Better Days
Plato started to stir. He yawned, and finally opened his eyes.
The tom was shocked to find the white queen curled up next to him. He felt his face get hot, and his stomach seemed to flutter. Slowly, making sure not to wake her, Plato rose to his feet and walked out of the makeshift den.
He stretched outside in the cool early morning. The junkyard is still silent. None of its permanent residents are awake just yet.
Plato noticed the sky was starting to lighten, signaling dawn's approach. Plato really should be going if he doesn't want to be discovered. With a sigh, he started to walk towards the junkyard's main gate.
"Where are you going?" Victoria asked, emerging from the den, and joining Plato out in the gray morning. Plato shrugged.
"I don't know, where ever life takes me I guess." Victoria studied him and then asked,
"Why are you leaving if you have nowhere else to go?" Plato looked away.
"Oh...uh…sorry if that was too personal to ask."
"Don't worry about it." Plato mumbled. He continued on the path, with Victoria following him. They got to the gate and stopped.
"Where are you going?" Plato asked. This time Victoria shrugged.
"I don't know, where ever life takes me I guess." She answered, smiling.
"But isn't this your home?" he asked. Victoria's smile faded.
"At one time, I called this place home. But it has become more of a prison than anything." She answered. Plato raised and eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"So…" She continued, "I was thinking since you have nowhere to go and I have nowhere else to go, then maybe… we can go nowhere together."
Plato blankly stared at her, shocked by her suggestion.
"I don't think that's a good idea." Plato softly replied.
"Why not?"
"Because it's not exactly a smart to run off with toms you don't know. That's extremely dangerous."
"You are not dangerous."
"You don't know that."
"You are not dangerous." Victoria repeated, firmly. She stood in front of him and stared him in the eyes. "I know that because if you were then why would you have bothered to save me? And you very well would have taken advantage of the fact that we were alone together all last night." Plato was speechless.
"…Damn you make a good point." He said after awhile. Plato noticed the sun was rising. The Jellicles are starting to wake he thought to himself.
"I have to go." Plato announced. And with that Plato dashed across the street, into an alley and out of sight.
Victoria watched him go, deciding whether or not to follow him. She looked back into the junkyard. The others would miss her a lot. She would miss them too. But she's sick of this place.
You've always wanted to leave, to see the world beyond these junk piles. Well this your chance! Take it! If you don't leave now, you never will. Victoria thought to herself.
If you don't leave now, you never will.
Victoria walked out of the junkyard and left her old life behind, without a second thought.
Plato was still running. He had to get away from the Jellicles, and fast.
The morning sky started to darken with rain clouds at an unusually fast rate, sending chills up his spine. Plato pushed himself to run faster as he expertly weaved his way in and out of back alleys; and eventually stopped behind a supermarket, one of his favorite spots.
He frantically looked and searched of any sign that someone may have followed him.
That's when it hit.
His heart seemed to explode within his chest. A scream rose in his throat, but he choked on it as the pain magnified, intensified.
Plato clutched his chest as it felt like it was going to rip himself in half. He fell, hitting the ground hard as the pain spread throughout his body. He broke in a cold sweat as laid in pain in the dirt.
"You have disappointed me my dear son." Said a calm and cruel voice. Plato didn't have to look up at the figure leaning over him to know who it was. None the less, he still looked up. The ginger tom smiled sweetly down at him. But not in what some would call a kind sweet, but a wicked sort of sweet.
"Macavity." Plato spat at him, venom in his voice. Macavity's smile got even wider.
"Is that anyway to talk to your father?" Another wave of pain hit Plato as he screamed.
"You... m-m-mon…..monster!" Plato sputtered as he was still curled up in pain. Macavity simply ignored his son's accusation.
"So what have been up to? You haven't reported in quite awhile now." Macavity lightly asked. Plato pressed his lips together, not willing to talk.
"Stubborn as always." Macavity sighed, absently sharpening his claws on the brick wall. "I guess we just have to do this the hard way then."
Plato cried n agony. It felt like someone busted through is skull with a stake. Macavity continued to attack Plato's mind, trying to take over his conscious. Plato vainly tried to keep his father out, but the pain was excruciating. He simply wasn't strong enough to hold Macavity out.
Memories started flooding back. Macavity watched through Plato's eyes as he saved Victoria from suicide, how he awoke to find her curled up next to him. But what interested the napoleon of crime however was when she suggested coming with him.
"Interesting," Macavity muttered, pulling out of Plato's mind. "Very interesting." He shook his head.
"My dear boy, how the hell do you expect to be top crime lord some day if you go around saving people? No one would be scared of you, and if they aren't scared, then you'll never get respect."
"I don't want to be a crime lord." Plato coldly remarked. Macavity stopped his pacing and stared down at his son. Macavity's yellow eyes seem to burn into Plato's green ones, but Plato neither flinched under the cold glare nor looked away. He stared back.
"I want you to kill her." Macavity said. "It will be your last chance." The crime lord started to walk away.
"Why should I?" Plato yelled at his father. Macavity stopped in his tracks. "Give one reason why I should do what you tell me to. Will you kill me if I don't? You've made my life a living hell; you would be doing me a favor."
Macavity turned to face his son. "Kill the queen, and I will give you your freedom." With a snap of his claws, the pain that held Plato at bay snapped like a rubber band, releasing him.
He slowly got back on his feet.
Macavity was gone.
And Plato didn't know what he was going to do.
