The Cats pt 2
~Jesse~
I hate motorcycles. Always have and aways will. The only reason I ride the piece of junk is because when you have as much moeny as we do, you don't throw away things like that. I could finally see the orthidontist's office. I was really glad me mom had showed me where it was because the only sign in front was the big, ugly one that said "ORTHIDONTIST" is big, bold letters. I pulled into the lot and parked my bike. I ran inside, jerking my helmet off. "Jesse!" Mom yelled. "What are you doing here?"
"Isn't it obvious, Mom? He wants to see what I'll look like without braces."
"Shut up, Jan. I came for Polly."
"Real mature. You're 24 and you act like Polly."
"8-years differance isn't much," I replied, looking at Mom. "Where's Polly?"
"Inside," she said, motioning to the wooden door that led to the orthidontist.
"Cripes," I walked over to the secretary. "How long does it take to get braces tightened? On average."
"Oh, 20 to 25 minutes."
I tirned my head to Mom.
"15 minutes, Jess."
"Jeez."
I tried to pull myself up with my right hand, but that wasn't gonna happen. I tried to move my left hand to re-grab the wall, but that wasn't happening either. I'd never been shot before and in the back of the hand is not a good place to start. I'd been near the top too. And being left handed didn't help.
"Here, kitty, kitty, kitty," B.B. mimicked.
I winced. "Not gonna happen."
"Not all cats land on their feet. Alex, shoot him down."
"I want to watch him fall," Alex told her.
"That'll take too long. The other cats could come before he falls."
"Who cares? I can hold 'em off."
"No you can't. Not alone."
I wasn't really listening to the two of them yakking, but instead, aiming how I was going to drop myself onto Alex. Thinking the time right, I dropped myself and landed, hard on Alex. B.B. screamed and kicked at me. I rubbed my back where I had landed and jumped to my feet.
"A wounded cat won't go far!" I heard some Crow yell as I ran.
I paced back and forth near the door. "Jesse, what is it?" Mom asked, her gentle face taking more and more of a worried expression.
"Guido... uhh... needs some help," I said truthfully.
"Oh, the pizza place swamped again?"
"You could say that."
"Jess," she said, grabbing my large hand in her own small one. "Promise me this has nothing to do with the Crows."
I tried not to look her in the eye. "I promise."
"Ta-da!" Polly exploded from the office. "Look! Blue!"
"Good, grief," Nathan said, shaking his head.
"Polly, uh, Guido needs some help."
"Okey-dokey!"
I grabbed her arm and dragged her outside. "Whoa! Jess, what's up?"
"You know a girl named Cassie?"
"Yeah. She's Marco's best friends girlfriend!"
"Ummm... yeah. Well, she came to the house."
"Oh-ma-God! What happened?"
I shrugged lightly. "Crows."
"What? Again? Oh..." she growled, almost the hissing cat-like sound she's famous. "If they do ANYTHING to Marco, I will kill them. I will kill them ALL."
"Poll, chill," but that was too late, Polly was on my bike, helmet on, waiting for me. "Good God," I straddled the bike and put my own helmet on.
"Hurry!"
"Shut up."
"Let's go!"
I revved the bike and we drove off.
"Paul? Paul? Hello?" I said.
"Is he dead?" Tobias asked.
"He's not dead," Rachel replied, her hand on his neck, checking his pulse. "His pulse is weak, though."
"We've got to get him to a hospital," I said, looking around.
"Yeah, right. How are we gonna get him to a hospital? He's a big guy," Tobias made a good argument. Paul had to be about 5'11 and I'm 6'2, but he was more muscular than me. Marco's about 6'0 and masculan, like Paul, but since he was in front, we couldn't risk getting out. Not that we could risk that anyway. I looked over to the Crows. They were all huddled around Alex. Guido's a smaller guy, but he hurt Alex badly. "Get that cat!" the girl yelled. "Don't kill him! I want to do it myself. Don't attack with a jump, either. Suprise him. And you're welcome to hurt him, but don't I don't want him dead! Understood?"
