Just wanted to apologise for any British slang I use! I try but it's hard not to put it down out of habit.
Astrid let out a sob that broke the silence in the room and collapsed to the floor when her legs could no longer holding her up. She pulled her knees up to her chest and let the broken mouse fall from her grip onto the floor by her side. She cried weakly as she stared at the body of Abana in the doorway. Just moments ago she had come running when they needed help and she had taken Caine in, she was exactly like her daughter, just as helping and nice and now she was gone just like her daughter too. It wasn't fair. They had left the FAYZ. They had finished with it but now it was back and death was following them all over again. Astrid forced herself to control the sobs. She wasn't the kind of girl to just collapse like this and she wasn't actually going to start now, either. After calming down she slowly climbed back to her feet, breathing deeply to remain calm.
Diana had helped Caine to sit down on the end of the bed and quickly settled beside of him with her arms around him. Neither of them were crying, they didn't have any expressions really, their faces were blank as Diana pulled Caine's top up to make sure he wasn't too badly injured around his chest though she couldn't tell much from looking at the bandages wrapped around his torso. She dropped his top and reached up to feel his head as if to check that as well. It was a shock to see Abana like that and now, as she felt her mind breaking inside, she struggled to do everything she could to not look over at her body and instead to keep busy. Caine was letting her do whatever she wanted. His eyes were wide. Abana had practically saved his life and now she had died. The sickness was back again and Caine struggled not to vomit down his front.
While the rest of them stared, Sam stayed knelt over Abana as if just making sure she was dead, still holding her hand, not sure of what else he was supposed to do for her. He slowly reached over and closed her eye lids down, staring at the hole in the middle of her throat, still slowly leaking blood. He didn't even think about the cat until he heard it's cry a few seconds later.
It sounded strange. It was definitely the cat meowing aloud but there was something strange about the sound it was making. It was a mixture of the cat howling out and a girl crying in fear. The girl's voice was young, barely older than a teenagers. Like a human girl's sobs as the cat let out loud meows that were mixing in with the girls voice and the cat continues to cry as it stumbled around the corner, waving it's head back and forth, the sound mixing in with one another. Sam stared down at the cat and frowned. It didn't seem like it was injured or anything, but it was still screaming and crying out...
"It's scared..." Astrid suddenly whispered. She limped over to stand by Sam, stepping carefully over Abana's body shakily, leaning on his shoulder with tears still streaming down her pale cheeks. "I saw it before while you were trying to hit it. It was scared of being hit. And it's still scared. You hit it and it is really terrified. You can see it in it's eyes. They're almost human now."
"But you hit it. You kicked it in the stomach and chest and sent it flying into the wall." Sam complained, like he didn't want to be responsible for the creatures deathe even if it had been crazy. He couldn't take his eyes off the cat who was shaking and sobbing in front of them.
Astrid frowned and said nothing for a moment. She was getting a horrible sense of Deja Vu from this cat. The light she made. Her eyes (which were looking a lot more human the longer she screamed). Even her voice. It was all as if she had heard and seen it somewhere before, or maybe she had just heard it somewhere before but she couldn't place it.
The cat turned and looked up at them. She was still crying and howling almost like it was trying to communicate or like it was trying just get out the fear in it's throat and chest. She collapsed onto the ground and whimpered in pure terror. The cat looked so frightened of them and a paw slowly reached up, touching her head gently and crying. No longer did she sound like a cat, now she was full girl. A little girl sobbing and crying in terror as she rubbed her head much like when cats licked their paws and cleaned their heads only this cat was trying to wipe away a feeling of pain.
"Bette."
"What?" Sam blinked and turned to look at Astrid.
"It's Bette." Astrid whispered. "I mean... Her eyes. That power. And you hit her around the head, just the same as Orc hit her with the bat and she died. That's why she is so scared right now."
"Are you saying this cat is Bette?" Sam demanded.
"Of course not." Astrid said instantly but she didn't sound very sure of herself.
"Then what are you saying, Astrid?" Sam whispered. He didn't want to be demanding but he needed answers and Astrid was the one he always went to.
