Pocketville Lost Diamonds: VOLUME 2

38: the Petbuster's revenge

Warning: cussing, violence and weapons.

Eva slowly opened her eyes.
Her pupils took a while to adapt to the soft light, which let her realize to be in the darkness.
She raised her head and tried to move, but once again the deep pain all over her body paralyzed her.
She had a strong taste of blood and toxic air stuck in her throat, weird, that alarmed something inside her chest and that made her cough to spit it out.
Her nose examined the weird scents, but the same disgusting feeling closed her nostrils.

She tried to move, looking for Alice’s presence, but instead she got another one’s smaller furry paw.
- Ava! - exclaimed, finally able to move.
Her twin sister answered her voice with a glance from her big blue eyes, that shined of tears.
Yes, they appeared to be on the edge of bursting into tears, filled with the most deep terror that Eva had ever seen in her.
She was trembling badly, curled up on herself like a ball but ready to react at anything. Her ears were lowered, her fur raised like an army of minuscule needles all over her body.

The other cat immediately jumped on the cinnamon-pointed sister and surrounded her with the body, keeping hers down and blocking any of her reaction in a protective and reassuring hug. It cost her more pain, but she didn’t care. 

She eventually looked all around and understood the reason for Ava's fear: it wasn’t something nearby, it was the place they were in. And it was enough to make her tremble as well.

They were locked in a cage.

The metallic bars were on every side, above and down their paws. They were cold and hard like all the rocks of that world, they felt like cutting them away from all the air and promising to suffocate them. She couldn’t even see the door, it was like it was built on them.

Only after a long moment of panic, she could realize what was outside: the fresh wind finally freed her nose and throat, the moon caught her eyes like a magnet.
The Magic Fountain was throning right toward them, lit by the magical lights under the rim and all around on the pavement. Similar ones, hidden inside the fish statues from the ones water was thrown out, lit the water and drew complicated lines on it. The obelisk was visible only for one half, then it almost seemed to disappear through the black starred sky.
Behind, the Castle and its great stairs.

- You’re awake!
Eva looked down, under her paws: through the horizontal bars that worked as the bottom of their prison, she found Danny’s reddish eyes.
Yes, he was in a bigger but similar cage like them.
He was sitting, but his tail was hidden between his leg and his ears sided his sad snout.
Next to him, smaller crates and carriers were stack on each other and all of them were occupied by someone: William was lying on his right, immoble; Mela was thrown in a small box next to him and she was staring at the fountain with big scared eyes; Doctor Pepita made herself las small as possible in a corner of her warren, just terrified; Alice’s purple look met hers on Danny’s left.

They glanced at each other for a long time, explaining their confusion without a single word, and for the first time Eva saw a desperate puppy asking for help from inside her.

Next to her, a big cage was empty.
At last, she found Balloon standing on her side. Her yellow eyes appeared burning of an angry flame, which could be enough to make the metal meltdown.

Then, a tall figure put itself between Eva and the light of the mood, taking off the light.
The silver-pointed siamese blinked, but the scent left no doubt: she closed tighter around Ava and made a low meow of hate, hissing as strong as she could.
-  Oh, you’re awake too, Eva! - giggled the Petbuster - Welcome back, I was very worried about you.
- Screw you!
- Oh, don’t be mean to your new owner. It would have been too bad if you were that sick, you know? I feared to have no choice but to put you down.