Chapter 14: A Rather Unorthodox Escape
She sat up so suddenly that she made herself lightheaded, but there was no escaping the fact that she had several very real whiskers gently waving in the air; undeniably attached to her face. Slowly moving her head to one side, she regarded the whiskers staunchly follow her movements, quivering slightly in the midnight air.
And then the adrenaline rush came thundering through her bloodstream and she jumped out from her bed and hurried to the mirror she had looked over the first day she had spent in her bedroom prison. Placing her now-furry hands palm-splayed on the dressing table, she gave her reflection a good, long stare.
There was no denying it. She was as Felissian as the day was long. Running one hand along her now-feline jaw line, the action unfamiliar with the fur on her face and the padded paws on her palm, she winced as her fingers passed over the bruise on her cheek. Brushing away the fur, she revealed the cut still present from Kasumi's slap. Her action accidentally caught it and opened the small wound. Pressing her unfamiliar palm to her cheek, she stemmed the flow and quickly the blood dried off, although it left a few spots of blood on her facial fur.
'Kasumi won't want anything to do with me now,' she thought vehemently, privately pleased at the difficultly her new species presented. She blinked; her feline reflection did the same. 'Oh...' A few choice curses flittered across her mind and she moved away from the mirror, abruptly realising the new danger she had been unceremoniously dumped in. No, Kasumi most certainly would not want anything to do with her anymore... and neither would anyone else. She was 'the enemy' now – they were at war with Felissia.
She almost started to pace, but stopped herself before she could waste energy on such a futile action. She had been locked up in this room for almost two weeks; she knew that the only real possibility of an escape was through the window.
'But it's too high,' the coward inside her whinged. 'All previous attempts have shown this to be true.'
"Yeah," Haru muttered out loud, squishing the doubting whisper, "but last time I didn't have cat genes." She backpedalled across the room to give herself some run-up space and, finding that she had gone as far as possible and that her back now rested against the wall, she concentrated her gaze on the elusive window. Tensing her muscles, she ran towards the window and made a jump for it; she went further than she had before, but her fingers still only scrabbled at stonework, and she slid back down to the ground, hitting the carpeted floorboards with a loud bang.
"Ow... That hurt..." Cautiously raising herself off the ground, she eased herself back to her feet and gave an offended look to the window. From her point directly below it, she made several blunt jumps for the glass. All resulted in even poorer outcomes.
Groaning in defeat, she dragged herself to the far wall where she had previously started her run-up and sunk down to lean against it in exhausted surrender. "Great," she muttered for only the room to hear. "I'm a cat that can't even jump properly. Figures." She glanced back down at her semi-feline hands, tiredly curious at the human-cat mixture present. They were shaped as normally as ever, only now they were covered in a light, tan-coloured fur, complete with padded palms. She flexed her hand and was vaguely surprised to see them follow the mental command. Up until now she hadn't really computed those furry hands to be hers.
Sighing, she ran one hand through her short hair, finding the feel of her padded palm skimming her head slightly surreal. Abruptly she decided she had had enough and dropped said hand down to her side to support herself.
It was at this point she registered how she had sat against the wall.
Instead of collapsing like a rag doll and letting her feet sprawl in front of her, she was resting lightly on her toes, with both hands now leaning on the carpet to lend support. At the back, her tail – she still couldn't get over that; her tail – was swishing gently from side-to-side, somehow aiding her balance. She realised why she hadn't been able to reach the window.
Now the taste of freedom was so close, she suddenly rushed to her wardrobe and searched for something vaguely practical. There was no way she was going to flee in nothing but her night clothes. She clenched her teeth in irritation as she ploughed her way through the hoards of flimsy, expensive dresses that Kasumi had bought for her. Finally she found an outfit that wasn't all petticoats and silk; it was one of her old dresses that evidently Kasumi had deemed suitable for her to wear. She supposed the choice of trousers was out of the question, since, thinking about it, she doubted Kasumi would allow his young bride-to-be wear anything as masculine as trousers. She clipped a cloak around her feline form; with her new appearance the last thing she needed to do was run around with her painfully obvious Felissian look exposed to the world.