"The ball of light." Astrid mumbled weakly, trying to put her thoughts to words. "I asked around after Caine was beaten to get more information on their powers and that is exactly how some of the kids that saw her described her power. It was all so I could understand it more, you know? In the book and on the computer documents I was making. They said it was a small ball of light that hovered in the palm of her hand. They said it was a magic trick. They said it was small, like a marble size. But they said it didn't do anything but hover there in her hand. Maybe if she had been able to expand her powers then she could have made them bigger and actually made them hurt others..." She paused and shrugged. "Just like that cat."
"But that is just it!" Diana snapped suddenly. They looked back at her and she was shivering as if she was sitting in the snow. She moved against Caine as if seeking warmth, trying to block it out but needing to speak at the same time. "It's just a cat! It was a cat! It is a cat! Look at it!" Waving her hands, Diana pointed at the cat, glancing at it before turning back to them again. Then her eyes widened in shock and she looked back at the cat. "Oh my God! Look at it!"
They all turned just in time to see the cat shivering on the ground much like Diana had been shaking only this was more like it was spasming like it was having a stroke of some kind. It was always black but now it was changing like a faint blue outline covered it's body. Then it began to melt and burn, turning to liquid and ash at the same time. It's eyes were still widen open and now they were completely human. Sam saw what Astrid saw. Human eyes that almost... no they did! They resembled Bette's incredibly well. The eyes, along with the body and fur, melted and burned until there was only a small black ash filled puddle on the ground where the cat had been. The blue aura had vanished and the cat was gone. It's voice had gone from a high pitched meowing human cry, to fully human screams, back to a sort of gargling meow cry as if it was gargling blood before it finally fell silent and collapsed onto the floor.
"Holy crap!" Caine yelped.
No one moved. They were all staring at the puddle where the cat had been. Not only had they been attacked by a cat with magical powers, but now they watched the cat melt in front of their very eyes.
"It sounded like her too." Astrid whimpered after a moment of silence. She spoke almost like nothing had happened. "It had Bette's voice. I've only heard it a few times but I'm sure it was her."
"It was. Now that you say it, I can hear it too." Sam whispered. "Her voice, and her screaming."
"Sam, we have to go."
"What?" Sam looked at Astrid with a frown. She kept jumping conversations too quickly for him to follow.
One moment he was looking at the melted cat and now he was hearing Astrid talking. He couldn't quite make sense of what she was saying. His eyes were stuck on the melted cat that had been very much like a girl he had not only seen moments before her death, but they had been in the same class so often and they normally always sat side by side too. But what did this have to do with the cat? Bette was not a cat! This cat was not Bette! But the coincident was just too great.
"We have a corpse lying at our feet and a puddle that used to be a cat just a few feet away." Astrid spoke quickly with ergency. "How are we supposed to explain this? Especially with Caine sitting here right behind of us in the room. We have to get out of here, wipe down our surfaces or something so no one knows we were here and get back to the apartment before the sun comes up and before anyone can come here. Abana was shouting out the window, remember? So someone might be coming at any moment now."
"You want us to just ditch her?" Sam mumbled. It didn't seem right. In fact it seemed shockingly cruel.
"No but..." Astrid shrugged. She didn't want to just leave Abana like this either but she couldn't see any good with standing around and waiting for Ripley to show up when there was nothing else left for them to do.
"Astrid's right." Diana said. Her whole body was tense like she was hurt. "We have to go. One of you help me with Caine, he's still banged up."
Astrid immediately ran over, stepping over Abana once more. Caine glared at her but he allowed the two girls to help him stand and slowly stumbled across the room. He awkwardly stepped over Abana and winced as he did so. He wanted to say something, do something for the woman that had helped him but there was nothing he could do. Caine rarely helped people but Abana was different. She had known what he had done and that he was a bad guy yet she had still helped him. Not to mention Caine wished he could do something because she had already lost her daughter. But then he reminded himself he couldn't do anything. He ignored the tiny guilt and let the girls drag him away.
