Suddenly I am back in time, 7 years ago, just after I had escaped from Sprang Hall. I see my younger self running down the same street I had just stepped onto with Perciet, Barbara and the other cats. I am tugged behind 11 year-old Selina, forced to follow my own memory.
I turn around, still being tugged along, and see a 13 year-old Bruce Wayne sneaking along, not too far away from my younger self. Had I have been as aware with my senses back then as I am now, I would have taken more notice of him, but back then, my only priority was to run.
Not too far behind sneaking-Bruce is Ty Gern, so fuming mad, steam is practically coming out of his ears. 11 year-old Selina—I'm just going to call my younger self 'young Selina'—stops in the middle of the street and goes down a dark alleyway. I watch as young Selina finds spots for her hands in between the loose brick wall of the building, and scales the side of it. That was the first time I had ever scaled a wall.
Still fuming, Ty stops in the street where young Selina had stopped, and looks around. By the time Ty had gotten to the entrance of the Alleyway, young Selina was already at the top of the building and Ty was too stupid to think to look up.
"GRRRRAAAAAHHHH!" Ty shouts, giving up.
Meanwhile, young Selina and I are on the roof of the building, safe and sound. Young Selina is breathing hard and has to wait for her heart rate to go down again before climbing back down the building. Down below, I see Bruce at a distance, still watching young Selina, as she takes off again.
Young Selina keeps running down the street in a straight line, but stops short as a tiny gray, black, and white Taby kitten crosses her path—Bartus. I hadn't known it at the time—nor had I remembered 'til now—that that was the first time I had met Bartus. My younger self watches the kitten with curiosity and awe as it jumps easily onto one of the huge trash containers on the side of a building.
Meanwhile, Bruce is watching young Selina with a puzzled expression as she follows young Bartus down a different Alleyway. After a lot of twists and turns down a lot of different alleyways, both my younger self and I find ourselves at the entrance of the cats' original den. Young Bartus crawls into a hole just big enough for a large house cat. Young Selina wanders around the old den until she finds a larger way in. A large plate of rusting, abandoned steel lays over another side of the den. Moving the plate just slightly, young Selina slips into the den, finding a large, cavernous hole that opened up into the sealed up basement of an old building.
Young Bartus prances over to his mother—Helilah—in a cozy corner of the basement, and some of the other cats in the clan gather around young Selina, sizing her up. One of the cats, Tiberius, growled in displeasure and hissed at her, but a much larger cat, Kamir, growled back at him as if to say "Shut up!" and then looks back at young Selina.
"Who are you?" Kamir meows at her, but at that time, I didn't understand the cats' language, so my younger self just stands there, confused and intimidated by the cats.
Helilah speaks up, "She's a human, Kamir. She can't understand you." She sighs.
"Then how did she know we were in here?" Kamir asks, dumfounded and a little irritated, "No human knows we are in here, much less, knows how to get in. Unless they work for—"
"Oh lay off it Kamir! She's just a child who's lost. We are going to let her stay." An older cat, Marinn, meows loudly as he walks into the lair. Kamir growls and goes back to his cushions.
Meanwhile, young Selina—very confused and not understanding a thing that is going on—backs slowly away from the cats and is about to sprint away, but Marinn jumps in front of her. He purrs and rubs against young Selina's legs, using a familiar feline signal to let her know she can stay.
Still confused, but glad none of the cats were growling at her, Selina follows Marinn deeper into the basement where an old, but still in good shape, mattress lay against the wall. Young Selina realizes that for the first time in years, she has a place to stay where at least one person appreciates and trusts her.
My younger self pulls the mattress to the floor with all the strength my 11 year-old body had, and lays down on top of it. A little while after laying there, Bartus and Helilah drag a blanket over to Selina and lay down on the mattress with her. As soon as my younger self closes her eyes, I awake.