About 10 differnt Crows yelled "yes" at differnt times and ran off.
"Poor Guido," Rachel said, looking at the Crows as well. "He doesn't stand a chance..."
Now I had too much on my mind. Cass should have been back by then. That bothered me the most. And Guido was going to get massacred. That wasn't a nice thought either.
"And now we die," I said, closing my eyes.
Marco groaned. "Shut up, Tobias."
"Who's making me?"
"Both of you shut up," Jake said.
"Alright."
"Look! Alex is up!" Rachel yelled.
"Great," I said. "We die now?"
"Tobias, don't be so negative," Marco told me. He shifted around in the front to look at us. He moved his right foot under his leg absently. "Argh! Damn!" Marco yelled, falling over.
"Marco, what happened?" Jake asked, obviously alarmed.
"It's just my foot--"
"Your foot? What happened?"
"Nothing."
"Marco!"
"What?"
"What happened?"
"Do you always answear a question with a question?"
"No, do you? Argh! That's beside the point. Marco, what happened?"
"I dunno. What did happen, Jake?"
"I'm asking you!"
"About what?"
"May I?" I asked Jake.
"If you can."
I cleared my throat. "Marco, Jake would like to know why you screamed and what it has to do with your foot. Will you explain it to him, please?"
Marco stared at me.
"Please?"
"Two words: I got shot."
"Marco! You lied to me!"
"Well, don't have a hissy-fit about it. I just didn't want you to worry."
"Fine," Rachel interupted. "We kiss, we dance, we smooch, we carry on. Ok? Put the past behind ya."
"What is this? Disney's Hercules or The Lion King?" Marco asked.
"Don't make me sing Hakuna Matata."
"You've got to get out more."
"I know."
Paul groaned. "Hakuna Matata my butt."
"Paul, you alright man?"
"I'll survive... probably."
"You're not helping."
"I'm," he winced and tried to smile. "Not a helpful person."
"We probably caused some major damage or something," I said.
"And what... did we... learn today?"
"Don't run over people in a truck?" Marco offered.
"Close."
"Don't get run over by a truck?"
"That's it."
"Paul, are you hurt anywhere else besides your leg?"
"The side... right here," he said weakly, touching the side of his stomach and chest.
"We definatly caused internal damage," I said.
"You've got to stay awake," Jake said. "You'll have a better chance if you're awake."
"Yeah... I know. I'll do my best."
It was amazing. Only minutes before, Paul had been talking to us, like a normal person. Now he was half-dead and struggling to stay awake. I could only wonder how we could get him the help he needed.
"Jess, do you know where we're going?" I yelled over the roaring bike.
"Yeah, it's on Rogue territory, so we should be ok."
"Oh, good," I said. All I could think about was Marco. I was so worried about him. He was a strong guy, but I knew all too well that he'd be killed if he attempted anything really stupid. I shook my head as Jess rounded the corner. Two people caught my eye. Guido, standing his entire 5'8 against some really large guy with bleached hair. I knew I'd seen his face before. Guido had no weapons, but neither did the Crow, so they just stood there, staring at one another. About 10 other Crows were behind Guido. The first Crow's eyes flashed he grabbed Guido's shoulder. He spoke to him, but I couldn't hear over the bike. Guido nodded and turned. Jesse stopped the bike and we both saw it at the same time. Guido's left hand was bleeding and swolen, a hole through the middle. A real hole. If he made a fist, he could have stuck 2 fingers through it. I thought I was gonna puke. Jesse was really pale, like when he found Tony....
All 10 Crows approached. "Back us up," I told Jess, hopping off the bike and handing him my helemt. He nodded and winked a sign of good luck to me. I sprinted over to Guido. "Hey Polly."
"Guido, your han--"
"I know. But first, we gotta get rid of these guys."
