Marisella hated a lot of things the Jellicles did. She especially hated their dances because she was terrible at them. She hated it when she caught her brother dancing with them. So graceful and smooth, something she could never learn and only added to the jealousy of her brother.
He tried to dance when she wasn't around but sometimes he just couldn't escape her watchful eye no matter how hard he tried. Macavity was dancing with Griddlebone, Munkustrap, Tugger and Bomba when she caught him for the second time that week.
She stared at him with a false smile on her face and tapped her hind paw impatiently. "Macavity!" She called. "Come here for a moment I need to speak to you dear brother."
She had become angry with him all the time now. Angry because he was graceful instead of fierce the way wild cats dance, jealous that the Jellicles had accepted him so easily and jealous that he was just so much better at everything that her. To cope with her jealousy she'd beat him whenever she pleased and blamed him for their parents' disappearing on a regular basis.
Marisella dragged Macavity to a back alley of trash, out of view of the others. Her sharp claws dug into his fur and bit his skin, drawing blood. As soon as they stopped she whirled him in front of her and slapped him with enough force to throw him to the ground, it was more of a punch with an open hand. He was stunned at first and was suddenly frightened when she began to beat him. She growled as she spoke about how shameful it was for him to be fraternizing with the likes of Munkustrap and Griddlebone, calling his dancing a waste of energy and time. Blow after blow fell upon his shoulders and back. Marisella was thankful for his crazy coat; it hid the bruises from most other cats. She grinned maliciously as he cowered below.
"You are pathetic Macavity." She hissed as she stooped to his level so he heard her whispers, "You are a fucking useless tom and will never amount to anything. I am the only queen who will ever love you. Do you hear me boy!?" She shouted her question in his ear.
He feebly nodded and whimpered, all the while keeping his yellow eyes to the ground.
"Look at me!" She hissed darkly.
He did.
She grabbed his chin roughly in her paw and turned his face from side to side, noting that the slap she gave him earlier was red but blended in with the ginger of his fur. She threw his chin away from her and the socked him in the gut for good measure.
"Fucking pathetic." She repeated ruthlessly. "Wild cats aren't graceful, we are fierce! Once I find our birth tribe you will know how real cats dance."
Macavity curled into a ball and didn't dare weep in his sister's presence. He held his breath and counted the seconds as he heard her paw steps walk away. When he was sure she couldn't hear him he began to sob, and loudly. He knew that his sister was delusional in the fact that they would ever find their birth tribe. Wild cats lived in thick woods, there weren't any of those around for miles, and neither knew anything of their birth tribe. He loved dancing with the others because it brought peace to his troubled mind. Ever since Grizabella left no one brought his spirits up except one queen in particular.
He continued to cry until he heard paw steps approach. He ceased crying and tucked into a tighter ball, covering the back of his neck to protect it. But the cat who touched him placed a tender paw on his back. He slowly uncurled and looked into the soft brown eyes of the tuxedo queen Callestia. She smiled gingerly at him and he carefully uncurled.
He knew he could always trust the younger queen and threw his paws around her middle. She gathered him onto her lap and let him cry against her. She held him and stroked his wild mane of head fur, not speaking but acting how she felt.
In her young heart she knew she was in love with the tom. He was sweet when his sister wasn't around. When he was done crying she silently helped him up and discreetly took him back to Jennyanydot's den. The young Gumbie Cat saw the blood in Macavity's fur and quickly worked to help him.
"What are earth happened to you dearie?" She exclaimed as she tended to him.
Callestia, who stood beside him from where he sat on the cot, answered before he could, "We went exploring outside the fence Aunt Jenny." She explained, "We climbed into a tree and we fell out. I kind of landed on him." The ginger tom was deeply grateful that she was protecting his sister. She may have beaten the shit out of him on a near daily basis, but she was the only family he had. She was all he knew.
Jenny accepted Callestia's story even though she had a pretty good idea who the real culprit was and soon had Macavity out and about. When it came time for Callestia to leave with her older brother she turned to her friend and kissed his cheek softly.
"You mustn't listen to her you know. You're not pathetic Macavity," her eyes shone with compassion, "Not by any chance are you pathetic." She leaned in close and whispered into his ear, "You're the most graceful tom I've ever seen. Even more so than Munkustrap. But don't tell him I said so, it'll get his fur in a bunch."
Her brother called her name again, more irritably, and she left her friend feeling considerably better.
Every time Marisella told him he was shit Callestia would come and completely wipe his sister's words from him mind. With Callestia around he felt warm. He felt like he could move mountains. She truly brought out the best in him. She was always there to help him when he was beat by his sister.
But he was always afraid that Marisella would find their birth tribe and so never acted on his feeling for the queen. That, and he knew Marisella would have a fit if he flirted with a queen. Yet he couldn't deny his blooming feelings for her, she was a beauty, she should have been the next Glamour cat if Grizabella had stuck around to teach her, and at the young age of twelve Macavity wanted her to bear his kittens one day.
When he turned to go back to his and his sister's den he saw her sitting on the great tire in the middle of the clearing. Little Demeter curled up in her lap. For reasons Macavity could not comprehend, Marisella was only kind to Demeter. Maybe it was because Marisella was old enough to have her own kits but couldn't and felt a maternal instinct, or maybe it was because Demeter followed her everywhere and attracted a lot of attention for Marisella. Macavity didn't know and felt a twinge of jealousy towards the gold and black kit.
