Chapter 8

See You Again

Jail Cell #420

July 11, 2020

7:00 P.M

Jade sighs and crosses her arms: "How are you, Cat?"

Cat shakes her head: "I'll be fine. Just miss you all?"

Jade jumps back: "Who do you mean by 'you all'?"

Cat rubs her migraine-induced forehead: "You know, Andre, Robbie, Beck, I guess Trina, and also Tori"

Jade's eyes shoot at her: "Did you say Tori? You miss her?"

Cat pauses for a moment and nods softly before falling to her knees. She rubs her forehead as the hot flashes worsens. Cat shuts her eyes and sighs: "I'll be fine. And yes, I do miss her"

Jade raises her eyebrows and calls a security guard in; the guard delivers some fortunate news: "Bail's $1000. After that, you're free to go, Miss Valentine"

Cat sighs and nods: "How big is the crowd outside?"

"Pretty big" Jade replies and hands her a disguise.

The Outside

Immediately After

"As we await for Cat Valentine, here's a recap of this week's news" a news reporter announces; the deluded reporter goes into mental gymnastics: "The Radical Left continues to lie that COVID is deadlier than the flu. They also push for mandatory masks, but face masks increase the likelihood of kids being trafficked, according to a FaceDiary post. So, is the mask mandate part of an elaborate scheme by the Radical Left to profit off those blood-drinkers in Hollywood? That and more after the break"

They notice a disguised Cat Valentine exit the building with Jade.

"Ma'am. Have you seen Radical Leftist, Cat Valentine?" the reporter shoves a microphone into her face; Cat throws the microphone onto the ground and leaves, leaving the reporter stunned as the camera clicks from other reporters go off like crazy. Cat and Jade drive off in the former car.

The Car

5 Minutes Later

Cat hyper-actively scans her eyes around the car; she sits in the front passenger seat. The 25-year-old woman notices a beer can in the drink holder. She grabs it and quickly chugs it down.

"Stop!" Jade swats the can out of Cat's hand. Cat loudly breathes and reassesses what she did; tears of disappointment rolling down her face. Not another relapse?!

"Goddamn it, Cat!" Jade scolds and drives faster to the hospital: "Cat, you had a 10-day streak!"

Cat rubs her eyes and cries loudly: "I'm sorry! I caved in!"

Jade sighs loudly and pats her head: "Cat, don't say sorry to me. Say sorry to yourself"

Cat cries even louder: "I left Nona to die by herself! I could've been there!"

She shuts her eyes and remains haunted by images of Nona. With nothing else to spare, Cat stares down at her hands and wipes her tears. Her heartbeat accelerates as the alcohol kicks in. Cat's eyes widen and she yells at Jade to pull over.

Jade immediately pulls over and Cat exits the car; she attempts to throw up, but is unsuccessful.

"Cat! You can't get it out! It's already absorbed into your bloodstream!" Jade tries explaining to her.

"I don't want it in me anymore!" Cat yells and kneels on the sidewalk, eventually calming down her breathing.

February 11, 2020

10 A.M

Cat's Mansion

"I don't understand" Cat speaks over the phone: "Why can't I visit you at law school?"

"Kid" Sam scratches her head: "Because of COVID-19, my friend say they might restrict international flights when you try flying back"

Cat's eyes pop open: "What's COVID-19?"

"Oh" Sam explains: "It's what they're calling the coronavirus. Co for Coronavirus, Vi for Virus, D for Disease, and 19 for when it was discovered in 2019"

"Wow" Cat finally turns on the news: "You think it'll get bad?"

Sam scoffs: "Oh, please, we're not going to have another pandemic; this isn't 1918"

"Right" Cat winces and feeds a nearly-lifeless Nona.

"Who are you?!" Nona yells as Cat tries feeding her soup, causing Cat to sigh with a saddened look on her face.

"Nona; it's your granddaughter" she reintroduces herself and feeds her soup.

"Lies!" Nona shoves the spoon away, making the soup spill over Cat's brown jeans and black shirt. The young woman jumps back as Nona glares at her.

"My granddaughter is 3! Not 30 like you!" She yells, judging Cat's age by the stress lines on her face.

"Sam. I'll call you back later" she hangs up and hugs Nona by the knees; she stares at her with a concerned face: "Listen, you have dementia. It's 2020 now and I'm your granddaughter"

It takes a few seconds for Nona to register these facts. Afterwards, she asks: "Where's my husband?"

Cat pauses for a few seconds and sighs: "You don't want to know. Anyways, I'm here to take care of you, always"

Nona pauses again and then hugs the young woman warmly: "Thank you"

Tori's Hospital Room

July 11, 2020

7:30 P.M

The room is empty. Because of the virus, nobody else is allowed inside. Tori is barely conscious and her heart-rate begins to de-stabilize; her breathing is aiding with a tube. The room is scattered in get-well-soon cards and bouquets.

Suddenly, Cat dashes in at the speed of a football quarterback and hugs Tori's lying body. Security quickly tackles Cat to the ground.

"Ow! Let me go!" Cat struggles to escape from the guard.

"Ma'am! Nobody's allowed in here!" the guard yells: "Now you might have COVID!"

Cat stops and so does the guard. Cat stares at him, but struggles to make out his face as she isn't wearing glasses: "I might have COVID?"

The guard nods: "Yes ma'am. Now we'll need you to spend the night in an isolated room until you receive a negative test"

Cat stares at Tori. Tori's eyes are barely open, but she cracks a light smile and sheds a tear. The guard yanks Cat off the ground and drags her towards the door-frame.

"Let's move it!" the guard yells.

To Be Continued

(Authors Note: Some classmates from my high school actually re-posted the COVID claims on social media and they have been debunked by fact-checks, but they still went viral among my former classmates online. Also found out last week that one of my former classmates is now part of Q. Not even kidding. So, that's why I used these examples for personal catharsis.

Just wanted to thank everyone for reading: This is a very difficult fanfiction for me to write. I had multiple family hospitalized with the virus and one of them died over the summer. On top of that, my grandparent passed away while writing. The grandparent angle alone makes this bad timing to write because of Cat and Nona, but I'm doing better now.

This was going to be a much longer chapter, but I have finals and will soon move to an apartment for my final semester of college. I'm also starting a new job to pay the bills.

Because of time constraints, I decided to publish what I'd written for this chapter so far to avoid long waiting times for new content.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter!)