The life of an Angel

Rita, Cheryl, and Fran sat in a semi-circle around a rusty colored trash can. Their emerald colored leader, Iris, lay perched upon the can like a podium. The glistening multicolored eyes of the towering green feline loomed like a jaded shadow across the 3 serving felines.

"In gratitude for her amazing services and inspiring examples of loyalty and dedication, it is with great pleasure that I, Iris of the Scarlet Angels, welcome back our newest member Rita into the fold once again. Congratulations Rita" Iris said.

Cheryl and Fran chuckled as they politely elbowed Rita; she grunted and smiled feeling the nagging tug of Fran's orange furry arm draped around her neck. Rita laughed nervously and continued to bit her lip in sadness. That memory of Runt, it was still burning painfully in her eyes.

"You showed guts cutting off that dog boy toy of yours Rita, most would have wussed out you know" Fran said.

"Good god, I'm a monster, those……those horrible things I said to him" Rita whispered.

Cheryl giggled, "Oh don't be such a wet blanket. Your feeling homesick from him now but once you get a taste of how things work around here, you're going to look back on this decision and be proud of yourself for taking it".

Despite all the praise, partying, and pristine words of food to come, the look of misery and woe carved the saddened features of Rita's furry face. The gray cat was obviously still upset over what happened with Runt. Iris frowned as she scratched her chin fur with her black paws, wondering if Rita is having second thoughts. The angel leader snapped her claws and tossed something out towards Rita. Rita's curious jade eyes looked down and saw a half cut fish.

"Holy moley" Rita gasped.

"An appetizer before the big feast dearie, enjoy. You've earned a little special treatment" Iris said.

Sparkling stars shined vibrantly in the once mystified and misery filled green eyes of the sweet singing cat known as Rita. The gray feline munched her tiny little cat fangs into the fishy feats, moaning and purring as she enjoyed every chunk of the fish's flavored meat.

"Gee, I bet Runt would have loved to taste this" Rita thought to herself.

"You've got to be kidding me" Fran said, grinding her teeth.

Rita blinked as she saw red, angry veins sprouting all over Fran's orange furry body. The mangy alley cat was practically shooting steam out of those bent whiskers of hers. Cheryl nervously chuckled as she forcefully shoved Fran away from Rita and back towards Iris on the podium trash can. Rita raised a curious eyebrow as it looked like Fran was having a nervous breakdown.

"Ha, ha, nothing to see here, nope, nothing at all. You just enjoy your dinner me and FRAN need to have a little girl talk" Cheryl said.

Munching back onto her beloved fish, Rita just shrugged it off and continued to enjoy her little scaly meal. Fran and Cheryl on the other hand seemed to have some serious issues to work out behind the garbage can. Iris groaned as she hopped down and glared at the 2 felines, her dark and dirty paws crossed firmly across her chest.

"What the frick do you two think you're doing? You're going to ruin everything" Iris snapped.

Cheryl pouted "It's all HER fault; Frannie started going ballistic for no reason at all".

Fran snapped back "It's FRAN you walking feather duster, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Frannie?".

Cheryl smirked "Well we could always go back to calling you Francis you know?".

The orange, frizzled kitty screamed as she leapt towards Cheryl's white throat. Iris groaned as she forced her way into the middle and shoved the two cats apart. The cat leader bopped both frisky felines on the top of their heads and told them to keep it down.

"Now what's all this about anyway?" Iris asked.

"You gave her my special tropical trout side dish. I was saving that for a special occasion you know, and now that pipsqueak is eating it" Fran whined.

"Oh stick a yarn ball in it you nag. What do you have to complain about, I'm the one who got whacked by that filthy human's cooking tools just to make the dog look like a fool. Do you know how many make up pads I had to swipe to look this pretty?" Cheryl said.

"That's enough from both of you. The good news is the hard part is gone, we convinced Rita to dump Runt so now we can finally get to the fun part" Iris said, grinning.

