Chapter 12

I was incredibly sad and lonely. My parents hadn't called me, despite the fact that Christmas was two days away. This day would come, I knew it; the time I would realize that I should have cut them off first. Leave before you are left, I told myself often. However, it seemed I could never obey my own philosophy. It was just too simple for me, to wallow in depression. It wasn't something I necessarily enjoyed, it was just too easy. There wasn't really any pain, just the comfort of myself and my own bed.

Crane hadn't reached out to me. Why did I care? I guess because despite his dangerous attention, it still meant attention. I was important in his diabolical way. Part of me wouldn't have minded if he came back just to punch me in my face. At least someone took time out of their day to do that much.

I flipped through social media absent-mindedly, skimming across memes and videos about praising god, mostly posted by cousins, former co-workers, and school friends. There were a few local posts too, but I stopped on one that piqued my interest.

"The Gotham animal shelter has NO more room for cats! Two of our pregnant females have given birth and those kittens are ready, please adopt this holiday season!"

My teeth clenched together, knowing full well I couldn't resist the cute faces on my phone screen. Surely someone would probably take a kitten, maybe even two. So, I started thinking about the older ones. How long had they been there?

"God, damn it all to hell." I shrieked, throwing off my blanket and stomping into my jeans. "Why do I always have to be the sucker?"

I went to the store and bought two large bags of cat food, an eighty dollar cat tree, bowls, toys, and a cat crate. I'm sure my disheveled appearance scared the cashier, especially with the amount of shit I bought. There was a reason I was so angry with myself. Animals die, and when they leave, they break your heart. But you're heart's the only one that's broken.

The shelter was pretty nice, almost worth the awful drive over the hill. You could see the sidewalk had been scooped up for dogs to take walks with volunteers, which was cool since people were obviously dedicated enough to excersize them despite the weather. I followed the path up to the tan building, glancing at the random paw prints in the snow. A couple walked past me, wearing matching hats and holding two kittens. Ah, the holidays.

"How can I help you?" The receptionist said, not even bothering to look up behind his glasses. He smelled like an over-worked student.

"I'm here to adopt some cats."

"Some cats? Like how many?" When he looked up, he was startled. "Uh, I'll have someone take you through."

I sat down in the lobby for a minute and waited for another college volunteer to bring me around. This one was a lot nicer than the other guy, super tiny like a fairy and didn't give me shit. She wore her pink hair in a bun; choppy bangs brushing over her eyebrow ring. "So let's take a walk and see who you connect with."

We walked through, seeing every silver cage on the wall was full. Some of the cats mewed a lot, while others just slept. I looked for the kittens, and saw they were all gone. There were some relatively young ones that I knew would go just as fast. "So, who's been here the longest?"

"Benny's been here for a year now." I followed her to a handsome tuxedo cat with yellow eyes. He just laid there, staring blankly ahead like he had just given up. "People look at him, but they tend to shy away since he's about seven years old."

"Which one is the oldest?"

She tapped on the cage next to him, a spritely white cat rolled on her back. "Persephone's nine, not that she act's it or anything. We found her two months ago with a broken leg. She's all healed up and ready to go."

I sighed, "Broken leg, huh?"

One of the cats kept crying. I searched for the source of the noise. All the way down at the bottom was a large silver shorthair, whining and crying like someone was killing him. "What's his problem?" I asked.

"Oh god, that's Adams. He's blind, and he's a seriously huge whiner. He's been hanging around the property forever; we just caught him last week." She took a deep breath. "There's so many, it's just so hard to keep up."

I mentally punched myself, but it didn't stop me from what I was about to do. "I'll just take all three of them, if that's cool."

Her eyes widened. "Really? Holy shit, yes. That would do so much for us. I mean, I'm not really sure I can let you have all three of them…and there's adoption fees too…"

"I'll give you one hundred to say they all ran away."

She peaked to her left and right, ensuring no one was around. Before I knew it, she was shaking my hand and getting the furballs ready for me to take.

Those three assholes were not good on the drive home. Adams whined in the kitty crate while Persephone rolled her long white hair all over my seats and Benny chewed on the car charger. Still, once I got them settled in, I felt pretty good. Adams and Benny were good buddies, sitting with one another peacefully while I played with Persephone. The apartment wasn't so lonely anymore, and I started to feel like spending Christmas with the cats would be enough.

The door opened, slowly. My heart raced, in anger and anticipation. The familiar face cocked his head, confused; chestnut hair falling between his eyes before he brushed it back. Dr. Crane placed his papers on the coffee table next to me without a word.

"I'm quite aggravated, you know. This is my house."

He chuckled lowly. "Yours or the cats?"

I scowled at him, practically burning holes into the back of his suit as he prepped a cup of coffee. "I'm not a convenience."

"You allow yourself to be. Besides, I said I'd be around for Christmas."

"More or less." I mumbled, turning back to the TV. Persephone jumped on my lap, making it much easier to ignore him.

"Things seem to be progressing." He chatted, taking a seat next to me. "For the good."

"I'm guessing that's what you've been doing for the past few days?"

"I've been studying memories and associations; more specifically, how we associate certain things pertaining to our memories."

I raised my brow, slowly turning my head. "You're usually not this open."

Adams squeaked at Crane. He wrapped his beautiful fingers around the cat and held him in his lap. "I like this one."