Chapter 6
Phantalmina may have met bloodsucking Vampire bats and beastly Werewolves eating meat back at Halloween Town, but a bat that's almost the size of a young cat eating meat of some innocent creature was a shock for her. All the kids in the Halloween Town wished to see a real big bloodthirsty bat in action, devouring its prey. But not her. Not ever since she has lived and shared good moments with these creatures. One of the main reasons she agreed on the rule of not eating other creatures who took refuge inside the theater. But she couldn't believe she was actually witnessing such horror inside her theater.
The predator bat soon took a notice that the little girl was looking at him in shock. He simply couldn't help but to smile evilly to her and say...
"Hola."
Phantalmina grabbed Justin and got quickly up seeing that he was slowly crawling down, ready to come at them.
"Mina! You have to transform me." Justin said quickly to her.
"But...?" she mumbled in her confusion of fear.
"Now!"
She shook her head to get her mind clear to do as Justin suggested and sang. Only a few simple notes and in a matter of seconds Justin was standing again in a size of man ready to grab the bat. But just in time the big bat managed to move quickly away from him and off flying to the other pillar. The sudden reaction and Justin's change back to the large form again captured everyone's attention, making not only the new ones but others restless as well.
"What is happening?" Brutus tried to ask from Phantalmina and Justin as others were worried and confused.
"He broke the no eating- rule. Bring Munkustrap here. Quickly!" Justin said to him as he tried going after the bat. Brutus acted quickly and went to the hallway.
Justin soon noticed that the bat was heading up where other bats were and he was closing in on Dusk.
"Dusk, get away! He will kill you." Justin yelled to warn his friend. Dusk didn't have much time to reconsider, the last part was a shock for him and it caused him to crash into other bats on the corner.
Surely Justin's words also caused the everyone on the ground to panic and run all the ways in the stage area to take cover. They even ignored that Munkustrap entered in quickly with Brutus.
"Mina! Do the transformation." Munkustrap yelled once he got on the stage.
Phantalmina didn't hesitate and did it as told. In a matter of seconds the humanoid size cat and another rat joined Justin. Munkustrap took the lead when ordered…
"Justin, you and Brutus try to gather everyone into one group. Don't let anyone wonder alone. That's what predators go after first."
"What about you?"
"I'm taking down this freak myself."
"Understood."
It took a while for Brutus and Justin to calm others and then gather everyone to safety, on the other hand Munkustrap not only tried to simply catch this big bat, he tried to clime up to catch him for good. But this bat wasn't making it easy. Not only was this bat bigger than normal bats, it also was fast and clever. Besides, Munkustrap was for the first time doing this kind of thing in his large form. The distance and the jump were a little clumsy at first. And it mostly looked like the meat eater-bat was mocking the big humanoid-cat for even trying to catch him on his own. Few times he slowed down his speed to have a look at him closing in to suddenly make a fast ruff turn to get quickly away. Keeping up was not an easy thing, but Munkustrap was not going to stay behind. Sure, his new weight made the early rupture of a few old structures, but he continued to climb and it was a matter of seconds when he got pretty close to the meat eater-bat to catch him. The chase however scared the other bats away from their roost once they noticed that the meat eater-bat was coming at them. Most of the newcomers panicked too like the mice and rats earlier and flew circles around the whole hall. The big bat soon began to pay attention to flying bats and started to fly closer . He might have succeeded with it if it weren't for Ashley, who pushed him aside. She, Dusk and Luna who didn't lose their cool, blocked his way to get any nearer the stands and for going after the others.
"Goth, Stop! What do you think you are doing?" Ashley let out once facing him directly, Dusk and Luna beside her.
All he did was laughing deviously as if finding their situation amusing.
"Haven't you figured it out already, señorita?" he chuckled and was ready to charge at them.
It was a matter of moments for them to fall into his claws if Munkustrap hadn't intervened and forced him to retreat away from the large humanoid-feline. Goth flew again backstage to lose Munkustrap off his tail. Meanwhile Justin tried to call for Dusk and others.
