Chapter 11 – Macavity's Lair

Munkustrap pushed himself to his paws, groaning. He felt like he'd just run into a brick wall, then been run over by a steamroller – in other words, not good.

Macavity was back. Why hadn't he guessed? His brother was hardly the least predictable cat in London, after all. Macavity's lair should have been the first place he searched for Demi. That was probably why he was here. So Macavity could gloat.

He groaned again, for the first time looking up at the room he was in. It looked like part of a human den, but one that had been abandoned for a long time. Both the walls and the floor were made of grey stone. He reached out a paw to touch the wall, then withdrew it, shivering. The whole room was as cold as ice, yet, strangely, it was stuffy. That was probably because there were no windows, Munkustrap mused. The room was bare apart from two large television screens on the left wall.

He ran to the door, and pushed at it with his paw, but it was locked. Damn. Guess it wouldn't be that simple, but, to be fair, he never thought it would. After all, this was Macavity he was talking about. Loud and extravagant plans were his thing.

As if on cue, the door swung open under his paws. He took a step back, astonished at his luck – but freedom was not behind this door. No, what was behind this door was Macavity.

He entered the cell, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hello, brother."
"What do you want?" Munkustrap hissed, feeling his fur begin to stand on end.
"Oh, just to gloat. You know, now I finally have you in my clutches, standard evil genius sort of thing."
"I'm not taking any of your crap, Macavity. Just tell me what you want."
Macavity looked almost disappointed.
"I don't want you, at any rate. No, if I can't gloat, then I guess I just came here to do this!"
With that, he pounced, raking his claws across his brother's cheek. Blood spurted out from the wound, staining Macavity's claws as red as his fur. Munkustrap fell backwards, startled by the sudden attack, clutching his face and biting his lip – Macavity obviously sharpened his claws for such an occasion.
"What was that for?"
He stared at the grey tabby, a manic yet triumphant look upon his face.
"You'll find out, brother, in time."
He started to leave, but stopped, calling over his shoulder;
"Watch the screens, dear brother. Watch the screens." And with that, he was gone.
Munkustrap shook his head, confused. Watch the screens? What was that supposed to mean?

That was when he realised. The screens. The television screens that adorned the walls of his cell. Slowly, he turned, as they began to flicker into life.

On them was the one cat he had been longing to see for months, but hoped he would not see here, of all places. It was Demeter. She was lying on the floor of a room that looked almost identical to his cell. She looked awful. Her beautiful golden fur was matted, with clumps of it torn out, and bruises and cuts stained her weary face. He put one paw on the screen, wanting to be able to talk to her, to tell her that he was there, that it would all be okay, that he would somehow get them out of this mess.
But there were many walls between them, and he knew that, however hard he may wish it, there was no way out of this one. They were trapped.

A movement in front of him broke his train of thought – a flash of scarlet on the grey concrete floor. Macavity had joined Demeter. Just the thought of it sickened Munkustrap, but he kept watching, kept wanting to know what was happening.

"Hello Demeter." Macavity purred, a sly smile on his lips.
"Go away." The petite queen murmured. Munkustrap laughed out loud. That was so like her! Always defiant, even when she'd been beaten up.
"No." His brother's voice ruined his momentary good mood. "I'm sorry, Demeter, but you're not going to like what I have come to tell you."
"What?"
"Let's just say..." Macavity smirked, running a paw down her back. "I have taken care of your sweet little mate."
Demi stiffened, her panic showing in her eyes. "What do you mean?"
He laughed, raising one bloodstained claw. "This is what I mean, my dear."
"No..." she gasped, tears building up in her amber eyes. "You didn't...you can't have..."
"Oh, but I did. So now, little Demeter, there is nobody to rescue you. And even if you do get out, where will you go? I burned down your precious Junkyard, thanks to Jemima, and most of the Jellicles inside it. No, this time you are mine. And what's more," he leaned in closer. "I think I shall enjoy it."

Munkustrap turned away, sickened. That monster! How could he do this to her? How could he tell her all of these lies, feed her all of this heartbreaking nonsense? (Of course, Munkustrap didn't know that it was mostly true – he had left the Junkyard before his brother's attack.)
In a burst of rage, he punched the screen, glass falling down to the floor around his paws. He howled in pain, clutching his bloody paw.
"That was stupid." He muttered, but he wasn't even listening to himself. He may have taken out one screen, but the other was still up and running, and he could still see what Macavity was doing, still hear his chuckles and Demeter's sobs...