"Yeah. Who's that?"
"José. He's here to help. Ex-Crow."
"Ok! Kick it!"
All of them attacked. We now had a chance. We knew their weaknesses. We had an allie.
"Isacc!" I screamed. Isacc groaned in return. "Can you hear me?"
"I can hear... you."
"Isacc! Oh my God! What's wrong?"
"I shouldn't... have... gone...." he trailed off.
I looked around. A pay phone! Perfect! "Ax, watch Isacc," I said and jumped out of the car and ran to the phone. I dialed 9-1-1. If Isacc would die, it would be while he was in a hospital. I'd put his life on the line and now I had to get him out of the danger.
"9-1-1. What seems to be the emergancy?" a young woman's voice asked me.
"Hello, my friend, Isacc Hanson--"
"Is this a joke?"
"No! I'm serious!"
"Alright, sorry."
"He has cancer--"
"What kind?"
"I don't know!"
She sighed. "Maybe you should ask him."
"He passed out!"
"He probably shouldn't be outside."
"His sister is in trouble--"
"Are you sure it's not his brother, Taylor or Zac?"
"Argh! Stop it! I want a new operator person!"
"Too bad. You're stuck with me."
"Then listen. He's hurt, badly. I'm not sure what's wrong. We're on Main and West. We need help! Please send an ambulance!"
"You are serious, aren't you?"
"How many times do I have to say that?"
"Alright, I have an ambualance headed your way. Stay on the line and fill me in with a little more information."
"Where is she?" Jake asked.
"I don't know, Jake. I just hope she's alright," I answered.
"Me too."
Three people exploded from an alley-way. "Forget it Crows, your days are few! Surrender before we're through with you!"
"Your sorry rhymes don't scare us, come on, you wusses!"
"Let's see, 3 on about 10? I don't like those odds," Tobias said.
"Don't forget me!" came a voice behind us. And a shot. And a thud. "Tobias!" Jake and I screamed in unison.
Alex smiled at us.
"What are you? Nuts?" I roared and jumped a thim. I clawed him. And before I knew it, I had real claws; bear claws. I was ripping through his flesh with tooth and claw as if it were play-doh. I wasn't coming off, either. No one stopping me. Not Jake, not Marco, not Cassie. I stopped what seemed hours later. I'd torn all the flesh from his face and most of it from his chest. I could see his heart beating. I could see his lungs move everytime he in or exhaled. I was settling down and just understanding what I had done. And I hated myself for it. Slowly, I demorphed. I stood there, above him. "Never... never mess with my boyfriend," I informed him, speaking slowly. "I'm sorry. But you went too far."
"Don't be sorry," he told me. "It was my own fault. This isn't what I wanted to do. Thanks."
"What?"
"Thank you... for showing me I'd gone too far. No one's stopped me before. If I live, I'll never do anything like this again."
I bent down and touched his bloody hair. His hand slid into mine.
"Thank you," he said again and I knew that he was gone. I wondered if anyone would miss him. I stood up again, placing his limp hand at his side. I looked up. The fighting was begining, and more Crows were arriving. Jake was lying on the ground, a Crow on top of him. Marco had one around the neck and Tobias was doing his best to keep a large and growing group away from Paul. I worried about Tobias, his back soaked in his blood. I ran to help him. We had a battle to win.
"Party!" I yelled, trusty umbrella in hand, smacking Crows left and right, doing my best with my right hand. Polly and I were fighting back-to-back to ensure safety. "You ok?" she asked, slicing her claws through a Crow (named Thomas).
"Fine," I replied, smacking a girl named Laura away. "Where's Speedy when you need him?" I thought.
"There's too many!" I heard José yell.
"They'll take him down fast, Poll. Let's get over there."
"You go. I'll handle this crowd."
"Got it," I said and ducked out of the group.
"Be careful!" she yelled after me.
"I will!" I yelled in return, approaching José and his little "circle of enimies."
