A/N: Now this I find funny; Roman de la Croix requesting a happy ending. But sorry to keep ya all waiting...even though I had this chapter finished the day after I published the last one. There's some cussing in this chapter.
"You know, she ran away too." Macavity said after pinning my arms behind my back. I knew that he was talking about Griddlebone.
"Damn it." I said under my breath. Why did I make so many mistakes? It was because I hadn't anticipated Macavity's reactions, and lost control.
"What's wrong? Nothing's going according to plan? Surprised at my expertise?" Macavity mocked me. I stopped struggling, and hung my head.
"I must admit defeat Macavity, you really are better than I am. It was stupid of me to try and go against you. But you must understand, with my record, it was an easy mistake to make." I hated sucking up. I was laying it on way too thick though, and Macavity wasn't fooled.
"Excuses, excuses Rose. You've played a dangerous game. Now that you've lost, you have to pay the price. So stop delaying the inevitable." Macavity's voice was dangerously low now. "You'll regret ever using your claws against me."
I remained silent, as I recalled his collections of torture devices. After a few moments, I asked a question I knew was stupid.
"So, what's the price?" fear seeped into my voice. "Great. I failed the Jellicles." I said to myself.
"And they're all going to know it when I execute you tomorrow with Munkustrap." Macavity's decision was greeted with hoots and hollers from his army. Damn them all. I prayed that they wouldn't be coming. I hadn't made a very good impression on them. Someone handed Macavity some rope, and he proceeded to tie my wrists securely together behind my back. Execution; that was a new one for me. My previous jobs, the few that ever found me out, had either tried to kill me on the spot or torture me to death. Macavity shoved me in the direction of where the prison cell was, and I didn't put up a fight.
My sudden silence seemed to irritate Macavity even more. He literally threw me into the dank room, and I smashed against the far wall. Slamming the heavy oak door shut, he left me alone in complete darkness with Munkustrap; I assumed it was just so Munkustrap could nag me about my failure. Wisely, Munkustrap gave me a few minutes to calm down. In the mood I was in, I probably would have killed him.
"So uh...he found out?" he asked a little timidly. I slipped my body through my arms, so that my arms were now in front of me. It was too dark to see where Munkustrap was.
"Yep." was all I wanted to say. I prayed Munkustrap wouldn't be stupid enough to try and continue this conversation.
"How?" I was wrong: Munkustrap was too stupid to realize that I didn't want to talk. Nonetheless, I felt obligated to answer. After all, I did get him into this mess.
"He had an agent checking my background the entire time I was with him. And before you ask: yes, Jemima left without harm. Despite Macavity being a son-of-a-Pollicle, he's an honest one and true to his word." I felt better talking about it for some strange reason. My murderous emotions were starting to subside.
"What's in store for us?" he asked, this time with a little fear in his voice.
"Public execution in front of the Jellicles." my voice was flat and monotonous. Munkustrap went silent. He probably had been suspecting that would happen as soon as he heard the bargain.
"So what are we going to do?" his voice was forcefully calm. I sat there shaking my head, at a loss for words. I honestly didn't know.
"Nothing." was the only reply I could manage. I could sense his rage reaching its peak.
"You said you could handle it!" he yelled. "And I was stupid enough to trust you." Munkustrap said the last part more to himself than to me. But it still stung. It was true; I had said I could handle it, and I couldn't. The thought that some prissy house cat was right in these matters made me feel sick. My anger and frustration returned, and I stood up to shout in the general direction of where he was.
"I said I could handle it, yes, and you're right about me messing up. I know how to take responsibility for my faults. And I'll be damned if I don't finish this job. Macavity has me thoroughly pissed off now, and I swear I'm not leaving this city until he is lying in a ditch fifteen miles away from the damn Junkyard, and his soul is frying in hell. So fuck off." I didn't need light to see that my words had left Munkustrap surprised and furious.
"And how are you going to do that, when we're going to die tomorrow? Do you have a smart-ass response to that?" Munkustrap was almost screaming by now, and his words took me by surprise. I could tell that his fury was mostly because he had given up hope.
"Well, maybe if you stopped screaming at me, I could think of a way out of this." I retorted. "And you could try to think too."
"You honestly think there's a way out of this?" Munkustrap's tone was sarcastic.
"Munkustrap, there is always a way out of everything. But sometimes we're blinded by our emotions to see the way. And by waiting until tomorrow to execute us, Macavity gave us plenty of time to sort this mess out." I had to calm him down. Now it was my turn to start asking him questions. "So how will the tribe react to your death?"
"I dunno. They'd probably just stand there, not believing it." Munkustrap was putting this into an honest perspective.
"Macavity will play on that, I'm sure. You think he'll try to kill all of the Jellicles, or enslave most of them? I know for a fact that he will kill Old Deut."
"He'll probably enslave the younger ones, but why would he kill Old Deuteronomy?"
"Munkustrap, you are the utter limit of stupidity. Did you not see the murals in his little office? They're all of you and old Deuteronomy dying. And there's thousands more in his bedroom."
"What were you doing in his...oh... you bitch! That's disgusting!" Even though we were in complete darkness, I could almost see Munkustrap's disgust. I guess he did have a brain. That thought made me laugh.
"Don't ever question my methods Munkustrap. They're the reason why you and the other toms who came with you today aren't dead."
"What do mean?" Munkustrap asked. Once again, I doubted his intelligence.
"I did that to get his trust, and so I could influence his decisions. Then, once Jemima was brought in, I started planning her escape. When you and the other toms showed up, I came up with the idea of a trade and the execution." I could feel his anger rising again. "But, his original plan was to kill you six toms right on the spot, leaving the Junkyard without it's six top fighters. It would be a massacre. All I did was buy some time." This seemed to placate him somewhat, and he kept his mouth shut. I started to think about what to do. Tomorrow, the silver idiot and I would be taken to the Junkyard for our execution. There was no way out of this room, or out of this building without being seen. So the escape would have to be made at the Junkyard. But surely Macavity would be bringing someone to keep an eye on us. And how was I going to get out of these ropes? Damn it. That was really the only obstacle. I could fight off the guards with ease, even if my paws were still tied together. But by then, Macavity would have noticed, and I couldn't fight him off. Wait...Munkustrap wasn't tied up. He could untie me. No, that was too obvious. Macavity would probably tie him up in the morning anyway.
I spent the next hour trying to think of something, but nothing came to mind that wasn't going to fail. Deciding to sleep on it, I settled down into a more comfortable position. After about fifteen minutes, I drifted off. In my dreams, the sparring session Macavity and I had replayed over and over. At the part where I slammed into the desk and dislocated my shoulder, inspiration struck. My eyes snapped open. I had a plan.
"Hey Munkustrap, got any bright ideas yet?" I asked. He didn't respond. Maybe he had fallen asleep.
"None. How about you?" he asked. My instincts told me it was already late morning, and Macavity would be here for us soon.
"Nothing. What's the time of day where everyone in the Junkyard would be gathered in one spot?" I asked. My plan would work better if Munkustrap didn't know. But I had to know when Macavity would want to execute us.
"About noon; that's when everyone is too lazy to do anything, and we just congregate in the main clearing for nothing. Why?"
"Because that's when Macavity will want to execute us, stupid." I rolled my eyes in the darkness. Any minute now, Macavity would be here. I began to prepare myself for what was to come. My plan was risky, very risky. But so has my entire life up to this point.