Fran sighed "Oh all right then, what's the plan boss?".

Iris replied "It's simple really, it's time Rita learned the meaning of the word teamwork. We all had to suffer from that little stunt at the restaurant, even if it was our idea, it still had to be done. Now all we have to do is take Rita out for that special dinner I promised her and all will be made clear".

Cheryl, Iris, and Fran curiously peeked their heads from the side of the can to see what Rita was doing. The small gray cat had finished her meal and was now giving herself a quick bath.

Iris cackled "It's a brilliant plan and the best part of it is, were going to get a free meal with nary a scrape or scratch to speak of, all thanks to our newest member: Rita".

10 minutes of walking later……

The 4 cats arrived at the back end of a very special sushi restaurant. Golden colored lights shine brightly from the crisp clean windows of the customer's private booths, flashing neon signs of a chef chopping up a fish sparkled like wildfire, and the scent of fresh fish being cooked and doused with spices, flavorings, and sauces made even the most resilient of feline's water with hunger. The door opened and a chef with fresh grease stains on his apron tossed out a chunk of rotten seaweed. The cats looked at each other and smiled a most devilishly pleased smile.

"Maybe things aren't going to be so bad after all" Rita thought to herself.

As Rita's fractured little mind started to embrace the happiness of such a fantastic discovery, little did she know her female, feline heroes were plotting. Cheshire smiles behind her back. Iris and Fran flashed each other a winking smile as Cheryl curled her puffy white tail under Rita's chin to get her attention.

"Okay Rita dear, here's the plan, I'm going to go round front and grab those humans eyeballs for a few minutes while you, Iris, and Fran raid the kitchen for all their fishy treasures. We need you to make sure you get ALL the food out of the kitchen and into the alley BEFORE the human's return, so you better work fast" Cheryl said.

"Piece of cake cotton tail, I'll head in first and make with the shaking and bacon before you can say Hello Nurse. I want to prove to you guys you made the right decision" Rita said, nodding.

"Good idea Rita, good idea indeed" Cheryl replied.

As the cats began to split and camper amongst the sides of the surging sushi restaurant, Cheryl made her way to the entrance while Rita, Fran, and Iris rolled around to the back. The front doors suddenly burst open as the white, fluffy cat appeared with open arms and a smirking smile.

"TA DA" Cheryl beamed.

A woman screamed as the cat hissed towards her high-heeled shoes, she jumped back next to her date. One of the waiters gasped and shouted for the head chef. An enraged, black bearded man with a frying pan stormed out as he snarled.

"Not another one. You ain't getting away from me this time you flea bag, COME HERE!" the chef screamed.

Cheryl and the chef went into a frenzy like dash, circling around as the two chased each other. Meanwhile Rita had already made her way into the kitchen and was wrapping her paws around chunks of chopped fish bits and fresh fish meat. Fran and Iris remained outside in the alleyway, catching the fish and dropping it into a large pile. Eventually, the fridge and the tables were down to mere table scraps, and Rita had nearly cleaned out the entire restaurant.

"Say, what's that?" Rita asked.

Something familiar both in scent and in sight caught her jasmine green eyes, Rita reached down and gently pulled up the tail end of a fancy looking trout. The gray cat smiled and gently nibbled on the fins of the proudly caught fish.

"Tropical trout, just like the one Fran gave me. Boy (sniffle) I bet Runt would have done a back flip to taste something like this" Rita said.

Warm-hearted memories poured into Rita's mind, as the smiling, slobbering face of her canine friend appeared vividly in her thoughts. Rita giggled a bit.

"I think I'll send him half, to make up for those rotten things I said to him. He's a good guy, really, he is, and we can still be friends at least. Yeah, it looks like things are looking up" Rita said proudly.

SLAM!

Rita's half cut ears perked up at that sound, the cat looked behind her and saw the exit door to the alleyway was suddenly closed. Rita quickly rushed to the door and pressed her snow-white paws up against it, but it didn't move.