"Traitor!" 2 girls screamed, attacking José with all their might. But José was more than a match for the two and he sent them both flying, only to be attacked by another little group. "Me amigo," Jose said, smiling, throwing another Crow away as if he were a piece of paper. I laughed and helped decrease the surplus of people.
When that little friendly bunch was gone, all laying on the ground, covered in their own and other's blood, José went to help Polly and I went for Marco and Jake. Jake, throwing a small guy to the street had a rather worried expression on his face. I turned in a full circle, umbrella before me, tripping 3 guys that I didn't know were there, but I didn't see Cassie. That bothered me.
"Where's Cass?" I asked him.
He looked at me, almost startled. "You don't know?"
"Umm... no. Where is she?"
"I thought you knew!"
"Well, crap."
Jake and I had to back up from an approaching group of Crows. I tripped on someone's body. When I stood, I caught a glimpse of it. Jake and I both screamed, almost instantly joined by the Crows.
"Ax! How's Isacc?"
"I'm not sure."
"Isacc, can you hear me? Respond, please..."
Eyes still closed, Isacc put his hand on top of mine. I took it up and gave it a sqeeze. "You're gonna be alright."
Isacc groaned.
I lifted my head at the sound of some kind of siren. I could see the ambulance.
"They're here, Isacc. You're gonna make it."
The ambulance parked beside us. Two people, a man and a woman jumped out. Behind them, they pulled a streacher.
"You the girl who called?" the woman asked me as the man moved to Isacc.
"Yes ma'am," I replied, watching nervously.
"Are you coming too?"
"Well, yes... um... no! I mean..." I wondered if Jake was worried. Stupid thing to wonder. But I wanted to be with Isacc when he woke up. "Just a minute," I said and jogged over to Ax. "Ax?"
"Yes Cassie?"
"Morph," I said. "Go to Jake and tell him we're alright and what happened. I'm going with Isacc."
Ax nodded. "Be brave if everything does not come through."
I tried to smile as I watched him go.
"What's the verdict?" the woman yelled to me.
"Coming!" I yelled back and scrambled into the ambualance.
The Crows were lessening. We had them on the run, but we were still about 4 to 1. Not nice odds.
"Tobias?" Rachel asked, kicking a Crow away from Paul. "Are you alright?"
Yeah, right like I was gonna tell her I felt like I was dying. Here's some advice, three simple words. DON'T GET SHOT. "It hurts a little, but I'll survive."
"You better, or I'll kill you."
After seeing the bloody body of Alex, all the Crows that were attacking us ran away like scared rabbits. Guido and I... well, we were being brave. We stood there, hugging each other, screaming at the top of our lungs. Guido recovered first. He stopped screaming and smacked me as hard as he could. I stopped screaming too.
< Prince Jake,> Ax's voice echoed through my head.
I nodded like an obediant servant.
< Cassie is safe.>
You have no idea how much I wanted to scream "YES!" but I held back. The last of the Crows were leaving.
< Shall I show you the way?>
I shook my head. All I wanted to know was where Cass was. Ax read my mind.
< Cassie is at the hospital.>
That scared me. "Everyone in the truck!"
Everyone got in. I sped off toward the hospital.
"Marco..." Polly had her arms around my waist. I held her so close, I could feel her heart beating. "Marco, does it hurt?"
I nodded. I can lie to Jake, I can lie to Paul, I can lie to my dad! But one look into those sea-green eyes and lying is not something I can do. "It's alright though."
"After all that, you might--"
"Polly, I'm not worried about what'll happen to me. Paul's my main objective."
"And you're mine."
I smiled and kissed her, like I've always wanted to. I slid my tongue into her mouth and explored. The serious side of me told me to stop before I got my braces locked. the normal part of me slapped him and told him to shut up. Finally, I had to break it before I ran out of oxygen.
Rachel and Tobias applauded.
Polly blushed.
Jake put the petal to the metal.