Now dressed in something more lasting than her night clothes, she returned to her run-up point and tried again. However, instead of running in the same style as last time, she ducked down a metre or so before the wall. Remembering how she had seen felines jump, she tensed every muscle and sprung from her lowered point.
Her hands grasped the windowsill this time; digging her hands into the tenuous grip, she hung there for a second with her feet scrabbling at the wall in vain before her right foot finally found a hold. Now with her weight spread out between her two hands and one foot, she was able to heave herself up a little bit further and pull her upper body through the open window. She supposed she had Louise to thank for the fact it was open; the true Felissian evidently hadn't been bothered enough to close it after her.
She hung there for several more seconds, feeling decidedly dizzy at the drop she had just brought into her vision. Resisting the small squeak of terror – being half-cat, she wasn't sure whether she could actually squeak, but it sure felt like she was going to unless she prevented it – she eased her balance back to tilt the abrupt drop out of her immediate sights. Stuck like that, she clenched her eyes shut until the lightheaded fear had dissolved enough for her to continue with her endeavour.
Somehow manipulating her balance, she was able to bring one leg up to the windowsill and plant it on the slim surface before cautiously following suit with her other foot. Easing herself slowly so her shaky balance was supported by her feet fixed onto the windowsill and her hands tightly gripping the vertical beams at the sides, she tentatively glanced to the wall below her.
She quickly brought her head back up, repressing the urge to cuss. The ground was as far away as ever.
'Why, oh why do I have to develop a sudden and unrelenting fear of heights now?' she mentally berated. 'I may not have been good with heights before, but...' As she peeked a glance below her and hurried closed her eyes, she added, 'Oh... boy, that really is a long way down... A really, really long way down...'
Eventually the desire for freedom outweighed the original fear and she forced herself to look down long enough to assess the situation, because there was no way – cat or no cat – that she was going to just jump from the second floor.
Her gaze lighted on a white trellis with autumnal-coloured vines snaking their way between the waxen wood. It wasn't right beside her window, but, if she lowered herself down and swung herself to the right...
'No. Absolutely not.'
She clenched her eyes shut again, but this time in an attempt to push aside the cowardly voice that had grown within her over the last week and a half. "Yes, absolutely," she muttered forcefully to herself. "Unless you'd like to be Mrs Kasumi by this time tomorrow..."
Her internal coward quickly quietened down, bruised by the mere prospect. All the same, it offered a diminished thought that at least she wouldn't have nearly killed herself by climbing out of a second-story window. Haru quickly shook that thought aside, but did glance back at the wedding dress.
She hadn't had a say in the wedding dress – she hadn't had a say in anything recently – but from the looks of the thing, it was big, poufy and she rather got the impression she'd look like a human parachute in it. A grin stole across her face at that though and, before she could question the sanity of her actions, she leant over from her spot, holding onto the top of the window for dear support, and unhooked the dress from the top of the cupboard. Dropping the coat hanger, she bundled the ruffled dress under her arm and lowered herself down on the outside of the building.
Now she had committed herself to the insane course of action, the cowardly voice inside her shut up entirely; climbing back up onto the ledge was going to be almost harder work that climbing down the trellis. All the same, the one hand she had gripping the windowsill for dear life wasn't enjoying the rather brutal treatment, shaking slightly at the task of support her entire weight. Slowly – much too slowly for her liking – she swung herself from side to side, trying to gain enough momentum to ensure she would reach the trellis. Just as her hand was about to release her of its own accord, she let go of the window and landed with a bang on the whitened wood.
She waited for several seconds, so sure that the noise had alerted every individual in the building. As the moments ticked by and no alarms or bells went off, she slowly began her descent. To her luck, it appeared the household members were heavy sleepers. She continued down, even as she was hindered by the many-layered dress, but she kept it tucked beneath one arm. She had only descended about half a floor when the wood began to groan beneath her. She paused and intently listened to the threatening sound.
'Please don't let that be what I think it is... Please don't let that be what I think it is...'
However, the trellis, apparently deciding that it was never made to support human weight and thinking itself very much being overworked at the sudden demand, continued to groan as the supports at the top of the lattice began to become detached from the wall. Haru crawled her way to one side of the trellis and hastily took hold of a windowsill where a forgotten plant pot – with a rather dead plant – was situated. No sooner had she managed this than the trellis disengaged itself entirely from the wall and came crashing down on an immaculately kept lawn.