"Uh guys? Guys? Hey I think the door's stuck" Rita said.

The silver little cat hopped up onto the nearest counter to the door and peeked through the window, Rita continued to shout for her friends as she banged her paws on the door. However, what Rita saw, was not something she was prepared for. The door has been blocked off by a large stack of silver trashcans. The cans were pressed right up against the door, as if blocking Rita off from the door.

"Hey, guys, guys, GUYS! There's something blocking the door, it looks like a few trashcans fell over or something. I need you to" Rita suddenly stopped.

Much to the small cat's horror, she found out how the cans got there. Fran, Iris, and even Cheryl were sitting on top of the can lids, the stolen stash of fish foods lodged firmly under their furry armpits. The 3 female cats snickered and laughed, waving to Rita as if saying goodbye to her. Rita swallowed hard and shook her head in confusion; she couldn't believe what was happening.

"I……I……I don't understand" Rita stuttered.

Rita looked down and she saw Cheryl, reaching up and pointing towards something behind Rita. A horrible realization came to Rita's mind as her emerald eyes widened up like a pair of rising suns.

"Wait a minute. If Cheryl is out there then who's distracting the EEP" Rita squeaked.

The snarling, red-faced chef glared hatefully at Rita, a series of bulging veins and grinding molars greeted Rita's frightened little face. The cat gulped hard and twitched her long tail.

"Human" Rita weakly said.

"Do you know what I do with mooching scraps of vermin filth like you when I catch them?" the chef asked.

"Uh, give them a parking ticket?" Rita joked.

5 painful minutes later……

BAM!

SLAP!

CRACK!

WHAM!

CRASH!

Rita screamed as she smashed through the window of the restaurant's kitchen and slammed, face first into a brick wall. The cat whimpered as she slid off the wall like a flattened fly.

"UGH" Rita moaned.

The small cat had a black eye, cuts and scratches all along her arms and legs, burn marks on her paws, a dent from a frying pan on her back, and a tail that looked like someone used it as a toothpick. Rita weakly trembled on her aching legs as her body hurt all over. A trio of snickering, cackling voices rang loudly in the tiny feline's weary ears. Rita looked up and saw Fran, Iris, and Cheryl, laughing and mocking her as they waved the fish treats in the air like trophies.

"Way to take one for the team squirt" Fran smirked.

"Oh yes, marvelous distraction job dearie, couldn't have done it without you" Cheryl added.

"Thanks for the help Rita, hope you had fun while it lasted. We'll see ya around, HA, HA, HA" Iris said.

Rita groaned and sulked as her fractured whiskers sank miserably into an ice-cold puddle that stung her cuts and bruises. The Scarlet Angels were seen, prancing and laughing wickedly at Rita's plight as they headed off into the night, with their mighty fish haul courtesy of Rita's pain filled expense. The small cat sobbed, shaking her head.

"Oh Runt, what have I done? I KNEW this was a mistake, I knew it, I felt it in my heart. Why didn't I listen to you?" Rita thought to herself.

Weakly standing on trembling knees, Rita grunted as she tried to stand on her pain-racked paws one last time.

BAM!

Let's talk this over,
it's not like we're dead.
Was it something I did?
Was it something you said?

Don't leave me hanging…
In a city so dead.
Held up so high
on such breakable threads.

You were all the things I thought I knew…
And I thought we could be.


Rita collapsed and simply buried her agonizing tears into her shaking paws, she cried her once sparkling jasmine eyes as she sobbed, sobbed, and sobbed her heart away. The small cat looked up at the stars and the moon and once again, she cried out to a voice unseen.

You were everything, everything,
that I wanted.
We were meant to be, supposed to be,
but we lost it.
All the memories so close to me
just fade away…
All this time you were pretending…
So much for my happy ending.

"You were right Runt……you were right all along……oh god (sobs)……I'm sorry" Rita said.

So much for my happy ending……

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To be continued……