Why did his sister love the young one more than him? She never got a beating like the one he had earlier. Maybe Marisella thought it was cute the way Dmeter held her tail when they walked. Demeter was a Jellicle born and yet it seemed to the ginger kit that Marisella adored her to no end, as did most of the tribe; Bomba, Jelly, Jenny, even Deuteronomy and his son Munkustrap. The silver tabby tried to keep her away from Marisella as much as possible, not wanting the youngest Jellicle to become corrupted by the ginger queen.
Coricopat and Tantomile, whom Dueteronomy had adopted long ago, sat in the shade of a junk pile, staring at both Macavity and Marisella. The twins were whispering something to each other and Macavity wondered if they really could see the future.
They could and they saw terrible things in store for the malicious ginger queen and her brother, things that were already in motion and could not be helped. Yes, they had already told Deuteronomy and had made it clear that history was set, the futures of Marisella, Demeter, Munkustrap, Macavity and Callestia were all set and intertwined with one another.
They could see even farther than they ever thought. In their youthfulness their powers were easy to expand and send racing to the future. There they saw Callestia's tomson whom they would mentor and help raise. The attempted rape that would be performed on a Jellicle queen not even born yet, and the unsuccessful rape of another Jellicle queen not yet born. They saw how Grizabella's mistake of leaving would affect Macavity in the long run and they feared what they saw.
As kits Coricopat had formed a severe anxiety disorder where he could hardly stand being separated from his sister. Tantomile was the emotionally stronger of the two since it was she who saw their parents get run over by a car while pushing her and her twin out of the way.
Macavity waved to them and smiled. They merely lifted their heads in response.
Marisella called her brother over softly, "Oh Macavity!" She called musically, "Come here beloved brother." She smiled sweetly, it made Macavity want to throw up. When he stood before her perch on the tire she looked down at Demeter peacefully dozing in her lap, "See how perfect this little angel is? Have you seen the way she listens to me and adores me and doesn't back talk to me? She's everything you should have been little brother." She tenderly stroked the queen kit's head fur while she slept. "If only you could learn from Demeter here. Know what it means to respect me, obey me, fear me, and rightfully so." She looked up and her acid yellow eyes bore into his in such a way that his stomach churned.
She waved her claws in front of his face and then placed a single claw in the middle of his chest. A burning pain instantly lit up his heart and didn't stop. At the same time he was frozen in place, unable to move or scream. She grinned and hummed in delight at the pain in his eyes.
In that moment she lost Macavity forever. He would never know why she hated him like she did, he would never understand why she loved Demeter more than her own brother. Neither would ever understand the other ever again. Deep down Macavity vowed that he would destroy Marisella, but for all the vowing in the world he didn't know when or how or even if he ever truly would. In the mean time he would only keep his head down and follow her orders.
Deuteronomy saw how Marisella treated Demeter differently from Macavity, and he knew exactly why too. He knew that Marisella desperately wanted kits, but would never be able to have any. At the same time she despised Macavity because she blamed him for the disappearances of their parents. Innocent Demeter had nothing to do with them and was attached to the ginger queen and so Marisella loved her like her own kit, obsessively so. Deuteronomy greatly pitied the younger of the siblings. He was eight years her junior and her only family, yet she treated him as a slave and adored a kit that wasn't even hers.
The day that Marisella tortured her brother on the Gresat Tyer was one of the days that Dueteronomy decided to visit the yard. He was sitting atop the TSE1 and watched as she touched his chest and how he was frozen in place. A few minutes went by and he saw Macavity grab at his chest fur and then stumble back. After a few seconds he ran off to their den.
Dueteronomy stood and made his way over to Marisella. When he reached her he spoke up, "Marisella my dear. I'd like to speak to you about Macavity." He smiled kindly.
She had had her eyes closed and was relaxing in the sun when he came over and she slowly opened them at the sound of her brother's name. 'What's the runt gone and done this time?" she asked rudely.
Her leader's face looked surprised, "Well he's been making quite a lot of visits to Jennyanydot's den lately and I was just hoping he isn't hurting himself. Would you know anything of this?"
Marisella's eyes darkened and she narowed them when she replaied, "Why don't you mind your own bussiness old tomcat. Macavity is my brother and I keep track of him day and night. If he was hurting himself I'd know but he's not so don't bring it up. He likes to play rough with the other kits, he always did."
"I'm just watching out for him becuase I know times have been rough for the kits lately. I don't want him gettig hurt." He eyed her suspsiciously when he said that.
She smirked, "Macavity is doing just fine over the hag's rejection. Never better. Of course if you think the Junkyard is a bad place for Macavity I'm sure I can find a home for him back in the allies." She shut her mouth and continued to smirk at him.
Not wanting her to take the tomkit away, Dueteronomy only nodded and then turned and walked away. He wanted to help but there was something off in Marisella and he didn't want one false move to send her over the edge and send Macavity away. Something was coming though and he could feel it. He prayed to Everylasting Cat to have mercy on Macavity soon.