Sam hesitated a moment longer to stare down at Abana before he sighed to himself. Sam jumped up and ran over, making sure to grab the keyboard, mouse and mirror off the floor as he ran. He tucked them in the back of Caine's waistband under his top (against his permission which caused a small argument and struggling before Caine's ribs hurt and he was forced to hold still and shut up) and hurried down into the kitchen. Soon he was using a wet cloth to wipe down the doors, banister and anywhere else they had accidentally put their hands that he could remember. Then he threw the cloth out the window into the neighbour's garden beside the bin before he followed the three of them. They had started ahead of him but they were going so slow that Sam caught them before they got off the staircase.
"We can't get him through the window, we need to go out the door." Diana grunted under his weight.
"I'm not that weak." Caine growled. Even hurt he was stubborn as hell.
"Oh shut up." Diana snorted, rolling her eyes.
They hurried Caine to the door that Sam clumsily opened with his elbow to avoid anymore finger prints. Abana had a hole in her neck, it was no doubt this place would be treated as a murder scene and they could not risk anything. As the door swung open they dragged Caine from the building and half ran, half fell down the road, hoping no one would see them and leaving Abana, her house and her kindness behind them in the night.
G*O*N*E
Back at the apartment Caine was laid down on Diana's bed and she made sure he was comfortable in the position. Because he wanted to be in on the discussion, he forced Sam and Astrid to push their small sofa into the bedroom (luckily it was extremely light and easy to squeeze in) and Diana to sit beside of him while they talked about what happened. It took them a moment to gather their breath after the hurry home but none of them had the patients to express opinions and confusions. But when it came down to it and they were ready to talk, they discovered they didn't have much to say so Astrid started by laying out the facts of things that they did know.
"There was a cat." Astrid began.
"That sounds like the start of a bad poem." Caine snorted. "There once was a cat, who had a gift of light, he could make them into balls, to go up real tight!"
"Caine," Sam warned, this was not the time for sick jokes. Especially not after what happened to Abana.
Caine stuck his tongue out childlishly at him.
"Stop it, both of you." Astrid said before she went on as if none of them interupted her. "There was a cat. It could make light much like Bette's power, with a voice that sounded like her's. And eyes that were similar."
"Except dead." Caine pointed out.
"What?" Diana blinked.
"Well when I looked at the cat, it's eyes just looked dead. As if the cat was dead but moving around on her own or something." Caine shrugged then winced.
"That is weird." Diana mumbled. She hadn't quite joined in one the conversation but couldn't help but express the most obvious thing.
"Okay so dead eyed cat that reminds us all over Bette and died by turning into a puddle after being killed the same way Bette was killed." Sam nodded. He turned to look at Astrid and gave a rather hopeful smile with sad eyes. "Maybe this is a one off?"
"No. There's something else." Astrid said, glancing over at Diana who scowled in response.
"Don't start again. There is a big difference between a killer cat with similar powers then a random lizard who shoots fire!" Diana snapped.
"Wait what?" Sam blinked, looking between the two.
The girls shared a glare like they were having some kind of a silent argument with one another. Sam was just about to ask again when he was interupted.
"Astrid is insisting that a demonic lizard that could breath fire killed a guys two daughters." Diana snorted. "But if I remember correctly, he was badly hurt himself and so was obviously hallucinating and making up answers for unasked questions."
"How is that obvious?" Astrid snapped.
"And if this does have something to do with the FAYZ, then if I also remember, then there was no one who could use fire in the FAYZ." Diana argued. She slapped Caine's hand down when he tried to raise it and wave it in front of her face like a school child.
"Hello!" Caine snapped at her. "I was attacked by a fire breathing lizard right before Abana hit me with her car!"
"Told ya!" Astrid sneered at Diana.
"Oh go stick your head in a plant pot!" Diana snapped and turned back to Caine. "Are you serious? You're sure you saw it?"
"Positive. It tried to kill me." Caine grumbled.
"But then it can't be to do with the FAYZ, then." Diana insisted and Astrid saw the sudden relief filling her. She was glad it wasn't to do with all their worst fears. Astrid wished she didn't have to let her down... But she was wrong when she said that there was no mutant with the power of fire.
"There was a little girl." Astrid explained quietly, looking at Sam. He frowned but slowly relisation clicked in on him. "She had the power to shoot fire from her hands. She nearly killed Sam when he was trying to save her life." She looked down at her lap.
"So... This does have to do with the FAYZ, then." Sam mumbled.