I'm not sure how long I sat there, waiting (in the waiting, room, go figure). I was just about to strangle this nurse who kept asking me all these dumb questions.
"When's his birthday?"
"I don't know."
"How tall is he?"
"I don't know."
"How much does he weigh?"
"You've got a freaking scale! Weight him yourself!"
She got scared and left.
A couple of doctors ran to the E.R., one of them yelling for some other doctor.
"Cassie?" I heard behind me. I spun around and there was Jake's dad, Greg. "What are you doing here?"
"Waiting for news on a friend."
His pager went off. "When am I not needed?" he shook his head. "I'll be back in a bit. Hope your friend's alright. He jogged off in search of the docotors that had passed me only seconds before.
"Cassie!"
"How does everyone know my name?" I thought as I turned around. "Umm.. hi?"
"It's me, Jan."
"Oh, hi."
"You ok?"
"Mm-hm. What are you doing here?"
"The doctors want to keep checking up on Nathan. He has to come down here like everyday."
"Where's Faith?" I asked, nervously and looked around.
"She's in the car. She'll be out in a bit."
"Oh."
"Is everything alright?"
"Umm... well..."
"Cassie, what's wrong?"
"It's Isacc."
"What?"
I shook my head, blinking away tears. Jan was pale. She looked like she was going to break down. Obviously they had been hoping nothing like this would happen. That made me feel worse.
"Jan, are you alright?"
"Yeah... yeah. I got to go get Mom. And tell her." Jan sighed. I had laid a burden on her shoulders that she had to explain to her mother. Tears welled up in her eyes as she turned and ran down the hall.
"Cassie, you're alright!" Jake's arms were around me so fast, I nearly got whiplash. He hugged me and kissed the back of my head and turned me around and hugged me some more.
"Of course I'm alright," I replied, my head on his chest. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine."
"Thank God."
"Tobias, Marco and Guido are a differnt story."
"That happened?"
"We had some trouble with guns."
"Yeah," Rachel said, looking down, her hair hanging down and she looked a lot like "Cousin It" from the ""Assam's Family."
"Rachel?"
"Huh?" she looked up at me.
"What happened?"
"That kid, Alex, shot Tobias."
"And Marco," Jake added.
"And Guido," Polly put in.
"My God, I said, breathless. "Where is he now?"
"I killed him," Rachel told me. "Right after he shot Tobias. It pushed me over the edge."
I was completely amazed. I knew Rachel loved Tobias--but to kill someone? That was a little too far.
I held Cassie close to me. In the back of my mind, I kept seeing wounds, shots, flesh, bone. I closed and shook my head and tried to force the demon memories from my head. They stayed and played their games.
"Jake? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Cass."
"Are you sure? You don't look too good."
"I'm just thinking."
"About what?"
"The past events of today. Nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about," I replied, stroking her hair and kissing her forehead gently, a weak smile forced onto my face.
"Polly?" Cassie asked quietly, looking in shame toward the red-head. "Polly... I have something I'd like to admit. It's my fault... oh, it's all my fault...."
"Hmm?" Polly's head came up, looking at Cassie carefully. Her kitten eyes didn't shine. She knew it was bad. We all knew it was bad. The way Cassie's voice shook, it had to be bad.
"I went to your house today, you know that part, but sonthing really stupid happened. Isacc told me to let him drive me to the alley. I had no idea this would happen--"
"Cassie, whatever happened, I'd like you tell me. It's not your fault."
"Oh, God, it is. It's.... Nothing would have happened to him if he had been at home."
"Cass," Polly's words comforted even me,"my brother is wild about you! I think he was trying to repay you for all the times you've been so good to him. But he knew that his body wasn't able. He knew that. It's his own fault. He knew the risks and he took them."
Cassie shank down in my arms. Polly's soft voice had done nothing. "Everything's going to be ok," I whispered to Cass softly, kissing her temple. "I promise."
"I hope so Jake, I hope so."