She cringed, knowing that, no matter how heavy people slept, it would be near impossible to sleep through that. Sure enough, a light went on inside the house – and, with Haru's luck, it would have to be coming from the sole window she was hanging onto.
After the light had been turned on, several seconds ticked tersely by before Haru heard the click of the window being unlatched and the protesting squeak as the person shoved it open. She did her best to lean towards the wall; luckily her fingers gripping tightly onto the sill were hidden by the plant pot and its dead occupant.
"Damn thing," the individual above her muttered. Haru's heart froze when she heard it to be Kasumi. "Barrow, the trellis on the southern side has fallen off!" he yelled across the house, back towards the interior of the building. "See to it tomorrow morning!"
Haru guessed the butler/bodyguard was Barrow, but she wasn't about to stick around to find out. She waited for several minutes longer for the window to be shut once again and the light to be extinguished. Even then, she waited a few minutes longer to ensure Kasumi wasn't about to stick his head out of the window anytime soon before turning her attentions to escaping her rather sticky mess.
Glancing down, the ground was significantly closer than it had been before, but not close enough for her to make a clean jump for it. Shifting the bulky weight of the wedding dress, she felt her fingers beginning to shake with the exertion of keeping her attached to the windowsill.
'All right. Time to test my mad theory.' Shifting the wedding dress again, but stretching it out above her this time, she held it between her free hand and the stray fingers slipping off the ledge. The coward had given up trying to add its voice into the mixture; Haru suspected it had packed its bags and left after her most recent bout of madness.
Wedging the black flats – they were the most sensible shoes she had been able to find in the extensive wardrobe – into the wall, she tensed her muscles and clipped the rest of her fingers from the ledge round the wedding dress. Sending one last prayer up to whomever was listening in, she closed her eyes and pushed herself back with her feet, releasing her tenuous hold in the same instant and brought the disgraced wedding dress over her head.
To be fair, she hadn't expected it to work. The whole wedding-dress-as-parachute thing was ridiculous; it was mad; it was surely going to end in disaster with Haru's current trend of luck. But... it did slow her descent. She didn't quite drift down with elegance or grace – it would take more than a decent parachute to do that – but she landed all the same without breaking her legs. Perhaps her feline-genes would have enabled her to land on her feet if she had simply jumped, but she wasn't about to take that risk. She hit the ground with a rather solid thump; the momentum carried her forward and she proceeded with an untidy type of forward roll.
Groaning, she picked herself up, straightening her now-triangular ears out and checking her whiskers. 'Urgh, as familiar as I am with facepalming the ground, it's quite different when you've got a catty face...' She stood up with a distinct lack of feline grace, kicking the dress under some conveniently placed bushes. It felt fitting somehow; her hated wedding dress became an element in her escape.
"Right, personal escape finished," she murmured to herself, "now to find my father."
She was seriously hoping that her luck was going to hold out for a little longer, and that her father would be placed somewhere on the ground floor. Logically, that would make sense; she doubted Kasumi would bother dragging her father and his wheelchair up any flight of stairs. As the majority of the ground floor rooms were naturally equipped with large windows, it made skirting round and trying to find her father's room significantly easier.
She found the room eventually situated round the far end where the servants' quarters were probably kept. The windows were smaller here and certainly not large enough for her to get her father and wheelchair out of. She scooted further round until she came to the servants' entrance – to her relief, the last person hadn't bothered to lock it. She guessed she deserved some luck every now and then.
Slipping inside, she slowly made her way to her father's room. It wasn't too difficult to find once she knew which area he was located in, and someone had been nice enough to leave the key in. Grinning to herself, she twisted the key, the grin growing at the satisfactory click of the lock turning inside. She lifted her eyes up to the heavens – although, as things were, she just lifted her eyes to the whitewashed ceiling – and murmured, to whomever might have listened in to her plea, "Thank you." Looking back down she opened the door, taking the key with her. The last thing she needed was to be locked in if someone passed by.