"Dusk, Ashley! Try to gather the bats somewhere safe. He might come for them if he gets a chance." He told them since they and their other bat friends were less shocked then the newcomers were right now.
It didn't take long for Dusk to start to gather others together. Luna and a few others helped too to gather the newcomers and get everyone to safety. But instead joining to help them, Ashley noticed that someone was missing.
"Justin, Where is Mina?" she asked.
"What do you mean? She is… Wow!"
That was all he could say when the chase had reached the stage to them and then into the stands where the bats were still trying to get to safety. Dusk daringly tried to lure Goth away straight to Munkustrap so he wouldn't go after the others and then both of them would finish him for good. It looked like it was working at first but Goth seemed to notice that trick quite in time for him to avoid Munkustrap and keep his track on Dusk. Seeing that this plan didn't work, Dusk kept flying to tire him up. So far he managed to drive Goth to a pillar were he stayed for moment as he glared at the small bat waiting to strike him again
But then...
"ENOUGH!"
Everyone's attention turned to Phantalmina, who for some reason was carrying some package and was wearing her trench coat, her hat and poorly placed bandages on top of her mask.
It looked like in the midst of the whole commotion, no one noticed that Phantalmina really left the stage.
She had quickly gone to the office and browsed one familiar book. After that, she had gone out into the street clumsily put on her disguise to get what she needed to end this chaos.
"Mina, what did yo… When…?"
She didn't answer. She simply walked to the pillar where Goth was as he glared at her ready for his next move. For a minute everything seemed to be frozen since no one spoke or did anything. They just watched. Or more likely everyone waited for the big bat to do something giving them a reason to go after him again. But then Phantalmina began to open the package she was carrying in front of him and showed the content out to him.
"Here." she said without showing any emotion when she showed him a bird's body in the wraps.
Goth had a confused look on his face. Was she really offering him that dead bird?
"You were hungry, weren't you?" she continued. "That's the reason why you took those mice. You wanted to eat."
"You expect me to come down and eat that corpse out of your hand?" he answered unamused with the idea.
"I'm offering you this so all this unnecessary chase will stop." she said to him with a face that was telling she was serious. "And it's not completely dead. I saw how it fell down, it is unconscious now. See?"
He noticed that she was speaking the truth. The eyes of that bird may have looked blank as dead ones, but the chest was still moving a little. Almost hard to notice. It didn't take long for him to plunge at her, snatch the unconscious body away from her hands and fly then quickly to the top of the piano to eat it.
"Not bad, child. You may not be as annoying as I thought." he said after he swallowed his first bite.
Phantalmina didn't answer his comment. She looked aside and seemed to be lost in her other thoughts. Once she felt Munkustrap's hands on her shoulders she snapped out of it to face his frustration.
"What was that all about?" he asked her with a serious look on his face.
"He was hungry." she answered, sounding weakly.
"I meant the bird! Why did you bring it? He just ate two mice and was this close to having a bat?"
She looked down. The coming words might come as a shock to her friends, but they also need to know the truth she found out in the book. The same book of bats she researched when Ashley came to live with them, except this time it won't be a pleasant one.
"Because... that's what he eats." came from her mouth.
"What?"
"He is a vampyrum spectrum, known as a spectral bat. They eat meat."
"Ah. The human-child knows what she is dealing with. Lucky you." Goth smiled as he licked the blood away from his jaws.
"Shut up!" Munkustrap growled angrily at him. "You have no right to even have such treatment. Not after what you did."
"And she is far more better than any human." Ashley joined him.
"Oh, I've noticed." Goth chuckled. "No mere human has that kind of ability to turn other animals to human size or even able to speak to us. Whatever she is, it is a rare opportunity."
Munkustrap bared his teeth to him and his hold on Phantalmina's shoulders felt tighter.
"Enjoy while you still can. Because once you're done, we'll throw you out." he growled to him.
"We can't do that." Phantalmina said.
"What? Why?!" Munkustrap and Ashley asked her surprisingly, although everyone was surprised by those words.