"No!" Diana snapped. "It can't!"
Sam wished he could help her. He wished he could deny this had anything to do with the FAYZ but they had more pressing matters at hand. "Don't tell me all the dead members of the FAYZ are coming back as animals? We'll get people like Drake and Zil and everyone else back!" He stopped and frowned. "But if that's true then why did Caine come back as human and the rest come back as animals?"
"Maybe it's not all kids but the kids with powers. The fire starter and Bette." Astrid explained.
"For all we know it could be only a few of the kids with powers. What makes us all think that they're all coming back?" Caine demanded.
"Guess work." Astrid shrugged.
Diana had turned away from them. No. This could not be happening! What if they were wrong and Drake did come back? What about everyone else? This could not be happening again. They were free. And they were supposed to stay free. Why couldn't Caine have come back and nothing else happened? Why did all this have to start happening again just when they had normal lives and had put it behind them?
"So you're guessing that dead mutants are coming back as animals? But then why is Caine still human?" Sam frowned at Astrid for answers.
"I have no idea." Astrid sighed.
"Maybe not all of them are animals. How many bars were Bette and the fire starter?" Caine asked Diana.
"How should I know? I didn't read either of them!" Diana snapped.
"Okay, calm down!" Caine said, raising his hands in defence. She was a lot more snappy and jumpy than normal.
He tried to sit up and instead settled for leaning against the bed frame when his upper body strangth failed him. He relaxed and breathed slowly.
"Okay, if you could guess... They were both very early off so maybe they were two bars at the most?" Caine suggested. Like Astrid said, most of this was guess work but he was almost a hundred precent sure he was right considering how early the FAYZ had been at that point. "So what if the higher the bar you are, the more human you are. Four could be fully human, maybe three is part human-part animal and two bar is completely animal."
"Maybe but what about one bar?" Astrid frowned.
"How should I know? I'm guessing, you're the genius!" Caine snorted.
Astrid rolled her eyes at him. Astrid was just about to start arguing when something caused her to stop. She saw the way Diana's arms kept tensing and shivering with her back turned and finally decided to give her a break for the night.
"It's been a long day. And it's late. Let's rest a bit, okay?" Astrid suggested.
"Sounds good." Sam yawned.
Sam and Astrid stood and slipped back into their room, leaving the sofa in place, too tired to move it now. In seconds they had dropped onto the bed, not bothering to change, and had fallen asleep. The walk back had been a lot harder than the walk there. Mostly because they had run there with breaks along the way with adrenaline powering them while walking back they had been dragging Caine and had been terrified of being caught. Now, after the longest day since getting out of the FAYZ, they were able to sleep.
Meanwhile back in her room, Diana stood up and stripped. For no reason she wanted to try and act like normal and at the same time she wanted Caine to be drooling over her again like he used to be before and during the FAYZ. She dropped her clothes onto the floor until she was in her underwear right in front of Caine who was all too happy to enjoy the show. As soon as she had stripped she pulled on a silk blue nightgown that barely covered her knickers with dark purple and blue flowers along the side. She turned and stared at him. This was also her way of making up for screaming at him, and judging by his face, it was working.
"That was just a show." Diana smirked. "You're too injured for anything else."
"God damn," Caine grumbled and glared accusingly down at his ribs.
Instead Diana pulled a blanket out from under her bed. It was easier than pulling the covers out from under Caine to cover them with. She threw the blanket over Caine before she climbed in beside of him. Soon she was curling up to Caine and resting her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat, her hands lying over him as she shut her eyes and relaxed. Caine couldn't resist kissing the top of her head and slowly wrapping his arms around of her.
Most of the pain had settled back to a weak aching now. It would probably come back but at least for now he could shut his eyes and sleep knowing Diana was curled up in his arms where she belonged. This was how they belonged. They belonged together in each others arms like this.
But what did not belong was the dreams he had. While Diana, Astrid and Sam all had nightmares of the FAYZ and of killer animals with freakish mutant powers... Caine had dreams of Little Pete. He had strange dreams where Little Pete and he stood in strange rooms and... talked?
22) Has anyone any theories about why this has happened yet?
23) How long did it take you to read Light?