Her father's chair was sitting in the corner, empty and looking rather skeleton-like with the thin sliver of moonlight casting bony shadows across the seat and back of the chair. A small glimmer of relief settled inside her; the presence of the wheelchair implied that her father hadn't been completely neglected here.
She moved over to the bed and gently shook her father's shoulder. "Father... Father, wake up. It's Haru. We're getting out of here."
Her father's ragged features split into a thin smile. "Finally, I'm starting to hear voices. It's official; I've lost my mind."
Haru had to resist the urge to forcefully shake her father awake. "No, I'm really here."
"I'm sure the imaginary voices in my head would say exactly the same."
"Get your blasted head out of sleepyland and get up!" Haru hissed.
Daichi blearily opened his eyes. They blinked and finally focused on his daughter. "Haru?" he breathed. He sounded like he barely dared to believe it.
"Yes."
He blinked again and finally he took notice of Haru's appearance. "When did you last shave, Haru? Your beard has grown out of control."
The brunette chuckled. "I wish you wouldn't resort to your sarcasm at times like this." She moved away and brought his wheelchair closer to the bed. "Just get in and we can get out."
Daichi Yoshioka didn't move for several seconds. He carefully sat up, and finally the humour fell out of his expression. "Haru? Everything aside... what has happened to you?"
"I got on the wrong side of an Felissian who decided to grant me a similar appearance to her. Actually, the only reason I managed to escape was due to my newfound feline abilities. It is me," she added quietly after her father still hesitated to move. She sighed and walked over to the wardrobe, dragging out a suitable outfit. Her father could dress himself despite his disability, although the learning had been long and painful after the fire. She passed the clothes over and moved to check the corridor beyond the door. "Someone was very kind and left the key in too," she informed her father. "I suppose I've been relatively lucky so far."
There was a dry, quiet chuckle from Daichi. "That's my fault. I learnt a few lock picking tricks in a misspent youth; they had to leave the key in so I couldn't unlock it from the inside."
"Well, I'm glad you did. It certainly made getting you much easier."
"Yes... Haru, do you have a plan? This whole thing seems rather..."
"Improvised," Haru supplied. "I haven't a clue; my only plans were getting as far away as possible from this place."
"What about your...?"
Haru closed her eyes, letting her head fall against the arch of the door. "What, Father? My appearance?"
"You know what people think of Felissians."
"I do. But so far all I've been focused on is escaping the current fiasco at hand. I suppose..." She suddenly trailed off, bringing to mind Louise's conversation from earlier that night. She turned to her father who had finished dressing by now. "I think Baron has also been affected by the same spell as me. This is the same baron as the young baron you once knew," Haru added for Daichi's benefit. "Perhaps, if I found him..."
"Then you would be putting yourself up for getting caught, and then you would be punished for your current species and the law you broke when you entered the King's Guard." Her father lowered himself into his chair and slowly wheeled himself to his daughter's side. "Think about it, Haru. For all you know, he may hand you into the law himself."
"You said you knew him," Haru reminded. "Anyway, if he's Felissian like me, he won't be trying to draw attention to himself. Look, Baron's got friends; he has his Felissian roots too. Perhaps..." Haru shook her head. "I don't know; let's just get out and then we can argue about what to do later. Come on; we can get to Hiromi's and explain what's happening to her, but the main problem right now is getting out of this place."
Haru took the handle of her father's chair and wheeled it out before he could voice anymore protests. With the moonlight lighting their way, they slipped, unseen and safely, from the mansion and out to the town beyond; the Human father and the Felissian daughter.
ooOoo
A/N: Sorry - as usual - for my tardiness, but at the time that I would usually be updating, I was instead in the middle of a forest. Collecting/trapping bats as part of my field course. (Freaking awesome, by the way.) I was out until two in the morning and only got to sleep by three. So yesterday was super-busy - I also received my second-year results (a healthy 2.1) AND guess who I saw around campus yesterday? It only turns out that a scene from Broadchurch is being filmed at my university! I saw David Tennant during the filming of a scene - total fangirl breakdown - and I initially walked straight past him without realising it! (When the episode is broadcasted, I might tell you which scene/place it is...)
Anyway, can you tell I've only had five hours sleep?
Cat.