"He won't survive in the cold. He will die in the matter of days if he is thrown out."
"Smart little one." Goth said with a smug on his face.
That comment made Munkustrap even angrier. But the big bad bat didn't really care about him. He smiled and continued.
"Since you are so willing to look after my well being, I won't mind staying here for awhile."
"Why you…?"
"But of course if you keep me well fed, I won't be going after your other... friends." Goth finished smiling as he looked at Ashley for a moment and quickly then lowered his eyes back to Phantalmina. "What do you say, child? Will this work with you?"
Phantalmina moved away from Munkustrap's grip close to the piano as she looked at the bat emotionless eyes.
"You promise you will leave others alone if I bring you food?" she asked him.
"Child, you have my word." he acted as if he cared.
It took awhile for Phantalmina to give her answer. Obviously she didn't feel good about letting that creature live with them after what he did. But she didn't like to be like those humans either, leaving other creatures to their faith.
"You can stay."
That answer made all her friends shocked, some of them even gasped.
"But if even one of the creatures in this building gets hurt again from your actions, my friends will throw you out from here and I can't help you anymore with that."
"Sounds fair. Thank you for that, pequeña." He said and took off with the rest of his meal flying to the structure where they were able to see him.
Of course Munkustrap looked angrily at him. He didn't like that a beast like him was able to stay. But soon enough other banded cats walked in.
"Munkustrap, what happened?" Demeter asked.
Munkustrap calmed himself before there was any chance to tell them about what just happened.
Justin however could notice that something was wrong with Phantalmina. She walked away from the piano as if there was something heavy in her chest. As he moved closer to her before he could ask everyone started to hear her sing...
"What have I done?
I wish I could run, away from this ship going under
Just trying to help, hurt everyone else
Now I feel the weight of the world is on my shoulders"
Everyone followed her walking slowly, no one couldn't but to feel sad. Even though this was a first time for the newcomers to hear her singing, they didn't want to interrupt her.
"What can you do when your good isn't good enough
and all that you touch tumbles down?
Cause my best intentions keep making a mess of things,
I just wanna fix it somehow
But how many times will it take?
Oh, how many times will it take for me
to get it right,
to get it right?"
Phantalmina stood in front of the dark mirror that reflected her images. She kept singing as she touched the cold glass like she was touching the hand of that sad child who looked as miserable as she was.
"Can I start again with my faith shaken?
Cause I can't go back and undo this
I just have to stay and face my mistakes,
but if I get stronger and wiser
I'll get through this"
As she walked away from the mirror her friends were moving little closer to her. And even Goth observed her from his spot.
"What can you do when your good isn't good enough
and all that you touch tumbles down?
Cause my best intentions keep making a mess of things,
I just wanna fix it somehow
But how many times will it take?
Oh, how many times will it take for me
to get it right?"
Phantalmina turned to look up at Goth and then to others that stood between him and her. As they looked at her, she looked tired and almost about to cry.
"So I throw up my fist,
throw a punch in the air
and accept the truth that sometimes life isn't fair
Yeah, I'll send out a wish,
yeah, I'll send up a prayer
and finally someone will see
how much I care~"
At this point Justin closed her in his arms and let her cry, she couldn't hold back anymore. Little by little others gathered around her as they repeated those lyrics she sang to her. Phantalmina kept crying and holding tight on Justin's sleeves.
"What can you do when your good isn't good enough
and all that you touch tumbles down?"
Munkustrap, Demeter and Ashley came around Justin to look at Phantalmina. As Munkustra gets on his knee, Demeter tries to stand on her back paws and Ashley lands on Justin's shoulder. As those voices surrounded Phantalmina, her cries were about to calm down, only a few hiccups escaped from her.
"Cause my best intentions keep making a mess of things,
I just wanna fix it somehow
But how many times will it take?
Oh, how many times will it take,
to get it right,"
As Phantalmina was calming down, she let those final lyrics escape from her mouth before she fell asleep.
"... to get it right?"
Sorry for taking awhile to get this done.
I hope you like it.
Song: Get it right- Glee