He slid to the floor, finally letting despair take over. Macavity had won.


It had taken five days to reunite the Jellicles. Well, most of us – ten were still missing. Tumblebrutus, Pouncival, Electra, Victoria, Asparagus Senior, Skimbleshanks, Jennyanydots and Old Deuteronomy, and of course Demeter and Munkustrap were still missing. I missed them all, especially my sister. I wondered where they all were, if they were all okay. If they had all made it out alive.

Old Deuteronomy's absence had caused the most problems. Since he was missing, that technically made Munkustrap the Leader, but he was missing to. That meant Alonzo should take his place. The only problem with that was that he could barely move – he could hardly be in charge of all of the remaining Jellicles. That left the Rum Tum Tugger, and the less said about that, the better.

Actually, Tugger had been acting more mature since the Junkyard was destroyed. It seems that was all it took for him to finally gain a sense of perspective. Certainly, he hadn't tried to flirt with me since then, which was an achievement of sorts.

We were all in our temporary base (the vets) when it happened. Jemima came back. And we were not very glad to see her.

She slunk into the room, tail between her legs, looking at the ground. She was obviously hoping that nobody would notice her. But as soon as she came in, every head turned in her direction.

"What are you doing here?" Jellylorum hissed at her, causing her to shrink into a corner.
"I...I heard Cori. Up here." She tapped her head. "I thought, if I could explain what happened..."
"Explain?" Asparagus Junior scoffed. "We all know what happened – you sold us out!"
"You betrayed us." Tugger said simply. "We don't need cats like you here."
"Yeah, get out, traitor."
"Go on, go."
"Get lost!"
"How could you show your face here, after all you've done?"
Jemima was close to tears. Someone had to make them shut up, and I didn't see anyone else volunteering.
"Shut up!" I yelled. "Stop it, all of you!"
Jemima looked almost relieved.
"Listen to me." I began. "Any one of us could have been taken in by Macavity. I was, once, and I paid the price for it. It's Macavity we should be blaming, not Jemima. And anyway, how can we talk to Jemima about lying? We all lied to her. We all knew Macavity was her real father, but did any of us care to enlighten her? No, we kept up with the pretence, and told ourselves Demeter would tell her the truth, when she was old enough."
Most cats in the room were avoiding my eye by now, seemingly ashamed.
"We should be looking for Macavity, not sitting around here and moping."
"But nobody knows where he is. The only ones that did were Munkustrap and Demeter, and they're probably there." Etcetera said, voicing the fear I had been trying to ignore for a month or two now. We all sat back, trying to think.

Where could Macavity be? Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer would probably know better than the rest of us where he could be, they had robbed nearly every home in London. But even the notorious pair looked clueless.
A small cough came from the corner of the room, and once again we all turned to look at Jemima.
"I used to go there every other day. I could take you, if you want."

A small smile crept across my face. Of course Jemima would know. How could I not think of that?
"Who's coming?" I asked, looking round at the crowd.
"We are." Mungojerrie stated, sounding firm. "We wanna find out what happened to Mam and Dad."
"Me too." Tugger nodded.
"Me too."
"And me!"
"Don't forget me!"
Voices rang out from across the room, until nearly everyone was coming to get Macavity.
"I want...to come." came a voice from behind me.
"Alonzo? You can barely walk!"
"Since when has that...stopped me?" he grinned, and I couldn't help smiling.
"Come on then. Jemima, lead the way. Let's go and find Macavity." I cheered.
And every single cat in the vets cheered with me.


Author's note-Phew! That took longer than it should have. And I know I said it'd be finished by Christmas. It seems my plan to make Christmas the first of February failed. Oh well, never mind ;)
Anyway, this is my second to last update - as you can guess, this story is (very rapidly) reaching its conclusion. So, see you next update, and I hope you enjoy! (As usual, feedback is appreciated.)

Disclaimer-If I owned Cats, I would ban badfic. But badfic exists, so I obviously don't own Cats.