with you if you...," she paused delicately, "...broke her." With an evil grin she walked on past them and settled herself next to the white tom who was still staring at Electra head on one side, not blinking. Next to them the fawn-coloured Abyssinian was still looking at the kitten with disgust, Rico was still uninterested and the tabby queen, Lyssa, was bouncing up and down, giggling and cheering.
Aidan laughed and smirked at the dark grey queen. "Don't worry, Dylana, we won't." He turned back to Electra and rammed his fist into her stomach, making her double over and retch. Immediately she was yanked upright again and the orange and white tom aimed another punch at her face, causing more blood to spurt from her nose and snapping her head backwards painfully.
"La jambe?", the Chartreux tom asked. He stamped painfully on the back of her knee, knocking the kitten to the ground and placed his paw on her ankle, holding her leg in place. Only too late did Electra realise what they were planning to do, leaving her no time to try and struggle. Grinning, the second tom raised his paw and stamped it down on her leg putting all his weight behind it. The young queen screamed in agony as there was an audible crunching, sickening, squelching crack.
Lyssa cheered. "Hit her again, hit her again!", she exclaimed and bounded over to them, roughly pulling Electra's fur and pinching her ears before taking another long sniff of her fur. "Aww, it's frightened!", she jeered and poked Electra in the injured side, making her squirm and cry out.
"That will do!", a dangerously soft voice hissed from the doorway.
Immediately, all seven henchcats fell silent and turned to face the door. Even the black and white tom stopped playing with his knife to grin broadly. The grey-blue tom released Electra and stood up and her other two tormentors quickly stepped away from her. All seven bowed their heads slightly.
Electra glanced up from where she was lying on the floor. Through a haze of pain she could just make out the figure of a tall, orange tom making his way towards her, his long claws clattering on the concrete floor. Electra was filled with terror. Macavity! What if he was here to finish her off? Electra tried to shrink back, to hide from him and curled herself into a tiny, protective ball.
Inches from the terrified kitten Macavity stopped. He took no notice of her whatsoever, but instead addressed the henchcats: "Deimos, Aurélien, Dylana, Tocho, Aidan, Rico – with me. Lyssa, stay here and guard the prisoner." With that he turned on his heel and strode out of the warehouse without a backwards glance.
The henchcats glanced at each other, before six of them made their way slowly after Macavity. The young queen watched them all go through swollen, battered eyelids, wishing she could follow them out of the warehouse to freedom. It was so temptingly close, as the warehouse door opened, giving her a tiny glimpse of the world outside.
As the door banged shut again, Electra's hopes faded away to despair. She was still trapped with no chance of escape. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes, drawing damp lines in the drying blood staining her fur.
The tabby queen was still stood facing the door. Ever so slowly she turned to look at Electra, an insane smile playing about her lips. "It's just you and me now, princess," she hissed. Then she burst out laughing. Her laughter was mad and high-pitched and terrifying. It reverberated and echoed around the empty warehouse growing in volume until it drowned out every other sound and made Electra's ear ring.